#just a doomed single dad and his doomed adopted son

[wodania]

the prince that was not promised. in fact, we kinda thought he was dead.

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Peter von Doom AU

Peter was adopted by Richard and Mary Parker when he was just a baby. They adopted him from an orphanage where he had been dropped off, with no one knowing who his parents were or if they were even alive. He was left with a single note that just said his name was Peter and when his birthday was.

Everything then plays out as it does in canon with the eventual death or Mary and Richard, Peter getting taken care of by May and Ben, him getting bitten by a spider and developing powers, Ben dying and him deciding to become Spider-Man.

The difference is that, for some reason, one of the superhero teams (Avengers or F4) do a DNA test on him and oops, would you look at that, it pings him as the son of Victor von Doom.

Peter has an existential crisis because 1) he didn't know he was adopted and 2) his bio dad is one of the most terrifying villains there is. He's fought his dad on numerous occasions! He's thrown cars at his dad!

Doom eventually learns that he's got a son. He finds out that it's Peter but doesn't learn that he is Spider-Man and now he wants him to return with him to Latveria.

That's kinda it so far. I dunno, the idea just popped up in my head and it's been haunting me all day so I had to share it.

[thedegu]

current TTRPG blorbo lineup:

Madea: no1 blorbo. (she/they/depends on what face she's wearing)A fiendish changling who was raised in a church (did not go well) has a totally normal relationship with the girl she was raised with and has very good coping mechanisms (this is sarcasm). Has so much fire magic and really can only cast fire magic. her highest stat is her charisma, which is 16, and her lowest is strength at 8. girl failure is doomed by the narrative and is just falling apart at the seams. the party thinks she's doing so much better than she actually is doing. Killed her shitty dad at least

Ale: aka Omolale a mausraman (human subrace homebrew) binder (dnd 3.5 class) (they/he/she/it). They're the old gods specialist little guy, but they really do not like being chosen for four different warring factions. They were put on this planet for a good time, not a long time, and are just baffled why so many people hold them up and say, "This is the dude (gender neutral) I want". Recently found out that they aren't even from the current universe they reside within and are just so in over their head when they want to just hang and get high and maybe smack some monsters for cash, but the multiverse seems to have other plans for them. Also, their name is a slur in their mother tongue, which is why they usually just go by Ale, they just think being called an alcoholic beverage is very funny: Ale's highest stat is strength at 20-24 (depending on what buffs they have active) and their lowest score is dex at 8. ale is a charisma caster.

Rossien: (he/him) an elf beaskin wizard from the ficcoria (basically the fairy country) who came from a lower-noble family and was blessed to be a beaskin, he looks like a large slender owl with humanoid proportions, and while his whole large family had a propensity for the magic he found his way to the wizarding arts. after an unknown force attacked his family so he found himself out on his own he tried to settle down and start over but failed to do so ending up divorced and back on the road for a few years. he is trying once again to get his life back in order by getting his education and ability to vote where he currently lives but due to ending up in an adventuring party it's not looking good on that front.

Ida: (she/her) a now retired adventurer (ie has turned into an NPC) human bloodhunter order of the lycan. the TL:DR for ida is she got bit by a werewolf that attacked her home. She went out for milk (a cure to her lycanthropy) for a decade. Decided that she had enough control over her power to go back home and is not back to being a lesbian housewife <3 also, she adopted like a half-dozen kids along the way (her adventuring party). she has a loving wife, a biological son whom she has a strained relationship with (see leaving for a decade), and an adopted tiefling son who she found on the side of the road and took home like a mangy dog.

Tyblin: the newest blorbo and is yet to be 100% fleshed out due to the game starting at level 1, and not yet even going. Tyblin Stonecutter (she/her) is a ranger drakewarden goblin. Due to a bout of Encephalitis when she was a wee bab she has nerve damage in her legs and lower spine, causing great difficulty and pain when she walks. her mom is excellent and made sure Tyblin did not die during this time and is trying her hardest as a single mom. Tyblin's father is a mystery Mamma Mia esc situation where Tyblin's mom was an adventurer for a brief time and had many relations with many strapping young men and women, so even she's unsure who Tyblin's other parent may have been. Anyway, Tyblin is going to get a weird dog who does not leave her alone, and also that dog is a nuclear warhead and one of the queen's swans. once she's settled into being an adventure she's going to love it but until that moment clicks she's so in over her head

Joan: (she/her) Technically an NPC, Joan is one of my favorites to run. she's 18, she's 50, she's a spoiled brat, she's seen the horrors of war, she's an atheist who works directly for a goddess, she hates adventurers, her brother was an adventurer, she's dead, her best friend is a dog, she kills undead for her job, and she's even asexual. every time she shows up and introduces herself as Graywinter the party and players are like, "holly shit your last name is GRAYWINTER like the BBEG?!" and every time, she's just like "This is why I hate adventurers

[movietonight]

I was tagged by @variousqueerthings to share mash thoughts!

1. Whose overall narrative feels the most satisfying to you?

I have three different answers. If I take "satisfying" to be doomed from the start haunted catharsis? Hawkeye, obviously. It's incredibly satisfying to see a sitcom without much * turn into a beautiful heart breaking eleven season long mental health spiral.

Then there's Klinger, who has the most satisfying narrative from a meta perspective, seeing a one episode gag turn into a beloved character who begins showing up in the credits and gets a big wedding and farewell.

Then there's Charles and Margaret, who graduate from narrative foils to complex and likeable characters with lots of memorable and :') moments.

2. Whose finale narrative feels the most satisfying to you?

Literally the ones above. Hawkeye and Charles make me both tear up every time and Margaret and Klinger make me go :') with pride to see how far they've come.

3. What's a post-canon headcanon that you have (about anything or anyone)

I think they try to hold at least one other reunion to see each other again with all their families in the same hotel on the anniversary of the party

4. What's a pre-canon headcanon that you have (about anything or anyone)?

I think Trapper and Charles vaguely met in Boston at work (maybe at a conference or maybe their hospitals collaborated on something)

5. Who's a secondary/tertiary character you wish you could have seen more of?

Honoria, Bigelow and Kellye.

6. What's a headcanon you have about a non-main character?

I think Kellye got all of them their Hawaiian shirts (yes I know they were popular at the time and sold in different places but I like the thought that she is their main Hawaiian shirt dealer and I think it's also the only explanation why Charles has one)

7. Who's your single episode MVP?

Inga <3 She said Trans Rights. Shout out also to British UN guy bullying Charles, Brandy Doyle the burlesque icon, Tuttle and Park Sung.

8. Share a headcanon about anything that you don't get the chance to talk about enough

Charles listens to "Songs on the Death of Children" because of his brother :)

9. What's one of your favorite non-romantic dynamics on the show?

Potter and everyone. He's just so dad and grandpa coded and I love how a lot of that was just Harry Morgan being Like That. Potter just adopted an entire camp of weird traumatised kids.

10. What's an underrated dynamic overall on the show?

Klinger and Mulcahy being besties <3 Klinger being the only one attending services and Mulcahy telling people to compliment his gloves lives rent free in my brain. Runner up is Charles and BJ making 2 separate people believe they are seriously sick because they were annoying. Absolute gremlins and they should have worked together more often.

11. What's a moment that was shocking to you?

Just the entire episode George. I was 15 and just figuring out I could be queer and watched an entire episode from the 70s set in the 50s. Really rewired my brain back then.

12. What's a moment that you could analyse forever?

Just about anything in Dreams. Shout out also to the coffee scene in sons and bowlers because everyone needs to have one small line in that episode that makes them foam at the mouth, right?

13. What's a moment that you want to watch over and over?

Movie Tonight. Any moment from that episode. Also just the entire episode. It's one of my feel good episodes and it's just sooooo <3

I tag: all my lovely mashtuals and anyone else who wants to do this (bonus points if you haven't seen mash and just commit to the bit making things up)

[t00thpasteface]

ok wait i have a lot of thotz so i'm gonna put them under a readmore

might have some sort of lingering insecurity about being adopted; he spends his whole life running from identity to identity and never really feels like he belongs in any one place, and his life started off with being deliberately orphaned by his biological parents who never wanted to acknowledge his existence

learning Uriel is his dad probably only makes that worse, bc there's this implication that Uriel only cares to recognize his son because he has literally no other option; if he still had all his "real" sons, Martin would still be shunned to this day. Uriel only recognizes Martin as an heir at literally the last possible minute, and only out of necessity

he joined the mages guild at some point and then left (or was possibly expelled?) because their rules were too limiting. i think the mages guild is actually a little lax on what it permits its guildmembers to do, so i'm a little worried about what Martin wanted to try that was so forbidden. i mean, the guild even has conjuration trainers, if memory serves... but they did ban necromancy. whatever Martin got up to, i doubt it was wholesome

i don't know what his home life was like during his childhood on the farm, but i don't think any well-adjusted person from a loving and supportive family would join a Sanguine cult

I also don't think Sanguine gives away the Rose for free. consensual or not i assume Martin probably did some dark things to get it. even a blackout-drunk Hagraven-centric misadventure a la Skyrim isn't a cakewalk you come out from totally unscathed...

if memory serves i think everybody in the cult died. possibly from Martin's own recklessness and/or negligence. not great!

he felt so guilty about the Sanguine Incident that he basically gave up everything to start a new life in the Akatosh Chantry, which as we all know is just polytheist fantasy-catholicism, and catholicism is a perpetual trauma machine that feeds on guilt and repression. if you go from Fuck Cult to Dragon Catholic you are not going to be in a healthy state of mind at any point in that journey!

watched kvatch burn before his very eyes while he tried to rescue and heal as many wounded civilians as he could :)

finds out he's the One Bastard To Rule Them All and is immediately torn from the city he just watched get burned and pillaged by alien-demons to start a fun new life in solitary confinement where no one sees him as just a person anymore

has to study the Hell Book of Hell Visions, written entirely in Hell Speech, on a time crunch. imagine cramming for a final but you only joined the class in the last four weeks and if you fail the professor is going to eat everyone on campus because he's a hundred feet tall and has four fucking arms

remember fighting those alien demons? we want you to do it again, but worse this time, without even a good night's sleep to prepare you beforehand

hey we kinda sorta need you to die. yeah the sock drawer fiasco doomed you from the start and now you have to ritually sacrifice yourself using the soul gem that contains the souls of all your warmongering royal ancestors. sorry

in an everyone lives au, by the time he's actually ruling as emperor, Martin is basically a high-strung ball of Pure Trauma held together with silk and brandy.

meanwhile Lucien:

i genuinely think Lucien has never felt any regret or remorse for a single thing he's ever done in his life

writing tes fic and trying to explain why martin is Like That: well he has ten different overlapping complexes and fifteen kinds of trauma from various points in his very eventful life and his sense of identity is totally fractured at this point and really it all started when he was a kid growing up on the gold coast—

trying to explain why lucien is Like That: idk he's funny and a girlboss and he kills people about it. everyone loves him!

[unclewaynemunson]

For your follower milestone writing prompts

I love stuff about Wayne and Steve. Anything that includes Wayne going on the arc "dislike/distrust/suspicion" (for good reasom) of Steve to "This is now my Son(in-law) who I have Also Adopted."

Even better if there's a parallel arc of Steve doing the "This is how to be Super Charming to Parents!" then not knowing what to do when the fake charm doesn't wokr on Wayne then learning he can actually be honest with and trust Wayne as a parental figure.

And Eddie struggling in the beginning because two people he loves aren't connecting and he doesn't know how to fix it until maybe he engineers some scenarios to get Steve and Wayne to spend more time together and maybe some work or maybe they don't. Maybe he even tries to get help from the rest of the party.

Nothing is better than the moment after everything gets worked out though, where Eddie gets to be with everyone he loves and they all love each other too.

Aaaah thank you so much for dropping this one in my inbox! I love everything about this so I tried to cram it all into one oneshot, you can read it below the cut.

(If you prefer reading it on ao3 you can also do that here)

Basketball night

'Eddie's uncle hates me.' Steve groaned as he let himself dramatically fall onto Robin's bed; Robin uttered a pained scream when he bumped into her knee while doing so.

'And what makes you think he hates you?' Nancy asked, lifting her head slightly out of Robin's lap to look at Steve's face.

'I know he hates me,' Steve stated. He tried his very best not to sound offended or whiny, but failed quite miserably. 'He always looks at me all judgy and he sounds, like, angry or annoyed when he talks to me. I thought maybe he had a problem with Eddie dating a dude, but Eddie assured me that that's not the case. And I'm happy that he doesn't hate Eddie for being gay, but it means that he has a problem with Eddie dating me and that sucks. I've been using all my Harrington charm, but none of it is working. He barely even talks to me!'

'Your Harrington charm?' Robin repeated. It sounded skeptical.

'What's wrong with that?!' Steve defended himself. 'Everybody likes getting flowers and homemade dinners, right? I've basically been the perfect son-in-law!'

'Oh, Steven.' Robin sighed and shook her head, gaining herself a giggle from Nancy.

' What?! '

'You're being the perfect son-in-law to some picture-perfect suburban mother. Wayne Munson is none of those things. He's not like Nancy's mom, he's a single dad who lives in a trailer park! You can't woo him with your Harrington charm , he hates everything that stands for!'

Steve groaned again; Robin was right, of course, and it meant that he was doomed.

'Goddamnit. He'll hate me forever.'

'No he won't,' Nancy told him. Her curls were all messy and disarranged around her face, thanks to Robin constantly combing through them with her fingers. 'You just need another approach. Drop the Harrington charm; just be Steve. Cut the crap with the flowers and the empty pretty words. Show him . Show him how much you care about Eddie. Show him you're there to stay. Show him you're not full of bullshit.'

Steve inhaled sharply. 'And how the hell do I do that?'

'You just show up. And you keep showing up. And you stop trying too hard.'

She made it sound so easy.

---

'My uncle hates my boyfriend.'

'Can you blame him? Your boyfriend is acting like a complete lunatic around him.'

Eddie froze halfway through bringing a handful of Doritos to his mouth.

'Are you spying on us?!' he exclaimed.

'It's not like I have anything better to do,' Max said with a gesture to her wheelchair. 'And it's so much fun to see Steve being all pathetic with your uncle. I think he's scared of him.' The malicious grin around her lips reminded Eddie a little too much of his own younger self.

'Oh, he's definitely scared of him,' he answered. 'It's painful and cute at the same time.'

'Nah, just painful.'

Eddie rolled his eyes at that, then sighed. 'I don't know what to do about it, man! I want them to get along!'

'Just let the boy suffer!' Max yelled back at him. 'Don't you dare take my prime source of joy away from me!'

'Jesus, you're useless! Why did I even ask a twelve-year-old for advice anyway?'

'I'm fifteen!'

'Sure you are.'

Eddie moved to get up from the floor, where he had been sitting cross-legged, and it worked immediately.

'No no no, Eddie, don't leave! I can give you advice!'

He let himself slide back onto the floor, grinning at his friend. 'I'm listening.'

'You should get them to bond over some shared interest. They must have something in common, right? Don't they both like basketball? You can organize like a basketball night, have them cheer for the same team, bond over sports...'

Eddie groaned and dropped his head into his hands. He hated how good this idea was. 'Fucking hell, Red, you're gonna make me watch basketball ?'

---

'Basketball night ?' Steve repeated with emphasis when he heard Eddie's proposal. 'Can you repeat this for me? Eddie Munson is inviting me over to watch basketball with him? Should I get worried that Vecna's back? Are you cursed?'

Eddie's sigh sounded distorted through the horn of the phone; Steve liked the idea of Eddie's breath traveling the distance between them, all the way through the chords of their phones and ending up right in his ear.

'Don't be all smug and annoying about this, man,' Eddie told him. 'I'm only doing this for you. You should be grateful.'

Steve chuckled. 'Oh, I am. Very grateful. If this means I'll be spending the whole evening cuddled up against you on that tiny couch of yours...'

'It does. I wouldn't be suggesting this if I didn't get anything out of it as well.'

But what Eddie apparently had forgotten to mention, was that his uncle would also be there. And with Mr. Munson's disapproving gaze on him all the time, it suddenly became a lot less appealing to be too touchy with Eddie. He would never admit it out loud, but he was a little bit scared of him: he always looked like he was ready to punch Steve in the face if he dared to even touch his nephew. Steve had been extremely relieved when Eddie had told him that it was out of protectiveness and not out of hatred for gay people, but it still didn't make the man any less intimidating.

He remembered his conversation with Robin and Nancy: drop the bullshit, cut the crap with the pretty words, just show him. And he really tried to do just that, but when Eddie went to the bathroom and left the two of them alone in front of the tv, he couldn't help but clear his throat and try some more pretty words – just one more time.

'Look, Mr. Munson, I really care a lot about your nephew. And I just wanna say... I wanna thank you, for allowing me to spend so much time here. That means a lot. My own parents, they – they have never really been around much, and it gets a bit lonely sometimes, for me in that house. So um, I'm really grateful that you're opening up your home to me.'

'Your folks ain't around much, huh?'

'No, they don't really...' Steve cleared his throat again. He figured he might as well be honest about it. 'They kinda gave up on me when I didn't get into college. And they'll probably disown me as soon as they meet Eddie.' He shrugged. 'It'll be worth it, though.'

Mr. Munson stared at him for a couple of long seconds. 'Eddie never told me 'bout that.'

'Yeah, well, I don't want him to worry about it. It's fine.'

Another couple of seconds passed as Wayne kept watching him. Suddenly, the man didn't seem so intimidating anymore. There was a softness in his eyes that Steve had only seen there before when he was looking at Eddie.

'You'll always have a place here,' Wayne finally said. 'It ain't much, but we can make room for one more, whenever you need it.'

---

'Goodnight!' Eddie yelled at his uncle in passing as he headed out of his bedroom and to the front door.

'Where you going?'

'The Hideout, with Stevie.'

'Alright, have fun,' Wayne answered. 'Tell him not to forget basketball night.'

Eddie stopped in his tracks, his hand freezing in the air on its way to open the door.

' Basketball night?' he repeated in a shrill voice. He let himself fall down onto the chair opposite his uncle and gasped loudly. 'You're doing basketball night again? With Steve?! And you didn't invite me?!'

'Yeah.' His uncle, completely unfazed by Eddie's dramatics, barely glanced up from his newspaper.

' You're hanging out with my boyfriend and I'm not invited?!'

'You don't like basketball. And it's on the same night as Hellfire. We decided to make it a weekly thing.'

' A weekly thing?!'

' Yeah, we don't wanna bore you with it. It's nice to watch with someone who actually cares for a change.'

'Unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable. I hate this. I hate you. I hate both of you.'

But Wayne only chuckled and shook his head softly. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'We're not forgetting 'bout you, we're gonna go to the Hideout together next Tuesday.'

Eddie gasped again, but this time, it was a delighted gasp instead of an offended one.

'Are you being serious right now?!'

'Course I am,' his uncle said.

Eddie could picture it so clearly already: Wayne and Steve, side by side at Eddie's gig, watching him on the murky old stage of the Hideout, both with a beer in one hand and awkwardly nodding along to the music, looking completely out of place in two vastly different ways. It filled him with nothing but pure joy that they would do that for him; that they would be there together.

'He's a good kid. Make sure not to lose him, 'kay?'

Eddie couldn't even begin to express how much it meant to hear his uncle say those words. 'Wasn't planning to,' he said in a choked voice.

Wayne nodded. 'Good. I may have to disown you if you do.'

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Do you have any fics involving children. Preferably stiles or Derek's but I'm not fussy. Thank you xx

Sure thing!

A Wild Heart's Desire by mikkimouse

(1/1 I 13,410 I Teen)

If there's one thing Stiles Stilinski knows, it's that Deputy Derek Hale absolutely Does Not Like him. The only reason Derek even tolerates him is because their kids are worryingly codependent.

So Stiles is understandably confused when a very feral Derek shows up in his backyard after a call gone wrong and proceeds to move in with him.

That Which You Cannot Undo by uraneia

(1/1 I 28,181 I Explicit)

By twenty-eight, Stiles has resigned himself to a quiet life of working in his magic shop, selling Jackson Whittemore fart-inducing tea, and looking after his goddaughter. It's a good life. But the quiet goes to hell when his sister, Lydia, shows up with a crispy werewolf in her trunk and a bite mark on her shoulder, because hard on her heels comes the hottest person Stiles has ever seen, and he happens to be looking for his uncle.

You know, the dead guy Stiles helped Lydia bury last night.

(Or: the Pracitical Magic AU nobody asked for.)

Somewhere I Belong by heartsdesire456

(1/1 I 30,815 I Teen)

When Stiles got an interview for an internship at Fangs & Fur magazine, the publication owned by the well known and widely respected alpha Talia Hale, he never expected it to be offered an actual job by Alpha Hale herself. He also never expected for his life to change so much after he met the man whose department he was assigned to.

Stiles was not prepared for Derek Hale's cub, either.

Trust me by madsmeetsmisha

(18/? I 32,590 I Explicit)

Derek Hale needed a nanny for his kids. Someone who knew about werewolves, someone who was persistent enough not to throw in the sponge as soon as the kids wouldn't behave, someone trustworthy. Could a young, very talkative man like Stiles Stilinski be what Derek was looking for?

our lives are changing lanes by grimm

(1/1 I 47,537 I Explicit)

There's a lot of screaming going on inside the first house Stiles visits. He isn't really worried, because it sounds like kids, but then the door opens and hi, says his dick, because the dude in front of him is gorgeous, built like a god with a face like thunder. Stiles wants to lick that solid jaw line. Hold the fuck on, says his cop brain, because the dude's got kids hanging all over him; one's on his back, skinny legs looped around his waist, and another two hanging off one arm, toes barely brushing the ground. There's a tubby toddler clinging to his leg like a koala, and he's got a baby tucked into the crook of the one arm that doesn’t have kids hanging off it. Stiles' mouth drops open.

"How many of those kids did you kidnap?" he asks before he can wrangle his brain into submission.

The man gives him a look that says what the fuck is wrong with you and snaps, "You think I'd subject myself to this on purpose?"

"Oooh," says one of the kids hanging off his arm. "I'm telling Mom."

Give It Up to Me by moon_star

(8/? I 49,841 I Explicit)

Derek is a single father and a full time attorney. Stiles is the new intern at the law firm. They find it extremely hard to work together, but it gets even harder when they start sleeping together.

Bundle of Accidental Joy by tearsandholdme

(20/21 I 66,411 I Mature)

Stiles is just trying to live a simple life. Have a job, pay his rent, and survive enough to eat his next meal. But then he's fired from his job, watches a mother abandon her baby, tries to stop her and picks the baby up, and now everyone thinks the baby is his. Even his very handsome and moody boss, Derek Hale, who forces the responsibility onto him at the cost of keeping his job or else.

Balancing on breaking branches by Anonymous

(15/20 I 67,613 I Explicit)

“Your kid,” Derek said slowly, “came running up to me. Tried to nuzzle a hole into my calf.”

Stiles let out a laugh. It sounded bitter. “Caleb wouldn’t just leave my side like that. Did you call his name?”

“I’m not a—”

“A child predator? That’s exactly what a child predator would say, Derek."

Waiting For Our Superman by tearsandholdme

(22/22 I 95,250 I Mature)

Derek knew the moment he opened the front door of his clean and pristine apartment to Stiles Stilinski holding a small boy, a cluster of bags, and a suitcase, he was screwed. In every way possible. Undone by the big brown eyes of a small child and his annoying, witty, and attractive father.

The Moon Lives (In The Lining of Your Skin) by Quixoticity

(28/30 I 131,436 I Explicit)

Stiles is doing fine. Okay, so he didn't expect to be a single father to an infant daughter at the tender age of twenty-three, but it's working out great. And no, he didn't expect to be a curator in Beacon Hills Museum, where weird things happen with no explanation, but he's rolling with it. And he seems to have acquired a new brother now that his dad's gotten engaged, which, odd, but hey, Stiles is flexible, and there's no such thing as too much love, right?

But then the next twist comes in the form of mysterious new neighbour Derek Hale, who is both insanely angry at the world (it's possible he's murdered people with his eyebrows alone), and adorably good with children. He's also in possession of a truly excellent butt.

Stiles is doomed.

Past, Present, and Future by Code_Zackary

(24/60 I 182,513 I Mature)

Deputy Derek Hale has just become a single parent, after adopting abandoned five-year-old Isaac Lahey, and drowning in his new responsibilities as a father, and Alpha. Add the babysitting of his new rookie partner, Jackson Whittemore, and the weight of his past bubbling to the surface, Derek isn't sure how he's going to keep his head straight.

Meanwhile, Stiles Stilinksi returns home to Beacon Hills to give his son, Scott Stilinksi, a better quality of life. However, raising a werewolf pup, as a human, is something he struggles handling on a daily basis. Stiles wishes nothing more than to find a werewolf willing to show his son "the ropes", so Scott can fit in with all the other pups come the first day of Kindergarten. But where would he ever find a werewolf willing to help a human?

When the two meet, their struggles in life will come to the forefront, as the loners become an invaluable support system for each other, and build a unique Pack all their own.

[ellana-ravenwood]

“You are not hard to love” - Bruce Wayne x Fem!Reader

Something very VERY quick, that I suddenly felt compelled to write, once again in the middle of the night. I didn’t plan on writing it, but here we are. This is for anyone who ever felt like they were “hard to love”. You’re not. You just haven’t found the right person...Anyway, here. For you : 

__________________________________________________

To be “hard to love” is a character flaw Bruce always felt he had. 

It was actually hard, to exist with this knowledge, no matter how little he tried to make himself feel. Or not feel, for that matter. 

As “Brucie Wayne”, a lot of people liked him, and the rest hated him for being so arrogant and smug. There were no inbetween. 

Many people judged him to be just another idiot with a lot of money. They hated his guts. Or they admired him for his self-confidence. Still thinking, though, that he was a bit of a dunce. 

It was fine. He wanted them to think that of him. To see him for someone he really wasn’t. So it’d blur the line, so they’d never guess who the Batman really was. 

As a result, it was difficult, to love, truly love, “Brucie Wayne”. Then again, he wouldn’t want anyone to love him for what he wasn’t. This public persona of him, would never know real love. It was fine. 

But his real self. His real self. 

Batman. 

Was probably the number one reason Bruce felt he was so hard to love... 

Who would want to put up with this shit ? Who, in their right mind, would want to love a man like him ? Bruce knew himself very well. Unfortunately. 

Sometimes, even him couldn’t stand himself. 

He knew he could be abrasive, arrogant, self-important, cold, too focus on a task at hand to care about anyone’s feelings etc etc...He knew that his real self, the one he showed more with his Batman side, wasn’t very likable. 

He found it hard, to connect to others. It was hard to stay connected anyway, when he was always stuck in his own head. 

He knew himself very well. He did. He knew how he was, and he couldn’t possibly see anyone putting up with it, and loving him. 

He didn't even like himself very much...

Every single time he fell in love, things didn’t end well. Because he’s too high maintenance. Because it’s hard to keep up with him and his moods...even for someone like Selina Kyle. 

Even she, whom he felt understood him more than anyone he met before, got tired of his games. Ah, but she was also too fiercely independent for what he wanted. Mmm...But who was he fooling ? He knew she’d never stay too long with him, not only because she was independent, but because he was too difficult to be with. 

And it hurt. It really did. 

Because deep down, what Bruce really wanted...It’s love. Real love. True love. Unconditional love. As stupid as it might sound, to anyone knowing him. Ah but, if you truly knew him, it all made sense. 

He would never admit it, not even to himself, but his fear of being completely abandoned ran deep. And his want of finding someone who would accept him for who he truly was was even deeper. 

But he was hard to love. 

Who could ever put themselves through the ringer like that, and love someone like Bruce Wayne ? Like...Like Batman ? 

And then...then you came in. 

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

He still thought he was hard to love. Difficult to be with. 

Your relationship, at that time, was somewhat new. It hadn’t been serious for long. But serious it was, in Bruce’s eyes, at least. 

Ah but he kept thinking he was too hard to love. That you would leave for sure, once you would realize it. His insecurities got the best of him often, even as he tried to ignore them and just enjoy what he had for the time being. 

Up until...

It happened shortly after his first real fight with you. He had one of his “dark day” (which he didn’t have much anymore), where he would be ultra-focus on his Batman work, and be a jerk to any outside distraction. 

Except you would have none of it, as you were trying to tell him something important. And thus, the fight began. 

And he shut down. Put up walls, once again, between him and you. Because that’s what he did. And it made everything worst, of course. 

He couldn’t stand the flood of feelings that came from being too emotional. Angry because of the fight, sad too, and absolutely terrified he might lose you if you guys fought enough for you to realize he’s just...Too hard to love. 

So he suppressed his emotions. As usual. It was much easier for him to give you the silent treatment than go through the pain of talking it out. It was too overwhelming for him, he wasn’t good at the whole “feeling things”. 

He was too afraid he’d say something he would dearly regret. He knew it was healthier, to talk it out. But he just couldn’t. He couldn’t deal with those emotions. And so he shut you out, you got frustrated, and then Dick tried to...

The sweet little boy tried to get you two to talk, to calm down, and Bruce snapped at him. He didn’t meant to. He instantly regretted it. But he did.

Which was the last straw that broke the camel back for you. You told him to “go to hell”, took Dick’s hand (who looked absolutely crestfallen, just remembering his facial expression made Bruce’s heart hurt), and left. 

Bruce felt like this was it. He just ruined the one good thing in his life. 

The one thing that, after years of being stuck in the dark, brought him light. 

You, and his newly adopted son. 

Lights of his life. 

He needed you two. But he understood if you decided to go...He was too hard to love. He would let you go, if it meant you’d be happier (what a fool). 

He was too much, too much. 

For hours, hours and hours, he beat himself down for it. Stuck in his own head once again. Hating himself. 

Sitting alone in front of the batcomputer, barely paying attention to what is scrolling on the screen...Bruce felt like shit. 

Why ? Why did he have to be like that ?

Why couldn’t he...be someone who was easy to love ? Who wasn’t a constant challenge to everyone around him ? 

Yes. That’s it. He was a challenge. A challenge who could’nt-

Footsteps. Taking him out of this darkness spiraling downward and downward. 

And it’s you. You’re right there. Looking at him critically, and he’s sure...

He’s sure you came to break up with him. That he shut you out one too many times. That him being a jerk to little Dickie was too much. That-

“There’s-”

He couldn’t. He couldn’t hear you say it. So he cuts you off, with words that made his heart bleed : 

“I know, we’re done.”

“Excuse me ?”

He can’t look at you. Can’t bear it. He turns around, and continues, trying to sound as neutral as possible, trying to not let his voice crack, going right to the point, as fast as possible, so he can keep it up : 

“I went too far. Too many times. You’ve...had enough of me. I understand.” 

“What ?” 

In your voice, he can hear surprise. Ah. You were too nice to realize that one day, it would come to this. That one day, you were doomed to leave him because he was too much. 

You were too...good for him, to him. Too good to realize he knew it all along. 

And so here you were, surprised he figured it out. Surprised he knew, before you told him, that you were leaving him. 

“I know I’m hard to love. I do. And you-”

“Wait wait wait, uh ? You think I’m gonna bail out because you were a jerk ? You think you’re too hard to love ? Oh Bruce...”

There’s a short pause, as if you’re searching for your words. 

He looks up at you, feeling a dash of hope invade his heart. He tries to fight it, but he can’t. Because...Because...Finally, you say : 

“Bruce. When we started this, when it became serious, when I decided to jump in your life and in Dick’s...I knew what I was getting myself into. I know you enough. I know the Batman side of you. I know you have moments you’re just...you’re just too stuck in your own head, and in your pain. I know.” 

You put a soft hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at you by raising his head. 

“I know what you think of yourself. And I know what others think of you. You’re arrogant, cold, unforgiving blahblahblah insert many more words saying how difficult it is for you to show your true self and emotions. But...But I also know that’s not all there is to you. I know you, and others, are wrong about you. Too hard on you. I know you.” 

You take a step closer to him, and lay your forehead against his. 

“I know you’re funny, like, seriously hilarious. No one ever made me laugh like you. I know you care, sometimes too much, and it’s why things are so hard for you many times. I know you’re actually a great dad, no matter what you think. I know many admire you, you’re truly amazing. You’re smart, caring, loving...I know that it’s hard for you to open up, to love...but when you do, when you do...You love really hard, Bruce. Fully, intensely, passionately, with your entire being. I never felt so loved, than when you hold me. When you-”

There’s a short pause, and Bruce realizes it’s because you’re blushing and have to regain control of yourself again. It doesn’t surprise him. What you’re saying right now, makes his heart beat a hundred time faster, and he can feel his face burning. 

Only you, ever made him blush so...

You take a deep breath, and say : 

“All my life Bruce. All my life I felt I was hard to love.” 

At this, Bruce can’t help but scoff, and he’s about to say something but you cut him off sternly : 

“I’m not done, mister. As I was saying, my entire life, I too, felt like I was hard to love. But when I met you...When I met you, I realized I felt that way because the people around me always made me feel like that. Always made it sound like it was a chore, to put up with me. That they could love me without making any compromises, while I had to change completely for them. Because I was too “difficult” you know ? Because sometimes, I too would have mood swings, or a need to be alone, or...just things that are not considered normal. That are associated with being hard to love. And I was surrounded with people who made me feel bad about this. Who made me feel like I had to change to be normal, and to finally have love.” 

Your arms snake around his shoulders now, and you hold him tight against your chest, kissing the top of his head. 

“You made me realize, Bruce, my Bruce, that...That I’m not actually hard to love. That I was just surrounded with people who weren’t willing to make the effort for me. Which is fine. No-one has to put up with anything if they don’t want to. But...Nobody is hard to love. They just never found the right person. The one willing to fight for them. It’s what you made me realize.”

He holds you back now. With all his might. What is this stinging feeling in his eyes ? 

“I love you. Unconditionally. I know who you are. And I want to fight for you. I will always fight for you. I’m not promising that I’ll never grow frustrated, and yell at you back, to then storm off. I’m not saying we’ll never fight. I’m just saying...It doesn’t matter. Because I love you. And I’ll always find my way back to you.” 

In your eyes, he can see it, there’s a strong light shining. 

One that proves him you love him. Deeply, and unconditionally. 

One that led him out of a dark pass many times before. 

One that proved...That proved maybe, he wasn’t that hard to love. 

Not when he finally found the right one. 

He couldn’t believe you ever thought YOU were hard to love. Ah. Has anyone in the world ever been as perfect for each other as you two were ?

“I love you.” 

He says. His entire being, all his emotions, poured in those three little words. 

“I love you too Bruce. And believe me, saying those words to you ? It’s very easy.”

His arms around you tightens even more. And then you add : 

“Now that this is out of the way...We can talk more about this later, but for now, there’s more pressing matters at hands. I actually came down here to ask if...if you wanted some ice cream ? Dick and I went out for a little bit, and brought all our favorite. Yours, too. We thought we’d need a “pick-me-up”. All of us. As a family. We’re supposed to go through things together...And ice cream helps, yes ?”

He nods. His throat too tight to say anything. And for the moment, it’s fine. He’ll tell you later. He’ll tell you how much you mean later. If he can’t find the words, he’ll find other ways to show you. 

You know anyway. You know he loves you. Just as strong as you love him. 

He loves you just as you are. You love him just as he is. 

“I love you.”

He whispers, and you smile at him, of this life-changing smile that showed him the light... You peck him on the lips, before taking his hand and walking out of the batcave, to the Manor. 

Where ice cream, and a very sweet little boy eager to raise his dad’s spirit, were waiting. 

Unconditional love. 

Bruce Wayne, wasn’t hard to love. And now, he was surrounded with the right people to make him understand this.

__________________________________________________

I just have a lot of feelings about Bruce Wayne haha. I just wanted to write a little something. It also stems from my own feelings. I’m sure we all felt at some point, that we were/are impossible to love. That no one will ever put up with our shit...yet there are people unwilling to give up on you, people who make you “better” etc etc. So. Yeah. I wrote this very quickly. Once again, watch me feel too much in the middle of the night haha. Sorry if this isn’t very good, it’s one of those “bonus” story I suddenly think about and write quickly in one sitting. I enjoyed writing it, but I admit it took less effort than most stories. So. Yes. 

If you liked it, don’t hesitate to leave a little feedback and reblog if ya want :). 

[jorisjurgen]

I hope it's okay to reblog because everything I can say does not fit into comments under this post. and also I hope that this was an invitation to infodump. If not, feel free to ignore. Anyway.

joris jurgen is a good one. his families are also blorbos, but they're all a package deal so I will mostly speak of him.

He's a melting pot of so many damaging things I can't begin to list. As the cartoon about his backstory shows, he was raised by a single adoptive father who almost definitely had clinical depression, was been divorced for around 20 years and still couldn't get over it, (and was an orphan himself before finding a parent... who he had a very codependent and kind of toxic relationship with.)

All of which contributed to a very stable home environment, obviously. Though he did try his best. As the movie shows, things just get worse from then on. With death, trauma, more death, even more death, and then homestuck-esque mutual dad/son adoption because his adoptive father fucking died and was reborn, as a baby, which might or might not have memories of his previous life, and both of these possibilities are equally horrifying.

Then there's the fact that wakfu, the other cartoon in the same universe, where Joris is a reoccurring side-character, takes place around 600 years after the cartoon and movie about Joris's backstory, and in between his childhood and Wakfu there was an apocalypse, a political persecution of his entire race of people, as well as multiple wars and famines. And this setting doesn't shy away from immortality induced madness, so for all accounts, he's doing more or less anomalously ok.

Probably at least in part due to having lived together with his similarly immortal father(son) and uncle(son) for those 600 years and just learning not to care that much about other people as people, while still having a moral code of trying to do best for others. He is very calm about death and the prospect of people he knows and was friendly with dying. Very calm when someone does die. But he gets very fidgety and tense when it comes to his father and uncle taking risks.

Which has a lot of implications about him as a person.

Next one is Roxas, Xion, and Axel from Kingdom Hearts. I will be brief because I can talk for hours about this.

...I don't even know where to begin. Imagine being soulless was a thing you could be oppressed for, and undertale characters hated flowey simply because he fucking died and lost his soul. Then add in the fact that they are in a cult. Which also hates them.

I literally have no words beyond that, because this post says it all better than I ever could.

Kingdom Hearts Days is genuinely a masterpiece of the game and a deconstruction of some sort. It deconstructed me all-right.

And there's also Axel. He was in a cult for 10 years. He hadn't had a positive connection in a decade, just living in a haze of emotionlessness and misery. He lies and lies and lies to Xion and Roxas for the entirety of khdays about not being doomed by the narrative - before he and Xion join forces to lie even more. When Xion is erased from everyone's memories, and Roxas finally dies, he is forced to confront this reality, and it breaks him.

His entire arc in kh2 is a delirium filled chase after Roxas and Sora. To try and do a murder-suicide so they can be together. To beat him up and yell at him to please give Roxas back. To help him and meddle with other bad guys' plans. Then he just decides to save him in a blaze of glory and then die in his arms instead. In the manga adaptation he's drawn as already gravely injured before doing that, but in the game... it's very clearly framed not just as a sacrifice, but, well... a very suicidal one?

He recounts that the only thing he had left in the whole world was Roxas. That he's the first one that made him feel things. And that really it's fine, he doesn't regret doing this.

...While getting into KH I kept comparing his kh2 character to Flowey (not just because of having no soul) and Akemi Homura. I still think the point stands very well. He really is passionate about his best friend.

what’s up. what’re the hottest trauma blorbos right now. all ears

[jinmukangwrites]

Whumptober2021 - October 4th - Taken Hostage | Pushed

Gift fic to @fidothefinch <3

Fandom: Nightwing, Batman - All Media Types

AO3

Warnings: Near death experience, hostage situations, implies Bruce as a shitty dad but I don't go into detail on it.

---

If there’s anything in the world that Dick hates more than being restrained, it’s being held hostage. Especially if he’s being held hostage as a threat against Bruce or Batman. One thing they don’t tell you in the foster system is that if you’re adopted by a rich and famous to the Kardashian level man, is that you’re often the target of criminals who think snatching a kid on their way home from school is a surefire way to make a million bucks. It’s no better in the vigilante business either, because often any hero in Gotham is only seen as a stepping stool to getting to Batman.

Honestly, at this point Dick’s used to it. It doesn’t mean he enjoys it, though. Not so much because of the initial kidnapping part, but because he’s worked hard to become his own person, his own man with his own life. He moved to Blüdhaven to be anything other than the son of Bruce Wayne; to be his own hero that villains learn to fear. And then the second he sets foot back in Gotham, for whatever reason, suddenly it’s all about the reclusive eldest Wayne child returning home! Suddenly, when villains see him at night, it isn’t “Oh shit, it’s Nightwing!”, it’s “Shit, it’s a Sidekick! Where’s the Bat?!”

Anyway, long story short, Dick came back to Gotham for one weekend to visit family, and now he’s dressed as Nightwing, standing on a roof with duct-tape keeping his wrists together behind his back and a knife to his throat belonging to a shady businessman who’s finally caught the attention of Gotham’s heroes.

And it’s sorta pathetic how Dick ended up in this situation. It wasn’t like this was going to be a particularly difficult mission. Just sneak into the building, grab the evidence he needed to get this bastard behind bars, and then get out. Unfortunately, someone tipped the man off without Bruce knowing about it. When he went into the main office, he was met with a very strong guard hiding behind the doors, and after a hefty blow to the head and a few concerning minutes of blacking out, Dick opened his eyes—thankfully still masked—to find himself kneeling on the rough cement of a skyscraper’s roof, completely stripped of any of his useful tools. He has a small knife in one of his gauntlets, but it’s not exactly in an easy to reach position. It would take time to grab at it, and that’s not counting the high probability he’ll be spotted by Jerome McCoy--Gotham’s latest shady businessman--or any of his goons.

Besides, Tim is already up here listening to their demands to get Batman up here or Dick dies. It shouldn’t be long before Bruce gets here and kicks his ass. That’s not even accounting for the facts that Jason, Steph, Duke, Dami, and Cass are all in town.

These idiots have no clue how close they are with dealing with close to every single bat if something bad happens to Dick tonight.

And everything was going fine until Tim suddenly stopped mid sentence in reminding McCoy that Batman was on his way and brought his hand to his communicator in his ear. When Tim paled ever so slightly, Dick knew something had gone exactly NOT according to plan.

“What is it?!” McCoy demands, pressing the knife against Dick’s neck with worrying pressure. Dick leans his head back slightly to lessen the risk of his neck being cut and meets Tim in the eyes through their masks.

Tim swallows. “Batman is being held up-”

Dick resists sighing in both disappointment and lack-of-surprise as McCoy practically explodes.

“What?!

“Only for a few hours,” Tim rushes to explain. He’s lifted his hands in a placid manner and softened his voice, which can’t be good. “He’s… met an unexpected complication along the way that he cannot ignore. Please, just tell me what you want, and I can take my partner and be out of-”

“I don’t have a few hours,” McCoy practically screeches. “Either Batman makes it his priority to get here, or Nightwing gets it!” to make a point, McCoy lifts the knife from Dick’s neck and waves it in front of him. Dick slides his eyes over to the other goons on the roof; there’s only a few. Maybe… if Dick plays his cards right… “That was the deal!”

“I understand-”

“Tell Batman to get here now, or Nightwing’s blood is on his hands!”

“He’s busy- I can’t just-”

Dick slams his body back, pointing his elbow the furthest he can with the way his arms are bound and jamming it into McCoy’s stomach. McCoy lets out a startled, breathless gasp as Dick uses his surprise to escape from his grasp and jump to his feet.

“’Wing!” Tim yells at the same time McCoy wheezes “Get that fucker!”

Dick has just a second to notice Tim’s shock at Dick’s sudden attack before Dick’s having to defend himself with his hands literally tied behind his back. Sorry, kid, Dick thinks, ducking around a pair of beefy arms, but we’re out of options.

It was going well until it wasn’t. Tim was even about to step in. However, while waking up from his lovely whack to the head, Dick failed to assess just where he was on the roof.

All it took was for the back of his heel to tough nothing but air for his heart to jump to his throat. Instinctively, he tried to wave his arms to catch his balance, but was quickly reminded of his predicament when the tape tugged against his wrists. For a moment, pure panic filled his entire body, here, wobbling backwards off the edge of a roof dozens of stories above the ground. He could feel his heart pound, hands shake, breath catch, hair rustle in the wind, but he couldn’t do a thing to stop himself from falling backwards. He’s pretty sure he hears Tim scream his codename, but he’s not totally focused on anything other than his pending doom right now-

A heavy hand wraps around his upper-bicep, stopping his almost-promised journey to pancake town. Everything is silent on the roof for a solid moment, as Dick practically hangs over the ledge of the roof with his feet just barely still on solid ground, a goon holding him juuuuuust enough to make sure he doesn’t fall. Tim looks even paler than before, looking like he really did watch Dick go over the edge. McCoy looks a constipating mixture of smug and outraged while the other goons stand nearby like useless props.

Then, McCoy speaks with anger as heavy and level as stone. “Tell Batman I want him here in ten minutes.”

Tim meets Dick’s eyes, and Dick sees everything that he needs to. Whatever is holding Bruce up, it’s more important than Dick, and Tim knows it’s useless to even try.

“Please,” Tim says, voice wobbly. He’s a detective. He knows what’s about to happen. “Just give us more time-”

McCoy snaps a finger, and that’s that.

The hand on his arm pushes Dick away and opens it’s grasp. It doesn’t matter anymore that Dick had his feet on the roof, because the rest of his body is falling.

Falling.

Dick’s completely off the roof in a blink of an eye and he’s falling.

The air is rushing past his ears and through his hair, so loud he can barely think. That’s if he’s thinking at all, as story after story passes him by. He’s falling, and for the first time in a long time, he’s afraid of falling, because this time there’s nothing he can do to stop it. He doesn’t have any tools… he doesn’t even have his hands, nor enough time to even try and get his hands free. He’s falling, rushing to the ground. He can already see in vivid detail what his body will look like when it hits the pavement.

He’s falling. He’s standing at the top of a beam, watching his mama and papa fall. He’s falling. He’s screaming as the sound of their bodies landing and snapping reaches his ears. He’s falling and he’s going to die in the most Grayson way possible.

He’s going to die the same way his parents did, a way that he’s worked hard to not be afraid of ever since he first moved in with Bruce, but was always secretly terrified.

He closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to watch. He’s afraid, and Tim will watch from above and blame himself and he never wanted any of his siblings to blame themselves for his death like how he blamed himself for his parent’s for decades and-

And the wind is knocked out of him, but not from his body slamming on the ground. A strong arm wraps painfully around his stomach, and suddenly the world turns sideways and his eyes shoot open in shock.

“Fuck,” Jason grunts, holding Dick with one arm and the other wrapped tightly in a grappling line. “Fucking hell.”

And Dick… doesn’t know what to do. He feels muted, like a YouTube video playing at 144p and buffering still. The adrenaline is pumping so loudly through his entire body that the fact that Jason’s caught him doesn’t register until Jason’s landing roughly on the ground and lowering Dick to the asphalt.

“Started heading over the second that bastard said he wasn’t coming,” Jason explains. Dick nods numbly, his eyes locked on the oil covered road below him, his mind still trying to process. “Said he ran into some bastard working for Two-Face holding some rich family hostage. Said we could handle it. I can’t believe I got here just in time. Fucking fuck-face fucker.”

There’s a splash of two feet landing on the permanently puddled street beside them, and Dick can hardly contain his flinching at the sound, but thankfully Jason doesn’t notice. He just stands up and faces where Tim has landed quite suddenly from where he must have grappled down from the roof. Dick continues to look at the ground, wringing his knitting together in front of him. He… hasn’t noticed Jason undid the bindings.

“What happened to McCoy?” Jason demands, and Tim takes a gasping breath and shakes his head.

“They ran into the building while I… jumped after N.”

Jason growls, taking a step forward but Tim stops him. “Orphan said she’ll handle it, she sounded pissed.”

Jason backs off, but anger still curls in his stomach like an old friend. His fists clench to his side. “Once I see B, I’m gonna punch his teeth up to his brain.”

And it must be proof of how shaken Tim is, because he doesn’t argue.

Then, like a pin hitting tile, a small sound catches Jason’s ears. He looks down to where Dick is still sitting in the grime of Gotham’s street. His heart sinks to his gut.

“N?” he asks, and Dick doesn’t respond. “Nightwing, you’re… crying.”

That directs Tim’s attention down where tears are certainly streaming down Dick’s cheeks from under his mask. His lips are wobbling, and the second Jason kneels down to put his hand on Dick’s shoulder, a wounded sound escapes his lips.

“Dick?” Jason asks, his voice sounding shocked and unsure.

Dick looks up at Tim, looking one breath of the wind from falling apart. “You jumped after me?” His voice is small and brittle. When Tim nods slowly, Dick whimpers, dropping his head into his hands and letting out a sob. “You almost watched me die,” is all he says before he finally breaks down into mournful cries.

Jason looks up from where Dick’s now shaking and gasping into his hands and meets Tim’s eyes. Neither of them… has ever seen Dick get like this before. It feels wrong, like something in the world has shattered and can never be replaced.

“Lets… get him home,” Jason says, breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” is all Tim can smartly bring to his lips while Jason scoops Dick into his arms and stands up.

Dick’s so out of it with his sobbing that he hardly reacts, just curls against Jason and continues to cry.

“You know,” Jason says quietly, “the scariest way to die, for me, is to overdose.”

And Tim understands.

“I… see.”

Jason nods, swallowing hard. “Yeah. So let’s just call it a night, get him some Alfred cookies, and just… let him take this at his own pace, okay?”

Tim nods, knowing that after years of Dick always going out of his way to help them with their trauma, their issues, and never asking for anything in return… it’s now their turn to return the favor. Dick looks so much smaller than Tim swears he’s ever seen him, curled up in Jason’s arms, trembling and sobbing. He silently promises to himself that he will do whatever it takes to make sure Dick gets through this, just like what he’d do for them, always. And Tim’s positive the rest of Dick’s siblings will do the same.

[ghastspidergwen]

I love @doctorsiren's dadskall au, and I thought I'd write a little fic about it. basically, the dadskall au is where xisuma and ex (alex)'s dad is doomguy, but some sort of accident/crazy magic/whatever made him and iskall share a body, go check out doctor siren for the whole story, she has great art, too!

disclaimers (you can completely ignore this section if you want): I have played about 15 minutes total of all the Doom games, read none of the books, seen none of the movies, but the ost is great, so this will probably be ooc for doomguy. xisuma and alex are more based on the featherweight au versions, not the real hermitcraft versions. this story is not part of the dadskall au nor any of dr siren's other aus, it's just a break for me to write some fluff. it takes place ~3-4 years after where fw currently is (s7 election era) but is not set in the fw au world. link to the post part of this is based on. ...and I think that's everything, onto the fic!

.

Xisuma took a deep breath, “I think dad’s alive.”

“You said you saw him die,” Alex, previously known as Evil Xisuma, said, turning to his brother, “They told me he died”

“He wasn’t exactly dead, it’s hard to explain. It’s more like...the horcruxes in Harry Potter. When dad died, I think there was some magic at play that made it so his ‘soul’ transferred into the nearest healthy, person. And I think I found them.”

“Uh-huh, and who might that be?”

“HALLO!” Iskall burst in, “What did you need me for?”

“Iskall? Seriously?”

“He was there that night and I have no reason to believe-”

“You really think Iskall-”

“It’s my best guess, everyone else was injured, and the magic had to choose the nearest healthy person, so it must be Iskall.”

“What must be Iskall?”

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same Iskall?”

“No, Iskall86,” Xisuma said, sarcastically, “Of course this Iskall, how many Iskalls do we know?”

“I still have no idea what we’re talking about, can -”

“No!” The void brothers turned to him and responded in sync. Xisuma pulled his brother into a side room, “Stay right there, thanks Iskall.”

“What?”

Xisuma exhaled and closed the door behind them, “Phew, OK, I have reason to believe that 13 years ago, Iskall was present the night that dad-y’know-and since everyone else there was either corrupted or injured, as the only uninjured person, dad’s spirit ended up inhabiting his body, but’s been so weak that it was only using Iskall as a means of staying alive, not influencing him or trying to take control of his body at all. Do you get me?”

“A little.”

“And I think I know the spell that will separate them, and give dad his old body back,” They went back into the main room with Iskall, “Should I do it now?”

“Blast ‘im,” Alex backed out of the room, putting a protective wall between him and the magic.

“WHAT?!”

A glowing green ball of energy swirled between Xisuma’s hands, and Iskall backed into the wall, “H-hey Xisuma, what are you doing?”

“This...shouldn’t hurt.”

Iskall held up a hand in a stop gesture, “SHOULDN’T?!”

Xisuma blasted him with the magic. Iskall glowed green, floated into the sir, then split into two people who fell down.

“I...think it...worked,” Xisuma muttered, collapsing to the floor.

Doomguy looked up, and noticed someone lying, unmoving, on the floor. His saving-people instincts kicked in, and he pulled himself over to the person. “C'mon, don’t be dead, don’t be dead,” he said, shaking them.

Someone was shaking Iskall. He sat up and opened his eyes, “Holy heck, it’s Doomguy!”

“You’re alive!” Doomguy said relieved, and pulled Iskall into a hug.

Absolutely starstruck, Iskall sat there, frozen. It’s Doomguy, I love Doom, Doomguy is right here, and he’s hugging me, it’s Doomguy! Iskall’s mind looped.

Pulling out of the hug, Iskall spotted Xisuma crumpled on the floor, “W-wait, I got-gotta check on my friend.”

Doomguy turned around, and spotted his son on the floor.

“Xisuma!” He stood up and stumbled toward him.

“Wait, you know Xisuma?”

“He’s my son. Well, your son, too. Our son.”

“Wha-”

“Short answer, I am you. You are me. We’re the same person.”

Looking at his hands, one thought crossed Iskall’s mind, I’m Doomguy. It was closely followed by “I HAVE A SON?”

“Two sons.”

“TWO SONS? And one of them is dying!” Iskall sprinted across the room and cradled Xisuma’s head, “I don’t know what to do!”

“Health potion?” Doomguy suggested.

“Oh, yeah,” Pulling a potion of healing out of his inventory, Iskall splashed it onto Xisuma. He held his breath and waited to see if it would work.

Xisuma opened his eyes. He sat up.

“Dad!” He jumped up, and buried his face in his dad’s chest plate, giving him a hug the same way he did when he was younger.

“I’m your dad, too,” Iskall said.

“You know?” Xisuma asked, breaking off the hug.

“Yeah, Doomguy told me. So give your poppa a hug,” Iskall uncrossed his arms and gave a very confused Xisuma a hug.

“Oh, OK,” Xisuma awkwardly pat Iskall’s back until he stepped away.

“Is Alex here?” Doomguy asked.

“He should be right outside, he didn’t want to be in the same room as an untested spell.”

“Wait, you didn’t test it? Then why did you cast it on me?” Iskall asked, panicked.

“How many people do we know that have another person living inside them?”

“Wels/Hels, I’m pretty sure Ren did for a while, a pregnant lady,” Iskall ticked off on his fingers.

“Different circumstances. Wels and Hels are one person, like two sides of a coin, Ren-I don’t know what happened with Grimdog or The Red King or whatever, but I definitely don’t want to mess with those, and did you just compare yourself to a pregnant woman?”

“Uhhh...nevermind.”

“You said Alex was just outside?”

“Yeah,” Xisuma pulled the door open, to reveal Alex sitting on a bench outside, drumming his fingers against the seat

“Did it work?”

“Yeah.” Stepping out of the doorway, Xisuma revealed their dad standing behind him.

“Hi, Alex.”

“Dad?”

“It’s me,” Doomguy sat next to his other son.

“Dad!” Alex hugged him, and they pulled Xisuma into the hug after a second. They sat there before the hug was interrupted by another pair of arms joining in.

“Family, together again,” Iskall sighed.

“What’s up with him?” Alex asked, glancing at Iskall.

“I’m part of the family, call me Dadskall.”

“OK...Dadskall, can we have awhile alone with our dad?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. See you later.” Iskall trudged out of the room.

“I haven’t seen you guys in forever! How long was I…”

“15 years.”

“So that would put you guys in your mid-30s, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Has anything big happened in the last 15 years?”

Alex pulled off his helmet, “Nothing too bad. I was imprisoned for a bit of it,” he glared at his brother.

Xisuma also removed his helmet, “I said I was sorry, how many times do you want me to apologize?”

“I wasn’t saying it’s your fault, I was just making the point that-”

“I get it! I was an idiot and I didn’t listen to you when you were clearly right.”

“Just like old times,” Doomguy chuckled, he examined his son’s faces, “You look so much older, like real adults. I’m so sorry I missed out on the last 15 years, I would’ve loved to see you grow up.”

“It’s not like you could do anything about it.”

“I know you would have been here if you could.”

“Also how did you guys get those scars?”

“Someone needed to keep slaying the demons after you left,” Alex shrugged.

“I angered some Watchers years ago.”

“You angered some Watchers?” Doomguy asked, standing up.

“I just realized someone was right, but it was too late to save them.”

“Darn right, I was.” Alex and Xisuma also stood up.

“I...forgot how tall you were,” Doomguy said looking, at up at Alex, who was only a few inches taller.

“Oh, yeah. Xisuma was jealous he never got this tall.”

“No, I’m not!”

“Sure,” Alex smirked.

“So, anything else new?” Their dad intervened.

“Daisy’s still alive.”

“Should’ve guessed,” he chuckled.

“Oh! You’re a grandpa!”

“What?!”

“Yeah! I adopted a guy named xB. I’ll call him over, so you can meet!”

<Xisuma> hey xb, can you come on down to my base, I’ve got something to show you

<xBcrafted> ?

<xBcrafted> yeah, be there shortly

“How did you meet this xB?”

“I was doing some exploring between seasons, looking for a good seed, when I found a small single player world. xB was alone in there. Poor kid was only 13, didn’t know where his parents were, said he had been handling himself for the last 2 or 3 years, so I took him back to Hermitcraft with me. He’s a great kid, you’ll love him.”

“Xisuma has practically adopted the entire server.”

“Server? You’re an admin?”

“We both are. I’m main admin of Hermitcraft, Alex is the backup admin.”

“I’m so sorry I missed out on all of this stuff. I really wish I could have been there for you two.”

Something thumped into the outside of the building they were in, and the door opened, “Freakin’ rockets, stupid friggin’ elytra,” xB mumbled. “Oh, hey Uncle Alex, hey, dad.”

Doomguy gasped, “I love him already!”

“Wha-”

“xB, this is our dad, Doomguy.”

“Wait, I thought he was dead.”

“Wonky magic stuff.”

“OK then. I’m xBcrafted,” xB said, offering his hand for a handshake.

Doomguy scooped him up in a hug, “Hello, xB, you can call me Grandpa Flynn, or just Grandpa, or just Flynn, I don’t care. I have a grandson!”

“Nice-to-meet-you,” xB gasped.

“Dad, I don’t think he can breath.”

“Oh, right,” Flynn released his grandson, “sorry, got a little overexcited.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m glad you’re back.”

“Glad to be back.”

“Do you want to go meet the rest of the server? There’s just under 30 of us, total.”

“Oh, you’ll love all of them. There’s me, of course, but Hypno and Jevin and Wels and False are all set up near me, Stress and Gem are also pretty close, and Doc and Ren are just past them, and…” xB rambled as the other three grabbed their helmets.

“You ready?” Alex asked, pushing open the door.

“Let’s go, I want to meet the rest of your family.”

[indigo-brainspark]

The Fourteen Olympian Gods as Parents ranked

(Hestia and Hades are also valid, pass it on)

1. Hestia:

First, is Hestia, obviously, because she is the only one in Olympus shown to be capable of caring for other people, no matter who they're related to or what they're doing. It's sad cause she isn't really interested in having children, adopted or otherwise, because she doesn't want to become like her parents, and treat children like that. But, she regularly checks up on the people at Camp Half Blood, and provides them as much support as she can without breaking the law.

2. Artemis

Also, kinda ironic, considering she's also a virgin goddess, but if it works, it works.

She's nice and kind, fierce protector of young girls, a staunch feminist. I really think she's the 'mom' friend. To an extent.

Also, she goes around practically adopting every lost girl she finds, so...

3. Dionysus

Whoo boy, so, Mr. D really isn't the nicest person. To be fair, he doesn't want to be at Camp, so who can blame him?

But what you've got to admit, he's a great dad. He mourned the death of both his sons, obviously adored them, asked people to look out for them, etc.

He doesn't really like the campers, but it has been hinted that he does actually know everyone's names, but messes them up just because. And he offered mental support to Nico when he was suffering from PTSD, which seems to be something he does quite a bit.

4. Ares

Yeah, him. He's a jerk, let's be real, but to his children? He's a softy. Think about it: he gave Clarisse an electric spear, a ship, a squad of skeleton soldiers, and she's not considered to be the 'special one' in the Ares cabin, it's just casually mentioned that she got that spear as a birthday present. So she's not the only one to get presents like this.

5. Hades

Hades... Is an interesting parent.

On one hand, he viewed his children as pieces of power at one point in time.

On the other, once he developed a connection, he's willing to do a lot for his children. He has given Nico a home, while he was running from the rest of the world. He came to support him with an army though he had no obligation to do so. He's giving Nico a room in his palace for when he ever needs it (though it's hinted that it's for when he dies) he let Nico procure a sword, he let Nico sneak his Roman sister out, he probably had some hand in getting him the pomogranate seeds that kept him alive.

So, yeah, I think Hades does have the best relationship with his demigod kids, probably because he only has so few demigod kids. But if he didn't like Nico... Things would've gone very differently.

6. Poseidon

Yeah, Poseidon isn't the best dad, but he isn't the worst. Once he gets to know his son a little, then he starts to protect him. That's when he started to look out for him. He doesn't do anything more than that, but sometimes that's enough. Honestly, I think he's doing pretty good for a godly parent.

But he doesn't exactly have the same relationship with his only son as Hades... Since he only shows up for when it's most necessary. So, Hades got the top spot between these two.

7. Hephaestus

So, Hephaestus is an interesting parent. First, comes the fact that even he's admitted he's not comfortable around people, and doesn't understand children. Despite that, he watches every single child of his, and probably claims them soon. He gives his children ideas, and appreciates them, even though he doesn't know how to communicate it.

He could use a little work, especially in letting his children know that he cares, but other than that, he's an alright father.

8. Apollo

So, Apollo could use a lot of work. And he's definitely improving now that ToA has ended. But even before that, he seemed like an... Alright parent. Not the best. Not the responsible one. More like the fun one. He remembers his children, and those children's mother and basic things like that. After ToA, he's definitely gonna be a lot more present in his kids' lives, and could have definitely ranked higher, but we haven't really seen any of that potential and hypothetical growth yet, so here he stands.

9. Aphrodite

So, Aphrodite doesn't really seem to be a great mom, considering everything. She's not exactly in touch with how her kids might want something different at times, and that tends to put a bit of pressure on them.

It's more like she doesn't care, until she decides it'll be fun to talk to them.

Honestly I have nothing that bad to say about her, but nothing good either

10. Demeter

Same thing. I genuinely don't get to see Demeter interacting with her kids to see how they get along, so I can't say anything in her defense, except there are definitely worse people.

11. Hermes

Okay... So Hermes doesn't exactly care. Sure he keeps half an eye on his kids, but he doesn't have any interest in keeping an eye on them until it's too late. He even admits it himself!

12. Athena

Oh boy, yeah, I know. So, Athena is extremely calculating. It's been shown that there is nothing she won't sacrifice in exchange for victory. It's openly admitted that several children of Athena have died going on the quest to find the Athena Parthenos, which is kinda messed up. And it's openly admitted she ignored her children for a long time. Annabeth was actually willing to die on a quest when she was twelve to gain her recognition and that's not okay.

13. Hera

You all know she sucks. Her entire marriage was doomed for disaster. Her actions might be justified, but lashing out and ruining the lives of people who have done nothing to you is just a new low.

14. Zeus

So many problems with this guy. We know he can't keep it in his pants. And yet he continues doing it. And those kids repeatedly get in major trouble because their father is ruining their lives and putting a target on their backs. And what does he do? Nothing. He does nothing!

No remorse, no help, never changes his ways. I hate him.

[canmom]

Animation Night 47: Mamoru Hosoda 2

Hey friends, it’s Thursday! It’s also April Fools day, so please feel lucky you’re not getting a hagiographic description of Trey Parker and Matt Stone or something, but I do not have the willpower to commit to a bit like that...

Instead, we’re gonna keep things on familiar ground: tonight we’re going to be returning to the delightful character animation spectacles of Mamoru Hosoda. We first met Hosoda way back on Animation Night 15, and back then I gave a brief summary of his career: a veteran of Toei and Madhouse like so many of my fave directors.

At Toei, Hosoda got his start as a key animator, working his way up to direct Digimon and One Piece films; though his films stood out in those franchises, he understandably wanted to tell his own stories. He landed a job at Studio Ghibli directing an early version of Howl’s Moving Castle, but this fell through because of friction with the studio, who wanted him to closely copy Miyazaki’s directing style; instead, Hosoda landed at Madhouse and directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time  (2006) and Summer Wars (2009), working alongside industry legends like Satoshi Kon, Sayo Yamamoto,  Takeshi Koike and Mitsuo Iso.

However, this was the tail end of Madhouse’s reign: for perhaps a variety of reasons, most of their big names left to various other parts in the 2010s, leaving the studio a shell of its former self whose productions get little attention (except for the worst reasons, like when they made the news in 2019 for overworking and underpaying a production assistant to the point of health problems). Hosoda was among the directors who left, preferring to work somewhere smaller; so in 2011 he left Madhouse to found Studio Chizu, with whom he’s continued a clockwork schedule of releasing a film every three years ever since.

Of course, as the saying goes, ‘a studio is just a building’ - most of the anime industry runs on single-production contract work, and Chizu has seen many talented key animators contribute over the years. Last time we watched Wolf Children (2012), the moving story of a single mother raising a pair of energetic werewolves.

This time my plan is to show the other two films he directed at Chizu! First up we have The Boy and the Beast (バケモノの子 Bakemono no Ko, lit. The Monster’s Child), in which a runaway orphan is adopted as a ‘disciple’ by a big, buff furry prince, and as such finds himself drawn into a succession struggle in the furry world.

...yeah, another big old wolf guy, just in case the werewolf dad in Wolf Children left you with any doubt!

Hosoda’s films tend to focus on exploring a particular kind of relationship, so far broadly within the hetero family, but with enough charm and style to be a lot of fun anyway (helped by lots of delightfully bouncy, squishy character animation). If The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was a Makoto Shinkai-esque doomed romance, and Wolf Children was about mother-child relationships and kids growing up and developing their own particular personalities, The Boy and the Beast is about... ok it’s probably an adoptive father-son thing but also the dad figure is like a kendo instructor and there’s a subtheme of depression? This was the first time Hosoda actually wrote his own film, and the result is apparently a film that’s a bit less tightly edited than his usual work, with the animation accomplished on a tighter timeframe. Still, it looks pretty gorgeous all the same...

The family theme rides on into his most recent film, the widely acclaimed Mirai no Mirai (未来のミライ lit. ‘Mirai of the Future’). This one follows a four-year-old child who, after his sister is born, starts experiencing vivid visions of his family’s past and his own future. It does the kind of Satoshi Kon style thing where dreams and visions blur with ‘reality’, allowing the film to visit many different emotional settings, from cute furryish interactions with his pet dog and scenes of bike riding, to the aftermath of a disaster. It seems to be a beautiful film, full of charming character animation...

...but, all that said, Hosoda’s consistent thematic focus is starting to sit kind of oddly with me. I love the artistic skill of Hosoda’s films, and they are consistently moving, but there is no 未来 for people like me in the heterosexual nuclear families he so lovingly explores, nor do I particularly want one! And, sure, I’m glad this dude seems to have his life pretty sorted out (worth noting that supporting a family is not really an option for most animators in Japan!) but... it’s propaganda, y’know? All the worse because no doubt he doesn’t even realise that’s what he’s doing!

Don’t worry, I’m not about to launch into reciting passages of Baedan here. This remains ‘just’ the industry and society we all have to contend with, and there remains plenty to love about Hosoda’s films or I wouldn’t be showing em :p The lively, squishy, expressive animation I loved so much in Girl Who Leapt and Wolf Children continues to be on full display, thanks to the talents of a bunch of great character animators like Atsuko Tanaka, Hiroyuki Aoyama, Ayako Hata and Satoko Morikawa. These films are definitely going to be an absolute visual treat, and might even just wring out a few tears.

And it won’t be too long until we can get a glimpse of Hosoda’s next film, titled Belle. I don’t have a lot of info about it yet, beyond that it’s returning to Hosoda’s familiar theme of a VR world and he has described it as the film he always wanted to make. Very curious to see what that means...

Animation Night 47 will begin at 7pm UK time (just under an hour), at twitch.tv/canmom. Would love to see you there...

[biomecharnotaurus]

Finished the concept art-reference thing for young Billy, aka William Joseph John Flynn Blazkowicz III "Taggart". You know, Doomguy before becoming mad-holy-boy.

He is based on literally EVERY SINGLE existing canon Doomguy, including the ones from Doom 1/2/3, Flynn Taggart from both the books and Doom Eternal, depressed Quake-doomguy, the crazy ass from the comics and John Grimm Reaper.

Personality traits and other infos:

He is arrogant, narcissistic and extremely intelligent, he also has a degree in mechanical engineering, art and literature, unlike me, he has a perfect grammar.

He is just a very funky guy, jumps and runs around all the time, eats demons alive (reason why his nails are long, sharp and consumed like claws), he has a tendency on acting aggressively, brutally, like a feral animal, towards his enemies. Because of this, the other marines call him "the Beast" and "Hellhound".

This aggressive behavior makes people afraid of him, they don't even allow his adoptive son and his wife to see their dad/husband anymore.

He has strong catholic believes, tho, not the "fuck gays and other religions" type of believes, more like the "I love every single human and animal, but if you do something dangerously stupid I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, with love".

Even if he seems weird and scary, he still has a gold heart, something that most people fail to understand about him.

His biological dad was an abusive piece of shit, reason why he hates his real last name, but he respects his granpa.

Very useless infos:

Epic metalhead gamer™

He was born in the 08/18/1993. StUpId MiLlEnNiAl

Loves soft things and 3D printers. For no reasons. He just does and that is okay.

Burned his own kitchen twice.

Apparently very worried about becoming radioactive.

Wrote a parody of 50 shades of grey.

"sex is boring ew"

His granpa calls him "Billy the virgin".

[lovelylogans]

You seem to be the person that I follow who knows the most about fanfic, and I kinda want to get into reading it again. I used to read a lot of phan or supernatural stuff and now I read none, lol. Can you rec me LAMP or any pairing between the light sides or platonic fics with happy endings? Even if it's the most basic ones that everyone has read, I probably haven't. Thanks so much!

*cracks knuckles*

this is gonna be a long one. it’ll go title, pairing, then super basic plot summary, so. below the cut!

as far as self-promotion goes, i’ll get that out of the way first and rec you some of my most popular stuff in this fandom. these links will be to ao3, though you can also find them on my tumblr:

where you lead, i will follow (romantic moxiety, romantic logince): 150k of a gilmore girls au that absolutely no one asked me for, you do not need to have read the show to read this. it’s slowburn friends-to-lovers moxiety and childhood friends-to-lovers for logince, this fic follows patton, who was a pregnant trans teen who ran away to the tiny town of sideshire, his son, logan, who just got accepted into one of the most prestigious high schools in the state, patton’s parents, emily and richard, who clash often with their son, virgil, the owner of the local diner and reason all the locals have not developed scurvy, and roman, a teenage dancer/dance instructor who just so happens to have a crush on his best friend. this is a big personal favorite of mine, and i’m still writing in that verse, so. 

lavender for luck (romantic polyamlamp): the fae family has been cursed with magic dating back two hundred years. with great power, however, comes a great price; any man or woman who falls in love with a fae is doomed to die. virgil fae is trying his best to ensure that that does not happen. as is his uncle, dee. however, three of the friends he makes at college makes that increasingly difficult, for him.

my true love gave to me (romantic prinxiety, romantic logicality): a christmas-centric fic of four roommates, all of which are in love with each other in some way. follow these disaster gays being wooed or attempting to woo their crush in time to make out under some mistletoe. (this fic was nominated for best overall in the fander fic awards on tumblr.)

not you again (romantic prinxiety): inexplicably my most popular fic in terms of tumblr notes, this follows roman being a Gay Disaster Barista who is crushing hard on one of his regulars, who unfortunately has a boyfriend (or does he?) ft. remy (aka the sleep character from thomas’ short vids.)

dance partner (platonic royality): the popularity of this one is also due to the fanart made by the incredible sanderstribute, roman takes patton for a night of dancing on the town. 

okay, that’s enough of my stuff. this section is mostly “fandom essentials” in that most people have either read them or are familiar with them, in some way. a lot of these are kind of old-school fander fics, but they’re still really good and a good introduction to fandom! mostly the most kudos/bookmarked fics on ao3. also a pretty good starting point to a variety of popular fic-types in this fandom.

to build a home (romantic logicality) by avalorouschoice on ao3: patton and logan adopt virgil from an orphanage. this is a lot of found family, kid-growing-closer-to-the-family, and it’s just. i Like It A Lot and i’m definitely due for a re-read of it, it’s just very sweet

starved (polyamlamp, ft. thomas) by @randomslasher: honestly, it was tough to pick just one randomslasher fic to put on the list (if you’d like more fandom essentials, i’d argue that lj has written a toooon of them so just reading through their fics would be good!) but this one kind of had to win out. this fic boils down to “virgil needs hugs desperately and hides how desperately he needs them from the other sides, the other sides find out, the other sides give him hugs.” that’s... yeah. that’s the one. it’s Good Stuff.

of trying and towers (romantic prinxiety) by @parsnipit: similarly difficult to parse down any parsnipit fics! a lot of their stuff ranks among my personal favorites, so again, just reading down the list of what they’d got is a Good Call especially once upon a dream, which is similarly one of those “fandom essentials.” this fic in particular is about thomas in medieval times, stuff goes wrong, and all the sides split up and are turned into what they hate/fear, and it’s their journey of teaming up together again and defeating the evil ruler in place of the kingdom. there’s dragons. it’s Good Stuff.

it’s only logical (romantic logicality, romantic prinxiety) by @tinysidestrashcaptain: logan owns a flowershop and hires single dad patton, while his best friend virgil, who owns a coffee shop, and roman flirts with virgil a lot. very cute, very sweet, kid thomas is Great! again, tstrashcaptain has a lot of the stuff i’d call “fandom essentials,” so. those! all good stuff!

silence and duality (platonic lamp) by @xaandiir: one of the first takes on the whole “dark sides” aspect we had, back in the day, this fic follows along with the sort of psychology/mentality of the sides as children, as they grow up, and the potential of what could happen to one of the dark sides, especially if they were rejected. i’m trying not to spoil it too much, but! again! good stuff!!

insomnia (platonic lamp) by @xaandiir: virgil cannot sleep, attempts to hide it from the other sides, and the other sides find out. Good Stuff. let the boy take a nap

learning & loving verse (romantic prinxiety, romantic logicality) by @virgilsjourney: jenna’s just... yeah, lots of really good fics there! again! a college verse fic in which Pining Roommates feature; virgil helps roman through some stage fright (trying not to spoil it!) to eventually star as fiyero in wicked, and the realization of Feelings throughout. good stuff!

college verse (platonic lamp) by @princelogical: again! one of those Really Great Authors to just read a ton of their stuff! this one in particular is a college verse, in which all the sides have various emotional reckonings. really great character development, really great backstory. i will say read the warnings, just in case!

and now, for some of my personal favorites. this is only a fraction of my favorite fics, and if you’d like more of my personal recommendations, i have a whole tag for fanfic! (if there’s an indent under, it just means ‘more by this author!’)

love and other fairytales (polyamlamp) by @tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors: ohhh my fuckin god. worldbuilding a+, characterization a+, plot a+. have you ever wanted faerie!virgil and changeling!logan and witch!roman and a-little-cursed!patton??? you do! trust me you do! i have no idea how to describe it without spoiling any of the plot, however, i will say that this is basically just Straight Up a novel and has developed a little fandom of itself which is honestly so lovely to see, so!

faded with uncertainty (romantic prinxiety): in the aftermath of ‘dealing with intrusive thoughts,’ roman finds virgil crying in the midst of the mindscape and comforts him in the aftermath of That Reveal that virgil had in the video

blanket!verse (romantic prinxiety, romantic logicality): a few oneshots of varying topics, this deals with virgil and his anxiety in his new relatinoship, as well as patton’s tendency to hide emotions, with fluff involved in each. (canoodling especially it’s so soft and fluffy and just!!!)

track seven (romantic logicality): logan struggles with his emotions and snaps and blows up at everyone; patton tries his best to get to the bottom of it.

lovely, dark, and deep (romantic analogical) by @teacupfulofstarshine:  MERMAIDS!!!! virgil’s a doctoral student and thomas is his advisor, and logan, roman, and patton are all mermaids, of a sort. very good, very gay, the imagery is spectacular and it is Good! Stuff!!!

little and broken (but still good): moxiety as dads! logan, roman, and thomas are their kids! they’re all so good! so cute! really great family feels! i cry every single time! the domesticity! the FLUFF! it is a masterpiece!

the pattonella au (romantic analogical, romantic royality): oh my actual god, star, YOUR MIND, this au is just such a wonderful take on the cinderella fairytale and putting it within the context of the sides with its own little twists and turns, they are Cute and Good and the development of the relationship in the aftermath of a cinderella-type event is just chef’s kiss 

living in the real world (ain’t it fun): the sides coalesce into the real world, and thomas is KIND OF FREAKING OUT about it; they’re having trouble adjusting, at first, but since the work’s still in progress you can see them kind of slowly coming to terms with it and it’s just a take on the “sides become people” au that i’ve never really seen before so!!!!!!

stardust sleeper (and the college!verse in general): logan gets to take the nap He Deserves, there are Cute Accents in here, and it’s just a very cute, very good domestic slice-of-life in the midst of the chaos that is college. it’s Very Cute and Very Sweet and please just read it oh my god???? 

internal bleeding (past romantic logicality, romantic prinxiety) by @princelogical: virgil and roman come to visit patton at christmas, in the aftermath of patton’s husband’s death; his husband is very aware that he’s dead, but he hasn’t been able to leave yet. angst, hurt/comfort, Oh My Fuckin God

the queerplatonic logince verse: logan and roman are in a queerplatonic relationship, and the stuff that entails. i just really like it whenever someone focuses on aro or ace sides, and i think this is a really well-done portrayal of the fact that relationships absolutely do not need to be romantic in order to be significant.

i feel like it’s just me: patton is a professional cuddler, and the people he meets in the course of that job, ft. some patton angst and general thoughts about loneliness. to quote, “this is more of a concept piece,” but i very much like the concept

lists.: just a short, sweet lil thing about the other sides appreciating logan.

hold your breath until it’s okay by insertfandomjoke, @notafeeling on tumblr: a brooklyn 99 style au in which logan is the captain, and virgil, roman, and patton are the detectives—it’s a “Five Times They Closed a Case Without Anyone Getting Hurt and the One Time They Didn't” au. 

in which we are all virgil: in which virgil stares at elliott and thinks “oh no they cute!!!” and also presents elliott as joan’s anxiety and dr. picani as a fusion between patton and logan and it just. Good!

sweaters: patton makes his boyfriends all christmas sweaters and They Cute

habits (romantic logicality) by @astralbone: human au, slice-of-life kind of thing. the characterizations are Very Good and honestly i just really love to read it. both of them are hurting and their life may not be perfect but they’re fitting together and it’s just. it’s Very Good

sanders sides ficlets by @virgilsjourney: ranging a variety of topics/timespans in terms of the series, there is a ton here. you want movie night fluff? it’s here! you want hurt/comfort angst in which roman is locked away like in the snow queen? you got it! you want logan and patton mend up after moving on???? it’s here! just a lot of really good stuff!!!!!!

blink back to let me know (romantic moxiety, hinted romantic logince) by @virgilsanxiety and @shakespearesocks: virgil and patton are both pining, logan and roman don’t get paid enough for this, and they are Good Soft Boys who maybe need to improve a bit at communication

logic’s notebooks (romantic analogical) by @parsnipit: logan keeps notebooks about all the sides and feels bad about it; in the midst of all this, some Very Great domestic analogical

and you lied to all your selves (romantic prinxiety, romantic logicality) by penrosequartz: i haven’t read this in a minute, but it’s a prinxiety fic in which they get closer, and virgil is being, well, anxious, and i’d recommend you read the warnings but!!! loosely structured, good characterization, it’s just some! good! stuff!

migraine (analogical) by @theonlyjelly-iwillput-inmybelly (philosophicalrune on ao3): virgil is overworking himself through a migraine, logan helps him feel better, and tries his best to make virgil feel better. it’s cute and sweet and very good in terms of hurt/comfort, i tend to go back to it whenever school is stressing me out, so that should tell you something!

smile (platonic moxiety) by @doggo-fiends-on-a-spaceship: to steal their alternative title, “Alternatively titled: Virgil has a nightmare and wants a hug, but being emotionally constipated, Cannot Ask for one.” virgil has a nightmare and spends the night in patton’s room; the trouble is, patton did not know that he was doing that until he nearly trips over virgil. they are Good Boys and it’s just Real Nice

again, this is a tiny, miniscule fraction of really spectacular fics in this fandom—there’s a lot of talented people here, so happy reading!

[dickgreyson]

i think its like super interesting to look at dick and jason’s relationship because you know what? neither of them could ever win.

When bruce took jason in, he was looking for another dick, and he kinda found one. Jason was iike dick on steroids, bolder, more reckless, more confident, and just kinda everything that dick embodied as robin, but a little more. and the more he was extra, the more bruce rewarded him. He took one look at that disaster of a kid jacking his tires and he saw what dick could have become if he was left in the system, and he also saw an impressionable kid that he could mould the way he couldnt with dick. he was younger when he took him in, and passed the authority over to alfred. this was his do-over.

and honestly? thats kinda what happened. he adopted jason off the bat, treated him like a son, encouraged jason to call him dad in a way he never did with dick. and that was all dick wanted, a family. and dick resented both bruce and jason for that. he was the replacement, he felt that he was never good enough for bruce’s affection. since he was so willing to give it to jason.

And as time went on, dick went to exorbitant lengths to be the perfect son. he stuck around, was consistent and dependable, was bruce’s number one go to fix-it kid. he even took on the mantle of batman and trained bruce’s son. and jason hated him for that.

Jason saw him as a goodie two-shoes, a tryhard, someone without a backbone. and that was a complex that he single handedly forged. by being bruce’s first official son, he set up the dynamic going forward. and honestly there was no way for any of this to go right. bruce was so ham-handed in everything he did with these two kids, that the only POSSIBLE result was mutual resentment.

dick fans put the blame on jasons killing. jason fans put the blame on dick’s distance. but it couldnt go any other way. it was doomed from the start. and i find that really sad, since theyre such interesting characters who COULD have a strong bond, forged through adversity and mutual respect, if only dc would let them