#last chapter up now
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Identity shenanigans are a hallmark of all superhero fanfictions and i will never get tired of writing them.
This is from chapter 19 of my fic Better Halves (and other such falsehoods) which is like 100k (so far) of Tim and Danny being idiots like this please go read it it's a labor of love.
just the painted bit below the cut :) if you want it
#my art#art#better halves (and other such falsehoods)#danny phantom#dp x dc#tim drake#dead tired ship#KNEE DEEP IN THE PASSENGER SEAT AND YOURE EATING ME OUT IS IT CASUAL NOW#i will never be normal about them#if you noticed the quality drop in the last three panels no you didn't#I kept getting to tim's face. the *-*. you know. and I kept laughing so hard that i would not finish#but on account of the chapter being posted today I packed my ass up to a cafe#bought a large ice coffee#and worked for four hours straight to finish it#and here it stands before you#i'm posting this about 15 minutes before the chapter goes live so if you try and get the newest chapter before midnight mst im sorry#it will not be there#the three of you that will see this in that time frame#anyways#aster spreekt
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How do I explain how married Han Yoojin and Sung Hyunje are in the post-epilogue Side Stories without sounding like I am exaggerating or making things up...
#calling each other âparenting partnersâ#planning to live together#planning vacations together#and adventures as well#yoojin demanded hyunje gives him half his money#hyunje just agreed#tbf hyunje is almost definitely going to live more than yoojin but none of them wants to think about it right now#you heard of yoojin raising a child that is a copy of hyunje but did you know hyunje has adopted a baby version of yoojin#(it's complicated)#the 2 kids are best friends#hyunje in dragon form making a joke about yoojin wanting to ride him#hyunje in mini-form making a joke about liking to ride yoojin#from today's chapter: im sorry i cant pat your head in this form i know you like it#also asking if yoojin likes to be manhandled#yoojin every 5 seconds: hyunje when are you coming back home. come back. hurry. i am making plans for when you come back#at least twice yoojin mentioned hyunje taking his last name#tbf it was 2 different yoojins#there are many versions of jinje in different realities#they keep getting drawn to each other#we got confirmations that if yoojin hadnt regressed. hyunje would have gone back for him after yoohyun's death#and they would have ended up livong together in switzerland#did i mention they plan to love together#we dont if yoohyun is going to be chill with that tho#sctir#sctir spoilers#sctir side story#sctir a later story#jinje#jinjae#the s classes that i raised
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that scene in spy x family when anya punched damian but it's sokka and jet from risking it all by @ssreeder
#avatar the last airbender#atla#sokka#jet#leaving it all behind#risking it all#fanfic art#my art#if you didn't read the series (which i highly fucking recommend) then you just need to know that this was the dynamic#sokka's fucking ruthless he won't hesitate to beat a bitch up. southern water tribe arc my beloved#i don't remember which exact chapter this showdown happened tho lmao#'why are you posting old fanfic art now??đŁđŁ' no particular reason other than to establish that i am still indeed a liab fangirl#(<- has not caught up in the last 10+ recent chapters)#side note @sreedy check your dms betch
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like you're telling me that dragon actually does care about luffy and would watch him whenever he passed by????? and the reason why he left luffy is so that he doesn't get caught up in his fights or be used as a weakness against dragon?????? LUFFY GREW UP WITHOUT A FATHER BECAUSE DRAGON DIDN'T WANT TO PUT HIS ONLY SON IN DANGER????
#shut up bc i just made myself cry right now#like i had no feelings for dragon before this i just thought he was a deadbeat dad like all the others#BUT YOU'RE TELLING ME HE DID IT ON PURPOSE TO PROTECT LUFFY???#im probably reading into this too much#im feeling too much today after this last chapter#one piece spoilers#one piece 1101#op spoilers#monkey d luffy#monkey d dragon#luffy#dragon#oda when i catch you oda i swear#one piece
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Getting ready đ
#honkai star rail#gamingedit#hsredit#honkaiedit#robin#robin hsr#video games#gifus#videogamewomen#she's so f*cking CUTEEE !!!#I didn't know there was a 'Robin' POV omg#(I'm catching up now with the last chapters of Penacony)#(just fought pookie Aventurine)#(ugh I'm still bitter bc I didn't get him)#(f*cking Yanqing)
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WIP Game
Rules: You will be given a word. Share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that start with each letter of that word.
Tagged by @cerealboxlore
My Word: Marvel
I decided to use chapter 16 of LoF for this because I've been working on it today teehee
M- "Maybe because it was because Peter was introducing Loki and Dick for the first time, and he remembered what the Bats thought about the God."
A- "Also, it would make Thor sad, so Iâd ask that you not kill Loki. Because you totally could, I believe you.â
R- Resurrection?
V (I don't have a V sentence đđ)
E- "Everyone needs backup at some point, fighting alone doesnât help anyone. But especially someone Peterâs age. Heâs done a great job at taking care of himself and this situation, but that doesnât mean he has to. Weïżœïżœïżœre more than happy to take some of the burden. And this is how we operate. If you donât like it, or if your Avengers donât like it, then they can take it up with me.â
L- Loki got a kick out of that part of the story. At one point, he created an illusion of little action-figure sized Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Spider-Man on the dashboard, and had them re-enact the scene as best as Peter could tell it. âFor the visuals.â Loki had smirked. And he had asked Dick, âWhat do you think? They look just like the real thing, no?â To which Dick had replied âWhy did you make my head so big?â and Loki had sworn that his head just looks that big normally and he âDidnât do anything to the illusion, really, Grayson, do you think so little of me?â Which made Dickâs eye twitch.
I'm tagging @mockingjaylad !!! :3 your word is "BIRD"
#this was fun!#did it while taking a brain break#the last two being excerpts was because i was gonna share them anyway#honestly debating if the resurrection part even be brought up right now#actually i'm eyeballing my draft and wondering if i need to rewrite half of it#erinwantstowrite#ao3#ao3 fanfic#leap of faith ao3#chapter 16
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3 reasons I can think of, for why the first Three vestiges were too hard to find information on
[Reason 1]
The time they were born in.
Their births, and any records of them, could just be completely undocumented or non-existent.
They were born in times where systems and governments were down, and it's everyone for themselves.
People aren't going to register their existence, especially the Metas, when they all want to stay under the radar and hide from everyone else.
If you're in the middle of a war zone that spread to where you live, and your baby brother was just born, are you really going to go [Oh no! I have to register his birth for that sweet sweet child tax!]?
Or something like that. But still.
There are more important things, like survival, than registering a baby's birth and going through hospital paperwork. And it's been explicitly stated that the first appearance of Abilities caused a Great Depression all over Japan.
The government is gone. There's no point in registering anything anymore.
Yoichi was literally born at a riverside, and never went to a hospital. By the time the first Three are toddlers / young children, Japan is already chaos and up in flames.
Children are actively avoided because they're the most likely to be Meta Humans. No one wants anything to do with them.
Chances are, the records about the first Three never existed, or were destroyed in all the strife.
Or maybe, if some did exist, Kudo destroyed them. I can see him doing that, to protect themselves from AFO or anyone else having the chance to track their personal histories down.
It makes them ghosts. Exactly what would be best for not only their own survival, but anyone affiliated with them. Like family. It makes them untraceable, and invisible to bodies of old authority.
[Reason 2]
The three were a part of the Resistance. They could've kept information about themselves under lock and key, to protect themselves.
Like how Kudo is referred to as Leader, and never by his real name. Even in the void, up to the very end, Bruce still says "Leader" to address him.
I actually HC them as using codenames in the Resistance, exactly to protect themselves from each other, and outsiders. This makes Yoichi an anomaly among them, for going by his real name. Meanwhile,
Leader, Boss = their leader
Bruce = a reference to his Quirk
Codenames about their Meta Abilities, or roles in their cause, to better remember whose nickname belonged to who.
Outsiders won't know the Resistance members' real names. The Resistance can't betray each other by selling each other out for personal information as easily, if no one knows each other's actual names.
At the same time, this alienates them from who they are, and their humanity. They have to make tough choices that would classify them as monsters. And they're locking themselves under a false name.
They're protecting themselves from everything and everyone, including themselves. At least the person committing all these atrocities is [CODENAME], not me.
[Reason 3]
Bruce, when he was supposed to pass previous information to Shinomori, couldn't.
Maybe he didn't have enough time to tell Shinomori the whole story.
Or maybe he did, and passed on the previous holders' histories, but Shinomori didn't pass those on himself.
Or maybe reminiscing Yoichi and Leader as actual people just broke him, and he could only stick to the bare minimum of the history of this Factor.
Notably, the OFA story is known as "All For One's younger brother was sickly and frail, but he had a strong sense of justice."
We never, ever hear Yoichi's name in the spoken history of OFA. All Might couldn't even get their names. And since AFO hides himself so easily, and birth records just don't exist for him as an undocumented birth, Yoichi legally doesn't exist even as a birth.
Bruce is the first one to find the existence of Yoichi's "unformed dud". The Factor that let him pass on his current Quirk to others. How could the information of that dud be passed on, if not from Bruce?
Somewhere, the information breaks during Bruce or Shinomori's turn with OFA.
Bruce never passed on their names. Or maybe Shinomori didn't. But their names weren't necessary to pass on anymore. All Might only managed to dredge what he could, starting from the time society started trying to stand on its feet. Exactly because that's as far as the records went.
[Reason 2] could add credence to why the first Three's names were never passed on. Bruce could've kept quiet about Yoichi and Leader's personal details, not just to help himself stay together, but to protect anything they might've left behind.
#reason 2 is a HC i always include in everything i write cuz it just makes so much sense to me#âchoose your own codename or we make one up for u based on ur Metaâ [SPAMS CTRL-C CTRL-V]#cmon do u really want Bruce or Yoichi or someone else to shout your real name when AFOs henchmen are right there?#those henchies are gonna bring that real name info back to AFO and he'll destroy everything you left behind or have right now#sick mother in the last functioning hospital? a child? three siblings who need your help? WELL DONT MIND IF I DO-#ofa#one for all#afo#all for one#bnha#mha#my hero academia#boku no hero academia#spoilers#bnha spoilers#mha spoilers#yoichi shigaraki#bruce#kudo#all might#hikage shinomori#toshinori yagi#going back to older chapters to get these pics and i got some nice refreshers of info
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Ride 793: The palms of their hands
Pag 1
1: Holding hands with you rival
Pag 2
1: Grasping tightly the gratitude
They're moving forward... to the future!!
Pag 3
1: 1500m left until the mountain line!!
Pag 4
2: You're kidding....
He's coming....?
He's getting closer?
3: So odd, and yet I thought I had left him behind completely
This is âthree timesâ, isn't it?
5: He's coming
And moreover
Pag 5
1: He's doing it while singing!!
Even though Hakogaku's Manami had left him so much behind in a moment...
Mountain King is getting closer!!
He's not giving up!!
The distance is closing!!
That's right âȘ I know âȘ If you do this âȘ
Pag 6
1: The princess' wish âȘ
2: Will come true âȘ
3: Mountain King is amazing!! He's humming a tune!!
I heard of this, Mountain King becomes faster when he hums a tune!!
What, amazing!
The magic singing!!
I'll try singing too next time I'll climb!
4: No
It's not magic
5: For you, that âsongâ
Pag 7
1: it's a device to activate your power!!
2: Like a car's key
3: To carry people and luggage up a mountain road a vehicle needs both a sturdy body, small parts
4: and a powerful engine
5: For bikes, the âbodyâ
Pag 8
1: Practice, repetition, recovery, determination, challenges- everything
2: piles up!!
3: Only someone who has worked
4: tirelessly, without rest....
Pag 9
1: Could get to this position of the mountain stage on the Inter High's first day!!
2: And he can even keep up with my âthree timesâ!!
4: I see, so that's what it means
You piled everything up during this past year...
Pag 10
1: Ouch
2: Ah, damn, I pressed something weird
Ah....
3: Oh, I have a message
Ah, it's from Sakamichi-kun
Ah... it's from three months ago..
Hehehe, ops
4: What is it, what is it...? âDo you remember? The promise we made on the last day?â
Oh... I remember
âWe said 'let's race for the mountain stage on the first day next time'â
Ah.. we did, we did
6: âAre we still on for that?â
8: âOf courseâ
Pag 11
1: To protect your promise with me!!
Wait, Manami-kun!!
Princess âȘ...!!
2: Sakamichi-kun!!
3: Manami-kun!!
Pag 12
1: Mountain King caught up!!
He caught Hakogaku's Manami, who had attacked and opened the gap!!
2: He's not surrendering!!
Neither of them is surrendering!!
1200m left until the mountain line!!
Pag 13
1: Now another race...
2: starts!!
4: They're both taking the curve
5: while colliding against each other!!
Pag 14
1: Aaaaaa
Soooreeee
I won't surrender!!
2: They're still neck and neck!!
3: Amazing!
Pag 15
1: From the inner side!!
2: Sooreeee
Manami fell back for a moment and then forced his way forward!!
They hit each other!!
5: The trees are getting lower again
6: One more time...
Pag 16
1: Let's go, âthree timesâ!!
Pag 17
2: Manami used the wind and accelerated again!!
Incredible, what's that!
3: What about Mountain King!?
Pag 18
1: Musical note shaped wings!?
Pag 19
1: Aaaaaaaa
2: Amazing
3: It's just like you
4: You were so desperate to catch me that you unconsciously used the wind to accelerate
5: Interesting!!
Pag 20
1: Mountain King is clinging to him!! I thought Manami had attacked but
Manami didn't get away!!
He caught up with such a weird acceleration!?
Amazing!
2: Maybe your singing is something more than a key
3: Ahhhh
5: These past three years have been fun
Huh!?
Pag 21
1: I'm glad you were here for the past three years
3: Huh... ah!!
4: Thank you
Pag 22
2: Such a close battle like this, such a once-in-a-lifetime battle like this, it could only have been with you
3: Yeah... yeah!!
âThe past three yearsâ....!!
4: No, that, I should be the one saying that, really!!
5: That's right... this is my match against Manami-kun...
Pag 23
1: Let's go until the mountain line
2: Let's give everything we have
3: Let's make the most of every second of the time we have left!!
5: 1km until the end....
Pag 24
1: It's the final climb!!
Pag 25
1: Yeah!!
Pag 26
3: Th-thank god I made it in time...
This... I couldn't miss this today
4: Sangaku said that
5: âIt will be the culmination of the past three yearsâ
#yowamushi pedal#yowapeda#yowamushi pedal translations#yowapeda manga#yowamushi pedal spoilers#yowamushi pedal manga#ride 793#no im not crying i just have 793 chapter of yowapeda in my eyes ;A;#watanabe please stop reminding me that this manga is gonna end!!! I dont wanna hear it!!#and neither does onoda!! Look at his desperate face when he realizes that that's his last race against manami!!!#excuse meeee ;A; i cant do this#so imma focus on the nice things#like onoda sining that 'the princess' wish comes true' right when he sees manami#bc THATS HIS WISH MANAMI IS HIS WISH AND ITS FINALLY COME TRUE#or how cute Manami is in the flashback page and the way he jumps up to reply to onoda#like the only thing missing there was him adding 'it's a date' to that text#bc thats what it is okay its obvious#honestly i understand why onoda is so scared that this is his last chance with manami#given that he had to wait 3 months for a single text lmao#he's scared he wont hear from manami at all once they wont be able to meet at the ih - and he's right#manami please reply to your phone onoda needs you#im babbling to not focus on the last pages bc theyre making me too emotional and I CANNOT HANDLE THIS#if i think about this manga ending imma melt in a puddle of tears okay#so ill just focus on sansaka being canon for now :')
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THE FALL the acolyte | osha/qimir | 18k words | now complete
"You can unlearn what was taught to you," The Stranger said, his voice almost gentle. "We will do it together." Osha discovers her strength in the Force with The Stranger to guide her.
#oshamir#osha x qimir#the acolyte#osha aniseya#qimir the acolyte#my writing#sorry for the repost but it's just the one! and it's because it's finally done!#i probably could've split that last chapter but i just needed to be done with it haha#anyway. if you are interested in reading a post-s1 exploration of their relationship with no threat of darth plagueis#or in fact any other external plot lmao#this is the fic for you#now i can finally do something other than write after work haha#maybe catch up on reading fic too
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Kingdom of Ash Chapter 61
Chapter; Highlights (okay the entire chapter is a highlight)đ€Ł
As requested @mysterylilycheeta I NEED TO SQUEAL IN WYVERN FANGIRL WITH YOU NOW CAUSE OH M GOODNESS THIS CHAPTER ON SO MANY LEVELS I JUST AHAKWIHUHFEJLZXBKEKA
Agony was a song in Lorcan's blood, his bones, his breath.
Every step of the horse, every leap she made over body and debris, sent it ringing afresh. There was no end, no mercy from it. It was all he could do to keep in the saddle, to cling to consciousness.
To keep his arm around Elide.
She had come for him. Had found him, somehow, on this endless battlefield.
His name on her lips had been a summons he could never deny, even when death had held him so gently, nestled beneath all those he'd felled, I, and waited for his last breaths.
And now, charging toward that too-distant keep, so far behind the droves of soldiers and riders racing for the gates, he wondered if these minutes would be his last. Her last.
She had come for him.
Lorcan managed to glance toward the dam on their right. Toward the ruk rider signaling that it was only a matter of minutes until it unleashed hell over the plain.
He didn't know how it had become weakened. Didn't care.
Still Elide kept urging the horse onward, kept them on as straight a path toward the distant keep as possible.
No ruk would come to sweep them up. No, his luck had been spent in surviving this long, in her finding him. His power would do nothing against that water.
The farthest lines of panicked soldiers appeared, and Farasha charged past them.
Elide let out a sob, and he followed the line of her sight.
To the keep gate, still open.
"Faster, Farasha!" She didn't hide the raw terror in her voice, the desperation.
Once the dam broke, it would take less than a minute for the tidal wave to reach them.
She had come for him. She had found him.
The world went quiet. The pain in his body faded into nothing. Into something secondary.
Lorcan slid his other arm around Elide, bringing his mouth close to her ear as he said, "You have to let me go."
Each word was gravelly, his voice strained nearly to the point of uselessness.
Elide didn't shift her focus from the keep ahead. "No."
That gentle quiet flowed around him, clearing the fog of pain and battle. "You have to. You have to, Elide. I'm too heavy-and without my weight, you might make it to the keep in time."
"No." The salt of her tears filled his nose.
Lorcan brushed his mouth over her damp cheek, ignoring the roaring pain in his body. The horse galloped and galloped, as if she might outrace death itself.
"I love you," he whispered in Elide's ear. "I have loved you from the moment you picked up that axe to slay the ilken." Her tears flowed past him in the wind. "And I will be with you ..." His voice broke, but he made himself say the words, the truth in his heart. "I will be with you always."
He was not frightened of what would come for him once he tumbled off the horse. He was not frightened at all, if it meant her reaching the keep.
So Lorcan kissed Elide's cheek again, allowed himself to breathe in her scent one last time. "I love you," he repeated, and began to withdraw his arms from around her waist.
Elide slapped a hand onto his forearm. Dug in her nails, right into his skin, fierce as any ruk.
"No."
There were no tears in her voice. Nothing but solid, unwavering steel.
"No," she said again. The voice of the Lady of Perranth.
Lorcan tried to move his arm, but her grip would not be dislodged.
If he tumbled off the horse, she would go with him.
Together. They would either outrun this or die together.
"Elide-"
But Elide slammed her heels into the horse's sides.
Slammed her heels into the dark flank and screamed, "FLY, FARASHA." She cracked the reins. "FLY, FLY, FLY!"
And gods help her, that horse did.
As if the god that had crafted her filled the mare's lungs with his own breath, Farasha gave a surge of speed.
Faster than the wind. Faster than death.
Farasha cleared the first of the fleeing Darghan cavalry. Passed desperate horses and riders at an all-out gallop for the gates.
Her mighty heart did not falter, even when Lorcan knew it was raging to the point of bursting.
Less than a mile stood between them and the keep.
But a thunderous, groaning crack cleaved the world, echoing off the lake, the mountains.
There was nothing he could do, nothing that brave, unfaltering horse could do, as the dam ruptured.
Rowan made himself stand there, to watch the last moments of the Lady of Perranth and his former commander. It was all he could offer: witnessing their deaths, so he might tell the story to those he encountered. So they would not be forgotten.
The roaring of the oncoming wave became deafening, even from miles away.
Still Elide and Lorcan raced, Farasha passing horse after horse after horse.
Even up here, would they escape the wave's reach? Rowan dared to survey the battlements, to assess if he needed to get the others, needed to get Aelin, to higher ground.
But Aelin was not at his side.
She was not on the battlement at all.
Rowan's heart halted. Simply stopped beating as a ruddy-brown ruk dropped from the skies, spearing for the center of the plain.
Arcas, Borte's ruk. A golden-haired woman dangling from his talons.
Aelin. Aelin wasâ
Arcas neared the earth, talons splaying.
Aelin hit the ground, rolling, rolling, until she uncoiled to her feet.
Right in the path of that wave.
"Oh gods," Fenrys breathed, seeing her, too.
They all saw her.
The queen on the plain.
The endless wall of water surging for her.
The keep stones began shuddering. Rowan threw out a hand to brace himself, fear like nothing he had known ripping through him as Aelin lifted her arms above her head.
A pillar of fire shot up around her, lifting her hair with it.
The wave roared and roared for her, for the army behind her.
The shaking in the keep was not from the wave.
It was not from that wall of water at all.
Cracks formed in the earth, splintering across it. Spiderwebbing from Aelin.
"The hot springs," Chaol breathed. "The valley floor is full of veins into the earth itself."
Into the burning heart of the world.
The keep shook, more violently this time.
The pillar of fire sucked back into Aelin.
She held out a hand before her, her fist closed.
As if it would halt the wave in its tracks.
He knew then. Either as her mate or carranam, he knew.
"Three months," Rowan breathed.
The others stilled.
"Three months," he said again, his knees wobbling. "She's been making the descent into her power for three months."
Every day she had been with Maeve, bound in iron, she had gone deeper. And she had not tapped too far into that power since they'd freed her because she had kept making the plunge.
To gather up the full might of her magic.
Not for the Lock, not for Erawan.
But for Maeve's death blow.
A few weeks of descent had taken her powers to devastating levels. Three months of it
âŠ
Holy gods. Holy rutting gods.
And when her fire hit the wall of water now towering over her, when they collided â
"GET DOWN!" Rowan bellowed, over the screaming waters. "GET DOWN NOW!"
His companions dropped to the stones, any within earshot doing the same.
Rowan plummeted into his power. Plummeted into it fast and hard, ripping out any remaining shred of magic.
Elide and Lorcan were still too far from the gates. Thousands of soldiers were still too far from the gates as the wave crested above them.
As Aelin opened her hand toward it.
Fire erupted.
Cobalt fire. The raging soul of a flame.
A tidal wave of it.
Taller than the raging waters, it blasted from her, flaring wide.
The wave slammed into it. And where water met a wall of fire, where a thousand years of confinement met three months of it, the world exploded.
Blistering steam, capable of melting flesh from bone, shot across the plain.
With a roar, Rowan threw all that remained of his magic toward the onslaught of steam, a wall of wind that shoved it toward the lake, the mountains.
Still the waters came, breaking against the flames that did not so much as yield an inch.
Maeve's death blow. Spent here, to save the army that might mean Terrasen's salvation. To spare the lives on the plain.
Rowan gritted his teeth, panting against his fraying power. A burnout lurked, deadly close.
The raging wave threw itself over and over and over into the wall of flame.
Rowan didn't see if Elide and Lorcan made it into the keep. If the other soldiers and riders on the plain stopped to gape.
Princess Hasar said, rising beside him, "That power is no blessing."
"Tell that to your soldiers," Fenrys snarled, standing, too.
"I did not mean it that way," Hasar snipped, and awe was indeed stark on her face.
Rowan leaned against the battlements, panting hard as he fought to keep the lethal steam from flowing toward the army. As he cooled and sent it whisking away.
Solid hands slid under his arms, and then Fenrys and Gavriel were there, propping him up between them.
A minute passed. Then another.
The wave began to lower. Still the fire burned.
Rowan's head pounded, his mouth going dry.
Time slipped from him. A coppery tang filled his mouth.
The wave lowered farther, raging waters quieting. Then roaring turned to lapping, rapids into eddies.
Until the wall of flame began to lower, too. Tracking the waters down and down and down. Letting them seep into the cracks of the earth.
Rowan's knees buckled, but he held on to his magic long enough for the steam to lessen.
For it, too, to be calmed.
It filled the plain, turning the world into drifting mist. Blocking the view of the queen in its center.
Then silence. Utter silence.
Fire flickered through the mist, blue turning to gold and red. A muted, throbbing glow.
Rowan spat blood onto the battlement stones, his breath like shards of glass in his throat.
The glowing flames shrank, steam rippling past. Until there was only a slim pillar of fire, veiled in the mist-shrouded plain.
Not a pillar of fire.
But Aelin.
Glowing white-hot. As if she had given herself so wholly to the flame that she had become fire herself.
The Fire-Bringer someone whispered down the battlements.
The mist rippled and billowed, casting her into nothing but a glowing effigy.
The silence turned reverent.
A gentle wind from the north swept down. The veil of mist pulled back, and there she was.
She glowed from within. Glowed golden, tendrils of her hair floating on a phantom wind.
"Mala's Heir," Yrene breathed.
Down on the plain, Elide and Lorcan had halted.
The wind pushed away more of the drifting mist, clearing the land beyond Aelin.
And where that mighty, lethal wave had loomed, where death had charged toward them, nothing remained at all.
For three months, she had sung to the darkness and the flame, and they had sung back.
For three months, she had burrowed so deep inside her power that she had plundered undiscovered depths. While Maeve and Cairn had worked on her, she had delved. Never letting them know what she mined, what she gathered to her, day by day by day.
A death blow. One to wipe a dark queen from the earth forever.
She'd kept that power coiled in herself even after she'd been freed from the irons. Had struggled to keep it down these weeks, the strain enormous. Some days, it had been easier to barely speak. Some days, swaggering arrogance had been her key to ignoring it.
Yet when she had seen that wave, when she had seen Elide and Lorcan choosing death together, when she had seen the army that might save Terrasen, she'd known. She'd felt the fire sleeping under this city, and knew they had come here for a reason.
She had come here for this reason.
A river still flowed from the dam, harmless and small, wending toward the lake.
Nothing more.
Aelin lifted a glowing hand before her as blessed, cooling emptiness filled her at last.
Slowly, starting from her fingertips, the glow faded.
As if she were forged anew, forged back into her body.
Back into Aelin.
Clarity, sharp and crystal clear, filled its wake. As if she could see again, breathe again.
Inch by inch, the golden glow faded into skin and bone. Into a woman once more.
Already, a white-tailed hawk launched skyward.
But as the last of the glow faded, disappearing out through her toes, Aelin fell to her knees.
Fell to her knees in the utter silence of the world, and curled onto her side.
She had the vague sense of strong, familiar arms scooping her up. Of being carried onto a broad feathery back, still in those arms.
Of soaring through the skies, the last of the mist rippling away into the afternoon sun.
And then sweet darkness.
#Chapter 61#Kingdom of Ash#Sarah J. Maas#Lorcan Salvaterre#Elide Lochan#Elorcan#Aelin Galathynius#Chaol Westfall#Rowan Whitethorn#Fenrys Moonbeam#Gavriel#First Read along with me NO SPOILERS PLEASE though warning for post & tags up to KoA 61 & more reacts/notes/quotes in tags below#Agony was in his very blood-Summons-She had come for him-Let go.No.Always?-She came this far-THANK YOU ELIDE-The voice of Perranth#My lady-Together till the end-if only the horse could Fly-A prayer-Made himself watch-But Aelin-hell yes-So he might tell the story#Not forgotten-For her friends-To get Aelin-Where was she?MY HEART-The shaking was her-The springs-He knew-Three months#Every single day-But for Maeveâs meant for Maeve-she knew heâd know-his power the counteracting-GET FUCKING DOWN-She had not given up#A thousand years for here months endured & one moment-Spent here-To save them-Burnout or Blessing-UTTER Awe-A miracle#A curse to enemies-All of them really-she drained the bank & there he was-THE FIRE BRINGER-glowing blinding white out for the world#she became the flame-Master of death-heir of Fire-Nothing remained-Thatâs what was eating her alive-Its grief but more-she was stillâ#capturing flame-She didnt want2lose it either-It was all of it-But also Aelin had a plan-be glad4it-They would save them she didnt need it#Back to Aelin-She began fighting-Quiet-Fell to what he knows-Sweet darkness-the power dive#No.#You know itâs bad when Rowanâs prayingWhen even Yrene is praying but not save to give peace&painless ends but Aelinâs off to save the day#Not for the Lock not for Erawan. But for Maeve's death blow. & now to save Elide; Marion would be proud#the way heâs thinking about Iâve gotta get Aelin out of here#Into the burning heart of the world. â the world shuddered#Aelin I am a god Galathyniuâs-The raging soul of a flame-thats her-shed made the final descent right then for Elide-Rowan plummeted for her#Spent here to save the army that might mean Terrasens salvation-not2kill2spareNoblessinNocurseMiracleWomanA war won-friends held him up#One hell of a rumor-Gentle from the north-Malas Heir-she had sung to the darkness&flame&they had sung backthe same story#GETDOWN.Back into Aelin he was there there how did he get there so fast?sweet darkness 1 last time
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Oh Susanna
Oh don't you cry for me
For I went to Alabama with a chainsaw on my knee
#woke up with this on repeat in my brain#AND NOW YOU CAN TOO#Anyway writing went well last night outlined the rest of the scenes I want in chapter one#Who likes Song?#...oh god did my brain do all this to sleeper cell a pun into my head
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would you like to talk about how bad the mha ending was hella
as much as i would love to give like. a comprehensive response i genuinely dont think i can get my words together just yet without it being a constant unintelligble stream of 'AND ANOTHER THING-' and bc it's become quite torn in the fandom on if the chapter was good or bad i want like. an actual coherent response here. so i will reblog this if/when i can word it but know IM NOT FUCKING HAPPY
#paragraphs and paragraphs about the villains' endings alone. hawks hpsc president. midoriya's ending#the fact hero society is barely changed and the changes that do happen feel very much TELLING the reader it happened#as opposed to actually showing us how society changed on it. this is smthn ik people will argue w me about#bc yes it was a 400+ chapter manga arguably showing us how society changed but like. did it actually show that#like do u honestly think any community would watch televised battles between TEENAGERS and bad guys#and have the majority of them go 'gah! i cant help but sympathise with the bad guy who just suckerpunched child extra no.28!'#so like. why are they all suddenly on board with massive systemic reinvention. where's the rage where's the bitterness#this wasn't a story on showing the villains as redeemable and working towards society sympathising with them#and slowly painfully coming to a conclusion where japan was ready to change as a COLLECTIVE#this was a story of showing a group of redeemable villains (first step CHECK) getting DEFEATED IN BATTLE#THEY ALL FUCKING DIED EXCEPT SPINNER AND PRESUMABLY COMPRESS#WE DONT EVEN FUCKING KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO DABI AT THE END ONLY THAT HE WAS PUT IN THE EXACT SAME POSITION#HE WAS IN WHEN HE WOKE UP FROM HIS COMA AND DABI WAS BORN. 'DABI' AS A PERSONA MEANT NOTHING#we still have an abuser who didn't come to justice. we still have the corrupt government body now being led by the guy they trafficked#and abused and conditioned into the perfect soldier. do u think maybe his opinions are a little biased in regards to that gov. body#maybe. perhaps. slightly. and we still have hero charts!!!!!! every kid in the last chap is still obsessed w becoming a hero!!!!#and dont get me STARTEDDDDDDDDD on midoriya being a teacher. 'i think it's cute he finally gets a life of peace đ„ș#this way he can help the next generation directly đ„ș' womp to the fucking womp he was supposed to be the world's no.1 hero#he barely sees his friends anymore. 'it's realistic to adulthood!' i dont want realism in my superpowered teen and up manga#put them in the avengers mansion NOW#so as you can see i waffled regardless of saying i specifically wasn't gonna do that and some of these points bother me more than others#with some being personal I Didn't Like It and some being i genuinely truly believe it to be bad writing#but my summary is mha ultimately felt like a story where a group of individuals unlearned (eh) the beliefs of a toxic society#and tried to save the people that society failed and then they themselves DID NOT FUCKING SAVE THEM#(i have a hit on the redemption via death trope on the dark web for ten bajillion pounds)#and while yeah that isn't objectively an evil story to tell i think 1) it was done poorly#and 2) isn't what a lot of people believed the premise to be nor what i think horikoshi himself was trying to write#ask#mha spoilers#mha
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I think we should just bring back Wungo Wednesday and start a fandom collective anime rewatch
#Because otherwise I can feel I won't last much longer#Because like. The last two hyperfixations of mine ended the moment I started feeling like there wasn't any new content#And two days ago in one day I started a new manga a new book and rewatching a favourite show#Whereas I hadn't started anything new in the two years ever since I got into bsd. Which makes it NOT a good sign#But the bsd anime has now ended for one month and 25 days and that's the last time the plot actually moved forward.#And if I counted right. The manga took 4 chapters (that is chapters 110-111) to adapt 6 minutes#That means it's going to take another 12 months (18 minutes left to adapt. that's 12 more chapters) to catch up with the anime#Yeah I'm not. sticking around this long with nothing new to see I'm sorry#Best case scenario I take a one year hiatus but that doesn't make it sound likely that I'll be back#And I know it's fresh news as early as this morning that author said they were introducing a new character but like.#They also said they finished writing this arc like. One year and half ago if I remember correctly?#And we still have yet to see the end of i t so...#That is to say. I'll probably be starting an anime rewatch starting next Wednesday. I've been meaning to do it for a while anyway#I don't want to leave the fandom I like the one chapter a month format#On the positive news I still have a queue of original posts that spans over ten months#And I was meaning to start the reblogs queue too in these days. So there's that#random rambles
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Childhood Friends Au: Danny's in Gotham Again
when the wool is off your eyes you'll stop counting sheep at night cause you'll eat your fill of them during the daytime
A few weeks after Dannyâs visit to Gotham, he buys an apartment in the city. Itâs this little thing, a studio apartment on the same street he grew up in. In Crime Alley. When he tells his parents, they protest heavily. They donât think it's safe. They think he should reconsider. There were plenty of apartments and places to live somewhere else. And what about college?Â
Danny doesnât think heâll go to college. He isnât sure what he wants to do, now that being an astronaut is off the table. Itâd be a waste of money to go without a goal in mind, he thinks. He says heâll take a gap year and apply at one of the community colleges funded by the Wayne Corporation, possibly. It just wasnât in the cards right now.Â
âIf things get tough,â He says at dinner that night, âthen I can talk to the Waynes. Iâm friends with the family, remember?â He ended up getting Bruceâs number in his phone again before he left, and in the process got Timâs as well. They donât talk much, Danny isnât sure what to say. But he sends Tim memes whenever he comes across one and thinks heâll like. Tim sends memes back in return.  Â
His parents do remember. They remember. They also remember the horrified shriek that echoed through the house when Danny learned of Jasonâs passing. They remember running up the stairs and bursting into their sonâs room and finding him sobbing into his bed, curled up like a little kid, like he was in pain. He lost his voice that day, stuck between screaming out his grief and sobbing it.Â
Theyâre still not sure if they should let him go.Â
In the end, Danny wins them out, and he lets them help him search for an apartment. They take a break from their lab work to help search for cheap furniture to buy. They may have more money than when they were in Gotham, but that frugal part of you never fully goes away. They all agree that they donât want Danny to be seen carrying in nice-looking furniture when he moves in.Â
He ends up with a basic furniture set, all mismatched, and in the warm summer of June, his parents rent out a u-haul and drive him down to Gotham to move in. They meet the landlord when they arrive, a skinny and frail old man with wispy white hair and a wrinkled face. He gives Danny the keys and tells him what apartment number he is, and then he leaves.Â
His parents help him move in. They help him carry his heavy furniture up to the second floor, where his apartment is. Danny isnât sure if he wants them to help. His mom and dad are strong, but they are getting old, closer to their fifties now that their children are grown. His dadâs hair is slowly beginning to thin, and rather than the white eating at the sides of his head, it now streaks through his hair like salt-and-pepper. His momâs hair is graying out too, and there are more lines in their faces than he remembers there being.Â
When he voices his concerns, his mom laughs spiritedly and says that they may be getting old, but they are still as spry as when they were in their twenties. Danny isnât sure if he believes them or not. He can see his dad struggle a bit when they return to get his bed frame, and they have to take a break before they go back down for the rest of their things.Â
Five years ago, his dad could do this without breaking a sweat. It forces a heavy thing in the back of Dannyâs throat. (He is less afraid of his own death than he is of his loved ones, and while he has always felt rocky with his parents, he still loves them more than anything else.)Â
Dannyâs apartment is exactly as he would have expected it to be: shabby and worn through. The entire room smells like stale cigarette smoke and weed, nicotine stains the wall with poorly covered bullet holes, and stains in the carpet that are a color he canât discern. The fridge has a broken light and when he tries to turn on the gas stove, it click-click-clicks before lighting, fire fwooshing out while the smell of gas fills the air. Thereâs rat droppings in the cupboards and the closet-like bathroom is just as bad.Â
The ghostly part of him can sense the heavy stench of death in the room; people have died in this room. People have died in every room of this building, he thinks. They have died on the streets outside and in the alleys squeezed between them. He can feel it like a heavy fog in the air.Â
It is painfully nostalgic, a bittersweet feeling in his chest that he grimaces to.Â
When the last box is placed in his apartment, his parents offer to help unpack. They are hesitant to leave and Danny knows it, although he doesnât know if itâs from empty nest syndrome or because it's Gotham. He thinks it might be both. He is their youngest child finally leaving home to a city known for its danger.Â
âAre you sure you donât want us to stay behind, sweetie?â His mother asks, a frown she tries to hide settled in the creases of her face. She fiddles with her hands, a nervous habit Danny has since noticed when she feels truly unsure and doesnât need to hide it. Hesitancy looms over her like a heavy cloud.Â
His dad jumps in hastily, splaying his hands and smiling painfully wide to hide the glistening in his eyes. âYouâre motherâs right! We can help you get everything set up, champ. I could probably do something with that stove of yours to make it faster!â He says, his voice still booming like it always does even if thereâs a stumble in his words.Â
It makes his heart squeeze, knowing just how much they care. It was hard last summer, telling him that he was the Phantom. Terrifying, actually. They couldnât comprehend it. He hadnât felt his heart beat that fast in years when he stood in front of them at the kitchen table and told them he was a halfa, begging them to believe that ghosts werenât inherently evil.Â
His parents were people of science, however, and after much, much shock, they slowly came to terms with it. How could they not? The evidence was right in front of them. Their son was dead-alive, alive-dead. Somewhere stuck in the between. The tears they shed that night could fill a river, moving from the kitchen to the living room as Danny explains how he died.Â
(When Danny tells them that he died after a week Jason did, his mom and dad look horrified. His mom covers her mouth when he adds that it was his idea to go inside it, his dad looks ashy pale, gripping his pant legs so tight that his knuckles turn white. There is a conclusion coming to their minds that he can tell they donât like.)Â
(âYouâve always hated our inventions, Danny.â Mom says in a hushed voice, and Danny winces at the wording, sinking into the back of the cushions in shame. He never thought that his parents noticed. Mom quickly grabs his arm, âNo, no, thereâs nothing to be ashamed of Danny. We were⊠perhaps too careless with our inventions, too enthusiastic. You had every right to hate the things we made when they had a tendency to⊠to malfunction.â)Â
(Malfunction is a delicate way of putting it, when Danny remembers every time they had to evacuate their old apartment complex because whatever half-baked creation his parents made inevitably blew up into ash and smoke. There were soot marks permanently stained into the ceiling.)Â
(Her hand slides down and grabs his, and she cups it in both of her hands, squeezing tightly. He forces himself to look up, and there is a look like her heart breaking when he looks into his motherâs eyes. âYouâve always avoided the lab after we moved, Danny. And you had every right to, so why on Earth did you ever think about going into the portal?â)
(Danny struggles to come up with an adequate answer, a way to verbalize what came over him that day five years ago. The answer is there, hanging in the air like a knot in a noose. He opens his mouth, and then closes it.)
(Finally, with a tongue made of lead, he shrugs lamely and looks away. âI didnât know there was an on button inside it.â He mumbles, and despite being the truth it feels like a lie. But that is the truth. He didnât know there was an on button inside it. So he didnât care what happened.)
(Something dulls in momâs eyes, like she thought of something else that Danny hadnât said. Her eyes shimmer, and she squeezes them shut, breathing in so deep that it shakes. And then she pulls him into a hug, a hand burying into his hair and pressing him close. âIt must have hurt so much, sweetheart. Iâm so sorry.â)
(It is something that Danny doesnât expect her to say, like missing the last step of the stairs. It startles him so much he laughs this short, bark of a thing. He feels his dad press against his back and wrap his big arms around them, his nose pushed into his hair.)Â
(Because yeah. Yeah, it did hurt. It hurt more than anything else heâs ever felt before. It had torn him apart and sewn him back together again, only to rinse and repeat. The pain was nothing he ever spoke to Sam or Tucker about, and it was something they never brought up. No, thatâs not true. If they ever brought it up, Tucker would call it a zap. As if Danny only experienced a mild static shock. Like it was painless. Itâs a pretty lie that Danny lets him and Sam believe.)
(His eyes sting and water immediately wobbles into his vision, coming up with such a force that he doesnât even need to blink before it spills over. âYeah.â He forces out, voice unexpectedly rough and cracking. âYeah, it- it hurt. A lot.â)
He tells them about fighting the Lunch Lady a month later. He tells them about finding Jason. It comes spilling out like a waterfall. âI found him, mom.â He says, holding onto her tight while she keeps him tucked under his chin like a little kid. The secret of Jason being Robin stays hidden under his tongue, it is not his secret to tell. Not his identity to expose. He grips her tighter. âI found him, mom. Right there in the Ghost Zone, and he was my Jason. He wasnât an echo or aâ an imprint of him.â
Mom is silent; quiet and attentive, and so is dad, who rubs his large hands up and down Dannyâs spine in an attempt to soothe him. It only works a little. Danny breathes in like a gasp as the urge to cry overcomes him again. He always avoids talking about Jason, his grief is like a never-healing scab that can be picked off at any time. It is ingrained into his core.Â
âAnd then I lost him.â He forces out, a sob layering under his words that he chokes on and swallows. The hand on his back stills, and he can feel mom and dad breathe in like a question. He turns his head and pushes it into momâs shoulder. âHe disappeared, mom. Justâ just gone.â
âAnd he didnât move on.â He says, voice snarling like teeth biting before his mom can ask, because he knows thatâs what she was going to ask. Itâs what Sam and Tucker asked when he came to them in tears hours after he found Jason gone. Itâs what Jazz said when he finally told her about it. Itâs what every one of his ghosts asked when he told them about it and begged for their help.Â
Danny grits his teeth and tries not to dig his nails into momâs clothes as a fresh wave of tears run down his face. âHis haunt is still there. If Jason really moved on it would have disappeared with him. Thatâs how it works. But itâs still in the zone, so Jasonâs out there I just donât know where.âÂ
(Sam once asks him why Danny didnât just move on from it a year after Jasonâs disappearance. She asked him why he didnât give it up. Danny nearly saw red, and nearly bit her head off for it. It was incomprehensible to him to just stop looking for Jason, to give up. Not when he was out in the zone somewhere. Because he had to be in the zone.)
(Danny once tried to take Jason through the portal with him, and much like what happened to Kitty, it didnât work. Jason was too tied to the ghost zone to leave.)Â
(Some bonds are just unbreakable, he thinks. Bonds forged through blood and time and trust, and when youâre on the streets of Gotham, you hoard what little trust you have in someone like a dragon with its gold. It is scarcely given and fiercely kept.)Â
âIâve been looking for him.â Danny whispers when talking becomes too hard for him, when it runs the risk of him crying. âWhen- when Iâm not fighting ghosts or, or in school or with my friends, Iâve been looking for him.â He has explored the Ghost Zone in every reach he can. He has met so many people. Heâs met the ghosts of aliens from planets in every corner of the galaxy. He has met gods or god-like beings and their disciples.Â
Heâs met famous scholars and writers (heâs gotten the autographs of all of Jasonâs favorite writers). He has found entire cities that have so much life in it that it's been permanently etched into the ghost zone, like a mirror version of itself.Â
Heâs visited the ghostly vision of Gotham so many times, and he avoids the imprint of Wayne Manor like the plague. There are ghostly newspapers that he reads. There are the ghosts of Martha and Thomas Wayne in many of them.Â
Jasonâs haunt connects to Wayne Manor, but it is also the street they grew up in. It is a small brick building with a door that leads to Jasonâs room. A ghost knows when someone enters their haunt, it alerts them like a doorbell in the back of their mind. A foreign ecto-signature in a place drenched in your own.Â
Danny visits it every time he goes into the Ghost Zone. Itâs always his first stop.Â
He tells his parents all of it. He tells them of the ghosts heâs met, of the places heâs seen. And when he feels brave, he tells them about Rath and the terror that his future self brings him. He keeps some details hidden, the ones that he can afford to keep without muddling up the story.Â
(Rath is a tall, spindly thing, like a funhouse mirror version of Danny himself. He has arms that are much too long and legs that are much too tall, with skinny fingers that extend into claws.He wears his suit the same as Danny does, with it partially undone and the sleeves wrapped around his waist.)
(There is a black hole in his chest that is much bigger than Dannyâs own. It takes up his chest cavity and drips the same, viscous black liquid as the tears falling from his eyes. Danny never forgets his voice; a scraping, quiet thing like heâs screamed himself hoarse. Rath has a voice like goosebumps, and it haunts Danny like a bump in the night.)Â
Danny speaks and speaks and speaks until he canât think of anything else to speak of. He is tired and sad, and it feels like his heart has been ripped out and rubbed raw again. And yet, he also feels so much better. Like a long heavy weight has been taken off his chest.Â
Yeah, last summer was hard. His parents walked on eggshells around him, and they forced themselves to unlearn their bias of ghosts. It was more than Danny could have ever dreamed of, and when they felt ready for it, they asked him more about the ghost zone.
He smiles sadly at his dad, âI think fixing the stove can be a priority another time, dad.â He says, watching him wilt and his smile fall. Jack Fenton was always so good at making himself look like a kicked puppy. âI can handle unpacking by myself, I promise.âÂ
His parents still look so unsure, like they want to argue. Danny watches his mom purse her lips tightly, confliction running across her face like a datastream. She takes dadâs hand, squeezing their fingers together despite the droop in her shoulders.Â
âOh, alright then, I suppose.â She relents, her hand placing on Jackâs arm. âI guess we could go, weâre just going to miss you so much, Danny.âÂ
Tears seem to have won over his dad, and Jack Fenton sniffs back before he can cry properly. âOur little boy, all grown up.â He says, voice wobbling. It makes Danny laugh, and it makes his heart pang. His smile grows impossibly wider and so much fonder. âYouâve become such a kind, wonderful young man, Danno. Weâre so proud of you.âÂ
Danny laughs again, and it cracks. âYouâre gonna make me cry, dad.â (He feels a welling of guilt in his gut that he ignores â he doesnât feel like a kind man. He doesnât feel like a good one either. Not with what he plans to do.)Â
His father holds out his arms in hopefulness, âOne last hug for your old man before we head out?â He asks, mustering up a smile on his face.Â
Danny barrels into him, nearly knocking his dad over with an oomph. Heâs as tall as him now, but he still feels little in his bear hugs. With arms wrapping around his middle, Danny hugs his father tight and breathes him in one last time.Â
âCareful there, Danno.â He laughs, patting Dannyâs back roughly. âYouâll break my ribs with that ghostly strength of yours!â But he holds on just as tight.
Out of spite, Danny bends back and lifts him off his feet, laughing when Jack tenses up and nearly scrambles out of surprise. His mom laughs with him, stepping back to give them room for the few seconds that dad is in the air.Â
When itâs his momâs turn, Danny has to hunch to hug her. Something bittersweet to him as she plants a kiss on his forehead and says that heâll always be her baby. âEven if you do have that horrid smoking habit.â She adds on with a disapproving eyebrow raise.Â
Danny turns red in embarrassment, and walks them back to the GAV. Gothamites of all kinds slow to stop and boggle at the monstrous, road-illegal thing that is parallel-parked next to the curbside. In the past, Danny would have died with mortification to be seen with it. Now it just makes him laugh. Before he goes back into the apartment building, he buys a newspaper from a nearby convenience store. Â
The first thing he does when he gets back up to his room is one: make a mental note to buy a bicycle chain lock for the door. The locks jiggle and there are splinters along the side that show signs of it being broken into in the past. The second thing he does is pull his cigarettes out of his pocket and light one.Â
Danny starts to unpack with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, placing the newspaper he bought onto the counter. He has a cheap loveseat that he pushes off to the side, and he moves the boxes into the kitchen. Itâs a matter of organization that Danny has to think about before he does anything.Â
Itâs as heâs pushing the sofa up against the wall facing the windows that his phone rings a familiar tune: Sam. The phone is fished out before he can think about it and when he stares down at the screen, he realizes it's a facetime call.Â
He presses answer and walks over to prop his phone up onto the counter. The smiling faces of Sam and Tucker greet him, rather than just Sam. Immediately, Danny grins. âHey Danny.â Sam greets, smiling a dark-painted lazy thing. From the background it looks like theyâre in Tuckerâs room. Sam is in Tuckerâs desk chair, and Tucker is behind her, leaning against it. âHave you moved in yet?âÂ
Danny pulls the cigarette from his mouth and huffs, a cloud of smoke following his breath. âYeah! Itâs a shithole.â He grins lopsidedly, and his feet carry him off to the side to allow Sam and Tucker view of his apartment. He lets thirty seconds pass, allowing the both of them to really see the rest of the room. And then he steps back into frame.Â
Sam and Tucker both look like theyâre trying not to look judgemental, like theyâre trying to hide a grimace that Danny sees anyway with the small turns at the corner of their mouths. He grins wider, mirth filling his lungs. âI know, it looks awful doesnât it?â
âItâsâ itâs not so bad.â Sam says with a strain in her voice, a forced smile on her face that tries to be reassuring. Tucker nods along readily, and he looks just as unsure as Sam does. Danny stifles laughter behind his teeth.Â
âNo, no, it looks bad,â He takes a drag of his cigarette, shaking his head. âYou can say it, I wonât get offended. Itâs a fucking apartment in crime alley. Of course it looks bad.âÂ
Sam remains silent, a rearing of her stubbornness showing itself. Tucker takes a different approach, and heaves a dramatic sigh of relief, slumping like a weight. âOkay, youâre right. It looks bad.â He frowns, âSorry, man.âÂ
While Danny snorts, Sam sighs. âYeah, it looks bad. What even are those stains?â She asks, and both she and Tucker lean closer in tandem to the screen, eyes squinting at the floor behind him. Danny glances at the floor, and shrugs.Â
âBlood, probably.â He says, and while years in Amity Park have accustomed him to a clean environment, the desensitization of Gotham still remains. Tucker and Sam both make faces and lean away, as if the stain itself was capable of passing through to them. âYeah, there are bullet holes in the walls.âÂ
âAre you sure itâs safe to be there?â Tucker asks, a furrow appearing between his brows. He adjusts his glasses and leans against the chair. Sam is frowning heavily, and Danny can already see her thinking up of a new way to fix the problem.Â
âOh, I never said this place was safe.â Danny tells him cheerily, taking a last hit of his cigarette before placing the dead stick onto the counter. He itches for another one. Instead he walks over to the shelf his parents brought in and starts moving it. âItâs Crime Alley, Tuck. Safe isnât even in its vocabulary.âÂ
Tucker and Sam look like theyâve both swallowed a lemon.
âBut itâs where I want to be right now.â He says, grunting quietly when the shelf is against the wall he wants it to be, near the short hallway leading to the front door. He can push it in front of it if someone tries to break in. âAnd Crime Alleyâs apartments are the only ones I can really afford right now without mooching off my parents, and Iâd rather not depend on them.âÂ
He can hear the disapproving hesitance from where he stands. And he ignores it.Â
Danny walks back into frame, lifting up a box onto the counter. He hums lightly, fingers run over the tape keeping it shut. âWhy do you even want to be in Gotham, Danny?â Sam asks, and she sounds genuinely perplexed. Danny stills. âI thought this place only had bad memories for you.âÂ
His blood turns cold, and like a dime being flipped his slow heartbeat fills his ears. âIt does.â He replies automatically, before he can think. Shit, shit. He knows that Sam or Tucker would ask that question, and yet he still feels unprepared for it. His heart pulses quickly against his ribcage, knocking, asking him what heâs going to tell them that isnât the truth.Â
Danny stammers, âI meanâ I justâ I guess I felt nostalgic.â He says, and it sounds like a weak defense. He looks away, finding himself instinctively scratching his jaw. A new tick of his when heâs nervous. From the corner of his eye, he sees Sam and Tucker both narrow their eyes at him.Â
He cannot tell them the real reason why heâs moved back to Gotham. He canât tell them of the little secret and vow he told himself five years ago, the one thatâs been left to fester and burn like an open wound close to his core. The one that, if he thinks too much about it, sends a searing hot electricity through him, filling him from crown to toe top-full of direst wrath. Â
(Danny was always the angrier one in the duo of Jason and Danny. He was always the one with glass in his mouth, cutting his teeth and tongue so that he could spit blood at the world around them. His knuckles had more blood and bruises on it than skin, once upon a time. All because he couldnât keep his mouth shut. He has grown from it, that fury has turned to a small simmering candle.) (But sometimes, sometimes it rears its head, and electricity will buzz under Dannyâs skin. There is lightning before the thunder, the second before a fist pulled to punch lands, the spark before it becomes a blaze.)Â
He stumbles over his words, and then sighs long and low, drooping his head. âI⊠was thinking that I canât avoid this place forever.â He says, and the best lies always have the truth in it. Because itâs not a lie, not completely. But itâs not close enough to the truth either. âAnd that maybe if I came back, Iâd be able to do something about those bad memories. Make them better or make it hurt less.âÂ
Like wool over their eyes, it fools Sam and Tucker. Their narrowed eyes soften, and Danny feels like a snake is in his lungs as they both adopt their own versions of gentleness on their faces. âOh, Danny.â Sam breathes out, and the snake squeezes, âOf course, we understand.â
Tucker nods, smiling at him. âYeah, bro, thatâs really brave of you. I know it canât be easy coming back.â He says, âMaybe you can reconnect with the Waynes again, you always thought well of Mister Wayne whenever you came back from visiting.â
Danny smiles weakly, the gesture cutting into his cheeks like a knife. Perhaps he could. He was still upset with Bruce for hiding Jasonâs killer from him. But he doesnât hate him. Maybe five years ago, he did, when the death of Jason was still fresh in his mind and freshly bleeding in his heart. Now he just doesnât know what to think of him. He was Batman. Jason was Robin, and the Joker killed Robin.Â
It would need to be something heâd have to speak to Bruce about in person, he thinks, in order to resolve it. To hear his judgment on it and make an opinion from there. Danny has learned in the last five years, much to Jazzâs smug delight, that talking to people about something he was upset about did make him feel better.Â
The conversation slips on from there into something more light, more breathable. And while they talk, Danny unpacks. He sets up his bed in the corner of the room, adjacent to the windows, and unpacks his cheap TV and table stand. Itâs directly across from the couch, in front of the windows. He puts up knicks and knacks heâs collected over the years on the shelves.
When he puts up the curtains, he notices that more than one frame jiggles loosely. Sam makes a comment on the musty stains permanently dyed into the glass, and Danny talks about getting something to fix the cracks. Gotham winters can get brutal, and even if he can withstand the cold, doesnât mean everything else in his apartment can.Â
âOh, watch this.â He says halfway through unpacking, and pulls out a stick of thick white chalk from a box. âThis is something I learned from Clockwork a while back; I think he knew I was going to move to Gotham.â He grins sillily, popping into the camera frame to show them. âI wonder how?âÂ
Sam rolls her eyes, smiling while Tucker huffs. âItâs not like heâs the Master of Time and can see all past, present, and future.â Tucker snarks.Â
Danny hums lightly, curt like he isnât sure he believes Tucker, and walks to a piece of bare wall not yet blocked by furniture. He starts to draw on it. The chalk shimmers with faint ectoplasm on the wall.Â
âUhhâŠâ Tuckerâs voice cuts through, âAre you sure you should be doing that? Wonât you get in trouble for that?â
âThere are bullet holes in the plaster, Tucker.â Danny retorts dryly, arching his hand to make a big circle. âI donât think the landlord is gonna care if I get washable chalk on his walls.â Inside the circle, he inscribes the symbols of the Infinite Realms. âI donât think heâd be able to see it anyways, he was really old.âÂ
When he is done, Danny steps back to admire his work. Itâs not bad, he thinks, for a lack of practice. He tosses the chalk off to the side, it lands on the couch and rolls back into the cushions. Ectoplasm heats under his hand, slowly glowing from his fingertips before stretching down the rest of his palm.Â
Dannyâs fingers press against the wall, into the center of the circle. The result is immediate, ectoplasm is siphoned off his hand and into the circle. It glows, and then swirls. He steps off to the side for Sam and Tucker to watch its transformation. The circle fills with a swirling pool of ectoplasm, like a smaller version of the basement portal, and then it warps and stretches.Â
It fills out a rectangular shape, shifting like taffy being pulled this way and that, before settling into a solid shape. It solidifies, and instead of a wall there is a glowing purple door, warped in nature and seemingly shifting like a trick of the eyes. He can hear the gentle hum of the zone standing next to it, and can see the carving of the circle in the wood.Â
He gestures dramatically, grinning from ear to ear. âTa-da~â He sings, âA door to my haunt! For whenever I feel like visiting it.â He pats the wood, making a strange thunk-thunk sound. âAnd then watch this.âÂ
Danny touches the circle again, and the door twists and recedes like water going down a drain. The circle flashes bright green, and then fades into nothing on the wall, invisible to the naked eye. âI can hide it whenever I want! So if I ever invite someone overââ which he doubts, ââI wonât have to worry about them asking, âHey Danny? Why is there a creepy fucking door in your studio apartment?ââ
He gets a pair of laughs for his efforts, and Danny grins wider.Â
Sam and Tucker have to end the call when Danny is nearly done unpacking, leaving him alone with only his thoughts and the Gotham ambience outside. There were only a few boxes left, and they promise to call him tomorrow. He tells them that they better keep that promise.Â
The silence that follows after they leave feels somberly, as if the reality of moving in has finally set in and filled the air with its loneliness. With its change. Finally, Danny lets the strangeness of moving back to Gotham hit him when he reaches the last box, and he stops to take another smoke break to let it settle.Â
It feels so strange to be back in Gotham, he thinks. Heâs all grown up, or almost grown up. He can vote and pay taxes, but he doesnât feel much older than he was at fourteen. Thereâs a disconnect that makes him feel sad.Â
There are cars running outside, driving by. He can only catch glimpses of them, his apartment faces an alleyway. There are dogs barking in the distance, strays he bets. Itâs already dark out, and he wonders if he looks out the window he would see the bat-signal shining through the night and staining the permanent cloud that hangs over Gotham.Â
Bruce would be so disappointed if he learned the reason for Dannyâs return to Gotham. But Dannyâs not here for him. Heâs here for someone far more important. And like that, the simmering anger that has tucked itself into the furthest corners of his heart starts slipping through. His heart has teeth, ready to strike and snarl and bite.Â
He crushes the cigarette in his hand and throws it away. When he opens the last box, it is with hands that tremble and with a face of stone. With a delicateness he does not feel, he reaches in and pulls a corkboard from the box. On the corner frame is a small, near inconspicuous carving of another ghost rune.Â
Danny hangs it up on an empty space on the wall, out of sight from the window. Itâs plain, and he has nothing to pin to it. He presses the small rune on the corner, pushing ectoplasm into it. Unlike the door, it does not twist and warp and shape itself into something new. Instead it bursts into green flame, eating away at the board and revealing the same thing underneath it, just in dark blue-black-purple.Â
Now this board, this board Danny has something to pin to it. The newspaper he bought earlier sits abandoned on the counter, and Danny unrolls it with something like viciousness in his chest. On the front page is an image of a damaged street, and above it is titled: âJOKER STRIKES AGAIN, 3 DEAD AND 27 INJUREDâ
Danny rips out the first page, he rips out every mention of him. His hands shake and threaten to crumple the paper as he turns back to the board, there is hot blood pounding in his ears. There is an impending sense of finally in his chest, like a setting sun giving the stage to a starless night. There is a stern set in his jaw, five years of festering rage rushing forth like a tidal wave, threatening to make his vision swim.Â
It would be so easy, he thinks, to go out as Phantom right now and hunt the clown down. It would only take a night. All it would take is a night, and then he could sink his hands into the Jokerâs chest and rip out his heart where he stood. It would be so easy.Â
The thought alone forces Danny to stop as he is hit with another rush of fury, really making his head and vision swim. Thorny vines wrap around his throat, making it hard to breathe. He stares at a spot on the wall until the shaking passes.Â
If he wants to be discreet about this, then he canât do it now. Even if he wants to. He doesnât want witnesses. He doesnât want an audience. He made a mistake, telling Red Hood about his plan. He wasnât sure what he was thinking. Perhaps he wasnât thinking at all. But he can only hope that the Hood hasnât mentioned it to Bruce. He knows it hasnât been long since they started working together. He hopes that the Hood has already forgotten about it.Â
He pins the newspaper clippings onto the black-blue-board, and stands back. Itâs bare now, but it wonât be forever.Â
He presses the circle again, and the pinboard reverts back to its original blank state.Â
-----
Was I expecting to make a third part?? No. No I was not. I was also not expecting to make an entire google doc filled with summaries for short story ideas about this au that all tie into each other so that way if i DO continue this i have a skeleton pathway to follow rather than making everything up from scratch and potentially cornering myself
you can find this on ao3 or on tumblr 1 2 :)
#dp x dc#dpxdc#dp x dc crossover#danny fenton is not the ghost king#dpxdc crossover#childhood friends au#cw swearing#cw smoking#im calling them short stories bc if i call them chapters i might intimidate myself#fun fact every single chapter will have a crane wives lyric on it i am DETERMINED#i hope yall are subscribed to this on ao3 bc i almost didnt post this on tumblr#the fentons being good parents were a surprise to me too but also i never really planned on them being BAD parents#okay so they appear as negligent in the first post but we'll just call that a plothole#i had the idea that danny was the angrier one out of the duo earlier today and it felt like an epiphany#there's no guarantee of a next part but yk immm kinda hoping there is#on the docs the ending bullet point for this chapter was#'make it feel like a tv show where the seemingly inconspicuous and friendly character has something sinister up their sleeve'#WE know that danny's not inconspicuous in the least he's been thinking of this murder for the last five years. but nobody but red hood know#i had to come up with a in-story reason why danny doesnt kill the joker NOW but my out-of-story excuse is: there'd be no tension otherwise#its about the BUILD UP. Its about the RISING TENSION. Its about KNOWING that danny is planning to kill the Joker but you dont know WHEN#its about knowing that something is going to explode but never knowing when#i made the doc yesterday and spent my entire pluralism for educators class going thru the crane wives albums and looking up the lyrics and#matching them to the *checks doc* 18 short story prompts i have prepared#i am still missing one :((#its the tim and danny story and i have NOTHING PLANNED FOR THEM. i cant think of a thing for them to bond over :(( so i cant match a CW son#even DICK has a story and that was also a surprise#my favorite lines: He was always the one with glass in his mouth cutting his teeth and tongue so that he could spit blood at the world#aND danny slapping his door like a used car salesman and going 'now people wont ask why i have a creepy fucking door in my studio aptm :)'
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fool's fate by robin hobb is like. you will read about the deepest and most beautiful tragic meaningful heartbreaking soul crushing love story you will ever read in your life and you will feel emotions that you didn't know existed and you'll hurt in ways that you didn't think possible. and then you finish the book and you have to go on with your life and pretend you are Normal when actually your brain chemistry has been altered for the rest of your life
#rote#tawny man trilogy#fool's fate#realm of the elderlings#hey rote fans whats up. how do you even move on from this book like how do you go on. what do i even DO now like?#i spent this last week readind the second half of this book. you Know i just had the worst week of my life#i kept having to stop reading and taking breaks bc it was so incredibly overwhelming. yesterday I finally created#the courage to read the last couple of chapters#and now im on my bed just rotting with my feelings. you guys know how it is đ«¶đŒ
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âWe could do that you know?â Thereâs a thread of light breaking the horizon, the dark sky beginning to change. âGet married if everything else fails.â
âSorry canât do that,â Kiara clicks her tongue, âalready made one.â
âYou made a marriage pact without me?â Rafe leans back to stare at her in offense, his mouth hanging open a little. âWith who?â
Read chapter 16 here
Listen to the playlist I canât shut up about
#krcg#krcg social media au#partyhardy writes#kiara carrera x rafe cameron#riara#obx#weâre getting there folks!!#hardest chapter to write bc what do you mean itâs canât just be vibes and banter???#they have to open up??#the last of the emotional chapters are over (for now)#yall already know the formula so you can imagine whatâs to come#next chapter is just pure fun#and I cannot wait to get back to smut đ#rafe cameron fanfiction#rafekie
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