#my knowledge of DC canon is very small
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emdeerm ¡ 1 year ago
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The stranger chuckled and gently pat Bruce's back.
"Hey, it has been a while, huh?"
Bruce just buried his face further into the shoulder of a slightly taller man. Silent tears were soaking into the white T-shirt.
The children were flabbergasted.
"What the fuck."
"Language, Master Jason," Alfred chastised gently as he suddenly appeared behind the frozen group.
"It's good to see you again, Alfred," the man greeted his voice all choked up.
"Same to you, Master Danny. You gave us quite a scare."
No matter how professional the old butler liked to be, he couldn't not hug one of his children.
"Welcome home."
-----
"So, B has a younger brother and no-one thought it was a good idea to inform us?"
After the heartfelt reunion, Alfred left the family to figure themselves out and to prepare a feast. Now Danny was faced with the force that is many children of his older brother.
He heard the stories and even had a chance to see them sometimes through the veil, but meeting them in person was a blessing he didn't think he'd ever get.
"Tim-"
"I forbade him from doing so," Danny cut off his brother, who looked at him incredulously. "B, keep your mouth closed. Your communication skills have become worse since the last time I've seen you."
That got some of the nephews and nieces to laugh at least.
"What do you mean?"
Dick. The oldest and the child who was adopted just a year after Danny had to go MIA.
Danny sighed. "I'll start from the beginning. Sit down, it'll be a long one."
-----
Danny was kidnapped when he was 10.
He could still remember the terror he had felt on that night.
And he could still remember just how shocked everyone was when a couple in hazmat suits accidentally rammed into them, apologised, grabbed their tech that got scattered about and left. Accidentally carrying Danny with them.
His parents were so inattentive at times, it was painfully hilarious.
("They just picked up a kid by accident, saw that later and decided to keep you?!"
"Pretty much."
"B, why can't anyone in the family be normal?"
"Hn," was the amused reply.)
He wanted to go back home but after some digging around, he realised that it was safer for everyone if he was missing for a little.
He died and came back at 14.
(Danny pat the back of his older brother and shot a reassuring smile to the others. "Yeah, I'm crossing that of my Vigilante Bingo too.")
He couldn't return to his brother yet. He now had his own problems, nemesis and rogues to deal with.
("You were a teen vigilante?! Alone?!"
"You gotta do what you gotta do. Ghosts were out and about and were dangers to themselves and others. I'm the bridge. I had to fix that.)
He ended up never revealing himself to his parents and moved out at 18.
He was home.
His brother was gone. The company and everything else were left in Alfred's hands for a few years by then.
Danny picked up the slack. He worked hard. He knew his brother would be back. Clockwork said so. And the time keeper usually wasn't wrong. Danny wanted his brother to be set for life when he returned.
When Bruce did come back, it took them a while to fully recover their relationship
("B's fault, really. He refused to listen to any reason lr explanation," *shrug*
"Sounds like him."
"I don't know," mused Alfred, who was suddenly there, "if I recall correctly, your pranks and pettiness weren't helping. "
*open laughter*)
They grew close again. Danny helped with Batman things by creating gadgets and being the man on the comms.
("One would be surprised how useful overshadowing technology can be."
*jealous noises from the select few*)
Everything was fine. Until Clockwork came to them with a mission that Danny couldn't decline or do quickly.
The time stream was destabilising. The world had a chance of completely falling apart. And Danny's status as a Halfa would allow him to be in the least amounts of danger while fixing that.
("I forbade talking about me. Clockwork and a few others pulled some strings that muddled the memories about my existence in the minds of others. I needed to disappear for this to be resolved. We had no idea when I'd be back."
The implied "if he would be back at all" was left unsaid.)
------
The next JL meeting saw an unusually chipper Batman with an invisible companion.
Martian Manhunter sensed the amusement from both and let them be.
Shazam recognised the feeling. His friend came to visit!
Let's go Bruce!
Masterpost
Lighthearted
Bruce and Danny were inseparable. Especially after the deaths of their parents. But that all changed when Bruce decided he had to become the protector of Gotham. He disappeared one night with only a note detailing his plans. After years of no contact with his family, Bruce thought he'd come home to an empty house or at the very least, a livid brother. Instead he was greeted with a massive bear hug and excited chatter. Apparently Danny had stayed. Not only that, he had taken over Wayne Enterprises and made it the leading company in pretty much every industry. What was most surprising is that seemingly, Danny had done it all for him. In his words, "If you're gonna go running through the streets beating up criminals, you might as well do it with the best tech."
Angsty
It didn't take long after Thomas and Martha's passing for distant relatives to come out of the woodwork. One relative was even bold enough to kidnap Danny. Due to the corrupt nature of the police department, they were slow to act. By the time they caught the relative, Danny had already escaped on his own. Bruce was devastated that he couldn't have even protected his little brother and this incident solidified his dedication to the mission. Meanwhile, Danny was picked up by some kind scientists who were in town for a convention.
Years later, the Batfamily hears Bruce cry out at the door. Everyone springs into action ready to fight. Only to find their father desperately clutching onto a stranger as tears stream down his face.
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august-anon ¡ 1 month ago
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Training Montage
#AugTickletober2024 Days 13 & 14, Win & Lose
My first tickletober fic of the year, and my first time exploring writing with DC characters! I have been. Hyperfixating on the batfamily (which has broadened to a far larger amount of DC characters now and continues to grow, i will never escape DC lol) since like. June. So this has been a long time coming skjdfhdf
Also this fic features FULLY PLATONIC AND NOT WEIRD parent-child tickles so if that's not your thing this is not your fic!
You can blame this fic on that one quick scene in BTAS episodes Robin's Reckoning where Dick and Bruce are fencing and then start goofing off, and also the part with Bruce and Jason in @/fickle-tiction's fic For Old Time's Sake.
Also, disclaimer: i have only consumed so much canon media, very little of it so far being comics and most of it being DCAU, so my current knowledge of a LOT of these characters is very fanon-based, so the characterization will also be very fanon-based
-------------
Fandom: DC - Batfam
Ship(s): NONE/GEN/PLATONIC - under no circumstances is this Batcest
Characters (lee/ler): Switch!Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian
Word Count: 4609 words
Summary: Snippets of Bruce training with his sons over the years.
[ao3 link]
-------------
Dick’s training was progressing exceptionally well. He had always been fast and agile thanks to his acrobatic upbringing, but he was quick to pick up the offensive and defensive maneuvers Bruce was trying to impart. Still, he was so young. Sometimes Bruce couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing, bringing a child into this life.
It became all too apparent in moments like these, where training suddenly switched from work into play with just a few of Dick’s childish giggles. Bruce couldn’t help the grin they brought to his own face, laughing a little himself as Dick dove into the open space between Bruce’s legs to evade a grapple.
“Okay, now you’re gonna get it,” he said.
Dick kept giggling, the laughter melting into a yelp as Bruce grabbed the edge of the training mat and yanked, sending Dick crashing down onto the plush surface. Bruce launched after him, wiggling fingers outstretched like weapons.
“No fair!” Dick shouted, his giggling bubbling up into full laughter as he tried to squirm away from the hands squeezing his sides. “You cheated!”
“Oh, yeah?” 
He tripped his fingers up to Dick’s ribs, laughing along as Dick flopped around like a fish out of water. It was adorable how uncoordinated Dick became when he was tickled, all that acrobatic control flying out the window. 
“Cheating cheater!” Dick screeched, kicking his legs and rolling onto his back to dislodge Bruce. All he accomplished was opening up his stomach for Bruce to target.
“You’ve got to learn to fight dirty, Dick,” Bruce said, trying to adopt the tone he often used to give corrections in training but falling closer to amused than anything. “A mugger on the street isn’t going to fight fair.”
“A mugger isn’t gonna tickle me, B!” He squealed as Bruce’s hands tried to sneak into his armpits, clamping his arms down tight as if it would do anything to keep Bruce out.
“Hmm, you never know.”
“B!”
Bruce’s own fond laughter was cut short as a small foot caught him in the jaw, sending him down to the floor. Dick really was improving, that kick packed way more punch than any ten year old should. That was definitely going to bruise.
“That’s what you get,” Dick said through his giggles. He sat up as they slowly petered out, eyeing Bruce’s prone form. “Uh, B? You good?”
Quick as lightning, Bruce shot a hand out to wrap around a tiny ankle. He shot Dick his best evil grin. “Not bad. But you’re going to regret that.”
Dick’s squeaky, childish laughter echoed throughout the Cave once more. 
_____
Training with Jason was tricky. When he’d first brought Jason to the Manor, they could hardly share a room without Jason bristling. If he made any sudden movements or showed any signs of anger, Jason tensed and shied away as if preparing for a strike, even if he kept up his hissing and spitting and posturing all the while.
It made sparring quite the issue when preparing Jason to take up the Robin mantle. Initially, Bruce thought it might’ve helped if Dick were around more often – Jason always seemed less wary of him, whether it was the fact that they were closer in age or something else, Bruce had no idea – but these days their arguments were explosive and often had Dick not speaking to him for weeks at a time. 
Unfortunately, as it turned out, Dick being present for training only added to the tension. 
“You need to tuck your legs more for that flip.”
“I fucking know–”
“Language, Jason.”
“Yeah, Jason, language.”
“I’ll show you language–”
“Boys!”
The two snapped their mouths shut, glaring at Bruce, and he had to resist the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh. Maybe Bruce should’ve thought through giving Jason the Robin mantle a little more carefully. Maybe it would’ve minimized the sniping by at least some amount.
“Perhaps we should switch to sparring, for now,” Bruce said. “Who wants to go first?”
Jason’s shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly. Unfortunately, due to Dick focusing more on his phone than training, Bruce was the only one to notice.
Dick scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t think so, you big fat cheater.”
Bruce shot Dick a look, but his eyes were still glued to his phone as he lounged across one of the benches. He forced himself to swallow his frustration. He promised Alfred that he’d try his best not to start a fight today – Alfred wanted a family dinner tonight, and Bruce couldn’t deny that the prospect sounded nice.
Bruce led Jason into a spar, both of them tight with tension. Dick split his attention between furiously texting – probably the Teen Titan’s group chat, if Bruce had to guess – and lazily watching their spar. Eventually they managed to settle into a sort of rhythm despite the tension thrumming through them, at least until Bruce brought attention to an open window in Jason’s defense. Of course, he would never hit his children, sparring or not, but instead of the usual controlled tap he would use on Jason, Bruce forgot himself for a moment and delivered a sneaky pinch to Jason’s side.
The squeal that echoed through the Cave’s training grounds got even Dick’s attention, his phone falling smack onto his nose as he fumbled it in surprise. Everyone froze, eyes wide. Jason blinked in Bruce’s direction for a moment before his cheeks flushed bright red, completely detracting from the scowl he twisted his face into.
“I’m not ticklish,” Jason stated, his voice as close to a growl as a pre-pubescent child could get.
It took all of Bruce’s Batman training to fight down his smile. “Of course not. No one said you were.”
Jason crossed his arms over his chest, shuffling his feet. “Good. Because I’m not.”
Dick leaned forward, almost rolling off the bench, a smug smile on his face. Bruce shot him a warning look, and the teasing expression melted into a pout. It seemed as though Bruce wasn’t the only one who got a lecture from Alfred.
“Bruce has always been a dirty cheat,” Dick said instead of whatever taunt he’d cut off. 
Jason turned and blinked at him.
Dick raised his eyebrows. “He’s always been a massive tickle monster.”
“Hey,” Bruce said. “From what I remember, there was a rambunctious little boy who often asked for the tickle monster.”
Dick scowled at him, his own cheeks turning red to match Jason’s. “I did no such thing.” He turned to Jason and shrugged. “He used to do it all the time, he hated pretending to hit me so he always tickled me instead.” His eyes flickered to Bruce for a moment, a smirk growing on his face. “Good thing you’re not ticklish then, huh, Jay?”
“... Right.”
Bruce guided Jason back into the spar. This time, Jason was noticeably looser and more focused. His body still carried some amount of that wary tension, but he was no longer eyeing Bruce like he was a cornered animal. When Jason’s guard slipped again, leaving the same window open, Bruce didn’t hesitate in his attack.
“You need to watch your left,” he instructed, reaching out and squeezing at Jason’s side once more.
Jason let out another loud squeal, making Dick laugh and Bruce fail to shove down another smile. Jason tripped over his own feet as he tried to scramble away and landed on the mat. Bruce followed him down, careful to kneel next to him and leave plenty of openings for Jason to escape if he felt trapped. He wiggled his fingers against Jason’s sides, breaking into a grin at the giggles it produced.
“Bruce!”
Bruce chuckled. “Yes, Jaylad?”
Jason kicked his feet out and curled into a ball as best as he could, but he didn’t roll away from Bruce’s hands or shout at him to stop. Bruce allowed his hands to converge on Jason’s stomach as he uncurled with another kick, earning himself a bout of loud laughter that he’d never heard Jason make before. Jason struggled to thrust a hand out, reaching in Dick’s direction.
“Dick, help me!”
Behind him, Bruce heard the bench shift and the unconscious hums Dick would make when he stretched out his muscles. Then, there was a battle cry and the thudding sound of feet against the training mats.
“I’ll save you, Jay!”
Bruce braced as Dick launched onto his back – DIck definitely wasn’t twelve anymore, and Bruce worried that he’d be feeling that one in the morning – and locked his arms around Bruce’s neck. Jason got a brief reprieve as Bruce flipped Dick over his shoulder, both of them laughing all the while. Dick smacked into the mats next to Jason with a wheeze, and Bruce waited a moment for him to get a breath in before he attacked once more, a set of wiggling fingers for each son.
Dick’s thrashing was chaotic as ever as he cackled, Bruce deciding to be a bit mean and sneak his fingers directly into Dick’s underarm. Jason curled into a giggling little ball once more, jolting as Bruce gently pinched up and down his ribcage.
“B! You asshole!” Dick shrieked.
Bruce laughed. “You brought this on yourself, chum.”
Training with Jason went a lot smoother from then on, and Dick even started coming by more often again – even if it was just to see Jason and avoid Bruce. They never did manage to perfect that double-team attack to get their revenge on Bruce.
_____
Bruce didn’t think he’d ever escape the guilt he felt over how Tim’s training began. He didn’t think he deserved to either, especially when he would find Tim training on his own, working himself to the point of exhaustion or injury in order to achieve perfection. Now that Bruce was in his right mind and would end their joint training sessions at a more reasonable point, Tim would get frustrated with him and slink off to bury himself in cases instead.
When they sparred, there were no taunting remarks, no dirty tactics designed to draw a laugh out of the Batman, no playfulness as they both began to tire out and call an unofficial end to training. Tim took it all so seriously, and it was all Bruce’s fault. He did this to the boy, and now he had to fix it. He couldn’t rely on Dick to fix all the issues his “emotional constipation” caused, no matter how appealing the idea seemed. 
Unfortunately, Bruce was not good with words, and it’s not like Tim would have been likely to listen to them anyways. Fortunately, he has another idea – it’s what made Jason eventually relax in regards to training, at least. Not that Tim was Jason. He was getting better at not making those comparisons anymore.
Though it was a bit hypocritical for him to condemn, Tim had arrived at training that day already noticeably overworked. His moves were sloppy (though sloppy for a Bat was not the same as sloppy for anyone else) and he was clearly frustrated with own mistakes and shortcomings. Tim was good at keeping a lid on his temper, but Bruce could see the tension in his jaw, the furrow in his brow, the tightness in his lips. They had only been training for a fraction of their normal time before Bruce decided to put his plan into motion, unwilling to let Tim drive himself any further into the ground.
Bruce lunged forward, ducking under a sloppy block, and managed to tackle Tim to the mat, taking extra care to protect Tim’s head and neck. Tim grunted as they hit the mat, but immediately set to squirming away instead of tapping out just as Bruce predicted. Instead of grappling him and letting him get in some practice with breaking holds, Bruce levered himself up and immediately set to vibrating his fingers into Tim’s ribs. Tim yelped and and his squirming increased tenfold, his eyes going wide and shocked.
“Bruce! What are you doing?”
Bruce’s lips quirked up. “Your block was sloppy. I’m just showing you where you need to defend.” Bruce let one hand wriggle into his armpit while the other scurried down to his stomach.
“What are you– Why– What is– Bruce!” Tim’s voice went all high-pitched and warbly as he smacked uselessly at Bruce’s hands, clearly unsure how to even defend himself.
Bruce chuckled, even as his heart ached at Tim’s confusion with affection as simple as tickling. “A little laughter never hurt anyone, Tim. No reason why training needs to hurt.”
Before he could respond, Bruce’s hands jumped up to flutter around his neck and ears, just to see him scrunch up. And scrunch up Tim did, his shoulders jumping up as high as they could while Tim scrabbled for Bruce’s wrists and shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the fingers. Finally, the dam broke and Tim burst into boyish giggles, finally looking and sounding his age for the first time since he showed up and insisted that Batman needed a Robin.
And Tim had been right, Batman had needed a Robin. But it looked like maybe Tim needed a new family. Bruce made a mental note to look into the Drake’s parenting while keeping Tim in his newfound state of giggles. Hopefully after this they could convince Tim to take a nap. And if not, well, Dick had been dying for a movie night. If anyone could get Tim to take a break, it would be him.
_____
Bruce hadn’t overseen the start of Damian’s Robin training. Instead, that responsibility had fallen to Dick, though he had been wracked with grief and presumed Bruce dead at the time. Now that Bruce was back and prepared to take on the burden of Batman once again, he could see Dick’s teachings in almost every move Damian made, melding carefully with his training from the League of Assassins. But even still, he tackled his training with a single-minded determination that could put Tim or even Bruce himself to shame – that was one thing that had not changed while Bruce was lost in the timestream.
Sometimes, it seemed like one of the only things.
Still, that didn’t mean Bruce was prepared to let Damian overwork himself. He clearly had some hangups from his life in the League, and it didn’t seem as though anyone had worked it through his head that overtraining would only harm him in the long run. Up until now, during their spars, Bruce had used the same gentle taps that he’d used to train all his boys. When the next opening in Damian’s defenses came, Bruce didn’t stop to think about his actions, so used to the years of training with his other sons. He pinched gently at Damian’s exposed ribs, both to bring attention to his weak defense and to start the process of winding training down.
Damian made a startled, choked-off noise and went tense for a brief moment, but he recovered well, swiftly disengaging from Bruce’s attack. He eyed Bruce from the other end of the mat, still balanced on his toes and ready to fight despite the sweat dripping down his brow and the exhaustion Bruce could see pulling at his limbs.
“I expect this sort of behavior from someone as frivolous as Grayson,” Damian said. “But you, Father?”
Bruce allowed the corner of his mouth to tick up. “Who do you think taught it to him?”
“Tt.” Damian sneered. “As I’ve told Grayson numerous times – games such as these have no business on the training mats.” He sniffed. “Plus, I am not a child.”
Bruce stared Damian down, in all his four-and-a-half foot, ten-year-old glory. “Of course not.”
“So we may continue training without any more of this nonsense?”
Bruce allowed a full, broad smirk to cross his face. “If you don’t want to get tickled, don’t get caught.”
Damian’s eyes went wide, and for a moment he truly looked like the young and innocent boy he should have been, but they just as swiftly narrowed in determination as he lowered himself back into a fighting stance. Even as tired as he was, Damian was able to hold his own very well – clearly a skill born of necessity. Hopefully they could convince him to pace himself eventually.
But as skilled as he was, Damian was still just a child. Eventually, he slipped up and Bruce was able to slip under his defenses. A few pokes, prods, and pinches later, Damian was on the ground, red-faced as he tried not to laugh under Bruce’s tickling fingers.
“You know,” Bruce said. “I’m told it’s much better if you just let it out.”
Damian shook his head with a jerk, trying valiantly to escape Bruce’s clutches. Unfortunately for him, Bruce was well-versed in the pinning and tickling of trained child vigilantes. Damian finally broke, kicking out with a childish shriek, when Bruce started pinching the muscles just above his knees. If it were Dick or even Tim, Bruce might’ve started teasing to get into his head and make it tickle that much more. As it was, Bruce thought Damian might bite his head off if he tried. Instead he just grinned wide, chuckling along with Damian’s surprisingly shrill laughter, and kept his cooing about how adorable his son was in his own mind.
Bruce’s attack didn’t last long. He didn’t want to push Damian too far with how exhausted he already was. Not to mention, their relationship was tentative and hesitant enough already, with Damian trying to figure out how he fit with Bruce now after the relationship he had built with Dick. Bruce only kept Damian laughing for a few minutes before releasing him and giving his hair a suitable ruffle, much to Damian’s disdain.
Maybe they’d be able to figure this out after all
_____
It was rare these days for Bruce’s sons to all be in the Manor at the same time. Rarer still for them to have gathered together on the training mats, what with how many fratricide attempts had passed between the four of them. Bruce had been planning on doing some solo exercise before patrol, but now he found himself on edge as he cautiously approached the Cave’s training area.
Bruce set aside the tape he had grabbed for his knuckles, crossing his arms over his chest. “Boys.”
“Hey, B!” Dick chirped, grinning from where he hung upside down on one of the pullup bars. “Getting some training in?”
He raised an eyebrow, scanning over the four of them for injuries. “I was intending to.”
Jason scoffed from where he was stretching out on the training mats. He was in nothing but a t-shirt and sweats, the most dressed down Bruce had seen him since he’d come back to them. He wore his leather jacket like a shield these days, especially on the rare occasions he visited the Manor.
“Don’t let us stop you, old man.”
Bruce hummed, turning his gaze to his two youngest. “Tim. Damian.”
“Hi, Bruce.”
“Father.”
Dick flipped off the pushup bar with a flourish. “Up for a spar, Bruce? It’s been a while.”
Bruce scanned over the four boys again, eyes narrowing. “Did you break something?”
They blinked at him.
Dick frowned. “No– B, what?”
“Did someone crash the Batmobile?”
Tim cocked his head. “No?”
“Did–”
“Jesus Christ, B,” Jason groaned. “Is it so hard to believe we can get along for one hour?”
Bruce didn’t answer. Tim snorted.
“Fair.”
“Tt.”
Bruce looked them over for any hidden injuries one last time before he relented, turning back to Dick. “As long as your brothers don’t mind us taking up the space.”
Bruce’s sons vacated the mats, leaving just him and Dick behind. As usual, Dick was a skilled opponent. They hadn’t had much chance to spar recently, the only chance Bruce had to see him fight being out in the field, and he had certainly improved. He’d been doing this almost as long as Bruce after all, it only made sense that he’d be a formidable opponent. 
Eventually, Bruce went in for a grapple. Dick was shorter than he was, and his build much smaller due to his background in acrobatics. It was good for him to practice escaping the grip of someone larger and stronger than he was. Only, Dick’s returning grapple was much sloppier than Bruce remembered it being. He frowned, easily tackling Dick down to the mats.
Like second nature, Bruce’s fingers immediately tickled near one of the openings Dick had left in his defenses. He got little more than a squeaky yelp out of Dick before he was tackled from behind with a roar. It was a move that Jason and Dick had used often in training to mess with him, back when Jason was Robin. Back then, it wound up with both boys on the mats being tickled to pieces. Unfortunately for Bruce, Jason was now much larger and had the benefits of League training making his steps far quieter. Bruce rolled with the attack with a grunt, trying not to crush Dick under their combined weight, and started grappling with Jason instead.
“Getting rusty with age, old man?”
Bruce scoffed, trying not to smile lest he scare Jason off. He couldn’t help but feel like this was progress between the two of them. “Not likely.”
Jason was almost as large as Bruce now and matched him well in strength too, but in the end, Bruce’s experience won out. Just as he started gaining the upper hand, however, Dick launched on top of the both of them. Then Tim. Then Damian. Somewhere along the way, Jason had managed to slip out from under him, adding himself to the top of the pile. Bruce collapsed down to the training mats, pinned under their collective weight.
“That was kind of a sloppy block, Bruce,” Tim said from where he was perched on one of Bruce’s legs.
“Yeah, B, come on,” Dick said. “A mugger isn’t gonna fight fair, you’re gonna have to do better than that.”
Bruce narrowed his eyes at his children. “Boys–”
Jason clucked his tongue. “And no one to save the big, bad Batman.”
Bruce knew where this was going. He probably should’ve expected it honestly, after all those years of tickling his kids to the ground. It certainly wasn’t the first time any of them had sought revenge either, simply the first time they had decided to work together as a group since Bruce was able to take them down easily on their own (or even in duos, he recalled Jason’s Robin days fondly). He was their father, of course he knew what tickle spots would have them cackling on the mats in seconds, tears in their eyes. 
Unfortunately for them, though, Bruce had trained himself out of such reactions long ago – at least to an extent. He was well-versed in burying the sensation, blocking it out until it went away, and he could hold out for quite some time. Probably more than long enough for them to get bored. There was only one weak spot that he’d never been able to block out, but they would never–
Dick gave an evil grin from where he sat on one of Bruce’s arms, reaching out and fluttering fingers behind one of Bruce’s ears. On his other side, Jason chuckled under his breath and did the same.
–Damn it, they brought Alfred into it.
Bruce let out a strangled, high-pitched noise before clamping his lips shut. He shook his head violently, trying to dislodge the tormenting fingers, but his children were nothing if not tenacious.
“Come on, Bruce,” Dick goaded. “It’s so much better if you just let yourself laugh!”
“Yeah, B,” Tim said, his fingers resting on Bruce’s side, seemingly waiting for a signal. “A little laughter never hurt anyone, right?”
“Boys,” Bruce bit out, swallowing around the snickers trying to burst out of his throat. “Cut it out.”
“If you did not want to get tickled, Father, then you should not have gotten caught.”
He raised such little shits. His own revenge for this would be swift and ruthless. The boys didn’t stand a chance. But first, he had to free himself.
Bruce tried to twist his arms out from under Dick and Jason’s weight, the tickling not having weakened him yet thanks to him holding back his laughter. Jason scoffed and added another hand to his tickling against the side of Bruce’s neck, Dick quickly following suit. And unfortunately, with the fingers behind his ears already driving him insane, Bruce had little brainpower left to block out the sensation on his neck.
Bruce broke.
His laughter came out quick, sporadic, and embarrassingly high-pitched. He tried to jerk his head away from the tickling fingers, but with Dick and Jason on either side of him, it was impossible to escape. Not to mention, apparently his laughter was the signal his youngest were waiting for, as after a few moments they both dug into their own respective spots. Tim’s hands spidered and squiggled and dug in around his side and stomach, while Damian began squeezing the muscles just above his knee, tickling around and behind it. It took all of Bruce’s self control to not kick out and throw him off – Damian was still so small, Bruce didn’t want to accidentally hurt him.
His laughter turned loud and booming as his kids switched around their spots, tickling anywhere they could reach. It echoed throughout the training area and into the Cave proper, the bats screeching in discontent as the noise disturbed their slumber.
“Damn, old man, how did none of us know you were this ticklish?”
“There you go, B! Does that tickle? That’s what you get!”
“Sorry, Bruce, but you do kinda deserve this.”
Unsurprisingly, Damian did not add into the teasing. His tickling was vicious enough to make up for it – he clearly paid far too much attention to tactics whenever Bruce or Dick tickled him to the ground. Bruce was oddly proud.
To Bruce, it felt like years before the tickling finally tapered off, though in reality he knew it hadn’t been more than several minutes. His laughter had gone hoarse, his throat and vocal chords far more used to his fake Brucie laugh than anything this genuine for this long. There was sweat dripping down his face and neck, and his muscles ached – his upper body from trying to free himself from his eldest boys, and his legs from keeping himself tense enough that he wouldn’t kick out and injure his youngest two. And embarrassingly enough, tears had gathered in his eyes, though none had managed to fall free just yet. As his boys climbed off him, Bruce could do little more than lay there and gasp for air, pushing down any residual laughter as he tried to compose himself.
“I see the revenge was a success,” Alfred said from the edge of the training mats. There was a water bottle in his hand, chilled and dripping with condensation. Bruce reached for it gratefully.
“Traitor,” he murmured under his breath.
Alfred heard it anyway, based on the unimpressed eyebrow he raised at Bruce. “If I remember correctly, Master Bruce, Master Dick was not the only little boy who ran around asking to play Tickle Monster.”
Heat flooded Bruce’s face as his children burst into laughter around him. He chugged down the water he had been given to hide the fact that he had no retort for that. Still, there was no mistaking the fond smile on Alfred’s face.
After all, a father always knew what tickle spots would take down his kid in seconds.
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errorryx ¡ 1 month ago
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shitty batman fanfiction
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So AO3 went down last night, and my friend @armyanimal156 was in the middle of a fanfiction and couldn’t finish it, so I offered to finish it for him. I used my vague understanding of comic book storytelling from my brief Marvel comics phase in 2019, plus the very minimal knowledge i picked up from some of my mutuals' posts, to assemble this nonsense. This is Damian What’s-his-face’s Journey of Self-Discovery, originally typed out stream-of-consciousness into Discord and then edited into a more digestible format.
Please for the love of god understand that this is not my usual writing style and also I'm not in this fandom and don't know shit about fuck. This is just a very long shitpost. ok enjoy
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Damian, the newest Robin who was raised by assassins, was about to go on a journey to atone for his sins. He used Batman’s credit card to buy himself plane tickets to Eurasia and Africa, because there was a package deal he saw online or whatever. He decided to fly economy because he had self-esteem issues and thought he didn’t deserve first class.
He arrived in Eurasia, which in DC comics universe is the name of a small country in the continent of Syrup. Unfortunately, when he saw who was waiting for him at the airport, he was shocked.
“Mom?” Damian said. “Dad? Other Mom? That one guy?”
That’s right, it was the four assassins that raised him. The comics didn’t mention the other two assassins, Dad and Other Mom, because they weren’t relevant to the other stories being told. He calls his grandpa “that one guy.” This definitely isn’t someone poorly retconning comic canon into the fic after being told new information or anything like that.
“Yes, Damian, it’s us,” said Other Mom (that’s her legal government name). “We need your help. We’re going to assassinate the President of the United States.”
“No way,” Damian said. “I’ve changed. I fight for justice now.”
“Is that so?” that one guy said. “Then you should know that the President of the United States is actually evil and deserves to die.”
Damian wasn’t sure if he could believe that one guy, because he was a supervillain. But he decided to trust him just this once. He went and found the President of the United States, who was on a diplomatic mission to the small Syrupean nation of Eurasia, and shot him point blank on live television, Joker-movie-style.
Thankfully for Damian, that one guy was telling the truth: the president was evil and everyone had been secretly hoping for someone to assassinate him. People celebrated in the streets, and Batman and Tim and Drake and whoever else called and told him he did a good job. Even better, his mom patted him on the back and told Damian she was proud of him, which made him feel somewhat better about his childhood trauma.
Then, the president came back as a zombie who was impervious to bullets and wanted to eat everyone’s brains. Everyone was very upset about this, including all four of his assassin parents, and Batman, and Drake and Josh. Damian decided his best bet was to run away from his problems instead of facing them like a man, so he used his plane ticket to Africa and escaped.
—
The plane landed in Africa, which in DC comics universe is a small island nation in the Specific Ocean. Damian had never been to Africa before, but it was a popular tourist destination for its pristine beaches and overpriced coconut cocktails. However, after arriving on the island, he quickly learned that everything was owned by a mysterious billionaire known as Bruce Wane, Bruce Wayne’s twin brother who has never been mentioned in the comics before because he wasn’t relevant to any of the stories being told.
After some investigating, Damian learned that Bruce Wane was secretly a supervillain who terrorized the island, who went by the name of Badman (like Batman, but bad). Badman had a sidekick named Robbin. When Damian went up against this pair, Robbin pickpocketed him.
“Hey!” Damian complained. “I saw that! Don’t steal my stuff!”
“Damian,” Badman said in a fake deep voice, Dark Knight-movie-style. “If you want your wallet back, you have to join me. You can be Robbin 2.” Robbin looked upset about this, but didn’t say anything.
“No way, bitch,” Damian said (he gets to say swear words because of his childhood trauma). “Batman is way cooler than you.”
Badman took a few steps back and did a triple backflip. “Bet your stupid Batman can’t do that.”
Damian had to admit that Batman could not do that. “Fine, you win. I’ll join you.”
He followed Badman and Robbin to the Badcave (like the Batcave, but bad). Badman began explaining his plan to take over the world by dropping a bunch of badbombs (like batbombs, but bad) on top of the small island nation of Africa and then the rest of the world.
“That’s a really cool plan,” Damian said. “Can I have the password to your computer? I want to play Roblox.” BECAUSE AS IT TURNS OUT THIS KID IS LIKE TWELVE YEARS OLD HOLY SHIT WHY IS HE FIGHTING CRIME. WHY IS HE ASSASSINATING PEOPLE. WHAT THE FUCK MAN???
So Badman gave Damian the password to the badcomputer (like the batcomputer, but bad), which was, of course, “nanananananananabadman” and gave him unsupervised internet access.
Of course, Damian immediately hacked into the mainframe and set off every badbomb in the badwarehouse (like the batwarehouse, but bad). The Badcave exploded and everything was ruined. Then, Damian revealed that when Robbin was busy pickpocketing him, he was actually pickpocketing Robbin at the same time! He opened Robbin’s wallet and looked through his stuff.
As it turned out, Robbin’s ID picture looked the same as Damian’s, because they were secret TWINS and CLONES and TWIN CLONES. Robbin’s real name was Damien with an E. 
Robbin looked very sad, and he asked Damian if there was a way he could learn to be good instead of bad. “I could take you back to Batman,” Damian suggested. “You could be Robin 2. Actually, more like Robin 27 at this point.”
“That sounds great,” Robbin agreed, and they flew back to Gotham City together.
—
“Jesus Christ, not another one,” Alfred said when they got back.
Batman just shrugged and said, “This might as well happen.”
“It’s going to be really confusing around here if there’s two Damians,” Cass (one of them is named Cass right? or Cath? idfk) said. Everyone decided to call Damian with an e “Dame” and Damian with an a “Ian.” This detail was included despite the fact that it never came up again.
They turned on the news, which was conveniently at the beginning of a report about Badman, who had miraculously survived the explosions. He had now teamed up with the zombie president and vowed to destroy Batman and his league of child soldiers.
The zombie president staged a hostile takeover of the American troops, which was easy because the guy who replaced him was a wimpy loser. Soon the entire US Marines were outside Batman’s house, which apparently isn’t the first time this has happened, but this time they had all been turned into zombies. Which also isn’t the first time that’s happened. Writing an original plotline in DC comics is probably impossible.
So began the epic battle between Batman’s orphanage and the zombie marine corps.
Everything was going well for the good guys, but then Damian got into trouble. It looked like he was about to get seriously injured, until Damien jumped in front of him at the last second to save him, only to get bit by one of the zombies and become infected.
Soon enough all the zombies were defeated, but it didn’t feel like a victory, not when the twinclone kid they met ten minutes ago was dying in front of them.
“Listen, everyone,” Damien said, while slowly turning green (the color of zombies). “I know we just met each other, but the ten seconds of kindness I got from you were better than the entire rest of my incredibly traumatic life. So please, don’t mourn me. Put me out of my misery, and go save the world in my honor.”
Damian nodded and lifted his gun. “I was raised by assassins, in case anyone forgot,” he said. “I can do what needs to be done.” He proceeded to shoot Damien in the head.
But it didn’t do any damage at all, because as previously stated, zombies are impervious to bullets. So Damien finished turning green and stood up. “Please don’t eat our brains!” one of those other batkids said.
“Huh,” Damien said. “I don’t really want to eat anyone’s brains. I think I’m fine, actually.”
As it turned out, the zombie virus didn’t induce the desire to eat brains. The president and the entire US marines were just like that.
So the entire group hunted down Badman and the President and dropped batbombs (like badbombs, but not bad) on top of their heads, and they both exploded into one zombillion pieces.
Everyone lived happily ever after, and Damian now had a twinclone zombie brother and felt a lot better about his childhood trauma.
The end
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bonus: more discord screenshots from last night for additional context, featuring my other friends @diligently-metastasizing (dyke lego homer) and @avloki-pal (wet ghost cat)
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widderwise ¡ 1 year ago
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Prompt: DP x DC or Marvel (Mostly Marvel on this one)
For the record when it comes to DP I can't swear to what is canon/fanon. My DC/Marvel knowledge is better but I can't say which timeline/version is which. They have too many versions of people/events.
So, going with the thought that destroying the Ghost Zone/Infinite Realms would destroy the 'living' dimensions attached to it, it would serve to reason that more than just the "Earth" in that dimension would be at risk. Some fanon speaks of the possibility of 'pruning' dimensions that threaten the Realms sufficiently. Both Marvel and DC have extensive non-Earth people. Given that humans are threatening them, why wouldn't the Ancients turn to older or more powerful people in the 'problem' universe to shut down the upstart humans.
In DC, it could be the Green Lantern Corps. Forget Hal and them, just send someone to OA. It would be in the whole dimensions interest to stop the humans. I don't know GL lore well and I'm sure there are other groups that would come shut Earth down either diplomatically or taking it as an excuse to conquer. That's assuming Spectre himself didn't deal with the GIW and their backers himself. Given what he did to Constantine, he is more than powerful enough.
In a Marvel dimension, it could be the Nova Corps which I know even less lore about but are the closest things to space cops I know of. My original thought actually went to a different authority. Purely on Earth The Ancient One/Stephen Strange/Wong should be all over that kind of problem.
But! Outside of Earth there is a figure who claims to be the protector of the realms of Yggdrasil: (Niflheim, Muspelheim, Asgard, Midgard (EARTH!), Jotunheim, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Helheim)... ODIN!
Space cops are one thing, but Asguard is living mythology so the Realms, maybe a representative from Valhalla, sending a message (maybe a delegation of Ancients? Pandora, Clockwork, Vortex, Nocturne, Undergrowth, etc) to Odin that Earth is making trouble and it's his job to fix it? It lose lose for him if he doesn't. One, end of life for everyone there and two if he lets others investigate they might dig up his dirty little secret in Helheim (his 'dead' daugher Hela).
He is less than shocked of human stupidity and decides to send Thor to 'negotiate' and fix the problem. Timeline wise I'd say after Avengers but before Thor: Dark World. So Loki is currently imprisoned. Odin and Frigga think this will be an excellent chance for Thor to prove his ability to rule Asgard. The preferred method would be diplomatic, but Thor is expect to deal with the humans threatening the universe one way or the bloody way. Just in case, maybe Frigga has Loki ready to step in and actually be diplomatic.
So, Thor shows up back on Earth not to be a hero but to take on part (even if a very small part) of the US government. He announces his intentions loudly, maybe it gets overheard and his words (maybe not the smoothest ones) spread around.
Danny Phantom (ghost prince/king?) and his fraid (I know it's fanon, but I love it) get put in protective custody (likely with the Avengers) whether they like it or not. The Ancient actually stepping up and treating the kids like kids (horrors- Danny hates it-mostly) Tracking down Dani is harder, she probably gets in trouble with someone (GIW, Shieldra, etc). I feel like bad/especially dense Fenton parents might be prime pickings for Hydra.
I see a comedy of errors on Thor's part. Some angst from the ghosts being harmed by the GIW. A massive migraine from Tony Stark who is trying to be actually diplomatic, not piss off his own government, and deal with a small mid-western town that has an information lock down his tech hadn't detected before. (The whole of Amity disappeared for a bit) I see Steve taking Thor's declaration badly and not believing that 'ghosts' can destroy everyone. Shield/Hydra wants ecto-tech and has no issue 'detaining' ghosts.
I think I'll write at least the scene where Thor arrives back on Earth.
Other less fleshed out thoughts:
-Hela is totally at least part dead. Is she a halfa too? Hela mentors Danny eventually? O.O Maybe Danny decides he doesn't want to be KIng. Queen of Ghosts Hela. Maybe a less crazy Hela because she had ghosts to chill with all this time? Either way, Odin is in trouble now.
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olderthannetfic ¡ 1 year ago
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Been thinking about daring to try to get into vidding (but I have zero knowledge about video editing lol) and wondered if there are ship manifestos that are in fanvid-form, so to say. Am shocked that there are only six on AO3. Though I guess it may have to do with videos being taken down because of copyright stuff?
(One of them was by you by the way if I'm not mistaken, ha! And now I want to watch Veritas: The Quest. Your video got me interested.^^)
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Haha. I was going to say!
Veritas is a fun dumb time. It makes me sad that they never released properly. (And yes, my love of baaaaaad "archaeology" canons full of magical woo and tomb raiding goes way back. Also my love of fake death and fake betrayal plots.)
AO3 is only moderately popular for fanvids, and mostly in a very specific community of people who send vids to the small-scale fancons—the sorts of people who founded OTW and who were vidding on Livejournal. (It won't be because of takedowns. The AO3 work would still be there, just with a dead embed.) That lack of popularity overall is part of why you don't see so many video manifestos, but I think it's more a terminology thing:
I think it's rare for vidders to call their vids "manifestos". I don't think of that one video as a vid that is a manifesto: I think of it as a vid I made to include in a manifesto. Instead, we tend to call them "pimp vids", but you don't tag with that because it's presumptuous. It's something you say retroactively about other people's vids or that you tell a vid beta you're aiming for. You don't get to decide if your vid successfully pimps people in any more than you get a say in whether you go viral, you know?
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There's a weekly vidders' zoom run by DC Slash (one of the tiny slash cons), and we just had a week where we brought in vids that got us into fandoms. A lot of other people's were ancient, blurry VCR transfers because they've been at this a lot longer than I have, but I can show you some of the vids that have gotten me into fandoms:
Killa's Haven vid Soldier annoyed me so much. What is that one brief flash of a scene? Did that dude die? It's not that sad a vid though? What the hell? So I had to watch just to find out. (Yes, he died. But he got better. Because Haven.)
The fact that I know and like Killa didn't hurt, but it's not like I loved the vid itself: a lot of it was my sheer annoyance at that one shot.
Of course, then, I made my own Haven vid, Captain Kidd, that was supposed to be an angry deep dive into show lore and how the other sanctimonious, fake-moral but actually pretty useless characters were treating my blorbo. (This is a theme with me, it appears.) It was not even 1% supposed to be a pimp vid...
To date, this is by far my most successful pimp vid, luring a whole bunch of people into the show just in time for it to massively jump the shark. (Damn it.) I've never even seen the ending.
More recently, akiv's Beyond Evil vid I'm a Ruler made me fall hard for Beyond Evil. Imagine my shock when what looked like a relatively normal buddy cop series starts with one of them secretly investigating the other as a serial killer. It was so much more intense and fucked up than I realized! Yessss.
After bouncing hard off of DMBJ, it was this Youtube vid Hei Ye falling for the Thorny Flower that got me intrigued again. The tone is so obvious and the dynamic is so clear, which really helped me get interested in a franchise that's often pretty hard to follow plot-wise.
I admit I never actually watched canon, but this Mr. Queen vid by Mozzaphne made me go look up a plot summary so I could read all of the fic. Lots of youtube vidders overuse show dialogue and mix it horribly over songs, but this one was really well done and adds a lot to your understanding of the character dynamics.
I don't think my foray into Detroit: Become Human was entirely because of a single vid, but Figure 8 by Dirty Mind Gene definitely helped. I knew it was a video game with robots. Nobody fucking told me it was a Caves of Steel ripoff with a jaded cop getting his mojo back via getting to know his robot partner.
I of course then went and made one with all of the zillions of deaths in the game because I love that shit. This apparently also got at least one person into the fandom.
Another vid a different person mentioned pimping them into a fandom was Lola's Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty vid ME!
It's a fabulous vid, and it's a fantastic illustration of how the central (canon) ship is supposed to read. Sadly, my personal opinion of the show is that Tang Fan is a perpetual victim and piece of shit who puts his own shallow grasp of morality and his personal feelings over the greater good, often getting characters killed unnecessarily. (I hear this is largely due to some questionable adaptation choices where they swapped who's the hothead and who's the one cleaning up messes.)
I've noticed that fluffy bunnies who watch the show tend to think Tang Fan is ~nice~ because he spouts modern morality instead of a selfish little bitch because he refuses to face the reality of the setting he's in and find the best real world solution instead of holding out for an ideal he'll never attain and thus making everything ten times worse. It reminds me forcibly of tumblr wank where people see themselves as these great moral leaders but lack all grasp of nuance. Their sensitivity extends only to their own feelings.
Yes, Sleuth left me with a lot of rage...
How dare the writing pretend like Tang Fan is the moral arbiter of anything, when my own personal fave, whom half the cast thinks is a villain, is constantly cleaning up after him, trying to keep the body count low, trying to maintain order as everybody else flies out of control...
And then the show made it all better by tormenting Tang Fan in the iddiest way possible. Ohohoho. It's not just that he gets his face rubbed in his own inadequacy and inability to save people. It's the ridiculously over-the-top flashback to "You're my only friend" right in the middle of the death scene. Way to twist the knife!
I, of course, have made my own vid for this fandom, Tiny, Pretty & Angry, and it is absolutely a manifesto, just not a ship one. It's a manifesto about how Wang Zhi is not only the most competent, but also the actual moral center of everything and fuck all of y'all if you don't agree.
In fact, there's probably another reason we don't call them manifestos:
In the oldschool Media Fandom vidding traditions, most vids are video essays and manifestos, really. That's a lot of the point of the aesthetic: making an argument. Partly due to technological limitations and partly due to vidding being innovated by slashers who were constantly challenged about their ships, the pretty visual spectacle styles so common in AMVs and currently on Youtube were largely absent. Meta argument was everything. That's the default.
Here's another one of mine that's pretty explicitly a fuck you to how most people in Untamed fandom see Wen Ning.
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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 ¡ 9 months ago
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Cool answers!
1: what “earth” is your universe in? Like new earth (pre-flashpoint) new 52 earth (post flashpoint), rebirth etc…
2: speaking of flashpoint, due to the flash creating it, (based in my knowledge) almost everybody’s personality & team has changed, how would the duo’s personality & squad mates change?
3: do you know in-universe there are comics & shows & stuff inside the dc universe with like fake names, what would be the in-universe names for them? Like in one of the teen titans books with the young justice group, there was a flashback of Superman having the name of dirk dirkman (last time I checked)
4: what’s the duos first experience with bullying?
5: in both titans of tomorrow & starknights, who’s the strongest, weakest, & the person with the “plans?” (The Batman person)
6: whose more likely to shake the booty while dancing? XD
@pin-crusher2000
Why Thank You very much. Here, have some more XD
1) Basically I would describe my universe here as a Blend of Pre Flashpoint Prime Earth, Rebirth, tiny dashes of Infinite Frontier/Dawn of DC, all with a nice hefty input of both the Teen Titans Animated Series Canon and DCAU/Timmverse.
If it were to have a designation in the Multiverse, I would have it be Earth-4080
2) In the event of this Earth going through a Flashpoint style reboot…very little would change in terms of Chris and Jake’s personalities, tastes and closeness as friends. That said what would change is Chris’ arrival to Earth and in particular the timing of it. Instead of arriving at six years old and growing up under the care of the Kents, developing a bond with the younger Jon as brothers in that time, he can instead arrive at the age of 12, having lived under Zod’s custody for longer (maybe suffering a but more by his hands…sorry Chris) and instead of Clark by himself who lands him safely in Metropolis, the latter would be accompanied by Grayson-And’r family in the heart of Bludhaven instead.
They barely have enough time to allow Chris into Lois and Clark’s care and for him to officially meet Jake before then the rift in the Phantom Zone truly tears up, allowing Zod and his armies to invade Earth. From here, similarly Zod is defeated and sent back to the Zone and after also trying to run away out of fear of rejection and feeling at fault for this invasion for the month, Chris does realize he’s accepted by these people he’d just met with Clark finally filling out the adoption forms to accept Chris into his household.
Similarly, The first ever time Chris and Jake team up would be altered as well; Jake gets captured in his civilian identity by the Court of Owls who’d have some ex Cadmus scientists in their employ to start creating clones of him, breeding a small army of Tamaranean Talons they hope to control to further their agendas while Talonizing Jake in the process. Chris is the one to help discover what happened to his friend in the midst of the investigations. As he leads both the Grayson family and Jon to the Owl’s location, while they’re too late to stop them from extracting samples (I.e. Blood, sweat, tears and saliva samples) from Jake for their cloning process, they are successfully able to stop them from forcibly injecting him with Electrum and brainwashing him. It’s not an easy fight though as the older Talons are summoned to stop them, some with Kryptonite blades to match the Kryptonians. In the middle of the battle, Jake finds himself back to back with Chris as they’re cornered by Talons, desperately trying to fend them off. There, they can see Mar’i and Jon pinned down by bigger sized Talons with their blades right on their throats, poised to strike the final blow. Their sibling instincts kicking into full overdrive, the two steam roll and plow their way through the undead assassins, saving their sister and brother respectively and turning the tide of the battle thanks to their powers and skills either combing for dual moves or pulling each other out of tight spots and taking down Talons one by one. Eventually, the Kent brothers and the Graysons knockout the last Talon cold, making the Owls flee and their base now deserted. Cue an emotional hug from Jake to his family in light of this terrifying experience, more thankful his family are okay than himself.
After that particular misadventure the next time they meet up, Chris and Jake realize the potential they have when working together, Jake also being incredibly thankful for Chris being the one to find him first in his rescue. From their their friendship grows and they decide on being a regular team with each other
Hence here, the rebooted version of the Starburst Duo was born.
I’m Officially now dubbing this rebooted version of my canon Earth-8403 cause why the heck not lol
3) Had the Duo gotten an adaptation of their adventures in universe for an animated Saturday morning show or whichever, They were probably would be called The Twilight Warriors, starring GhostBeak and CloudParrot. Chris and Jake themselves aren’t exactly too fond of those names for their adapted counterparts BUT since the writers ask them for advice and consulting for their adventures they can utilize for episodes, it’s very appreciated by them.
4) Chris pretty much witnesses his first tastes of bullying upon first enrolling as a new ‘transfer student’ to Jon’s school, at first looked upon with suspicion and weary looks from some of the other boys in his second grade class due to his then stilted English and his tendency to keep his distance from everybody except his adoptive brother Jon
As for Jake, the bullying was mainly brought up when first ever attending Bludhaven Academy for First Grade. Mainly it was through proxy as the real target of the bullies back then was his big sister because of her more obvious Tamaranean features. Over time though as Jake begin to bring over lunches with a Tamaranean flare to them as well as sometimes mumble his Romanes Chib and Tamaranean when tired, he too started getting unwanted attention from everyone for his heritage. Though it can be both of the Graysons really first started getting bullying on them when first going into first grade if anything because of their Dad Dick being circus folk and given Bludhaven and Gotham’s history with clowns, they made for easy targets for said bullies.
5) In terms of power level and physical strength, it’s a tie between Chris and Robbie for the strongest while solely Lian is the weakest if only because of her being the sole purebred human. As for their master planners that draw out both Teams’ contingency plans, Mar’i and Jake equally share that role as they’ve been taught by Bruce well. Though he does allow them to share their plans with their friends since Bruce knows the consequences of keeping said plans in complete secrecy against his own friends and he doesn’t want his grandkids going through the same
6) Apologies my friend but Chris and Jake are not doing any of that whatsoever as kids. Both of them might cancel each other’s brain cells when next to each other but they both know much better that any booty shaking is something mainly grown ups do which is a dance meant for them when they get naughty. They’re clean like that. Again my apologies
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starwalker03 ¡ 1 year ago
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I realized WMLP Dick’s position in that army unit is similar to his early experience with the team. He’s the youngest has a lot of experience and skills his squad mates don’t, among peers for the first time in a while, hiding his true identity, gets pushed out of his comfort zone by the people he was with. Expect this time is was true war. And he came away without bonding with his team and looking down on them. Would this experience effect how he views his memories of The Team?
Huh. Actually that's a good point.
It would definitely make him remember how unprepared they were for That Whole Situation, just thrown into missions having never worked together except for the Cadmus mission which ended with an exploded building like. Bruh. I know they weren't giving the league many options but also what the fUCK guys y'all just sent them off on their merry way like that. The fact they didn't die in episode three is a miracle.
But then also he's so aware of the difference between working with people who are fighting because they're genuinely good people with a desire to help others, as opposed to... Well. People who wanna shoot guns, had no other options, want the military to pay off their degree, et cetera et cetera so on so forth. Like this team is so different to his old one it's almost distracting. It's almost problematic. It's almost enough to snap Dick out of the constant unrelenting need to do as he's told and question Slade because 'uh hey yeah what the fUCK is up with these people'
Dick has to force a level of indifference between himself and his new team because if he doesn't he can't focus on the task at hand. He can't help but think about the fact that these people should not be running around armed with thousands of lives in their hands.
It doesn't help that they're all unaware of half of the shit that goes down in the world. Even Dick's superiors have only the smallest understandings of figures like Count Vertigo and Gorilla Grod and none of them have any idea who Vandal Savage is. Queen Bee? Uh you mean the dictator of that small kick of desert in the middle east?
(CW for conversations about the "war on terror" ahead)
Oh my god. I didn't even consider that if Bialya and Qurac are middle eastern countries they're surprisingly close by during the wars of the early 2000s. Like I've hand waved and said 'yeah going off timeline Dick probably got sent around the middle east' but completely failed to realise he might have even been in Bialya or Qurac for missions.
I wonder how those countries engaged with wars in the area in lore. It's apparently north of Saudi Arabia and Iran in wider DC lore? But YJ isn't specific?
Here's a Reddit thread I found where people start getting into nitty gritty details:
Essentially they're depi ting Bialya and Qurac as west and east Iran, respectively. And also offering theories as to how those countries could have come to be.
If I continue to use Australia as the example (which I suppose I should cause I've essentially canonized it in the fic at this point), Australia was only particularly involved with Afghanistan and Yemen I believe, but I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge.
Bialya and Qurac could, possibly, border operations in Afghanistan. Young justice lore states that Bialya is a part of the UN and therefore may not be particularly open to military operations but very well could have housed a few bases on the borders.
Jesus. Getting this into the lore of YJ feels so strange and I'm honestly not sure if it's inappropriate or not. I could believe Queen Bee being involved with the war on terror, whether it's a part of Savage's plans or not, just because she enjoys conflict. Moreover it helps with the anti-Quraci thing she has going. From what I can tell of the show, Qurac seems to be a majority Islamic country? So I could see her manipulating the image of things to benefit her attempts to take back Qurac.
Well this spiralled. Uh I might end this answer here actually.
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keyndom ¡ 8 months ago
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KEYNDOM⸝ INDEPENDENT, MUTUAL EXCLUSIVE AND SELECTIVE BLOG FOR PRINCESS IRULAN CORRINO FROM THE DUNE FRANCHISE. BASED ON THE MOVIEVERSE WITH INFLUENCES FROM BOOKS AND MAINLY HEADCANON BASED. CST + 3. SHE/HER. WRITTEN BY CALI. (#)
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an exploration of: prophecy girl, history remember the victors, glorified firstborn daughter, knowledge is power, marriage of convenience, the princess becomes an empress, the negociator, the writer.
PROMO.
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temporary rules under the cut.
01ㅤ| ㅤㅤintroductionㅤ : ㅤmy name is CALI (SHE/HER, CST+3) born in 1994, 21+ .welcome to my PRINCESS IRULAN CORRINO muse blog. this blog is private, selective and mutually exclusive. meaning i won't interact with blogs that are not mutuals with me. [this blog is open to plotting both on discord via tupperbox and tumblr].
02.ㅤ| ㅤㅤactivityㅤ : activity on this blog will be medium to low through the week days. i'm mostly active at nights and from fridays to sundays activity will be higher through the weekends and through tupperbox on discord .best way to reach me will be through discord that can be asked upon request to create a 1x1 server or just to talk. [please don't pressure me for replies or asks. as well, communication is key, i'm not a mind reader so if something is bothering you, asking me is okay.].
03.ㅤ| ㅤthreadsㅤ : ㅤthreads will be dropped and asks will be cleared. we are always welcome to do multi threads at the same time. if i get overwhelmed i will usually drop things to start over. i have a generalized anxiety disorder so that affects my productivity too asks are always welcome to be turned into threads . do not reblog memes from me unless we are mutuals. [and if you want to unfollow me, please softblock. as well, if we are friends, always reach out if you are uncomfortable, i will do my best to improve]
04.ㅤ| ㅤㅤformattingㅤ : ㅤfrom january, 2023 , this blog is forced to have only the BETA EDITOR + TRIM. please keep this in mind while roleplaying with me if you are still using the legacy editor. I no longer use small text as my go-to formatting but i might use it at times. i am still available to use legacy when required but do keep this in mind ㅤ[BETA EDITOR + REGULAR TEXT + DOUBLE SPACE. WILL USE ICONS IRREGULARY.]
05.ㅤ| BANNED FACECLAIMS. elizabeth olsen, scarlett johansson, jeremy renner, amber heard, allison mack, gal gadot, johnny depp.
06.ㅤ| ㅤㅤcreditsㅤ : psd, graphics, promo are all done made by me through my resource blog. some days i will be iconless and others i will use them, mostly when i'm at home. [i write novella, multi-para and single line as well text roleplay via discord/tupperbox and tumblr as well].
07.ㅤ| ㅤㅤshippingㅤ : ㅤ shipping is wonderful and it's one of my favorite things in the world. irulan is canonically going to marry paul as part of the new pact and become empress. i would love to explore their marriage and dynamic but i will not push this, but i believe the movies are going on an interesting note for them. for crossover shisp, all of them all welcome.
08.ㅤ| ㅤㅤDNIㅤ : ㅤ due to personal reasons, i won't be roleplaying with characters from the following fandoms. DC'S STARGIRL, PEACEMAKER, MUSES FROM THE BATMAN (2022) AND HORROR MUSES BASED (SELECTIVE), WRESTLING FACECLAIMS. unless we are friends. on my other non ck related muses i don't mind but i have had some bad experiences in the past [personal DNI can be given in privacy, however no name drops will be given here as none of the people are bad and DNI worthy, just uncomfortable].
09.ㅤ| ㅤㅤetiquetteㅤ : ㅤ don't godmod my muse. small things are welcomed. irulan is a bene gesserit of hidden rank with a few of their abilities trained. she is however, very much human but if your muse wants to hurt her psychically, you need to let me know i just want to be given a heads up if you will ever do a thing to hurt them. i assure you, i will not mind if plotted. [as well, don't assume ships with me unless we are friends].
10.ㅤ| changes: ㅤhere are a few of the changes regarding my irulan as i follow her from the movies and what could be, knowing of a few changes they did to the books.
chani leaving at the end instead of bowing down leaves open for exploration of irulan and paul's relationship, as a political alliance and as a marriage. even odd parallels between leto and jessica.
irulan is trained by the bene gesserit, however, she is told she is weak due to her individuality and not following most of the rules that are set for her.
i believe irulan is fascinated by paul atreides, aware that his mother went against rules to birth a boy when only girls are in the order.
she is a writer and scribe and transcribe stories from one language to another and speaks plenty of them.
regardless of paul, irulan always knew she was meant to be empress.
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oftincturedwords ¡ 2 years ago
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Title: Delicate Operation Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Star Wars : The Bad Batch / Star Wars : The Clone Wars Rating: T+ Chapter Warnings: ÂĄSpoilers! Blood , Descriptions of Falling , Descriptions of Pain , Descriptions of Injury , Near Drowning Experience , Coughing , etc. Characters: Tech , Mentioned Wrecker , Mentioned Omega Additional Tags: Clone Trooper Tech Lives , Fix-It , Post Canon Fix-it , Physical Hurt , etc. Timeline: Set during Star Wars : The Bad Batch s02e16 ( Plan 99 ) ; on Eriadu after Tech shoots the connexion cable Pairings: Gen. None. Word Count: 4001 Summary: Crosshair had got the message through, he was certain of it. Even though he wasn't able to say the Empire was after the kid still, he had sent the transmission of Plan 88. To go underground. To hide. But they hadn't listened. He should have known they wouldn't have listened to him. Now they all had to live with the consequences. Or, How the rest of the Batch rescue Crosshair and Omega whilst thinking Tech is dead, but he isn't. A/N: Now here's at the beginning of all this mess canon handed us , with Tech falling on Eriadu & nOT DYING !! I have no beta this all mistakes are mine. Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Star War : The Clone Wars & Star Wars : The Bad Batch. Neither am I associated with Lucasfilms , Disney+ , nor any of the actors who portray these characters. I make no money off any of my stories , this is purely for entertainment purposes. Read On : ao3 | under the cut part one
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Tech had seconds.
That much was glaringly obvious, for the maths was simple and if this didn't work, then at least he knew exactly how long it would take to hit the ground. There always was a small comfort in knowledge, especially in knowing when precisely he would meet his end. It was always a possibility with how he was created, then with the war, and now with living as mercenaries for hire the last ten months, thus it was never a factor that wasn't present. But the exact way that death would come? That was always an unknown.
There were possibilities that were more likely than the rest. A blaster bolt, for example, had the highest probability, whereas dying via old age hadn't ever been considered by him… That was until they had come to Pabu.
Their few weeks stationed themselves there was the first time Tech had allowed his thoughts to wander towards the future that ended with them all safe and content without need for blasters or combat. Although he wasn't naive enough to believe they would truly settle down without Crosshair, or when Echo was fighting against the Empire with Rex. It had been when the possibilities of seeing any age past his prime rose. The numbers had become notable then rather than negligible.
Which had only added to his innate motivation to not simply go out without fighting against it.
With the echoing notes of Wrecker’s scream when he fell still ringing about his ears, no less muted by the rushing of the wind nor the harshness of each breath he took. The higher pitched cries that had belonged to Omega calling out his name had dissipated about the air at his descent down, through the layers of fog-like clouds and he knew he didn't have much time to act. Despite the depth of this valley, gravity would always prove a victor.
Thus as he flipped over in the air, he reached down to unlatch the accession cable attached to his belt in order to press the release on the hook and remount the base back onto his DC-17 whilst the line retracted. It whipped wildly as it returned, but Tech could see the tops of the trees very near in his peripheral now so he didn't let up.
Attempting instead to turn against the currents pressing up on his and racing past, to have his front facing the drop rather than his back or feet first. Working to spread his legs outwards along with his arms in a small effort to widened his surface area and slow his drop without hampering the lines’ return, it lashed against the plastoid of his reebrace when it wildly caught in an updraft before the recoiling system dragged it away as it kept winding it back up.
Level now with the very tips of the tall pines that lined the mountainous valley Tech twisted about in that very moment to fire off the cable the moment it gave the subtle jolt within his hand signifying the line was finally set and ready. Usually an audible click accompanied the small movement, but it was lost to the fierce whooshing of the wind.
Aiming took hardly a fraction of a moment, nearing the upper branches of the trees directly below him provided plenty of targets and he fired.
The line caught, sticking fast on the trunk of the nearest pine just above a bough and he fell for only a microsecond more before it snapped taut with such a swiftness that Tech was certain he knew now what a whip must feel like when it's cracked.
He felt the abrupt halt to his descent, then the immediately reversed his downward motion to yank him bodily towards the side. His muscles strained right along with every ligament and tendon within his lithe frame at the suddenness of the change as they were pulled against with a viving force than the one he had been pullmetted towards the rocky ground with.
A grunt involuntarily left his lips as he grappled with the tethering line, his gloves being vehemently bitten into despite their reinforced quality and he could feel the pressure against the flesh beneath. Far less protected by callouses than they should have given his profession, but all clones were used to wearing gloves when doing most activities thus they afforded more protection than if he were barehanded.
Yet steadfast his grip remained upon his decee that connected him to the ascension line, or so he had strove to keep ahold of it, but his trajectory had now slung him through the clusters of needles that grew from the thin branches of the emergent layer of trees. The pine needles lashed against his armour and in every in-between of the plastoid pieces, thankfully the fabric of his modified blacks protected him from any true harm they could inflict. Although, he felt the beginnings of the stings of it due to the repeated hits, it was negligible.
And it was nothing compared to when the middle of the line caught fast on a branch above him and wrenched him towards the left, directly into the thick of the forest rather than the screed ravine that split through the expanse of greenery he had been falling towards.
Feeling his eyes widened against his will, Tech had only a split second to brace himself before he impacted the dense layer of the lower canopy and upper midstory. He had split second to hope his decision to hang onto the line rather than let go and attempt to catch his fall on a random branch would prove more beneficial, but he figured that his chances were near the same no matter his next choice.
As usual, Tech hadn't been wrong, for he only managed to keep his grip on his blaster through the first impact of his left leg to a branch then another glancing off his right hip before the next branch tangled the line to spanner it from his hands and send him falling chest first into the bough in front of him.
Audibly he heard the alloy of his cuirass crack against the unforgiving wood as the collision knocked the breath from his lungs, eliciting a choked noise from the back of his throat even as his arms sought to grasp onto the thin twig-like branches that sprouted from the main limb, but it was futile.
His armour scraped against the rough bark, it tugged at the fibres of his gloves, yet it did little to assist him in keeping ahold of it. For so violently deprived of oxygen his muscles suddenly were as he fought to draw a full breath combined with the pain of slicing through his midsection had him slipping from his precarious perch. And down he was falling again.
With no line to tether him, nor any secondary ascension cable to attach to his remaining DC-17, there was even less he could do for himself than before.
Crashing down through several more sprigs and branches, Tech scrabbled to find a handhold to halt his descent. Feeling each crash batter against his frame, the solidness of the pinewood yielded none to the plastoid of his armour. Repeated strikes weakened it ever still, and he felt more than one portion of it crack through completely whilst the material of his gloves ripped through to bloody his fingertips in his attempts to grasp onto the branches. Needles and chipped bark fell in clumps with him.
At the mercy of gravity, no matter how much he attempted to latch onto and cling to the branches that he fell against and past, he was falling too quickly. Every modicum of a grip or chance he received was torn from his grasp.
And any further effort ended when he felt his helmet strike against one, hitting it with enough force to cloud his vision at a wave of dizziness. The underside of his bucket must have caught on the twiggy offshoots of the branches because he felt it sharply tugged partway up his face, obscuring his whirlwinded view all the more.
Darkening it completely when the catch jolted his head forwards, pulling at the muscles of his neck and smacking his now only partially protected head into something solid that rammed his forehead into the lower portion of helmet with a distinct splitting crunch. The last thing he felt was a warm wetness sluice down his face before all else was swallowed up into nothingness.
— & .. ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴅ ʙᴀᴛᴄʜ .. & —
Awakening without being able to draw breath, coughing and choking upon an influx of liquid had Tech panicking for the briefest of moments. Instinctively he flung his arms outwards as his eyes flew open, only to be greeted by the blurry blue-green hued darkness of being underwater and that at least had his mind settling even as his lungs ached for air and the urge to cough nearly had him opening his mouth to do just that.
Immediately he moved his arms in motion to swim, heedless of the sharp aching he felt in his limbs and the rest of his frame, pushing against the flowing water in an attempt to reach the surface before reflexive instinct to breath won out over his strength of will. There was no bottom he could feel when he kicked out with his legs, having to clench his jaw tight against the pain that flared at the action, but there was a pulling current to the water which he distantly categorised as a river judging by its depth and power behind the tide.
At the mercy of the river’s current, he felt himself dragged further down despite his endeavours to kick and swim his way above the water. But in this it offered him a reprieve, for he felt his boots hit something solid and he shoved off of it instantly, worried the flow would pull him away before he could utilise this stroke of luck. Whether it had been a boulder or the bottom of the riverbed, Tech wasn't certain but it was enough to allow him the leverage against the undertow to break the surface.
He came up coughing, every fibre of his chest afire from the lack of oxygen and from the water he had inhaled earlier when he had awoken underwater. Striving to keep his head up in spite of being wracked with hacking coughs and the urge to heave at the back of his throat, his sole focus at present was consumed with clearing his lungs and staying above the waterline.
However, he knew he could simply float downstream for long, the risk of another undercurrent dragging him under or his endurance failing before he could reach shore was too great. Drowning was still a possibility if he didn't act fast, already Tech could feel the weakness of his limbs from the injuries he sustained in the fall as well as the exertion of swimming beginning to fatigue his abused muscles.
Struggling not to give into another coughing spell, Tech tried to keep each breath shallow yet even to ensure he didn't trigger the itch at the back of his throat anymore, but was thwarted by a dip in the river. It plunged him underwater again before he could take a breath in, submerging him entirely for a handful of moments then spitting him above the water once more as the current shifted abruptly around the large rocks beneath its surface.
Tech sputtered, gasping and coughing in equal measure to clear his throat and sinuses. Succeeding in calming his diaphragms attempts to wring his lungs of every ounce of moisture he had inhaled long enough to draw a breath, then another, only to have the air punched from his chest when the torrent slammed him back first into a rock that protruded up from below.
The swift current having swelled to a frothing white, not rapids quite yet but relentless in their speed and influence. Nearly falling beneath the surface again, Tech reflexively flung out his arms in an attempt to keep afloat as he was whirled sideways by the pressing force of water. His breath wheezed, every inhale and exhale was faint, grating against his inflamed throat up from his battered torso.
Unable to dispel with the urge to cough, near involuntary it had become by the amount of water he inadvertently aspirated, the paroxysm wracked through his frame to expel the water from within. Near heaving at this point since ensuring his mouth and make didn't sink below the water was impossible, no matter how much he worked to swim against the current.
There was no lull afforded to him though as his legs struck a rock hidden just underneath the aerated roiling of the water, spinning him boldly around to face upstream then sending him back about when his shoulder collided with another rock. Under he went again, snatched from the surface by a riptide and held beneath for the longest spell.
No matter how much he fought against it, swimming at an angle with every ounce of energy and strength he held, it didn't release its grip upon him. Not until he felt himself slammed into a cluster of rocks that sprouted up from the water higher than the rest. The pressure from the current held him in place, cradled with the cleft between them. Pinned between the force of the water and the reintence of the stone, held suspended in a breathless darkness before the equally obstinate water of the river shoved him onwards downstream.
Meeting a ruffling of the waters, one where the craggy riverbottom, diffused with more rocks and boulders rather than any shale or sediment, agitated the singular direction of the river’s flow and he was able to break through the surface once again. More so pushed towards it in a swirling rush of eddied water.
Ragged was the gasp Tech gave, reflexive and desperate it was. Followed by a series of harsh coughs in between sporadic gulps of air that he forced to shorten due to it triggering more coughing. Deliberate and measured, he kept count in his head whilst he aimed to reorientate himself.
Near blind from the water streaming into his eyes from his wet hair and that splashed over his face from the rapidness and sheer fierceness that the river splashed up from the spatterings of rocks that dotted through its expanse, even though the it had widened here thus slowed its main current, it was still fast moving and roiled due to the erracticly set rocks beneath the surface, aided by the downwards slope it travelled.
Tech blinked several times against the blurriness in hopes to help clear his eyesight and risked reaching a hand up to brush against the lenses of his goggles, but before he could complete the action it registered that his goggles weren't over his eyes as they usually were.
The normal yellow hue his world normally held due to their tinting was entirely absent as was the corrective nature of the lenses within, which would account for the majority of the fuzziness to his sight.
Either they had been lost when he had fallen through the trees or had been swept away by the river along with the protection of his helmet, he didn't know which, but dwelling on their loss wouldn't help him any now. Even if it meant inconvenience and trouble in the future.
And he hadn't a moment more to think of it, for he could see the churning white colour downstream telling of more rapids swiftly approaching and with that likely more undercurrents and rocks along the way. Tech knew he wasn't likely to survive another bout against them. He had to act now.
Angling himself to swim diagonally through the river’s decreased flow towards the bank nearest him. He worked to slice through the tugging pull of the current rather than fighting against it or allowing it to hold true sway over his direction, kicking his feet hard and paddling his arms.
Fighting through the tiredness that weighed down his limbs and the heaviness that tugged at every breath he drew, measured and sparse, he focussed upon the shoreline rather than the fast approaching white foam that curled around the water-worn boulders jutting out from the rushing water. The blurriness of his eyesight wasn't gradient enough to disguise the danger that lay a mere twenty paces downstream, and again he was plainly aware that he had less than a quarter of a minute to swim far enough to reach the bank.
Or what could be called a bank that was entirely composed of rock, far behind him was the reedy and grass coated shore he had caught glimpse of before being swept further downstream. Now, he had no choice but to reach the visibly drench stone of the river’s edge and hope there would be handholds enough for him to haul himself up out of the water.
Breath catching within his chest, Tech couldn't withhold the cough that sprang forth at the twinge there and he spat away the wetness he felt come up as his lungs still retaliated against the excess moisture he had inhaled. Yet the motion had his legs dropping down in the water in an attempt to keep his head held above the surface, to which he felt the toes of his boots skid against the unyielding yet slippy texture of a sunken rock.
Stretching down and swimming against the current for a spell, Tech attempted to plant his boots solidly onto it and push off of it to propel him towards the shore. Ignoring the lancing of pain that shot up his left leg, from foot to thigh, he struck out a hand over hand towards the river smoothed stone that was the riverbank.
Managing to swim close enough with the tide’s help now to nearly crash into it, but Tech reached out a hand to grip at a deviot in the rockface by his fingers. Straining the appendages, he looked about with a squinted gaze in search of a proper way up whilst he dropped his legs downwards in hopes to feel any sort of riverbed or other rocks beneath him to jump up off. But his feet kicked at only water.
With little choice left, Tech reached up towards the backwards slope of the rock he clung to, feeling with the fingers of his other hand the way it dipped downwards and allowed him to precariously grip the curved edge of it. Wet and eroded by the river waters to a smoothness that even moss and algae didn't grow on it, made for a better yet worse hand grip. Nearly rounded out by the persistent current that pressed against it, there weren't any more lips nor divets Tech could use to climb up.
Physically feeling his strength wane the longer he remained, compounded by the various uncategorised injuries that littered his frame and the fight he was still having with the river’s pull, Tech tensed in preparation to haul himself up. Gritting just teeth against both the ignition of pain along his upper back and the strain of levering his own body weight plus that of his waterlogged armour and gear up the rockface, he felt his muscles of his arms and torso tremble. His breath held captive within his chest, unavoidable given coughing at present would certainly send him back into the drink rather than help.
Managing to drag himself upwards enough so that the bottom of his cuirass was past the rock’s arched edge, Tech leant forwards to rest his plackart against the stone whilst he risked shifting his left hand’s grip to reach forwards and latch onto the exposed and gnarled roots of a nearby tree that brimmed the shoreline. Despite their weathered state, they weren't dry nor dead, still attached firmly to the main snarl of roots that stretched across the shale surface to dive deep into the earth beyond the rocks.
He entangled his fingers amongst the spindly rootlets, using them as an anchor to pull himself further up over the edge of the bank. Flinging his other hand out to snatch onto a thicker portion of the roots, then lifting a leg up from where they still dangled in the water to draw his knee up onto the top of the stone, bracing it there just when the scraggy roots his left hand held gave away.
The motion jerked his frame, his other leg still over the side and trailing in the river, Tech scrambled to renew his handhold of the roots on that side before he upended his balance all together and fell back into the water. His hand only grasped damp soil and another array of weedy roots that loosened under his weight.
Muscles straining to keep the grip he did have with his right hand whilst his polyen audibly skirted against the finitely porous grain of the rock underneath him as he slipped a fraction, Tech wound his hand in the thin knot of exposed radicles. When they didn't give away under the tension, he pulled on them in tandem with his other hand to lever himself more so up. Able to bring his other knee out of the water entirely and up onto the top of the rock.
Not releasing his hold on the roots until he had crawled forwards enough to move his legs away from dangling over the edge, not willing to risk remaining so close to the river now that he was free from it.
Releasing his white-knuckled grip on the roots, Tech collapsed forwards onto his elbows. Dirt adhered to his hands, sticking to every bend and faint crevice of the natural lines in his flesh, mingling with the red pressed indents from how very hard he had clutched at the tree’s roots. Scratches along his hands, gloves ripped and torn open, from his previous fall bled afresh now that there was no water to wash it away.
Drawing in a ragged breath, heavy and deep his gasp was. The action ended up spasming in his chest. Abused flesh and the bone beneath, insides irritated further by the water he had inhaled, had him coughing anew. Hacking and violent, to the point he was left dry retching in between expulsions of air and whatever moisture may have been left in his lungs.
Near faint by the time the paroxysms began to taper off, breathless and utterly spent, Tech slumped forwards to rest his head against the damp earth between his forearms. Vaguely aware of the sting it elicited across his forehead, more so occupied with striving to keep breaths even and resisting the urge to draw in as much air as possible lest he hyperventilate.
Yet every breath, hitched and wheezed though they were abrapted against his throat, each inhale and exhale involuntarily taken by sharply aching and beaten lungs. Another coughing fit was threatened at the edges of every inhale, which he hoped to stave off until he less winded.
A fleeting thought towards the state of his ribs drifted through Tech’s mind at registering the familiar pain, it felt distant however. Overlaid by a bone-weary exhaustion that blanketed against the pain in his chest and every other hurt he could vaguely feel beyond the fatigue.
The darkness that had been playing at the edges of his vision since he had woken up half-drowned in the river finally began to encroach further across his field of view, wavering his sight and swaying the world about him until he tipped over to fall onto his side on the tufted ground. The spark of pain that jolted through his torso at the jarring motion was swallowed up by the blackness that encompassed his vision and an instantaneous plunge towards unconsciousness.
TBC.
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tumbling-darkling ¡ 3 years ago
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Some Danny Phantom/DC crossover thoughts
So I love these kinds of crossovers, and they vary just because of the different kind of series and canons that exist. And I have very basic knowledge regarding a lot of DC related topics and characters but we all know Batman and usually that’s enough. There’s good Justice League intervening and finding a small ghost child somehow keeping godly creatures of chaos in order with a mere glare, there’s teen titans and Danny interactions, there’s a lot of Danny’s friends and family dying and him getting adopted into these groups, basically you can find so much content.
One of my FAVOURITE concepts is the whole ‘Danny is Batman’s son’, which my favourite execution of it is The Phantom and the Knight by savya398 on Archive of our Own! Why is this my favourite? Why not a ‘Danny is Richard Graysons twin/lost brother? Because Dick is a nice dude, maybe getting serious from time to time but generally? He’s a good bro, makes me think of Jazz and Danny’s relationship.
Now Danny as Batman’s son? Well this has many implications. And my favourite is this makes DAMIEN Danny’s brother. Literal demon spawn finds out he has a brother and it’s DANNY. This child of pure chaos would not be impressed at all with this scrawny, c student mess. How dare this sorry excuse of a teen even be considered in being related to him! Or the great Batman!! The pure feral sibling bonds are to die for.
Even better is that this fic DOESN’T kill everyone off. Which I enjoy very greatly!! So yeah, if you like crossovers between Danny Phantom and Justice league where they don’t kill everyone Danny knows off, this is a good fic!! And while I’m at it, I’m gonna recommend some other really great Danny Phantom/DC fics!
The Meddling Jerkwad League by StrawberryCamel
A series that has the Justice League accidentally medaling while Danny and Tucker slowly finds less reasons not to strangle them all. It’s funny and entertaining!
Ghost Kings and Gotham Bats by BlueGhostCardinal
This is a good one. Phantom gets caught up in Gotham stuff, Danny gets mistaken as Damien, Bruce wants to adopt him naturally, everyone thinks he’s a clone or lost twin or something, and while we are at it, there’s a lot of established ghost lore!! King Danny heck yeah!! As well as the classic batfamily banter!
And so it Ghost by Evandarya
This one has Vlad as Danny’s guardian and Danny looks into getting into collage in Gotham! Of course it goes wrong and attracts the attention of the Batfam as they try to figure out what is going on with this kid that knew a little too much about the villain that attacked.
Operation I’m Totally 300 by I_Am_Toast
This one. Is hilarious I love this fic. It’s just Danny trying to convince the young justice league that he’s an old wise ghost based on the recorded appearances he has of himself in the past. We all know Danny just sucks at improv and so shenanigans are ensued.
Dressed for Death by Nohvarrs
Another great one, Danny ends up in John Constantine’s house and then he can’t seem to stop showing up wherever he goes. Danny’s problems only get more annoying when the Justice League tries to find out who he was before his death.
So yeah! Superheroes and Danny Phantom! I’m a big sucker for Danny Phantom crossovers. Especially since this child is ridiculously OP. He’s like an invasive species. He is a basic teen hero in Amity because he faces people and enemies that have very specialized weapons that can affect him. You drop him anywhere else? Almost nothing can touch him and he’s basically One Punch Man. Amazing.
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bigskydreaming ¡ 3 years ago
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I’m of the opinion that trying to rank the Batfam by intelligence is dumb as hell because they’re all conceptually the smartest person in the room whenever the plot demands it and put any single one of them in any other group of people and canon defaults to treating them as the smartest one there even when other heroes present have multiple PhDs, so like....source for:
“Tim is obviously the smartest except for Barbara and also Bruce but also Jason is smarter than Dick because he likes to read and let’s all collectively presume that Cass is so obviously the least smart of all of them she never even ranks when talking about the Batfam’s intellects even though this is a girl who became fully socialized within like two years after previously having spent the first fifteen years of her life in varying forms of complete isolation with her education deliberately stunted until she began thriving at literally the FIRST opportunity she got to actually be afforded resources for expanding her mind”.....
So yeah, my official stance is and always will be every single member of the Batfam is a LITERAL genius and when you’re talking intellects of that level its pointless trying to rank them, like, they’re all smart as fuck, who needs them numbered past that point?
So I have no interest in trying to present any of them, whether Dick or anyone else, as SMARTER than the rest, but I do still have plenty of gripes about how often he’s marked for comparison and singled out to be specified as not AS smart as Tim or the others.....when literally the only thing that people ever actually point to - other than Dick’s own self-image and self-assessments - as for why Tim’s obviously so much smarter than Dick is like....Tim figured out Batman and Robin’s identities based on the fact that he saw Robin do a move that he’d previously been situationally aware of Dick Grayson doing. That’s it. That’s like.....the essence of plot convenience. Even WITH Tim’s obvious intelligence, if not for Tim having happened to be at the circus to see Dick Grayson perform that flip....he never would have been able to connect those dots, not because he’s not smart enough to, but because he simply literally wouldn’t have had one of the dots needing connection!
And also like, there’s also the fact that in plenty of Dick’s origin stories Dick is the one who figures out Bruce is Batman himself, Bruce doesn’t actually tell him....so.....why does that never come up as proof of Dick’s intelligence, y’know? Fair is fair, right?
But anyway, Dick Grayson speaks tons of languages, has hacked freaking alien spaceships, has also been called Detective by Ra’s al Ghul’s manipulative ass for whatever that’s worth but just as significantly if not more imo, is regularly shown BEING a great detective, in his solo titles, in Titans, on the Outsiders, as Batman....he picks up new skills like trying out a new hobby and had the equivalent of multiple college degrees while he was still Robin in terms of applicable know-how and understanding of science, criminology, history, politics and multiple other fields of interest. 
He’s tech savvy, creates most of his own gear and even machinery, and this really can’t be underscored enough but seems waaaaay too often glossed over - he’s considered one of the preeminent tacticians in the entire DC universe, that’s like....not a small thing. That IS intelligence! That’s like the very essence of it, not just knowing things, but applying things, figuring out the most optimal ways to piece disparate bits of knowledge and information together in actionable ways to achieve desired end results. Stop sleeping on Dick’s tactical brilliance, guys!
And again, NONE of this is intended to try and elevate him PAST any of the other Bat characters, as you’ll notice nowhere am I making any claims that he alone can be described in these ways.....I’m not saying these things are limited or unique to just him, I’m just saying....they very much describe him. So.....stop acting like they don’t, y’know? Don’t be a Tom Taylor! Be better than Tommy T! I believe in you guys!
Just.....I don’t think many people realize that they’re not actually saying what they think they’re saying when they stress how much smarter Tim is than Dick, for example, because like.....that’s not a proven quantity, and so it just comes across as like, needing to erase large aspects of Dick’s character just to prop up a personal fave and that’s the sort of thing that births the sort of negativity a lot of people remark on. 
(And it also carries a loooooot of not great implications if you factor in things like their respective origins, marginalizations, classism, etc - like, I can not stress how eyebrow-raising it is in the WORST possible ways that like, people make SUCH a big deal about Dick dropping out of college, when nobody ever seems to want to comment on the fact that like....Tim dropped out of high school. If its so obvious that the latter has nothing to do with Tim’s intelligence whatsoever - and it doesn’t, for the record - then you really should take a little more care with how you raise the subject and context of Dick’s dislike for specific educational structures and not weave in implications that this has anything to whatsoever with his actual intelligence or aptitude in skill acquisition - I’m just saying).
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un-pearable ¡ 2 years ago
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OH another very important comment i completely forgot to add: despite the long winded diatribe, i am, actually, having fun with ninjago again and am not dreading clicking the next episode button. im excited to continue watching. which is a definite improvement from like. last week. honestly in my experience some amount of moping and whining and gnashing of teeth is good for the soul. not too much and you cant just sit around and mope all day, but a bit of moping... it does help. i think.
unrelated but regarding your post on comics, technically im coming from a weekly serialized manga perspective but yeah no exactly having something that comes out so frequently produces many opinions all the time. i also feel compelled to talk about these opinions, all the time. i have to say though my sincerest condolences for being in the dc fandom. from the handful of posts ive seen from you it looks ... frustrating
hell yeah!! the good ol whine and dine (on fic) strategy to get you excited again
on the topic of comics,,, yeah. yeah. its really annoying bc its the kind of fandom where the last thing I want to do is get involved in discourse but Oh Do I Have Thoughts. and my usual strategy of venting in my small discord is not enough 😔 this next part is a very frustrated vent so uh. under the cut as to not piss off one of the most notorious fandoms of all time that I have Zero interest getting involved in
comics fandom is fucking insane bc anywhere else this isn’t anywhere close to a debate, but here arguing that a character being accurate to canon should be a priority means you’re fighting in the fucking trenches. saying someone should read an arc is a declaration of war with some of these people it’s baffling. why are you here if you don’t care about what actually happens to these characters
it’s completely deranged!!! this isn’t even “oh this particular stuff is treated as non canon bc it portrays the character poorly” it’s literally people BRAGGING about never reading the source material. writing a direct adaptation of the characters debut arc gets you dogpiled by people who think the completely woobified version from their fic is the end all be all characterization. and their one personality trait is an addiction
hate that i do this to myself. i was a part of the sinking ship that was voltron. i witnessed the rise and fall of countless stupid fandoms driven by the fandom’s flanderized dreams and every single time i fall for it. what the hell
it’s the mystery box. it’s getting to the core to see what could have gone well or what the original ideas were or the drama behind it al but EVERY time i burden myself with knowledge and endless frustration and a persistent fear of getting caught up in my own internet drama. agshdjdj
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illumiru ¡ 3 years ago
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Ooh can u talk about ur theory where batcest fucked up fanon?
okay sorry for taking so long anon- i was very sleepy when i got this. take all of this with a grain of salt bc i joined the fandom late and i made a huge guess on what might have happened based on patterns from previous fandoms and my knowledge of fandom history. and hearsay from older fans.
BUT okay, my THEORY is that people who made b*tcest content then at the initial rise of the modern dc fandom probably watched young justice first and then go on to read a few comics here and there to discover their favorite robin. young justice was around the time new 52 became a thing so for a lot of fans at that time, that's usually their introduction to the rest of the batfam.
fandom does and fandom is wont to do though and since the batboys p much look like each other, they skewed their characterizations into easily digestible shallow tropes to make it easier to distinguish one robin from the other.
dick got saddled with the sunshine cuddle-monster (highly suspect this was influenced by young justice and n52), jason is the bad boy with the heart of gold, the draco in leather pants (possibly rhato influenced), tim is the sad uwu twink coffee super genius (red robin influenced) and damian's personality is either hellspawn or diagnosed 13 years old. (depends if they like damian or not).
the thing with the batfandom though is that a lot of them tend to be insular. so when it comes to dc content, they consume batfam content ONLY. knowing fandom, they can't consume content without shipping so they're like why not with each other? around the time, people are also a lot more likely to ship incest and don't consider adopted siblings actually related so it's seen as "not as bad."
that said, b*tcest has existed way before this period. even in batman year one: deluxe edition, there was a comic that said that some people saw batman and robin as a metaphor for homosexuality. (what the fuck)
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and there were livejournal groups for batslash. that said, fandoms were very small pockets of community at the time instead of the consolidated mass it will be on tumblr. so from what i heard from older fans is that at the very least people who were making any kind of fan content have read the comics. i think i read a meta that dick's fanon self at the time tended to be a bit like his outsiders self.
anyways, there wasn't even a reliable archive besides fanfiction dot net. so if people made ooc b*tcest fic or art then, it won't have the reach it has now in influencing fellow fans. (that said, dc managed to hire a writer who ships br*dick, giving these b*tcest shippers fuel. the resulting mischaracterization of the way devin writes dick will help fuel his fanon self later on. so that's one example already of how b*tcest fucked up fanon)
so with the influx of new fans from young justice and the rise of tumblr, modern dc fandom was born and in came the b*tcest shippers with fanon characterizations based off the show and n52 comics and their own headcanons.
with the way tumblr is set up, it's easy for non-fans of the franchise to see content from your fandom so people who haven't read the comics started coming in as well because they liked the fan content they saw. comics is a very daunting medium for people to get into because of the amount of material that can conflict with each other there is. so a lot of these new fans like to consume only fanon.
with the amount of b*tcest artists and writers there was, even people who didn't ship it would see non-explicit fanon content from these creators and assume it's is accurate. and so, the fanon characterizations became slowly accepted and popular and they end up adapting these b*tcest shippers' headcanons as well.
it did not help that a lot of b*tcest shippers will make meta to make certain batfam members closer than they actually are. and people took this plus the out of context panels as word of god of how they actually act around each other.
for example of fanon things that might be influenced by b*tcest
batfam living all in the manor (they don't.)
jason and tim's closeness with another (besides that one lobdell page where jason said tim's the only one he can stand and we shouldn't even consider bc lobdell does jackshit to research, they weren't very close at all.)
jason's use of the baby bird nickname for tim (major red flag)
dick being promiscuous/a womanizer/someone who likes getting naked (he's not. there's much canon evidence of him being uncomfortable with being objectified, unsure about nudity and being extremely monogamous. it's just a mischaracterization perpetuated by devin grayson (br*dick shipper) and tim seeley (hack)
i could list more (or you guys can comment more) but i'm honestly losing steam writing this. jnfenf i think as a fandom, we're getting better at debunking fanon at least - especially since the influx of batfans has slowed down compared to its peak. plus, inc*st is being more and more widely denounced in fandom spaces at all.
anyway, those are my rambling thoughts on how b*tcest shippers influenced fanon jkfnjkenf
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alto-tenure ¡ 3 years ago
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so uh. ace attorney au where edgeworth is also batman!
(this stemmed from a conversation with some friends on discord where I was like "phoenix is like superman with his invulnerability" and then connecting things until batman!edgeworth happened)
DL-6 happens when Miles is slightly older (so like...think 14-16)
He starts squirrelling away funds where he can from MVK when he gets adopted. He doesn't have as much time before university
He becomes a prosecutor not just because of MVK's influence but because he is also seeking justice & thinks it is the best way (this is definitely MVK manipulation to some extent, but not all of it is.)
but like...prosecuting feels useless. he gets a 100% conviction rate, but what about all the criminals who escape arrest?
enter Batman
(this is the point where I put in a cut because it starts getting long)
disclaimer: my knowledge of dc canon is shoddy at best so take that as you will
so Miles has to handle all the ordering of tech & stuff himself. he starts with the suit -- it needs to be everythingproof but still flexible. this is very, very difficult. many prototypes were created before the final suit.
while he's waiting for it he starts getting stronk -- mostly core strength, and he isn't so much looking for bulk as for agility
and then he gets the grappling hooks, and the batarangs (that aren't named that yet, but) and he starts going out
(no guns. no projectile/explosive weapons, period. the trauma is too strong)
he starts small. minor crimes, mostly from the shadows. there are rumors of a guy with bat ears helping out, but he hasn't been caught on camera yet
he almost gets arrested, but manages to form an agreement with the police.
no killing. no guns. let the justice system handle them once they're neutralized as a threat.
and, of course, he is perfectly okay with that. as a prosecutor, he knows very well about the justice system.
(and if he's been shady & over-punishing as a prosecutor, well...that just guarantees they won't become criminals afterwards)
Miles is just slightly less aggressive in court since he works out his aggression by punching thugs
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andromedasstarship ¡ 4 years ago
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in the stars - chapter 5
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pairing - aaron hotchner x reader 
warnings - canon-typical criminal minds violence, stalking, unhealthy coping mechanisms, drinking, angst
summary -  “Please,” he said, staring you straight in the eyes. “Don’t go.” 
a/n - i really love this chapter! cant wait to hear what yall think :DD also for reference i aged jack down just a year so hes 3 when haley passes away, about to turn 5 when reader & aaron get together. i dont claim any dialogue straight from Emma as mine! (emma dialogue is in italics) 
masterlist / series masterlist / read it on ao3 
chapter 4 / chapter 6 
-----
You were hyper-aware of the new way the team was looking at you as you entered the conference room. You shot a very anxious glance up towards Aaron, grateful for the very brief- but soft- glance he gave you before the business side of him took over again. You could feel the ghost of his hand hovering over that protective spot on your back again as he led you up towards the table. 
It felt like your eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, upon seeing the seemingly endless piles of photos in front of you. Your brain was struggling to process everything that was laid out in front of you and you felt your heart rate start to pick up; seeing it in person was worse than anything your mind had created in the drive here. 
“Y/N.” 
Your eyes shot up to meet the voice and you saw Spencer looking down at you with a look that was just on the edge of pity. “We tried to sort the pictures into piles of time relativity. Would you be able to go through them and help us create a firmer timeline?” 
You nodded at that, vaguely aware of Aaron pulling a chair out behind you. You gladly slid down into it. Seeing Emily start to pick up one pile and push them towards you made you nervously laugh, the stress of the moment and how uncomfortable you felt forcing it out. When the entire team gave you a weird look you said, “Sorry, it just reminded me of last time.” 
You gently picked up the stack of photos, trying to hold them as lightly as possible. The knowledge that the unsub had packaged these himself sent a shiver down your spine. You knew it was silly, but you somehow felt that by touching the photos you were somehow also touching the remnants of the unsub. 
The first stack you easily dated as around four years ago, just from your hair; you’d drastically changed it for a role. You thumbed through the photos and could feel the knots in your stomach growing even tighter. Most of the photos were blurry and relatively distant from you, as if the unsub was still getting comfortable with what he was doing. 
“This was four years ago, I had to change my hair for a role and I’ve never had it like that before or again.” You said quietly, pushing the pile back to Emily. 
She nodded, giving you a gracious smile before pushing the next pile towards you. Your face fell immediately; something the team equated to how much more personal these set of photos seemed to be. You fanned the stack out in front of you. There weren’t many, as if even the unsub could recognize the inappropriate- ha!- nature of capturing you like this. In all of them you looked worn down, as if a cloud was following you everywhere you went. 
“This was about two years ago.” You said flatly. It took a moment, but you could see everyone connect the dots in their head and suddenly the room felt very small. 
Thankfully, the next pile was rather average and you guessed that this was just an ‘extra’ pile of photos that didn’t really seem to fit into a cohesive timeframe. As you scanned over them, one caught your eye and you pulled it a bit closer to you. You pointed a finger at the sign behind you. 
“This is an exclusive club house, it’s difficult to get into. Security’s intense and everyone that enters has to sign in.” You informed the team. JJ reached out and grabbed the photo, putting it to the side for later.
You turned your attention back to the pile, making sure to give each photo a proper amount of attention, desperate to notice something useful. 
“This one,” you said, pulling a blurry photo of yourself out of the pile. You were moving too fast for the camera to properly capture you, but you recognized the outfit. “I was wearing this the day Officer Reynolds told me you all were coming, isn’t this the outside of the station?” You said quietly.
JJ moved that photo to the ‘save for later’ pile as well. You gently re-stacked the pile and passed it towards Emily, waiting for the next one. 
You watched as Emily seemed to be literally holding her tongue as she pushed the next pile towards you, a certain playful glint in her eyes. Once you were able to look at it, you couldn’t help but snort. You could feel Aaron tense up besides you, but you could find the humor in it. The ‘Aaron’ pile. 
You fanned the stack out like you had done with the others, giving special attention to the details behind you. These were much more difficult to place and a much smaller pile, considering how careful the two of you had been. 
“These must’ve been in DC?” You questioned, not really expecting an answer. You looked up towards Aaron, raising an eyebrow as if to give him the opportunity to share his thoughts. “Whenever he came to LA, I had an iron grip on our security but it was a whole different field in DC-” 
Your sentence fell flat as your eyes went wide, nearly surging out of your seat up towards Aaron. He gave you a worried look, unable to place the sudden anxiety that had taken over you. “What about Jack?” You asked worriedly, “if he knows about you he must’ve found out about Ja-”
Aaron stopped you, putting a very gentle hand on the top of your shoulder, “He’s okay, I promise.” He said, using his hand to lightly push you back into a seated position. You nodded at that, eyes still wide, but your body seemed to deflate, the tension slowly leaving you. 
The rest of the team was quiet, recognizing the personal nature of the interaction. But it was impossible for them not to notice the way your bodies reacted to each other. The way your body’s natural response to a stressor had been to move closer to him and the way he angled himself in a protective stance around you near simultaneously. 
Emily pushed the final pile in front of you and you couldn’t help the corners of your lips pull up in a soft smile. You fanned out the stack of photos, taking a good look at all of them. They all seemed to either be promo photos or film photos of your time filming Mamma Mia in Greece. 
“This is definitely from Greece. But some of these are definitely promo photos, it’s why I’m ‘posing’ in a few of them.” You said, pushing out one that visually made your point. 
“What about this one? It feels a lot more intimate than a promotional piece.” Emily asked, pulling one out from the stack. In it, you were standing on the dock, face close to the camera. You had a big smile on your face and your thumbs up. 
“On set, we had a handful of little disposable cameras that everyone could use.” 
“Do you have any memory of who owned the cameras?” 
“I…,” you paused, eyebrows scrunched tightly in thought, “I don’t know. The studio distributed all the photos after the movie came out. They’re pretty public at this point, it was five years ago.” You said weakly, feeling really disappointed in your lack of help. “I’m sorry.” You added. 
Morgan stepped up closer to the table. “Don’t be okay? Now we know that the unsub has connections in Hollywood and we know he must be wealthy enough to fly to DC on a whim if he thought you were there. That helps narrow things down.” He assured you. 
“Are there any specific photographers that you’ve noticed? Or any guy you feel like you’ve seen too many times and it’s no longer a coincidence?” Spencer asked. 
You shook your head quickly. “I’m really used to cameras flashing in my face.” You said impishly. “I can remember a lot of fans that I meet, but if it’s just someone behind a camera I don’t think I’d really notice it at all.” 
You felt Aaron move away from you and towards the computer at the end of the table. He clicked a few buttons and suddenly a woman's face popped up on the screen. You recognized her immediately from all the stories and photos you’d seen. Penelope. 
Aaron brought the computer closer to where you were and her mouth dropped open for the second time today. 
“Oh my god! Hi! Wow! I am, I am such a fan. I just-, you’re always so-” 
“Garcia.” Aaron interjected but you raised your hand at him, giving him a ‘shoo’ gesture. The rest of the team had to stifle their laughter. 
“Hi, Penelope right? I’ve heard so much about you.” You said sweetly, leaning a bit closer to the camera. 
“Wow! Okay, I can’t believe this is-” 
“Garcia, I need you to pull up visitor logs from a clubhouse that Y/N used to visit. I want you to cross reference it with other visitor logs of recent film sets she’s been on and her housing development. She’ll be able to give you a more comprehensive list.” Aaron interjected, and this time you let him. 
You turned back to the screen, giving Garcia another smile. “The clubhouse is called Royal Blue, the picture couldn’t have been more than…, I think three years ago? But I’m not sure.” 
“Alright…, okay the visitor logs seem to be locked tight, but never too tight for me. What are some of those movie sets?” 
“The earliest photo is what? Five years ago?” You asked, looking around at the agents for approval. “Yeah, five years. So Mamma Mia, to start, Little Women. I’m working on Emma right now.” You droned, listing various movie sets you’d worked on in the past five years. 
“Oh my god! I have so many questions about Mamma Mia. Like what was it-,” Garcia’s question trailed off as she caught sight of Hotch giving her a firm stare from behind you. “Right sorry, alright. I will break into the clubhouse and cross reference all of these lists to see if anyone comes up more than once. It was so nice meeting you, I hope we get to-. Alright, hanging up now!” Garcia said in a rushed voice. You watched her click a button on her end and the screen went black. 
You leaned back into your chair, staring up at the rest of the team . “So…,” you said, drawing out the word, “what now?” 
-----
“What are you doing?” Aaron’s asked, voice coming out from behind you. 
You comically froze, hand just short of picking your keys up from the table. You slowly turned to face him, straightening your tote bag over your shoulder. “Oh! There you are, I was just on my way to come find you.” You said lightly, trying to diffuse some of the tension in the room. Aaron didn’t say anything, waiting for you to go on. “Johnny and I have plans tonight.” You said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world  
On your part, you’d already forgotten about the whole ‘I’m on a date’ aspect on your earlier phone call with Aaron. In your mind, there wasn’t anything inherently suspicious about you going to spend time with him in the evening.
Aaron was viewing the entire situation in a very different light. When he had first come around the corner, he noticed how nice you looked. When the two of you had finally returned to your place you immediately went up to your room, disappearing for quite some time. He had originally thought maybe you were upset, the cognitive interview hadn’t revealed anything and even though he knew you didn’t really believe in their accuracy, he also knew how badly you wanted to be of ‘use’ for the case. 
In your time upstairs, you had changed your outfit and styled your hair just enough to give it that ‘unstyled-styled’ look. It’s not like you were glammed out or anything, the only reason you’d put on a nice outfit was on the off chance you were photographed- hopefully not by the unsub-, on your way into Johnny’s apartment. 
“And what is it that you’re supposed to be doing?” Aaron asked, trying to keep his voice as nonchalant as possible. 
“Um, nothing much,” You said with an awkward laugh, when he was still looking at you expectantly you tilted your head. “I’m supposed to go to his place and we’re gonna run lines for the scenes we’re filming this week.” You explained. 
“I can’t endorse you going out at night. Especially to someone’s home that we don’t have eyes on.” Aaron said firmly. 
You rolled your eyes at that, picking up your keys. “Johnny’s fine, he’s been in the same place as me when nearly all the bodies were discovered.” You argued, putting one hand on your hip. 
“With the recent development in the cases, I can’t let you do this.”
You started to walk towards him, intending to go around him. “Aaron-” 
His hand shot out and gently grabbed you by the arm, stopping you from getting past him. 
“Hey!-” 
“Please,” he said, staring you straight in the eyes. “Don’t go.” 
Your mouth fell open slightly in a mild form of shock. ‘We’re just running lines, I really need-” 
“I’ll do it with you.” Aaron interjected hurriedly. “We’ve done it before, I’m not too bad at it, huh?” He said teasingly. 
You pondered that for a minute. You and Aaron had run lines together plenty of times in the past, it was always something you got a kick out of, seeing Aaron try and morph into whatever character he was reading for. And while it wouldn’t be as productive as running them with your actual co-star, you reasoned it’d still be good enough. And as much as you hated to admit it, Aaron probably had a point about you not going out, especially in the evening.  
“Fine. I just need to go call Johnny and tell him something came up.” You huffed, pretending to be more annoyed than you were. 
“Here,” you said, reaching into your bag and pulling out your script, “I already have most of my lines memorized, I’ll just need you to fill in if I miss any. I have a pink sticky note denoting the scene we were going to start with. You’re reading as Knightely. I’ll meet you in the living room, alright?” You said, pushing the script into his hands as you walked around him towards the kitchen, pulling your phone out at the same time. 
----
“No, I’m just saying I think it’d be more believable or whatever if we did a few more like nonchalant meals before like, running errands together or something, ya know?” You said lazily into the phone, holding it between your ear and shoulder as you used your hands to mix up a drink for yourself. Out of the corner of your eye you caught sight of the Dalmore. You reached out with one hand and carefully pulled it down, still remembering exactly how Aaron liked to take a drink. 
“What meal really screams ‘we’re dating’? Dinner? That’s like the longest meal of the day, that’s gotta show some sort of commitment.” Johnny asked. 
“Hm…,” you droned, “well we just had a lunch. If we want to kick it into high gear, we should do breakfast. Perfect ‘just spent the night’ remedy.” You said with a snort. 
Aaron cleared his throat behind you and the sound made you jump. You pulled the phone away from your ear and saw you’d been blabbering for nearly half an hour. 
‘Oh. Sorry.’ You mouthed to Aaron, before pulling the phone back to your ear. “Hey Johnny gotta go, but we’ll figure it out later! Yeah…, for sure, bye!” You hung up and placed your phone on the counter. Then you grabbed the drink you had poured for him, holding it out. 
“It’s Dalmore.” You said plainly. 
“I’m working.” He responded. 
You rolled your eyes at that and held it out more aggressively. “Take it.” 
You watched happily as he begrudgingly took it out of your hand, though you knew it wasn’t too difficult for him. You picked up your own glass and tucked your phone into the waistband of your pants. “Ready? Sorry, got carried away.” 
While the two of you walked back into your living room, it was obvious something was bothering Aaron. You briefly wondered if something had developed in the case that he wasn’t telling you. 
‘What is it?” You asked. 
He looked down at you, confused. “What is what?” 
“Don’t play dumb, you have a tell.”  You explained, stopping to look up at him.  
“I do not have a tell.” Hotch replied annoyedly. 
“Yes you do.” 
“No, I don’t.” 
“If you want to be a baby about it, fine you don’t have a tell. Tell me what’s wrong anyway.” 
“I’m trying to understand why you lied about not having a boyfriend nor seeing anyone recently. We’ll need to fully vet Johnny and look into his files, even if you don’t see it becoming serious.” Aaron near spat.
You snorted. “What do you mean lied?” 
“You very clearly told me you weren’t seeing anyone, yet today has proven those claims to be false.” 
“I know that sometimes, I like to be a huge pain but I’m serious, what are you talking about? I’m not seeing anyone.” 
“Your co-star, Johnny? You told me you were on a date with him today. I just heard you on the phone make plans to stay with him overnight. I saw the pictures of-” 
“Stop! Oh my god, I can’t believe you actually believed that.” You said, unable to hold back the laughter that bubbled out of you. 
“Believed it? You’re the only who told me!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have assumed you read through the lines. Johnny and I have been going on publicity dates. We’re just friends.” 
“What were you supposed to be doing tonight then?” 
“We were legitimately going to run lines. Maybe get ice cream, we’re trying to determine the best ice cream in LA.” 
That’d explain the outfit, Aaron thought. 
“And the phone call I just heard?” 
“We were debating which meal screams ‘dating’. He thinks it’s dinner. I think it’s breakfast, ya know, cause it implies you spent the night.” 
“Why didn’t you tell me that, before.” 
“Don’t you remember when I had kinda the same thing with Timothee during Little Women? They made us hang out a bunch so the tabloids could just do their thing. I just assumed you’d fill in the blanks.” 
Aaron was staring at you as if you had two heads. It was almost like you could see the gears turning in that head of his. Internally, he was more than embarrassed for how upset he’d gotten over the idea of you with someone else. 
When it seemed that Aaron had nothing else to say, you started to walk again, not stopping until you were both back in your living room. You plopped down in ‘your spot’ on the couch, playfully patting the space a few cushions down that Aaron typically sat in. 
“Crack open that script, I hope you looked through it. If you’re making me stay home, you better be useful!” You said pleasantly, trying to change the atmosphere into something more playful. 
Aaron awkwardly sat himself down on the couch next to you, picking the script back up. As you watched him flip the script open and further acquaint himself with the lines you couldn’t help but feel a sharp pang in your chest. It was such an unavoidable reminder of the way the two of you used to run lines together when you were still dating. You had learned early on that Aaron best showed his affection through acts of service and he actually wasn’t that bad at delivering a line. Since the two of you were rarely together in person- it’s not like you’d let him waste a visit with you building a shelf or running an errand-, running lines with you was the easiest way for him to feel useful. 
-----
Four Years Ago
“Okay Jack, you ready?” You asked, smiling down at the young boy standing across from you. He was dressed up in his winter clothes, despite the blazing heat of the summer. You and Aaron had tried to talk him out of it, but he demanded it’d be the only way for him to fully get into character. And who were you two to deny him? The sweet boy nodded, barely being able to contain his excitement as he bounced up and down on his feet. 
“Alright, places everyone!” You yelled out, holding the diy paper clapperboard Jack had made for you. You held it out from your body and did a very exaggerated clapping motion. “Action!” You said, quickly throwing the clapperboard to the couch. 
“Carrots!” Jack said, his voice more than enthusiastic for the role. 
“Huh?” You said, heavily overselling your voice and reaction. Even with the one simple word, Jack was already in giggles, struggling to keep it together. 
He leaned in closer to you, standing up on his tiptoes. “Behind you!” 
“Oh! Right, excuse me.” You said, stepping to the side and gesturing to the ‘carrots’ behind you. 
You made your voice really low to play the next part. “Woh, a real howler in July, yea? Where ever could it be coming from?” You asked, placing your chin in between your thumb and pointer finger. 
Jack kept giggling at your ‘deep’ voice, he held his ‘script’ up to his face to read his next line. “The North Mountain.” 
You jokingly ran a hand in front of your face, signaling a character switch. “North Mountain.” You stage whispered. You ran your hand in front of your face again, going serious. “That’ll be forty.” You said, holding your hand out with a ‘gimme’ gesture. 
Jack smacked your hand gently to ‘give you’ the money. But after his face fell ever so slightly. “Can we skip to when Daddy gets to come in??” He asked, giving you those big eyes you couldn’t possibly say no to. 
You stood back, putting your weight on your back leg with one hand on your hip. “Hmm.., I think that could be arranged.” You reached over to grab the clapperboard. “Alright everyone! Back to places, but let’s start at ‘Hi everyone’, okay?” 
Jack nodded excitingly and turned back to where he knew Aaron was standing, partially hidden by the hallway. “Places daddy!” He urged, pointing to where he should come stand. 
Aaron came out from around the corner and you quickly covered your mouth with your hand, trying to hold in the laughter. Aaron had a big white hat on his head and had let Jack put a small orange dot on his nose. You and Jack had definitely double teamed poor Aaron, dragging him into your little ‘movie game’ as Jack liked to call it. The three of you had started doing this a few months ago, Jack loved ‘running lines’ with you and you were more than happy to oblige him. It had started when a sleepy Jack had stumbled into the living room one night when he couldn’t sleep and he saw you and Aaron running lines for one of your other movies. Jack had taken to it so much you ended up ‘hiring’ him to help you with your more child friendly roles. 
“Alright, alright. Quiet on set!” You said, making a big deal of you bringing your index finger up to your lips in a ‘shush’ motion. “Action!” 
“Hi everyone. I’m Olaf. And I like warm hugs.” Aaron recited robotically , very clear that he was reading directly from the paper. You smacked your hand back over your mouth, unable to control the giggles. Once you started laughing, Jack fell into his own fit of laughter; both of you fueled off the others amusement. 
Of course, when you finally pulled yourself back together, a quick look at the way Aaron was standing with fake annoyance across his face and his arms crossed tightly against his chest sent you back into fits of laughter. 
“Are you two done?” Aaron asked, no true malice in his voice. 
It was rare that the three of you all got to spend time together. He’d been wary of introducing you to Jack. It wasn’t really a ‘you’ thing, but it was more of how Jack would be able to deal with it. There were the typical worries, what if you and Jack didn’t get along? Or what if you two did get along really well but then you and Aaron broke up and it hurt him even further? While you never intended to try and replace his ‘mom’, you still worried that your chaotic schedule would somehow hurt him, skewing his perception of yet another ‘parental’ figure. Not to mention the issues with him being able to keep your identity and presence in his life a secret; he wouldn’t even be able to tell people like Uncle Rossi that his dad was seeing someone. 
But now, you’d been with Aaron for over two years. And Jack had known about you for about a year now. And everything had been going perfect. Jack was a stellar secret keeper, the unfortunate events of his childhood maturing him faster than any child deserved and he was able to fully understand the importance of the situation. The two of you had taken to each other quite quickly and every night the three of you would have a ‘bedtime’ call; even on the nights when Aaron was busy with a case you’d still call Jack on your own. You loved spoiling him with whatever hot new toy was popular among kids his age or getting him special early copies of movies before they came out. Aaron used to get on you about it, saying it wasn’t necessary, but you argued it was the most necessary thing in the world. 
And now here the three of you were. Nestled away in Aaron’s apartment in DC. You had just flown in after wrapping up a shoot abroad and were just in time for the start of summer. Even though your career was at a seemingly new high, you had managed to secure a relatively empty summer. After long consideration and planning you and Aaron decided it’d be a nice treat for Jack to go spend a month or so with you in LA. You’d consulted heavily with many of your friends who kept their children completely hidden from the spotlight and had hired an airtight security team to assist you the entire time. Aaron was supposed to come out when he could, but you were all aware of how turbulent his poor schedule could be. Schedule permitting, you all would spend the next three days at Aaron’s apartment before you and Jack took off. 
“Daddy! You sound like a robot.” Jack said, scolding Aaron. His voice brought you out of your thoughts and you looked down at him with a big smile. 
“Daddy’s just no good at this huh?” You asked, shaking your head. “He’s no match for our talent, Jack!” 
“This is really hot.” Jack said, holding up his arms. He must’ve been sweating his butt off in all those winter layers. 
“You’re kidding me! I wonder who could’ve seen that coming.” You said sarcastically, reaching over to pull off his big hat and zip down the first of multiple jackets he put on. “I’ve heard that ice cream cools you down…,” 
“Ice cream!’ Jack exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. He didn’t even look to his father for ‘permission’, knowing by now you had the most sway in the house. 
“Go put on some normal clothes okay? Wouldn’t be fun if you passed out in your ice cream bowl, huh?” You told him, ruffling his hair before he dipped under your arm, making a mad dash for his room. 
“He hasn’t even had lunch yet, you know that right?” Aaron asked, giving you a fake stern look as he walked over to where you were standing. 
You rolled your eyes at that, reaching up to snatch the white hat off his head, letting your arms fall loosely around his neck. “Does it upset you that I’m always the cool one?” You asked teasingly, reaching up on your tiptoes to press the gentlest kiss on his lips. 
He gave you one of his small smiles, reaching down to press a second kiss to your lips. “How was your flight in?” He asked, one of his hands wrapping protectively around your waist as the other one found its way by your hair, gently stroking down it the way you liked. 
You let your head relax against his touch and pretended to think for a moment. Instead of answering you reached up again, pressing your lips against his, pressing yourself closer to him. You both thought you could stay this way forever; it being the first time you saw each other, in person, in nearly two months. 
“Gross!” Jack’s voice seemingly cut through the two of you. Aaron was the one to pull away first, quietly laughing so only you could hear. 
“Later.” He promised in a whisper. 
You loosened your grip on him, turning to face Jack. “Oh Jack! Funny seeing you here, ice cream, right?” 
----- 
Present Day.
“Page 103, right?” He asked, skipping to the bright pink sticky note you had used as a place marker. 
You jolted out of your memories, feeling the heat rise up your neck as you prayed it wasn’t too obvious you had just completely zoned out. 
“Yep!” You squeaked out, “page 103, line 19, you start.” You said, waving your hands. 
“And I do envy him, Emma. In one respect he is the object of my enemy, you will not ask me why, you are, you are determined, I see, to have no curiosity but I cannot be wise-” He started, keeping his eyes near glued to the page. 
You frowned, shaking your head a bit. “Stand up.” You ordered, already getting to your feet. 
“Excuse me?” Aaron asked. 
“Stand up,” you repeated, motioning upwards with your palms. “This,” you said, motioning between the two of you, “doesn’t feel right if we’re seated, we’re supposed to move around in this scene, it’s supposed to be painful.” You explained. 
He slowly stood up, looking at you for permission to start again. 
“From where you left off, please.” 
“I must tell you, Emma, what you will not ask! Though I may wish it unsaid the next moment-” 
“So do not speak it.” You cut in. “If you wish to speak to me, as a friend or to ask my opinion as a friend I will hear whatever you like.”
“As a friend, Emma. That I fear is a word, tell me Emma. Have I no chance of ever succeeding?” He asked, looking up at you for further approval, you nodded and he continued. “My dearest Emma, my dearest, you will always be my dearest most beloved Emma, tell me at once. I cannot make speeches, if I, if I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more-” 
“Let’s do a different part, yeah?” You interrupted, voice incredibly tight. You ducked from his gaze, reaching to bring your glass to your lips. 
“Isn’t this the scene you have to practice?” Aaron asked, raising his brow at you. 
“It doesn’t matter,” you replied, taking a long sip, “any practice as the character will be helpful.” 
“If this is the one that’s troubling you, we should go over it.” He pressed. 
“Page 56, start at line 9.” You ordered, throwing back the rest of your glass. “Read it over, I’ll be back.” 
Before you could fully turn to go and refill your glass, Aaron lunged forward and grabbed your arm, pulling you towards him. The sudden movement caused you to stumble, throwing your hands out to steady yourself against his chest. 
“You’ve been drinking a lot.” He stated, repositioning his grip on your arm. 
“Am I not allowed to have a drink or two in my own home?” You challenged. 
“What are you running away from?” Aaron asked, his voice so gentle it made your knees weak. 
“You.” You whispered, after a long pause. You looked up at him with sad eyes and only found confusion in his. “I can’t, I-, don’t you see how funny it is? Your character is desperate for mine to be with and my character is the one to deny yours.” 
Your confession pulled sharply on his heart. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, not sure there were any words to appropriately apologize for how he had treated you. 
“Why didn’t you ever call?” You asked, voice so quiet he almost didn’t hear you. 
“I, I-” He stuttered, unable to think of an answer fast enough. 
“I waited for weeks,” you said, looking up at him with a look that nearly brought him to his knees. “I waited so long and you never called.” 
He brushed the hair out of your face, letting his hand fall gently against your cheek. His thumb caught a stray tear that had started to fall, softly brushing it away. “I don’t know.” He responded, his voice as quiet as your. “I don’t know, you didn’t deserve that.” 
You pressed your face into his hand, closing your eyes as you felt more tears managing to sneak past you. He was finally admitting words you had dreamed of hearing for years, but yet you were unable to find any joy in them. 
“You didn’t deserve that.” He repeated, sliding his hand towards the back of your head, pulling you firmly against his chest, while his other arm wrapped tightly around your waist. You let your body relax into his, slowly bringing your own arms up loosely around his neck. 
You felt him gently press the faintest of kisses to the top of your head. “I’m so sorry angel.” He mumbled into your hair. 
You pulled your head out from under him, looking up at him with big eyes. The two of you were silent, basking in each other's presence. Your eyes flickered down to his lips multiple times; something he duly picked up on. Just as you began to push up on your toes, nearly pressing your lips to his, eyes half closed in anticipation, his phone rang out. 
You froze, falling back onto your heels with a small sigh. “Answer it, I’m getting a refill.” You said, pulling yourself out of his grasp. He gave you an uncertain look, as if he wanted to pull you back in and ignore the call completely. 
You wagged a finger in front of him, shaking your head. In on fluid movement, you grabbed your glass and nearly ran out of the room
-----
It took you ten minutes to calm yourself down and another five to hype yourself up to return to your living room. And that was after you had made yourself a new drink. 
When you entered the living room, Aaron’s back was to you; still locked on the phone. The tension was clear in his shoulders and your eyes drifted down to his free hand that you knew would be clenched in a fist. It was. 
“Thank you Garcia, tell the team we’ll be there soon.” He said, pulling the phone away from his ear and hanging up. 
“Aaron?” You asked. 
He rolled his shoulders back, trying to loosen some of the tension from his shoulders for your benefit. He slowly turned back towards you, his face pulled in frustration. 
“LAPD just reported another body.”
-------
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no permission is given to copy or republish my writing on any other platform or account. if you see this story outside of my blog or my ao3 it is stolen work. i do not own nor claim to own criminal minds or any of the character involved in it.
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itzkiddo ¡ 2 years ago
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You asked and I will deliver. Spitballing some fandoms, dr stone, ATLA, teen titans (or any DC, Marvel thing) demon slayer. 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 14, and 19
I know you love Dr. Stone so I will do that for you!!
1. What originally drew me into it?: I believe I heard a lot of hype for it from some OP YouTubers and then a friend's recommendation as S1 of the anime came out was the last nail. I then proceeded to binge and keep up with the manga until the very end.
2. What I like most/least about it?: I love the realism in most of the science, the fact that it's nerdy and somewhat educational is great. I'd say my biggest complaint was how quickly things ramped up technology wise in the middle of the series but really it wasn't that bad and they did some decent pacing of it at the end.
3. Character I most want to keep in a little jar and study?: I'd love Chrome but I don't want to confine our little explorer to a small jar. So I'll say Senku but he gets a little lab set too!
9. The character I'd most enjoy feeding to a pride of lions?: Ibara, next question.
12. A ship I'd like to blow to smithereens with canon-balls?: Again assuming this means make it canon then Chrome and Ruri because I'm basic TM
14. The character/story arc I find most compelling?: It has to be Senku, but like honestly for how short his role was in the series, Senkus dad was incredibly well done and compelling as well! And Tsukasas growth as a character is also chef's kiss
19. Crossover/AU that would peak my interest?: I haven't thought about this yet o: uhhhh oh! What about some of these guys taking their knowledge of science into food science for a Food Wars x Dr. Stone crossover!
Thanks Rachel c:
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