#maybe he doesn’t

[strayheartless]

Alternative meeting between Tifa and Cloud in FFVII.

…

This is so unbelievably stupid. Her and her big mouth were going to get her in trouble one day she swears to shiva “oh, what’s that miter Lexington? Your car battery died just outside of Midgar and you need it jumpstarted! I have cables I can do it.” What the hell was wrong with her! Not only did the old coot abandon her at the gates with a “bigger emergency” but to add insult to injury he’d slapped her ass and Tifa was STILL helping him!

… maybe she’d ask Barret to shoot her next time she decided helpfulness was better than self respect. Fuck it’s warm out here.

As she pushes on past the 200 mile sign for Kalm she wonders if the car is even out here. It’s a pain in the ass to see past the waves of heat radiating from the ground and last time she was out here she’d gotten sunburned everywhere but her ass. It has been unbareable. This time she’d taken the precaution of a long duster coat and what little sunscreen she could scrounge up from Jessie’s last tour in Costa-del-sol. She’s regretting the coat now, but whatever.

Off in the distance she sees the lookout point on the Cliff and a tiny moving yellow dot told her there was a truck coming towards her from the high roads. When it approached a gentleman in a red bandana and large moustache pulled on the hand break and rolled down the window.

“Where you headed little lady?” He said and it didn’t sound snide but Tifa didn’t let her guard too much. Rule one on the ground floor: people aren’t nice for free.

“Oh just jump starting a car. I’m not in any trouble. Thanks for checking though.” She smiles disarmingly.

“Well shoot, that’s alright. You just be careful though. Was driving some boys up this way but something damn near shot out my tires and the tallish feller told me to scram. Recon there’s gon-be a shootout around these parts.” He sniffed and whipped his nose on his sleeve, making Tifa cringe internally. But he didn’t have to stop and warn her. She felt bad for being grossed out.

“Oh, okay. Thanks for telling me. How far back did you drop them off?”

As she asked a few dozen shots rang out and the sound of fast moving metal hitting metal zinged through the air.

A voice rang out from the cliff top. Tifa couldn’t make out what it was saying though.

“Cliff top… got it. I’ll stay away for now. Than you…”

“Benny.”

“Thank you Benny”

When the man had driven away Tifa eyed the cliff top, watching for a second as a figure began to back up onto it. They were going to fall if they weren’t careful. She shook her head looking up at the sky. A helecopter was coming. Shit, whatever was going on was shinra business. Maybe she’d steer a little more clear than intended…

Mr Lexingtons car was only a little further in a ditch (which he hadn’t warned her about.) but after a few good pushes and a bolt of power she was good to go. The engine was pretty much full, and with a Jerry can in the back full of Gasoline she was confident there wouldn’t be anymore problems. As she jumped into the passenger seat though she couldn’t help but look at the cliff again.

There had been a distant rumble of gunfire for a good twenty minutes now, and at some point the clang of metal had stopped and the figure seemed to have crumpled to their knees. She watched in morbid curiosity as what looked like an infantry soldier smacked the butt of their gun into the persons head.

Ouch.

The figure crumpled onto their back and Tifa heard another shot and watched horrified as the Infantry guy went to take another shot.

Surely the guy was dead?!

Against her own better Judgment she gunned the engine and made a U turn towards the Cliff. If she could just get there. Just a little further…

The last shot rang out. Fuck fuck FUCK!

She pushed down hard on the accelerator, hoping behind hope the person could hold out a little longer for help. But about two miles up the road sand blew back against the truck as that same Hellicopter that had circled took off again back to midgar. Had they shot the person and just left them there?!

The rain had started, fast and heavy now. The trucks wipers were pretty much useless against the onslaught. It was bouncing off of the parched earth like halestones on a tin roof. The sound was almost deafening.

At the top of the Hill Tifa kills the engine and hops out, pulling her Coat closer against her. It did very little to ward off the rain but it was something.

“Hello!?” She yelled into the murky air.

“Hello?! Are you out there!”

There was someone at the edge of the cliff. They looked like they were wearing shoulder pads or paldrons. A soldier maybe? She hesitates for a second when a hand reaches up from the ground and pulls the other person down to their chest. It’s the guy who was shot. She can’t hear them. Not even a little. Maybe they can’t hear her either.

Before she can think better of this oh so stupid decision she keeps moving forward towards them. The body on the ground moves again, lifting something from next to them. A pipe maybe? No a sword. It’s a sword… fuck it looks bad. The hand slips and falls and Tifa tries to fight against the rain and the mud that is churning under her boots.

“Hello-“ her second attempt to call out is cut off by a scream from the second figure who’s head is tilted back towards the sky. Something is seriously wrong here and Tifa starts running as the second figure crumpled and clings to the body on the ground.

She drops to her knees when she’s there but thinks better of touching the perso-

“Cloud?! Oh gods Cloud is that you?!”

The person climbing to the body has spikey blond hair that Tifa would know anywhere, simply because it was so unique. He’s small and looks sickly, his face drenched in blood. It’s not his blood she thinks it’s-

She’s going to be sick. She’s going to throw up because the body on the ground is someone she knows. She knew. Fuck whatever! The body on the ground is First Class Sooldier Zack Fair.

“Oh gods Cloud what happened to both of you?!” She reaches out to touch him and Cloud Flinches clinging to the body harder. He’s scared she realises. Whatever happened to them… it must have been bad.

“Cloud it’s Tifa. You know me. Cloud? Im so sorry for your loss but we can’t stay here, those people might come back we have to-“

“NO!” Cloud cages the body under him and snarls at her almost feral with grief. Gods he really is covered in blood. There are morbid tear and rain tracks down his face like a terrible kabuki mask and it makes her shiver.

“Cloud… it’s me. It’s Tifa. You know me. Please Cloud. It’s me.”

He manages to look like he’s a stray dog with his hackles raised as he stares at her. The longer he stares the lower his shoulders seem to drop… the more confused and afraid he seems.

“Ti- Ti-fa?”

“Yes! Yeah Cloud it’s me. It’s Tifa Lockhart. You remember me? From the village?”

He nods hesitantly.

“Good. Okay good. That’s great. Do you trust me enough to get in my car?”

Cloud clings to Zack again, and Tifa swallows the bile rising in her throat as the sick squelch of blood on skin seems to echo.

“He… Zack… He… comes… too.”

Fuck, she’s so not getting paid for this. Blood in a truck that’s not even hers? Does it even matter? This was her friend. The only person from Nibelhiem who had ever been unaccounted for.

Did he know about that? Did he know about his mom? About her dad? That Zack had been there? That his hero sephiroth had killed them? Killed them all!

She holds out her hand and telegraphs her movements taking Zacks pulse…

…..

……..

………..

BADUM……………..

………..

…….

BADUM.

Holy mother of Minerva this guy is still alive!

“Shit! Okay, yeah! Okay We can take him! Can you walk on your own? I can’t carry him and you. I’m strong but aim not two dead weight supersoldiers strong.”

Cloud shifted and blinked. He was still Gripping the sword.

“We can bring that too.” She offered gently. He didn’t look like he was about to let go of it any time soon.

“I’ll…. Be… his living…. Legacy….”

“Oh cloud…”

Tifa gets to her feet, her knee highs covered in tacky red clay mud. Bending at the knees she lifts Fair bridal style, trying not to agfitate his wounds. His head lolls back limply. She really hopes they can get back in time to save him.

“Alright Fair, don’t die on me. You owe me for bringing that psycho to my village, and I’ll be pissed if your too dead to say sorry…”

Zack doesn’t react, but a pale bloody hand reaches for his face. Cloud wipes the blood away the best he can.

“Live…. Please….”

Tifa chews on her lip nervously. They needed to get back to midgar. Now.

Getting them both in the Truck Tifa guns the engine and steps on it.

Gods she hopes this is enough.

[ideas-ideasideasideas]

Batman gives each of his Robins a different code to use when they’re in trouble and need immediate extraction. He promises that when they call, he’ll drop everything just to get to them, come hell or high water.

Jason, during his time with the League, shares his code with Damian, to be used “only in the direst of circumstances, when you have exhausted all other options.” He doesn’t know if Bruce will answer, given how fractured their relationship was before he died, but it is better than nothing. Every tool counts when they live such dangerous lives.

Damian uses it exactly once, and Bruce, who still feels the loss of his son like a yawning chasm in his chest, responds to it even though he knows it can’t be Jason because Jason’s dead. What he finds, instead of Jason, is a boy in League garbs, drenched in blood from the tips of his midnight-black hair to his too-small feet, with a face that Bruce sees himself and Talia in, requesting asylum from a grandfather who wishes to possess his body. Bruce doesn’t question how this boy who is so clearly his son knew the code. Talia al Ghul is resourceful and places family above all; the code is not beyond her abilities to discover, and she is not above using Bruce’s desperate love for his dead son to ensure that hers does not meet the same fate.

Bruce takes Damian in, because of course he does, and since Jason is dead he allows Damian to keep using the code. After all, it’s not like Jason is alive to use it, right? If someone uses the code, there’s no one it could be but Damian, right?

The next time the code is used, Bruce traces the location to Gotham even though Damian was supposed to be in Bludhaven visiting Dick. But whatever happened that resulted in Damian being in Gotham can wait, because he has already failed one son and he will not fail another, his son is in trouble and he needs to get to him, he needs to—

What he finds, instead of Damian, is a boy (just eighteen, too young, but also too old, but also he will always be a boy to him) in League garbs, drenched in blood from the tips of his midnight-black hair to his too-large feet (when had he gotten so big), wearing the face of his dead son.

(Who, maybe, just maybe, may no longer be so dead.)

[chloesimaginationthings]

Cassie shares her FNAF family history,,

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [15]

Danny accepts that because of his half dead status he won't be able to become an astronaut and he has to find a different way to feed his space obsession.

He decides to get really into astromancy (yes, the magic. He already knows everything about astronomy). He gets himself the more spiritual star charts, old surprisingly authentic tomes about the art and divination cards to go with it all and gets to learning.

Tbh he kind of went into this not expecting much but it turns out he had homo magus heritage from his Nightingale roots and he actually manages to call upon the power of the stars.

He figures he can blame the vaporized wall on ghosts.

Meanwhile, a foreboding feeling like cold shivers run down the spines of several magic users that they can only describe as "a child having figured out they need to switch off the safety on their mini nuke launcher in order to fire it"

The JLD is scrambling to locate the source of the surge in magic power before someone with bad intentions can get there.

[stealingyourbones]

Dan works in the Metropolis Police Department and is frequently on scene helping with crowd control during Superman battles.

It starts with saving Jimmy Olsen from a piece of falling rubble. Then helping Lois into the barricaded off Superman fight zone because Dan can tell she’ll get through them no matter what for her story, he might as well go with her and at least be sure she’s safe. Then he helps evacuate an out of control plane that Superman had safely slowed down and gently landed.

It felt like a blink of an eye but suddenly Dan was a part of the small circle of civilians that Superman interacts with daily.

[daysofnights]

when sirius and james accidentally find out about regulus’ crush on james, sirius makes the mistake of assuming him and james are on the same page and tells him he trusts him to do the right thing (ie let regulus down easy) james misinterprets this as sirius trusting him to never do anything that could hurt regulus and starts planning the wedding

[yujateaandpi]

Thought Fiddlestan was a purely comedic ship for a while but now I get it, I see the light. It’s about a man who nurtures and cares for others to the point of heartbreak meeting a man who doesn’t remember what it’s like for anyone to care about him. It’s about them being warm together around the absence of someone they both love. It’s about Fiddleford’s innate domesticity comforting a man whose deepest desire was to come home. It’s about falling in love with the same face again but in a new context that heals your past trauma. It’s about Stan’s unbridled affection finally validating someone who desperately needed the recognition. It’s also about very funny old man yaoi.

[puppppppppy]

who is your favorite AA character? 👁️👁️

ziska… I hope capcom brings her back someday

[prlssprfctn]

In his new room - in his new house - Jason searches up for a circus performances and stares at them for hours. First, he watches at them mindlessly, unconsciously curious, and then, he starts to take notes.

He is a street kid, and everything about him screams of that. So, he is nowhere near the grace of these performers on the screen. His arms are not that strong, too, but he is agile, and his legs are much stronger - he can think of something.

He can be just as good as the boy he is replacing.

It is not like someone tells him to match Richard Grayson, and it is not like someone admits that Jason is here to replace the first Wonder Boy, but Jason heard Bruce's conversation with Dick earlier. It was meant not for his ears, but it doesn't matter now.

"So, now what, you exile me, and bring a boy to replace me?!"

Jason is not mad. All of it ‐ adoption papers, the manor, the school - is much more than he ever thought he would get in his life. Being replacement doesn't sound as bad anyway; especially, if his brother is so cool.

So, he makes notes on circus performances and slightly chopes his hair. They are much curlier than Dick's - he has more of a wavy ones, and the only ever look that way, when they get long; his childhood photos with short hair looks too straight - but the cut does its magic.

The next day, Bruce compliments his hair absentmindedly and is positively surprised by his new moves on the patrol, asking where he learnt it from. Jason lies about not remembering, but his cheeks are flashed, and his smile is all about teeth. He can't wait to show it to Dick once they finally get on a mission together.

Expect, when they do, Dick just nods and mutters a light-hearted "good job" before leaving to talk with his team. And Jason knows Dick doesn't want to be mean - he gets it; no one feels good about having a replacement, especially the one that seems so cheap in comparison - but he still cries that night in his pillow, feeling himself a little kid, even if he isn't one. Even if he never was.

Jason wonders if his own replacement would make him understand Dick.

But Jason never gets replaced.

No matter the taunting voice of the Lazarus Pit in the back of his head - that sometimes sounds suspiciously like Talia's; you remain unavenged and replaced - and his own intrusive thoughts that spiral in uneven lines, Jason doesn't think Tim was ever meant to be his replacement. Being replaced means to match the person that was meant to be left behind. And no one asked Tim to be like Jason.

If anything, memory of Jason was thrown under the rag, hidden and locked securely in heads of those who survived. And if they brought Jason up, then it was always an example of what Robin shouldn't do: run away, disobey, and allow emotions to consume you. So, not much of an exemplary original. More like an opposite.

Jason feels an urge to explain that to Tim once; when they sit together on the rooftop, almost like a proper family, instead of broken pieces of someone's idea of a one.

'You could never replace me,' he says, and the instant it leaves his mouth, he knows it came out wrong.

Tim rolls his eyes.

'Yeah, dude. Whatever.'

'No, I mean—' He grits his teeth, scrapping slightly the back of his hand. 'I mean... You could never replace me, because... Because you were always better.'

Tim freezes. His big blue eyes shift in something more confused, and it is almost as if he is not sure how he needs to react — to protest? To agree? To thank him?

Jason doesn't know what to do, too.

He wants to say: it is easy as that, babybird. They wanted to have someone who would have nothing in common with me — someone who could help them to forget about my existence, about the existence of the failed Robin.

But he can't make himself speak again. And he is not sure he wants to stay any longer to hear Tin manging to put his thoughts in the words; he is better than him at this, too, and he almost always sounds convincing.

So, he leaves.

In his room - in the building he owns now - he ruffles his outgrown hair, fluffs up the white streak, and passes by his only remaining photo with Bruce in the frame, on the shelf under the stolen tire.

He still does this semi-circus move in his fights - almost frozen in the air, with his back arched - but he doesn't expect anyone to compliment him anymore.

[noodlebox-bird]

the gang innocently murders lavi

thank u @metiredlr for the insp ✨

[kayawolfhorse]

Discuss

[sivavakkiyar]

Herzog was real for this

[noodles-and-tea]

MY BBG POOKIE PIE!!!

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael learns of Henry and William’s FNAF lore..

[blanc-ci]

To Kirk’s (welcome) surprise, Spock is sometimes even more handsy than he is

[strawberryscare]

buddy suggesting his evangelical sol-worshipping grandfather replace yolanda and excusing the clear issues with bias by saying “well all clerics have some deity, it’s never going to be completely neutral” sits VERY wrong with me when remembering that yolanda literally gave up her divinity to become a teacher??