#kane and I have been watching bones and it’s been fun

[deityofhearts]

i need to stop reading too much into things/reading too much into nothing

[trekkele]

I recently saw the post about Jason and Cass not having to get along, and how that adds to their dynamic.

So I was wondering, are there any other interesting facts/headcanons about relationships in the Batfam?

Your own or some you simply stumbled across?

Because what frustrates me is the absolute lack of nuance in relationships in a lot of in most of Batfam centric fan-works.

The extent to which people write Bruce as either an absolute peace of shit, or as someone who will kiss his kids feet and beg them for the slightest bit of attention

(this being the supposedly "good" parenting- which… No? That ain’t it)

Because something I find incredibly compelling about their dynamics is the absolute loyalty Bruce often on the receiving end of.

Even when they are on terrible terms, if Bruce calls, they answer. (Usually, of course there are exceptions)

Some interesting facts/ideas about their relationships I saw were;

Dick hating Jason back when he was Robin. (Because they all a bit possessive of the Bat/insecure about their place at his side)

Tim not being Jasons fan even before the murder attempt (I read somewhere that DICK was the Robin Tim admired, and that made much more sense to me)

Cass and Dick having a tense relationship because Cass can read and understand Bruce so well, when Dick was the one who knew him best for so long.

Alfred and Bruce having a slightly more complicated relationship (I‘m so sick of 'perfect Alfred makes no mistakes' I swear. If Alfred had been as good a parent as everyone pretends (in comics or fandom) Bruce would at least be a SLIGHTLY more well adjusted individual)

Sorry for the rambling- I kinda got away from what I was asking 😅

So yeah, anyone else you feel has a more difficult relationship than fandom would have you believe?

All the kids with the justice league, and specifically Clark.

No listen hear me out, Bruce’s big possibly life changing injuries? They happen with the league most of the time, because thats when he’s fighting a minor god or a sentient star or whatever. But thats also when all his allies are super powered people, thats when he should be safest. Instead he keeps coming back from league missions with close calls and broken bones.

And Clark especially, what do you mean your best friend is Superman and your arm broke in the three places on that last mission. Where was he??

Alfred and Clark having a 😒 relationship is always fun too, because while kids wont see it or realize it Clark has absolutely witnessed how Alfred parents Bruce and how … less then ideal it can be.

Kate and Alfred, because of backstory reasons (did Alfred do nothing to keep the Kanes in contact with Bruce?? Why??) and also because it would be funny.

Cass and Jason is a good one and it makes so much more sense then the usual “cass loves her big little brother uwu” because i think what Cass would love about Jason would be stealing his weapons and hiding them and watching him lose his mind. Stop bringing guns into her dads house he doesnt like them and its his house.

I think. Oh this is going to be a hot take. I think Bruce resents when Tim tries to patronize or parent him. You know exactly what i mean right, that very specific flavor of infantilization you see in Tim-and-Bruce fics where Tim is a genius brilliant boi and Bruce is just led around by the nose? Hate it and i think Bruce hates it and knows exactly when Tim is trying it. Does he look like Jack Drake?? No?? Good because he was getting worried. (Bruce loves Tim. He loves how much Tim cares. He does not love how Tim thinks caring means permission to run his life).

Another hot take, i dont think Alfred and Jason got along as well as they did until after Jason resurrected. I think baby Jason treated Alfred the way Alfred treated him, so more like two people living in the same space who mutually respect each other them like grandparents. I think Jasons death and his anger at Bruce and Dick made him want/need a neutral person to project his happy memories onto, and Alfred was that person.

Duke being wary of Jason and Red Hood - because he remembers how many people lost people to Red Hood when he first arrived, and i dont care what comics told you there is no way he did what he did without collateral damage.

Damian and Dick should have a messy, complicated, resentful relationship. Damian wanted his father, no matter how good a replacement you write Dick as that isnt what he wanted. Dick also wanted his dad, and he didnt want to be Batman or a parent or any of it, and the fact that Bruce was actually alive and if hed only moved faster, if the JL had only been smarter, if someone had been paying attention, he never would have had to do any of it. And im going to he so honest right now the way fandom writes their “good” relationship is so bad sometimes. I hesitate to use the word toxic because yaknow its been done to death but seriously.

Anyways i think i hit enough hornets nests here, but will leave with, good parenting does not always look like you think it should. Allowing your children to violate your boundaries, always taking full responsibility for mutual miscommunications and misunderstandings, and never letting them suffer consequences for actions they take is just setting them up for failure.

[not-a-space-alien]

K&J x MMSS 3: Kane & Valen Part 5

Chapter 5 of the third crossover with @whumpsday!

Let's see what our two chewtoys heroes can manage this time!

K&J masterlist

MMSS masterlist

K&J x MMSS crossover masterlist

SERIES IS 18+ ONLY.

Content warnings: Burns, torture, restraint, references to off-screen noncon, misgendering of a trans character, mentions of suicide, major character death, blood blood blood

To be added to the taglist, contact @whumpsday

The experiment is coming to an end. Kane knows this. He's nearly fully-fed by this point: though his skeletal appearance still suggests weakness, his sunburns are nearly healed by the time Nick applies fresh ones. But he hasn't let his strength show at all.

Poor Valen's had to watch him be fed every day, back so burnt it looks like used firewood.

Kane knows this is his only chance. After this, Nick will stop feeding him, and the energy that flows through him will fade. He has to try. What does he have to lose, after all? All he needs to do is get close enough to Nick to overpower him.

His suspicions about the experiment are confirmed when Nick comes down at night for the first time since they started. No more data to mess up.

"Hello, sir," Kane croaks meekly, waiting for Nick to approach him.

All alone, in secret, at night.

Nick smiles wickedly. "It's good to see you again, Kane. Something seems different. Did you miss my afterdark visits? I suppose you might have. There's no sun this time, after all."

"Yes, I prefer without the sun, sir," he says quietly.

"Good." He dangles the silver key in front of Kane. He always enjoys watching Kane burn himself while holding it. "Now go take Valen out of the coffin. I've been imagining some fun things we could do with those burns. It's a pity yours are almost gone."

"Yes, sir." Kane feels like his heart is about to beat out of his chest. He hasn't been defiant in a long, long time.

But he has to. If not for himself, then for Valen.

He takes the silver key, the familiar sensation of burning fingertips greeting him once again. He holds it securely despite the singe.

There's still time to change his mind. He could be good and retrieve Valen from the coffin, just as he's been told. But he doesn’t.

He drops the key and grabs Nick's wrist instead, finding his grip strong once again, stronger than it’s been since his capture. Before he has time to react, Kane pulls him to the floor, wrenching the arm behind Nick and digging a knee into his back to keep him there. His breathing quickens with panic at the irreversibility of what he's just done.

Nick's face drops into something he hasn't felt, or shown, in a very long time: genuine fear. "Kane, stop this at once! Release me!" He feels the strength in Kane's grasp, suddenly realizing how lax it had been to keep a full strength vampire the way Kane is supposedly contained, and to draw close while alone. Even though Kane is chained to the floor, getting within arm's reach had been a huge mistake. The grip is iron-tight. Kane could squeeze and shatter his bones if he felt like it. The sensation of being overpowered by a vampire triggers deep-seated memories, ones he'd pushed down and buried, and he's a boy of 19 again, helpless before a group of vampires laughing and playing with him.

His face twists into a snarl. No, he's the one in control here, not Kane. How dare this lowly leech think he can do something like this? Nick had thought both of his vampires would have been beaten into submission by now, lost their will to fight, especially Kane, who'd arrived deferent and scared and already trained like a dog. He switches tactics, hoping that if he just speaks authoritatively enough, Kane will get scared and go back to being submissive, if he can just trigger that part of the vampire's brain. "Research subject #2, this is not according to protocol."

Kane knows what he has to do. Nick's keys are all right there. All he has to do is make Nick not a threat anymore.

If he pushes his knee down with all the force he has, he'll crush the human's spine. That kills humans, he thinks.

But he's being disobedient, and that scares him, especially when Nick uses that voice. So he freezes: not letting go, but not finishing it yet, either.

"Wh-what else am I supposed to do, sir?" Kane starts to cry, his tears pattering onto Nick's arm. "I can't, I can't do it anymore, I just wanna go home!"

"You lost that right a long time ago when you decided to be a monster," Nick snarls. "You know this is what you deserve. You know you don't deserve to be free and happy. What you're good for now is being of use to humans. Now let me up, Kane."

Kane stays like that for a long moment. Then says, "You're right. I deserve it. But Valen doesn't."

He pushes his knee down hard, all at once. Despite everything, he wants to give Nick a quick death. There's a sickening crack. It’s immediately apparent that’s not enough on its own, and when he hears the scream, he targets Nick's neck next. Then it's over.

"I'm s-sorry sir, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he babbles, picking up Nick's keys with shaking hands. Many of them are silver, and his hands quickly become more and more burnt, but he feels more than ever that he deserves it. He unlocks his own restraints, picks the coffin key off the floor, and heads over to unlock Valen, still crying.

Valen watches incredulously as Kane kills Nick. This has to be a dream, right? A fevered dream his mind is conjuring up in his haze of pain to comfort himself. He'd thought about Kane just a little too hard as he fell asleep, imagined Kane taking care of him too much. He'd spent most of his time recently staring at Kane, either while the other vampire slept or as he prattled on and on while Valen couldn't respond. Loving him silently, his one comfort, and alternatively being afraid of him and hating him. Of seeing his strength grow, knowing how his hands could hurt Valen's vulnerable flesh, of how Nick would tell him to and he would do it, because Kane always does what he's told...

Valen whimpers, overcome by emotions, scared at the violence, disbelieving that things could get better, unable to trust the simple vision that he's seeing, of his tormenter dead on the floor.

Kane unlocks the coffin, dropping the key singing his hands. "I c-couldn't get my own cuffs off," he explains, having been unable to reach the keyholes with his hands bound. He unlocks Valen's, then holds the key out. "Could you? I'm sorry it's silver." 

Eyes wild, Valen yanks Kane's hands towards Valen's head, where the muzzle is, emphatically gesturing for him to take it off.

TAKE IT OFF TAKE IT OFF NICK IS DEAD IT CAN COME OFF.

Kane tries to, out of sheer instinctive obedience, but he can't. "I can't reach. If, if you take my cuffs off, I can do it." He holds his bound hands out to Valen pleadingly. "I'm so excited to finally talk with you."

Huffing, still looking feral, Valen takes the key, and immediately drops it when it singes his hand, shaking his hands and whining. He keeps a hand on Kane's wrist and kneels down, bringing Kane down with him, groping for the key, finding it, and again pulling his hand away out of reflex at the burn. His eyes wheel around wildly, sobbing, and he finally manages to hold onto the key long enough to stick it in the lock on Kane's wrists and turn it, unlocking him

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you, Valen." Kane reaches up, and finally, finally removes the muzzle from Valen's face, tossing it to the ground.

Valen's mouth is free. As soon as the bit slips out of his mouth, Valen shoves Kane unceremoniously away--or tries to, at least, Kane is much stronger than he is now, so all he manages is to push awkwardly past him diagonally, because he's going for--

He falls to the ground over Nick's body, his frame trembling with an explosive mix of emotions. He bites into the corpse's throat like an animal, savagely tearing it open and releasing the human blood. He laps it up feverishly, tearing away more and more skin like a lion on a kill, like a shark in a feeding frenzy, painting himself with blood down his neck and chest and up to his elbows, cracking bones and ripping limbs in his frantic mission to extract as much blood as possible from this corpse.

He gorges himself, well past his stomach's limits, and he leans over and vomits it all back up rather quickly, then immediately goes back to the body for more, in a haze of violence and blood and quenching the dark urges he's been unable to indulge for the past few months. He pants and growls, mutilating Nick's corpse almost beyond recognition, a pool of blood that his clumsy, uncoordinated feeding failed to capture spreading out across the concrete floor, soaking his knees and feet.

Kane is already fed. He's glad to see Valen able to sate her hunger now, the guilt having been eating him alive for a while. "Drink up. It's okay. You won't go hungry again. I'm going to take us home."

While Valen feeds, Kane goes over to Nick's desk, grabs a pen and paper, and leaves a note:

I'm sorry. I never wanted this. I didn't want to hurt anyone. But I just couldn't take it anymore. It hurt too much. Tortured during the day and raped during the night, over and over with no end, nothing but pain and misery. I just wanted to go home.

You would have done the same, if he was doing it to you.

Kane

He reveals Nick's secret as a final fuck-you to him. He can't be punished for it now, and he won't have to see the humans' faces when they learn what’s happened to him.

He then goes to sit beside Valen, waiting for her to finish.

Valen stiffens and crouches over the corpse, as though defending a kill from a predator, but then comes to his senses a little. He looks down at his shaking hands, dripping with blood, then back at Kane. His savior. "I-" he croaks. "I- I-"

Kane hugs Valen- not fully, being mindful of her severely burned back, but as much as he can without touching her injuries. "It's over." He pulls back so he can look her in the eyes. "Kane de Sang. Nice to formally meet you." He gives her a small smile.

Valen leans into the touch, gripping him like he's going to fall off the earth, smearing blood all over Kane. "V-V-V-Valen," he says. "Tha-ank-you."

"Let's- let's get out of here. Let's go home." He pulls off Nick's shoes and pants, putting them on himself, but both end up being too big, leaving Kane with a frustrated sigh. He tosses them back over to Nick. "Guess I'm running barefoot. It'll be fine. I've got the strength and speed, you've got the persuasion in case we run into anyone. Together we make a whole vampire. Do you... want to try the shirt?" It's covered in blood. "Considering, um," He gestures to his own chest with a blush.

Valen listens to Kane, trying to make his brain understand what he's saying. It finally clicks --the clothes, Valen hasn't thought of himself as a creature who wears clothes in a while, hadn't considered the possibility of dressing himself. Valen almost laughs at Kane's embarrassment at suggesting Valen cover himself. He'd almost forgotten he was topless.

He reaches over and pries Nick's shirt off his body; it's soaked with blood, and torn a little, and it slaps wetly against Valen's skin as he puts it on. It sounds like they’re going somewhere, so maybe he’ll suck on it later… as a road trip snack.

The shirt is far too large for him, of course, and it hangs down to his thighs like a short dress. "Where are we going?" he rasps. Even if he'd had the mental fortitude to be anxious about what Kane plans for him, he wouldn't have the strength to fight him off.

And....this is Kane. His Kane. It feels like he should be anxious, but he isn't.

"We could go to my parents- I'm sure my house isn't mine anymore, I'd have been assumed dead years ago. Or we could go to your and Priscus's home, if you give me directions?" Kane suggests.

"You-you think we can make it all the way to the border? What if, what if the sun comes up? What time is it? What if there are hunters?"

"I don't know. I, I don't know. I have no idea where we are," Kane admits. "If it's not cloudy, we can use the stars to get to vampire territory in general, since all we need is a general direction? We just... we just have to hope, about the sun. It can't be too far away, if there's a hunter base, right? They wouldn't need many hunters far away from vampire territory? I don't know how late it is. If there's hunters... you need to use persuasion. I can't." Kane becomes more and more visibly terrified of their task as he speaks. "It's better than staying here."

Kane's mounting fear starts to put Valen ill at ease again. Oh God, they have no idea what to do, either of them, and if they choose wrong it would be disastrous.

Kane kneels on the ground, facing away from Valen. His back is definitely burned, but nowhere near as badly as Valen's. "I don't want to hurt you by carrying you in my arms, you're so burned. Climb onto my back?"

Valen clambers up onto Kane's back, holding his legs out so Kane can loop his arms under them. Oh, this is nice, being carried. Maybe this will be all right.

Kane winces as he feels the crispy backs of Valen's knees. "I'm sorry. I can't think of a better way to do this."

He heads up the stairs and to the front door cautiously. He knows the building is empty- if there were more humans here, he would be able to smell and hear them, but he's so paranoid. Thankfully, it's not cloudy out, and he can see the stars well enough to navigate approximately. Unfortunately, the position of the moon indicates they only have about half the night.

"Fuck. We, we've got to go." Kane starts running, his feet quickly becoming scraped up, but he doesn't care. That's the least of his problems right now. He can't even go in a straight line- he has to avoid human settlements, sticking to empty stretches wherever he can.

Valen loves being carried, he decides. He loves finally being able to speak to Kane, to say thank you. It's the first time in months someone has been kind to him, and he feels so safe and secure now, with Kane strong again.

He doesn't know how far away they are, but as the night drags on and on, Kane gets nervous. He stops so he can speak to Valen. "The sun will rise in around an hour. We need to find shelter."

Valen whimpers when Kane points out the impending proximity of sunrise. "Y-yes. Yes, you're right, we need to hide. I just--I just hope no one stumbles across us and calls the hunters."

"We're hours away. It wouldn't be the same hunters. They'd..." Kane looks around, his thoughts escaping him as he takes in where they are.

The landscape looks familiar.

"Valen?" His voice comes out small and scared. "I- I think we're in the area my old hunters work in."

"What?" Valen says, aghast. "The-the ones who tortured you senselessly?" Oh, he would hate to run into any of them. Hate, hate, hate. They couldn't run into them, they just couldn't. They're so close.

Kane bursts into tears. "I can't do it again, I can't! We just got out!" he bawls. "W-what do we do? The sun's going to rise in an hour!"

Valen is also starting to panic. "We--we have to hide. And if anyone stumbles across us, I can use persuasion on them. We have to just hide."

But they catch vampires with persuasion all the time.

Kane doesn't say it. There's nothing they can do except hide. "O-okay," he says shakily. "We'll just hide. And... and worst case scenario, we can just- we could die. If they find us. Together."

Valen lets out a strangulated sob. He doesn't want to die, not really. But....based on the things Kane has said in the past... Maybe that would be preferable, if these hunters find them.

"Let's--let's just hide. They probably won't even find us. They're probably not even looking for vampires during the day. Let's just find somewhere to shield ourselves from the sun."

"Right. You're right, and if they find us at night, I can just run." That calms him down a little. He's not unprepared like he was the first time he was captured, and he's much faster than any human.

He manages to find a wooded area, where even if their shelter does fail, the trees will block most of it and they'll only be burned a little- and there are plenty of sticks around to offer an emergency exit. He sets Valen down and begins digging a hole in the ground, unsure of what else to do. "We can bury ourselves, and leave a tiny hole that won't shine on us so we can breathe and see when the sun sets?" Kane shakes with terror. 

It occurs to Valen that he has to step up, now. Kane has a phobia of the sun, far above and beyond what all vampires feel, beyond even Valen's fear of the sun. He's been remarkably brave this whole time, even at the mention of dying, but Valen can see he's trying not to cry at the thought of the sun.

Valen gently takes his arm. It's easier to be brave for someone else. This must be the feeling that has been driving Kane. "It will be okay. You won't get stuck in the sun. If we get burned, we'll be able to move out of it. There are plenty of fallen tree limbs around. Why don't you gather up some of those, and we can make a lean-to? Or if digging would make you feel better, we can dig a pit. There are enough fallen leaves that we can pile them on top and block out the sun. Or we can find an overhang somewhere, and block it off." 

Kane stops mucking about in the dirt, looking desperately up at Valen with tears in his eyes. For the first time in years, someone's helping. "Okay," he agrees quietly. "You're, you're right. There's no straps. We can move. Th-thank you." He starts gathering the materials and constructing a lean-to around Valen, quick and panicky as dawn approaches.

He sits next to Valen, then digs a shallow pit and covers his body in dirt, given his state of undress, just in case. Only his head and arms remain out. "Thank you f-for being here with me. I don't know if I could have even killed Nick if you weren't there too."

Valen lays down next to Kane and snuggles up to his side. As they'd done before, with Nick watching, but this time, there's nothing except the inside of their little shelter. "Thank you for saving me." He puts his forehead to Kane, closing his eyes.

Kane wraps an arm around Valen. "Of course. I'm so, so glad I could get you out of there. I can't believe... it's really over. It doesn't feel real,” he says in awe. "Um, can I ask... tell me about yourself? I've been talking your ear off for- weeks? months? But I know nothing about you."

Oh no, Kane wants him to talk. He doesn't feel the need to hide anything, but suddenly his brain locks up, forgetting every single thing about himself before he'd been locked in a cage. He wasn't good at making decisions. "Oh, of course...like what--what would you like to know?"

Kane shrugs. "What were you doing, before all this? Housewife duties, or something else...? What kind of music do you like? I feel like we've become... friends?" He says it hesitantly, in case it's not true, in case Valen doesn't see him as worthy of friendship. "But I don't know any of the things friends would normally know about each other.”

Valen's eyes are downcast now. "For a long time I was the mistress of the Kithrara estate, but my husband and I separated a while ago." Brushing over the disaster that'd been by calling it separated. "And since then I mostly-" Kane might think it stupid if he told him about his lofty dreams he'd been hoping to accomplish with the power of science, which he'd used to think could make anything possible. "I'd mostly pursued my own interests, which I'd been denied while living as a housewife. And as for music..." He snuggles closer. "I rather liked the kind you sang to me."

Kane smiles. "No one's wanted me to sing since I was a child. Since before... you know. My defect. I'm glad I could at least do a little something to make it better for you." He rests his head on Valen’s shoulder. She was extremely vague about her interests, but he won't push it. "I'm sorry about your husband. I can't presume to know what it's like... to be a woman and all, but I've had my interests denied too."

At the mention of being a woman, Valen struggles to decide whether or not to have that conversation with Kane. He doesn't want to lose what they have. Would Kane be disgusted by him? Would he patronizingly deny Valen's identity, or even worse, somehow accept it but then be disgusted that he'd been intimate with a man?

Still, Valen smiles softly. "Life is hardly a competition of who's been cursed with the worst situation, my dear Kane. But even if it was, I think you and I would be at a stalemate on that front." The smile fades. "It's a tragedy your family forced you to abandon your passions for some antiquated sense of family embarrassment. The world has been denied your beautiful voice.... You told me before about your friend Bellamy... would it be feasible to aim for his place? I rather like what you said about him, and...I don't think the two of us would be very comfortable either at your family's house or the Kithrara estate." Valen thinks that if he has to listen to captive humans, or even worse, will only be fed if it's directly from a human, he'll lose it.

Kane looks anxious. "He's not really... my friend. We haven't been friends in around a century. I don't even know if he would want to see me again. I was horrible to him." He thinks about it a moment. "But he did say... his door was always open to me. I suppose we could give it a try, and go to my parents' if that doesn't work out. I didn't know you and your husband were separated when I suggested that. Wait! Wouldn't that mean you have your own home? We could just go there?"

"Oh, I-" He blushes. "I did, yes. I do. I don't have the key, though. I don't have servants or anything there. It must look awfully abandoned. I do wonder if anything has happened to it."

"Okay, so we could possibly go there. Bellamy lives pretty close to the border though, so that might be more convenient. How deep into vampire territory do you live?" 

"Well....Not close to the border. I would say Bellamy's house is closer. Although, if Bellamy turns us away, we could certainly make it." His flush reddens at the thought of being alone at home with a man, as though he and Kane haven't already had sex. ....that didn't really count, though. It wasn't sex, not really. It had been....something else. "I could--I could share my books with you, in that case. And I have quite a large, comfortable bed. Although, obviously you would be welcome to sleep separately. If you wanted to." Valen is secretly extremely desperate to sleep next to Kane, not having felt as safe as he did now while touching him in a long time.

"I would want to share." Kane says immediately. "I don't want to be alone. I haven't been apart from you since... my old hunters." He shudders. "If- only if you're comfortable with that, of course. I'd understand if you're not, after... what we were made to do. I'm sorry. I know I've said it before, but I'm sorry. I never wanted to be a- a rapist." His eyes flood with tears.

"Kane." Valen puts a hand on his cheek, wiping a tear away with the pad of his thumb, then tilts Kane's face so they can make eye contact. "You did not rape me. Nick did. He just used you to do it. I know what being raped feels like, and how to identify who it is who's doing it. It wasn't you. It was never you."

"It wasn't?" His voice is small and fragile. "Nick- Nick said..." You will be in a few minutes. Those words have been playing in his head ever since that night. "Okay. If, if you say so, then it must be true." It feels like a giant weight off his shoulders. He relaxes against Valen.

"Nick said that because he knew it would hurt you. That was always what he wanted. I know there are grievous sins in your past, but as long as we've known each other, you've been nothing but as kind to me as circumstances allowed."

Dawn approaches. Kane stares at the blue on the horizon, whimpering, clinging to Valen desperately.

Valen keeps a strong grip on his hand. "We'll be all right. We are free to move around. If anything goes wrong, we can cover ourselves. There is no one here to make us stay in it."

The sun rises, and for once, nothing happens. There's no horrible, burning agony erupting across his body. Kane is in awe of it. He's still terrified, but somewhat less so now that it's actually happening.

"We should sleep in shifts," he suggests. "We can't both be asleep at the same time. You're the one who's injured worse, so, um, ladies first. I'll wake you if anything happens. I'll protect you, I promise."

Oh, they're definitely going to have to talk about that. Kane is one of those people who thinks he's being polite by acknowledging Valen's apparent femaleness. They can do that later, though.  "Thank you. I could use some sleep.  And at nightfall, I can ride on your back again.  I like being tall enough to see further out.  I’ll be the lookout, and you the noble steed.”  He smiles.  “Well, good morning." He wants to curl up into a ball, but that would aggravate his burns, so he simply lies flat facedown on the ground. He manages to get to sleep all right, surprisingly enough, tucked away in the safety of their cozy little shelter, up against each other.

***

K&J x MMSS crossover taglist:

@barebarb

@cc1010foxy

@emcscared-whumps

@melancholy-in-the-morning

@pigeonwhumps

@secretwhumplair

@some-thrilling-heroics

@t0rture-me

@thecyrulik

@thejinglingcourtjester

@vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff

@whuarri

@whump-cravings

@whump-my-heart-away

@whumpycries

@wolfeyedwitch

@why-not-ask-me-a-better-question

[yletylyf]

Rules: list eight TV shows for your followers to get to know you better!

Thank you for the tag @jhalya <3

Tagging @cindle-writes, @atomic-space-babe, @heavy-metal-dick, @ashesandhackles, @givereadersahug, @phantomato

I think I’ll list the shows I’ve watched recently, no clue how I would tackle an all-time favorite list.

1. Shadow and Bone

I never got around to watching season 1 before season 2 came out, so I’ve been binging all the episodes over the past week or so. I did not particularly like reading these books, and I do not particularly like the show. It’s a good production - it’s pretty and I like the actors, who do a great job.

My problem with this verse is that I loathe the main character, books and show alike. I am only in this fandom because I like villains and my friends keep trying to convince me the Darkling is the best villain. And he is a great villain! I’m desperate, however, for content about him that is neither canon nor his popular fandom ship. I’m reading some promising Nikolai/Darkling fics, and slowly trying to finish season 2 of the show.

2. The Mandalorian

I am an extremely casual, not-really-a-fan SW fan. I have like, seen all the movies and the live-action TV shows, and even some of the really bad cartoon, but find most of the content entirely forgettable. So, here I am, dutifully watching the latest in my very casual way. The negative is that I don’t care about the plot of this show (is there a plot in this season?) Positive points in season 3: Elia Kane was smoking hot and also a villain. Wooow! Plus, Bo-Katan is growing on me. Oh yeah, and baby Yoda is the best SW character.

3. House of the Dragon

I thought I would hate this show because I really, really hated Game of Thrones. And there was plenty I did hate about HotD - fuck every single one of those graphic childbirth/dying in childbirth/miscarriage scenes, why do the writers have such a hard-on for women suffering in ways unique to the female anatomy? Fuck off and die. 

I like dragons! I like Rhae and Ali (preferably shipped together)! I loooove Daemon. The settings are so pretty and the action is great and the unhinged villainy and incest is glorious. I kind of hate every single one of the younger characters though and because of it, haven’t really been able to get into the fandom or most ship fic.

4. Rings of Power

LOVE LOVE LOVE. Oh my god! It awoke my teenage love for LotR (I used to be obsessed) and increased it a hundred fold. A delightful and complicated villain-centric story with a smoking hot actor and all the chemistry with the other leads, in a beloved childhood canon? Holy shit, yes please.

5. Wheel of Time

I mean... I watched it. I think these books are terribly written and can’t stand them, but fine, I’ll watch a TV show about a fantasy canon. Loved the big, central role given to Moraine and loved the Moraine/Siuan. The settings and costumes are pretty. I don’t care about this canon at all. I have tried reading fic as encouragement and just cannot muster any caring about these characters.

6. Ted Lasso

Love it! Haven’t started watching season 3 yet, but I loved seasons 1 and 2. I didn’t expect to like it? Happy optimism, relentlessly feel-good, upbeat characters in a modern setting? Not really my thing. (I mean, does it sound like any other show I’ve listed here?) But it was so charming! The writing so funny and the actors so good. Keeley/Rebecca are a fantastic f/f ship and Ted/Trent are a fantastic m/m ship in fandom. I’m very into it.

7. The Witcher

Hmm. I like dark characters and themes but I don’t like jump-scare, horror/tension stuff. So the Witcher was sort of hard for me to watch. I think it’s better on a re-watch when I know what’s coming. Geralt is gorgeous eye candy for sure. The women are annoying (I don’t like children characters much and I hate plots that are like “all I want is a baby” for women, hate hate hate them, please die, Yennifer’s entire storyline). I love the fun monster-hunt plots and Jaskier!

8. Obi-Wan Kenobi

I wish I liked this. I wish I liked Anakin in particular. I ought to; he fits the character archetypes I love most. His relationship with Obi-Wan should be fascinating???? But I don’t care. I honestly can’t remember what happened in this show.

[asimpforarmin]

What Dog the AoT Characters Would Have 💛

Character(s): Armin Arlert, Sasha Braus, Jean Kirstein, Connie Springer, Bertholdt Hoover, & Annie Leonhardt

Genre: Light-hearted, modern!au

Warnings: Mentions of animal neglect/abuse, some dog breeds commonly perceived as scary, cursing

A/n: I usually include Mikasa in my headcanons, but I just forgot until last minute that she existed ;-; so, sorry for not including her. If someone requests it, I’ll add her to the list.

💛 Armin

His parents got him a beagle puppy for one of his birthdays and he got so attached to it. He was so grateful that he had a dog and absolutely treasures him.

Named him Buddy because he’s his little sidekick and is always fun to play with and snuggle up to.

Buddy almost never shuts up though. A bird flies past the window? He starts barking. A truck goes by? Goes bonkers. He sees himself in the mirror? Shooketh.

Whenever Buddy starts going crazy, Armin picks him up, takes him away from whatever’s bothering him and scratches behind his ears. That makes Buddy practically melt into Armin’s arms and it’s so adorable. 💕

Buddy is very protective over Armin, or as protective as a dog his size could be. He always barks at the doorbell and is very wary of strangers.

If you walk into Armin’s house and Buddy has never seen you before, Armin will be sitting in a chair holding a dog who’s glaring into your soul.

You and Armin will try to have a normal conversation while Buddy is snarling and growling at you with Armin just patting his head and making an expression that says he deals with this all the time.

After a couple visits, Buddy is still tense around you but unwinds once you start playing with him.

Whenever Armin’s studying or working, Buddy will jump up into his lap and snuggle with him.

Sometimes when Armin falls asleep at his desk, he’ll have his arms on the table and Buddy in his lap.

When he’s in the car, Buddy tries to bite cars through the window. He just growls and bangs the glass with his teeth before Armin stops him from chipping a tooth.

Just how Buddy is protective of Armin, Armin’s protective of Buddy.

If someone talks shit about his dog, he’ll get sad about it. Buddy doesn’t deserve to be treated like that, he never hurt anyone.

Buddy can’t be taken to the park because he just agitates other dogs. He never gets along with them and never lets his guard down.

Buddy’s also one of those dogs who gets really dramatic. One time he was laying on the couch with his ball and it rolled off so he just started howling.

It’s also really hard to trim his nails without him growling, even though he’d never bite anyone.

Once Buddy has calmed down around someone, he’s fun to just hang around.

Armin likes to sit on the couch reading with Buddy on his lap or beside him. He’s great to study with or have around.

💛 Sasha

Adopts a 5-year-old blue greyhound from her local shelter.

She’d been volunteering there for a while when the greyhound came in and just couldn’t resist.

With greyhounds being bred to hunt and Sasha coming from a family who has a hunting background, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

She bought her and gave her a bright pink collar with a little dog bone tag with her name etched in it.

Since greyhounds’ necks are so long, she gives her a big knitted scarf to wear in the winter to keep her all nice and cozy.

Was torn between naming her Snickerdoodle or Candy because they’re both cute names and are both foods, but ended up naming her Pumpkin because she couldn’t decide and Pumpkin’s a really cute name as well.

Sasha loves playing fetch with her and it’s so fun because Pumpkin can run really fast, really far.

Pumpkin almost never barks unless she’s having fun or there’s someone at the door.

Sasha’s bed is lofted by a couple feet for storage and Pumpkin has no problem getting on and off her bed.

The first time Pumpkin saw Sasha’s bed, she didn’t know what to do so just sat there looking up at Sasha. It took a couple minutes for her to realize Sasha patting the bed meant she could jump onto it.

Sasha allows her dog on any of the furniture so there’s short hairs all over the couch no matter what.

Pumpkin’s really kind and gentle around kids so Sasha can basically take her anywhere. She’s super well behaved but sometimes scares people because she jumps in excitement.

Sasha also shares her food with her dog all the time. Always packs extra whenever she goes somewhere so she can give some to Pumpkin.

If you moved in with Sasha, Pumpkin would take to you right away.

She would literally be so sweet and always make you happy all the time. 😭💕

Plays tug of war and fetch a lot with you.

If you’re working/eating at a desk, she’ll lean her head on your leg until you pet her or give her food, or both.

Overall, Pumpkin is so sweet and adorable. She will always cheer you up when you need it and always has enough energy to play.

💛 Jean

Adopted a pitbull who is now 6, but was brought into a fighting ring when he was 4.

He knew it would be a challenge to help an abused dog but wanted to give him a good home.

When he first saw him, he was covered in scars and missing part of his ear.

He named him Kane. He’s a beautiful deep reddish-brown color with a white belly.

From the first moment they met, there was a connection. Kane warmed up to Jean quite quickly for a dog who’s been through so much.

Jean took him home and slowly introduced him to lifestyle changes, like going for walks or taking baths.

He introduces him to other dogs too. Kane showed a little hostility in the beginning, but once he realized they weren’t threats he was fine being around them.

Jean pays top dollar for him. Any issue he has, he takes him to the vet and gets it fixed up. He also gets the best food for him because that’s what he deserves.

Kane loves going for car rides. Sometimes Jean will get in the car with him, no destination in mind, and just drive.

Jean rolls the window down and Kane pokes his head outside. His mouth opens and because of the wind going into it, he showers the window behind him in slobber.

Kane absolutely loves swimming. He’s quite good at it, but Jean still takes a lot of safety precautions, such as a life jacket or shallow water because pitbulls are known to be somewhat bad swimmers.

Every summer, Jean takes out a kiddie pool and lets Kane splash around in it.

He also really likes to turn on the hose or sprinkler and aim it at Kane. He jumps up to bite the water and they both have a great time.

It can be a problem though because when Jean’s trying to fill the pool up, Kane keeps batting the hose with his paw or trying to eat the water and Jean has to get him to relax.

Other than his little quirks, Kane’s a relatively chill dog. He’s alright with being dressed up in costumes or having to wear a cone.

Every halloween, Jean gets both of them a matching costume and they sit on the porch to give kids candy.

Jean also lets the kids pet Kane because over time, he gets very welcoming of people and other dogs he doesn’t know.

Long story short, Kane’s not the dog you want to protect your house, if someone broke in, he’d just start wagging his tail and not be able to tell what’s going on.

💛 Connie

Saw how cool Jean’s dog is and also wanted a badass and cool breed.

He ended up adopting a doberman pinscher.

Like Jean’s dog, she looks strong and intimidating.

Unlike Jean’s dog, she acts the complete opposite of how she looks.

She’s often quite jittery or seems scared. Whenever someone even remotely raises their voice, her ears go down and she lowers her head.

You and Connie often have to give her tons of pets and appreciation after shouting, whether it’s good or bad shouting.

She’s also a total cuddlebug. She loves to be on Connie’s lap 24/7 and sleeps right next to him, watching over him.

Because of her timid personality, Connie named her Lily. It’s a sweet and innocent sounding name. Even though he sought her out to be a “cool” dog, she’s super sweet and didn’t want to name her something that conflicted with who she really was.

One thing about Lily is she loves running. Connie likes to skateboard alongside her as she pulls him along. It’s not much effort for her because Connie’s lightweight and uses his feet a lot. Plus, the area they live is pretty flat, so they often do.

Lily has a hard time understanding what is and isn’t a toy. One time she nearly chewed off one of the sofa legs. Next time Connie sat on it, it snapped and then he figured out Lily was behind it.

After that, he trained her to know everything he puts in her basket is a toy, but everything else isn’t. Then, she used the basket as a toy.

She goes through toys lightning quick.

Every time you or Connie give her a new stuffed animal, it takes approximately .2 seconds for it to be torn to shreds.

Connie loves to take her to PetSmart and let her pick out toys in-store.

If she chooses a toy that means Connie won’t need to guess what she likes and what she doesn’t.

One time she chose one of those scented rope toys, but once Connie took the packaging off, she started acting weirdly.

Once he gave it to her, she started barking at it and whacking it with her paw.

Connie was super confused so he threw it and she chased after it like normal, but once she got close to it she started acting scared of it and barking.

It’s been like that ever since now so they just don’t play with that toy.

Lily doesn’t bark that often. She usually only barks from excitement or when she meets someone new.

She also doesn’t have the zoomies that much so she’s a really relaxed dog to hang with.

💛 Bertholdt

Bertholdt saw his neighbors packing their stuff in a van one day and leaving but saw they left their samoyed leashed up outside.

He wanted to hold out hope that they were just going out somewhere for a bit so waited the rest of the night but found the dog still chained up the next morning in the rain.

He was never close to his neighbors and didn’t want any confrontation so he went up and knocked on the door, checking if anyone was home.

No surprise, they weren’t so he cautiously made his way over to the dog.

It was so happy to see someone and started licking his hand right away.

He unchained the dog and led it into his house where he gave it a nice warm bath and some food.

While bathing her, he took off her collar, with the neighbor’s number and address engraved in it along with her name, Mavis.

While Mavis was eating he called the number he found on her tag. He explained that the dog looked like it was left there on purpose so he took it in until they got home. They just said they didn’t want her anymore and hung up, which broke Bertholdt’s heart.

So he took her to the vet, got some pet things because he hasn’t owned a pet previously and she became a big part of his life.

She clings to him everywhere and won’t ever leave his side. Almost never barks and is super good on a leash.

Bertholdt takes her to the dog park a lot, Mavis is very social and has made a lot of friends there.

Mavis has quite the habit of rolling around in the mud or dirt though so Bertholdt has to give her a bath quite often.

Bertholdt absolutely cannot contain the dog hair. There is so much of it and it’s everywhere, went through like 3 lint rollers in the first week.

He spoils her rotten. Whenever he goes shopping he gets her new treats and toys because he swore to do right by her when her old owners didn’t.

If you were brought into the equation, Mavis would love you unconditionally. She’ll be there to give you high-fives and cuddle with you.

She is the softest thing on the planet so the cuddles are amazing. If you and Bertholdt sleep together, she’ll plop herself right in between the both of you so she could get attention until you fall asleep.

Whenever she needs something but isn’t up, she licks your face until you give her what she wants.

Even though she can get quite hot in the summer, she always wants to cuddle and loves to do it, whether it’s with you or Bertholdt.

💛 Annie (normally I don’t write for her but I couldn’t get this scenario out of my head)

Hitch gave her a chihuahua for her birthday even though she never remotely hinted at wanting a dog.

She didn’t want to return it though and oddly liked it, even though she never asked for him.

Just calls him “Dog” for a bit since she doesn’t know what to name him.

He’s a tan deer head dog so Annie gives him the name “Biscuit” after a couple weeks.

It’s super generic but she doesn’t think he needs any fancy name and he looks like a biscuit so 🤷🏻‍♀️

She has one of the backpacks with a compartment to fit a dog.

She likes to put Biscuit in there and take him out when she goes out.

When Annie takes him out, Biscuit is usually pretty chill, aside from giving a couple glares to random people.

Sometimes he even falls asleep in her backpack.

Whenever someone pisses Annie off, Biscuit senses it. Annie isn’t usually one to get into a full-blow fight and be loud, so Biscuit is her volume. Whenever she starts going off, he starts growling and barking.

And when she does get loud, both of them are yelling and screaming so that often deters the other person.

When she first got Biscuit, Annie didn’t really pay that much attention to him. She’d be on the couch and whenever he came up to her with a ball or toy, she’d throw it.

Then as she started to get used to him, she started to like him more.

Nowadays, she sometimes chases him around the house with a smile on her face and it’s so adorable, especially because she doesn’t smile all too often.

Biscuit is relatively calm, even for a chihuahua. He can often be seen on the couch on his back with his tongue out laying in the sun.

Speaking of being on the couch, originally Annie wanted to keep him off all furniture but soon realized he simply wouldn’t stay off and she didn’t want to bother to train him not to.

Now, they share almost everything. She sleeps with him next to her, they relax on the couch together, and sometimes she even brings him up on one of the kitchen chairs and they share food together.

Biscuit hates her alarm clock with a passion. If Annie doesn’t wake up from the alarm, she wakes up from the high pitched barks of her dog wanting her to turn it off.

Once the two are close, they are bonded for life and can be seen everywhere together.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Retrospective Review - Batman: Bad Blood

Batman: Bad Blood ranks as the third Batman related movie in the DC Animated Movie Universe. However, its not a true Batman story, in that its not really about Bruce Wayne Batman. Its more a Batfamily movie. In a way its the origin of the Batfamily. There didn't seem to be any Tim Drake or Jason Todd in this particular continuity. There was only Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne in the Batfamily. This film inducts Kate Kane/Batwoman and Luke Fox/Batwing into the family and even teases Barbara Gordon/Batgirl at the very end of the movie. I would say it probably ranks as my least favorite of the DC Animated Movie Universe Batman films, but there is still enjoyment to be had.

This film isn't based of any comic storyline in particular. It takes some inspiration from the Batman and Robin storyline when Bruce Wayne was dead and Dick Grayson took on the role of Batman and Damian was his Robin. But its not an adaptation of any story during that era. Essentially, the story is about Bruce/Batman's disappearance after the emergence of a mysterious figure called Heretic, with a bunch of other side villains like Killer Moth, Firefly, Mad Hatter, Electrocutioner. As it turns out, Talia is behind it all as she has kidnapped Bruce and brainwashes him so she can use him to take over the world. The film's strength lies in the Bat family. It has been fun from the beginning to watch the chalk and cheese dynamic between Dick and Damian. Its why that dynamic was so appealing in the comics as well. You feel that there is a sense of loyalty towards Bruce, even though they all have some grudges against him. The film also sets up Kate Kane pretty well and gives her an arc where she goes from being alone and guilt ridden due to her part in Batman's disappearance, to playing an active role in bringing him back and saving the world. Similarly, the film introduces Luke Fox as someone who the family already knows and gives him a good reason to get involved and use his father's inventions to become Batwing. The reveal of who the Heretic is and what he is trying to do is interesting and even makes him slightly sympathetic. There are plenty of good action sequences with the climax being a highlight as even Alfred gets to throw his fists and beat up some villains.

What I don't like in this movie is the portrayal of Talia. This is basically Grant Morrison's deranged Talia, who is an out an out villain. Its difficult to reconcile this Talia with the version we saw in Son of Batman. She tortures and kidnaps Bruce and she shows no particular care for Damian. I also didn't like how the movie so casually disposed of Heretic, when he could have been an interesting villain. The idea of him being a clone of Damian is interesting, but the film does nothing with that idea. The film also continues to mishandle Dick's fighting prowess. While I get that Bruce is the superior fighter, I didn't like how Dick gets completely manhandled by him. The whole plot to brainwash world leaders to attain power is also very generic and boring so there isn't much interest when it comes to plot. I also think that Luke Fox's journey to Batwing is abrupt. He gets the bare bones of exposition based characterization before he is shoved front and center in the movie.

The voice acting is strong. Jason O'Mara, Stuart Allan, Sean Maher, and Morena Baccarin reprise their roles effectively as Bruce, Damian, Dick, and Talia respectively. Yvonne Strohovski is a solid Kate and Gauis Charles is a strong Luke. James Garrett effectively takes over the role of Alfred from McCallum. Travis Willingham as Heretic is also good. DC Animation veteran, Jay Olivia, does an effective job with the movie. Its not the most memorable Batman movie around but its a breeze 70 minutes or so. A 6/10 for me.

[hallowed-be-thy-username]

Hi! Can i just say that i absolutely love your writing and your vibe as a whole? 🥺💞 If i may, I’d like to request a fic where the reader is a very well known socialite, but she gets very bored of her life and wants something different. She suddenly meets J in some sort of situation and becomes infatuated with him & his lifestyle. You must be busy with other requests & your personal life, so if anything, i just want you to know that i love your writing! 💘

 Sweet anon!!! AKADJSBAJSND 😭💖 I’m SO sorry this has taken me so long to get to and I hope you see it!! This was a really fun one and I had a great time writing it so I really hope you like it 💕

 Self-insert, Ledger Joker x fem reader, first time meeting Joker

Word count: 1,954

Warnings: tension, light violence

Something Different

Another boring party with boring people in a boring place. How many more of these must you endure?

Ah the fabulous life of the daughter of Dr. Thomas Elliot, famous Gotham City surgeon and longtime family friend of the Wayne family. Being born to one of Gotham’s founding families, she lives a life of luxury. Chauffeurs, butlers, ritzy charity events, fashion shows, brand promos, intense boredom. You were certainly grateful for the fact that finances were never something you had to worry about, but at the same time, money imprisoned you. It controlled your every move like a puppet master. Stand like this, wear that, speak this way, don’t forget to smile. And don’t even think about having your own dreams. You had access to all of the means in the world to do whatever you want, right? Wrong. If it’ll tarnish the family reputation on any way, its not gonna happen. Ever. And you’d be surprised at what they consider “tarnishing.” Learning to drive, going to school, coloring your hair, going on dates, having a job, getting ice cream with friends. What friends? You never got to experience these things. Things that were normal. Now you were in your late twenties and the life of the average young adult was completely foreign to you. Its been ten years now. Since you started to hate this life.

You were attending yet another fundraiser at Bruce’s place. What was it for this time? Friends of the Gotham Railway? Society for the Performing Arts? Gotham Heights Country Club’s new golf course? District Attorney Harvey Dent. Didn’t he just get elected? Okay then. It really doesn’t matter anyway. They’re all the same. Gourmet hors d’oeuvres, expensive champagne, some phony inspirational speech, bland conversation, smile through how much your feet hurt in these heels, send a check tomorrow. The predictability you lived your life by was astonishing. When were you finally going to get to do something different?

You lifted another glass of champagne from the tray drifting past you and took a heavy sip. Can’t get to drunk though, what would the media say? You were tempted to do it on purpose, just to mix things up for once. The sound of rough whirring broke you out of your melancholic trance and you turned to see a helicopter landing on the roof top balcony outside. The man himself arriving ever so fashionably late. Linking arms with three women you could only assume to be models, how classy. And here comes the motivational speech. I believe in Harvey Dent, a safer Gotham, optimism, face of our bright future, blah blah blah. Now everybody claps. Just wonderful. Back to our mindless mingling.

The evening continued on like they all do. This time you were stuck trying not to stare at the speck of food stuck in Mr. Kane’s teeth while he droned on about the new hotel, they planned to open it across from the opera house. Would it be uncouth to express to him how little you care about any of that? When you were seconds away from excusing yourself for a bogus trip to the ladies’ room, a loud boom rang out from the entryway. You spun around and your body froze at the sound of his voice.

“Goood evening, ladies and gentle-men.”

It felt like ice was running through your veins when you saw him. Purple suit, shotgun over his shoulder, unkempt green hair, painted face. His face. Covered in white with black swallowing his eyes, bright red over his mouth and crawling up his cheeks in a wicked grin. On the news they called him The Joker.

“We are… tonight’s entertainment! I only have one question… Where. Is. Har-vey Dent?”

He was so tall, walking with a slight slouch but had an air of confidence like you’d never seen. Like he knew just how much attention his presence attracted. No, attention it demanded. Like he knew you couldn’t take your eyes off of him. He made it look effortless. Almost like he was bored by it. He tossed food into his mouth, chewing noisily while he spoke. Then he stopped and turned to walk toward the crowd, pointing his shotgun toward the people in front of him before moving on down the line. Your feet grew cold when you realized he was heading in your direction. He tossed champagne out of a glass before mockingly tossing his head back to let the last drop hit his tongue. You couldn’t move a muscle as he leaned in and muttered questions at the people standing nearby. He kept coming. Your heart pounded, climbing into your throat as he got closer.

Then you could see it. It was scars. The red smile stretching across his face, it was painted over scars. Someone had cut through the corners of his mouth on both sides, leaving behind a twisted, permanent, grin. It made your stomach drop. He said something to Mr. Kane, but you couldn’t hear it, only the blood rushing in your ears. He got so close. You swore you could feel the heat from his body, smell something sharp like acetone.

“You remind me of my father.”

Then he suddenly grabbed Mr. Kane by his collar and growled, “I hated my father.”

“Ok, stop.”

Mr. Kane was shoved into you while Joker turned to face the voice coming from behind him. Rachel Dawes, Bruce’s friend for as long as you could remember.

“Well, hello, beautiful. You must be Harvey’s squeeze-ah. Hm?... and you are beautiful.”

He circled her like a wild dog stalking prey, practically licking his chops. Relishing the feeling of cornering his victim. Waving a knife blade at her.

“You look nervous. Is it the scars?... Wanna know how I got ‘em?”

Then he reached forward and gripped her by the back of her neck and her face. You felt your cheeks abruptly grow warmer. He pulled her closer to him, holding her there, not letting her look away. A thought suddenly cut through you mind like the knife in his hand. You wondered if the leather of his gloves felt warm or cool on her skin. Your heart fluttered and a shiver ran down your back. Why were you thinking about that? He intruded without warning and started threatening people, but here you were wanting to know what it was like to be that close to him. You found yourself wishing you were her, just to know what it was like, him touching you.

You hung on to his every word. He had a wife once, who told him he worried to much, that he should smile more, she gambled, got in deep with the sharks. They carved her face, had no money for surgery, she couldn’t take it, he just wanted to see her smile again, he didn’t care about the scars, he stuck a razor in his mouth and did that to himself. He… he did that to himself?

“And you know what? She can’t stand the sight of me! She leaves. Now I see the funny side... Now I’m always smiling.”

You blinked and the next thing you knew, punches were being thrown and men in clown masks were falling to the floor. Batman. The masked vigilante everyone was talking about. He seemed to appear out of nowhere, coming out of the shadows to beat up the bad guys. Reality struck you in that moment. This was real. This was happening. The word surreal doesn’t quite cover it. You wanted something different. Well, this was different. Instead of fear you started to feel something else rising up from inside of you, tingling up your back. Excitement.

A punch from a clown masked man landed square on Batman’s jaw, sending him to his knee and giving Joker the opportunity to start kicking him in the stomach. All you could do was watch, spellbound by the violence occurring before your eyes, wide with anticipation. It almost happened too fast for you to see. He really had nothing holding him back. He couldn’t care less about what people thought of him. Showing up in face paint and a purple suit with a posse of men disguised as scary clowns, commanding even more attention than Bruce. He basked in it, not caring one bit what they thought, only that he left an impression. He did. Especially on you.

You blinked again and he had Rachel. He stood behind her, his arm wrapped around her chest to keep her from running, his other hand waving a handgun in the air. He wasn’t going to drop the gun, not unless Batman took his mask off, show us all who he really was. Then the window behind him shattered with a shot from the gun and he dangled Rachel by her arm out into the open air. Your chest felt tight, as helpless as everyone else watching and unable to do anything about it. But you still couldn’t shake the thrill you felt buzzing in your arms and legs, fogging your mind.

“Let her go,” Batman’s hoarse voice demanded.

Joker squinted his eyes and grinned with ironic amusement as he answered, “Very poor choice of words.”

He let go. His laugh reached down to your bones and held on, pulling you toward him while Batman dove out the window after Rachel. You didn’t know what you were doing but you couldn’t stop yourself. Your feet kept carrying you closer. People all around you started rushing for the exit, running from the taunting men in clown masks like the crowd at a Halloween fun house. Except this was real.

You kept your eyes forward, getting within a few feet of him when he turned and saw you. A chill washed over you, both icy cold and burning hot at the same time when his eyes traveled up and down your body where you stopped in your tracks. Your skin felt like it was on fire.

“Hello, there,” he purred.

You opened your mouth to speak but no sound came out. You just stared at him. Then he started to saunter toward you, slowly closing the gap that separated you, and you almost couldn’t breathe.

The corner of his mouth twitched into a sideways grin. “Aren’t you a pretty little flower, hm?”

Your heart fluttered and your lungs pulled in a sudden gasp of air, that sharp smell filling up your senses. He was right in front of you now. He was right in front of you and you could undeniably feel the heat radiating off of him. Your heart pumped faster, the adrenaline in your veins saturating every tissue. That tingling in your spine came rushing back as his tongue flashed out of his mouth to run along his lip.

“Can I, uh, help you with something, little flower?”

The last sounds of panicked voices faded, and it was completely silent. You were alone. With him. Fear tried to wrestle for a place in the front of your mind, to pull you away, to make you run back toward the door, but the allure you felt was too pervading. You remained still, trying to steady your breath while the gaze from his black-rimmed eyes seemed to swallow you up. Sirens started to echo in the distance.

Then your voice found its way out of your mouth, “I… I just wanted to… um, to get closer.”

His eyebrows shot up and his grin widened as a low hum rumbled in his chest. Your brittle nerves nearly shattered when he lifted his hand and gently took hold of your chin, lifting it and stepping forward to press his chest against yours. “Mmm, this close enough?”

His gloves, they felt cool on your skin.

Taglist!

@youmaycallmebrian​ @heavymetalnarwhal​ @neverputsaltinyoureyes @jokersqueenofchaos​ @into-crazy​ @killingjokee​ @astheworlddturns​

[bellamyblake]

What's your favourite line/passage of a fic you've written in the past year?

That is actually really hard for me to say because I honest to god hate my writing and I don’t think I have written anything actually good this year. I would say I love the last passage of my fanfic Listen to Silence where Bellamy kind of knows that he’ll die in a few years or so but Clarke comes back to their hometown and decides to stay with him. I wrote this fic as a twitter prompt and the person who prompted it never actually read it but I don’t regret writing this fic, it was fun and I hadn’t written a modern AU like this in a while:

When he gets tired and his bones feel heavy, she feels it and pulls his head down to her lap where she runs her fingers through his curls and he watches the sun go down and get swallowed by the ocean.

“Are you still afraid?” he asks her, moving his head so that he sees her eyes “Of the ocean?”

She shakes her head.

“Not when I’m with you.” her response is a whisper followed by a soft kiss on his forehead that makes him smile. He finds her hand and intertwines their fingers.

One day he’ll ask her to take him to the water, let the waves beat in his cold bare feet one last time, but today wasn’t going to be that day and he hoped it wouldn’t have to be for just a little bit longer because as hard as life has been, as much as all the awful things that had happened to him in his short time on this earth had left him broken and barely standing, he still wouldn’t trade them for anything because he knew they had to happen so that he ends up here.

In the arms of his one love, being the small wave getting lost in the ocean that was her.

His home.

And I also like this passage I wrote for Tap my shoulder, hold my hand the cowboy AU where I explored mental health more thoroughly and while I was writing it I didn’t think it was that good but later on I kinda...thought it was okayish and I like this part of a letter Bellamy wrote Clarke at the end:

I’m all better now.” it went on and she squeezed her eyes shut, knowing full well how bad of a liar he was.

“I even got to see Gabriel today. We talked a lot, I guess I was in a mood and he complimented me on my progress.

I think the antidepressants help too, at least to some extent. I know they can’t fix it all but they are a nudge in the right direction.

Something he asked me stuck with me, though.

He asked me what is there when I take off all the layers that I put on every day, what remains?

What is at the bottom of it all?

I won’t lie, I think my first thought would be to say pain but then I stopped and got to think about it.

Pain is not who I am at my core.

It’s something like an extra limb, a lingering thing inside me.

Sometimes it’s a burning feeling that sets my whole being on fire.

Other times it’s like a tidal wave, coming in harsh and ebbing away softly.

On the best days, it’s at the back of my mind, like a tickle that never leaves you but doesn’t bother you that much either.

On the bad ones, is the chains that keep me down, quite literally.

But I am not my pain. It’s part of who I am but it’s not me.

So I answered-love.

He smiled knowingly and I looked away almost ashamed but I meant it.

Deep inside me, there’s nothing but love.

And I also kind of like that dialogue I wrote between Kane and Bellamy in a fic I haven’t posted where both of them are army veterans, Kane helped raise Bellamy, knew him since he was a boy but then he came back home hurt and effed up and now he’s taking care of him and then Kane decides that he needs the best physio therapist there is in the face of Clarke, but here’s a part where Bellamy who knows his condition is bad and thinks he’ll die talks it over with Kane so TW for death:

“I don’t want an open caskett, it’s too scary and fucked up.” he’d say as Kane adjusted his pillows “Just that nice photo from the ceremony before my first tour, okay?”

“Alright.” Kane had to swallow down his tears as he adjusted the blankets and helped him get some water. He always needed to be doing something during those conversations, because simply sitting down and listening to him would not be acceptable.

“Did you manage to get that spot next to Murphy and Miller?” Bellamy had asked for a place in the graveyard next to his team. He didn’t want to be buried with Aurora, said he’s had enough motherly love in the real life to want more in the after one and Kane had agreed.

“I spoke with the Army and the cemetery and they said if we pre-pay now there’s no problem. Usually team guys are buried in the same place unless relatives ask otherwise.”

“Good, good.” he had closed his eyes then and swallows hard-he looked worse then than he did now-half his body still had open wounds that had to be rebandaged twice a day, he could barely breathe on his own and the bad side of his face-the one that lost his hearing and eyesight was wrapped in gauzes and bandages making him look like a mummy more than a human being. “You should draw money from my account and get on it on Monday.”

“Okay.” Kane had agreed, he took it all stoically, but inside his heart was bursting into pieces. “Anything else you’d like?”

“I don’t want the flowers to be white, it ain’t a damn wedding. Get something simple, let it have blue and red, maybe orange too, Gina loved orange.” Kane nods in yet another agreement as he passes him more water after noticing he’s eyeing the glass again but not saying it explicitly-he never did.

“My truck goes to you.”

“Bellamy, can we stop it already?”

“I have to say this, we don’t know if I’ll pull through the night and I don’t want you fucking my burial up.” he says it jokingly but Kane’s struggling to keep his tears at bay and Bellamy notices it “Hey...come here.” he pats the place near his leg and Kane carefully sits up “I know this is a lot, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. Trust me, I wish I had died out there to save you all the trouble but here we are.”

“Don’t you dare talk like this!” Kane scolds him finally letting all of his emotions out “And stop saying you’re dying! You can do this if only you wanted to!” Bellamy smiles then and rests his head on the pillow, turning his good side to Kane so he can see his thoughts for himself “But you don’t, do you?”

“I’m tired. I think it’s time.”

“What if it isn’t?” Bellamy shrugs.

“I’d rather it is, there’s nothing else for me to give to the world.”

“What if you is enough?” Kane says squeezing his hand. He always hated how he never really lived for himself-always in service of someone else, his mom, his sister, then his country and his team mates, but never truly himself “What if just being here, being yourself is all there is to everything?”

[travellvogue]

Friend of a Friend

Chapter 3- Someone New

There he was. 

Eyes burning straight into yours through the lens of the Canon.

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

You knew his name, of course you did.

He’d followed you on Instagram a few months ago, after Ben had tagged you in one of his photos to give you photo credits. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t have a slight fan girl moment when his Instagram handle showed up in your notifications. He’d only liked two photos (not that you were counting). One of Ben, smiling and modelling a new outfit he’d been waiting to wait outside for ages, ensuring you’d be there to capture the monumental moment, posing effortlessly for your photography account, aware that you need the best shots to promote your talent. The other was of you, a selfie, bright smile and messy beach waves- he’d liked it. You almost flush at the thought of it again, remembering how you had to do a double take to ensure his fingers hadn’t slipped. 

Focus Y/N, you tell yourself,looking nervously down at your camera as you switch the lens. The case was a black metal, the lens jutted out on a highly polished cylinder, finished at the end with a rim of more black metal. Two dials and a button poked out from the top, your tip of your finger brushed over it, snapping a few more shots of the other boys leaping around the pitch. The pictures ranged from Kane stretching, Jadon squirting water at anyone in range, capturing Marcus in action, tattoos crisp on his skin, only noticing the detailed lion profile inked over the bones of his hand, the same hand that had given you a friendly thumbs up as a silent welcome to St George, his warm smile and welcoming eyes hadn’t gone unnoticed. 

Yet, despite your best efforts to distract yourself, your camera seems to be a magnet to him- you were always aware the content of his had always been popular, especially in the last two years, but you never knew there was such a physical attraction between him and a camera lens. 

He’s all muscle and small frame. Attractive, not intimidating, just like the rest of him. 

His eyes absorbed the sight of you through the camera. Like he was still trying to figure out how he knew you, a face familiar but not one he’d met before. Snapping away aimlessly to ensure your distraction and rush of emotion didn’t stop you from getting the money-maker shot. 

The pictures were gorgeous, his deep brown eyes glistened in the sunlight, those plump lips, so kissable. How they spread into a teasing smile as he watches you, tongue pushed to the corner of them. 

You nervously pan the camera back around your settings, snapping a few pictures of the last few exercises, as the camera swept from side to side you noticed he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. 

“Get some good shots?” you practically jump out of your skin at the sound of his voice, holding your chest and breathing out a ragged ‘Jesus’. His smirk makes your cheeks burn, his eyes flitting down to the camera dangling around your neck. Raising an eyebrow to silently repeat his question. 

“Um, uh yeah… yeah I did” you nod, picking the camera up with one hand and holding your thumb up with the other. Really cool move Y/N. He stares at you for a little longer, he has a weird unblinking stare that could be quite off-putting if he wasn’t so handsome. His deep brown orbs are looking into you, waiting for you to say something else. You stutter under his stare. “Um, you wanna see?” you ask nervously, is that what he was expecting? Raising the camera slightly, blinking heavily at the intrusive noise it makes when it turns on, lens unfolding as the screen shines alive. 

“C’mon then” he smirks with a nod, body moving closer to yours so that he was practically towering over you. Arm slung around your shoulders, watching you turn the camera back on and flicking through the array of photos you’d taken. “Ahh there he issss” he sings gently as you flick over the pictures of him. His eyes looking straight into the lens, a cheeky smile playing on his lips. Purposely showing his best skills for the camera. 

You like them?” you ask nervously, voice barely above a whisper, clearing your throat to speak again but he stops you, feeling his arm tighten around you, hand stroking at your ponytail. Something about the action feeling so intimate, like you’d known each other forever. 

“Love ‘em” he says casually, a certainty in his tone that gives you a massive confidence boost. Flicking through the pictures of the other lads, panicking when you get to the ones of James, realising you took far too many to be deemed as professional. HI hand loosens on your shoulder slightly, only for it to return when his face appears in the next shot, smiling along with Hendo and Ox, so natural and relaxed. So handsome. 

“You look good” For god sake. You’re not that comfortable together! What next, you gonna ask the kid to marry you?! 

“Thank you baby” he says, a genuine tone to his voice that makes your heart burst, hands growing sweaty with nerves around the camera, praying he doesn’t notice the slight shake to your fingers. 

Your body left feeling like it would fly away with the wind as he says a quick goodbye. Listening to the click of his boots join the herd of the other boys, his body disappearing into the crowd and through the doors to the changing room. 

                                                            ***

“Good evening pretty girl” you can’t help but laugh at Ben’s posh tone, thanking him as he passes you a plate of food, piled high with mash potato, sausages, and a giant pile of peas- your favourite. “You disappeared on me missy!?” he speaks through a mouthful, charming as always. You become shy from his statement, you could practically feel his eyes burning holes in the back of your head the whole time you were flirting with James. 

“Saw you with Trent” you cough out a pea onto the table, nearly choking on your mouthful. Eyes watering as you look up at him sitting opposite you. An eyebrow raised and a playful smile on his face, his fingers stroked ran circles over the rim of his cup. 

“Yeah?” Play it cool. 

“Looked very comfy” his eyes avoid yours, if you didn’t know him so well you’d of thought that his words had a bitter taste, instead you shovel a forkful of sausage and mash into your mouth, humming and pointing to the gravy to ask ‘you gonna use that’, desperately avoiding his interrogation. “Don’t think James will be very happy” he hums, nodding over to Madders who gave you a nod when you turned to look his way. 

You lick the last reminisce of gravy from the corner of your mouth, getting up from the table and clearing your plate away. 

“Well, this has been fun” your tight lipped smile says otherwise, turning and leaving the dining room, catching Trent’s eye on the way out. 

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Riverdale OC Masterlist

(several of these ocs may end up getting scrapped entirely, but I’m not ready to commit to that yet so they’re on the list for now)

Name: Amethyst Andrews

Story: (Cast Not Your Stone at the) Wayward Daughter

Series: (Child, They’re) Seeking Weakness Tonight

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Kaya Scodelario 

Love interest: queerplatonic poly Serpents, endgame romantic Sweet Pea & Jughead Jones

Summary: Amethyst Adams was 8 years old when her father died, 12 when she joined the Serpents, and 15 when her adoptive father, Fred Andrews, was shot in a diner. Between trying to run a gang, keep her family alive, and maybe, just maybe, not die along the way, her return to Riverdale never had a chance of going smoothly.

Name: Aaliya Andrews

Story: My Brother’s Keeper

Series: (In Their Triumph Die) Like Fire And Powder

Face claim: Danielle Rose Russell

Love Interest: Jason Blossom; eventual Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary: Aaliya Andrews loved her brother more than anything, and she would do anything for him; even keep her summer a secret.  Archie didn’t need to know that she’d joined the Southside Serpents towards the end of their freshman year, he didn’t need to know that she’d done a strip show in a sketchy biker bar to earn the jacket that she hid in the back of her closet, and he definitely didn’t need to know that she’d started that fateful Fourth of July by waking up in bed with Jason Blossom.  But then sophomore year starts, and with that comes cheerleading and football, playing guitar and talking about going professional, her boyfriend’s - now ex boyfriend’s, she’d suppose - body being found in the river, and an investigation that threatens to reveal every secret she’s ever kept.

Name: Abigail Adler

Face claim: Hailee Steinfeld

Fic: Swan Song

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Name: Addison “Addy” Blake

Face claim: Troian Bellisario

Fic: Alike In Dignity

Series: (From Ancient Grudge) Break To New Mutiny

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Toni Topaz

Summary:  Addison Blake had it all. Class president at Greendale Prep, captain of the field hockey team, reigning champion of Riverdale’s Country Club’s teen tennis tournament, all around top girl. But when a shocking scandal shuts her school down and she’s forced to start at Riverdale High, she’s less than impressed—especially when she learns that an entire gang is transferring there too. When one of the boys catches her eye, she tells herself that she can resist the electricity she feels, but something is hanging in the stars, and star crossed lovers have never had a chance.

Name: Adelynn Andrews-Smith

Story: Abyss

Face claim: Phoebe Tonkin

Summary: Back in 2000, Mary Andrews was told that she could never have kids; and so, she and Fred looked into adoption.  They found eight year old Adelynn Smith; and despite her temper and how many families had given up on her, they knew that she was perfect for their little family.  And when Mary miraculously got pregnant with Archie a couple of years later, they were thrilled that their family was going to grow.  And for several years, everything was perfect.  They knew, and Adelynn knew, who her parents were; they allowed and encouraged her to develop her relationship with her father; and they always listened when she talked about her long-since adopted twin brother.  And when, shortly after Fred is shot, Adelynn tells them that the Chic claiming to be Charles Smith is definitely not her brother, they listen.

Name: Alina Allan

Story: Violent Delights

Face claim: Krysten Ritter

Love Interest: FP Jones

Name: Ally Andrews

Story: Home Again

Series: (Make This Place) Your Home

Face claim: Adelaide Kane

Name: Amber Andrews

Story: Petrichor

Face claim: Kennedy McMann

Name: Anastasia Andrews

Story: Say I’m In Too Deep

Series: (Cause I’ve Still Got) A Lot of Fight Left in Me

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Abigail Cowen

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary:  Starting high school was supposed to be fun, right?  Apparently whoever said that had never found their brother hooking up with the pedophilic music teacher on their first day, but Anastasia Andrews could tell you from experience, that ruined it.  And if Archie was lying about his relationship with Grundy, could that mean he was also lying about July 4th?  She might not care about Jason Blossom, but she cared about protecting her brother, and if the best way to do that was to team up with Jughead Jones to solve the case themselves, well, she’d do it.

Name:  Angela DeSantos

Story: Gold Lie Promises

Face claim:  Sofia Carson as Evie

Love interest: Veronica Lodge

Summary:  Angela De Santos was a born Serpent, although she and her twin brother didn’t officially join until they were thirteen.  She loved the Serpents, she really did, and she would do anything for them.  So when her brother got roped into disposing of Jason Blossom’s body, she kept her mouth shut; when he got assigned to seduce the Keller kid to keep an eye on the investigation, she gave him a folder of research on all of his interests and hobbies; and when she got assigned to seduce the Lodge heiress to keep an eye on her parents?  Well, it’d hardly be the worst thing she’s done for the gang, so long as she can keep her own feelings out of the mix.

Name: Ariel Blossom

Title: I’m No Princess of Pain

Series: (Something) Next to Normal

Face claim: Holland Roden

Love interest: Malachai

Summary: As the oldest Blossom child, Ariel was always supposed to inherit the family business.  But after learning the truth she rejected the “maple industry”, moving to California the day after she graduated.  Pursuing her dream of acting and modelling, she had no desire to ever look back.  She wouldn’t have ever stepped foot in Riverdale again, if not for her baby brother’s corpse being found with a bullet hole in the head.

Name: Artemisia Andrews

Story: Watch What Happens

Face claim: Katie Douglas

Summary: When Arti Andrews first left Riverdale during her parents’ divorce, she was happy to get away from the small town and live in a big city.  But over the years, things changed, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and reunite with her dad and her twin brother.  So when, five years later, Ari Andrews is finally going home, she couldn’t be more excited.  But Riverdale isn’t the town that she remembers, and with all of the secrets she’s keeping, the stakes are higher than ever.

Name: Astoria Topaz

Story: There’s A Fire Burning In My Bones

Series: (Hell Is Empty) And All The Devils Are Here

Face claim:  China Anne McClain

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: Astoria Topaz was a Serpent by blood, and by choice.  She joined with her twin sister and their two best friends, Fangs and Sweet Pea, when they were all thirteen, and had quickly risen in the ranks among teenagers.  She never expected to be a leader though, until FP Jones got arrested.  Suddenly there was a hole that needed to be filled, and apparently Astoria would have to fill it.  That’s fine, she’s a born Serpent and knows how to keep her family together–or she did, until Jughead Jones walks into the Wyrm, suddenly ready to take on his legacy.  But still, Astoria was born a Serpent, and she’ll die a Serpent, she’ll live as a Serpent come hell or high water.

Name: Barbie Booth

Story: New Girl In Town

Series: (Cause I Am) So Much Better Than Before

Face claim: Candice King

Summary: By fifteen, Barbie Booth already had her eye on the prize: early admission to Tisch for musical theatre, followed by an upper east side apartment with her best friend Veronica Lodge - who would be studying business at Columbia, and then starring as Elle Woods in a revival of Legally Blonde The Musical.  But her plan didn’t include Veronica’s dad getting arrested, and her other half moving to some bumfuck town called Riverdale, leaving her alone for her sophomore year at Spence.  And it definitely didn’t account for her parents up and moving them to Riverdale, for reasons that they refused to explain.  But at least she’d be with Ronnie again, and at least Ronnie told her that Riverdale High wasn’t as bad as they’d imagined.  But then they get to Riverdale, and her plans really go to shit -not only did her parents not research the town that they were moving to, but they bought a house on the south side of the town, dooming her to the rundown school on the wrong side of the tracks, riddled with gangs, murder investigations and, worst of all, no musical theatre program.

Name: Becca Jackson

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Name: Bella Baxter

Story: The Beauty of A Secret

Face claim: Ciara Bravo

Love interest: Reggie Mantle, Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary:  Bella Baxter is as Northside as they come. Raised in a two story house with a white picket fence, River Vixen since freshman year, best friends include Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Kevin Keller, and Jughead Jones.  The only thing that isn’t “proper Northside” about her is simple, FP Jones, the Serpent King himself, is her godfather–and more importantly, has been her legal guardian since she was ten years old. Bella has clung desperately to her Northside image for the past five years, but when Jason Blossom goes missing, it’s time to decide: is her loyalty to her family or to the persona she’s so carefully crafted.

Name:  Beverly Mantle

Story: Steady Satellite

Series: (I’ll Walk Through) Hell With You

Face claim: Arden Cho

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary:  Everyone at Riverdale High knew the Mantles.  Beverly and Reginald, Bev and Reg, as inseparable as they’d been in the womb.  Vice-Captain of the River Vixens and Vice-Captain of the Bulldogs, they were untouchable.  And Jason Blossom’s murder only brought them closer together.  They’d never had any secrets from each other, it was them against the world.  Or it was, until a fight causes Beverly to run away, to cross the bridge to the Southside, where she meets two boys as attractive as they are mysterious, and she knows that she can never let Reggie find out.

Name:  Beverly Mantle

Story: The Inevitably Cursed Life Of Beverly & Reginald Mantle; The Inescapable Secrets That Follow You From Riverdale

Series: (I’ll Walk Through) Hell With You

Face claim: Arden Cho

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary:  Fangs got shot, the Serpents were at war, Archie had just been arrested, and Beverly had been shot. Well, the Mantle twins had always known how to cut their losses. They’d already dealt with being emancipated, after Reggie’s jingle jangle business had Marty hospitalizing both of this children, so it was clearly time for the next step. Get the hell out of Riverdale. Rosewood seemed like a nice enough place to go, and they already had a friend there. Sure, they hadn’t talked to Allison since last summer but really, how much can change in a year?

(aka the PLL crossover that nobody asked for)

Name: Caden “Adder” Archer

Story: Snake Bite

Series: (In Unity) There Is Strength

Face claim: Tyler Posey

Summary: Caden and Carson Archer, Adder and Asp to most of the world, had always been inseperable.  Even as young children, stuck in the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy orphanage, they were always together.  So when the Archers showed up, looking to foster a child, they knew they had to take the pair.  Growing up on the Southside brought them closer, and the duo found themselves joining the Serpents together and quickly embracing their new names; Adder, dangerous but only when provoked, and Asp, unassuming but volatile and lethal.  But even after they joined the gang, found themselves an extended family in the form of rough around the edge bikers, they were always closest with each other.  And that’s why they’re the only ones who know the truth - on July 3rd, Caden and Carson Archer were hooking up with Cheryl and Jason Blossom and on July 4th, they heard a gunshot.

Name: Cameron Newton

Story: Ghost Of The City

Series: (The Ashes Of The People) You Really Meant To Be

Face claim: Maia Mitchell

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: After the creep in a black suit - the Gargoyle King - took over her town and sent her parents to work at his prison-slash-drug-den, Cameron Newton really didn’t think that anything could surprise her.  And then the so-called Red Paladin showed up with nothing but his best friend an an absolute determination to destroy the man who ruined his life.  Well, Cam can relate, and she quickly appoints herself as their third musketeer - if only she’d known what the quest had in store for her, for all of them.

Name: Candy Barker

Story: Sweet As Sugar

Series: (The Loneliness) Of Loving You

Face claim: Elizabeth Gillies

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Candy Barker knew that the Blossom and Cooper children didn’t know that they were related.  She also knew that they didn’t know that there had been a third brother once, who broke off from the family and changed his name to Barker.  And that was fine with her, she could keep the secret from her cousins - it’s not like they’d ever talk to ‘Southside Scum’ anyways.  No, Candy had no problem with keeping the secret between herself and her closest friends.  At least, not until Jason Blossom is murdered in the Wyrm and Candy’s life gets thrown into madness.

Name: Carolyn Cooper

Story: Dirty Little Secret

Face claim: Dianna Agron

Love Interest: Reggie Mantle, Archie Andrews, endgame Poly Serpents

Name: Carson “Asp” Archer

Story: Snake Bite

Series: (In Unity) There Is Strength

Face claim: Shay Mitchell

Summary: Caden and Carson Archer, Adder and Asp to most of the world, had always been inseperable.  Even as young children, stuck in the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy orphanage, they were always together.  So when the Archers showed up, looking to foster a child, they knew they had to take the pair.  Growing up on the Southside brought them closer, and the duo found themselves joining the Serpents together and quickly embracing their new names; Adder, dangerous but only when provoked, and Asp, unassuming but volatile and lethal.  But even after they joined the gang, found themselves an extended family in the form of rough around the edge bikers, they were always closest with each other.  And that’s why they’re the only ones who know the truth - on July 3rd, Caden and Carson Archer were hooking up with Cheryl and Jason Blossom and on July 4th, they heard a gunshot.

Name: Carter “Lilith” Lane

Story: No Sweet Dream

Series: (I Keep A Record Of) The Wreckage Of My Life

Face claim: Nina Dobrev

Summary:  Everyone at Riverdale High had heard of the infamous Serpent, Lilith Lane, and the equally dangerous Ghoulie, Carter.  But no one would have guessed that they were the same person, let alone that she was their very own Carter Lane.

Carter “Lilith” Lane was something completely unheard of in Riverdale - a Ghoulie and a Serpent.  Born to parents in rival gangs, she’s never really known who she was.  Lilith Lane didn’t deal anything harder than weed; she was a party girl; she was very vocal about hating the Serpent Dance.  Carter was the best drug dealer in town; a street racing champion; a part time stripper.  And Carter Lane?  She was little more than a ghost; a River Vixen who hated Cheryl Blossom, the main supplier for Bulldog parties who never showed up herself; someone who everybody knew of but who nobody knew.

It had always been easy to keep those parts of herself separate.  And then summer came around; Carter Lane got emancipated, Carter moved into the House Of The Dead, and Lilith Lane dumped Jason Blossom’s body into Sweetwater River.  And she’s fine.  

But then school starts up again, and when Jughead Jones decides to investigate the events of the summer, her worlds start to collide.

Name: Cecilia Chambers

Story: Miss Americana And The Serpent Prince

Face claim: Josephine Langford

Love Interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: In a town like Riverdale, everybody knew everything about everyone.  Or at least they liked to think that they did.  And they certainly thought that they knew everything about Cecilia Chambers.  They thought that she was the perfect All-American girl, the sweet, blonde, girl next door type.  They didn’t know that she was a Southside Serpent, born and raised.  They didn’t know that FP Jones was her godfather, and her parents’ best friend.  They didn’t know that, when Archie bailed last minute, she was the one FP went to, whom he begged to get Jughead out of town for the summer.  And even she didn’t know why, didn’t know what dark secrets he was trying to protect them from.  But she agreed, and  found herself embarking on a cross country road trip with Jughead Jones.  

Name: Charlotte Jones

Title: No One Has to Know

Series: (This Time Maybe) I’ll Be Bulletproof

Face claim: Britt Robertson

Love Interest: Malachai

Summary:  Alice Smith told FP Jones that she was pregnant, and he decided to raise their daughter.  Serpent princess, heir to the mantle, and protective older sister, Charlotte would do anything for her family, including keep the secret about what happened to Jason Blossom; and she knew the truth, she dumped the body.

Trying to protect her brother without letting him in on the secret should have been easy, if only he hadn’t decided to write a novel about what happened on the Fourth of July.

Name: Christine Cooper

Title: Young & Beautiful

Series: (When I’ve Got Nothing But) My Aching Soul

Face claim: Sasha Pieterse

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Christine Cooper had always gone after what she wanted.  She’d gone after the Queen Bee title of Riverdale High, ruling the school with her best friend Cheryl.  She’d gone after her older sister’s boyfriend, sneaking into Thornhill for clandestine hookups with Jason.  She’d gone after the picture perfect life, existing in a different world from most of the town.  And everything she went after, she got.  She got the popularity, she got the boy, she got the dream tv life.  And then Jason ran away with Polly - no, then Jason died.  And the perfect, lovely, completely fake life that Chris had build fell apart.

Name: Daphne Dwyer

Fandom: Katy Keene

Story: Pasts That Haunt

Face claim: Leighton Meester

Love Interest: Katy Keene

Summary: Of course Daphne Dwyer remembered Riverdale, how could she not?  Even when she wanted to, there were too many reminders: daily texts from her former foster brothers, Fangs and Sweet Pea, the leather jacket that she hid so carefully in the back of her closet, and, especially, the serpent tattoo she covered up every single morning.  But she wasn’t a teenage biker gang member anymore.  No, she had left that behind her when she was eighteen, when she moved to New York, when she began to climb the ladder as an Upper East Side socialite.  Now she’s up and coming designer DeeDee; now her past is in her past and she’s only looking forward; now her best friend Katy is introducing their newest roommate - her former brother’s former fling, the daughter of Riverdale’s last mayor, Josie freaking McCoy

Name: Delaney “DC” Carlyle

Story: This Business Of Surviving

Face claim:  Kristine Froseth

Love Interest: Endgame Jughead Jones & Archie Andrews

Summary:  Matthew Carlyle was innocent, Delaney would bet her life on it.  But, despite DC’s absolute belief in her father’s innocence, the FBI agent was still arrested for the murder of his fellow agent, Christopher Wells.  So Delaney’s mother packed up their house in Washington, DC and moved her daughter back to her own hometown.  But when they get to Riverdale they find a town shaken to its core by the disappearance of Jason Blossom.  Honestly, DC couldn’t have cared less; she only cared about solving her father’s case and proving his innocence.  At least until her mom brings her to the local Drive-In and everything changes.  

First, she meets a boy in the projection booth who’s writing a novel about the murder; then she meets a man who turns out to be that boy’s father, her mom’s childhood best friend, and a gang leader - a gang that her mom is apparently a part of; finally she meets another boy, one with a snake tattooed on his neck and an undeniable magnetism. That’s when her whirlwind summer begins.  But just as quickly as it started, her summer of romance, Serpents, and mysteries ends, and it’s time to make her space in a new school. DC is ready to put the past behind her and focus on the future, when in walks the daughter of Hiram Lodge - the last man her father put in jail.

Name: Doria Mary Wallis

Title: Untitled

Face claim: Jenny Boyd

Name: Drake Dawson

Title: Son Of Steel

Series: (Cause He’s) Stronger Than You Know

Face claim: Matthew Daddario

Summary: FP Jones and Derek Dawson had done everything together.  They’d been Southsiders at Riverdale High together, they’d joined the Serpents together, they’d joined the army together, they’d even gone to Afghanistan together.  But only FP came back.  Drake Dawson had been raised by FP Jones for as long as he could remember, had idolized the man who was like a father to him, and had always tried to make him proud.  And now, after four years of military service, the Serpent Prince is back in Riverdale.  But everything has changed, and Drake no longer recognizes the town he grew up in.

Name: Emily Blossom

Story: Bloom

Face claim: Debby Ryan

Love Interest: Jughead Jones

Name: Everett Evernever

Story: Ain’t From No Heaven

Face claim: Madison Davenport

Love Interest: tentative poly Serpents

Summary: Of course Everett Evernever loved the Farm.  Of course she respected her father and of course she pretended that her mother was her sister.  Of course she only had one kidney and a partial liver.  She would never consider anything else, would never question Edgar’s rulings.  At least, not until her psychology class started to study cults.  And the more Everett learned, the more things seemed familiar.  But the Farm couldn’t be a cult, could it?  It was her family.  So she started acting out, determined to prove herself wrong.  And that’s when Alice Cooper comes into the picture.  In order to prove her loyalty and dedication, Alice is assigned to set Everett back on the right track.  And it’s while she’s living with the Coopers that Everett meets the Southside Serpents, and her perfectly planned, perfectly secret life is thrown into a whirlwind.

Name: Evan “Fairy” Fogarty

Story: Don’t Take My Kindness For Weakness

Series: (Gonna Feel Me) When I Fight Back

Face claim: Lana Condor

Love interest: Sweet Pea & Jughead Jones

Summary: Evan Fogarty has been affectionately known as “Fairy” by the Serpents since she was nine years old, trailing after her brother and his best friend.  It was Sweet Pea who came up with it, thought it was fitting for the sweet girl who paired a leather jacket with pastels, a switchblade with her ice capps, and razor blades with her pigtails, and honestly?  She loved it.  The Serpents, her family, knew that she was a lot tougher than she let on, but the Northsiders constantly underestimated her.  They hear the nickname and expect an airhead child, not a girl who’s been taking care of her sick mother since she was ten.  They expect a naïve fool, not the brains to her brother’s brawn.  And yeah, she’d rather make peace with the Northsiders than start an all our turf war, but if that’s what’s happening, she’ll still be on the front lines.  And when FP Jones is arrested for a murder she knows he didn’t commit, Evan knows that war has finally come to Riverdale.

Name: Fallon Parris “FP” Jones

Story: Every Day Is Like a Battle

Series: (We’re On the) Road to Ruin

AO3 | FFNet | Wattpad

Face claim:  Brenna D'Amico

Love interest: Toni Topaz, Sweet Pea, Reggie Mantle

Summary: Fallon Parris Jones, FP to her friends, was taken to Toledo against her will when her parents separated.  She would have stayed, for Jellybean, except her dad called her and told her that her twin had just been hauled in and questioned for murder.  Fallon may play at obedience, but her twin’s wellbeing is always the most important thing in the world, so she hops on the next bus to Riverdale with no intention of leaving him ever again.  It isn’t until she arrives that she finds out just how deep her family is in this mess, and clearly no one else can be counted on to fix everything.  Armed with nothing but her well-worn Serpent jacket, a switchblade, and an unstoppable determination to protect her brother, Riverdale is about to find out that they messed with the wrong family

Name: Francesca Jones

Story: Living In Sin

Face claim: Lili Reinhart

Love Interest: poly Serpents (not Jughead of course)

Summary: Hal and Alice Cooper had only ever wanted two children, two perfect daughters for their perfect family.  But when Alice found out that she was pregnant with twins, they agreed to keep both, and Francesca and Elizabeth Cooper were born.  But then they found out that Francesca was deaf and, despite their decision to keep both twins, they were quick to give her to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy.

Shortly after Jughead was born, Gladys Jones was told that she could no longer have kids.  Devastated, she and FP were quick to look into adoption, and found the perfect addition to their family; Francesca.  

Francesca Paige Jones grew up on the Southside with her brother Jughead and their miracle sister Jellybean, although she chose to stay on the Southside and not interact with the other side of town, despite knowing that she had a twin sister and biological parents somewhere across the tracks, despite knowing that Jughead was even friends with her twin. But then Gladys and Jellybean move to Toledo, Jughead leaves home, FP helps dispose of Jason Blossom’s body, and suddenly the Northside is paying attention to them.  She would have been perfectly happy to fly under the radar, to continue to pretend that she had no ties to the Northside, had she not come face to face with a mirror image of herself named Betty Cooper.

Name:  Genevieve Grundy

Story: Perfect Stranger

Series: (Don’t Like Your) Little Lies

Face claim:  Natalia Dyer

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary:  Genevieve Grundy wasn’t a born Serpent like her friends, but she was still Southside through and through.  She’d been raised on the Southside by her grandma, until her grandmother died and she was taken in by Serpent foster parents.  She’d attended Southside High and joined the Serpents, she was a Southsider.  Keyword being was.  But after the Jason Blossom Incident, as they had taken to calling it, Gen found herself being moved to the Northside.  She would be fine, she told herself, she could still visit her friends and it might be nice to go to a better school.  She would be fine.  And she almost believed it, until she walked into her first music class of the year, only to find that the teacher was using her grandmother’s name.

Name: Harley Day

Story: Legendary

Face claim:  Bianca Santos

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Name:  Harper Hope Harrison

Story: My Demons and My Muse

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim:  Dove Cameron

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty, eventual Fangs & Sweet Pea

Summary:  In the midst of her parents’ messy divorce, Harper Harrison and her mom go to live with her mom’s cousin, Fred Andrews. She was really excited, her Uncle Fred was the coolest person ever, and apparently her cousin Archie is now as into music as she is. But after an accident during the drive to Riverdale lands her in the hospital instead of onstage, Harper has to reconsider everything she’s ever known. She doesn’t think that she could ever be on Broadway now, not after the accident left her with severe hearing loss, but the boy across the hall, recovering from a gunshot, is determined to prove otherwise.

Name: Hera Lodge

Story: Sins Of The Father

Face claim: Camila Mendes

Name:  Holli Hansen

Story: A Thousand Cuts

Face claim:  Skyler Samuels

Name: Ivy “Vine” Verona

Title: Dreamers Often Lie

Series: (Look Like The Innocent Flower) But Be The Serpent Under’t

Faceclaim: Emily Rudd

Summary: If there was one thing that Ivy Verona was good at, it was lying.  She lied to the Northsiders; she said she was Northside pure, that her guardian was an accountant, that she’d never even heard of the Whyte Wyrm.  She lied to the Southside too; she said she was flunking all her major classes, said cheerleading was only a front, said she planned to stay in Riverdale the rest of her life. And then there was the lie that she told the entire town - that she had no idea what might’ve happened to Jason Blossom.

Only her uncle FP and best friend Joaquin knew the truth.  She’d been Jason’s dealer; she’d brought him to the Wyrm; she’d watched him die, and then washed away his blood; she dumped his body in the river and pretended it never happened.

But the biggest lie she told was to herself - that Jason Blossom’s death was not her fault.

Name: Jac Daniels

Story: Light In The Dark

Series: tbd

Face claim:  Alycia Debnam-Carey

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Despite being a Southside Serpent, Jacqueline Daniels was one of the last truly good people in the town of Riverdale.  Despite being surrounded by darkness, she wore her heart on her sleeve and always kept her heart open for more strays.  Of course the majority of it was taken up by her three best friends and fellow Serpents, but when Jughead Jones transferred to Southside High, she knew there would be a place for him too.  And there was, and Jughead found himself with a new tour guide slash bodyguard slash friend, whose open heart and pure soul were rivalled only by her fierce loyalty and protective nature.  But even the brightest light in Riverdale has a breaking point, and when Northside drama starts to endanger her friends, her family, Jac may just discover her own.

Name: Jasmine Blossom

Story: Archaic

Face claim:  Abigail Cowen

Love interest: tentative Archie Andrews

Name: Jennifer Andrews

Story: Two Can Keep a Secret (If One Of Them Is Dead)

Series:  (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

Face claim:  Dove Cameron

Love interest:  FP Jones

Summary: Before there was Harper or Archie or Jughead, there was Jennifer and Fred and FP.  The Rebel Girl, the All-American Boy, and Mr. Varsity.  Jennifer and Fred Andrews may have been cousins, but they were as close as siblings, and rarely seen without their best friend FP Jones.  They’d always been inseparable, and detention was no different.  While Fred and FP were in trouble for streaking, Jen had gotten caught spray painting the boys’ locker room.  It was just supposed to be one Saturday, but instead it ended with a corpse, hair dye, and a secret to bring to grave.

Name: Jennifer Andrews-Harrison

Story: My Demons and My Muse

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim:  Kristin Chenoweth

Love interest: FP Jones

Summary: Jennifer Harrison (née Andrews) had been in love once and married once, but they weren’t the same man.  She’d been in love with Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr. since she was fifteen, although she only confessed it when she was sixteen and left Riverdale for good.  She’d been twenty five and three months pregnant when she married Joseph Harrison, and they’d managed to put up with each other for sixteen years.  But when she finally files for divorce, she realizes that she can’t keep her daughter in the middle of it, and moves her to Riverdale.  She tells her boss that it’s to write an exposé on the small town now rife with crime and corruption–a girl had just been murdered during a school musical, after all–, she tells her cousin Fred that it’s for her daughter’s sake, and she tells the town that it’s to get away from her husband.  She didn’t realize that going back to her hometown meant going back to a secret she buried twenty five years ago, or to feelings that she’d tried to bury the exact same day.

Name: Jett Jones

Story: Daddy Lessons

Face claim: Crystal Reed

Love Interest: Jason Blossom, Archie Andrews

Name: Opal “Jewel” Cooper

Story: This Be The Verse

Series: (In This Town) There’s No One To Trust

Face claim:  Grace Phipps

Love Interest: poly serpents (not Jughead, of course)

Summary:  Opal Cooper, the youngest of the Cooper sisters, had always known that she was different.  How could she not? Her dark hair made her the literal black sheep of her perfectly blonde family.  Sure, her mom always claimed that she inherited it from her grandfather, but Opal knew that something was different.  So, in the summer before she started high school, she did some digging.  She wasn’t surprised at all to find she wasn’t a Cooper, but she was more than a little shocked to learn her biological father was none other than FP Jones.  A simple desire to build a relationship with her real dad started Opal down a road that she never expected; a road of gangs and murder and nicknames.  Starting high school armed with a switchblade and the truth about what happened to Jason Blossom, the newly nicknamed Jewel Cooper was nothing like the Opal anyone remembered.

Name: Julia Smith Thomas

Story: Begin Again

Face claim: Lily James

Love Interest: FP Jones

Name: Juliet Capes

Story: Star Crossed

Face claim:  Sarah Jeffrey

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty

Summary:  When Fangs Fogarty got dared to seduce the uptight Northside princess Juliet Capes, he knows it’s a dick move. But he also knows that it’ll get him his stripes, get him accepted with the teen serpents. The river vixen is easy to win over, and soon he’s claimed all of her firsts. Fangs would be happy to keep his motivations, and the gunshot they heard, a secret, but in a town like Riverdale, the truth always comes out, and someone always gets hurt.

Name: Fraser Paxton Jupiter Jones

Story: Amphisbaena

Face claim: Dylan O’Brien

Love Interest: Poly Serpents (not Jughead)

Summary: Fraser Paxton Jones was many things.  He was a Riverdale Bulldog, a Southside Serpent, Cheryl Blossom’s boyfriend, Jughead Jones’ big brother, FP Jones’ firstborn son; he was Jupiter Jones.  The one thing he wasn’t was a murderer.  But when Clifford Blossom showed up at the Wyrm in early summer, threatening to kill his little brother if the Serpents didn’t do what he said, the line between who Jupiter Jones was and wasn’t started to blur.

Name: Kathryn Keyes

Story: All That Glitters (Isn’t Gold)

Series: (Glory And Gore) Go Hand In Hand

Face claim: Olivia Holt

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: Kathryn Keyes loved growing up in Orange County.  She loved the sunshine and the beaches, Disneyland and busy streets, shopping and even school.  She loved that boxing classes, her dojo, and her ballet studio were all within five minutes of each other, with a Starbucks in between.  Really, she loved everything about her perfect glittery life.  But that didn’t stop her parents from moving her all the way across the country to some hick town called Riverdale.  There’s no Disneyland or busy streets, no beaches or shopping, not even a Starbucks.  But there’s a gym and a studio, a forest and a river, so her summer is spent boxing and dancing, running and swimming.  And on July Fourth, she runs into something - a redhead boy who couldn’t be any older than she was, and a woman at least twice their age, and despite what they said, it definitely wasn’t just music lessons.  But still, when the boy offers to walk her home, she says yes; she figures she might as well have one friend at her new school, after all.  

But then they hear a gunshot and Kathryn finds herself drawn into the web of lies surrounding that day.  She knew that helping to unravel the mystery would reveal some secrets, but she never expected to learn that her perfect glittery life in California wasn’t quite as golden as she thought.

Name: Keegan Rhodes

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Jordan Fisher

Love interest: Stevie Cooper

Name: Kit Cooper

Story: It Gets Worse Here Every Day

Face claim:  Kiernan Shipka

Summary: Hal and Alice Cooper had only ever wanted two daughters.  Two perfect daughters.  They’d never wanted the third; the wild child, the unplanned twin.  They were going to keep her, they weren’t going to separate Betty from her twin, but when Kit Cooper was diagnosed with severe hearing loss and that was the last straw.  Only five years old, Kit was shipped off to The Sisters Of Quiet Mercy, out of sight, out of mind.  They told her sisters that she was at a private care facility, one that was better equipped to handle her disability than they were.  They would have gotten away with it, if ten years later they hadn’t sent Polly to the Sisters as well.  Now the secret is out, and Betty and Polly will do whatever it takes to get their sister back.

Name: Kristiana Keller

Story: Silver Screen

Series: (Know the Water’s Sweet) But Blood Is Thicker

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim:  Danielle Campbell

Love interest: Toni Topaz

Summary: If the Keller twins could explain one thing, just one thing, to the people of Riverdale, it would be that they were exhausted.  With their father as Sheriff, it always seemed like they were held to a higher standard than the rest of the town.  Lieutenant of the cheer squad and the best wrestler in his weight class; student body vice president and social coordinator; Model UN Secretary General and Chargé D’Affairs; 4.0 GPAs; and a secret to take to the grave.  And if anyone found out that they heard the gunshot on the fourth of July, it might just be to the grave.

Name: Lola Lexington

Story: Living Like A Devil

Series: (Find Me) Where The Wild Things Are

Face claim: Emeraude Toubia

Love Interest: Toni Topaz & Sweet Pea

Name: Lyra Lovell

Story: Unconquerable

Series: (With A Devil) On Your Back

Face claim:  Haley Lu Richardson

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: When Jughead Jones moved to Toledo after his dad’s arrest, he thought that he was finally leaving  Riverdale, and the Serpents, behind him.  But when his mom introduces him to his guide, he knows that’ll be impossible.  Lyra Lovell was a Serpent legacy like he was, and left her mom in Riverdale to move to Toledo with her dad.  Being surrounded by the so-called Toledo Serpents would have been bad enough, but then FP is proven innocent and Gladys sends him straight back to Riverdale. Fully prepared for the worst, he’s pleasantly surprised to find out that Lyra has decided to go home too–if only they can find a way out of their seemingly inevitable destinies.

Name: Mallory Mason

Story: Lamb To The Slaughter

Face claim:  Willa Fitzgerald

Summary:  Mallory Mason had been popular once - with Moose as her brother and Cheryl as her best friend, she couldn’t have been anything less.  She had been popular once, and happy, and desperately in love with her best friend.  And then she came out.  At fourteen, Mal Mason was sent to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy for conversion therapy.  At sixteen, her best friend and first crush shows up in Mal’s personal hell.  And then she gets rescued, and drags Mal out with her.  And suddenly, after two years, Mal has to face Riverdale again.  And, more importantly, Mal has to face her family.

Name: Mila Turner

Story: Fearless

Face claim:  Victoria Justice

Name: Nova Nixon

Story: Serpentine

Face claim: Emma Dumont

Name: Olivia Cooper

Story: Walls Come Tumbling Down

Series: (Does It Almost Feel Like) Nothing Changed At All

Faceclaim: Lily Collins

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary:  As much as Olivia Cooper loved her sisters, and she truly did, it often felt like she was living with strangers.  While Betty and Polly were thick as thieves, she never quite fit in.  But she still knew her sisters better than anyone, and she knew that Polly wasn’t sick.  No matter what their parents said, she knew her twin and she knew that something wasn’t quite right.  She just never expected her investigation to bring her face to face with two magnetic Southside Serpents, and she definitely never expected to find herself feeling more at home with them than she ever had with her sisters.  But that won’t stop her from finding out the truth about Polly, no matter how many secrets get revealed along the way.

Name: Pandora Peabody

Story: The Snake Whisperer

Series: (It Isn’t In) My Blood

Face claim: Ashley Benson

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Everyone on the Southside knew Panda Peabody, daughter of the Snake Charmer, Penny Peabody herself.  A king pin in the making, Panda was virtually untouchable, and she had her mom’s talent for business.  But instead of dealing in favours, she deals in secrets.  

Everyone on the Northside knows Pandora Patterson, the aloof queen bee herself.  Pandora isn’t popular the way that Cheryl Blossom is, through a desperate grasp at the social ladder, but rather because she’s so disinterested.  She walks like she owns the halls, she keeps to herself, and she knows everything about everyone.  

While the Serpents knew that their own Snake Whisperer was a student at Riverdale High, dealing in both secrets and drugs, the Bulldogs had no idea that their It Girl was not only a Serpent, but the one most capable of destroying all of them.

Name: Persephone Parsons

Story: Heartbreak Is The National Anthem

Face claim: Ginny Gardner

Name: Presley Palmer

Story: Living In The Garden Of Evil

Series: (Tell Me All Your) Sweet, Sweet Little Lies

Face claim: Carlson Young

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Toni Topaz

Summary: Presley Palmer wasn’t just a normal Northsider.  No, she was the peak of the Northside.  Raised by a single father who was as rich as the Blossoms, in a sprawling mansion near Thornhill, and Cheryl Blossom’s best friend and co-captain of the River Vixens, she was the girl that every Northsider wanted to be or to be with.  But, as popular and social as they were, Presley and Cheryl were equally insular.  It was always, only, the two of them; ice and water; Queen Pres and Cherry; Presley and Cheryl.  Two sides of the same coin, they knew everything about each other.

Well, not everything.  Cheryl didn’t know about the snake tattoo that Presley covered up every day; she didn’t know that on the other side of town, Presley Palmer was known as Prissy Peabody, the only daughter of the infamous Snake Charmer; and she most certainly didn’t know that it would be Jughead Jones’ investigation into her brother’s disappearance that would bring those secrets to life.

Name: Queenie Quincy

Story: Liability

Series: (Die Only For) You Above All

Face claim: Marlo Kelly

Love Interest: Toni Topaz

Name: Raven Richards

Story: Cruel Summer

Series: (This Town Will Be) The Downfall Of Us All

Face claim: Emma Mackey

Love Interest: Poly Serpents (not Jughead)

Name: Rayne Rivers

Story: An Ounce Of Loyalty

Face claim:  Lucy Hale

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Maybe Rayne Rivers wasn’t the most popular Serpent, or the most feared Serpent, or anything special whatsoever by her gang’s standards, but she was loyal. Loyal enough that FP Jones asked her, personally, to help deal with Jason Blossom’s body. Loyal enough that she did so without question, without complaint. Loyal enough that now that his body has been found, Rayne would sooner die than give her up her gang’s secrets. But in a town like Riverdale, be careful what you wish for.

Name: Renee Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: Winona Ryder

Love Interest: Robert Steele

Name: Riley Richards

Story: Cruel Summer

Series: (This Town Will Be) The Downfall Of Us All

Face claim: Kathryn Newton

Love Interest: Jughead Jones & Archie Andrews

Name: Robert Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: David Harbour

Love Interest: Renee Steele

Name: Rose Blossom

Story: A Rose By Any Other Name

Series: (Ill Met) By Moonlight

Face claim:  Sophie Turner

Love interest: Sweet Pea & Jughead

Summary:  The youngest of the Blossom siblings, Rose had always been the most spoiled. Affectionately, and mockingly, referred to as Princess Blossom, she was everything a Northsider, everything a Blossom should be.  Of course, things started to fall apart when her brother disappeared, but when she joined the River Vixens, things seemed to be getting back on track.  At least they were, until her brother’s body is found with a bullet hole in his head.  Unsure of what to do next, Rose runs.  She runs and runs until she finds herself on the Southside, falling into the arms of a tall, dark, and handsome stranger who goes by Sweet Pea.  And then there’s the question of Jughead Jones, and the magnetic attraction she feels towards him.  The cycle always ends the same way; a Jones and a Blossom, a Serpent and a Blossom, but by god, Rose will make sure that she’s not Riverdale’s next tragic Juliet.

Name: Rosebud Reynolds

Story: The Price Of Your Greed (Is Your Son And Your Daughter)

Series: (I Gotta Recognize) The Weapon In My Mind

Face claim: Halston Sage

Love Interest: Archie Andrews, Toni Topaz, Sweet Pea, endgame FP Jones

Summary: At seventeen years of age, Rosebud Reynolds had… well, she definitely didn’t have it all, but she had what mattered.  She had the Serpent jacket that she’d been wearing for ten years and the nickname she’d had for even longer - and god help anyone who used her real name.  She had fifteen years of ballet lessons under her belt and an upcoming audition for Juilliard.

But everything is on the line when she gets sent to Riverdale High to keep an eye on Jughead Jones.  It would have been fine, if he hadn’t decided to investigate the disappearance of Jason Blossom.

It would have been fine, if she didn’t know the truth about what happened.

It would have been fine, if she hadn’t watched her father shoot him.

His son.

Her brother.

Name: Roxie Harrison

Story: Nothing Town

Face claim:  Shelley Hennig

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Name: Ruby Klump

Story: Blood In The Water

Series: (This Town Kills You) When You Are Young

Face claim:  Meg Donnelly

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty, eventual Fangs x Sweet Pea

Summary: Ruby Klump had been thirteen when she was first sent to a school for “troubled kids” on the outskirts of Greendale and, despite still living in Riverdale, that had been the beginning of a lifetime of isolation.  She barely knew any other teens in Riverdale, not even her older sister’s friends.  Her parents had worked long and hard to keep their problem child away from their perfect Riverdale life, but when Midge is murdered during the school musical, Ruby has to come to the funeral.  And once the floodgates are open, there’s no going back.  Finally making friends in her town, Ruby refuses to be hidden away anymore.  Especially after she befriends a particularly cute boy in a leather jacket… who just got arrested for her sister’s murder.

Name: Ryann Hernández-Viamonte

Story: A Real Nightmare

Series: (Dangerously Having) The Time Of Our Lives

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Love interest: Toni Topaz

Summary: Next to her brother Malachai, Ryann Hernández-Viamonte had always been underestimated, never seen as a real threat by anyone outside of the Ghoulies.  But the Ghoulie Princess knew that, despite everyone’s assumptions, she was one of the most dangerous people in Riverdale.  And after the stunt that Andrews kid pulled at the drag race, Ry found herself spending eight months in Juvie.  Finally, two months after her brother and most of their fellow Ghoulies were released, Ry is back in Riverdale, only to find that everything has gone to shit.  First she finds out that she’s now attending Riverdale High, and then she learns that not only did Malachai make a deal with Penny Peabody, but now they’re also working for Hiram Lodge?  Well, not if she has anything to say about it.

Name: Samantha Cooper

Story: Glissade

Face claim: Willow Shields

Love Interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Skating was, and had always been, Samantha Cooper’s entire life.  But not by choice.  No, as much as she had always loved skating, it was her mother who had forced her to focus her entire life on perfection, on the Olympics.  It was her mother who didn’t let her have friends, or hobbies; who didn’t even want her to go to a proper school.  And Samantha really didn’t mind skating being her priority, but she’d always wanted a real life.  And when Alice pushes too far, when Samantha runs off in the middle of the night, right into the arms of two tall, dark, and handsome boys from the wrong sides of the track, she may finally get her chance.  But everything comes at a price, and Sam is soon going to find out the cost of her choices.

Name: Skylar Smith

Story: Lonely World

Series: (This Town Has Got) The Youth Of Me

Face claim: Amanda Seyfried

Name: Stevie Cooper

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Sabrina Carpenter

Love interest: Keegan Rhodes

Summary: The middle Cooper sister, Stevie never really knew or cared about the Riverdale drama or the Cooper drama, because she was “eat, sleep, breathe, gymnastics”. She didn’t even live in Riverdale, she lived just outside of New York City at an elite facility, where top athletes could train with the best of the best, while also attending a school designed to accommodate their training.

She knew that Polly had been dating Jason Blossom, but didn’t really care as long as Polly was happy; she knew that Betty had been in love with their neighbour since she was eight, and that she was spending the summer with some fancy internship, but that was it.

But after a broken wrist takes her out of gymnastics for a while and she has to trade her gymnastics-oriented boarding school for Riverdale High, just in time for the first day of class, she realizes exactly how much shit her little sister is caught up in, at school and at home, and god help anyone who tries to stop her from protecting her.

Name: Summer Simmons

Story: Such Sweet Sorrow

Series: (Serpent Heart) Hid With A Flowering Face

Face claim: Janel Parrish

Love interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: Much like her twin brother Sweet Pea, Summer never used her real name.  No, no one needed to know that–most people didn’t even know their last name.  So yeah, names had never really meant anything to Summer, until she finds out that the Archie she’s been dating, ever since he walked into the Wyrm in a Riverdale High varsity jacket, is none other than Archie Andrews–her brother’s new enemy and now the leader of some teen vigilante gang that’s sworn to hate her gang–her family.  Well, as Shakespeare would say, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Name: Talia Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: Zoey Deutch

Love Interest: tentative Poly Serpents

Name: Tanya Conway

Story: Yesterday’s Girl (Is Not What You See)

Series: (This Human Place) Makes Inhuman Monsters

Face claim: Kat McNamara

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Identity was fickle, as far as Tanya was concerned. To some she was Tanya Trent, a first generation serpent whose mother was the principal of Southside High, until the Black Hood killed her. To others she was Tanya Svenson, a Southside punk whose father was the janitor at Riverdale High, until he was killed for being the Black Hood. To herself she was Tanya Conway, a teenage girl who knew that the Cooper family had killed her dad’s family; who knew that, even after they divorced, her dad loved her mom; who knew that, no matter what anyone said, her dad wasn’t the Black Hood. And now she’s just Tanya, a scared but stubborn girl with no sense of identity who’s just been sent to Riverdale High with her fellow Serpents, armed with nothing but the snake tattooed on her back and the need to clear her father’s name.

Name: Tiara Blossom

Story: Dollhouse

Face claim: Maddison Brown

Name: Victoria Lodge

Story: You Inherit The Sins, You Inherit The Flames

Series: (Now We’re In The Ring) And We’re Coming For Blood

Face claim:  Jenna Ortega

Summary: Victoria Lodge was the black sheep of the Lodge family.  She didn’t care about the constant parties or connections, she didn’t particularly like her dad, she’d never even watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and oh, right, she had no interest in being a mob princess.  Maybe that’s why she’s the only one looking forward to moving to Riverdale–until she realizes she’s walked onto the set of a real life murder mystery, and even her parents are suspects.

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 8: Mountain Lion Mean Notes

Okay, so I was writing up notes on my Troped Western fic and then I clicked something and it all disappeared! I’m very upset and I hate the idea of starting again but like... I guess that’s what I gotta do :/

Mountain Lion Mean on AO3.

Written for @troped-fanfic-challenge​

So as I said in my notes, I watched Hell or High Water on the Sunday the trope document opened and immediately became obsessed, and that was my main inspiration. I saw it and loved it and, like with most things I love, my first thought was how can I do this too?? I didn’t want to do a straight AU of it, because it’s just too good and I don’t want to mess with that kind of perfection, but I knew I wanted a similar mood. I also figured pretty early on that I would try to include a bank robbery.

For the first days after the trope doc opened, I mostly just gathered inspiration and tried to think Western thoughts. In addition to HOHW, my inspiration included:

The Western episode of Charmed

A Western Rock playlist I found on Spotify

This post of southwestern gothic aesthetics

“Ranch Girl” by Maile Meloy (also the inspiration for it is new moon and twilight, which, fun fact, was originally going to be a Western; I didn’t re-read the story but it’s been haunting me since I first read it c. 2001 and is probably a partial inspiration for everything I write)

William Faulkner (especially “A Rose for Emily” and A Light in August) for the “town POV” narration

Sigrid Undset for the floating third-person-POV

The wikipedia article on Westerns, for succinct summaries of the themes of Westerns

The original aesthetic, quoted from my notes: “The vastness of the west, the frontier, a little uncivilized, a little dangerous, tough looking men who don’t talk much, extrajudicial justice, the heat and the desert…“

By the time I sat down to brainstorm, I had a few ideas and a few images already in mind. I wanted to include a bank robbery. I liked the idea of Clarke as a gunslinger and/or purveyor of vigilante justice. I thought I might use Gina as a bartender (this was during the half-moment I thought I might write a Bartender Mechanic fic; obviously neither of these things happened). And I liked the idea of including Murphy as some kinda criminal or unsavory type. The image of Bellamy as a taciturn cowboy came fairly early too.

I was a little uncertain at first if I wanted to do an 1800s western or a neo-western, mostly because I felt like the tropes I was attracted to and the images in my head fit better in the 1800s. But ultimately I settled on neo-western pretty fast, because I thought the imagery and themes would work better in the modern day. Plus I just thought it would be easier tbqh.

My first concern was to not just re-write a shittier HOHW. I was really caught up in the logistics of the bank robbery; including too much of that would necessarily make it a copy of the film, so I tried to keep just the bare bones of the robbery + the general justification (saving the family land). Then I added additional portions of the scheme--not too difficult since I knew I wanted Gunslinger/Vigilante Clarke in there, and I needed some way to show that she takes Justice into her own hands--and additional characters. Again, most notably Clarke, but also Raven and Octavia. The characters have their own backgrounds, personalities, relationships, and motivations, all of which make the story more mine imo. I’m satisfied with the balance of Obvious HOHW Influences and original content.

At some point, I described it to my mom as “Bellamy is Toby, Murphy is Tanner, and Clarke is canon Clarke but in the modern West.” Which I still think is accurate.

Including Clarke, though, and privileging the various relationships among the trio of Bellamy, Clarke, and Murphy, made me feel like I was making an it is new moon and twilight knock off except with Clarke for Raven. I still kind of see it, tbh, in the sense that twilight was itself supposed to be a western--I think it would be fair to say that Mountain Lion Mean IS the fic I set out to write in February 2020--and in the sense that I could have written a different story in the same universe as Mountain Lion Mean that explored the Clarke, Murphy, and Bellamy relationships in a way that is similar to twilight. As is, a lot of that is unsaid and unseen. The two fics have different focuses, so it’s probably only apparent to me just how similar they are. Just like, to me, Mad Women and The Wanheda Tape are the same story even though they have very different aesthetics and plots.

Some excerpts from my notes that I think are fun:

I really want to work with the themes (haha themes) of frontier justice and also the sense that the west is infinite but also small, that nature is hard and impossible to wrangle but that the opportunities are narrow and it’s easy to get trapped in it, the melancholy nature of it, the dichotomy of nature (huge, powerful) versus man (small, struggling against nature and against man). Or some such. Or Murphy just robs banks.

Bellamy owns a struggling ranch. Clarke is a gunslinger (don’t really know if I can use this trope in the current day but possibly?) who doesn’t trust the law. Has a conceal[ed]-carry permit. Is the best shot in three counties. Murphy’s been in and out of prison most of his adult life, mostly for crimes like robbery and assault.

How do they know each other? Possibilities: Murphy knows Bellamy through Octavia (idk why…but I do feel like O should appear, riding a horse) (background Octaven? Just a thought), Bellarke are exes, Murphy used to work on the ranch. Clarke has killed someone (someone Bad) and gotten away with it.

I do like the focus being on these three characters, who have a long history but aren’t currently close, coming together for a mission (to rob a bank) for the benefit of one who is struggling (Bellamy) even thought this is an awful lot like both Hell or High Water and it is new moon and twilight lmao.

I like that mood from HOHW where actually Toby was the most dangerous, and the smartest, and he won—the idea that Bellamy is the taciturn cowboy who’s not good at sharing his feelings but he’s also the mastermind in the end. Is that the twist? You get the impression Vigilante Gunslinger Griffin and Actual Ex-Con Murphy are planning something, but then it turns out to be Bellamy who executes the plan? [Not quite how it turned out lol in that I think it’s decently obvious that Bellamy was a major part of it the whole time but I did try to get some of this in with Octavia in the final scene--to really drive home Bellamy’s importance, as the ring leader, since otherwise one could ask, what does he even do?]

Midway through the planning process I came up with some more images to work from:

B and C out at dusk on the ranch, she’s shooting can, a bit of UST perhaps

M shows up at the bar and there’s an awkward silent entrance—perhaps he’s just out of prison

Murphy or Clarke guns akimbo [I picked Clarke to emphasize that she’s the gunslinger, but I had Murphy shoot out the security cameras to show that they were using his robbery experience]

Bellamy being silent and awkward

At this point, it was just about putting all the pieces together. That’s how I tend to plan Troped fics: I lay out all the pieces I need or want to include and then I figure out the shortest and most efficient distances between them. For example, I knew I needed a bank robbery and for Clarke to administer some vigilante justice--so I use that justice as a way to launder the money. They fake a will for her victim and “give” the money to themselves.

I did worry, and still worry, about the timeline re: the Bellarke marriage and the will because I’m quite sure it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t work. But it also... it doesn’t keep me up at night because the whole point is that it’s a scam!! Worrying about legality in a scam is sorta... lol. What I mean specifically is that I wanted it to be clear that Clarke does not kill Kane FOR this scheme. They use something she already did to their advantage. So she and Bellamy can’t be married at the time Kane is killed. That implies the murder was pre-meditated for the bank robbing purpose. But I’m also fairly sure (and I should know this because I took T&E but like...honestly can’t remember) that the people in the will are counted at the time of death, not the time of probate, or you could like... adopt extra kids or marry or divorce someone to affect the will. Plus all that stuff about simultaneous death etc. etc. Also, on a practical level, if Clarke wasn’t married, Kane wouldn’t have an obvious reason to write her spouse into the will. But I get away with this in my head by saying, first, no one’s going to say the husband that’s standing right there doesn’t count as a husband--the law is the law but it’s implemented by people and they fudge corners all the time. They do what seems to make sense even if you’d lose points for it on a law school exam. And second, the will could have been written with the assumption or hope that Clare would marry. Possibly even, though I don’t say this in the fic exactly, on the condition of marriage--Clarke gets 100% to share 50-50 with her husband if she’s married, 0% if she’s not. Doesn’t really matter. It’s supposed to read as outwardly clever and create Mystery and play with the Exes Aesthetic even if it doesn’t hold up the strictest scrutiny. (JDs don’t @ me.)

I justified including the marriage as a necessity because Kane could possibly leave money to Clarke’s husband but he wouldn’t leave money to some rando. I do stand by that part.

I also decided at some point that I wanted to include Background Octaven but be really subtle about it so it was something else the reader would have to piece together: that Raven has a girlfriend, then that Octavia has a girlfriend but, hey, isn’t Raven a bartender?--and then it comes together in the last scene as we see that their relationship was factored into Bellamy’s plan all along: some of the loot goes directly to Octavia and her partner, officially as payment for Raven’s services, unofficially because Bellamy wants to give O a gift. Anyway. Either it was too obvious or too subtle/boring because no one mentioned it but I thought it was cool lol.

At this point in my planning I basically had everything I needed, so I wrote a quick outline of scenes, as I always do, to see how it would flow scene to scene and if I had a place to put all the necessary plot info. I also ended up doing “what I need from this scene” lists for each scene so that I knew what I had to have on my mind to include before I sat down to write each one.

The actual writing was done over 3 days and fairly easily and quickly. I had a lot of fun not just with planning but with the actual process of creation. I think it’s because I was just honestly excited to be in this universe and play with this aesthetic.

Not to blow my own horn here but some parts that I was particularly pleased with were:

“Arkadia hasn’t seen a drop of rain in thirty-two days. The asphalt on the highway shimmers with heat; the air crackles with heat; the heat rises, stifling and strong, from the parched dirt and the cracks in the pavement.” Like I’m sorry but that’s a good image, I like that a lot. Whenever I felt discouraged, I just read that again and felt better.

The description of past Bellarke because boy howdy do I not care to write romance anymore but that was fun. I thought it was hot.

Transitioning Murphy laughing until the coyotes can hear into Bellamy hearing coyotes at night into Bellamy still hearing them during the day. I don’t know if it worked quite like I wanted to but in my head that is a very Cinematic transition, okay? I also like that even though Clarke and Murphy aren’t literally riding off together in that scene, for the reader, they are leaving the narrative never to be seen again. So they get their Dramatic Exit.

Octavia’s explication of the Theme and Bellamy’s possible motivations. I’m pretty proud of myself for actually having a theme and I think I did a good job of explaining it without being too heavy-handed. I also think it was perhaps risky to end with the POV of Octavia, a character who’s barely been in the fic before the last scene, but ultimately that decision felt right to me and I think it had a good flow, a nice mellow exit from the narrative.

What I didn’t like as much was a lot of the first scene. I think it has some great bits but it was the most re-worked part of the fic, and there are still some paragraphs and phrases that I feel are a little stiff. For example, this is a paragraph that I cut entirely:

Diyoza was sure the Griffin daughter did the deed back in January and she's sure about it still. She even gives a quote to the Sun-Times about it, despite her troubles with Green. But she had no proof then, not even a body to justify a murder charge, and she has little proof now. So no one believes the investigation will come to anything.

As you can see, it gives no new information. There were other sentences and phrases that weren’t doing work but were interrupting the flow, which also got cut, but I’m still not sure that the flow is perfect in the final version.

Also displeased that I edited out a * from the version on AO3, thus letting two scenes run together. How embarrassing!!! It’s fixed now though.

Overall though I’m so pleased! I love this fic and I love that I can love things again. This year has already been so hard, just like being battered again and again by waves of a storm, and it’s only 5 weeks in but this experience was so unabashedly good and I’m so grateful for it.

[sumu-samu]

Chapter 2

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Pairing: Bellamy Blake x OC

Genre: Fluff, angst, and everything in between

Warnings: curse words, death, blood, killing, gore, and some good old chaos

Summary: Xephyr Kane, Marcus’ adopted daughter, grew up on the Ark, but begged the council to lock her up in solitary after a traumatic experience involving her birth parents. Now, she’s being sent to the ground, on her own terms unlike the other 99 kids, in hopes to start new. But what happens when she gets down there, and nothing goes as planned? Throw in a hot headed “leader” that wasn’t supposed to be there and things get… difficult.

A/N: Here's the second chapter, again, if there's anything wrong please just tell me so I can revise it later. Hope you like it, I think I’ll be posting this twice a week because I just have so much written already. Also, I forgot to mention it in the summary and I’m too lazy to fix it, there's a twist once we get to season six.

“Nah, Xephyr that sphere just launched IT”S SELF into jaspers chest.” Monty sassed 

“Shut up.” Finn said sharply. “On three we all run, got it?” we all nodded “One, two, three!” we all ran through the woods, I could feel the cut on my leg burning but I couldn’t stop thinking about Jasper. I didn’t want to believe what I saw. Monty tripped over something, when he fell his face was full of fear, we looked to the ground and saw bones.

“Who are they?” Finn asked. Clarke picked up the skull 

“What are they?” She corrected. 

We heard a distant scream. “Jasper! He’s alive.” I yelled and started running back

“Xephyr wait! Wait!” Finn called after me, needless to say I didn’t. “Wait! Stay out of the trees.” He grabbed me. We looked over to where JAsper was before but nothing was there. 

“He was right there?” finn said confused

“No, where is he?” Monty added.

“They took him.” Clarke said with concern. “Let’s go.” She turned around. We all ran back to camp. I didn’t want to but I knew that we couldn't’ not with the conditions we were in, we needed to go back.

We got back to camp and saw Wells holding a knife to Murphy’s throat. “Wells!” Clarke called out “Let him go.”  He let him go and Murphy charged at him.

“Enough Murphy.” Bellamy held him back. “Octavia, are you alright?” He ran to us. When he took her from Monty and I he gave me a look. I almost mistook it for pity but it wasn’t that, it was a look I hadn’t seen before. 

“Where's the food?” Bellamy asked strongly.

“We didn’t make it to Mount Weather.” Finn sat down.

“Then what the hell happened out there?” He almost yelled.

“We were attacked.” Clarke breathed out. 

“Attacked? By what?” Wells asked.

“Not what, who. Turns out when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn’t the last grounder.” “It’s true.” I added “Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us.”

“Yeah, the bad news is the grounders will.” Finn added darkly

“Where’s the kid with goggles?” Clarke turned to wells with sadness in her eyes

“Jasper was hit. They took him” She told him. “Where’s your wrists band?” He reached for his arm. 

He pulled away, “Ask him.” He nodded towards Bellamy. 

Clarke stepped towards him. “How many?” She asked sternly 

“Twenty-four and counting.” Murphy smiled with a look of success.

“You idiots.” I breathed “Life support on the Ark is failing, that’s why they brought us down here! They need to know the ground is survivable again and we need their help against whoever is out there! If you take off your wrist bands you're not just killing them! You're killing us!” I yelled out. 

“We’re stronger than you think. Don’t listen to her, she’s one of the privileged.” Bellamy rolled his eyes. “If they come down she’ll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wrist band on your arm, it makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they’ll forgive your crimes, I say you are not criminals. You’re fighters, survivors. The grounders should worry about us!” Everyone started to shout. My leg burned more and more the pain now searing to my hip, the world became blurry.

“Xephyr?” Octavia’s voice sounded distant and it rang. My legs became jelly, my mind blank, I fell to the ground, blackness started to overcome me. Before I completely blacked out I heard someone yell my name.

I stood there watching a clone of myself, 

“Why are you doing this?” Clarke pleaded.

“You know why, cause it’s fun. You knew that I was going to become this, everyone knew, and you let me live. You brought this upon yourself. “ I smiled. 

“No!” The me that was watching screamed.

Moving swiftly I sliced her throat. She fell to the ground. The me with a knife bent down, and ripped open her abdomen.  

NO! STOP!”

“Xephyr!” Bellamy yelled. I woke up sweaty and screaming. He looked at me concerned. 

“Xephyr, are you okay?” Wells asked. I nodded my head.

“We’re going to find Jasper.” Clark informed me.

“I’m coming with-”

“No.” Bellamy said. 

“Fuck off, like hell I’m not going with you, Jasper is my friend.” “Xephyr, calm down. He’s right, you’ll slow us down, with your leg,”

“My leg is fine.” I cut Clarke off. 

“You have a concussion. You could get even worse.” She put her hand on my shoulder.

“Fine,” I said sharply. “But I’m going to do what I can to get comms back up.” 

“I guess i can’t stop you there.” She sighed. “Well be back. Okay.” 

As they walked off I went up to the second level and saw Monty working on some wires.

“Need help?” I asked.

“From you, hell yes, i barely know how to do this shit.” I laughed and walked over to help.

As we were working on trying to get comms working the door to the lower level opened and Octavia walked in, a guy was following her but he was pulled down and Atom came up.

“Nobody’s bitch huh?” She asked him. “Maybe one of these days you’ll realize you can’t control me.” She said, I have a small breathy chuckle but she didn’t hear me.

“You know that guy you were with.” Atom smiled “did you know he was in for murder? You wanna know something funny? I’m actually protecting him from you.” He dropped down latching the door behind him. Octavia ran and started hitting it. The sound rang through my ears causing my head to hurt. I just ignored the pain and kept working.

“Consider yourself Controlled” Atom telles through the door.

“Is this all you got? They locked me under the floor for 16 years just for being born! This is nothing.”

“Ahem.” Monty got her attention.

“You wanna keep it down? I’m trying to concentrate.” He shrugged. Octavia walked over time us. 

“Damn it!” I yelled. I held my hands to my head trying to force out the pain.

“Hey you okay?” Monty asked.

“Yeah, i just…. i…. umm… we need some form of power.” I said.

“What about the bracelet?” He asked.

“Yes, yeah that’ll work.” 

“Use mine,” Octavia offered.

As Monty worked her bracelet off she asked about Jasper. 

“He may not be my real brother, but he’s always been there. Every memory i have, there’s jasper. I should be out there.” He sighed.

“You’re not gonna cry are you?” I joked.

“Shut up.” He scoffed.

“You sure about this?” I turned to Octavia. “Your brother won’t approve of you helping us contact the… the…”

“Ark.” Monty finished for me with a concerned look. 

“He’s not my keeper.” She gave me a look of assurance. “Let’s just do this. Let’s do it.” She nodded. 

Monty dropped the tool he was using and picked up a crowbar. He turned her wrist around and tried to pry it off. It came off and Octavia grunted in pain.

“Sorry” Monty apologized and handed me the bracelet. I held it up to the light filled with hope as i watched it die out.

“DAMN IT!” I sighed, “dead.” The two of them sighed.

“If you can’t even take it off how do you expect to turn it into a radio?” She asked us. Then the door opened and Atom popped up

Octavia gave me a look. “Go on, we’ll be fine. Got work to do.” I motioned towards the wires. She smiled and ran off.

“Hey Monty.” She called back. “Jasper would understand why you stayed.” She nodded.

“How is someone raised beneath the floor not a total basket case?” He joked. 

Octavia scoffed and then replied “who says I’m not.”

We continued working. My head was pounding, I started feeling dizzy. I stood up and walked around. “Hey, hey! Are you okay?” Monty got up.

“Yeah, i just…. I need a break. What are we doing again?” I asked. Monty laughed

“Your messing with me right?” I just looked at him. “Oh my gosh you’re serious. Xephyr what’s going on?” 

“What? What… huh?” 

“Xephyr. You should probably sit down.”

“What? No, I just. Um, can you close that damn door?” I pointed to the door that went to the lower level. Monty walked over and then my vision went black. 

“Xephyr!” He ran to me. “Xephyr…” he ran back to the door. “We need help up here.” 

My vision started to clear to see two other boys with Monty. “Someone go get water.” He turned to the boys.

“No! No, I just, I need to get back to work.” I shook them off.

“Xephyr?” Monty yelled 

“Shhhh! Shut up. You two, back on the wall.” 

Once Clarke and everyone else got back I decided I needed a real break. “I’m getting some air.” I got up and walked down the ladder then out of the drop ship. 

“Anyone who’s wrist band comes off gets to eat tonight.” Bellamy yelled. Kids lined up to have their bands taken off. Bellamy walked up to me. “Wanna get in line?” He gave an arrogant smile.

“I’ll starve.” I said bitterly. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

“All you’ve got to do is take that wristband off sweetheart.” I heard a familiar voice whisper in my ear from behind, warm breath flowing over my neck, then two familiar warm hands run up and down my legs and hips. 

My breath hitched, but then I remembered what he had done to me. “Fuck off Murphy,” i shoved him off me. 

“Oh come on, if i remember correctly that used to drive you crazy. Used to make you beg for me. You couldn’t keep yourself off me then.” He sighed.

“And then you decided that I wasn't good enough. That you wanted nothing to do with me.”

“Please, I was just upset, I didn't mean any of it.” He took a step closer.

“You called me a mental case! You said I was psychotic!” I yelled loud enough for the whole camp to hear. He put his hand over my mouth and shoved me against a tree.

“Come on love, that was years ago.” He ran his fingers down my neck and my arms. I tried pushing him off, but I couldn't. 

“Hey! Murphy! Back off.” Bellamy’s deep voice boomed. Murphy just looked at me. “Let her go!” He said more sternly, Murphy let go. “Now walk away.” Murphy did as he was told.

“I don’t need you.” I said sharply.

“Really? Cause looked to me like you did.” 

“John isn’t different from any of the others. He acts all tough, but in reality, he’s just a wus waiting to be put in his place.” I rolled my eyes. I pushed myself off the tree and lost my balance, i would have fallen if Bellamy hadn’t caught me.

“Whoa! You okay?” He asked.

“Like I said. I don’t need you.” I walked off to go find a place to sleep.

[searuin]

NAME    -    ffion !  but i don’t really like to associate with that  -  so to friends and online i usually go by carys (  which is my middle name  )

NICKNAMES    -    i don’t actually think i have any ?   so thats lame.

HEIGHT    -    i don’t know exactly but i’m around 6ft ?

NATIONALITY    -    british.

FAVORITE  FRUIT    -    i pretty much only like strawberries. pears in concept i could get behind but the actual eating isn’t something i vibe with.

FAVORITE  SEASON    -    autumn >>

FAVORITE  SCENTS    -    rain,  cinnamon,  incense.

FAVORITE  ANIMALS    -    i love cats & snakes but ?? goats are funky too.

TEA,  COFFEE,  HOT  COCOA    -    i mostly drink more energy drinks but i like all three. coffee is only good if it’s really sweet though.

AVERAGE  HOURS  OF  SLEEP    -    probably 6?  i try to get 8 though.

WHEN  MY  BLOG  WAS  CREATED    -    i only properly rejoined tumblr in 2020 ? but i don’t know the exact date. this blog was made in december i believe.

#  OF  FOLLOWERS    -    23 when i looked this morning.

RANDOM FACT    -    i still don’t understand how tumblr rp works. last time i was here properly i was maybe twelve and mostly illiterate. ever since i came back i’ve had to google things about rp here at least once a week because it’s so different to igrp.

FAVORITE  FOOD    -    chocolate covered strawberry supremacy !

FAVORITE  T.V.  SHOWS    -    agent carter, saiki k maybe ? i don’t watch a ton of tv and when i do it’s mindless stuff like haikyuu!! .

FAVORITE  MOVIE    -    your name !  or friday night frights.

FAVORITE  VINE    -    i like what do you have / a knife but i missed out on the whole vine era because i was 12 when it shut down and i didn’t have a smartphone yet.

SEXUALITY    -    yikes this is where i start discourse isnt it. sapphic aroace.

PRONOUNS    -    i’m cool with any tbh ?  i usually tell people they & she though.

FAVORITE  BOOK  SERIES    -    magic 2.0 even though it kind of sucked !  also harry potter (ofc), the kane chronicles and i’m currently into shadow & bone.

FAVORITE  VIDEO  GAME / S    -    i ... don’t really play any so love live ! sif.

FAVORITE  SUBJECT    -    psychology !  but i don’t have classes for that at the moment so i’ll pick illustration as a second choice.

GUYS  OR  GIRLS    -    i’m sure guys are cool and all but ... girls are neat.

LAST  TIME  I  CRIED    -    yesterday night i think ?  i made a playlist but it made me sad when i listened to it oops.

FAVORITE  FANDOMS    -    most fandoms i’m in are pretty yikes with some of the stuff that goes on but parts of hp are cool, bungo stray dogs / wtnv / tma have all been fun recently.

tagged  by  -  look i stole this from @drcomalfy​ like 15 minutes ago when i realised i hadn’t posted today  !    &&.  tagging  you  !  ( repost dont rb )

[plainvanillapotato]

Quarantine diaries: its still may 22 2020.

Continuation of my “the 100 diaries” cuz y’all asked for it

Season 1. Ep. 2 Earth Skills

These kids sure have some stamina for people who have been stuck on a space blob all of their life. Ok wait imagine if instead of all these super attractive and fit actors we got the space people from wall-E who barely walk to save their lives. Now that is realistic.

Some bones. Mystery. Intrigue. Clearly not a human skull tho.

*hears jasper screaming* yes lets run toward the danger. I know I know be the hero and save the guy but if we’re living by the “do whatever the hell we want” rule then you bet your ass that I’m not gonna be the hero

Also how did jasper not die cuz really it looked like an instant kill

Side note: I’ve just realized where I recognize Clarke’s mom. She’s that aunt in the game plan.

Thelonious… really? These character names are all over the place. I mean you have regular names like Finn and Abby but then you jump to thelonious and Bellamy?! But who am I to judge? I live in a universe where Elon Musk's kid is named X Æ A-12.

Aww wells...such a nice guy! Did he really just bury those two people all by himself? Like no one else saw him and didn’t offer to help him. But I guess as these are some angsty teens who only care about themselves

Wait...wells also stripped them of their clothes kinda gross but you gotta do what you gotta do

Wow first appearance of a shirtless Bellamy. He’s hot

So I really don’t like this Murphy character. It does not help that the jacket that his wearing, the shoulder pad looks like one of those spiky balls I used to play with as a kid. Ill insert some images to prove this. Like I swear to god I bet that the costume design people straight up cut one of them spiky balls and just slapped that on the jacket

Lol I was really worried there for a moment thinking that Bellamy would actually stop that fight between wells and Murphy. Bellamy is chaotic neutral/evil giving wells a knife for a fair fight

Grounders. I wonder if they had a discussion on what they should call the people that survived on earth cuz i feel like there’s a better name for them but idk what. Also does that mean that the 100 and the ark people are called ‘spacers’

Clarke is being very anal about these wristbands like I understand her reasoning but it’s annoying me rn

This show shows more politics than I thought it would. It’s interesting how the kids take on the traits and characteristic of their parents

Wooow this show is really going with the smart Asian stereotype. Like you’re literally keeping Monty from saving his best friend because his brain is too valuable. please tell me there is more to monty than his brains

Clarke really be out here negging Finn AND Bellamy into a suicide mission to find jasper

Also I find it fascinating that one of the main reasons that Bellamy is the leader of these spacers is because he has a gun. Is this supposed to be reflective of real life?

I watch this show with subtitles on and… they spell Adam as ATOM. Like what? I literally had to look it up on IMDb to see if that was an error but nope it wasn’t

Bellamy is a very possessive big brother. Like I know its out of love but its a bit much and kinda anti-feminist like he treats octavia like a doll

Who is this raven character cuz i really don’t be needing another subplot

“Lockup has been quarantined. There’s some kind of a virus” …. CORONAVIRUS?! Is this show the parallel universe everyone is talking about

For a girl who had very limited social interaction, octavia is very confident flirting. Like for real, she flirts with boys better than I do. Possible the most unrealistic part of the show so far

Are they really setting up a thing between Clarke and Finn like keep it in your pants guys? It’s been like 2 days.  Fuck they are making finn and Clarke a thing. And i bet its that troupe where he’s a free spirit and she’s all uptight and he teaches her how to let loose

Also back to my Star Wars parallel, I think I’ve figured it out. Clarke is Rey. Wells is Finn (the guy friend that loves the main girl but she only sees him as a friend). Finn is Poe (the careless fun guy that contrasts the oh so serious main girl). And Bellamy is Kylo ren (the ‘antagonist’ that actually has a heart). Like guys the friend zone relationship between wells and Clarke is VERY finn and Rey like. Then there’s this scene where it seems like Bellamy is trying to turn wells against finn almost like kylo ren trying to turn someone to the dark side. i know rn its finn and clarke but there are strong reylo vibez between bellamy and clarke 

Now there’s atom and octavia jesus this girl moves faster through boys than i have in my entire life but i guess since she lived under the floor for much of her life she has a lot to make up for.

I find it very American who these spacers think that because they have a gun that they are safe.

They really put jasper, titties out, up there in a tree

You know how Bellamy said that he would do anything to get clarke’s wristband even if that means cutting off her hand so that the arc doesn’t come down….he really could have just let her die when she fell into that pit. But I get it plot and to show that Bellamy isn’t all evil. Also very intense eye contact between Clarke and Bellamy.

So this council meeting...ngl i kinda side with Kane especially with that violent table slap

Yess wells you kill that mutant animal thingy. The “now she sees you” yeah Bellamy no shit. Ofc Clarke is gonna notice wells shooting and killing that animal right in front of her. 

Are they really gonna eat that radioactive animal????? I’m serious when i say i want to straight up vomit thinking about eating that. Guess that its a good thing that i don’t live in this universe. Side note it looks like one of those mutant beast that was in the first hunger games movie.

Oh fuck...raven is finn’s girlfriend. Ofc she is

The scene where finn takes the food without cutting off his wristband and Murphy is like no you ain’t special but then finn is like “i thought there were no rules” cut to Murphy’s face is just like “but he’s got a point tho” then finn just walks off with the music blaring like that was the most badass thing ever (the time stamp for this scene is 39:39)….this show is too much

Bellamy really hung atom for kissing his sister…..no just no this is no okay but I’m kind of too invested to stop watching

Oooo a grounder. Does that mask have any functional purposes? Or like is it purely for intimidation

this was murphy’s face when Finn said that there were no rules. 

[sometimesrosy]

6.12 Adjustment Protocol rewatch

okay here we go.

Watching Clarke pretend to be Josephine while possessed Madi threatens to kill them all, and she’s got to put on that callous act was terrible. But then she managed to delay Echo’s execution by saying she wanted to be there for Simone’s awakening which was clever. Abby threatens to kills Russell for killing Clarke, and he’s like “yeah, I thought I wouldn’t leave the path (path what path?) until I killed my family in the first eclipse, so I believe you.” I’m thinking, like granddaughter like grandmother.

Meanwhile Murphy is playing both sides to get immortality but also manage to save his people. Doesn’t manage to save Echo. But he lives another day to keep on scamming the rest.

Then Bellamy outside the compound chomping at the bit ready to change the plan because he can’t stand there doing nothing and Octavia is the reasonable one telling him to have faith. 

Sheidheda tells Raven he knows what she’s doing and will kill the child if she does it, meanwhile Russell is going to kill her with bone marrow extraction so Abby takes the nightblood serum so they can take the bone marrow from her. “Like mother like daughter,” Jackson says. In walks Clarke and she hugs Abby and everyone is stunned and relieved, and she say she. needs Raven to open the shields but Raven says no, she can’t leave Madi or sheidheda will kill her. And Clarke is like, good no. Okay, we’ll use Ryker. She’s be Josephine and persuade him. I really like the Raven and CLarke interaction here even though it’s focused on Abby and Madi. Raven’s sorrow at Josephine and relief at Clarke being alive was real and refusing to leave Madi, although Clarke was trying to be pragmatic, is a sign that Raven has grown in her moral development that so often sacrificed others for her pragmatism, and this time she was like, no. I have to do the right thing and save THIS child. Of course Clarke agreed. And when she went off to save them all, Raven was like, damn right, back where she belongs, saving our asses. I’ll take care of the fam and save Madi. Because it really felt like she was part of the family there. Caring for Abby, for Madi, and. believing in Clarke once again. I guess it makes Jackson the big bro. 

So Ryker’s dead and Clarke’s smart so she grabs the minddrive and plans to coerce his mom to open the shield and still pretending to be J. Why don’t they suspect her? IDK. Is she that good?

Raven finding out Emori and Murphy are the next primes was interesting. She was disappointed in Emori. I still think they had a poly thing for a while. BUt that is not analysis, that’s headcanon. Whatever happened on the ring stays on the ring. 

Then Gabriel flips when he finds out all the primes are coming back and he crashes their plan. NOW Bellamy wants to be reasonable. lol. I guess Octavia’s pep talk worked.

The scene where Clarke marches into the bar with Echo, Miller and Gaia hiding and grabs Priya to get the shield, she makes up a story about Ryker losing his nerve and Echo’s like, we can’t let them leave and attacks, takes out the guards (Delilah’s mom smacks one over the head, too!) and then Priya is running and Clarke clotheslines her. AWESOME. And Echo is like, “I knew it!” Because Echo never lost faith in Clarke or stopped believing in her. She understands Clarke because they have so many similarities. More than Bellamy even, Echo has been on Clarke’s side (probably because she has no hurt feelings about what she’s done.) Echo and Clarke hug and I loved to see it. Y’all are completely unfair to Echo as a character, mischaracterizing her because she’s the opposing ship. This whole stan/anti thing sucks. SORRY. little fandom rant. I apologize. Moving on. Gaia didn’t believe. She’s like How are you here? Miller and Echo are just like, of course she’s here, she’s Clarke. duh. 

OH Abby and Raven reconciled. Abby admits that bodysnatching for Kane was wrong, all she wanted was him back, but now that she got Clarke back, she understands Raven was right. And RAVEN is like, I’m sorry I’ve been judging you so unfairly, you’re human. And here we have character development revelations that we’ve been waiting for. Abby says you may not be my daughter but you’re my family, solidifying their mother/daughter type relationship and the hug. YAY! Reconciliation and apologies and understanding hurrah!

I should have known.

In comes Russell and Memori. Abby is like, “I know how scared you are but betraying your friends isn’t the way to do it.” He says, “believe it or not this is good for you too.” And honestly, he is trying to save them. And if Bellarke’s plan hadn’t worked, what they do would be the best option. But as it is, it’s just a backup and it does help their plan eventually. 

And then Russell asks for Abby’s help. And then Abby gets suspicious. And he tells her he has all the primes he needs. And this is so sick.

His rationale is “I killed your daughter, and because you will ask me to pay for that murder, I am going to kill you too.”

That is NOT eye for an eye. He can’t even stick to his own twisted morality.

Jackson for the first time gets violent and hits a guard but the other guard takes him down while another holds Raven. Abby is given the shot and falls. The last thing she sees is her daughter Raven, her son Jackson, and then she starts flashing through Jake, Kane, and Clarke growing up. Before she’s dead.

I hate Russell. There’s no way he’d be my favorite villain. 

Russll vs Gabriel. “Without death life is meaningless.” But the resurrections are done. Nothing more powerufl than the truth. “You’re wrong, faith is.” He thinks seeing all their gods will make them have faith again.

The alarm goes off too soon ruining the plan. Gabriel. You messed up.

Gabriel can’t even kill Russell. “You never had the stomach to be a god.” WHY do gods have to kill people? Russell you suck.

Oh the primes. Murphy and Emori look so damn good. Honestly. They look beautiful. 

The shield goes down and Bellamy says “I told you she’d do it,” and Octavia is like what? And then elbows him and laughs. What a great tiny moment that shows they have gotten back to their relationship. Not perfect, but THEM. Well done. 

Bellamy takes Priya to tell the truth to the Sanctumites and it’s sad, admitting that they weren’t one with the primes and they weren’t gods, just humans with technology, needing their bodies to live forever. Then Russell, the demon, gasses everyone and they go psychotic. The parents killed Priya which was fitting. But Clarke and Gaia go to save Madi and Echo leads earthrku and COG into the machine shop where she was imprisoned. The action has less meaningful stuff to the narrative, I find. But fun.

Oh Clarke, they do the rotating camera until she sees Abby. Jackson and Raven are crying and Clarke is overcome. Almost. Gabriel draws her attention and she yells at him about her broken heart and his treachery. It was very kind of him. 

Stupid Simone is like “well at least you have closure.” WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT WOMAN? 

Then they need Raven because they have no pilot since they killed the Lees and Simone puts a gun to Madi’s head. Russell’s about to throw Gaia to the wolves but Clarke saves her by saying they’ll need her to get onto the ship. 

Open to shot of Indra guarding the door with armed guards as it opens to Simone, Russell and Clarke!Josephine holding guns to the heads of Madi, Raven and Gaia on their knees. 

Russell is SUCH a villain. Nothing redeeming about him except for his looks and dignified appearance and that is not enough. And Simone is heartless. I suppose they are the Head and Heart of that generation. Simone was a shadow of Abby, and in the end, the shadow swallowed her. 

@linzzmorgan100 @wolfheartgirl  @braindeadkat @kattitudereads @beholdmysparkle @elspethelfgordie @theatre-steph @franklyineedcoffee  @iishallbelieve

[eljackinton]

Thoughts on Command and Conquer Remastered, Part One

One of my earliest memories is waking up during Christmas break and hearing, faintly, sounds coming from downstairs. It was Act on Instinct and the sound of Mini-gunner fire. My brother had gotten up early to play Command and Conquer.

It would take me all day to describe how formative both the first game and the series has been to my life, and my own complex history with it, so let me just skip ahead and say that the first game in the series has some degree of unfinished business to me.

First and foremost; I never completed the campaigns. When we were kids me and my brother would take turns on the computer. I would play, he would watch, he would play, I would watch. Command and Conquer in particular saw us abandoning the campaign several times, and if I recall correctly it was only when we went back months later that my brother persisted and finished both campaigns.

I'd seen the endings and the cutscenes, so I never felt the need to go back.

What did bug me however, was that several units in the game were multiplayer only, and C&C didn't come with a skirmish mode where you could play against the AI. I never got to build the SSM launcher, or use the Chem-Warriors in combat, and it bugged me.

Compounding matters were two other issues. The secret Dino missions, which could only be accessed by messing around with the game files, and The Covert Operations expansion pack. Though I tried following the instructions to the letter, I never could get the Dino missions to work. Likewise, C&C had been out a few years when we started playing it, so Covert Ops had long dropped off store shelves, and we didn't have access to the internet at the time, so buying online was never an option.

So C&C Remastered gave me the chance to resolve several lifelong concerns. I could finish the campaigns on my own back, finally play skirmish with the full arsenal, experience both the Dino missions and Covert Ops missions, and as an added bonus, experience the console exclusive missions that were never previously playable on pc, which is what probably sealed the deal for me.

So now that I have fulfilled this longing, was it worth it?

Well, kinda.

It's abundantly clear going back that the C&C formula hadn't quite been perfected as of the first game. Maps give you very little room to build and move, collecting Tiberium to fund your expansion takes a long time, and runs out very quickly. By the time you've built your base it's likely you've used up most of the Tiberium on the map, and you have to scrimp and scrape just to get enough funds together to build a usable army. This goes doubly so for multiplayer and skirmishes.

The missions themselves are as hard, or harder, than I remember. Even with the new additions of build queues, unit type select and a wider zoom, the aforementioned lack of space and funds, as well as constant pressure from the enemy, make pushing trough to your mission objective supremely difficult. Fortunately the game graces us with a casual difficulty setting, which I had to bump the game down to as the campaigns wound on.

That being said, I enjoyed the nostalgia kick, even though the plot of the first game was pretty bare bones in comparison to the rest of the series. Watching Seth get shot in the head by Kane, or General Shepard commanding you to 'Destroy the bastard!" brings foggy memory back to full clarity.

Speaking of clarity, the upscaled graphics are quite something. The map and unit designs match the originals exactly, but you don't appreciate the level of detail until you compare it to the original. It still feels like Command and Conquer, but as you remember it fondly, not as it actually was.

Moving on, the Dino missions, after so many years of me seeing them as some kind of holy grail, were surprisingly naff. Every mission just involves commanding a Nod force tasked with wiping out all dinosaurs on the map. The dinos take a lot of damage, do a lot of damage and a single one of them can wipe out your entire force easily, so every mission involves getting one of the lighter units to distract a dino and be chased around the map while the rest of your units whittle it down. Fortunately the final mission lets you command the dinos yourself, and is a lot of fun. I wish you'd spent the whole campaign as the dinos to be honest.

Covert Ops and the console missions? They're basically just challenge maps. No new story or cinematics. It's more C&C for better or worse. Many of the missions are even more difficult than some from the campaign, and a lot of them basically depend on you figuring out what the correct combination of units and tactics you are supposed to use to avoid failure. More like a puzzle game in many ways. They were fun, and I'm glad I got to play them, but there's not really a lot more to add.

So for the most part, my experience in playing C&C was less rediscovering a classic and more just finding out what I missed out on the first time around.

There are a few extras however, that are fun to see. The game opens with a slightly altered version of the EVA install. For those who were too young or don't remember, a lot of games back in the day would have elaborate install sequences featuring animations and movies. Command and Conquer originally installed as if it was putting the EVA software that you would command your troops through onto your computer, so seeing it back for new players to experience is a blast. There's a lot of bonus behind the scenes material to unlock, which is great to see, and bonus and remastered music which is an absolute blast.

So while the game is sort of less than the sum of it's parts, I don't regret revisiting Command and Conquer. Far from a masterpiece, but my younger self would be glad to know I finally got to play what he couldn't.

Now on to Red Alert