#jason after he experienced being loved and protected once: i can never live without this again

[yvtro]

the reason for which jason struggles with forgiving bruce specifically is because bruce is the only person he ever had so much hope in. the only person he came to truly rely on.

he has a huge heart. he forgave his parents for not being perfect and neglecting him, he forgave two-face for killing his father (and said he pitied him, even), his last act was a self-sacrificial attempt to save a woman who set him up for torture and death. he can justify nearly every offence toward himself, because he feels for people so deeply.

but perhaps part of the reason for which it came so easily to him was also that he never expected these people to do any better. he was a parentified child, and he grew up watching his neighbours slipping into the life of crime due to the flawed system. he understood survival, self-preservation, and despair. he was not always alone, he might have been loved, yet he could not rely on "charity." everyone had their own burdens. so jay, 12, already had a deep conviction that he could not be a priority for anyone, and in his books, that was okay. he still believed in the world as a whole. he just wasn't sure if anyone in this world could genuinely care for him.

and then bruce came into his life, challenging this idea. bruce chose him. bruce spent years gaining his trust, dedicated so much of his time to training him. bruce, who patiently worked through his insecurities with him in the field, who looked out for him. bruce, with whom jay spent most of his time, his world being so narrow, everything concentrating on the joy of being robin. bruce, who made him feel so protected when out fighting criminals, that jay's reaction to getting snatched and tied up the scarecrow was merely saying: batman will put you away!

and by the age of 15, jay is open to being loved and cared for. in fact, jason can't imagine not having someone to lean on anymore, to the point where a single doubt that bruce expresses leaves him petrified. maybe he never realised that he could be so greedy before, that he could crave safety so much. but that fear of losing the thing he never even suspected he could have until a couple of years before – this is what now leads him to that warehouse in ethiopia.

and even after all of that, this implicit trust is not gone. fresh out of soil, jay's first thought is that of his dad. but to discover that the world he came back into feels so unsafe, that he is so alone, makes him feel betrayed. because there was a time when bruce made him believe that he was his priority. that he was loved. that he was special. bruce was one single person in his life that he grew to have expectations of. and where is bruce now? of course he doesn't know jason is alive, but where is bruce now? why does it seem like that love never really mattered? where is bruce now?

there is, of course, a part of him that is so quick to forgive, or rather a part that doesn't even think there's any blame. but he also had expectations, expectations of no one else, expectations that his father worked so hard for. and bruce taught him how to ask for things.

so he will ask. just this once.

[002yb]

Damian: I've got to dads, so I work twice as hard on Father's Day presentations at school.

Bruce: Why would you want another dad???? I'm more than enough!

Damian: ... 🙂

Bruce: ... Damian, you were talking about me, right? I am one of your dads, right??

Damian: 🙂

Meanwhile, Dick and Jason framing a drawing of Damian to put in the living room of their apartment: 😊😊

(Sorry, I love Bruce as a character, but I hate him as a dad)

While I'm not particular about good/bad dad Bruce, I'm positively feral over DickJay being parental figures to Damian LOL. Like, sorry B but step aside for my boys raising their boy omggggggg. <3

Before I get too carried away though, let's just take a little journey to Damian learning about Father's Day for the first time. And at first he's very (・_・ヾ over it because what a useless holiday. Obviously every day is a day to respect your father?? But then he sees from his peers that it's more of a celebration of paternal bonds and having a dedicated time to really reflect on that and express gratitude for all the little things that are often overlooked.

The first person he'd think of would be Dick because like. Bruce might be Dami's father but Dick is his dad. (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ) There's a very special bond there that was hard won. Damian came to respect this man because of Dick's actions as opposed to familial hierarchy.  And Dick is just - very kind. Patient. Caring. Always there, showing up. Dick taught Dami so much on how to be a person and inspires him so much on the sort of man Dami wants to grow to be. Just someone reliable and stalwart, with fortitudinous and steadfast resolve and goodness. FFFFFFFF I've got feelings I can't. (*꒦ິㅂ꒦ີ) Like I don't think Damian would really express all of that, but fuck if he doesn't feel it, you know?

And Jason. Ahhhhh my love for DamiJay will persist always. I love the thought of them meeting in the League. And Jason being a sort of caretaker for Damian that Damian comes to adore and cherish. Because Jason showed him kindness. For a boy who experienced so little of that growing up, I imagine it would leave such a strong impression on him.  It wouldn’t be something he would ever forget.  That kindness persists even after they reconnect, too.  And like.  Jason wouldn’t remember that time with Damian in the League, but the kindness would be the same.  Maybe a little more gruff compared to the protective softness and honesty from his more catatonic state, but Damian would recognize it instantly.  In a heartbeat.  Contrary as Jason can act, it never fails that he’s protective and looking out for Damian.  Be that with his general health or with keeping him safe/well-prepared for the dangerous lives they live.  Jason is dangerous, himself, but Damian knows that there’s nowhere safer for him to be.  Not that Damian needs protecting, obviously, but the point stands.

Just.  These two men would have made such an impact in Damian’s life.  They would do it without any real familial obligation, too.  Damian would recognize that they owe him nothing, but they chose to put up with him anyway.  Regardless of how difficult and ornery he can be, they stay beside him.  And they’re not perfect.  In fact, Damian thinks they’re hopeless in a lot of ways, but they’re good, strong, kind people.  Damian respects them wholeheartedly (though again, he keeps it largely to himself).

So yes.  Father’s day comes around and once Damian understands it, it would become important to him to partake in the tradition.  He would put so much thought and effort into a school presentation that would likely really confuse his classmates and maybe his teacher, too.  Because they’re well aware that Damian is a Wayne so why isn’t he talking about Bruce?  And omgggggg the teacher gently trying to explain that it’s okay that Damian didn’t understand the assignment and Damian just !!! because he understood perfectly.  And then he’d proceed to eloquently defend himself and tell everyone to fuck off and that their critical thinking sucks.  Which would lead to a guardian being called which, multiple scenarios:

1)  Bruce making the visit and having a talk with Damian and having it explained to him that Damian respects Bruce as his father because he’s his biological father, but Dick is different.  So is Jason.  And Bruce having to sit with that and really think about life and children and fatherhood.  Maybe it’d inspire some more effort outside of patrol and whatnot.  (Sorry I’m not very familiar with their dynamic so I’m gonna leave this basic af ahahaha)

2) Dick makes the visit and Damian, uncharacteristic as it is for him, legit slouches in his chair in an attempt to disappear because admin explains what happened.  The ‘misunderstanding’ and Dick just (*꒦ິ⌓꒦ີ) because that’s the sweetest fucking thing he’s ever heard.  It’d catch Dick so off guard but omggggg he’d be wounded with endearment.  So (*꒦ິㅂ꒦ີ) that he would never recover or stop smiling or feeling proud.  And of course he’d back Damian up.  Because yeah, he gets this posh school is traditional with its family values, but that’s just not the case for a lot of kids so.  How disappointing that such a fine educational institution would disparage a kid for having different circumstances in life.  Good to know that nothing has changed since Dick attended xx years ago.  And admin loves Dick even after so much they’d apologize and play their part and then overcorrect and Damian would OTL

3) Jason makes the visit and Damian is equally as embarrassed as per above.  Jason would be very startled over being included as someone Damian counts as a dad though.  The blush would be so soft and sweet and for a bit Jason would be absolutely speechless and (∗∕ ∕•̥̥̥̥∕ω∕•̥̥̥̥∕).  Then he’d throwdown with admin and they’d both get kicked out LOL.

4) Dick and Jason both break down the doors of Gotham Academy and 2 & 3 both happen, but it moreso ends with them getting kicked out.  Surprisingly not because Jason is difficult or combative, but because Dick is (ʘ‿ʘ✿) because someone would inevitably blame Jason and like.  No.  Nope.  Catch these hands motherfu-

Getting back on track here.  No solid end.  Just Damian being a bit shy over being called out like he was.  And Dick maybe walking around looking skyward because no of course he’s not crying; he’s openly weeping these are happy tears wth.  Ngl I think Dick would be the most overwhelmed by everything.  Because his relationship with Damian started so roughly and then became something so amazing.  Then it was taken away when Bruce came back and Dick was convinced that was it.  He thought he was the only one that felt that bond.  And ahhhhhhhh I’ve wounded myself.  Help.  FFFFFFFFF.

Meanwhile Damian would just be like, ‘compose yourself, Grayson.  You’re embarrassing yourself.  And me.’

And Jason would laugh because for real?  Big aww.  It’s not often Dick gets overwhelmed so it’d just be so sweet hahaha.

And yes.  Once they’re both composed (because Jason would be overwhelmed by those heartwarming feelings too, obviously), they would absolutely do the most with all of Damian’s tender affection for them.  (*´︶｀*)

My fav thought is DickJay showing up at Gotham Academy dressed like absolute fools in matching sets of something that they mismatched with each other.  I’m talking embarrassing crop top sweat pants combo and long shirt booty short combo that reads some form of ‘Daddy’ or ‘Dad’ or ‘Damian’s Dad’ while waiting to pick this loser up from school and Damian is just (≡ε≡；)

[slasherhaven]

Hello, I can’t remember if I requested this or not (if I did ignore this ^-^) but could you write slashers reaction to their s/o being taken or held hostage by an escaped survivor? I need some angst please 🙏🥺😩

The Slashers reacting to their S/O being taken or held hostage:

Thomas Hewitt

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. They had escaped from Hoyt (which means he’s about to get a lot of glares and hostility from Thomas, as well as a lecture from Luda May). You had been in the kitchen when the survivor grabbed you, hoping to use you as a bargaining chip. Unfortunately for them, it only made Thomas angry.

Thomas doesn’t take pleasure in his kills, this is different. For Tommy, killing is a job. If he didn’t have to do it, he wouldn’t. This time it’s different. He still does take pleasure in it exactly but he does defintely think that this person deserves it more than anyone else. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.

Still makes it quick, more worried about you. He just wants to quickly dispose of the person hurting you and get you away from the scene, he doesn’t what you to see all of this. Once he’s took the body into the basement, he washes up and returns to you. Fussing over you and making sure you’re alright and unharmed. He promises to never let anything like that happen again. He holds you extra tight that night.

Michael Myers

Taken by Loomis. This time the doctor had gone too far, using you to get to Michael. Michael had been Loomis’ pet project all his life and you had grown to hate the man from the stories you had heard of him. Michael was furious. You belonged to him, Loomis had no right to be anywhere near you.

Has to prove a point. He will stop at nothing and spare no lives in order to get you back. He wants everyone to know that if they touch what’s his, they will meet the same fate. Nobody was ever going to touch you again.

Shows an uncharacteristic amount of concern. Once he gets you somewhere safe, he’s checking over you for injuries, his touch slowly turning from rough and near panicked to gentle and cautious. He’ll be satisfied with what he sees eventually, he just has to see it for himself no matter how much you reassure him.

Jason Voorhees

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. You had been out in the woods, even though Jason always told you to stay in the cabin when trespassers came around.

Makes quick work of the escaped survivor. He doesn’t want you to see anything more gruesome than you have too, so he makes it as quick and clean as possible before whisking you away from the scene entirely.

Fusses over you. As soon as you get back to the cabin, he is checking you over for injuries. Once he knows that you’re alright, he’ll pull you into a tight embrace.

Brahms Heelshire 

Held hostage by an intruder. They had broken into the house with the intention of robbing the place but you had been awake, resulting in them holding you at knifepoint.

Brahms is absolutely furious. As soon as he sees the scene, he’s dealing with it, not caring about how much blood there was. He was protecting you. And if you didn’t already know about him, you did now. 

Promises to take care of it. Normally he’s determined to get you to do all the chores around the house. But if you want him to dispose of the body and clean up, he will. Though, you might take the more sensible route of calling the police and being honest about this being self defence.

He’s going to give you lots of hugs and kisses afterwards. He was so scared when he thought he might lose you and, he’s going to be extra clingy for a while.

Bo Sinclair 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. Even if it was his fault they got away, he would find a way to blame someone else. Especially when it puts you in harms way.

See’s red. He can be an angry guy but you’ve never seen him like this. He’ll handle it though, dealing with the victim brutally. Even if he’s using a gun, he’s shooting multiple rounds into them.

Get’s Vincent and Lester to clean up. They can dispose of the body, he’s more focused on you. He’s never going to apologise for being a reason that you got into this mess in the first place. But you know that he knows it because he’s being extra nice to you. Ask him to do something during his time of silent remorse and he will do it with out a snappy comment, which is a miracle.

Vincent Sinclair 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. As soon as he found out about the escapee, he hurries to find you, to make sure you don’t encounter them.

Wants to protect you, both from the survivor and from what he had to do. He knew that he had to get the victim away from you, he had to deal with them, but he doesn’t want you to see him kill somebody if you’re not comfortable with that. So, he’ll make it as quick and clean as possible, getting you away as quick as possible without having you see too much.

Will fret and won’t leave you be for a while. He’s going to fuss over you, even if you’re completely unharmed. But if you are harmed, he won’t stop until he’s satisfied that he’s tended to it as best he can. Work can wait for a while, Bo and Lester can deal with things. He just wants to hold you for a while, after being so afraid that he might lose you.

Lester Sinclair 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. You were just about to head home and let the twins deal with the victims, but one had escaped, grabbing you before you could leave.

Doesn’t have problems with killing this person. Lester doesn’t usually do any of the killing in Ambrose and when he does have to do it, it never sits quite right with him. This is different, he’s protecting you, so he has no problem killing them. He will likely just shoot them, only resorting to his knife if he has no other choice.

Apologises for ever getting you in this mess. He’s so apologetic for being the reason you’re in this town and in this mess...in danger. He’ll relax a little while you reassure him you’re alright and that that isn’t his fault. But he’s taking you home straight away, the twins can deal with all of this, his attention is more on you right now.

Bubba Sawyer 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. One of the brothers let them get away, Bubba would never forgive himself is somebody got away from him and hurt you.

Panicked but determined. He’s absolutely terrified of you getting hurt, making him panic. But your well-being being at risk focuses him all at the same time. He’s quick to deal with your capture and get you away from them.

Lot’s of concern for you. Bubba completely forgets about the survivor once they’re dead, all he cares about is making sure you’re alright. He goes to reach out for you but stops when he remembers the blood on his hands. But you don’t care, pulling him into a hug and thanking him for protecting you. Once he’s holding you, he won’t let go for a while, fussing over you, making sure you’re alright, lot’s of concerned babbling and cooing.

Billy Lenz 

Held hostage by an intruder. Somebody broke into the house, a burglary that ended with you being held at knifepoint.

Billy is quick to get to you both. As soon as he sees what is happening, he scrambles to get to you. He catches the intruder by surprise, attacking before they even really notice him. You’ll have to calm him down, his hands will be bloody and shaking, looking at you with wide eyes. He just experienced a lot of adrenaline and panic.

Either take your chances with the police or help him dispose of the body. Sure, it’s technically self defence, this person broke into your home, but there is definite overkill that law enforcement might question. Still, the adrenaline rush and panic might be enough of an explanation for them.

Both of you need some love afterwards. Of course you had been scared, and he had been terrified of losing you. So, plenty of cuddles and reassurance is in order.

Asa Emory (The Collector) 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. He’s ashamed of accidently letting a victim escape, he’ll need to be more thorough in the future. He’s even more ashamed that they got to you and were able to put you in harms way.

Takes you and the survivor by surprise. He wants them to be off guard, to think that nobody is coming, before striking. They’re subdued quickly and smoothly by Asa. He is then turning his attention to you, making sure you’re unharmed and alright, wiping any tears, before taking the victim somewhere secure.

Oh, they are definitely doing to suffer for this. If they thought they had it bad before, they’re going to be in hell once Asa returns to deal with them.

Is extra nice to you afterwards. He knows that this was his fault, that you being at the hotel with him had put him in danger. He’s gentler, softer, sweeter. You notice it but don’t comment. You wouldn’t want him to stop.

Jesse Cromeans (Chromeskull) 

Taken by an enemy. Jesse had lots of enemies, all wanting to get to him in some way. And one of them decided that the best way to hurt him was to hurt you.

Goes to extremes to track you down. He will do whatever it takes to get you back, go wherever he needs too, and go through whoever gets in his way.

Will make them suffer. They don’t get a quick death, Jesse will make sure that they suffer for what they did. Even if they never managed to hurt you, they took you, they had the intention, and that’s already crossing too many lines for Jesse.

You are going to be treated very well, even more than normal, for a while. First, he makes sure you’re alright and gets you whatever help you might need. When he gets you home, he’s upping security and making sure you’re safe and sound. If you want something, just ask, he’s getting it for you. He’s also staying home for a while, both for security and because he was genuinely worried about losing you.

Otis Driftwood 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. One of the victims had escaped from the basement, taking you hostage when they found you upstairs. Otis was seriously pissed when he saw the sight.

They’re going to pay for ever touching you. There is no way of calming him down. He is going to torture them for as long as he can before they eventually die. Even then, he’ll be furious that they dared lay a hand on you.

Once you offer some affection, he’s quick to accept. He’s still fuming but he wants to check on you. So, he’s ranting as he makes you’re alright. As soon as you try to calm him down, assuring him that you’re alright, and telling him to just be with you for a moment, he’ll give into you.

Baby Firefly 

Held hostage by an escaped survivor. They had gotten out of the basement and ran right into you. Recognising you as part of the family, they took you hostage, trying to bargain their way to freedom.

Going to make them suffer. There is no way Baby is going to let that happen. She’s quick to attack them and get them away from you, wounding them but not killing them. She’d be taking them down to the basement to punish accordingly.

You deserve lots of cuddles when she’s done. Once she’s made sure you’re alright and has let out her anger on the victim, who is now dead, she will return to you for the night. She understands that you might be shaken or just need her to be with you for a moment and she is more than happy to provide that.

Yautja (Predator) 

Taken by an enemy. He doesn’t have many enemies but there would always be something that comes up. They had taken you to get to him.

His search will be ruthless. He would search to the ends of the universe for you, ripping through galaxies if that’s what it takes. Nothing is more important to him than his mission, finding you and bringing you home safe.

There is no way he’s letting your capture live. He will kill the mercilessly, sending a message to anyone else who even thinks about laying a hand on you. If anyone hears about the extremes he would go through for you, they’d be smart to stay away.

He’s apologetic. No worries, nobody is ever going to hurt you again. That’s a promise. But he is apologetic for being the reason you might have gotten hurt. He’ll do whatever he can to make it up to you.

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

a discussion of jabberwock with team interaction hcs + deeper nash analysis

for anon who asked "Can we get some headcanons for jabberwock members or like headcanons when they're together? (its okay if it was jason or nash only)" and made me realise it's about time i get these guys' personalities down

note before we start: cause i didn't know their names until i wrote this

zack is the bald one, allen is the one with a headband, nick is the other white guy apart from nash.

team hcs

nick gets bullied for being under 6ft, but not by jason

nah good old jason teases all of them for being short fucks, emphasising that they’re all 5ft tall in comparison to him

he 100% lifts things out of the others' reach and then laughs for ages after when they try get them

unfortunately though, they’re all used to this and now just ignore him. either that or nash stares at him so intensely jason actually repents and hands it back

zack’s another one with a very good glare, but he’s used it too often on jason and it’s since stopped working.

also jason gives me ‘straightens his back as much as possible when getting measured so he’ll measure in as 7ft’ vibes

oh and he thinks he could wrestle a gator and win. i’ve got no explanation for that except for the fact you can't tell me it's ooc.

allen’s very protective over his white headband - it’s his lucky item - but he’d never let anyone know that

he’s confident in his abilities like the rest of them, but there’s nothing wrong with wearing a headband just in case

(nash knows anyway)

they watch nba matches together and do not shut up once throughout the entire match - lots of jeering, booing each other if someone criticises a player they like, lots of “i could do that”, lots of “get your fucking hand out of my popcorn do you want me to punch you in the face” etc

they used to all live together, but nash has since moved out. he was sick and tired of trying to make people do chores, as the only one who kept their room clean.

yeah the others’ house looks like a heap of trash but also very much “where’s my toothbrush?” “it’s in the third coke can by the orange peel behind the sink” *silence* “yeah thanks” *a minute later* “who the fuck has been using my toothbrush”

they’re all “bro your dribbling sucks why are you on this team loser” to one another, but also very protective (aka arrogant for one another) if anyone else Dared to criticise one of their teammates

then again, what kind of person would criticise jabberwock

half of the time he spends with jabberwock, nash is a Single Mother TM trying to get a bunch of man children to behave; the other half of the time, he's just as bad as the rest of them

i talk about this a lot but i get the feeling nash is an exceptionally hard worker, but at least he gets to let his hair down around his teammates sometimes

nash is also the only person jason thought was truly ‘strong’ at first sight

and nash is also the only person who can beat jason in a fight, and also the only person who can get nash to train, and also the only person who can.. [etc. you see my point].

(n.b jason calls himself the ‘almighty me’, nash says that ‘even god can’t beat me’. point made.)

you know how jason silver’s motto is “I have never thought”

imagine him proudly stating that, before zack adds with a straight face, “yeah cause nash does it for you.”

in short, the team would fall apart without nash.

although the team’s communication and coordination is very fine tuned, nash is the guy who keeps everything in order off the court to prevent what is essentially a team of aces ('main characters', if you will) from falling apart

they hang out together a lot, but do all have other friend groups that do not overlap

team bbqs

unofficial rule not to criticise anchovies on pizza because the one time nick did, nash snapped

however pineapple on pizza is fair game, even though zack quite likes it

more than once, jason has brought a girl home and nick has stolen her attention away with effortless trick shots, funky ball manoeuvring etc

more than once nick has had to trek to nash’s place (with a black eye) at midnight to have somewhere to sleep

do you see a correlation?

oh and everyone in the team has been walked in on by nash when they were naked with some girl

nash has absolutely no shame

he apologises to the girl with a charming albeit insincere tone, and then remains standing in front of the bed/couch until his teammate does what he expected of them

usually it involves not having come to practice

allen learnt a few (emphasis on ‘few’) words of japanese before they travelled to japan and was disappointed that he never got to use them

that said, one of those words was hentai

and now a quick analysis of some panels

a) so there's at least one player who wasn't underestimating vorpal swords. if i were to overanalyse, i'd add that nick's wearing a hoodie (possibly athletic wear) whilst nash has a 'fancy' shirt on; perhaps nick wasn't expecting them to be going to host clubs instead of chilling/training?

b) i know what you're thinking: "how can you say nash is a hard worker when he didn't want to practice for the match". i reckon he was still pretty high on the complete and utter success of their previous match, that plus being around girls, encouraged him to have a more 'jason-y' personality. (either that or fujimaki didn't want to add too much depth/realism into nash's character bc he's unequivocally the villain, right? and obviously this helps with the plot and the jabberwock bad geniuses gom good geniuses rhetoric.)

earlier, i mentioned how nash is the only one that could keep the team together, and is thus the undeniable head of the team; here's a clear example. you can see both jason and zack have no interest in continuing - if anything, there's disgust in their faces, kinda just saying "we spat on all of japan, now we can go home". whereas nash won't allow for the slightest of possibilities that there might exist a team stronger than them, and hence agrees to the match. the key thing here is that the others do as he says without too much fuss.

another thing to note is nash's reference to harakiri. now what can we make of that, alongside his proficiency in japanese, in relation to his character? the way i see it, he's either a weeb or possibly has some japanese lineage. (you could spin that even further and say his mother was japanese, taught him the language, then abandoned him, and hence his almost excessive hatred/mockery of the japanese people.) (is that why he wanted to do another match in japan..?)

just a quick point. "thanks to him" - jason isn't so superior as to think that he could win this match effortlessly without nash's support. links pretty nicely with my earlier idea about how nash is the only person jason has always considered 100% strong.

yet another point about how nash is the strongest of the team in pretty much every way you can think of. you know how scary/powerful you have to be to shut jason up (after he's getting real pissed from being prevented from scoring?)

i personally think this is a pretty important panel, though i've never seen anyone mention it before. did nash grow up training in a professional basketball training situation, as opposed to growing up playing streetball like i suspect the others did? well, to answer that question, imma bring in another panel.

here we see visible rage on nick, zack and jason's faces - they can't accept their loss, which is fair enough. but i'd argue that nash's face seems to depict sadness more than it does anger like to rest of them, look at how downturned his mouth is - and he's looking away from the 'camera', as if hiding his shame.

when you combine that with what he says here, i have no doubt that this is someone who has experienced some proper lows in basketball - as would be expected from someone who's played 'properly'. he's possibly not even a prodigy like the rest of them - compare jason's motto with his. "i have never thought" versus "do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door".

there's various lines of thinking you could design with this - he might have been trained by alex (hence, himuro having heard of jabberwock, though he should have known of a team as popular of jabberwock regardless), he might have grown up with professional basketballer parents etc. but here's my own little theory:

nash received serious basketball training from early on - maybe because his parents were living vicariously through him, or maybe he always loved the sport and wanted to be no1. so there he was training away, but, as he grew older, it started getting all a bit too much.

he didn't want to dedicate his entire life to basketball. after all, his hobby is water sports and his speciality is boxing; that's a lot of different things to be keeping up with, whereas the pipeline for promising athletes demands people focus solely on basketball. as a result, nash become bitter: stopped attending practice regularly, got in trouble for trash talk of increasing severity, etc.

result was he was kicked out of the program.

only when he was no longer playing basketball again, did he realise how much he missed it. and hence he got into streetball, where he was tremendously successful as someone with so much training, 'elite skills', and the overly confident attitude to boot.

then, one fateful day, he met jason and the rest is history.

[red-doll-face]

Here is a request for slashers if they're open. My brain does a thing where I am affectionate w a person but if I get nudged away (even if it's just to readjust the position), it goes "oh no. They don't want u to touch them. Do not touch ever again or they will get mad at u. U disgust them." Even tho touch is my love language & it hurts, I just won't touch. If confronted, I will get confused & panicky cuz "u didn't want me to touch? Im respecting ur wishes? Did I miss something?" Its a mess.

Requests are indeed open, I’m sorry I take foreverrr to do these but i hope u enjoy! I don’t know what to call this tho. For simplicity’s sake I’m calling this nervous reader lmao, idk what else to call these.

Slashers x gn nervous Reader

Jason Voorhees:

Jason can very much relate to the feeling. When he first meets you, he’s sure that you’re frightened. He restrains from being too close to avoid coming off as overbearing, doesn't want to touch you because if you flinch he’ll be so hurt. He just assumes he disgusts you. Based on the reaction all of his other victims have when they see him, he’s sure you’ll probably be the same.

Once Jason is sure that you don't feel that way, he’s a cuddle monster. He wants to be close all of the time, holding hands, letting you sit in his lap, you name it. He’s so starved and quickly decides that touch is his love language too. He’s not even sure how he’s lived this long without it.

The only time I can see Jason maybe gently sort of setting you down elsewhere and walking off is when he senses strangers on the property of what once was Crystal Lake. He’s out the door before he can even see your hurt expression, Which is worse because this might lead you to jump to conclusions.

If you distance yourself from Jason, he immediately is thrown off. He can’t directly ask you if he’s done something wrong and when he tries to initiate affection with you and you don’t reciprocate whole heartedly, he’s at a loss.

He’ll get on one knee while you sulk on the couch and give you a silent plea to tell him what's wrong. You can panic and try and avoid it but he is certain there's something going on and he wants so badly to know what he’s done to put you off. You tell him and he immediately is shaking his head no, he could never be mad at you, never be disgusted with you. You’re the most breathtaking person he’s ever had the pleasure of holding, the first, most likely.

Jason nods because he understands how you feel. In the future, he’s persistent about how you feel when he untangles himself from you, making sure you’re ok.

Michael Myers:

In the later stages of your relationship, Michael is insatiable when it comes to being in contact with you. For a long time, towards the start of your relationship, he didn’t like it. It felt weird. All of the touch he's experienced prior was so clinical and sterile that he doesn’t quite know how good touch is supposed to feel. He’s so touch starved that he’s almost positive he doesn't even need it.

Slowly, he builds a tolerance for it, much like one does with alcohol, constantly checking his boundaries and letting him control the situation and he’s all for movie night, huddled up on the couch, or waking up with his head on your chest. His own personal pillow.

There are, however, moments when his need to make someone tremble with fear and then blodgeon them to death with a can opener from their own kitchen becomes too strong, so he tries to keep away from you. In the past, he might have used you to satisfy similar desires of a sexual nature and may have really hurt you but he knows that it’s not always enjoyable to you.

Then, you stop touching him. Much like Jason, he starts to think you’ve become sick of him. Sick of his coldness, his muteness, his withdrawn demeanor. Maybe you’ve moved on and he tries to tell himself he doesn’t care but he doesn't think he can see himself touching anyone but you now.

It gets to the point where he comes home one day and you look heavily troubled, expressions he’s seen on your face before, only in the event that something terrible has happened. You ask to speak to him and he obliges.

You explain that you don’t think this relationship is working, that you’re pretty sure he’s disgusted with you and how difficult this event is because you didn't even want to talk about it but it's been hurting you for too long.

His response is to stand up very slowly, pick you up and lay down with you over him, simply laying there. Hopefully, knowing you’re the one person he would ever allow to participate in this intimacy is enough to show you that you mean more than you think you do to him.

RZ Michael Myers:

This Michael is more perceptive to your touch than his counterpart, your touch sends little shivers down his spine and as soon as he gets pretty used to it, he’s eager for more. This also takes some time but significantly less. He’s enamored with the idea of returning to a somewhat normal life. Your affection grounds him in that fantasy as much as being a murderer might take him out of it.

As he establishes a relationship with you, he may even be the one to start touching you instead of the other way around. He’s read books and always wondered what it might feel like to have someone genuinely touch him without fear in their eyes. Without malice.

An unsuccessful ‘day at work’ might have Michael feeling a little het up though. He can be moody and more rageful. Neither you nor his hobbies can calm him. He seems colder than usual in these states and can come off as very standoffish.

So when you try and touch him and he shrugs your hand off his shoulder, he can’t or isn't in the state of mind to address your frown and worried look. Michael, instead stomps off somewhere to be alone for a while; maybe take his anger out on something else. Some unsuspecting soul or maybe even a poor animal in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After he’s calmed down some, he returns and almost forgot about that sad little gleam in your eye before he left. Michael remembers when he sees you blankly staring at the TV, pointedly avoiding his gaze even as you utter a weak welcome home. It’s not very welcoming. He sits stiffly beside you, watching you from the corner of his eye. You’re closed off from him and he doesn't like it at all.

Migrating towards you slowly, he eases you into a familiar hug, his big bear hugs that are a little tight but inviting all the same. His huge torso and long arms seem to swallow you in his warmth. You hardly reciprocate. You look a little surprised. Though he never addresses it verbally, (which is probably better for you) Michael offers a single glance that communicates everything he needs to say. Don't ever think that again.

Thomas B. Hewitt:

Thomas’ self esteem issues and self image are not good. He honestly doesn’t like to imagine what he looks like to other people unless it can be as a threatening man you don’t fuck with. Meeting you, he realizes that it’s good to protect his family but he’d rather you not see him as someone only capable of harm. Tries his best to get the point across that while Hoyt may be adamant that horrible things happen to you, he’s not going to let them.

Thomas has received affection but always a familial affection. A pat on the back from Monty, proud claps to his shoulders from uncle Charlie, and hugs and kisses from his dear Mother. Nothing so foreign as a strangers touch over his arm or a soft embrace.

Unfortunately, Thomas can get reactive when you attempt to touch him without his mask on. He’s absolutely settled on the false reality that you’ll see his face and immediately decide that you never want to touch him again. Interacting with you with his bare face? That's a no for Thomas.

He puts on his mask that covers the scarred skin over his face and you look dejected. He was preparing for you to pressure him but instead finds himself trying to find out why you won’t touch him now. It’s not his face, is it? You respond with your reasoning. Thomas is so confused. How could you think that you disgust him? That he doesn’t want you to touch him?

He’s quicker than the others and immediately sweeps you up into his arms and holds you as close as humanly possible. Feeling disgusting and like some sort of burden is a feeling he’s so familiar with and if he can take it away from you, he will.

Will aggressively initiate touch with you for the next week or so just to solidify the fact that he cares about you and won't reject you just as you didn’t reject him.

Bubba Sawyer:

Bubba is a great cuddle buddy and partner. Hugs are his favorite and he hugs his brother all the time, lifting both Nubbins and Chop Top into the air for some brotherly love. If you’re smaller than them he’s all about picking you up and perhaps a little rough housing with you. He’s careful though or at least there are attempts made to be careful

Bubba, though he could easily spend the whole day doing nothing and everything with you, has work. Chores, butchering. Cooking, and tending livestock. Plenty to do at the sawyer house and he does most of it. Suffice to say there are times when you want to lather attention all over him yet he has to go back to work.

So caught up in work that he doesn't get what's going on til way later, when you’ve had time to stew in your emotions, firmly telling yourself that Bubba is annoyed by you probably. He’s baffled and confused at your silence, your crossed arms. The little furrow in your brow. He can already tell there’s something upsetting you.

Honestly, Bubba is so affectionate I can’t see him being the kind of person even capable of alluding to the fact he might be disgusted by you. How, if all he wants to do is love you? You may bring it up as a joke that you thought he didn’t like you and he almost seems offended. Not like you?

Bubba can squash any feelings you may have about that and then some. He will not let you drown in insecurities, not on his watch. This man will do everything in his power to make you feel beautiful because you really are.

I’m sorry these are super long but thanks for requesting!

[codenamed-queenie]

#BatsInQuarantine

I am going insane. So I poured my restlessness into one long and very detailed post and got super into it. Please enjoy this hot mess.

The Justice League, being the well-meaning virus-proof Super Friends that they are, took one good look at the news, one good look at their non-powered friends Ollie, Bruce, and their families, and collectively decided that these normal humans must be Protected At All Costs.

Now, keep in mind, Bruce is never one to roll over when it comes to being benched. 

However, he understands the importance of social distancing. He knows he needs to set a good example for his kids, and keep up appearances as Gotham’s Most Responsible Multi-Billionaire. 

So. Quarantine it is. 

But how are his kids handling it?

Dick - 

100% on board in the beginning. Gotta do the Responsible Thing. Gotta set a Good Example. Besides, guys, this is gonna be Fun. Quality Family Time is always a Must.

He lasted 2 days. 

Then he started to get twitchy. 

And as everyone knows? A Trapped Dick Grayson is a Feral Dick Grayson.

He bounces off the walls.

Literally.

“I have to climb.” 

“Dick, no.”  

“I have to climb everything.”

Has scaled the manor 16 times already. Has climbed the chandelier. The banister. Bruce. The roof. The Cave. Anything in the house that’s been bolted down and especially anything that hasn’t. 

Duke found him clinging to the wall 10 ft off the ground like Spiderman and screamed so loud it shattered glass. 

Desperate for news of the outside. 

He thrives off of it like a starving man. 

Was the one to suggest he and Barbara take a break to Social Distance from each other (”Sorry, babe, kissing spreads germs”) and experienced Instant Regret(TM) approximately 5 minutes after. 

The Family has labelled him a Flight Risk Level 1 (Most likely to say f**k it and make a break for the outside world)

Jason - 

Accidentally got trapped inside the manor with the others when Bruce called Shutdown. If he had his way, he’d be chilling in his favorite safe-house right now, binging The Witcher with Roy and Artemis, and not worrying about finding a stray brother in his sock drawer.

But he’s nothing if not an opportunist. 

The way he sees it, Jason has 3 options:

Self Improvement

Self Isolation (See Duke, Cass, and Damian)

Descension Into Madness (See Dick and Steph)

And, well, he always wanted to try a few things. Now he’s got the free time to do it.

So he settles on baking. 

Alfred’s got enough food and raw ingredients stored up to feed an army. (Not because he’s a Panic-Buying-Hoarder in times like these. But because he’s a Panic-Buying-Hoarder all the time. Just try feeding 11+ teenagers sometime.)

Uses recipes he finds off Google.

His first few attempts are, in a word, ‘tragic’.

Alfred slips him a few of his recipe cards, and Jason suddenly starts seeing Results. 

Turns out he’s pretty good at this baking thing once he gets the hang of it. 

Hope everyone’s okay eating nothing but pie, macaroons, biscuits, and whatever else Jason whips up. 

Cause that’s gonna be the only food left by the time he’s done. 

Barbara - 

Self-quarantined with her dad. 

They’ve been binge-watching classic black and white movies together.

It’s a fun time, but she’s started to get a little antsy. Loving her dad and wanting to be around him 24/7 are, understandably, mutually exclusive. 

Calls the manor to video-chat every day.

For her sanity just as much as theirs. 

Gives everyone little challenges to film on their phones and send in. She makes compilations of everyone’s submissions so they can all watch and laugh together. 

Bonus points for Creativity

One comp shows the family trying to drop Mentos into coke bottles. 

Dick did a handstand, and dropped his Mento from the second story balcony. 

Tim did it wearing the Batman cowl. The soda exploded into his face, and the rest of the video is just Bruce’s Shrieking.

Stephanie tried it, but the bottle tipped. Everyone on camera screamed as the bottle rocketed through the front window. 

She spends most of her calls having one-on-one convos with Dick.

They’ve come up with little code phrases so they can be Cheesy even with family members lurking in the background. 

She thinks the way he clings to the monitor is cute. 

Almost like he’s giving her a hug through the screen. 

(It’s easier than letting herself worry about his mental state, at least)

Tim -

Oh this boy.

Freaked out for the first five minutes before he decided ‘hey wait, Bruce is letting me stay in my pajamas all day? Noice.’ 

Now he’s just vibing.

The rest of his family is Low-Key shielding him.

He Has No Spleen, you see.

Steph: “Someone could cough on him and he could die!”

He just goes about his day, playing Animal Crossing like there’s no tomorrow, tinkering on projects, taking naps, etc. Living his best life.

Meanwhile there’s always someone lurking behind him, keeping watch, keeping him safe. 

Dick sneezed within 5 feet of Tim once (the fact that he was on top of the dusty bookshelf Tim was perusing is irrelevant)

Jason still full-body tackled him the second Tim’s back was turned. 

No one with any symptoms--

Like, any symptoms. They don’t even have to be Corona-related.

--is allowed within 10 feet of Tim. 

Tim has been wandering the manor for weeks, now, without seeing another human being. 

(He sees Dick on the ceiling sometimes, but that doesn’t really count)

He’s been trying increasingly drastic pranks and shenanigans to draw someone, anyone, out. 

But it doesn’t matter how many times he steals Damian’s sword, or sets fire to Jason’s brownie bites.

Nobody wants to risk it. 

Cass - 

No one has seen her since quarantine started.

Everyone is approximately 87% sure she’s somewhere in the manor though

Because she does eat the meals Alfred leaves out for her.

Or at least someone does, at any rate. 

(Jason and Santa top the running suspects list)

Santa was Steph’s suggestion. For some reason it snowballed. 

It’s assumed that Cass misunderstood the meaning of ‘social distancing’ and took it too far. 

But no one knows for sure. 

She is Tim’s Guardian Angel. 

People who so much as clear their throats a little too loudly anywhere near him suddenly wake up on a different floor of the house four hours later. 

Duke came closest to spotting her while he was up in the attic. 

Either that, or there’s another Creepy Sister everyone forgot to tell him about living up there.

She is silent, and watchful, sticking to the shadows, but she does leave the occasional note out to brighten her siblings’ day. 

Things like ‘helo i love u’ and ‘hop u ar ok’  mostly. 

She is bound and determined to protect her family from this invisible threat, no matter the cost. 

Steph - 

Like Dick, she was Super Pumped at first. 

(Just kind of showed up at Wayne Manor before quarantine was enacted. The original purpose of her visit is unclear, but regardless, she’s Trapped.)

Also Like Dick, her descent into madness was swift.

She is impossible to pin down. 

Not like Cass or Damian, who’ve stayed off the grid, and are therefore Untraceable. 

No. She’s impossible to pin down, because she never stops moving. 

Switches seamlessly between Zumba on top of the Giant Dinosaur in the Batcave, and furiously knitting Alfred (the Cat) a sweater with a pair of Tim’s used chopsticks. 

Braided everyone’s hair while they were asleep.

Even Bruce’s. 

She tried to do Tim’s, but somehow blacked out and regained consciousness in the attic. 

When she woke up with a scream and a furiously twitching eye, she startled Duke out of his Makeshift Fort he built out of old cardboard boxes and antique furniture. He’s had to resort to finding a new hiding place. 

Sometimes, on the rare occasions she does sit still, staring off into the distance, she’ll suddenly start laughing hysterically. This may last between thirty seconds and thirty minutes, depending entirely on how long it’s been since she’s knitted a cat sweater or done cartwheels through every room in the house.

Blew up the greenhouse out back, somehow.

Everyone has agreed not to talk about it.

Some people were built to handle prolonged time inside their homes.

Stephanie Brown is not that way.

Damian - 

Damian Wayne Cannot Be Contained.

At least not inside the house. 

He took off thirty-six hours into quarantine. 

Thanks to the security equipment around the borders of the Wayne Estate, he can’t escape the grounds. 

(He’s tried and failed multiple times. Jason and Bruce have a running bet on how many times the perimeter alarms will go off per day.)

(Jason is winning.)

He wanders the grounds with Titus as his only companion. 

The two of them run laps, practice drills, and find ways to occupy their time. 

No one’s entirely sure what those ways are. 

In fact, nobody knows exactly where Damian is at any given time. 

Only that he is Out There. 

And he’s the best security system Wayne Manor’s ever had. 

So far, he’s stopped five groups of civilians scaling the perimeter walls before the lasers and electric nets even have a chance to deploy.

They were trying to break in and steal supplies. 

(Even ones they already had in surplus. Like Toilet Paper.)

He’s also stopped Dick from escaping twelve (12) times.

Drags him back by his shirt collar and deposits him on the welcome mat. 

Usually with a note for Alfred/Jason, requesting more fruit tarts. 

Duke - 

Did not leave the attic for two weeks. 

Then Steph discovered his hiding spot (read: was dumped there by Cassandra) which forced him to relocate to the basement. 

Yes, it turns out Wayne Manor does have a basement. 

This was a surprise to Duke, who always thought that the Batcave was Bruce Wayne’s basement. 

Alfred keeps him supplied with all the necessities:

i.e. food, magazines, assorted pastries from Jason’s latest batch, usually straight out of the oven.

Duke also snagged the Manor’s Alexa. 

She has become a sort of ‘Wilson’ to Duke’s ‘Chuck Noland’.

She is his only comfort. His only ally. 

He’s determined to wait out this quarantine, doing his best to avoid the others. 

Duke has seen these people under pressure. 

He knows exactly what he’s dealing with. 

Duke: “Alexa is the only motherf****r in this madhouse I ever respected.”

*offended butler noises from the other room*

Duke: “And also Alfred.”

[the-alice-of-hearts]

Kids again Ch 1

AO3 Next>

Ch 1: She likes to drink her coffee black

Summary:

Soulmates come in twos; At least they usually did

98% of the world's population has a soulmate bond. Of those, 80% have platonic bonds. Only .2% of all soul bonds connected more than two people.

Having three soulmates is exactly the kind of cosmic joke the universe would play on a True Wielder of the Ladybug Miraculous. If it gives a boy who still had a lot of life to live a second chance, well that is still in Creation's domain, now isn't it?

Marinette loved the boy in her heart, and the other two links were twisted around each other in a way only romantic pairs could be. If only she could have loved him enough to save him /||\ Jason wanted, more than anything, to protect the girl who his heart belonged to; protect her from the harness of the world, and then from what he had become.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here, let's start at the beginning.

Ch 1: She likes to drink her coffee black

The first time Jason looked into his Soulmate’s life she was happy. Whoever she was, she seemed happy. The first strong emotion that he got from her was pure bliss and a sense of major accomplishment. The first time he got to see through her eyes he was eight years old. She was rushing out the door waving goodbye to smiling parents, a thermos in one hand and a cute pink backpack in the other. He cherished this memory like no other. There were other strong emotions from the bond, most of them were similar. She was happy and seemed strong. After that, Jason tried not to let his emotions overwhelm him; he didn’t want the girl with the happy laugh and the pink backpack to see where he was.

He knew he didn’t do as good a job as he tried. The feeling of worry in his heart that he knew came from her told him so. He could feel when she worried about him not eating enough, so he tried not to go to bed hungry too often. He could feel when she would panic because she hadn’t felt anything from him for too long. He would go and listen to the musicians playing on the streets; trying desperately to feel as happy as he could for her.

When he had gotten stabbed defending another kid from a man with a knife, he wasn’t sure if his panic was his own or hers. He felt like he was watching someone die though, so he was pretty sure it was her panic feeding into his own pain. He made sure to take care of himself so that she didn’t think he had died.

This went on for a long time; him looking in and seeing small bits of her life and later try to send good things back as much as he could. He figured out she was from Paris when the Eiffel Tower was in so many of the small glimpses he saw. So, he stole an English to French dictionary. He then found a bookstore, he could steal from it pretty easily, that had a copy of a book filled with his favourite fairy tales in French. He learned French, then he took it as his language elective. Slowly, he started to understand what she was saying in his visions of her. She had a small number of friends, but they were pretty close. She still worried about him far too often, but he noticed that on days where she was worried she would go out of her way to be as happy as possible. It was like she was trying to make him warm from the inside. And on those days, when was cold and hungry and desperate for a safe place to sleep, he would hold on to her happiness and promise himself that he would be happy for her tomorrow.

When he became Robin he was worried about her finding out. What if Bruce made him stop being Robin? For this reason, he stayed quiet about his Soulmate. Most bonds were platonic anyways, so he just didn’t mention that his bond was romantic.

He hoped she would at least get to see happier emotions from him. He knew that she had to have seen some of where he grew up, but he wanted to believe that maybe she would now get to see these happier moments. Jason vowed to live every happy moment to its fullest.

He hoped she got to see Alfred teaching him to cook, and him learning how to bake all her favourite pastries. He hoped she saw Dick teaching him gymnastics, seeing all the times he fell but got back up. He wanted her to see him and Dick goofing off and the times they would go sneak off behind Bruce’s back when he told them not to skip patrol to do just that and get ice cream in the suits. He hoped she saw him and Bruce sitting in the library reading, the two of them watching movies together when he was too sick to patrol. He wanted her to see that he had a family that loved him now. He hoped that she wouldn’t worry about him so much anymore; that he wouldn’t be a burden on her anymore.

He thought he had hidden this from his new family, but somehow Alfred always knew everything. Jason almost panicked when Alfred broached the conversation while he was teaching Jason to make macarons

“Does your Soulmate have a favourite flavor, Master Jason?”

“I- uh,” he tried to come up with a way to deny it, but knew that he would never get something past Alfred. Still he tried, “What do you mean?”

Alfred smiled, not looking away from measuring the ingredients. “Growing up, my best friend had a Soulmate that grew up in a troubled home. He told me he knew when she was in a better place because she started pouring emotions into everything she did so that he could feel, as well as see, that she was safe.” Alfred turned back to the cabinet looking at their ingredients. “I just thought that you seemed to be doing something similar. I apologize if I misread the situation.”

Jason stood there thinking for a moment. He looked around and listened to make sure Bruce wasn’t about to walk into the kitchen. He moved closer to Alfred so he could whisper, ”Her name is Marinette. I heard one of her friends call her Netté, though.” When Alfred didn’t stop him from talking he kept going. “She likes matcha ones best, but she always tells her mom that she likes strawberry ones because they're less work.”

That was all that was said. They finished making the cookies and Alfred packaged them up for him to have in his room. Jason was pretty sure that Alfred knew he was hoarding food, but so long as no one stopped him and probably even if they did he would keep doing it. Living on the streets taught him that a next meal isn’t guaranteed, and even if it was unlikely he would ever go hungry under Alfred’s watchful eyes, he still wanted a back up plan if he needed to make a break for it.

The next time someone asked about her was about a year later on a stakeout in Blüdhaven with Dick. Bruce had gotten scared when Jason got hurt and wouldn’t let him patrol in Gotham until his injuries had completely healed. Jason got antsy and ran away to crash on Dick’s couch until Bruce let up on the restriction.

Dick had just sat down next to him on the building they were on. “Hey, Little Wing”

Jason turned to him. “Yeah?”

“Do you ever try to send your soulmate messages?”

Jason’s throat closed up in terror. Dick kept talking as though he hadn’t noticed Jason tensing up and planning an escape route. “It’s just, sometimes I see what he’s seeing and I don’t know how to tell him that I want to look out for him, ya know? And his dad is kinda distant, but his mom loves him a lot. I don’t know though, because sometimes I can feel dread coming from my soul link but without any glimpses into what he’s seeing. Alfred thought maybe I have a platonic soulmate that is experiencing dread. Lately I’ve only had happy and joyful feelings so I’m worried that if I do have a platonic soulmate that maybe something bad happened to them. I have no idea how I would be able to send a message to a platonic soulmate though, so I wondered if maybe you knew?”

Jason had slowly gotten more confused while listening to his brother. He hadn’t considered the possibility of having more than one soulmate. “Wait, you mean you can have more than one Soulmate? I thought Soulmates were pairs?”

Dick shrugged. “My parents explained it being more like pieces of the same picture. Most bonds are platonic and platonic bonds are more likely to be someone who you grew up near, so you would have similar experiences with similar emotional responses. That’s why people don’t always notice them, but when you have a romantic bond that you can actually see through each other's eyes, you notice, yeah?”

Jason nodded. “So you have a romantic Soulmate, but think you also have a platonic bond?”

Dick ran a hand through his hair staring out at the windows they were watching, “Yeah, I don’t know how to describe it though. Honestly, I’m pretty sure I have three soulmates. The third is a lot quieter though. My mom laughed once and told me maybe it wasn’t that I had three soulmates, but that my soulmates had another link to each other.”

“Does that happen?”

“I don’t think so, but the stories about that happening are more fairy tale than concrete evidence. I like to think I have three though. I hope that, whoever my platonic bond is, they have their own romantic bond they can lean on. I don’t know if there is anything I can do for them unless I figure out who they are.”

Jason scoffed and then went on the alert seeing movement in the room. “We’ve finally got company.”

Dick smiled and ran back a few steps. “Wanna see me do a flip into the window?”

“Ten bucks says you don’t break the glass and fall on the ground.”

He laughed at that. “Be ready to pay up, Little Wing. I’ll get the two gunmen, then you swing in and help me with the others.”

He took a running start and jumped off the roof they had been on, doing a flip to keep his momentum up. He crashed through the glass rolling into a handspring, kicking the guns out of the two goons' hands. Jason followed using his grappling hook to get across to the now-broken window.

A short fight later and they had the men all tied up. Dick called the police with the info and then they were grappling away from the scene.

“Hey, Dick?”

“Yeah?”

“Earlier you said that you wanted to figure out who your platonic soulmate was.”

Dick landed on top of the building his apartment was in, then looked at him. “Yeah. I just want to know if I can help them.”

Jason followed him down the fire escape, “I thought that soulmates knew when they found each other; you make it seem like that’s not how it works?”

Dick walked into his room to grab clothes. “When you only have one soulmate, there is a glow when you touch each other the first time. It’s your soul telling you it’s complete, but if you have more than one you only get that if you find all the pieces of your soul.”

“Oh.” He caught the pants Dick threw at him. “Thanks for talking to me about this. I guess there was a lot I didn’t know.”

They crashed on the couch to play video games and eat leftovers. The conversation hung heavy in the air, though. Jason felt like, if he talked first, he would tell Dick everything, but, if Dick had had a romantic Soulmate this whole time, then Bruce had to know about it.

He looked up at his brother from where he was laying with his legs over the side of the couch. “Does Bruce know you have a romantic Soulmate?”

Dick looked down at him from where he was perched on the back of the couch. “Yeah? Why?”

Jason shot Dick's character while he wasn’t paying attention, trying to make him stop looking at him like that. He mulled over the question while avoiding the looks Dick was still giving him during his respawn times. In a small voice he finally answered, “He didn’t make you stop being Robin?”

That made Dick pause the game. He dropped down to sit on the cushion of the couch, leaning his head over Jason to look him in the eyes. “Jason, Alfred would never let Bruce use one of us having a Soulmate as a reason to kick us out of the suit.”

Jason pushed him back so he could sit up. Turning to look at him, he took a deep breath. “He kicked me out of the suit for being hurt. He fired you and sent you here. Why would having a Soulmate be any different?”

Dick reached out and hugged Jason. He felt Dick’s shirt becoming wet from tears he hadn’t realized he was crying. “Oh, baby bird, no, that’s not gonna happen, and if Bruce tries it, then you have a place here. You did really good back there, I would love to have your help anytime.”

Jason sniffled and wrapped his arms around Dick. “What if he tries to make you send me back?”

Dick was still rubbing circles on his back, talking soothingly. “Bruce can’t make me do anything. My bank account has Alfred as my responsible party, and Clark is the name on the lease. If you want to stay here you can, and no one gets to take my brother away from me okay?” Jason nodded, still sniffling but getting his tears under control. “Now enough sad talk. How about I kick your ass in this game and tomorrow I’ll take you to the gym I use and help you with your flips.”

Jason laughed wholeheartedly at that. Sitting up and discreetly wiping his tears, he grabbed his controller again. “Don’t know why you keep trying. You’re not gonna win at this any more than I’m gonna be able to do a backhandspring tomorrow.”

And that was it.

Bruce either didn’t know about his romantic Soulmate, or he really didn’t care. Jason started keeping a journal of written notes about her. He wanted to be able to find her one day, so he needed to know everything he could.

An incomplete list of things I know about my soulmate

Her name is Marinette

Her friends also call her Netté or Mari

She drinks a lot of coffee, usually black. She grabs it on the way to class. Is that a french thing? I feel like I only ever see her with coffee? That can’t be right, maybe it’s from the all-nighters? Her friends have teased her about not sleeping before. Is that more often than I think?

She ignores her own needs to help her friends

She’s like a year younger than me I think.

Her nonna (grandmother?) calls her Marinetta or Little Fairy (could I call her Pixie?)

Lives in Paris

She has an Asian mother; Chinese?

She has an Asian name, but I don’t remember it. Her parents use it but not often enough for me to write it down

Her father is French-Italian

She is in gymnastics, but can be clumsy

Kim, Nino, and Alix are her friends.

Chloe used to be her friend. She doesn’t know what changed things

She likes to draw

She wants to be a clothing designer

She made me something? I couldn’t see what it was, but her mom was really proud of her accomplishment.

She is a really good baker

She likes matcha macarons best; but she never asks for them. She feels guilty about her parents making them just for her

She can lift a giant bag of sugar like it weighs nothing

She likes to help people

She likes pink

She is nice and good. At least I think so.

The list was in a small red notebook. It stayed with him all the time; that way whenever something happened, he could write down any details. He filled the other pages of the book with things he wanted to tell his Soulmate, small bits of his life that he wanted to share with her. He had a spot in his utility belt for it to be, and a pocket in his jacket that he kept it in. He had once shown Dick the list and the pages that he had written about him and Alfred. He smiled when Dick showed him his own similar notebook. Dick’s romantic Soulmate was also from Paris; they both wondered if their Soulmates knew each other.

Jason liked to think so

[flightfoot]

Apollo’s Redemption Arc

Apollo was never “evil” per se within the books, not really being actively malicious during the course of the story. He did some stuff that COULD have given him the villain slot (What he did to the Cumaen Sibyl, to Harpocrates, and to Coronis most specifically) but those terrible, malicious actions that led to IMMENSE suffering were only introduced via flashback, and not in great detail. Before that, his worse actions were only referenced vaguely, like him talking about sending heroes to die on quests and not caring, and other things were toned down, like the flaying of Marsyas which supposedly didn’t happen the way it’s portrayed in myths, so it’s up in the air how bad that actually was.

The jarring change in Tyrant’s Tomb came from seeing his more actively malicious actions instead of aggressively uncaring actions and attitude of previous books. During The Hidden Oracle, The Dark Prophecy, and The Burning Maze we learned how he used to watch demigod battles on TV as entertainment, not caring about the suffering they went through. Not to mention how he didn’t care much about Commodus beating his cupbearer for spilling a drink beyond some vague pity and think it was distasteful. He’s mostly chastised for being a bystander during these first three books. The great harm he’s caused more actively was only really emphasized in the fourth book, after he’s already turned around enough that he’s not really considered the same person anymore, something that’s accentuated in the text by Reyna and Meg during the confrontation with Harpocrates.

It appears to be an effort to strike a balance; making sure the reader doesn’t forget Apollo’s screwed up and needs to change, but also never wanting him to come across as a true villain. So in early installments when he’s first starting his redemption and is still a bit of an arrogant prick at times, it just portrays him as being MORE of an arrogant prick at first, along with being uncaring. In later installments once he’s changed and any vestiges of his jerkishness have been swept away, Rick’s able to delve into how bad he’s been in the past. We’re already invested enough in Apollo to not only want him to be redeemed, but to already have seen his growth, to have already gone through a lot of it. It takes a lot of the sting out of his horrific actions in the past. 

Redemption arcs need something to use to redeem a character, something that makes them realize they need to change and provide ongoing motivation for such a strenuous task, beyond just stopping doing bad stuff. Because just not doing evil things anymore ain’t a redemption; that guy who killed Katara’s mother in Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t redeemed just because he retired. It takes changing as a person. Often doing some specific redemptive action is also required to sort of ‘solidify’ the character change, to demonstrate that the change isn’t just in their words, that it’s a change that will stick, as well as to bring the audience and those who the character hurt or who were wary of them because of their past, onto their side. Even if the character knows they’ve changed, it’s not like anyone else can see into their heart; they can only judge by what they observe.

One thing that’s needed here is relatability; can we put ourselves in that character’s shoes and see and understand how they view the world? If a reader can do that, can understand that thought process, the redemption arc will be far more likely to work; it might even be required for a truly great one. 

A lot of Apollo’s actions that require a redemption arc (sending demigods off on frivolous, dangerous quests as errands, standing by while people are slaughtered, enacting petty punishments on people who really don’t deserve it, for instance) are written in such a way that the reader could reasonably understand his mindset, though it’d vary by reader obviously, as personal experience and mindset play a large role here. It helps that for a lot of Apollo’s actions we’re inside his head, we know what he was thinking, even if we don’t know the full story of how he developed into thinking that way. With him starting off thinking of demigods and mortals as expendable, we get to thoroughly understand that aspect before changing it. Others are more mixed, like with seeing his thought process concerning the Cumaen Sibyl and her curse. He helpfully explains a piece of his thought process, namely about hoping to find the one true romance that would wash away his past failures, and then how he started hating her when denied what he wanted, and couldn’t understand that her love wasn’t transactional, wasn’t to be bought. 

Come to think of it, he may have had that viewpoint because as a god, he had a lot of capital to trade. Power, wealth, longevity, all sorts of extremely valuable things he could use to ‘buy’ what he wanted. So the idea of being able to obtain love, peace, and fulfillment that way was tantalizing - especially since it wasn’t something he could obtain that way from most of the other gods. He was fortunate enough to have his sister and mother at least, so he DID have some good, healthy relationships, but that didn’t provide immunity from that mindset.

Being thrown down to Earth, being among mortals as one of them, changed everything.

Having good role models helped.

Even way back in THO, Apollo’s touched, nearly driven to tears at his children’s desire to protect him, at their love and care for him. He doesn’t expect it since he can’t provide them anything special.

And it’s not like it ends with them.

TDP: Jo and Emmie’s kindness towards others, their acceptance of those in need, their desire to help even people like himself and Lit, touches him deeply.

TBM: Jason sees worth in him, SAW worth in him, even back in Blood of Olympus, first time seeing him. Even then he risked his father’s wrath to try to get him to go easy on Apollo, because he thought it was the right thing to do. And ultimately he was willing to die in part to save Apollo.

TTT: The camp just accepts him in, weary though they are. Frank in particular expresses concern for him, that he wouldn’t want to live in a world without Apollo.

TON: Any sort of kindness towards him drives Apollo nearly (or actually) to tears (granted this isn’t exactly new). The Jackson’s/Blofis’s willingness to shelter him and Meg despite the danger, treating it as a natural sort of thing that they couldn’t possibly NOT do, Will having gotten clothes for him on the off-chance, on the hope he’d be back and wanting him to have his own stuff - the casual kindness and compassion just continues to drive home to him that THIS is how people should be - including himself.

While Apollo was shown the negative effects of his previous terrible actions, shown why he needed to change, it wasn’t just left at that. Throughout the entire series, he saw, he experienced what being better would actually look like. He wasn’t just torn down, but also built up again at the same time, this time with a healthier view of the world.

That’s one of the things that really stood out to me with Apollo’s redemption arc in particular; while he faces the consequences of his previous terrible actions and mindset, even having them thrown back at him at times, experiencing them from the other side (hello Britomartis); he isn’t treated cruelly by the people around him… pretty much ever. People are temporarily mad at him, but not for more than like, an hour, and they usually come around pretty quickly. (Not counting the people he wronged REALLY badly in ancient times, talking more about current demigods). It doesn’t feel like a redemption arc based around punishing Apollo, but one around changing him.

It’s especially fitting since this whole thing was *supposed* to be a punishment from Zeus, but ended up being far more than that.

I think Apollo put it well here, near the end of TON.

To be honest, though, I could no longer consider my time on Earth a punishment. Terrible, tragic, nearly impossible… yes. But calling it a punishment gave Zeus too much credit. It had been a journey - an important one I made for myself, with the help of my friends. I hoped… I believed that the grief and pain had shaped me into a better person. I had forged a more perfect Lester from the dregs of Apollo. I would not trade those experiences for anything. (TON 373)

[heyitsbugette]

Heart and soul

Not even everything in training that Damian Wayne was subjected to in the league of assassins nor the eccentricity of living as the only biological son of Bruce Wayne have prepared him for his greatest threat.

Luka Couffaine.

Anyone with eyes could see that there was a certain attraction on behalf of the heir for the sweet daughter of the best bakers in Paris, who with her kindness and charms she captivated the cold heart of the Prince of Gotham. And more than once Jason Todd joked with Tom Dupain about how it made a lot of sense for such a sweet girl to come straight out of a bakery, occasionally amusingly saying that the Dupain-Cheng kitchen was magical.

It was really confusing when the Robin was puzzled and stressed by feel tamed in the presence of his angel and surprisingly with the famous heroine Ladybug as well. Of course, he was teased until it all made sense to them, when together they find out the identity of the spotted heroine by Raven's deductions, his closest friend and ex-girlfriend. 

Raven, annoyed by the cowardice of her best friend, motivated him to go after his beloved right away. The youngest of the Wayne clan then did not know whether to feel grateful or offended when in the end he decided to heed the advice of the young woman of serious features.

His angel through his eyes became more and more perfect after the revelation, she knew how to fight and he did not need it to defend herself, Damian Wayne undoubtedly loved strong women. Such was their surprise when The Jagged Stone invited them by Marinette suggestion to reveal his pupil to them, the very one musician who he secretly hid under his wing for an entire year to prepare him to his debut, a boy with the ferocity of a pirate and the intelligence of a predator to words of the number one rocker in lists.

— Luka is somewhat shy at first, but when my little starlight introduced us I knew that the boy was born to succeed... Come on, dude! I mean-... Bruce, I guarantee that our collaboration between Wayne Enterprises, Rolling Stone Company and MDC will be legendary.

— I trust you, Jagged.

The fierceness in the artist's words could be seen for miles, convincing everyone with his confidence, and if the boy turns out to be as talented as they claimed, the launch of Anarka's son could generate a few million if his strategy worked. Bruce, by the way, looked amused despite the fact that his facial expression did not help at all to demonstrate it, always with his expressionless face and a curious gaze direct to his new partner.

But he could not speak in the same way for his children and how they were inusually calm, the ones who had always admired the singer were nervous with his presence, to the point that they were strangely silent behind him as they followed them, which was suspicious for the family's patriarch, they were not so well-mannered, but always noisy.

Damian, on the other hand, although he found Jagged's company pleasant, he had little mind in the older man's new human toy, he did not have time to be interested in another spoiled child with ambitions of glory and fame, because he only agreed to accompany his family for two reasons.

First and foremost, Marinette would be there. Second, he wanted to visit Fang, he had a great appreciation for the playful crocodile.

— Hey B! So will we finally meet the star boy they all were talking about so much?

— Indeed, Jason. Marinette arranged everything with Miss Rolling and they agreed on a small presentation to close the deal.

— Oh, cool.

The youngest of the clan hid his smile at the mere mention of his muse, heading to the recording studio where they took a seat next to some investors while Luka Couffaine was in front in his maximum glory on the stage, being assisted by a small French-Chinese girl who arranged his clothes meticulously between whispers that were dedicated, they seemed close. They laughed together as they whispered, as if they shared a local joke that only the two of them could understand, but it was when she blushed that the frown of Bruce Wayne's son became more noticeable.

No one with eyes could deny the obvious, Jagged's protegé was conventionally handsome; his seductive blue eyes that saw through his lens, a winning and playful smile. Although the boy was tall and slender, it was obvious that he was not a weakling at all, he had the figure in slim-fit, quite strange cause Couffaine had not exactly the kind of the lifestyle of an athlete.

Along with it, dark hair dyed in turquoise tips and aesthetic piercings adorning his ears up to the side of the helix. The guy in question have quite the look, dressed to impress in a grunge outfit designed precisely by MDC especially for him, he had a style that Jason Todd would say "You got it, brother!".

— Marinette, honey, stop. I think Luka looks handsome already.

— Oh, Miss Penny. He doesn't even need my help for that.

After so tender flirting, the aforementioned blushed noticeably in the same red shade that the heir saw in his furious vision. Did his angel flirt with another boy? But, It's not like he could demand explanations from her and he knew it, they weren't a couple or anything remotely similar. Yes, they were close and they spent a lot of time together, but if he saw it objectively she was not his.

Without option he was able to recover his composure ignoring the mocking smile that his older brothers gave him, he looked uncomfortable. But surely Marinette just wanted to be nice and give her friend a compliment to brighten his day only, that's the kind of person she was.

— Come on, Luka!

His mentor indicated as he launched himself into his couch while Penny sat next to him taking his hand. Both saw themselves as a pair of proud parents attentive to each movement that the guitarist made to prepare, the latter meanwhile looking out of the corner of his eye attentive to the little French girl with tender freckles inadvertently present, since of course she was his motivation .

His actions were unnoticed by everyone except for a certain green eyed boy who still did not trust the musician. He knew his kind, womanizers who went from girl to girl breaking hearts left and right, of course he only wanted to protect his angel from a guy who didn't even deserve to breathe her own air.

The punk man was... Like his father, sure. Or so he wanted to believe.

Oh! Yeah, Alright… Mmmm.

Gather 'round guys

It's time to start listening

Practice makes perfect

But perfect's not workin'

There's a lot more to music

That knowing where your cue's gonna be.

Okay, okay. The guy knows how to sing without the need for auto-tune, he gives it to him. But he wouldn't admit it, flattering the enemy is something that would never be available; he would not dedicate him the mere weakness of raising his ego.

Marinette deserves the best, which is indisputable to the dark-haired teen, and such was his victory when his angel realized the same thing when she moved on off the spinleless coward who was Adrien Agreste. Luckily Luka Couffaine would not last a day.

You can play all the right notes

But that don't mean you're movin' me

But if you can jump like David Lee Roth

Or pump your fist like you're Bruce "The Boss"

Bruce was perplexed at his mention, watching amused as the teenager endorsed the stage listeing with pleasure the laughter of the iconic artist who was stroking the crocodile that was rubbing on his legs. Marinette held back so as not to shout in support of Luka with the same passion with which he cheered her up when she triumphed, a star-shaped sparkle in her eyes was present with no intention of leaving.

If you got a heart and soul

You can rock and roll                        

Rock and roll

The American tried to no be disappointed when he noticed that she was not even aware of his presence, but would not allow anyone else to know it, he would be weak to allow the rookie musical to affect him because of how well he grabed the attention of his beloved heroine.

He wouldn't give his annoying siblings the pleasure of driving him out of his box, although Dick was close enough to get him by keep looking at him with pity. No, he don't need anyone's pity.

Strum it

Drum it

Slide across and run it

The stage is your home

If you learn how to own it

Like the greats did

There's no way that you can fake it

Just when he thought the half asian girl would continue to ignore him during the entire performance, he didn't count on her swapping seats with the pesky Drake to position herself next to him. Being impossible for the vigilante not to melt before her happy smile and with her gaze outlining that perfect silhouette that he would be fascinated to paint, he would not deny that she was his art, his source of inspiration.

— I'm so happy for Luka, Dami. You have no idea how hard he has worked.

— He's a lucky guy... I suppose.

She took his hand, pressing it a little against hers as she tried to suppress the emotion of seeing Luka start his career, how shes sitll as always emotional and enthusiastic when someone she loved achieve them goals, crying with them with joy when them dreams came true.

Such was the youngest of the Dupain-Cheng family, Damian experienced it first hand with each accomplishment that he got culminated. His angel always received him with some well made dessert and words of encouragement to encourage him to continue working hard.

That's the type of person she is.

You've got to feel the beat before you can move

Even though you're not wearing blue suede shoes

Makin' mistakes, but that won't matter

If you can swagger like old' pal Jagged

If you got a heart and soul

You can rock and roll

You can rock and roll

If you live and you die

For the music inside

If the one for five never gets sold

Then you can rock and roll

Rock and roll

Luka playfully looked at his idol when he made reference to him in his lyrics, and this one who just left his seat at once to raise his hands in celebration, exclaiming proudly pointed out with determination, as he pull out a Bruce Wayne before the amused gaze of the brothers. He then gave way to a guitar solo finally performed with great technique, heating up the meeting in which investors fully convinced to invest in the musical prodigy.

— That's my kid, you lil shits!

Instead, unsurprisingly, the only one unimpressed was the legitimate heir to Wayne Enterprises. He rolled his eyes thinking that the oldest was a stocking sucker, a mere flattering of cute words and empty feelings.

Someone like that couldn't make his ladybug happy.

However, seeing her so delighted now releasing her hand to take herself putting bot hands in her own cheeks by giving them little taps to lower her blush was the final blow for him to declare his total displeasure to the amateur musician. Wayne hated that feeling of bitterness, so he huffed angrily.

Alright, now take it low.

Now I need my sunshine girl, right here, as the crowd starts to cheer.

Don’t take it personal, mate. Don’t get too emotional.

You know how It is...

"How dare you?! Do you want to die young or what?!" He saw red, of course, the fuckboy is flirting with his marigold in front of him, the nerve. And of course, the musician smiled when he saw him getting angry, it was clear that this was just a game, a provocation on how he was playing with him, only as a Couffaine could when fooling around with the object of his entertainment. 

He loved being loved and hated, it was fun.

— Uh ... We'll soon bury him, right?

— Yup.

Jason whispered to his brothers when they noticed the contained fury of the minor among them, they knew that once provoked the assassin prince there would be no human power to stop him.

Rest in peace, Luka Couffaine. Good friend, good artist. We will remember you for what you were, champion.

If you can scream like Axl Rose

Or sing like Christina show after show

If you've got a heart and soul

You can rock and roll

If you've got a heart and soul

You can rock and roll

You can rock and roll

Ooh, yeah

You can rock and roll.

The performance ended with an innocent smile and an expectant look on behalf of the vocalist as soon as his fingers finished with the last chord of his guitar, so when he took it off he received the energetic baker's daughter in his arms who embraced him warmly when the high command of the label gave their approval of him.

Luka Couffaine would be the next star, the exotic apprentice of the living rock legend and MDC designs' most precious jewel.

Get moving, Austin Moon! Who knows you, XY ?!

— I told you! You did It, you idiot!

— Oe, oe! I must learn better than to doubt your trust in me, ma mélodie.

Tender giggles were heard from the girl's mouth as she hid her face in the teenager boy's chest, aggressively grabbing the lapels of his leather jacket in a desperate attempt to hide her blush at such a loving nickname. Then when looking away and raising her face to meet the relaxed features of the French guy, both succumbed to sharing a giggle at the moment when in a change of position the aspiring soloist kissed the back of the young woman's hand, who he regarded her as his most ingenious symphony.

Little did they know that a certain person burned with anger looking around him in red, after all he thought that he was the only person who made her smile like that. The green-eyed felt weak from falling to something as gross as jealousy, but no one had prepared him to endure a suave musician.

— Heya, pixie pop! Would you mind introducing your friend to us?

—Ah, Jay-Jay! I longed to present you all for a long time.

Luckily, it was the albino tuft guy who intervened to sneakily separate the couple, putting himself in the middle of both while embossing a charming smile and a relaxed expression on his face.

— Sup kid! Here's Jason Todd. You know, the cool one. And these idiots next to me are my brothers...This one at my right is Tim Drake, the coffee rat. And the other one with the stupid face is Dick Grayson, the dick. Oh, and the dwarf is lil D-...

— Damian Wayne.

Suddenly the mentioned one appeared, narrowing his eyes challengingly during the brief exchange of glances he shared with the artist in a non-verbal competition. Too bad the guitarist didn't know he was competing.

— Enchanté, guys. Mon trésor told me a lot about you.

"Ma mélodie? Mon trésor? Yah, this guy is asking for it… ” He chattered his teeth in anger and even without trusting the intentions of the stranger man, as he said before, he knew the ones of his type. Young rock stars were all the same.

— Guys.. This is Luka Couffaine ... My boyfriend.

Has anyone heard that? It seems that something broke slowly inside the american heir as how Damian could almost hear Kagami Tsurugi whispered on his mind: "You hesitated."

Heart and soul - The Jonas Brothers

[youngdreamer3214]

Alright I know I already asked but could you also do prompt 20 with Jason Todd and Raven or Speedy and Raven

Thank you for requesting. I hope you enjoy reading this. Please read and review.

Assume Standard Disclaimer #20. “Who hurt you?" Jason todd + Raven Pairing

Prompt list

The dark clouds struggled to withstand the weight of the water, almost wanting to let go but not being able to just yet. The air was thick with the sweet scent of the coming storm and nothing had a shadow. Winds were blowing rapidly almost as if they were in a race with each other, seemingly careless and play full not caring if anything comes in their way.

The former thief had just returned to the city after completing a mission on the other side of the world. It was tiring to say the least but he was glad that he was finally back. He was on his way to titan tower, silently observing the weather deep in his thoughts, which were mostly about her.

He had missed her; it had been four months since he had seen her, since he had held her in his arms and he couldn’t wait to have her in his arms which was why he was making his way to her immediately entering the city, instead of going to his condo.

God, he sounded like such a sap right now and he was glad that nobody could hear his thoughts; if his brother’s heard his thoughts then he would never hear the end of it.

But for some reason he didn’t mind, he wanted to shout from every rooftop in this city that he had feelings for her, that she was his. He shook his head at how caveman-ish was his last train of thought but couldn’t stop a smile from coming on his face with it also.

So, he was territorial over her, but can you blame him? For a kid who grew up in the slums of Gotham city, who had to fight for every shred of happiness and peace while experiencing the worst humanity had to offer, he couldn’t be blamed for keeping someone who made him feel peace and joy like nothing he had ever experienced, all to himself.

He is selfish like that.

Jason rubbed his covered neck, still in his Red X suit all lost in fantasies of her, he couldn’t wait to have her in his arms, where he wouldn’t let her go, her teammates can deal with it.

Everything went downhill since the day his elder brother and the leader of the titans discovered that it was him under the skulled mask; to say it was chaotic would be putting it mildly.

It took a couple of years for the shock of him coming back to life, anger at him and his little bird for keeping it hidden and the anger and resentment he held against the bat family to die down; it took time and many confrontation to come to the point where he attended family dinners and was willing to work alongside them when required.

He still wouldn’t call himself a hero but he also wasn’t a villain, an anti- hero of sorts.

He also knew that none of this would possible without his little bird, he probably would be drowning in his sorrows while covering it with anger if she had not found him or pushed him towards his family.

She was his light.

He chuckled at the irony of his last thought; a creature of darkness, a demon was his light. But damn him to hell and back, if that wasn’t true.

She was there for him when he thought that he was sad, hurt and angry because of the world and at the world. She showed patience with him, something that many people failed to do. But most importantly she loved him, even if they hadn’t said it out loud yet but he could see it in her eyes and feel it in his own heart.

He arrived at the island which housed the tower and grinned mischievously; instead of using the door he started climbing the wall knowing full well how it irritated his older brother, making a point to give a two- finger salute to the surveillance camera in front of him and climbing up.

He finally reached his destination, feeling like he had reverted to his old ways as he opened the window, grinning knowing that she always left it open for him and made his way inside to his prize.

His heart started beating erratically as he saw her petite form swallowed by her comforter on her side but in the dark he couldn’t see her properly but he didn’t pay much mind to it, he was just happy to be surrounded by her calming presence, it had been too long and without thinking twice, he started shredding his suit, leaving him only in his black boxers.

He kept his suit on the corner and made his way to her bed, as silent as possible and got inside the covers, laying behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist awaiting the first night of peaceful sleep he would get in months when he heard her groan in pain.

He pushed himself away as if he had been burned, seeing her stir awake. He switched on the night light and his heart slowed down, his usual aquamarine eyes turned lazarus pit green as rage and worry flowed through him seeing her condition.

She was lying on her back and lightly rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she saw her boyfriend assess her. She looked at gorgeous as he remembered with her violent- black long hair, pale skin and that red gem on her forehead hidden by her flick and in her sports bra and sleeping shorts but the only problem Jason had with the sight presented in front of him were the white bandages covering her waist, some of her right thigh, her ankles and the most worrisome was the bandage on her forehead.

She looked at his angry face staring at her wounds but before she could say anything he asked in a gruff voice barely controlling his anger and voice “What the hell happened to you?”

She started to get up and in an sitting position when he gently pushed her back to lie down and tucked the comforter around her while she stared at her handsome boyfriend, still not being able to digest the fact that he was here and in front of her.

“Don’t move.” He ordered her with a strict voice, and she complied knowing that now wasn’t the time to mess with him. His rage was surfacing right now and her heart warmed looking at him, she could feel his worry and concern for her.

She took her arm out from the comforter and placed it on his, silently sending waves of calmness through her empathy. He stopped and stared at her pale hand on his before losing himself in her deep pools of amethyst.

“Jason…” she began in that smoky yet sexy voice of hers that always makes his heart beat erratically. “I just got a little distracted during the fight today, and besides I am not that hurt…I will be better tomorrow.”

She tried to give him a reassuring smile but he just looked her straight in the eye and asked in a deadly tone “Who hurt you?”

Raven sighed, silently rubbing his hand with her thumb, trying to calm him down but her efforts were in vain.

He wouldn’t calm down, he couldn’t knowing that someone had hurt his little bird; someone had harmed the one who he loved with every fibre of his being, the one who made his tortured life worth living.

He was angry.

He was angry at her for not taking proper care of herself, he was angry at her teammates for not protecting her but most importantly he was angry at himself for not being there to protect her, take care of her.

She knew that he wouldn’t calm down till he got to know what happened so she recounted “Today Adonis and Doctor Light were causing some trouble together in the city…I was occupied fighting Doctor Light that I missed Adonis who charged at me and crushed me against a wall.”

Jason ran his hand through his black curly hair angrily, his stubborn white lock still insistent on falling on his forehead. He kissed her hand which was still in his and got up from her bed heading towards his suit.

He needed to pay some villains a visit.

He had just put on one leg of the pants when he heard “Jason, where are you going?”

“I think I need to remind the villains of this city who Red- X and what happens when you mess with him or the people he loves.”

Her heart skipped a beat when he indirectly said that he loves her, they had yet to confess their feeling to each other. “Jason, they are already in prison.”

She hoped that he would come back to her but he just grinned sinisterly and said “Makes my work a lot simpler.”

She sighed and summoned all her strength, getting up from the bed and walking towards him. He had almost suited up but when he felt her hand on his shoulder he immediately turned and saw her standing behind him looking a bit pained. She took his arms and placed them around her waist while hers went around his broad shoulders.

His anger slowly bubbling down, he hated and loved that she could calm him with her patient actions and soothing touch.

He was about reprimand her for getting up from the bed in her wounded state. But before he could say anything she started “Jason, I’m fine…I’ll heal up by tomorrow. Don’t worry about me.”

He placed his forehead on her uninjured part of forehead carefully, his body still flowing with concern and said “I will never stop worrying about you Raven, it hurts me to see you in pain and it hurts me even more to know that I wasn’t here to protect you from it.”

She smiled and reached up to place a kiss on his forehead, swallowing up the pain in her ankle and said softly “You are here now.”

His heart soothed with her words, yes he was here now and he vowed to himself to always be there and with that he leaned down and placed her lips on hers, engulfing both of them in a passionate and loving embrace which they were deprived of for four months.

After a while he parted from her, both of them panting but he still continued his ministrations on her, kissing from her cheek to her neck making her moan. Not able to get enough of her, good god have mercy on him, he missed her addictive taste so much.

After a while he pulled away from her, staring into her eyes lovingly. Wordlessly he bent down and carried her bridal style to her bed and placed her gently saying with a gentle kiss on her forehead “I will always be there for you.”

He stripped once again out of his suit and smirked seeing Raven blush at the sight of him clad only in his boxers, almost three years and he still made her blush.

He approached her, flexing his muscles and almost groaned seeing the lust in her eyes. Well that would come tomorrow, once she was all well no power on earth would be able to pull him away from her.

The vigilante laid next to her and she slowly sprawled herself over him, her head resting over his heart and with cautious reluctance he wrapped his arms around her after pulling the comforter over them and asked “Are you okay?”

“With you, how can I not be?”

She said in a sleepy voice and his heart skipped a beat. There was no place where he would rather be than here- with the girl he loves with everything he has- in his arms.

Yup, he loves her. Now he just had to tell her.

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Okay okay okay okay, I know I’m asking a lot of stuff and probs annoying you. I’m currently reading about the character but what about her and Tim?? Like can I get a run down of everything about them. The good and bad?? Everytime I see things on here it’s either making Tim to be so bad (Anti-Tim ig) or Steph to be so bad and I’m sure they’re both at fault, yea?

No I’m happy to help.

Both Tim and Steph have made mistakes but not in an awful way and more in a ‘these are literal children dealing with serious situations while also trying to be in a relationship with one another’. 

The Steph being bad stuff entirely comes from the fact that she’s a female love interest to a boy who’s one half of a popular mlm ship, she’s made mistakes here and there but they’re human instances where she’s trying to do her best, fandoms often tend to erase or demonise female characters in any any fandom if they are involved in a ship. It’s a sexist habit that comes from reducing a female to only her romantic relationship and ignoring all her other connections and reeks of misogyny. There’s also some slut shaming as Steph was a teen pregnancy & a victim of sexual assault multiple times.

The anti Tim stuff is a bit more complicated, partly it’s a response to sexism where so many fans are sick of the misogyny directed at Steph that they go full throttle the other way or it comes from fans genuinely uncomfortable with Tim’s actions as this is comics and comics are usually written by sexist men which means Tim sometimes takes actions or says something that is not so great.

The important thing to remember about Tim and Steph is that they are each others best friends and they have been through so much together to the point where even if they were not dating they would still be one of the most important relationships the other had.

There is some worry that Tim and Steph feeds into each others complexes 

Tim and Steph both experienced neglect growing up in different ways which makes their attitude to love very different.

Tim's parents were never around most of the time which makes him sort of desperate for love, for validation and most of the time he seems to be of the sort that love is something he can earn if he just does the right thing or achieves the right goal which reflects on how he probably thought if he got good grades or made his parents proud they'd notice him more they'd spend time with him more.

Steph's childhood of neglect I guess you could say came from the sickness of her parents Arthur Brown was abusive to both his wife and daughter and Crystal's drug addiction making her barely able to raise Steph half the time. More often than not it was Steph taking care of the house hold and her mother than any adult looking out for Steph.

With the neglect Steph went through she knew that there was nothing /she/ herself could do to change it, she couldn't magically make her mother quit taking drugs or stop her father from committing crimes by winning an award or behaving well, heck most of her childhood was just trying to keep her and her mum alive so in contrast with Tim who is desperate to receive love Steph is desperate to give love. Because if she's giving love to this person that means they care about her too right? 

This comes across in how easy Steph is willing to poor love into people who are even remotely nice to her like the second Barbara or Bruce stop treating her like shit she's immediately like 'I would die for you'. The second her mother is sober enough to notice her Steph is there being like 'mom I love you I would protect you with my life'. Cass is slightly nice to her? She is now Steph's best friend.

Tim is desperate to receive unconditional affection while Steph is desperate to give unconditional affection which would explain why they are drawn to one another but enough about the meta and onto their actual history.

Steph became a vigilante originally to stop her fathers crimes, the entire point of Spoiler was an abuse victim taking agency back from her abuser and due to Tim being Robin and also investigating the same crimes the two would run into each other multiple times, there was an attraction between the two however neither truly pursued anything due to the fact that Tim was dating another girl and Steph was ‘seeing’ a guy (though the relationship was implied to be unhealthy as he was significantly older, Steph only being around 14 at the time, and showed little in Steph’s actual well being).

However despite the two already being in relationships the two developed keen banter together and quickly began to enjoy the others presence what arguably set then on the path towards a relationship however is when Tim very nearly died and Steph managed to save him at the last second, Tim was so relieved that he kissed Steph sparking a romantic interest from Steph and Tim beginning to realise he had feelings for her.

Steph would then continue fighting crime outside of her fathers crimes as Steph realised that as Spoiler she could help other abuse victims such as herself. Steph’s entire life can be described as falling through the cracks in the system no one caring about the abuse and unsafe situations that she grew up with and Steph’s early journey as Spoiler is her realising that even though no one had cared when she was abused and hurt she could be the person who would care for other people so no one would suffer the way she did. Steph aiming to fight crime meant that she and Tim ran into each other even more working multiple cases together until it eventually culminated into Tim admitting that he had feelings for Steph but due to his loyalty to Batman he could never tell her his secret identity however Steph told him that that was enough for her, the two ended their previous relationships and started dating.

This is actually where a lot of criticism over the relationship is from due to the obvious power imbalance Tim knows every detail of Steph’s life while controlling all information Steph has on him and only lets her interact with Robin. Tim has also been shown to be rather possessive of Steph controlling her interactions with other members of the superhero community and expressing alarm in her spending time with other heroes who are not him.

There is also the fact that for a large part every man Stephanie has ever interacted with have been abusive in some way, her home life was incredibly dangerous due to her mother and fathers friends all being criminals or victims and Steph had to deal with at least two instances of child predators growing up so to many readers it becomes increasingly obvious that Tim might very well be the first man Steph ever interacted with who treated her with human decency and that is why she fell in love with him.

After the relationship started Steph found out that she had become pregnant from her previous relationship and the reader discovers that Steph’s previous boyfriend on top of being awful to her was also using her for sex. Steph tells Tim about the pregnancy fully expecting him to break up with her however Tim states that he is going to be there to support Steph. The two grow even closer as Tim becomes someone for Steph to lean on wearing disguises to take Steph to birthing classes and helps Steph through the process of putting the baby up for adoption. Tim is even there when the child is born.

The incident made Tim and Steph even closer and afterwards the two continue dating and remain close, Steph quickly becomes what could be considered Tim’s safe place as he is able to leave any problems as Tim Drake or Robin away and simply enjoy being with her and during times where Tim is unable to visit Steph he is shown to be tense and disgruntled without the positive emotional outlet however after nearly over a year and a half of dating Steph begins to realise that the dynamic of the relationship is uneven as Tim has complete control and knowledge over her own life while she knows nothing about Tim’s life out of the mask. Steph begins to worry about merely being used and starts openly wishing that Tim would let her be more involved with his life outside of Robin.

Tim meanwhile is beginning his rebellious phase against Batman and Bruce takes actions to try and nip it in the bud as Dick’s rebellious phase ended with Dick leaving Batman for the Titans and Jason’s rebellious phase ended with Jason dead. Bruce attempts to control Tim by using Steph revealing Tim’s secret identity to Tim. After that point Bruce would continually manipulate Steph in a gambit to manipulate Tim and Tim expresses frustration at Bruce using Steph to get to him.

Bruce and Steph’s relationship is incredibly complicated in its own right as Steph has a childhood admiration of Batman as he was the only one who seemed to be able to stop her fathers abuse by putting him in prison. This childhood admiration causes Steph to follow and respect Bruce no matter how many times his actions hurt her. Bruce on the other hand has a lot of issues regarding Steph as Steph reminds him a lot of Jason and Bruce puts a lot of his unresolved issues regarding his dead son on her which as you might assume does not end well for Steph at all.

Outside of Bruce’s meddling however Steph and Tim grow increasingly close no longer having to worry about secret identities the two go on regular dates and are there for each other in every aspect of their lives. However Tim’s father finds out about Robin and forces him to quit and Steph who had been dating Tim ‘batman needs a Robin’ Drake for years was firmly of the belief that ‘Gotham needs a Robin’ at which point Steph herself becomes the fourth Robin though it is heavily implied that once again Bruce is manipulating Steph in order to manipulate Tim into coming back.

Then DC enters its dark ages where they kill off characters left and right and Steph is tortured, raped and killed in a Gotham wide gang war primarily for Bruce angst so that Bruce can go ‘oh god it’s Jason all over again I knew she was girl Jason I knew it’ mean while Tim has what can probably be best described as a mental break down over Steph’s death and the subsequent death of his father and multiple friends. This causes Tim to become cold, cynical and increasingly dark and pessimistic (he has depression).

However Steph comes back to Gotham two years later alive again and it is revealed that Leslie Thompkin’s essentially kidnapped Steph to Africa for two years and faked Steph’s death in order to try and save Steph from being a soldier in Batman’s crusade. Steph was Leslie’s ward for two years but realised that she could literally not stop fighting crime as in Africa Steph literally started dressing up as an African legend and started fighting crime there, eventually convincing Leslie that they needed to go back to Gotham the two returned and Tim was over the moon to see Steph alive kissing her on sight, however Tim realises that he essentially had a break down over Steph death for nothing and expresses resentment over Steph letting him believe that she was dead for two years. Steph who had spent the past to years recovering physically and mentally from the trauma of being tortured for days prior to Leslie faking Steph’s death and Steph essentially not having had a choice in Leslie’s plan to fake her death is just like ‘I don’t know what to tell you buddy’ 

Steph is still Tim’s emotional home, immediately relying on her for emotional support once again and the two are shown to still love each other however the two had changed a great deal over the time they were apart. Steph having had an adult finally care about her well being for the first time in her life grew much more positive into someone who believed in the inherent good in people and in hope while Tim had grown harsh and dark and cynical. The two even joke about how Steph has become an optimist while Tim had become a pessimist. Steph is like a beam of light for Tim who had become increasingly dark and Tim finds himself being both wary of it and drawn to it.

Then Bruce gets back to his old tricks of using Steph to manipulate Tim and gives Steph instructions to challenge Tim in order to improve Tim’s skills as a crime fighter. Steph on Bruce’s orders employs and assassin to fight Tim however the assassin goes to far and Steph is injured trying to protect Tim. Tim realising that Bruce is once again manipulating Steph to get to him as well as having an inherent fear of Steph dying again demands that Steph should not be a vigilante any longer never mind that Steph literally can not stop fighting crime which causes a rift between the two.

The superhero community then believe that Batman is dead and Tim leaves Gotham to prove that Bruce is alive while Tim is gone from Gotham Cass makes Steph the new Batgirl and Steph becomes incredibly close to Barbara and Damian and as Batgirl makes several friends within the masked community no longer having her interactions be controlled by Tim or Bruce. Steph starts coming into her own and building up her self confidence, when Tim returns he is once again upset that Steph is still fighting crime his fear of Steph dying still going strong and acts condescending towards Steph’s attempts to help him however Steph proves herself in sheer level of skill and prowess and Tim accepts her as a vigilante and the new Batgirl accepting that Steph will not die again. Tim then attempts to rekindle their romantic relationship however Steph realises that she had been too dependent on Tim’s love and wishes to improve herself as a person before she even thinks of entering a relationship again. The two remain close friends however Tim expresses attraction towards Steph multiple times (Tim is the horniest little fuck during this time in their lives and Steph is literally out their trying to live her life and better herself as a person and get a university degree it’s hilarious)

If Convergence is to believe the two would always eventually get back together in one way or another the two issues being about their romantic interest in each other and getting back together.

After the reboot happens when they meet again Tim immediately expresses romantic interest in Steph while Steph herself is wary of Tim as in this universe both her mother and her father are criminals who have tried to kill her and Steph has effectively been homeless living in public libraries or where ever she can. It is unknown when but Tim offers Steph a place to live at his apartment and a some point the two eventually enter a romantic relationship.

A lot of fans have criticised this as Steph is entirely financially dependent on Tim for food and shelter and once again Tim holds more power than Steph in the relationship. Also in the rebooted universe Tim is Steph’s only support system as her parents tried to kill her, her father murdered any civilians she was close to in order to hurt her and any connections Steph had before the reboot have had vast amounts of their history erased.

Steph has also been shown to be responsible for a lot of Tim’s mental health as she has to stop him from crossing lines or going off the deep end multiple times it is described as Tim having a tendency of walking a dark path when he is alone. 

Steph and Tim are both presented as each others support systems in current comics and when Tim wanted to leave Gotham in order to research the multiverse Steph went with him as the two rely on each other.

I don’t believe there is a good guy or bad guy in their relationship both Tim and Steph want what’s best for each other but sometimes these views don’t line up which causes conflict but at the end of the day they are two people that care about each other a great deal and whether they are in a relationship or not they will always be one of the most important people in each others lives.

The relationship is criticised by the fandom as fans either fetishise mlm relationships and are angry at Steph ‘getting in the way’ an unfortunate trend in all fandoms and on the other side many are tired of female characters being reduced to their romantic relationships.

TimSteph is a cute ship with a deep connection and a lot of history proving that they care about each other a great deal but sexism and misogyny are things that exist especially in fandom spaces and that creates a nightmare.

[klaumiel]

You are all I’ve got, Austin//Chapter 6: Skylar

‘Russo!’ I heard from the corridor.

I got up from my cell floor after doing push-ups, the workout was the only thing that kept me disconnected from all the noise in here that was getting into me day by day more.

I approached the bars while wiping the sweat from my brow.

‘Mail for you’ I saw Jason approaching. He was one of the worse wardens I’ve ever met, one of those assholes who overuse their power to bring everyone else down. I knew him from my early days in Perch, he never liked me and didn’t have any problem with showing it. He always wanted to challenge himself and trying to rub me the wrong way, but sadly for him, it only worked once. Ever since they moved me here, he was on me every chance he got, and today wasn’t any different.

‘Looks like our pretty princess got himself a girl… is that the chick that came the other day? Fine ass …’ he said sniffing the envelope with this stupid smile on his ugly face. I felt my blood starting to boil, my jaw clenched when he approached the bars. Keep fucking calm.

He passed me the envelope but didn’t want to let go, I looked in his eyes. He brought his face closer and whispered ‘Is a shame you didn’t fuck her on that table, that would’ve been quite a view.’

I pulled the envelope from his hand, got even closer to his face, looking down on him. He was a small fat prick with a bold head, playing strong but I beat the shit out of him a few years back. But he knew I won’t do it now, not being so close to freedom.

‘Unfortunately for you, it is a view you will never see.’ I walked off, I could sense his fury.

I sat on the bed looking at the envelope. Of course, it is from her. I recognized now the familiar sweet smell of her perfume. I opened the envelope inside were two photos of her and a pink note stuck on one of them.

‘’Surprise ’’

I smiled and looked at the pictures, there were different from the ones she sent me before. On the first one, she smiled, with her hair blown by the wind standing on the beach, golden sun glowing on her face, waves covering her naked legs, while she held her dress. On the second picture, she was holding a bouquet of white lilies. Her gorgeous eyes looking right at me. She is so beautiful.

On the back of the second photo, she wrote :

‘’ Life isn’t perfect, but every second with you is. I can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to miss you anymore. ‘’

I stared at both photos, remembering every second of our time together a few days ago and how I felt being around her, her smile so sincere and kind, those beautiful olive eyes so peaceful. Still, with this spark that instantly drove me crazy, she didn’t have to even try. Her perfect body, so delicate and hot at the same time, just perfect. That raven black hair, so soft like silk.

All those feelings I never felt before, where did they even come from? I knew I cared about her, she was special.  But that moment I saw her in the flesh, touched her, kissed. All those weird new feelings made me realise she was something else. There wasn’t just a physical attraction but this enormous emotional connection that we’ve built over the months. Just being there with her, talk, laugh, touch made me feel all sort of different ways. Ways that I never experienced.

I didn’t know if that’s how love felt like, I never been in love before. I only knew that I don’t want to stop feeling it. She became the most important person in my life, the only person I loved.

I missed her, and that somehow scared me, the feeling of losing her like I’ve lost my pop. That thought only confirmed that I have to protect her at all costs, even if that cost is my own life, after all, she saved mine.

I was here, days from my last court day thanks to her, and the only thought in my head was, how did I even get so lucky? I made a promise to myself that I would never come back to my old life. This was a chance for me to start again, and I was ready to do everything to use the most of it. Not only for myself but for her, I wanted her to know that everything she did for me was worth it. From the moment I saw her, she became my main goal. Making her smile every day, protect and feel special was the only thing I wanted to do.

I’ve been lost in my thoughts, staring at Maya’s pictures missing her more and more every second.

‘Girlfriend?’ I heard a voice snapping me from my thoughts.

It was Skylar, he was my new cellmate, he was put in here temporarily a week ago, he got accused of starting a fire in his school’s lab. He kept saying he is innocent but isn’t everyone here saying that? Somehow, I believed the kid. He did look like a troublemaker, but he didn’t strike me as someone who would risk people’s lives for a bit of fun. Whatever fun was for him.

I’ve made a small connection with this kid, he also had a girl on the outside. After leaving her behind, he tried to escape but got caught, she had no idea he was locked up, he promised to come back for her. Ironically enough, they also met on Lovelink.

‘Huh?’ I looked at him confused, he wasn’t in the cell before I sat down.

‘I asked if this is your girlfriend?’

Is she? What is she for me apart from the first girl I ever loved?

‘Kind of…’ I said still holding the photos

‘Jason is talking about her around. He is such an asshole, everyone knows now she came to visit you… but lucky you. You will be out soon. Is it true what they are saying? ’

‘What they are saying?’ I asked, already getting annoyed. I knew exactly what Jason was saying about Maya, he made sure I can hear it each time.  I swear if not for her I would finish him the first chance I have.

‘That she saved your ass from the death row’ He said a little bit unsure if he should

‘Well, they already saying it so is no point for me to lie, I will be out of here in few days anyway… Yes, she did, she proved my innocence and saved my ass. But she did a lot more than that. Unfortunately for you, this is only for me and her to know.’

‘That’s sick, mate! I won’t ask for more, that’s none of my business… only one …What’s her name?’ He asked, looking at the photos I’ve been holding.

‘Maya’ I said with a slight hesitation sliding the photos back into the envelope and putting it under my pillow. Connection or not I can’t trust him, he’s been here only a week.

‘You know I never thought that women can have such power over us men. It takes only one pretty little person to change our way of seeing things. I’ve never imagined myself wanting to pump the breaks after meeting her. Crazy huh? This whole situation showed me that it is ok to have some fun, but it is time to grow up’ He laughed laying in bed, looking at the ceiling.

‘Better late than never’ I whispered and approached the bars and waved to the warden. Luckily Jason was walking on the other side of the corridor, so I didn’t have to see his ugly face.

‘It’s my time’ I pointed at the clock. We had times scheduled when we can leave our cells, and my time was already running ‘ I need to use the phone.’

A young warden – clearly new, unlocked the cell and let me out. ‘I don’t know if you will manage to get to the phones today, but you can try.’

I looked around the hall when walking to the phones. Most of those guys were kids, barley eighteen, probably first time seeing jail. That reminded me of my early days in prison, I wasn’t much older than them. They have so much to learn if they want to survive here, but lucky for me all this soon will be in the past.

When I was getting closer to one of the free phones, one of the new ones got up and started to walk fast towards it. I looked at him, he was tall but skinny, clearly exhausted. He looked like he didn’t have a good start here, he knew I could beat the shit out of him without breaking a sweat, so he decided to back off. I got to the phone and looked at him again.

‘ I will wave you once I’m done, you can use it then’ I said, he nodded and sat down by the table.  I might look big and scary, but I’m not a monster.

I dialled Maya’s number, hoping she will answer. It was in the middle of the afternoon, she was probably working, but I had to talk to her, I missed her too much.

‘Hello handsome’ I heard her sweet voice

‘Hello, beautiful’ I smiled ‘ I hope I’m not disturbing, it’s a middle of your working day after all.’

‘ You are never disturbing me, it’s not a very busy day anyway. I will be getting ready to go to our office party soon.’

‘Office party? Sounds boring ‘ I laughed

‘ You are right. It’s not really a party. It’s five years of the company kind of party, boring speeches and mostly boring people’ She laughed ‘ But I have to go, Greg has some surprise for me. I have no idea what it is.’

‘Maybe a nice pay rise, I’m sure you are working really hard.’

‘Oh no, definitely not. I am already getting way more than an average accountant. I will find out when I get there I guess… And how are you? ‘

‘I’m good, a lot better after receiving your photos.’

‘ You like it? I picked the best I had.’

‘Very… you are so beautiful and just wanted to say that I also can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to miss you anymore.’

‘Cheesy!’ She laughed ‘ Soon… now is just downhill. Your lawyer said probably next week, so you better start packing your sexy ass, because I already made a space for you in the house.’ I could hear how happy she was, and somehow that made me even happier.

‘You didn’t have to, I only need space in your bed, I don’t think we are going to leave it for some time, so the rest can wait.’

‘Well honey, challenge accepted, my bed is very comfortable and has more than enough space for two naked bodies’ Her voice has soft and sexy

‘That’s all we need’ I said, but at this point, I couldn’t think about anything else, just me and her. But that wasn’t the typical feeling, it was only her I wanted, nobody else just her. I craved her like never craved any woman, I never saw her naked, never touched that way, but the feeling of having her drove me crazy. Just the thought of it made me lose control of myself. What the hell is she doing with me?!

‘Austin? Are you there? Are you OK?’ Shit, did I go quiet?

‘Yes, I’m here, baby. I just got lost in thoughts for a second. I just can’t wait to be close to you again.’

‘Soon… just remember to let me know when is your big day. I want to be there to take you home.’

‘I will definitely let you know. Listen, baby, I need to go. The phones are very busy today. And there is this kid here, I think he is having a hard time. I’m sure he would want to talk to someone familiar. I will be out soon, and he might be here for some time’ I said looking at the kid, some other guys were circling around him like

‘Look at you getting all soft’ she said

‘It’s all you, you showed me that helping others is important. You helped me why I can’t do the same for someone else? ‘

‘I love this part of you, you know?

‘And I love you.’

‘Love you too. Go, and start getting ready. You need to be in your top form when you get here’  Damit, again that sexy voice! ‘Bye, handsome’ She hangs up before I even got my thoughts together

I waved to the kid sitting by the table, he approached me.

‘Thank you, I’ve been waiting for two days to call my dad.’ He said

‘What’s your name, kid?

‘Taylor’ He said evidently scared

‘Listen, Taylor. I will be in the library. I can give you few tips how to make your time in here easier, you can come and find me there in about half an hour… and now go and call your dad’ I said patting him on the shoulder.

A few hours later, after talking to Taylor, I was sitting in my cell reading some boring book, that I managed to sneak from the library. Skylar was quiet, he looked worried.

‘What’s bothering you?’ I asked tossing the book aside

He shuffled in his bed but kept looking at the ceiling.

‘You know… my whole life I’ve been doing a lot of crazy shit. Adrenaline was my second name, running away from cops all the time, and never getting caught. I didn’t care at the time, but as soon as I wanted to chill, stop this and focus on something that might be more important, I  got caught  and put in here for something I actually didn’t do.’

‘When did you realise it? That you need to pump the breaks?’ I felt like he needed to get it off his chest.

‘After the date. I broke into the chief police officer’s house and invited her over, she had no idea. I wanted to impress her, plus a bit off adrenaline … but he came back home, we had to run, I thought she was behind me, but she wasn’t. I felt horrible for leaving her there, so I went back, but she wasn’t there anymore. She was fuming after that,  I thought that she won’t speak to me again, and that made me think, what if I am taking things a little bit too far? Is OK if I’m putting myself at risk, but someone else is an entirely different story. She kind of brought me back to earth. I really like her and …, and I hope she will wait for me.

‘No the best choice for a date, I  have to admit, but you’ve learned something from it, that’s the most important’ I said looking at Jason standing by our cell. What the fuck does he want now?

‘Quinn, you are out! Pack your ass and kiss the princess goodbye.’ Jason said, opening the cell.

He started to pick up his stuff, he turned to me.

‘That was quick, I just spoke with my lawyer a couple of hours ago.’

‘Well, you are free now, make sure you take that girl of yours on a proper date’ I laughed

‘I definitely will, we should keep in touch after you are out of here.’ He said, pointing at my pillow  ‘Take care, mate. Thanks for everything. And good luck with Maya.’ He held his hand towards me.

‘Take care of yourself, Skylar’ I shook his hand and patted him on the arm.

‘Ok, hurry up, kid!’ Jason called him, Skyler walked off. That’s was it, now it was just me left still waiting.

I reached under my pillow, where I left the envelope with Maya’s photos. Next to it was a note with his phone number and email address, I’ve put the message into the envelope hoping that there won’t be any inspections before I’m out.

I spent the next few days with Taylor, giving him some tips on how to survive in this place. At least nobody messed with him when I was around.

He was put in jail for five months for stealing money, his father was sick, and they didn’t have money for his treatment. Taylor was only eighteen and terrified, older inmates were taking advantage of his weakness, he wasn’t strong enough to fight back, which made him an easy target. And having Jason walking around and only looking for trouble didn’t make it any easier. He already picked Taylor as his next target.

I told him to hang around in the library, keep a low profile and stay away from other guys problems.

I asked myself many times, how this was possible?  For the last seven years, I never helped any of the other inmates. Always kept away from others and their problems. What changed now? First, Skylar, I would never open up to a new guy after a week. Then Taylor, what came into my mind to help this kid? Why I felt sorry for him? And why it feels so good doing this?

And the answer to all those questions was always one; Maya.

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

After the phone call with Austin, I started to get ready for the party. No matter how boring, I was happy to finally see all those faces again. I didn’t see my colleagues for weeks.

Shaun found a house and moved out a couple of days earlier. Things with Angel were going well for him, so he decided to find a place for himself, but I knew that he wanted to give me and Austin some space, he knew we will need it.

I checked myself in the mirror one last time, changed my shoes and walked to my taxi.

I walked into the office, full of familiar faces in full party mode.

‘Maya! Long time no see, girl ‘ I heard Sara coming towards me with the drink in her hand.’ Look at you, stunning as always’ She gives me a hug

‘ Hi Sara, long time indeed’ I smiled and hugged her back – she was the most two-faced and hateful person in the office. Her being nice meant serious business, I knew that I have to avoid her tonight at all cost. But I saw Greg coming to rescue me from the viper.

‘ Sorry, but I need to steal Maya for a few minutes’ He said, grabbed my hand and led towards his office ‘ I need to talk to you before everyone gets drunk here.’                    

We walked to  his office, he pointed me to sit down. He poured some of my favourite wine and passed me the glass.

‘I’m happy you came today, I know it is not easy for you because of Gemma’ he said, taking a seat on the other side of his desk.

‘ I’m okay with Gemma, we just don’t speak that’s all. She will come around eventually. I was actually thinking about coming back to the office in a few weeks’ I said, looking around. Something was different, I saw a familiar touch to it. Who else if not Gemma would put two diffusers right next to each other.

‘I brought you here because I have an offer for you. You know that our company is growing, we are opening new departments soon. We hired new people in the financial sector, but the team is growing. I need someone on my level, who will take over the Finance part of the business. You are my best accountant, you know our finances inside and out. I can’t see anyone else in that role. We are opening a position for you as Finance Director if you accept of course ‘ He said taking a sip of wine – he knew I wanted this more than anything. That was the most significant step in my career, ever. I worked my ass to get where I was then. He knew I won’t refuse it.

‘Oh my god, Greg … I don’t know what to say, thank you’  I smiled with excitement.

‘ I will take it as, yes.’

‘And who is going to take over my job? Is a lot work for a junior position’ I asked, but I kind of knew the answer already.

‘Gemma, she just finished a few main trainings, and she is capable of doing most of the main work. Plus she will have a junior assistant. I need you to focus on a bigger picture. If not you and your hard work we won’t be celebrating five years right now. You are the only person I can trust with this.’

‘Greg, this is really an honour I am speechless… and are you and Gemma still together?’ I said looking at the plant on his desk- he hated plants, he always called ‘a woman thing’.

‘Yes, she has grown on, I was wrong by judging her, she didn’t use me. It was all me, in my head. She always struck me as someone like that, but she proved me wrong, and I am glad. She deserves the promotion. I have fallen for her silliness and positivity, we will see where this will go. So far, it is going well.’ He said with a gentle smile on his face, he seemed happy, finally.  Gemma, smartass. Always gets what she wants.

‘ I am happy for you two.’

‘Now... I know we have a party, but that’s not all. I’ve spoken to Shaun about you, and I made a decision. Your job starts in the next three or four weeks, but I need Gemma to get up to speed before you start. So, in the next few days, I need you to pass all your work to her and take a break—at least three weeks. I need you to relax, focus on your man and yourself and come back to the office refreshed and happy. You need this Maya, and I won’t take a no as an answer.’

‘ Well, if you say so, I won’t object’ I laughed

‘Cheers to our new F.D’ he smiled and clicked my glass

I was so happy, this was the best day of my career. I worked so hard for it.

After Greg’s speech, I went to get myself another drink and some snacks, I approached the minibar and started digging in. But all those healthy snacks just put me off, suddenly I sentenced a familiar smell of cherry blossom and jasmine.

‘Hi Gemma’ I said without turning around just yet, I knew she was standing right behind me.

‘Maya, can we talk?’ I heard her sweet voice, and something in me snapped. Suddenly the feeling of missing her hit me again, I turned around and saw her standing in from of me. My girl, I missed her so much.

‘Yes’ I said and nodded her towards the empty offices, she grabbed herself a drink and walked with me. I closed the door and sat on the desk, crossing my legs.

‘I wanted to talk to you because I want to apologise. It was wrong for me to say all those things. I was wrong in doubting you, not the first time, but as always you showed me how wrong I was. I feel horrible, you needed me all this time, and I just walked off. Like a coward, I miss you, girl.’ She said, looking at the floor. Her eyes filled with tears.’ I know that it was you voting for me in the recognition, I know that you told Greg to give me a chance. Even after everything I said. I wouldn’t be here building my career without your help. I feel like I was so ungrateful all this time, for everything you did for me… I don’t deserve a friend like you’ She cried.

I jumped off the desk and hugged her.

‘Stop it you silly thing… You know I am not mad, I thought you needed time, that’s why I didn’t call you. Don’t ever say that you don’t deserve to be my friend. You are my friend, my sister, and no matter what, no matter how big the fight I will always look after you. I love you, boo.’

‘I will understand if we can’t come back to how was before, but if you could ever forgive me for all I’ve said…’

‘Gemma’ I cupped her face and looked in her eyes ‘ There is nothing to forgive, you had the right to be afraid, I could’ve very easily fallen into the same trap as with Luke. It was hard for you as well being there with me and supporting me. The whole situation with Austin was a big unknown, for me as well. I should’ve thought about your feelings as well, and I am sorry for that, I was blinded, and I didn’t know how this could look like from your perspective. I acted selfishly, not just with you but with everyone else. And I am truly sorry for that’  I wiped her smudged make-up with my sleave.

‘I love you, girl. I missed you so much.’

‘ Do you want to come to my place now? We can talk, without worrying about looking like a mess? Plus this party is fucking boring me to death. I need some good drink, and some normal snacks not this falafel shit.’ I laughed

‘Yeah, let’s have some proper party’ She giggled

Five minutes later we sneaked to the taxi and went back to my house. I was so happy to have my girl back. I knew that she needed time, we had issues like this before, and only time could fix it. I knew in a few days everything will come back to normality, the only thing we both needed was a drinking bonding time.

We changed to PJ’s sat on the sofa with a bottle of scotch, crisps, and party music and started to talk about everything that happened in the last six weeks. She asked about Austin, and  I told her everything.

‘ So he will be out soon?’ She asked

‘Yes, hopefully, next week. I can’t wait to see him again, you have no idea. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I want to be here for him, he deserves it.’

‘I am so happy, it worked for you, somewhere deep inside I knew this must have a happy ending but I was to too scared to admit it. Somehow I only saw everything that happened with Luke, and that terrified me. But again, you showed me how wrong I can be.’

‘Everything worked out well in the end.’ I smiled

‘ So is he as hot as on the photos?’ She asked with this mischievous look

‘Girl! Hot is an understatement, well I didn’t see everything, but if someone can make the orange pants look so sexy, must be the god himself under them. And woman! Those eyes! I never saw in my life, such as deep blue eyes. So mysterious, intriguing and dangerous, but with that softness and kindness deep inside. So fucking sexy.’

‘Wow, I can sense fanny flutters here. I need details… you know that. You have a week, and then I need a full report on my desk’ She laughed, taking a sip of the whiskey from the bottle.

‘Hang on a minute, I just realized … I am your boss now.’

‘Shut up! Not yet! In four weeks, so I still have the rights to make demands, before you get your fancy office… This calls for a toast, for our sexy boys and our promotions ’ She raised the bottle and passed it to me.

‘For our hot males! And the new offices! And getting back together! ’ I laughed

We’ve been giggling, crying, drinking and dancing all night, just like before. I was so happy to have my girl back. Maybe this whole fight was needed for both of us to understand how much we need each other? We weren’t just friend, after all, we were sisters.

We woke up on the floor with a massive hangover, but happy.

We spent a whole day together, recovering from the night before.

[thisisawesomeness1825]

oops, i (fake) love you, ch.13

Annabeth

A few days after the double date blow up incident, Piper approaches Annabeth.

The blonde’s kind of shocked, to be honest. She’s fully prepared to see them waiting to pounce on her, and demand she let go of Percy. After all, the date had been nothing but a disaster. But alas, here is Percy’s friend, looking meek and remorseful, and all Annabeth can think is why.

“Um, hey,” Piper begins awkwardly, once she stops in the space besides Annabeth’s locker. She continues fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

“Hey,” Annabeth says, just as awkward. “Anything I can help you with?”

“So, listen. Ah, I know we got on the wrong feet last week and that we acted really mean towards you. Especially at the diner, all those questions and rude remarks were really uncalled for. But you’d have to understand that we were just trying to protect Percy as our friend, and it just so happens that you’re the—the focus of his attention.

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, um, I’m sorry, we’re sorry for everything. We totally could’ve been better in handling the situation. And we’d just have to accept your relationship, even though it’s, um—I don’t know—uh, weird,” Piper finishes, and she looks at her in the eyes.

Annabeth doesn’t know what to say, everything is a little overwhelming, so she blurts out the first thought in her mind. “If you don’t mind me asking, why do you think we’re weird?”

A frown makes its way onto the brunette’s face. “Out of everything I said, that’s what you picked up on?”

“I heard the rest, don’t worry, but why? Why are we weird?”

“Uh, duh." Piper rolls her eyes like it's the most obvious thing she has ever heard. "You two are like polar opposites of each other. And you were enemies for so long, it’s kind of hard to imagine you two both being couple-y and stuff. I mean- I don’t know, I find it hard to think that you probably use fighting to turn each other on.”

First of all, ew. Annabeth scrunches her nose at the thought. “Yeah, no.”

“But other than that, I accept the apology. I’d understand where you’re coming from. I’d also be wary of myself, if I were in your shoes.”

Piper raises her eyebrows. "Sure."

"I know I'm not exactly the bubbliest person--" 

"That's an understatement."

"Yeah, whatever. But truth is, I mean no harm to Percy or to your group. We just want to be together without causing harm to others. And I just want to say sorry if you felt otherwise."

"Yeah, I understand." Piper beams at her. “Great. Friends?”

She smiles back. “Sure.”

“See you at lunch later! Sit at our table so we can bond better!” Piper hollers as she walks towards her next class.

Despite the relationship being fake, Annabeth’s glad something genuine will come out of it.

...

Lunch arrives and Annabeth is a bit hesitant to move at Percy and his friends' table. She's honestly unsure how they are going to treat her, especially with all the tension she experienced before. But Piper kind of expected her to, and it would be quite weird if she can't even sit with her own (fake) boyfriend.

So she shakes her nerves and walks towards the direction of their table. 

She first spots Percy, whose hands are flailing as he explains or argues something with Grover and Jason. Her gaze then lands on Piper. When their eyes meet, Piper immediately perks up and waves her hands around. 

"Annabeth! Come sit here!" 

Now that she's seen, she can no longer make an excuse not to sit with them. She cautiously approaches them and sits herself beside Percy. 

"Hey," he greets. She playfully pinches him and returns the greeting.

She turns back to watch the table warily, and strangely enough, they aren't watching them like hawks do at their prey. Jason even manages a slight smile.

Percy whispers slowly at her. "Don't worry. Piper already told us that you'd be sitting with us today."

"Yeah?"

"Yep. So stop sitting so still, you look like a statue."

She can't help the scowl forming on her face. "You do know how to get on my nerves."

Then, when nobody's looking, she whispers to him. "Prick Jackson."

Percy laughs (the audacity!) and pinches her cheek in mocked fondness and in an annoying voice, "You're so cute!"

At that comment, all of his friends' gazes turn to them. Grover and Jason look like they're trying hard not to laugh; Rachel even smiles, and Piper just grins.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day you two are together, but I have to admit, this is too cute!" Piper says, genuinely.

"Cute like 'you make me want to play my reed pipes' cute," Grover says. 

Jason scrunches his nose. "That is so weird dude."

 "I don't know. It's like, Grover's dirty talk," Rachel comments.

Piper agrees. "It's like a kinky line from a 60s films. Imagine this: You go into a bar and say something like," she changes her pitch to sound deep like a man, "hey, you make me wanna play my reed pipes."

"Yep, that is so weird," Percy chimes in and laughs. The rest of the table laughs too, and Annabeth finds herself holding back a smile.

…

Percy

"Remind me again why this is necessary?" Percy grumbles as he slouches on her passenger seat. 

Annabeth just hums and swats his feet off her dashboard. "Get your ugly feet off my car!"

He snorts. "That would mean me leaving this car and walking back home, which is very tempting."

She doesn't even deign him a response, but a sharp glare from her prompts him to keep his very beautiful feet back to her carpet. 

He huffs, "Fine. Just so you know, I hate this."

"I know. You've told me about 50 times already."

"And I'm telling you again, just in case you finally acknowledge my feelings."

"No."

"You're evil, you know. Pure, puppy-kicking, steal the last pizza evil. The worst of your kind."

She says nothing, and continues humming to the song on the stereo, like she's mocking him. Percy isn't even surprised, to be honest.

"I don't even understand this! I know you hate shopping."

"Yep."

"So, why? Why are we subjecting ourselves to torture?"

"You do know you're kind of hopeless, right?"

"That's not a proper reason."

"Minus 10 points."

"What? This is graded?" he asks incredulously. 

"Everything you do is," Annabeth says. She makes a very tiny space with her thumb and index finger. "This is how close you are to getting a D."

"No, shit."

"Yes, shit."

They stop at a red light. He stares at her, and she stares right back, unyielding. They refuse to break the challenge up until the traffic light changes to green and cars behind them start honking angrily. 

He breaks the stare with a pout. "Fine. You win this round."

"Told you sooo," she says teasingly.

"You're the worst kind of annoying," he quips, just so he can have the last word.

As they are passing through the traffic, Percy's gaze snagged on a picture of the Golden Gate bridge on a store's front glass. 

"Golden Gate looks so red. And it's not even red."

"It's officially called international orange," Annabeth comments. "It's around 1.7 miles long and 90 feet wide. And did you know that a safety net under the bridge during its construction saved the lives of 19 men? These survivors were officially called members of the 'Half-Way to Hell Club'. Also, an earthquake struck it before it could even be completed. Aaand I think I'm gonna stop now. Did I say too much? 'Cause I feel like I said too much."

Percy just looks at her, amazed. "It's- you're okay. How do you even know all of that stuff?"

Her ears burn red and she refuses to look at him. "Oh, you know, it's just a thing I picked up from living in Cali."

"No, don't even downplay that. You're amazing."

"Not really."

"Yes you are! I'm guessing you just won't happen to know about how tall Empire State is?"

Annabeth not so subtly rolls her eyes at him, but she smiles nonetheless. "Don't even get me started on that. But just in case you're wondering, Empire State Building is about--"

…

About half an hour of listening to Annabeth talk about facts about Empire State Building to the wonderful beams and arches of some classic 'architectural masterpiece' (he forgot the name, he's not really into history anyway), they finally end up at some mall.

He holds back a sigh. "We're really doing this?"

"It's not like I have much of a choice. C'mon, quit babying around. It's not like going inside will kill you or anything."

It does, in fact, kill him. 

Not to be overdramatic or anything, but how can he expect to come out alive when he's being hounded by the salespersons every way he turns?

Annabeth's not doing well either, but she manages to fend them off with a well-placed glare. Percy briefly wonders if she can command an army with just her gaze. It doesn't seem far from the truth.

They pass by a small boutique after picking up some clothes Annabeth deemed decent enough for him. And honestly, she's probably right. He never really paid much attention to his clothes; he just tends to pick whatever seems clean enough from the closet (or the floor, if he forgets to do his laundry). But seeing himself in the mirror after Annabeth throws him a shirt that, in her words, "brings out the color in your eyes", he has to admit that she probably has some kind of magic.

Once they enter the store, Annabeth immediately goes for the dress shirts and hands him a navy blue one. After changing, he opens the door to be appraised at.

"So, what do you think?"

Annabeth's gaze peruses his body, and something close to impressed settles in her expression. "You do clean up nicely, after all."

"That's the nicest thing you've said to me," he comments with a laugh.

"Yes. And probably the last one too," she replies dryly, while inspecting the fit of the shirt on his body. 

"I'm beginning to think you're using this as an excuse to touch me, Chase."

"In your dreams."

"Ha. Like I would consciously dream about you."

One side of her mouth quirks up. "So does that mean you subconsciously dream about me?"

"I don't know. I prefer to call them nightmares. Y’know, like those things that haunt you at night."

She pinches his side. "Ass," she says, but there's a smile threatening to grow on her face.

She turns to the sales lady, "We'll take this."

By then, his gaze has already wandered to the pale yellow sundress hanging off the clothes rack. He picks it up and taps the blonde.

"Hey, why don't you try this one?" He then gestures to the dress he's holding. 

Annabeth frowns. "We're here to shop for you. Not me."

“Doesn’t mean you can’t try something for yourself.”

She throws him a look.

"Fine. I just thought that this will look great on you. It can’t hurt to try." 

She fingers the hem of the dress. "I don't know.."

The sales lady smiles at them. "You should probably listen to your boyfriend. I think the color compliments your tan."

Percy has half a mind to deny the statement, before remembering that they are in fact, must appear to be dating for real. So he settles with an "I told you so" and a smug look directed at Annabeth.

The said girl just rolls her eyes, mutters "fine", and takes the dress from him. She quickly disappears into one of the dressing rooms.

"Little fight?" the lady asks.

He laughs. "Oh no. She's just being difficult. Don't worry, I'm used to it."

"You kind of look like you are."

"That's because I've known her for almost half of my life."

"Really? Must have been a puppy love then?"

Percy doesn't know what to say so he just agrees with her. "You could say that."

"That's cute. Hope you're both still together until marriage."

He blushes to the tips of his ears because if this lady only knew the truth about their arrangement, she wouldn't be saying that. 

Thankfully, he's saved from making a response when Annabeth comes out of the stall.

True enough, the dress fits her like a second skin. Her tan seems to glow with the color. The hem of the dress ended just a few inches above her knees, making her long legs stand out. And yes, they were long enough to keep his gaze trailed down her legs before realizing that he's staring. At the enemy no less, who happens to have really great legs.

Red tints his cheeks. Damn it. He might just have discovered a weakness.

"Well?" Annabeth asks. 

He wishes they could've stopped at that food stall earlier to buy bottled water. His throat feels parched. "Erm...nice."

"Nice?" She repeats.

"Nice. You look nice."

"That's a lie. You look gorgeous, dear," the sales lady comments.

"That's what I meant… in less eloquent words," he whispers under his breath. 

The blonde hears him. "I'm surprised you can say eloquent," she teases, but nonetheless she looks happy with the words.

Rolling his eyes at her, he tells the woman, "We'll take this too."

Annabeth frowns. "I'll pay."

"Nope, it's on me."

"I can and I will."

"No, seriously, I'll take this. You can pay for dinner later."

She looks like she still wants to argue but settles for it at the end. "Fine. But I'm choosing the place."

"As you wish."

Once Annabeth has changed back into her jeans and they begin heading towards the cashier to pay for the clothes, Percy catches the sales lady winking and gives him a thumbs up. 

He’s so mortified he almost misses the shy smile on Annabeth’s face as she turns away from him. 

Almost. But not quite. 

He shares the smile.

…

Ahhh apologies for the late update! To be honest, I have not started any draft re: chapter 13 two (or three) weeks ago, until I received an email notif that someone left a comment on this story. So yeah, I decided to read it again and fell in love with the story once more, and I am back hahaha. Updates may be sporadic cos even in this quarantine I am working at home (woes of public accounting) and sometimes i feel not motivated enough/inspired enough to write a chapter that i’ll love.

But yeah, i think i like this one (cos percabeth are being cute), and hopefully, I’ll have some free time to write the next chapter soon.

That’s it! Hope you like this one and leave your thoughts down below! Thanks!!

P.s. hopefully this didn’t sound like i’m writing you a business email or whatever. lol

[absolutelynochillonlydeath]

Garden Wraith

1. Aftershocks:

Over the wall and back again.

The soft flame of a lantern flickered and was blown out, now lying among the dead leaves and snow.

Walking deeper into the mist and snowflakes, they felt the cold surround them and the fog filling their heads cleared, water filling their lungs.

They shivered and shook, hacking out the water in their lungs as they desperately clawed their way up the muddy bank before collapsing, the darkness of exhaustion dragging them back down just as they caught a glimpse of their rescuers. It had taken every bit of energy he had to get them out of that lake, the cold seeping all the way down to his bones and to his soul, tugging it back to the place they had just escaped from. The smell of the lake and mud and an almost indescribable smell of what would only be described of as the dark clung to them as they were rushed to the hospital, but not as hard as he had clung to the tiny body in his arms.

Paramedics later told him how he hadn’t let go of his brother even when he had fallen unconscious and how brave he was to have not let his brother go through all of that. He didn’t feel like he deserved the praise and told them as much, but the adoring eyes from said younger brother soon stopped him. In the eyes of that child, even after all they had gone through, he was still the older brother that he admired deeply and that had gotten them out.

After being settled into their hospital beds, fussing nurses and serious doctors now out of the way, the boys experienced their mother’s hugs for the first time in what felt like a long time. And in a way, it was. They sunk into her warm embrace and the comfort she provided, feeling her love for them and both cried in her arms. The images and impressions from their experiences were still too fresh and the terror was still all too real for them. This lasted until they felt they could cry no more from relief and everyone was ushered out of the room for the night, the doctors keeping there for further monitoring, but they would be released in the morning. With that reassurance, their mother promised that she would return bright and early for them and they agreed, smiling at her softly.

Once alone in the hospital, the brothers turned to each other, tears in their eyes as they whispered about what they had gone through. They wanted to reassure themselves and each other so as not to think that had simply made it all up. The Unknown. The Beast. Beatrice. The Edelwood. Cloud City. Wirt almost dying. Greg’s deal. Greg almost dying. The escape. The lantern. The smaller boy held his frog close to him in a desperate bid for comfort.

“Wirt?” the younger asked.

“Yes, Greg?” the elder answered, trying to keep his voice from trembling, but was still hoarse from the previous tears.

“Is he gonna come back for us?” he asked quietly, his tiny body almost visibly trembling. The elder swallowed down the true terror he felt, his mind flashing back to the brilliantly shining arms that beckoned in the dark. But he shook his head to dislodge the image. They had vanquished that darkness. They had broken free and walked towards the light that was life. When they had awoken, Wirt’s first assumption was that he had had some sort of crazy fever dream while they had been drowning. It was a reasonable assumption considering all they went thought, but that illusion was shattered when he heard the sound of Lorna’s bell ringing inside of Jason Funderburker’s stomach. Not only that, but Greg was also spouting off the more lighthearted parts of their adventures rather than the darker parts that stuck vividly in Wirt’s own mind. Luckily, his parents wrote that off as just the overactive imagination of a child that just went through trauma, smiling and nodding to indulge the seven-year-old. Wirt wouldn’t know how to explain to their parents that their kids had been stuck in the quasi equivalent of Purgatory and had almost not made it back without being taken to a psychiatrist and possibly committed. Taking a breath, he blinked away the thoughts and shook his head.

“No, Greg. He’s gone and we’ll never see him again. We beat the Beast.” He reassured the younger and Greg let out a small, broken sob, sending a jolt of pain and shock through Wirt’s chest.

“I was so scared, Wirt. I…I thought…” he hiccupped and Wirt sat up immediately, concern creasing his brow. He had never seen his little brother like this. Sure, he had cried, he was only seven after all, but to see him sobbing in fear or pain or sadness wasn’t something he did. He was happy and carefree and everything that Wirt himself wasn’t. Maybe that was why he hated him for so long? He hated that Greg was so confident and friendly and people instantly warmed up to this sunshine child and his parents loved him unconditionally. And now, after everything that had happened, Wirt understood that too and lamented at how much of a horrible person he had been to his brother. How could it be that it was only as he was about to lose him that he realized how much Greg meant to him? He was lucky, incredibly lucky, that he learned this lesson before it was too late, and he vowed that he would never take advantage of that again.

With a slight huff from the ache in his bones, he untangled himself from the hospital sheets and padded over to the other bed, moving the frog to the other end of the mattress before sliding in and holding his brother tightly, rubbing his back in comfort.

“I know, Greg. I know. You were so brave to face him down like that and I’m so sorry I made you do that. I should have been better at leading the way out. I shouldn’t have lost hope and given up and I’m so sorry I failed you.” He whispered and hugged him softly, feeling his own tears threaten to spill over.

“What? Wirt, no! You made me the leader! It was my job to get you and Jason Funderburker out of there!” Greg cried quietly, nuzzling into his elder brother’s chest.

“No! None of this was your fault! You were a great leader! But I should have been good leader too. I was a bad one and got you hurt and I’m so sorry!” Wirt apologized, hugging the little body next to him. The image of Greg’s form slowly being trapped in the Edelwood made him tremble and he had to reassure himself with the feeling of the boy’s heartbeats beating beneath his fingertips.

“We’re out now and I promise that I’ll protect you. You’ll never have to see the Beast again. Not if I can help it.” Wirt whispered, taking comfort in the fact that Greg was calming down now, his trembling stopping and his sobs turning into small sniffles.

“Y-you promise?” Greg asked softly, eyes staring up at him. Wirt sighed softly and grabbed a forgotten object from the desk next to him, putting a small smile on his face.

“It’s a rock fact!” he whispered softly, playfully moving around the rock with a painted-on face. Luckily, that made the boy let out a small giggle and it filled Wirt with relief. There. A smile suited the child’s face much better than tears. And if it were up to Wirt, he would never have to see Greg cry about that again. From then on, he would be the best brother he could be and they would never have to experience something like the Unknown again

With their hearts settled and with the comfort the other brought them within reach, they fell themselves slip quickly into the arms of sleep, relief that it was all over now.

Sadly, that couldn’t be farther than the truth.

*

Over the next month, Wirt and Greg discovered that while they had left the Unknown, the Unknown hadn’t left them. At least, not completely. It had left them with a few souvenirs for their troubles that neither of them expected. On the whole, the remnants of it wasn’t all bad. For some reason, neither of them could be turned around as long as they were outside. They had discovered this when they had gone on a trip to their nearby park. Normally, they would have to keep a close eye on Greg who had a tendency to wander off and get lost, but he always came right back and when he didn’t and his mother panicked, Wirt always knew where to find him. It was like the forest itself was bending to his whim and sent a resonance into his soul as to where all things were within the forest. Greg described it as knowing where everything was in a dollhouse. It sent a tremor through the elder boy, but he resolutely pushed the fear back, excusing the occurrence as that he and Greg were just better at navigating through the forest now since they had spent so much time in it before. He had even joked with the younger boy as to how he had become an expert at Greg tracking and his brother laughed. It was a good reason and that was what he stuck with, trying to assure himself and Greg that there was nothing wrong and smiling a bit as Greg thought of how cool it was. It was a relief to know that they would never be lost in the woods again and Wirt tried to take comfort in that.

Another oddity that they boys noticed was that they now attracted animals to themselves, though the most common occurrences were the neighborhood and woodland animals. Frogs absolutely adored Greg and Jason Funderburker and it was amazing to see the amount of frogs that were on the lawn even when they really should be hibernating. The same couldn’t be said for Wirt. He seemed to attract birds. The most common, much to his embarrassment, was bluebirds, though more than that popped up including a few owls. Greg commented excitedly that maybe he was being invited to a wizarding school, to which Wirt rolled his eyes and tried to shoo them away. Stubborn bluebirds always ended up staying, though. Maybe Beatrice matched what she was after all? A few of them even reminded him of her when he attempted to shoo them away and they cast an unimpressed look his way, refusing to leave. Either way, these were things that Wirt could handle. It was harmless and altogether inconsequential to their daily lives. This was fine. It was even something fun to show off on occasion.

But then the dreams began, and Wirt felt his heart clench in terror.

As December rolled in and the holidays began, he closed his eyes in the comfort of his home, glad for the short reprieve and the time to spend doing nothing and fell asleep. School had been stressful as usual, but he was getting better at the whole “friends” thing. The Unknown, if nothing else, definitely taught him a few things about not being a pushover and talking to people better, including Sara and her group of friends. Or, well, they were his friends now too. After Halloween and after he was cleared from the hospital, she and him had talked about the tape he left her and about his feeling towards her. Sadly, she didn’t really see him that way, though she appreciated the tape, and asked if they could still be friends. It was a bit of a blow to Wirt’s pride, but he agreed. She was still nice and funny and sweet and made him feel comfortable about his interests. In turn, she introduced him to her friends and they all hung out now and got along with Greg as well. It certainly did wonders for his self-confidence and it was a bonus that none of them made fun of his poetry and even encouraged him to enter writing competitions and to try out for band of which a few of them were a part of. It was…nice, to have people he could trust and relate to. He even ended up talking to Jason Funderberker. The human, not the frog. He still found himself bristling around the boy occasionally, but the boy was harmless, albeit good at a lot of things and fit in well with their friend group. His life was going well and both he and Greg seemed happier for it, settling back into their normal lives even as the falling snow settled around them and reminded them of their escape from the dark forest.

However, as sleep released its hold on him and he opened his eyes again, he found that he had woken up in a familiar dismal forest, though it looked different than when he and Greg had left. The change didn’t help though and sent him into a spiral of panic as he begged for this all to be a dream, pinching himself repeatedly to try and wake himself up from this nightmare. It didn’t work and only served to throw him deeper into the pit of fear with the pain punctuating the all too real reality of the situation. The world blurred black around the edges of his vision and the colder wind fluttered through his clothes. Shaking from both the fear and cold, he saw that his clothes were his Halloween costume which vaguely struck his hazy mind as odd since that wasn’t what he was wearing when he went to bed. This shook him enough for him to be able to survey his surroundings, lungs still heaving, but when he looked around the snow-covered ground, a flickering light caught his eye.

There, sitting innocently in the mouth of the yawning, twisted hollow of an Edelwood tree, was a lantern. It flickered warmly within the vessel, almost taunting the teen.

There must always be a Beast in the Unknown.

A whisper. A fact. A promise. It flickered through his mind and that was it. Wirt felt the world tilt and the black overtook his vision. He woke up screaming for the first time since he and his brother returned, heart thundering and mind whirling. His breathing erratic and his vision dark, he breathed out slowly and saw his breath coming out in a cloud of ice. The room was almost frosted at first glance but disappeared when light was cast into the room.

“Wirt? Are you okay?” a small voice suddenly came from his door and he jerked his head to the entrance where a very tired looking Greg was rubbing his eyes, his other hand wrapping around his frog. Said frog also looked tired, but Wirt could have sworn it cast a worried look his way as well.

“I… I-I… Yeah. Y-Yeah, I’m fine…” Wirt croaked, the temperature slowly going back to what was normal.

“You sure, brother o’ mine?” Greg asked quietly, concern now taking over his soft, sleepy expression.

“Yeah, Greg. Just…just a nightmare. Go back to sleep.” He murmured reassuringly, though still a little breathless, and Greg hesitated before nodding, stepping out and closing the door behind him. With that, both boys lay down in bed, minds and hearts racing at their experience. Wirt tried his best to fall back asleep, hoping that he wouldn’t dream again while Greg could only stare at the ceiling, reeling and trying not to give in to fear. Wirt didn’t know it, but his eyes glowed in a similar way to the thing they feared the most. He wasn’t sure if his older brother knew yet and he didn’t know how to tell him if he didn’t.

*

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, an older man stared in awe and horror as something that he had seen almost every day for many, many years and caused him many a headache along with a few nightmares changed before his eyes.

A single glyph on the cave wall, copied down meticulously in his notes, so out of place and seemingly unrelated to the rest of the symbols all bunched together was shifting and changing. In the previous month, he had noticed that the symbol had begun to blur around the edges. At first, he had thought that either he or his family had accidentally smudged it a bit. It wouldn’t be a surprise considering how old his notes were and how many of said family had handled the book, so he disregarded it and shelved his book again. But that wasn’t the only thing that had changed. A few days later when in his lab, he happened to glance over at his forgotten corkboard of notes and theories in the corner of the room and his heart leapt into his throat. That symbol had had its own little section when he had been studying it before dismissing it when nothing came of it. Looking at it now, though, all surfaces on which the symbol had been drawn on were smeared even worse than the one in his notes. Now he knew for a fact that something was going on. His family all knew that no one should touch his notes, even his brother and the man hadn’t even glanced that then through all the years of his absence, so he knew that this wasn’t their doing. The previous symbol was almost completely indiscernible and looked like it was shifting into something else. It worried him deeply since he knew that nothing like this had ever happened before. At least, not without some sort of outside interference and that couldn’t happen in his lab. He had fortified his home with everything he had against everything her could after the almost apocalypse not too long ago, so nothing unwanted should have been able to make it down to the basement without his knowledge. Nodding, he resolved to keep an eye on the symbol and hope that it meant nothing.

By the end of the month, the symbol had completely changed and the new shape that took its place filled his stomach with a sense of unease he hadn’t felt in a long time. He learned to trust his gut feelings like this and if the symbol changing by itself didn’t already concern him, then the feeling it gave off now absolutely left a pool of ice in his chest. Gathering up his courage, he walked upstairs to tell the rest of his family about his discovery and give some kind of warning. They would need to be watchful and wary of this new development. Nothing would endanger his family ever again.

Silently, the dark shape of a lantern filled the spaces on the papers, the center almost glowing brightly in mockery of a flame.

*

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Movie Review: Frozen II (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review a couple of days after it first airs in the U.K, so if you haven’t yet seen the movie, and I strongly recommend you do, then don’t read on until you have.

LGBT Representation:

Alright so I’ll get into character analyses shortly but first of all I just want to talk about the LGBT representation in this movie, because my takeaway from it in this movie is completely different to what seems to be everyone else’s takeaway from it. LGBT representation is very important to me particularly in an all-age property so I wanted to spotlight it.

Now the main issue I see is that people are still insisting that the LGBT representation is that of Elsa being a member of the LGBT community. This is something that emerged after the first movie with Elsa being one of few “Disney Princesses” (despite the fact she is a Queen and neither she nor Anna are official members of said brand) not to have a love interest in the first movie or even this movie, outwardly.

Yes, while no one is openly depicted as an LGBT character in this movie, good old Disney, Elsa is still being shown in that LGBT light to some fans because of two or three character traits.

Firstly there’s the theory that her not feeling like she belongs in Arendelle is because she is, sorry for this, the only gay in the village and not knowing how to handle it. Secondly there’s her new outfit which she acquires at the start of the third act in the movie which is white with rainbow accents...fans believe this is a clear nod to the rainbow flag but to be fair it could just simply be to represent the Aurora Borealis aka the Northern Lights.

Thirdly, despite the first teaser trailer giving fans the completely wrong idea about Elsa’s potential love interest in this movie, who turned about to be a young version of her mother, Elsa does get close with new very minor girl Honeymaren. There is no evidence that either Honeymaren is an LGBT character but people have suggested that their cosy chats border on the flirtatious.

However, I personally do not think the LGBT representation is on Elsa or Honeymaren. I think the LGBT representation in this movie is in fact Honeymaren’s brother Ryder voiced by Jason Ritter. I swear he flirts with Kristoff at least three times in this movie for the brief time he is in it.

Of course all of this is just speculation, but the theory of Elsa, Honeymaren and/or Ryder being potential members of the LGBT community is a major plus both for Disney and for this movie.

Characters:

Elsa:

It can’t be not true that Elsa is the best character not only in this movie but also this franchise as a whole. Not only is she the first real instance of the combination between Disney Princess and Superhero, but also there is no denying the journey and the transformation Elsa goes on from care free child to fearful teenager to in-control young woman.

This character development alone is not only relatable and representative for many if not all young girls coming of age, but also she is both stylish, humble and flawed in a realistic sense...as realistic as someone with ice powers can be I mean.

Now by flaws, I am mainly referring to her inept ability at ruling Arendelle, three times now she has effectively abdicated her throne either for her own reasoning or to actually protect the kingdom, I am more annoyed with Anna for these decisions which I’ll get into when talking about her, but it was quite clear from the first movie alone that Elsa never wanted to be queen. She runs away when her powers are discovered by the people, she then goes off to find out the mystery of her past, she finally abdicates completely and makes Anna queen so she can go off and live in the Enchanted Forest amongst the Northuldra people while not exactly joining them.

Having said that, she absolutely does the right thing by her because, not only is it important to both understand and be completely comfortable with yourself, but also this was where she was always meant to be.

Elsa’s fashion in this movie steps up from the first movie not only in colour but also in style. Gone are those heavy, coverall gowns and now we have light, bright and flowing gowns. Also leggings, Elsa is really only the second “Disney Princess” to wear leggings after Jasmine and it is really good to see someone in that “Disney Princess” role be versatile in fashion.

My favourite three outfits of Elsa’s are her vivid pink nightgown, her travelling outfit and her last outfit when she embraces her role as the fifth spirit. Something about Elsa with her hair down and flowing that really added another layer of power to that transformation “Show Yourself” scene.

Her powers are also plused here, the lady gets a freekin’ water horse which she could freeze to ride on water! Seeing Elsa riding her new steed across the water to stop the tidal wave from flooding Arendelle is the most fiercely stunning sequence I have seen in any movie animated or live-action.

Also her crystal manifestation, which emulated the elemental runes, bursting out from her like an outcry after she sings about wanting to know what it all means and then having them all fall to the ground effectively like hail. I thought her creating the ice palace in the first movie couldn’t be topped but her powers are kicked up here.

She even has a sort of attack move with her powers as she was shown to briefly create an ice snowflake to combat the water spirit who later becomes her steed. 

When she finally finds Ahtohallan and discovers she is the fifth element and starts seeing all those memories of her past and singing “Show Yourself” with her mother, just watching her literally walk through memory lane with all those frozen versions of her memories and reacting different to different ones, like with the Duke of Wesselton where she laughed and Hans who she instantly crumbled and even her singing “Let It Go” which she reacted awkwardly to, all of this was just splender and made me particularly well up.

Then you have her discovering the truth of the past where her grandfather was revealed to have villainous tendencies, I’m not going to say he’s an outright villain but he did kill the Northundra leader and start the war which hid the Enchanted Forest from the world, the fact she literally went to far down and froze to death just like the opening song foreshadowed was also very emotional.

But on that note of finding out there is that darkness in her family, it did remind me a lot of the Once Upon a Time Frozen arc when they introduced the Snow Queen Ingrid as Elsa and Anna’s aunt who had the same powers as Elsa and who was villainous for being misunderstood. They could have copped out and done a similar story but the fact it was routed into Elsa and Anna’s own history in terms of their family was a nice touch.

However, it did give me possibly my favourite line of the movie which is “Fear is the true enemy” in retaliation to hearing her grandfather say that magic is evil. This line can be true of any type of prejudice, I’m thinking of Homophobia but it can also be racism and even sexism, that for an animated Disney movie rated U to accomplish this level of thought is outstanding.

Idina Menzel may not be the most emotive actress but I love her, and what she may lack in her speech she more than makes up for in her singing. Also the fact that Elsa has such emotive facial expressions and the animation and character designs here are so fluid, that it makes Elsa almost seem like a real person.

Olaf:

Josh Gad as Olaf was definitely something I’ve been looking forward to revisiting especially after Olaf’s Frozen Adventure received a very icy reception. I didn’t really care for it, much like any of the Frozen shorts that have come but I’m really happy with him here.

I really liked the idea of exploring Olaf being a child because, I think with this movie taking place a couple years after the first one, Olaf is really only a toddler, so he acts like a toddler.

The fact Olaf sees the world in such innocence and beauty really resonates with little kids watching this movie and hopefully allows them to get out of it what Olaf gets out of it which is not understanding the world as a child but having to grow up and face reality.

I wasn’t crazy about his song, again like the first movie I feel it wasn’t as grand as the rest of the songs but I did like the message behind it of things not making sense to Olaf now but will make sense when he grows up.

By far the funniest moments of this movie are when Olaf reenacts the events of the first movie for the people trapped in the Enchanted Forest and also at the very end after the credits when he reenacts the events of this movie for Marshmallow and the Snowgies. I just loved again that child-like interpretation and bluntness of events. “Anna and Elsa separated but it’s okay because at least they still have their parents! Their parents are dead!” My screening could not stop laughing at that point.

Speaking of death, there is death in this movie, both what you see and what is open to interpretation. Elsa effectively dies as she is frozen solid much like how Anna is in the first movie, but Olaf’s death came as a consequence of Elsa’s death due to him being enchanted by Elsa. Possibly because this whole thing takes place after the “Show Yourself” scene and Elsa finally being true to who she is and of course because Olaf is the innocent dying, it really made me sad.

I was thrilled he came back, of course I knew he was going to come back. However, I did hear that early scripts had him staying dead but I don’t think that would have gone down very well with audiences and particularly merchandising because after Anna and Elsa merch I know Olaf is up there, although I think he may have competition after this movie...we’ll get to Bruni.

Also in keeping with the idea of Olaf being a child, I found it fascinating that he was experiencing new emotions in this movie such as anger, without actually getting angry he just felt it and didn’t know how to handle it. A little bit like with Groot in the MCU, I do hope we maybe see Olaf age or mature and experience the emotions that everyone experiences growing up. I know snow can’t really age in that way but it would be very interesting to see.

Speaking of the properties of snow, I also found the concept of water having memory interesting. It does play into the Disney/Fantastical element of the almost absurd but in a sense you want it to be true, like Aladdin’s flying carpet or even how woodland animals can help clean.

I’m not so certain about the cop-out of no longer giving Olaf his own flurry, yes they explained it as rather than it being a cloud simply being a kind of coat which was beautiful to see lit-up and everything, but it just seemed like the animators not wanting to animate a snow cloud constantly, even using the excuse that it only appears in hot weather was proven false because it was sunny numerous times in this movie and nothing appeared.

Olaf is still one of my favourite characters both in this movie and in Disney in general, I think he’s fun, I love his innocence and a lot of that is down to Josh Gad’s vocal performance. I can no longer think of Josh Gad without thinking of Olaf but in a way that’s not a bad thing.

Anna:

There was a massive opportunity missed from this movie which was not spotlighting the fact that Anna almost had PTSD from the events of the first movie. She wanted the status quo to remain how it was in the moment at the start of the movie and was desperate to keep her loved ones safe.

I don’t particularly know what purpose Anna served in this movie outside of living in denial of everything going on. Yes it is a noble deed to want to keep your loved ones safe, however, Anna should have known that not only Elsa discovering her origins but also the two sisters finding out about their mother’s history was not only important but I feel necessary. Finding out what happened to their parents, why they went off, even how they met. 

But instead we have Anna constantly wanting to be the mother of the group and look after everyone, except for Kristoff. I will talk about Kristoff in his section but seriously these two went from being the ideal couple in the first movie to “Why the heck are you to together?” in this movie.

All of this is why what made her hitting rock bottom after both Elsa and Olaf had “died” so important and her realising that and building herself back up. Again, like Olaf, I didn’t really like her song but I appreciated the meaning behind it.

It was from this point that Anna showed true signs of not only being a leader but also actual competency. I mean once again both Elsa and Anna abandon Arendelle, yes Anna has done it twice in the hopes of saving it which is noble, but she goes from leaving a man she just met and got engaged to in charge without knowing him for more than five minutes, to leaving Rock Trolls in charge. Yes Grand Pabbie is at least responsible for an entire tribe but seriously?

However, after she realises what has to be done to right the wrongs of the past, her selfless decision to destroy the dam and flood Arendelle to free the Enchanted Forest was impressive because obviously the kingdom can be rebuilt and the people were safe in the Rock Troll Valley.

Now of course, everything turned out fine because Anna unknowingly revived Elsa by getting the dam broken down and she stopped the tidal wave from destroying Arendelle, but Anna didn’t know that when she decided to do it and she still chose to it, and made the old Arendelle guard listen to her.

This is how she proved herself as queen, so that when Elsa made her queen so she herself could go and live in the Enchanted Forest, she earned it. She’s queen, she has Kristoff as a fiancé and obviously she and Elsa will keep a strong bond between Arendelle and the Enchanted Forest.

Kristen Bell is Kristen Bell, you know she was born for this type of role and this type of world. Having said that, again she was almost pushed to the background or was making me want to push her to the background because of her constant complaining. But she was still very good and the main core four cast continue to be a big selling point for this franchise.

Kristoff:

I find it ironic that the title of this franchise is Frozen and that he is an ice seller because they effectively fridged Kristoff in this movie.

Kristoff’s role in this movie is pretty much the one-note version of Bernard’s from The Rescuers Down Under, in that his story throughout this movie was trying to propose to Anna and yet constantly failing. Now granted, he goes to greater extravagance to do so than the mouse did but it takes them both the length of their movies to simply learn it’s now how you say it it’s just saying it.

On that note, I felt no chemistry between Anna and Kristoff in this movie. They both think the other one abandoned them part way through this movie and Anna particularly doesn’t really seem to care.

As I said before, when Kristoff and Ryder had their scenes together, I felt more chemistry between them than I did from Kristoff for Anna. Also Kristoff and Ryder are more suited. They both love reindeer, they both talk for their reindeer, and also I got the sense that maybe Ryder actually liked Kristoff in that way, as he seemed upset that Kristoff didn’t ride off with him.

Kristoff did give me one of the best moments of the movie though which was his song in the form of an 80s/90 pop balled video. It was one of the most bizarre choices this movie could have made, but considering you have Jonathan Groff and didn’t let him do what Jonathan Groff is known for doing in the first movie it more than makes up for that.

Once again I don’t feel like he contributed much to the actual story and genuinely felt like he could have been cut and nothing would change, but it is good having a male presence in this movie who is human so I give him credit for that.

Northundra:

I really enjoyed this tribe, the native-american qualities they had really helped separate them from the citizens of Arendelle. Both Native-American and Australian Aborigines I feel were portrayed rather well in the tribe.

Yelena, Ryder and Honeymaren were really the only three spotlighted in the tribe and I felt that is all they really needed.

However, we also know from this movie that Elsa and Anna’s mother, Queen Iduna, was Northundra...which kind of makes sense as a child because she has some colouring, but as an adult she’s Caucasian...and Anna and Elsa are clearly Caucasian.

I mean it’s slightly obvious the Northundra weren’t on the cards in the first movie, however simply having Iduna being of that race would have made more sense.

Speaking of the first movie. The Northundra here have a chant they perform when Elsa and Anna realise they have Northundra heritage, but this sounds like the same chant from the opening of the first movie which leads into “Frozen Heart”. So maybe they were foreshadowed?

Spirits:

Alright so I didn’t know how much there was to talk about the four spirits that seemingly guard the Enchanted Forest and whom Elsa awakened and apparently made angry towards the start of this movie so I thought I would talk about them collectively here in the order they appear in Elsa’s vision during “Into the Unknown”.

Fire:

Two things I love about the fire spirit, the first is that it’s fire form is this very vibrant pink colour and I’m always a fan of fire having different colours, I prefer green but pink works well here I guess.

The second thing I love about it is Bruni, who is the actual fire spirit and I don’t think named ever in this movie by name. However, I have loved Bruni since his one main shot in the trailer, I love how cute he is, I love the fact he’s another reptilian being a salamander, after Pascal from Tangled being a chameleon.

Also, Bruni may have about as much screen time here as Pua the pig from Moana but he is just one of Elsa’s new animal sidekicks and unlike most of the Disney Princesses, this queen has two magical creatures as animal sidekicks. I think the only princess in that category is Mulan with Mushu.

As I mentioned before with Olaf’s merch, I do feel that Bruni is a potential competitor for beating him in merch sales. I think Olaf, Sven and Bruni all have plush toy qualities, but Bruni has that added cuteness and he’s new.

Water:

Elsa’s other magical animal sidekick is the water spirit known as The Nøkk, who is a mythological Scandinavian water spirit in the shape of a horse...with a waterfall mane.

Not only is this a cool pet anyway the fact Elsa can freeze and ride it is just epic. Who wouldn’t want a water spirit horse. 

Earth:

Alright so I can’t remember when the Earth Giants first appear, whether or not they emerge during the earthquake that took over Arendelle or if they appeared in the Enchanted Forest but I did enjoy them.

I don’t exactly know when Elsa tamed them, it did seem that if anyone did Anna did by getting the dam broken.

Air:

I enjoyed Gail, I thought giving what is essentially a tornado that turns into a light breeze a name also gives it character.

But once again, while Elsa broke free of the tornado, Olaf was the one who named it and as such wasn’t he the one to tame it?

I did like how Gail became the messenger for the two kingdoms also.

Songs:

Alright so like always, I’ll be talking about these songs in order of my favourites.

Into the Unknown:

While not as groundbreaking as “Let It Go” but it is powerful, moving and delivered beautifully by both Idina Menzel and AURORA who is credited as “The Voice” that do that “Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah” sound that I want as an alarm tone.

I loved how Idina managed to match AURORA and almost harmonise with it, I love the message of being scared of the unknown but pushing yourself into it, the presentation of the performance was beautiful particularly when she went into that black space with the production going on around her.

It’s my favourite song in the movie and everything about it was just brilliant.

I do also enjoy the Panic! At the Disco version that plays over the end credits, it’s definitely a better pop version of a movie song to Demi Lovato’s version and I feel has a better mainstream future than it too.

Show Yourself:

This song made me emotional, and not many songs do that. I feel maybe it was the build-up to Elsa finally discovering who she was meant to be, the duet with her mother, or the fact she had that walk through her history in ice sculptures, but something welled up inside me and I love it.

The song is about realising who you are and being true to who you are. It’s something I feel anyone can relate to and the fact it’s in a duet with her deceased mother is just the icing, pardon the pun.

Also, this is where Elsa gets her new look, starting off with her taking her hair down and then her updated ice-blue dress transforming into her final white dress with rainbow accents.

Idina Menzel once again dominates with her vocals here but also Evan Rachel Wood matches her quite well.

Lost in the Woods:

I loved Jonathan Groff’s singing in Glee, from “Highway to Hell” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” to “Rolling in the Deep” he had such a range vocally that, despite hating the character, I loved him singing.

This is why it was criminal that the only “singing” Kristoff did in the first Frozen was that “Reindeer are better than people” lullaby song which made a comeback here at the start of this song and made me almost give up on Kristoff completely.

However, when you get passed that and Sven actually singing, you have a rather good song in the style of an 80s/90s pop ballad music video. Instantly I thought of “Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams and, despite not liking that particular song, I loved this and the arrangement of the performance.

Having Kristoff lean up against a tree as a wide shot while having his full face fade in to the side of him was so cheesy, so cringy and yet so good. I couldn’t help but enjoy it.

The Next Right Thing:

Now again, I didn’t particularly enjoy this song but I did enjoy and appreciate the message behind it.

When Anna is at her lowest edge having lost Elsa, Olaf and potentially Kristoff...again she doesn’t really give him a second thought at this point, she remembers advice that both her mother gave her and that Sterling K. Brown’s character enforced and builds up the strength to get herself out of the cave.

It’s a song about reaching rock bottom and figuring out where to go from there, it’s something I can definitely relate to and I am sure others can to, whether or not that’s in school, college/university, work or personal lives.

Kristen Bell is a good singer but for some reason something didn’t click here for me.

When I Am Older:

I love Olaf and thought his song was a very nice and fun sidetrack to the movie, however in terms of it being memorable...”In Summer” was a lot better and had the funny beats of irony to it.

As I said when talking about his character, the song did help define Olaf’s story through the movie of being young and immature.

Also the funny beats to this song of ending it in complete denial of “This is fine” before being crushed by a boulder were great.

Some Things Never Change:

This was possibly the most cringe-worthy few minutes of the entire movie. This happens right near the start originally between Anna and Olaf before become an ensemble piece.

Again, I understand the message behind the song of how people don’t like change but it just came out of nowhere and had no real tie-in to the rest of the movie other than Anna’s unrealised story arc of wanting things to remain how they are.

All Is Found:

As a lullaby this was an okay song, however I don’t think it did much to progress the story despite being the start of the movie. “Frozen Heart” had more of a beginning quality to it rather than this.

Overall I rate the movie a 9.5/10, it’s a near perfect movie but there is still room for improvement as always. I loved the characters, the songs, the animation. It all just felt very Disney.

So that’s my review of Frozen II, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.

[glorybcrn]

hihi everybody !! i’m kelly ( eighteen , she/her , mst ) and uh h ... i haven’t been in the roleplaying game for a hot minute but i’m really excited to be here n get back into it ! this is my garbage son gabriel who is technically an old muse ?? ngl i’ve dragged this poor binch to hell n back so if this intro kinda funky ... that why ....... also i may or may not be running on 3 hrs of sleep jfifjnck

◟ * ◊ ─ jason bateman + cismale + he/him » * believe it or not gabriel dombrova is working for the lothario family. they are forty seven years of age and are known to usually spend their time around city hall. the mayor, who has been a part of the alliance for sixteen years, has been living in victoria for forty seven years. the people closest to them describe the bisexual + capricorn to be driven and astute as well as reserved and unforgiving » 

background

— born and raised in victoria, despite not being a founding family, gabriel’s family still had relatively deep roots within the city; it was said that his great grandfather had moved here from massachusetts looking for the american dream. the patriarchal dombrova came from humble beginnings, building the family business ( a local inn ) from the ground up and over the decades it only got bigger and bigger until it had turned into the respectable hotel that it is known as today and now has multiple locations across the state of florida. naturally, his father inherited this business and his mother, on the other hand, is your typical southern belle, moved here from a small town in texas. she was a corporate lawyer ( it’s how she met gabriel’s father ) but since becoming a mother she really has had no interests in any other occupation other than trophy wife and socialite.

— to say that gabriel’s parents were old school would be putting it lightly. basically, both of his parents were deeply religious republicans and were very aware of their image as a family. they were harsh parents, extremely controlling when it came to their children’s lives but at the same time were also really emotionally absent. to this day they still believe that it was all in the name of tough love but obviously it was just emotional abuse. his father was especially hard on gabriel, he was a strong believer in physical discipline and thought gabriel to be too “soft”. he was always berating him, punishing him for petty offences, and pretty much just fostering your typical environment of toxic masculinity. though he never laid a hand on gabriel’s sister as she was what he called, “a lady” and his “pride and joy.”

— but gabriel was a good kid, he was obedient aside from stupid mistakes that kids are bound to make. he was your typical golden boy, a jack of all trades of sorts. not exceptionally good at one thing, but averagely good at a multitude of things. he was a quick learner and dedicated, anything he took a crack at, he eventually excelled in. throughout high school, he mostly kept to himself, choosing to focus on his education and after graduating valedictorian, he went to harvard where he earned his business degree. the plan was to come back to victoria, work for his father, and make his way up until he was ready to inherit the business himself.

— but while away at university, he met abigail. it was your typical whirlwind of a first love where it felt like it was just the two of you against the world. with her, gabriel experienced a sense of normalcy and sincere, unconditional love. for someone who severely lacked both up until then, maybe it wasn’t so crazy that the two decided to marry as soon as they graduated. together, they moved back to victoria to start their lives. to an outsider, gabriel’s life had seemingly always been perfect, envy-worthy. with a renowned and respected family, a successful business, the perfect wife, and now, a baby on the way too, it’s no wonder he’d been chosen by the lothario’s to be their candidate as mayor.

— his connection with the alliance started out small; the hotel business had been in a rough spot for a couple of years and out of nowhere, they seemed to have just come in at the right time, saving the day. he could be on their payroll all for the price of a few, teensy favours. favours such as his hotel being used as refuge for some of their men, a place of business when needed, and gabriel refusing to be a failure, especially in his father’s eyes, easily succumbed to their offer. 

— of course, gabriel’s family has no idea about the real root of his sudden interest in politics, much less how the family business has managed to be so successful still despite his now even busier schedule. and as a result, his relationship with his wife and children have deteriorated over the years. it began as a defense mechanism, intentionally distancing himself from his loved ones as a way to protect them. and while his children maybe the one last soft spot gabriel has left, his sudden absence as a father has definitely put a strain on his relationship with them. however his relationship with his wife seemed to suffer even more, things between the two of them are definitely not how they once used to be. they’re cold to one another and see each other more so as strangers rather than husband and wife. unfortunately, a divorce doesn’t exactly fit into the white picket-fence image gabriel had so carefully curated over the years. 

personality

— after decades of playing different facades, gabriel’s definitely lost a sense of his true self, or maybe it’s just fully gone. he used to be this really compassionate and benevolent person who always prioritized family over anything. it’s why ( at least this is what he tells himself ) he initially risked getting into business with the alliance in the first place, but now, he really only pretends to be those things to get the people to like him. he can be incredibly charming when he wants to be but it’s all just so .. hollow ? if that makes sense. like, nowadays there’s rarely an ounce of honesty or sincerity in him. he’s just so consumed with being a part of the alliance, it’s all he really knows at this point.

— extremely driven and cunning, if there’s something gabriel wants, he’ll get it. even as a child, he was an over achiever and so he’s known to always come through when it’s requested of him. he’s not exactly evil .. ? but he is loyal to the lotharios. i think there’s a small part of him that hates them, hates himself, and hates what he’s doing but idk he kinda just tells that it to shut up lmao. having had to learn it as a child, he’s very good at compartmentalizing which is probably why he can play all these different roles so well without going insane dnkjds

— really reserved, tries ( and succeeds ) to put out this strait-laced and conservative image. has the ability to remain calm in any sort of situation and twist things to his advantage. like honestly ?? gabriel is probably a pr manager’s wet dream .. he just comes across as this very charming and kind man, he’s the type of politician that’ll say hi to your baby and sign its head idk

but ugh idk it’s hard to explain gabriel’s personality since he’s such an emotional mess, i would just end up rambling about the same thing over and over again if i tried to keep going so i’m gonna .. stop right now.

connections

— personal assistant ?? someone incredibly organized and competent. this plot can range from really basic like .. yeah book my doctor’s appointment thnx to someone he’s actually pretty close to ? maybe he doesn’t even realize it, idk. like we can literally do wtvr w this, so !

— other members of the alliance, could be just someone he’s acquainted with or knows well and works pretty close with.

— if you have any muses involved with politics or managing ? his campaign manager or just anyone who worked on his campaign. like w the personal assistant we can .. go basic or brazy w this.

— love interests ? doesn’t have to be ~romantic~ per se .. but idk like affairs ig ?? cause .. gabe’s not perfect, rip. but he is careful so it wldn’t be like .. smth messy or if it was he’d prob make certain measurements after. idk what that means exactly dnjsnsdjk just tryna not get caught uk … or even something as small as flirtationships !

ok these all suck bc gabe is….. emotionally dead inside cnjdsnksnjd but ! obv tht can change per circumstance n whatever so pls .. feel free to mssg me whenever if u have any ideas !!