#of course the whole thing needs to be double blind

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Actually, I think this does link in with a wider conversation that I have been thinking for a while Tumblr maybe needs to hear.

There's a common meme on this site now that no one here has any reading comprehension skills. The best one is, of course, the original "No offense but reading comprehension on this site is piss poor/How dare you say we piss on the poor" post, which gave rise to the nickname "pissing-on-the-poor website". There's also the "I like pancakes/How dare you say waffles are terrible" one. Both of these are great, because they're silly jokey ways to show two closely related phenomena that are probably the commonest ways to fail a reading comprehension check.

The first is someone reading certain catchphrases or buzzwords in the post, and based on their own biases or prior experiences or whatever else, their brain simply fills in what it reckons the poster is saying on the topic. Instead of reading the rest of the sentence and digesting it, the reader then just uses their assumption as the interpretation, and reacts to that.

The second is closely related, because it also uses biases and prior experiences to to interpret the post, but rather than ignoring what the OP is actually saying, it instead performs a series of gymnastic leaps to construct a whole new assertion on the OP's behalf that simply isn't there.

There's also a third, of course; that one is people being so eager to feel smug and superior over someone they perceive as Bad that they wilfully assume the OP is stupid or being serious when they're actually joking. And if the reader hadn't been so blinded by their desire to get to look down on someone, they'd have seen the very obvious tells, sometimes even including sentences like "Obviously this is a joke." (I think we have all seen examples of these. Also, in a bid to avoid as many reading comprehension fails here as possible, this does not include misunderstandings borne entirely of neurodiverse struggles to parse intentions; but, neurodiverse people are just as likely as neurotypicals to have ego play a part in their misinterpretation of others, and that is what this point is about.)

And the thing is... actually, we are all capable of any of these. I imagine a sizable chunk of people reading until this point were probably thinking "Lol, yeah, people are so stupid," but na, nage, I'm not having that. Literally everyone does these sometimes. And it becomes a particular risk when the topic under discussion is something that might brush against an issue that is a pressure point for you, like a social justice talking point that you are forever having to argue with internet strangers about, for example. Your brain holds schemas! And sometimes it likes to pattern match things before it deigns to tell you about its findings! And that can hit you right in the emotions, which if they are strong enough, really can shut down all rational thought.

But. This brings me to the real point of the post.

Because the thing is, we have all saddled up and gone to war under these conditions, or at the very least been strongly tempted to. And a vital skill that literally everyone has to learn, sooner or later, is:

Before you hit 'reply', double check the post to make sure you fucking understood it.

And that does not mean "simply re-read, confirm your bias, carry on." It means, "Is it possible to read this post from the point of view of someone who doesn't intend it the way I've taken it? If I put myself in the shoes of an innocent, could they still have written these words? Is there another interpretation for these phrases?"

And you do have to do this step. You simply do have to. Because if your desire is to 'clap back' and call someone a gargling knobskin made of garbage, fuck me sideways but you must see that it is imperative that you check if they actually deserve that kind of treatment first. You cannot spend your time claiming that we must all choose to be kind and then not bother doing your due diligence before screaming a person's various and assorted bigotries at them. If you misread it, and they were innocent - you are the raging aggressive cunt in this situation.

It does not matter that you reacted from an emotional place of normally having to defend yourself either, by the way. Sure, that makes the quality of your human soul better than that of the average Redditor who just enjoys anonymously hurting people, I guess? But it's also irrelevant. If you messaged someone and called them a misogynist because you performed several mental somersaults and landed on your own sore spot when they meant no such thing, you are the attacker. You owe them an apology. And yeah, sure, you can explain your over-reaction as the product of your normal experiences if you like, but that is only an explanation, not an excuse. You are still the asshole here. You still need to apologise and mean it.

And you could have avoided it if you'd done that due diligence, as you should have. If you're going to take a swing, make sure it's the right target. This was once described to me as donkey people - they don't think, they just kick. This is admittedly a little unkind to donkeys, who always do their due diligence, but I feel it's an apt metaphor.

TL;DR: If you feel moved to angrily reply to something, first make sure you've interpreted it right. Don't be a donkey person. And if you ask for clarification, people are innocent until proven guilty. Ask nicely. If they are a bigot, you can then smelt them for parts.

[ms-demeanor]

Hey friend! So while I'm incredibly skeptical, I'm not strictly against alternative medicine, like you are. I saw you mention reiki, and thought you might geek out on this article like I did:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200308195914/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/reiki-cant-possibly-work-so-why-does-it/606808/

It's called "Reiki Can't Possibly Work. So Why Does It?" and I highly encourage reading the whole thing. It first of all thoroughly debunks a lot of the claims reiki practitioners make but it also details all of the studies that have proven its effectiveness and provides what I find a pretty compelling explanation: that much of modern western medicine is stressful and traumatizing. Of course laying in a quiet room with the lights dimmed while a kind person sits with you and wishes for you to be well is effective. It reduces stress and all of the negative biological processes it triggers, which promotes healing.

The article mentions that for years we didn't understand the mechanism by which acetaminophen worked - we just knew it did. I knew a man who was really into "chakra therapy" in the 90s where he had a set of colored sunglasses that, supposedly, would rebalance one's out-of-whack chakras through light therapy. He found that attending to his throat chakra, yellow, helped him sleep better. Years later, formal studies found that yellow lenses filter blue light and can help regulate circadian rhythms.

When I was really little, my uncle sold magnet therapy products (which claimed to promote circulation?? I think??). I had a huge meltdown at a family reunion and no one could get me to calm down. My uncle put a blanket full of magnets on top of me, and I immediately relaxed. Imagine my surprise hearing that story for the first time as an adult who now uses a weighted blanket for stress.

I agree that people need to be really careful about these practices, about getting scammed, and especially about herbal supplements that can have dangerous interactions. I also think there's an extent to which you can analyze the risks and benefits and say, "Okay, I have no idea why this works but it does and there's no major downsides."

Hey so I get a bit heated in this response but I want you to know that I approached this ask in good faith because I know you and I know that we have a lot of the same values and interests and this touched a nerve that was not at all your fault and once I get past the direct response to the article I think I come off a little less. Um. Like the aggression there is not directed at you, it's directed at the article and at one person mentioned in the article specifically who is part of why my reaction to the article is so not good. But I promise after the last bullet point I come off as less reactive, I think. (I'm also publishing this publicly because I think it may be helpful for people to see how CAM stuff often gets away with a veneer of skepticism-that-isn't-actually-skepticism - the article claims to be skeptical but then makes a ton of assumptions and cites some truly mind-bogglingly bad sources that a lot of people won't recognize as bad if they don't have a hair trigger trained by far too much time on the bad CAM parts of the internet).

I've actually read that article a few time times, and would like to do a quick rundown on why I find it unconvincing:

She doesn't cite any decent studies on reiki; one that she does cite is just a self-reported questionnaire response from 23 people in 2002.

While we don't know the exact mechanism of action for acetaminophen, we do know that it does work - it measurably reduces fever and in double blinded RCTs produces reproduceable results in reducing certain kinds of pain. The Science Based Medicine authors cited in the article who called for an end to studies on reiki did so both because there is no plausible mechanism of action for reiki (specifically as energy work, not as 'being in a room with a patient person who listens to you') and because there is no good evidence that it works. (And they wrote a follow-up to the Atlantic article; I like SBM but it's quite sneery, as are most of their write-ups of reiki). When Kisner asks "why should this be different?" when comparing reiki and acetaminophen, the answer is: because there is not only no plausible way that reiki *could* work, there is not any good evidence we have that it works better than placebo.

"Various non-Western practices have become popular complements to conventional medicine in the past few decades, chief among them yoga, meditation, and acupuncture, all of which have been the subject of rigorous scientific studies that have established and explained their effectiveness." This one sentence needs probably twenty or so links in response, suffice it to say that western medicine has emphatically not established and explained the effectiveness of AT LEAST acupuncture and the casually credulous way Kisner accepts that acupuncture is effective (effective FOR WHAT?) throws some serious doubt on her ability to assess these kinds of things.

The title of the article is "Reiki can't possibly work, so why does it?" and that's probably the Atlantic's fault more than Jordan Kisner's fault, but she doesn't ever demonstrate that it works. She says she got a buzzy feeling after her training, she says that patients at the VA were asking for reiki as treatment for pain and sleep disorders, she says that people remembered "healing touches" from parents and loved ones and that the same mechanism might be what makes reiki 'work.' She says that reiki "has been shown by various studies that pass evidentiary muster to help patients in a variety of ways when used as a complementary practice" and the two studies that she includes that weren't just a questionnaire were 1) a non-blinded study of heart rate variability post heart attack where the reiki arm involved continuous interaction with a trained nurse and the other two arms involved resting quietly or classical music (so relaxation as a result of additional focused attention by attentive medical professionals could account for this? Why was the control for this study not having a med student sit and hold the patient's hand?) and 2) a study of patients who sought out reiki who were surveyed after treatment and noted improvement on one of twenty mental or physical markers (this study is like, GOLD for an example of a bad study; no control, self-selected participants who believe in the efficacy of the intervention, exceptionally broad criteria for a positive result - I find it really really really challenging to grant any credence to someone who confidently cited this as an example of reiki "working")

Near the end of the article she says "At the same time, this recalled the most cutting-edge, Harvard-stamped science I’d read in my research: Ted Kaptchuk’s finding that the placebo effect is a real, measurable, biological healing response to “an act of caring.” - if she read any of Ted Kaptchuk's research she didn't link to it; what she did link to was a 2018 New York Times profile of him and Kathryn Hall, researchers at Harvard's Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter program. Being any flavor of journalist and citing Ted Kaptchuk as your source for cutting-edge, institutionally-backed science is disqualifying.

I now need to do some yelling about Ted Kaptchuk.

For clarity: I have as much medical training as Kathryn Hall and Ted Kaptchuk, which is to say: None.

Hall is a microbiologist with a PhD in Public Health, so she at least a background in science. Kaptchuk is an acupuncturist with a BA in East Asian studies and a doctorate in Chinese medicine - notably NOT a medical degree; he was forced to stop calling himself a doctor and had papers retracted after enough people questioned whether the school he claimed he attended even existed and the documents he presented to claim that he was an "OMD" were conclusively translated and did not have any indication that the granted a medical degree of any kind - Science Based Medicine was involved in investigating this because they've been comprehensively anti-quack forever and Ted Kaptchuk has been a quack forever (after recieving confirmation from the government of Macau that Kaptchuk's alma mater was not a medical degree granting institution SBM STILL gave him the benefit of the doubt and had people translate his documentation for final confirmation).

He is also an author on of one of my most beloathed ever studies, which showed that sham acupuncture, placebo, and albuterol all produced the same effect on patient-reported well-being, coming to the conclusion that patient reports can be unreliable and that "placebo effects can be clinically meaningful and can rival the effects of active medication in patients with asthma." That fucking line, that stupid goddamned line, gets cited in every piece of woo bullshit about how acupuncture or chiropractic or some scam-ass diet all work, I've run into this study while looking through at least twenty bibliographies and it is one of the biggest, reddest flags that whoever is writing the paper you're reading is full up on some bullshit. Because, see, the paper found that "placebo effects can be clinically meaningful and can rival the effects of active medication in patients with asthma" in terms of *patient-reported* markers, but the fucking study found that only albuterol produced an actual effect in lung function. Here's the sentence BEFORE the one that gets cited all the time: "Although albuterol, but not the two placebo interventions, improved FEV1 [forced expiratory volume in one second - the measure for lung function used in the study and used to diagnose asthma] in these patients with asthma, albuterol provided no incremental benefit with respect to the self-reported outcomes." It doesn't matter if the patient *feels* better if they can't actually breathe! It doesn't fucking matter - feeling better but still having poor breathing leaves you more vulnerable to dying of a fucking asthma attack! I hate this goddamned study so fucking much and it's used all the time to claim that placebo can be just as effective as medicine for making people FEEL better but, like, they're still sick even if they feel better! I HAVE HAD PEOPLE CITE THIS STUPID FUCKING STUDY TO ME AS EVIDENCE THAT I DON'T CARE ENOUGH ABOUT TREATING MY FUCKING ASTHMA BECAUSE I DON'T GET ACUPUNCTURE TO TREAT MY FUCKING ASTHMA. If sham acupuncture makes you feel better when you've got the flu but doesn't lower your fever or make you less contagious, you shouldn't act like you don't have a fever or aren't contagious this study makes me INSANE.

Okay done yelling.

I think this look at placebo in the midst of her article about reiki is really interesting because it's very common for CAM practitioners to claim that it's as effective as placebo - which just means that it's not effective. This is a great explanation from The Skeptic on why placebo isn't and can't be what Kaptchuk, Hall, and the like claim. It's also interesting to me that Kisner didn't choose to link to a 2011 New Yorker profile of Kaptchuk that is somewhat less rosy about his placebo studies and includes this absolutely crushing statement: "the placebo effect doesn’t appear to work with Alzheimer’s patients. Trivers suggests that this is because most people who have Alzheimer’s disease are unable to anticipate the future and are therefore unable to prepare for it."

But to the actual point of the ask: I honestly think it's fascinating how much CAM success probably rides on "well did you listen to the patient and pay attention to what was wrong with them and sympathize with them and help them lay out plan that made them feel like they had some agency in this exceptionally frustrating situation (chronic illness, newly diagnosed issue, totally undiagnosed issue) that they're dealing with?"

I know part of why people with chronic illnesses turn to CAM is because they're ignored and dismissed by allopathic practitioners who are largely looking for horses, not zebras - this is one of the reasons that I'm really big on reminding people that (at least in the US) DOs are fully licensed physicians who use a holistic and patient-centered approach so if you are someone with a chronic illness who has had trouble getting diagnosed or had trouble getting doctors to believe you, swapping your MD for a DO as a primary care physician might be really, really helpful to you.

But the flip side of that is that is that I worry deeply about the question of where harm starts; the example with your uncle is really great because you do have a solid instance of something working but for totally the wrong reason (pressure being the mechanism that actually helped, versus magnets being the reason given by the person who did the treatment). Some of this stuff has very little likelihood of causing direct harm, but has the distinct possibility of having indirect harms, which people in the anti-CAM space generally divide into two categories, treatment delay and unnecessary costs (opportunity costs, monetary costs, wasted effort, etc.)

I'm going to step outside of your specific example and look at magnet therapy generally, which really is a spectacular thing to focus on because it honestly doesn't have any direct harms; nobody is allergic to magnets, the kinds of magnets used aren't strong enough to interfere with medical devices, it's even safer than the whole "well herbalism is sometimes just a cup of tea" thing because there are "safe" teas that can do real harm to large populations! But simply being around magnets is not going to hurt anyone (unless they're swallowed; nobody swallow magnets please).

One of the things that I think goes under-discussed when talking about placebo and CAM is that the people trying the alternative solutions desperately WANT the alternative medicine to work (I suspect that this is why the self-selected study of reiki patients has such a significant finding). They are pulling for it; they may be looking at it as a last resort, or they may be hoping that it will work to avoid a treatment that is more frightening, expensive, or inaccessible. I think this actually contributes a lot to the delay of care that we see with CAM.

The absolute worst case harm I can imagine from magnetic therapy is delaying treatment. Let's suppose we've got a diabetic patient with gradually increasing peripheral neuropathy; they have reacted poorly to gabapentin in the past and are looking for something more natural, and they hear from their chiropractor that magnet therapy can be used to treat neuropathy. They buy some compression socks with "magnetic and earthing properties" and sleep in the socks. Whether through the compression controlling some edema or through the simple desire for the socks to work, they feel some relief from the nerve pain they were experiencing and decide that this is a success. The socks work! They continue wearing the socks with occasional pain, but less than before. However, because they are focused on the lack of pain, they don't notice that it's accompanied by increasing numbness. The numbness significantly increases their risk of injury to their feet, which significantly increases their risk of amputation.

It probably sounds like catastrophizing to say "using magnets could lead to amputation" but honestly I don't think it's that far out of the realm of possibility (every time I post on this topic I get flooded with the saddest stories in the world about people whose loved ones died because of delayed treatment for cancer or heart disease).

The second category of harm is cost, which is honestly pretty minimal with magnet therapy, as long as you aren't spending $1049 on a magnetic mat

or paying a chiropractor to give you magnetic treatments. For some other medically harmless treatments like reiki, cost is the thing that I worry about - while I was looking up information related to the article I found that people are charging anywhere from $60 to $225 a session, and selling multi-session packages for thousands of dollars - and if someone thinks that something works, even if it only works by being in a soothing space where someone cares about you - they'll pay for it.

I'm aware that all of this is also extra complicated because of the cost and lack of access to allopathic medicine - a chiropractor broke my spine because I could pay her $60 per appointment but I couldn't pay $125 to see an MD when I didn't have insurance. People who are sick are going to look for treatment; people who have been denied treatment or dismissed by doctors are going to look for alternative treatments.

But man, I really wish I'd spent that sixty bucks on half of a doctor's appointment because the chiropractor didn't know about the benign tumor that I had that weakened the structure of that particular bone when she did her adjustment; it also didn't make the pain go away, it made a different pain start and get worse because it turns out I was having debilitating muscle spasms that then had a bone injury added in on top.

(Chiropractic, for the record, goes with chelation therapy and many many many many cases of herbalism where it's NOT just cost or delay; people claim these treatments are harmless and they are not. They can do tremendous harm).

But yeah I'm not going to deny at all that all of this would be a hell of a lot better if people (especially marginalized people) didn't have to jump through hoops to prove to a doctor that something is wrong with them, and didn't have to do so in an appointment that attempts to cram whole person care down into fifteen minutes, and didn't have the possibility of bankrupting you. Interacting with allopathic medicine is a nightmare and I totally understand why people want to look outside of it for treatment.

I've just heard too many horror stories and seen too much predatory CAM to cut much of it any slack.

At the end of the SBM response to the Atlantic article, the author (I can't remember if it's Gorski or Novella) makes the point that reiki is a spiritual practice, and that we've known for a long time that spiritual practices can improve a person's well-being in a number of ways; they can reduce anxiety, they can provide community, they can give people a space to feel and express emotions that they certainly aren't going to be able to process in a doctor's office. Spiritual practices can be wonderful, and we know there are a lot of people who they can help. But they aren't medicine, and attempting to replace medicine with them (which I don't think that most reiki practitioners are trying to do, to be fair, but which Ted Kaptchuk DEFINITELY is in trying to 'harness the power of placebo') is a disservice to people who need an inhaler instead of acupuncture.

Also, and I know this was not your point but I have to bring it up because people ask about it whenever discussions of placebo come up:

The placebo effect is not treatment. The placebo effect, whether achieved through deception or when someone says loud and clear "this is a sugar pill" does not improve an illness, but it may improve how a patient *feels* about an illness. In some cases, this may as well be the same thing - if you're dealing with muscle pain because you're stressed and no matter what you do it doesn't go away because your shoulders are always up around your ears and you're grinding your teeth and you're sleeping poorly, then literally just talking to someone who is in an office and says "this is a sugar pill, go ahead and take it" may make your muscle pain feel better, but it isn't going to reduce your stress and it isn't going to last, and if your muscle pain is because you're feeling angina as a result of a partially blocked artery then it SURE AS FUCK is not going to make you better and may mask symptoms that were a warning sign of a much more serious problem. People who are sick deserve actual treatment, and placebo is not treatment, which is part of why Ted Kaptchuk makes me want to tear my hair out.

[callme-holly]

𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐃.𝐂

||۶ৎ darry curtis x johnny's older sister!reader

⊹₊⋆.˚୨୧⋆.˚₊ ⊹

The sun casts a gentle glow across the sidewalk as you approach the gate of the house, the rays glinting off the metal like light to a magnifying glass, blinding if you look from the wrong direction. The latch is broken, the hinges rusted and crying as you push it open, but everything seems so… lived in. 

You’ve never really been here, never really seen the people Johnny speaks so highly of. Of course, you’ve heard of the Curtis boys and perhaps seen them in passing, but never stopped to talk. Never to thank them personally for all the things they do for your brother when you can’t. 

You’ve been raising Johnny ever since your parents checked out, working double shifts to try and pay for your own dilapidated apartment where the paint is grey and pallid. He stays with you occasionally—long enough for your parents to not grow suspicious—and then spends the rest of his nights here. Or in the lot, but that part he never tells you. 

The doorknob, probably once a delicate gold, is now worn down from being turned too many times, and the wood is splintered at the bottom right corner, seemingly from where a boot has made contact too many times. It’s charming in its own rugged way, homely, yet broken enough to make you hesitate when knocking.

If these boys were anything like Dallas Winston—the rough hood Johnny claims to be his closest friend—then you would not be all too welcome. In fact, they probably don’t even know who you are, and while Johnny may have mentioned you, it’s not like you’d made the effort to reach out. 

Your knock resounds before you can stop yourself, knuckles rapping against the wood in a soft, repetitive motion that cuts through the silence like a knife. The tension simmers, that uncomfortable waiting game in full force that has you shifting nervously on the spot, the planks of the deck creaking beneath the soles of your shoes. 

There’s a call from inside, muffled and indistinct, then footsteps, heavy yet certain in a way that has your muscles tensing out of pure instinct. Your mind starts to race at such a speed you struggle to keep up; maybe you should just turn away now. Johnny can grab his jacket the next time he’s over… But he needs it now and you really can’t afford to get him a spare… 

Before you can even begin to entertain the idea of turning on your heel, the door opens, and for a moment your breath seems to catch, oxygen escaping you entirely and leaving you winded. 

“Can I help you?” His voice is rough from use, a deep rumble in the back of his throat that makes your stomach flutter and your heart skip a beat. For a moment, you feel akin to a giddy   girl with a crush on her teacher—childish, naive… 

“I—I think my brother left something behind.” Your voice comes out in an almost squeak, weak and pathetic, making you cringe internally and wish for the world to open up and swallow you whole. 

The stranger raises a brow, tilting his head slightly, and you can’t help but notice the wya his bicway flex where he holds the door. It’s enough to make the butterflies flap their wings harder, their little bodies stirring up a storm inside of you, making you feel entirely elated that your brother has such good taste in friends.

“Brother?” He pauses for a few moments, the cogs turning slowly, before his eyes brighten in recognition. “Wait, you’re Johnny’s sister?” 

You nod, maybe a little too quickly, and his bewildered expression quickly melts into  a genuine smile, one that eases your tight muscles and makes any idea that you were unwelcome seems utterly ridiculous. 

“I thought I recognised you. Y’all look alike, really.” He muses, before stepping aside, still holding the door. “You want to come in?” 

Your feet seem to be working faster than your brain, and without any sort of rational thought, you step forward and into the house, immediately enveloped by the sheer warmth that seems to surround the place.

It smells faintly like cooking and smoke, and every piece of furniture looks like it holds at least a thousand memories. The TV in the corner is a little dated and beaten, but it’s more than you have at your place, so you can’t exactly judge. 

He heads towards the general direction of the kitchen, and you follow blindly, like a lost puppy with nowhere better to be. “D’you want a drink or something?” 

His words snap you out of your reverie and you nod again, only once, before deciding maybe words will make you look less weird. “Please. Just a water is fine.” 

You can’t help but watch as he works, drifting about the space with a grace that draws you in like a moth to a flame; his muscles ripple beneath the fabric of his shirt and, god, this is wrong. This is so wrong; this is your brother’s friend and here you are drooling over him like some type of starved animal.

The silence has stretched between you both for a few seconds now, filled only by the clinking of glasses and the running of the tap, and you decide to desist from being awkward much longer before he draws to the conclusion you're weird and kicks you out. 

“Um… You’re Ponyboy, right?” 

The man laughs, deep and rich, and while it’s sweet as honey, it has you growing nervous all over again. He turns slowly, handing you the glass, callused fingers brushing yours and sending sparks through every nerve ending. “That’s my little brother.” He corrects. “I’m Darry.” 

Darry…. 

“Oh.” He must sense your embarrassment, the feeling tacit, as he very quickly adds.

“It’s fine; Johnny must talk about him a lot. They’re close.” He smiles again. “It’s okay.” And the reassurance is enough to have you melting like putty, your bones turning to jelly under the mere sound of his voice. 

Your fingers tighten around the glass, knuckles turning white, a way to ground yourself and try to resist the urge to throw yourself at him. He’s addictive just to look at, and that only makes you more aware of his eyes on you. Not in a judgemental way—just a steady gaze that has you shifting, like he’s trying to read you without asking too much. 

You take a small sip from the water, more out of something to do than actual thirst, letting the liquid soothe the lump in your throat before braving speech once more. “He, uh— He really looks up to guys. Johnny, I mean.” Your stuttering does little to mask your flustered front, but Darry doesn’t seem to mind. 

“Yeah… He’s a really good kid. Shame y’all got dealt such a shitty, you know.” He sits down opposite you, leaning back in the chair like it’s completely natural. “How’s he settling in with you? He said he’d moved in.” 

And the fact that Johnny had even mentioned this much makes you feel a strange sense of warmth, a value that brings you close to tears. And most importantly, Darry had remembered. He knew the whereabouts of your brother.

“He’s doing well. Big change but he’s safer… Happier, I hope.” 

Darry nods, dropping his gaze to the table top, fingers tracing the grains of the wood idly. “It’s nice to know he’s got someone else who cares ‘bout him.” 

There’s something tender behind those words that has your heart beating a thousand times faster, and you stand suddenly, needing to escape the urge to grab him by the collar and just… No.

“I should probably grab his jacket.” the words come out in a garbled rush. “Don’t want to get in the way of anything!” 

Darry looks suddenly startled, eyes widening slightly, and you’d feel bad if it weren’t for the fact he had your stomach in knots. But he points casually to the living room regardless in a way that is almost natural; He doens’t seem in much of a rush to get rid of you.

Sure enough, Johnny’s jacket is folded over the back of the couch like it belongs there. Your fingers brush over the worn denim of the collar, and everything about it feels safe. Stable. Like home. 

“Y’know,” Darry starts, still watching you carefully. “He talks about you a lot, too.” 

“He does?” You don’t turn, not at first, too scared to make full eye contact out of fear of short-circuiting. 

He hums, standing and walking towards you. “Yeah. Says you work too hard and that he worries you don’t take time for yourself.” 

The lump that forms in your throat is different now—burning and unexpected. It’s a pain you didn’t realise was lingering, the epiphany that your little brother is concerned because you’re the last piece of family he’s got… 

“I’m trying,” you admit, keeping your gaze down. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel like enough.” 

There’s a beat, and then his fingers are tilting your chin up, touching feather-light but enough to make your cheeks warm. Your eyes meet his own; green and perfect, like the calmest parts of the ocean, the parts where you’d trust the currents to carry you anywhere. 

“You being here? You supporting him through everything? That’s enough. Trust me.” His voice is low now, soft and a little more genuine. “You dont gotta carry it all on your own.” 

Something about the way in which he says it cracks you open, and you nod again, not trying your voice, afraid it might shatter and give you away.

Darry glances to the door, then back at you. "If you want, you can stay a minute. Nobody's back for a while and the company's nice..."

You hesitate. Part of you knows you should go, that if you accept this offer, you're giving in to a trap you know is wrong to fall into. That being here, this close, is dangerous. But there's another part, deep in the depths of your heart, that is starving for comfort, warmth, and everything he's giving you…

So you shrug, biting your lip to hold back the full force of your smile.

"A minute wouldn't hurt."

He smiles back—real, warm—and gestures towards the couch.

"Alright, sweetheart. Take a load off."

And you do, talking about anything and everything, relieving yourself of weights you didn't even know existed. Suddenly, the Curtis house doesn't feel quite so unfamiliar anymore 

||۶ৎ darry masterlist

||۶ৎ tag list. @mrsdillonx , @goingdelux18 , @princesshailierawr , @r0seb100d , @groovydonutpost, @rizzraa , @sheepandlams , @marinefreaakk , @sugarrootwrites , @marilyn-girly , @itonlyhastobetruetoday , @dairyfairyy , @williamafton26 , @mystiqueonfleek007 , @atpeacee , @theoneandonly-vrg

[syluxs]

who knew toge had game?

pairing: inumaki toge/reader

warnings: very slightly suggestive, y/n has a hickey and they make fun of them for it, gojou is annoying

note: i'm sorry... i just thought of the aftermath of a make out session with toge, and how everyone doesn't expect toge to even actually be making out with anyone--much less give a damn hickey.

you were walking down the hallway, mindlessly holding a stack of cursed weapons in your arms, when you noticed megumi staring at you. at first, you didn’t think much of it. maybe he just happened to have his eyes on you?

but then, his gaze slowly drifted down to your neck, and then quickly shot back up to meet your eyes.

"y/n..." he said, his voice sounded genuinely worried. "you, uh… you got something on your neck."

you froze in your tracks. your hands instinctively dropped the weapons and went to your neck, feeling them in for any sort of thing--cockroach? dirt? cursed spirit?

your heart skipped a beat when you realized what it could be.

a giant, reddish-purple hickey.

you felt the heat rising to your face as you slowly processed the situation.

"uh..." you muttered incoherent words, trying to think about what to say to the spiky haired boy, already feeling the embarrassment crawling up your neck.

megumi raised an eyebrow, clearly trying to figure out how to even address it. "is that..… a bruise?"

you didn't even notice that you were holding your breath. you sighed to try to relax your nerves and gave him a reluctant nod. "yeah... it’s, uh, nothing." you said, trying to sound nonchalant, though you were definitely far from it.

and of course, that’s when your annoying loud ass teacher decided to appear around the corner, grinning like the mischievous idiot that he was. he glanced at you, then at megumi, he then had to do a double take at your neck.

it didn’t take long for him to let out a teasing gasp.

"whoa, is that a hickey?!" he said loudly, feigning ignorance. you could feel your blood getting cold at the sight of his grin starting to stretch across his face. shit, maybe blood was starting to drain from your face. "y/n, i didn’t know you had that kind of… relationship with inumaki-kun."

your stomach flipped, looking at gojou in pure horror. "sensei....." you grumble, trying to cover the mark with your hand as if it would make the situation go away. "it’s not like that!"

but gojou wasn’t having it. his grin only grew wider as he leaned in, his hand on his chin, clearly enjoying every second of your embarrassment. "no, no, i need details. when did this happen? was it a late-night training session, or maybe an early morning sparring match?" he said in a playful tone, the lilt and shift in his tone making you want to sprint and run the fuck away. "tell me, y/n. what’s the deal with toge?"

you rolled your eyes as you bent down on your knees to pick up the weapons you dropped, "please shut up, sensei."

megumi, who had been silently watching the whole exchange, was now looking at you with an expression of pure confusion. "wait, you’re telling me... inumaki-senpai did this? through that way?" his voice had an edge of disbelief.

you gave a defeated sigh and nodded as you stood up straight again, covering your eyes with one hand, as if you're being blinded by bright lights. you looked way too comical right now. "yeah... i didn’t think it would last until today." you muttered, feeling your face start to get hotter by the second under their gaze. the blood is back, thank goodness. you thought you were gonna faint. you had no idea the hickey was gonna be very visible, even with the jujutsu high jacket on.

gojou was already laughing, holding his stomach. "wow, this is priceless! toge? really?" he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he doesn't even know where to start. "didn’t know he had it in him. guess he’s got game after all."

you stomped your foot, practically wishing you could melt into the floor. this wasn’t how you’d planned to spend your afternoon, especially with your neck now being a topic of discussion.

then, as if the universe hated you, toge appeared around the same corner where gojou came from, his usual calm, collected self. you watched him carefully, his eyes softening at the sight of your face.

however, his gaze quickly flicked to your neck, his eyes widening at the sight and face turning to an alarming shade of pink, noticing that megumi and satoru were both around and it seems it was very much the topic in the damn area.

"konbu?" he greeted in his usual soft voice, his hand raised slightly to say "hi".

only you could see the utter horror in his face, and somehow, that made you feel even more embarrassed. you gave him a sympathetic look, trying to signal that it wasn’t his fault, but it was obvious he was struggling to find the words.

gojou, of course, took that moment to pounce. "so, this is the mysterious toge, huh? i didn’t know you were so..." he made a show of looking at toge’s flustered expression, "...intense."

inumaki shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck. "shake....." he muttered under his breath, clearly trying to apologize without being too awkward.

"shake? really? that’s the best you got, buddy?" gojou teased, clearly enjoying this way too much.

you threw a katana to gojou's way, but it only dropped to the floor because of his limitless technique. damn.

all of your eyes then shift to megumi, who’d been silently observing, but flinched when you hurled the weapon. he now looked at both you and toge. he gulped, suddenly feeling pressured as he doesn't know what to say under all of your gazes. "uh... i don’t get it. inumaki-senpai? really? i've always thought you were, uh, well, the innocent type."

you could feel the tension in the air thicken as everyone waited for toge to say something back, but instead, he just blinked rapidly and fidgeted with his hands, clearly at a loss for how to deal with the situation. you walked to him and reached out to place a gentle pat on his arm, trying to ease the tension. "don’t worry about it, toge. it’s okay," you said softly, giving him a small, reassuring smile--which quickly vanished when you turned your head to look at your teacher with a scowl, frown so deep, it looked like you were an evil entity. inumaki tapped your shoulder twice, as if telling you to calm down. he could tell you were about to literally bite the annoying white haired man like a rabid animal.

gojou, of course, wasn’t done yet. "i’m definitely telling everyone about this," he said with a gleam in his eye. quickly pulling out his phone, he took a few pictures of your neck. "this is too good to keep to myself."

"gojou satoru..." you muttered under your breath as you pulled your jacket's sleeve up, your hand curled into a fist, ready to fight your teacher.

the rest of the day was a blur of you chasing around gojou, trying to attack him, while adjusting your scarf to hide the mark.

toge did his best to avoid eye contact with everyone, after seeing that your dumb teacher sent the picture of your neck to the jujutsu high group chat.

[12:00 PM] the strongest (and hottest) sorcerer: guys.... look at the bruise that inumaki-kun gave y/n

[12:01 PM] crybaby womanizer: so intense inumaki!!

[12:02 PM] wild animal: (sends a pic of u chasing gojou on the field) it's war here yuuta, u're missing out

[12:02 PM] takada-chan's husband: INUMAKI!! i am so proud of you

it was chaotic, everyone teased toge about it while you were busy fighting your teacher all around the place. the principal, yaga, even joined in on all the mayhem, yelling and asking gojou to fight you fair and square, no cursed techniques for him only. of course you were allowed to use everything you can to fight him.

somehow, though, you realized it wasn’t as bad as you thought.

[yandere-romanticaa]

I need to take a moment to appreciate my husband because I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight unless I write something for him.

Imagine Jing Yuan constantly making up itty bitty excuses in order to see you. Fetch him this, make him some tea, oh would you look at that there's a meeting, why not join since you're already here? Oh come on, don't worry, no one will give you any funny looks if you're next to him!

People look and talk, of course they do. When was the last time the general ever took such interest in someone? His intentions are clearer than a spring sky, he is very much flirting with you. The gentle touches and his playful words are so hard to ignore that the Cloud Knights have several inside jokes because of their general. There's a catch though - you don't believe that Jing Yuan has feelings for you!

That is right. You are constantly explaining away his attitude and wandering hands as "Jing Yuan acting like Jing Yuan", nothing more, nothing less. The sheer amount of guards who give you a side eyed glance has long past the double digits because, good grief, how can a person be this blind?

Jing Yuan doesn't mind this. As a matter of fact, he takes great pleasure in your naivete.

Watching you crumble before him has become a favorite past time of his. Nothing makes him smile more than to see your resolve turn to mush the moment he takes the conversation in a direction which you are not prepared for. His touches are an odd mixture of being frequent enough that it would be odd if he hadn't touched you for more than 3 whole hours and so casual that one could be forgiven for mistaking you two as a pair. You brush him off with a huff, calling him all sorts of names as Jing Yuan laughs at your flustered being.

Times such as those it's so easy to forget the absolute power he holds over so many things and people.

Make no mistake dear. This is his way of claiming you, slowly but surely. Let the people speak, let them gossip.

Let them know that he set his sights on you.

No one would dare come near you if the public knew that you were his. If some fool ever even tried Jing Yuan would have no problem with staring down at them, the intensity of his gaze would send the message he was sending perfectly.

Leave if you wish to live.

He is a tactician at heart and right now, he is trying to map his way into your own.

[tivaforgood]

So, it's official: NCIS: Tony and Ziva is coming in September, which is only a few short weeks away!! Seriously… it'll fly by in the blink of an eye!

If you've been here for a while, you'll know that I'm a long-time Tiva lover, and this is the most excited for anything I have ever been, for obvious reasons!

But it recently dawned on me that there are people out there who may only be meeting Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David for the first time through the spinoff trailer, and wanting to watch the show because it looks awesome! (I wholeheartedly agree!)

Of course, this is a couple that spanned 8 years on NCIS, and over 190 episodes. That's a whole lot of television! While it is possible to watch all of them before the show premieres in August – and I would highly recommend it, as there's so many small moments you'd miss, and it's the best way to fully understand them –I realise that it might not be for everybody. If you only want to watch the mothership for Tiva, then you probably don't want to see most of the unnecessary filler episodes in the middle. Which is why I've made this – a breakdown of all Tiva episodes you need to watch before the spinoff comes out! (i.e things you need to see so there are very few gaps in your knowledge!) • Major Tiva episodes are highlighted in bold italics. • Anything else on the list are episodes that are recommended you watch, but which are not absolutely pivotal for you to be able to understand their story.

Season 3: (if you can, watch the whole thing.) 3x01: Kill Ari (Part 1) 3x02: Kill Ari (Part 2) 3x04: Silver War 3x06: The Voyeur's Web 3x08: Undercovers 3x09: Frame Up 3x10: Probie 3x12: Boxed In 3x22: Jeopardy 3x23: Hiatus (Part 1) 3x24: Hiatus (Part 2)

Season 4: (again, if you can, watch the whole thing.) 4x01: Shalom 4x09: Twisted Sister 4x16: Dead Man Walking 4x20: Cover Story 4x24: Angel of Death

Season 5: 5x01: Bury Your Dead 5x02: Family 5x10: Corporal Punishment 5x12: Stakeout 5x14: Internal Affairs 5x16: Recoil 5x18: Judgement Day (Part 1) 5x19: Judgement Day (Part 2)

Season 6: (yet again, watch the whole season.) 6x01: Last Man Standing 6x02: Agent Afloat 6x05: Nine Lives 6x08: Cloak 6x09: Dagger 6x22: Legend (Part 1) 6x23: Legend (Part 2) 6x24: Semper Fidelis 6x25: Aliyah Season 7: (and again, watch the whole thing.) 7x01: Truth or Consequences (THE ULTIMATE TIVA EPISODE) 7x02: Reunion 7x03: The Inside Man 7x04: Good Cop, Bad Cop 7x10: Faith 7x13: Jet Lag 7x18: Jurisdiction 7x24: Rule Fifty-One Season 8: (nothing is good about this season aside from these eps) 8x05: Dead Air 8x22: Baltimore 8x23: Swan Song 8x24: Pyramid Season 9: (I'd watch the whole thing.) 9x01: Nature of the Beast 9x11: Newborn King 9x12: Housekeeping 9x13: A Desperate Man 9x15: Secrets 9x23: Up in Smoke 9x24: Till Death Do Us Part Season 10: (Watch every episode. Trust me. This is THE Tiva season!) 10x01: Extreme Prejudice 10x02: Recovery 10x03: Phoenix 10x04: Lost at Sea 10x05: The Namesake 10x06: Shell Shock (Part 1) 10x07: Shell Shock (Part 2) 10x08: Gone 10x09: Devil's Trifecta 10x10: You Better Watch Out 10x11: Shabbat Shalom 10x12: Shiva 10x13: Hit and Run 10x14: Canary 10x15: Hereafter 10x16: Detour 10x17: Prime Suspect 10x18: Seek 10x19: Squall 10x20: Chasing Ghosts 10x21: Berlin 10x22: Revenge 10x23: Double Blind 10x24: Damned If You Do Season 11: 11x01: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot 11x02: Past, Present and Future Season 13: 13x23: Dead Letter 13x24: Family First Season 16: 16x13: She 16x24: Daughters Season 17: 17x01: Out of the Darkness 17x02: Into the Light 17x10: The North Pole 17x11: In the Wind [the spinoff begins directly after the events of this episode!]

Perhaps I'm biased, but if you can watch all 190-odd episodes, do it. It's the best way to truly understand these two characters and their relationship (and everything they've been through). And I feel it likely that the spinoff will contain small easter eggs and references to tiny Tiva moments, so to appreciate and recognise them all, I highly recommend watching every Tiva episode in existence! <3

[laura1633]

I had to write something after hearing Crane suggest Max wear a ball gag to the first press conference of the year. It's just something short and silly but here it is. (1281 words)

“Charles, quick here, help me with this!”

Charles makes a peculiar squeaking sound as he finds two hands on him dragging him away from the direction he was heading and down a corridor. The Monegasque is just about to start kicking and screaming when he realises that it is Max who is currently manhandling him. 

“We don’t have much time” Max holds something up in his hand. And Charles - , well Charles has to do a double take because -

“What the fuck is that?” Charles stares straight at the item. There’s no real need to ask what it is because it is quite clearly a ball gag. The real question is why Max is holding it up menacingly seconds before they head into a press conference. 

“I was talking to Seb,” Max appears a little frustrated at the delay Charles is causing by wanting an explanation, “and he said that if I really want to make a statement about these new rules then perhaps the best statement would be silence….”

“Seb said to wear a gag?” Charles raises an eyebrow as he gives Max a curious look. He supposes that does sound a little like something Seb would suggest.

“Well no not exactly,” Max’s lips curl upwards into a grin, “The gag was my idea. Good right?”

“You know you’ll probably end up in the stewards room for this?” Charles’ heart rate spikes as Max impatiently thrusts the ball gag into his hands. 

“I will end up in there anyway!” Max smirks, “May as well have some fun first.” 

Charles finds a lot of things fun. Hanging out with friends. Skiing. Hiking. Music. Something. Anything other than stepping out in front of the world’s media in bondage gear. Clearly him and Max have different ideas of what is considered fun. 

“Are you going to help me or am I going to have to do it myself?” Max huffs.

“I can help,” Charles tuts rather defensively. Of course he is capable of placing a gag into Max’s mouth and be completely normal about it.

Completely. Utterly. Normal. 

“Cool,” Max opens his mouth wide. Ready, waiting. 

And suddenly it doesn’t feel quite so funny because Charles’ hands are getting sweaty and his heart is about to break free from his ribcage. He doesn’t really have much choice though, he can’t exactly run away, so the Monegasque reaches out and tentatively places the ball gag directly into Max’s mouth and watches as the Dutchman wraps his lips around it.

It looks -, fuck it looks hotter than it has any right to. 

Max makes a soft humming sound of approval and turns around to let Charles fasten the back. 

This is absolutely not what Charles imagined he would be doing moments before the first press conference of what could be a pivotal season for him.  He has no idea how he is going to answer questions about Ferrari’s championship potential or the impact of the arrival of Lewis when he has Max sat next to him like this. 

Charles gets the gag properly fastened and is pretty pleased with his handiwork. It’s not too tight but it’s secure enough that it’s not going to fall out.

Max makes a muffled sound that goes immediately to Charles’ dick and the Monegasque tries his best to think unsexy thoughts. It’s bad enough Max is going in there with his mouth stuffed, Charles absolutely can not accompany him with a hard on.

“You ready to go?” Charles gets a gentle nod in return as Max rather dutifully follows him through to the room. 

And just as Charles had anticipated, the whole room erupts with noise. There’s raucous laughter and excitable chatter along with a few gasps and most significantly of all a blinding amount of flashing cameras. Within minutes there will be photos all over the internet of Max with his mouth held open and lips plush around the silicone ball.  

“Everything okay Max?”

Charles watches as Max gives the reporter a thumbs up and then slinks down on the couch casually. Like this is any other press conference. Like there isn’t the smallest amount of saliva already dripping from behind the gag. 

There is though. 

Charles is close enough to see it dripping around the sides. By the time they are done here Max will likely be drooling helplessly. Wet. Messy. Filthy. 

Fernando looks endlessly amused. Ollie looks shocked but then giggles along nervously. Charles is - , well in truth Charles is turned on.

“Max why don’t you tell us what you think your chances are of retaining your championship this year? 

Charles turns to his right and watches Max shrug and then make a ‘so-so’ action with his hand. It’s enough to earn him another round of laughter from everyone.  Everyone apart from Charles who has to force a smile on to his face. 

Max fidgets a little in his seat. Charles can’t help but wonder what the Dutchman is thinking, whether he is regretting it, whether he is enjoying it. 

The Dutchman tries to swallow down the spit that is clearly building in his mouth. Charles hears the wetness of it. Sees more drool starting to escape down the sides, glistening under the lights. Max doesn’t look embarrassed though, he is just staring out ahead. Charles isn’t sure he has ever seen someone look so submissive and dominant at the same time. Gagged but in control. 

“Max is this some kind of statement regarding the new rules and penalties?”

Charles tries not to groan as he hears Max make a murmured sound from behind his gag. It’s completely incomprehensible, obviously, but the helplessness of the sound makes Charles’ dick twitch.  Again everyone in the room chuckles. And once again Charles has to force a smile on his face whilst also discreetly trying to readjust himself so his semi is not quite so obvious. 

There must be other people finding this a turn on. Charles can’t be the only one. Except maybe its because Charles can hear Max trying to breath around the intrusion. Maybe its because he can hear the muffled sounds and the slurping of spit. Maybe it’s because he can see the stretch of the lips and the way Max’s throat muscles are contracting each time he swallows. Maybe its because Charles is the only one thinking about what else Max could be gagging around right now. 

Charles has no idea what answers he gives to any of the questions thrown his way. In fact Max is probably making a lot more sense than he is. The Monegasque jumps up the second he is allowed to leave and immediately turns his back to the audience of journalists so they can’t spot the rather obvious bulge in his pants. 

Max follows him closely out of the room and is quick to remove the gag. The Dutchman starts gently massaging lightly his own jaw and wiping the excess of drool up. His cheeks looked flush, red all along the cheekbones, his eyes are sparkling tough. Excitement. 

“I think you shocked them,” Charles tries to look normal about the whole thing, “I don’t know whether you are a genius or an idiot.” 

“Perhaps both,” Max shrugs. 

“I can’t believe you bought a ball gag just to wind them up,” Charles’ gaze drops to the gag, it’s soaking wet, “What the hell are you going to do with that now?”

Max laughs and shakes his head. 

“I didn’t buy this for them,” Max smirks as he meets Charles’ gaze, “I had it at home. It’s going straight back into my collection.”

Charles stares blankly as Max winks and then saunters off swinging his ball gag in his hand. 

[sachikokuroichi]

4 Times Alastor wanted to fall and the one time he did it involuntarily

It had gotten worse. Alastor cursed and tried to get the bandages to stop clinging to his torso, or more precisely what was left of it. It had been a whole month since the failed extermination and Adam’s lucky hit. The hotel was already up and running again, with Alastor caught right within the chaos yet again.

That damn deal.

It had been the radio demon’s biggest mistake, right after trying to fight the first man on his own.

He felt himself weakening with every passing day and he knew that even with all the angelic meat Rosie had gifted him, there was no other solution than to wager a deal with the devil. Alastor despised the thought. To be shackled to yet another one, to that ridiculous clown of a king on top of that, made his skin crawl in disgust and his fur stand up. He growled in annoyance but finally decided to give in. He couldn’t get back to all those who’d wronged him if he was double-dead. There would be no revenge, a thing that he thought he deserved like nothing else in this universe.

Giving up the fruitless task of fixing up the gash, he ordered his magic to dress him properly before cursing again. Using his powers was like a reflex, the repercussions of doing so nowadays still too new to be already ingrained in his movements.

I have to get that gash healed, post haste. Deciding that it was worth the pain, it would only be brief anyway, and maybe he could use this “hurt” and “helpless” display to address the bleeding heart that all of the Morningstar’s had beating in their chest (by blood, not the one’s married into the family), he slipped into the shadows, using them to travel across the floor, not wanting to be seen by anyone besides the king. And that was only because out of necessity. Who in their right mind would want to spend time with that joke of royalty out of their own volition? Nobody, exactly. Alastor for sure didn’t.

The moment he dived into his trusted shadows he instantly knew something was wrong. The pain was blinding, even without a physical form, something that shouldn’t be possible. He tried manifesting again, just to find that it wasn’t happening. No matter what he tried, how strongly he commanded his shadow to stop the nonsense, it was hopeless.

You’ve become weak.

No! He wasn’t weak. This was just a minor setback! He’d get fixed up right away, back to being right as rain. He just needed to-

You’ve been weak since that day 8 years ago. You know we don’t serve weaklings. They serve us.

Then he felt it. Something all his targets, enemies, victims probably had been all too familiar with: a cold sensation starting to feast on him, effectively tearing his essence apart. Again, he found out that pain was definitely happening in his shadow realm.

Our shadow realm. You were only allowed to traverse it, little deer.

Alastor tried to hold in the screams as unbearable pain was coursing through him; without being able to locate a place of origin it felt all-consuming.

It’s time to perish, oh mighty radio demon.

No! I won’t! This is not over! I’ll swear on my soul! I’ll get back at you for this! The next time you see me, you’ll cower before me! Then you will cease to exist!

Bark all you want, little sinner. There’s no bite behind it. Empty words. Pledges on a soul that’s not even yours anymore.

The hatred in Alastor festered and grew, but at the same time there was a tiny part within him that hoped for someone, a guiding light to come and rescue him.

Nobody will come to save you. He doesn’t even tolerate you. Not even he can find you in here. This is our realm. We rule here.

Blinding pain tore at his being and Alastor’s consciousness faded, going out with a scream. And just like that, the radio demon was no more.

The shadows cackled, now stronger than ever, after having consumed their prior master. Their glee was short-lived though.

The moment Alastor’s shell fell apart, a blinding light, angelic in nature, pure poison for the tainted, tore through them. Comfortably nestled within it laid the now cleansed soul of the radio demon. Free of all sin, all deals. And then, it was gone as well.

~*~

If you liked the first chapter, consider bookmarking it on AO3 because there are four more of them waiting in the back, ready to be published once a week (think I'll go for Tuesdays). Don't forget to leave a little love too - I'm living off of Kudos <3

[bwat5-blog]

Greetings & Salutations: Let's Chat Ref Caitlyn Kiramman

**SPOILERS FOR ARCANE**

**LONG. SO VERY LONG**

@no1jinxdefender

Good morning! It's not really my thing to do a whole fresh post specifically addressing one persons take. But I'd like to respond to your responses to multiple comments on one of your posts, and this is much more organized and clean.

I apologize, this is going to be quite long upfront but that is so I can repost what you said word for word so there is no chance of me twisting your words or points. This morning I re-blogged one of your post in which you stated the following:

"Ambessa did not manipulate Caitlyn in any sense of the word. Caitlyn willingly used the gas herself, she enforced Marshal Law herself. The closest we get is when Caitlyn is made Commander but even then that's not manipulation because Caitlyn knew what the job was. She understood what she was doing. There's a video I watched by pugs4thugs on YouTube that gives a lot of good reasons as to why Caitvi is problematic. Vi should have enforcer trauma, she should be absolutely disgusted with Caitlyn and what she has done. Caitlyn literally made a choice to use police brutality when she used the heel of the rifle to hit Vi. I was never the biggest fan of them to begin with because of the fact that Caitlyn never apologized for the violence or her wrong doing. Caitlyn has so much to apologize for and sleeping with Maddie isn't something she had to apologize for. "The age gap is bad" They meet when they're adults. They're both consenting and legal adults. "Ambessa manipulated Caitlyn" Wrong again. Caitlyn literally decides to use the gas before Ambessa even offers her the position of power. We know Caitlyn does not care for the people of Zaun."

Now since then in the comments I have seen you double down on this take with the following comments:

"Caitlyn is a grown adult by the way who understood her actions and understood the amount of pain she would cause by doing so. Caitlyn willingly used the grey and used police brutality tactics on someone she's supposed to love and care about. Caitlyn did not go into this blind. What is it with people and making Caitlyn the victim of her own actions? She was cruel to Zaun. Ambessa had a daughter on the council, she was already increasing her army's presence in Piltover because of hex tech and gaining it as a weapon. She stayed because not only did her daughter go missing but she was now involved seeing as she again is a war general and Jinx just blew up the Councilor's."

And:

"Need I remind you that Caitlyn used police brutality tactics on someone she was supposed to be in love with? Need I remind you she used the grey and enforced Marshall Law? Need I remind you that Caitlyn was a very privileged and an educated person? And need I remind you she did this before Ambessa? At the very least she should understand when Ambessa asked her to be general she should have understood that she was going to be in charge of enforcers and the cruelty they were inflicting on the oppressed. She knew what she was getting into because she was practically raised in politics. She genuinely had no care for Zaun. "It must have been so scary going down there" she said that in season one episode two already showing a prejudice against a group that is oppressed because of people like her family."

Now I re-blogged @thekirammanjinx response to your initial post and I was quite blunt with my feelings on your opinion its true. But I kept my response brief. As you are clearly quite committed to this overall stance and have doubled down to the utmost extent, it seems only fair to give a more full and thought out response.

"Ambessa did not manipulate Caitlyn in any sense of the word"-

So this of course is your main point. First lets go over a good clean list of your reasons:

Caitlyn willingly used the gas herself before she meets or speaks with Ambessa

Caitlyn enforced martial law herself

Caitlyn understood what she was taking on when she agreed to become commander ( You do acknowledge this as partial manipulation though "not really")

Ambessa became involved because she "had a daughter on the council, she was already increasing her army's presence in Piltover because of hex tech and gaining it as a weapon. She stayed because not only did her daughter go missing but she was now involved seeing as she again is a war general and Jinx just blew up the Councilor's."

Caitlyn knew what she was getting into because "'she was practically raised in politics" and "she should have understood that she was going to be in charge of enforcers and the cruelty they were inflicting on the oppressed."

"Caitlyn is a grown adult by the way who understood her actions and understood the amount of pain she would cause by doing so. "

Alrighty. I think that is a good clean summary and I posted everything above to make sure I'm not misquoting or misrepresenting you. Let's talk responses!-

RESPONSES: Ambessa Didn't Manipulate Caitlyn

Caitlyn uses The Grey herself before speaking with or meeting Ambessa-

You are absolutely correct. However, you are missing some vital context. Let's go back in time to the aftermath of Jinx's attack on the council and what their plan of retaliation entails. S2 E1 33:37-Ambessa smirking at Mel as Salo explains "I thought it prudent to solicit the advice of such an experienced veteran"

S2 E1 33:20- Salo finishes explaining his plan- "We flood the undercity with Enforcers, armed with Hextech"

S2 E1 33:18- Caitlyn immediately protests "innocents will be caught in the cross fire"

S2 E1 32:02-31:58- Mel agrees to a form of the plan after Salo continues to push. "I'll agree to endorse the invasion. But I draw the line at Hextech".

Okay. So we have established the Council's intention in clear and precise language with examples straight out of content- INVASION. But! There's a problem. Because what does Ambessa actually want? Fully weaponized hextech. How do we know this? Well she told us-

S1 E9 33:35- "If there is a chance hextech can be weaponized, we must have it" Ambessa says after being confronted by Mel

S1 E9 33:32- "Piltover isn't your testing ground" Mel responds S1 E9 33:23- "I can't believe you'd start a war just to cover your ass" Mel continues S1 E9 33:20- " I would set the world ablaze to protect our family" Ambessa admits

Alright so we know the Council's plan. And we know Ambessa's motivation, including how far she'd go to achieve it and that comes straight from her own mouth. She openly admits she'd not only start a war, but light the world on fire to do what she views as needed to protect her family. The council's failure to ratify Salo's plan of all out aggression counters her goal.

So how does she push it to that point? The memorial attack. She sent her man Rictus to assist the Chem Baron Renni, giving her the chance for revenge on Jayce during the memorial. She of course then came to the rescue with her people, killing Renni herself. We see evidence of all of this below:

S2 E3 5:48- Flashback begins showing everything we just discussed

Ambessa's goal: Weaponized Hextech at any cost

Council's plan: Invasion without Hextech

Ambessa's response: Organizes a full Zaunite incursion in the middle of a memorial service killing several and stoking hostility and fear to an all time high

Back to Caitlyn-

Okay finally we are back. So as I said, she protests the invasion plan but is denied. We see this clearly. The memorial attack occurs and of course we know from there Caitlyn forms the plan for the strike team, goes to the council, then she and the team go into Zaun utilizing The Grey and so on. So lets review the conversation leading her to create the team. It's after the memorial attack. She is understandably quite upset- no matter how much you don't like her they got attacked during a memorial for her mom- and she and Vi talk.

S2 E1 7:48 to 7:41- Vi tells Caitlyn "you need to find a way to call off the invasion... This battle was on your soil. Down there, you'll be on their terms" S2 E1 7:35 to 7:27- In response to Vi telling Caitlyn they need to change it when Caitlyn says "none of this is on our terms" Caitlyn says "I don't know how okay? She leaves this giant hole, and I'm just supposed to fill it. Like she was never here to begin with."

S2 E1 5:26 to 5:16- Salo is speaking to the others in the wake of the attack pressing once more for the full weaponization of Hextech. "We can't afford anymore handwringing. If we do not defend ourselves with Hextech, our principles will mean nothing".

And from there as we know, she uses The Kiramman Key and learns about The Grey. From there we get the "Heavy Is The Crown" sequence where the strike team is revealed.

Conclusion:

Your point supporting your overall idea that Ambessa didn't manipulate Caitlyn: "Caitlyn willingly used the gas herself"

Caitlyn formed the strike team and used The Grey as an alternative to The Invasion. She only did so because of The Memorial Attack.

Ambessa conclusively and undeniably orchestrated the memorial attack.

Ambessa did so after declaring in her own words in season 1 after being accused of being willing to start a war "I would set the world ablaze to protect our family"

Caitlyn used The Grey because of Ambessa and the events she orchestrated.

**Don't worry they won't all be so long. Just anything involving Ambessa' manipulation is a layered and indepth topic to approach so it takes a minute to go over**

Caitlyn Enforced Martial Law herself-

As we know, by the time Martial Law is enforced The Council is severely reduced in number. It is after the memorial attack and after Caitlyn's team went into Zaun. We need to go to a conversation between Ambessa and Salo:

S2 E3 29:10 to 29:04- "it's time. Rally every house and family with even a modicum of influence. Can you manage that?" Ambessa gives Salo the order to which he eagerly agrees. It should be noted, all she says is that its time and he clearly knows what she means. This has been her plan. He just thinks its going to be him, not Caitlyn that Ambessa picks.

Now we jump to S2 E3 beginning at 8:34-

I'm not gonna go line for line here because that would be a lot. We only need to touch on a few points anyway. Salo thanks the prominent families for answering his summons and Ambessa begins her speech:

He talks up Ambessa

She spins the death of Amara (The Black Rose assassin she killed who tried to kill her) into a false story of an assassination by two Zaunites/Begins 8:13

Ambessa stokes the elites indignation "You've given Zaun opportunity after opportunity"/Begins 7:44

Ambessa stokes their anger "Your memorial is made a massacre"/7:30 (you know the massacre she caused)

Ambessa calls for them to respond with eye for an eye "wrath must be met with wrath"/7:22

Ambessa openly calls for them to enact Martial Law "You must declare martial law"/7:15

Conclusion:

You may notice, Caitlyn was not mentioned at all during that speech. Now she is after, as she goes to explain they must appoint a commander who she will of course assist with her soldiers and experience. But my point is that Ambessa essentially tells them what they need to do, calls Caitlyn as the choice for commander, and they all dance to her tune. This is not in dispute. Its all there plain and clear. Ambessa told them all they needed to turn power over to a commander under Martial Law, and they did it.

Caitlyn understood what she was taking on when she became commander-

I'm understanding this to mean that Caitlyn should have known at that time the full weight, responsibility, and reality of accepting that position when Ambessa called her. In order to tackle that assertion fairly, we need to discuss her state of mind.

Okay, those who are more aligned with my way of thinking have probably noticed that until now I have abstained from mentioning the trauma and so on that impacted Caitlyn's arc during this time. That is because I have been waiting until now. This whole post is already getting crazy long so I'm just going to summarize but I will provide Season/Episode/Timestamp at least for each event.

Beginning of S1 Act 2: Caitlyn is twenty-three years old. She comes from a life of wealth, safety, and privilege. She is a rookie Enforcer who at that time due to her upbringing still believes the Enforcers to be a force for good. These facts are clear and easily discernable through the content with no interpretation required.

Now, lets go over the events that I'm sure we can agree (love her or hate her) impact Caitlyn's state of mind leading to the moment Ambessa calls her forward:

Lured along with several other Enforcers to a burning building with a fake child's voice by Jinx shortly before she blows it up. She is the only survivor: S1 E4 13:29- Sequence begins

Shoots Sevika repeatedly to save Vi's life. More than likely the first time she has ever discharged her weapon at a living person. It doesn't matter the reason or justification, violence impacts you emotionally. S1 E5 5:28- Sequence begins

Survives escaping Silco and his addict/goons deep in the undercity including dodging a collapsing building. S1 E6 13:16- Sequence begins

Meets Jinx for the first time. Has weapon pointed at her. Then survives fight with Firelights. S1 E6 7:05- Sequence begins

Leader of The Enforcers shoots Ekko, and is about to shoot her while several of her peers stand and watch. Shortly after Jinx blows up the bridge, killing almost everyone, then attacks Caitlyn & Vi both intentionally trying to kill them.S1 E7 10:41- Sequence begins

Kidnapped by Jinx from the shower of her childhood home. She is nude at the time. At some point Jinx makes her dress in Enforcer uniform. S1 E8 4:35- Sequence begins *It seems like recent sources from the artbook confirm Jinx held Caitlyn for an entire day but I don't have that in front of me to confirm so we can call it speculation*

She is held bound and gagged and forced to participate in Jinx's Dinner Party: S1 E9 12:55- Sequence begins

Listens to Jinx try and convince Vi to murder her

Manages to get free and has a gun on Jinx. Spares her at Vi's urging and gets knocked out

Jinx kills Caitlyn's mother, two other councilors, maims 2 others, and destroys the council chamber

8. Survives attack on her mother and other councilor's memorial by Zaun: S2 E1 16:26- Sequence begins

9. Survives operation of Task Force into Zaun: S2 E3 beginning of episode:

Now I know what you are probably thinking. But As I said earlier we need to remember that violence leaves a mark on you. We aren't talking fault or any of that right now. I'm just talking what state of mind is she in. So I'm sure reasonably you can see how at the very least a few days of urban combat would be raising her stress, aggression, fear and all of that.

10. Survives events of Ventilation chamber: S2 E3 18:51 sequence begins

Survives fight with Sevika

After holding her shot for Vi the first time, Vi blocks her shot the second time and she is denied what she sees as justice (again, just suspend judgement and try to only think of impact on her state of mind)

Parts from Vi in extremely emotional and traumatic fashion

11. Call to become The Commander S2 E3 6:32: sequence begins

So using undeniable, cold and hard provable moments from content, lets review exactly what she has been through in that moment:

Has been almost killed repeatedly

Has survived events that killed many others

The leadership she put her faith in tried to kill her while her peers watched

She was abducted and the sanctity of her home violated

She spared Jinx and return got her mother and others killed

Survived an attack on a peaceful memorial service

Survived several events that were exposing her to severe violence in general

Isolated and separated from the woman she loves

Conclusion:

Keeping all of that in mind, I don't feel it is rational or logical to suggest that a twenty-three year old woman would be in that correct state of mind to understand what she was doing in accepting such a MASSIVE responsibility. And keep in mind, she did so in front of every person with power and influence in Piltover agreeing to it.

"Ambessa had a daughter on the council, she was already increasing her army's presence in Piltover because of hex tech and gaining it as a weapon. She stayed because not only did her daughter go missing but she was now involved seeing as she again is a war general and Jinx just blew up the Councilor's."

So from what I understand you are alleging that while yes Ambessa was increasing her presence in Piltover due to hextech, the reason she stayed is because her daughter went missing, and to lend her experience due to the war after Jinx's attack.

Mel is taken by the Black Rose: S2 E3 9:13. By this time, Ambessa has openly declared her intent to start a war, instructed Mel to let the war unfold, orchestrated the memorial attack to achieve said war, and instructed Salo to call the Piltover Elite where we know she will later call for Martial Law. If she did not stay for her own machinations and instead because of Mel, why would she have already done all of those things?

As we proved earlier, she came to Piltover and openly expressed her goal, the lengths she is willing to go to, and instructed Mel to "Let the war unfold". This is all before Jinx strikes

Conclusion:

Through her own words and deeds, Ambessa tells us conclusively why she has come to Piltover and how far she is willing to go.

"Caitlyn is a grown adult by the way who understood her actions and understood the amount of pain she would cause by doing so.

We have already discussed the absolutely tremendous amount of traumatic incidents that would have impacted her state of mind. Based solely on logical evidence devoid of personal bias toward Caitlyn or against I would hope you can look back at that list and at the very least agree that she would not be in a healthy mental state. I'm not running down every incidence showing her deteriorating mental state for two reasons:

Quite frankly I suspect you wouldn't care. Most people who take your stance on Caitlyn don't. If you respond and choose to engage in further dialogue I'd be happy to share my longer deep dives into this issue and read and consider anything you had to say in return

This is already incredibly long and that is real deep-dive stuff.

But we have already discussed in detail that there were a number of significant factors impacting her arc leading up to her time as The Commander. We can however briefly discuss her time actually serving in that role. We need to go over a few things to that end:

We have already shown that Caitlyn did not take power by force or something. The elite agreed to Martial Law and to Caitlyn as the commander. So even if she was the villain many claim, it is undeniable that her authority was freely given by those in power.

Zaun is under Piltover's jurisdiction. No timestamp needed just consider the fact that they needed to vote on Zaun's independence at all. I have seen many forms of deflection of this point including "it's not valid jurisdiction because Zaun doesn't want it", "Zaun is a militarily occupied zone like Palestine" and more. There is no evidence of Zaun being anything other than another city that falls under Piltover's rule. Oppressed and neglected? Definitely. But still under their jurisdiction. Which means they are subject to Martial Law when Caitlyn is given power and is totally, and completely, lawful.

We have a few examples of how she handles her authority under Martial Law:

She is meeting with trade guilds and listening to their concerns and complaints/"I have an audience with the Mason's guild first thing in the morning" S2 E4 36:07

She expresses remorse and regret over how long Martial Law has continued/"I never expected this to go on so long" S2 E4 35:50

She challenges Ambessa on Noxian violence against Zaunites/"was it for my encouragement your man Rictus was instigating violence?" S2 E4 26:44

She insists upon lawful arrests/ "Arrests require cause" S2 E4 26:17

She expresses remorse and unhappiness over the violence in the name of peace/"Why is peace always the justification for violence?" S2 E4 26:10

It should also be noted, that for the worst of Noxian violence toward Zaunites (Rictus behavior at the rally, the hextech experiments, Rictus interrogation of the man to find the rally location) Caitlyn is not present for any of this and likely not aware. As we have proven, she is insisting upon lawful arrests and condemning unneeded violence. And I very seriously doubt Ambessa would have been openly discussing "the moment we seize control of this backwater (S2 E4 30:01)" with Rictus in any capacity where Caitlyn or someone she trusts could overhear.

Conclusion:

Using citable time-stamped evidence we have shown the following:

She was not in a good state of mind when she accepted the position

She is still interacting with and listening to the people's complaints trying to address them

She openly admits she never expected things to go on for so long

She is insisting on lawful arrests

She is challenging unneeded violence

Logical evidence suggests she is unaware of the worst brutality being committed

In a perfect world if she hadn't been through what she'd been through. Yes. She probably should have and would have seen this coming. But if you look at the presented evidence I think you can see that things were quite far from perfect.

Before We Move On: Regarding Ambessa's manipulations-

I addressed the points you provided. But in truth you didn't even begin to dig into how Ambessa manipulates the entire city let alone Caitlyn.

We have discussed AT LENGTH how she exacerbated the conflict for her own purposes.

Maddie is a confirmed Noxian Spy.

She guilt trips Vi into being willing to put on the badge knowing it will start to drive a wedge between Caitlyn & Vi

The same woman who stone cold puts a rife to the back of Caitlyn's neck at the end is "oh so scared" of Jinx's freaky little puppet show? No. She knew Vi was guilty over the violence caused by Jinx and played the part right before the big confrontation leaving only Vi and Caitlyn to head into that confrontation with no mitigating factors

She works her way into Caitlyn's bed spying for Ambessa while also testing Caitlyn's loyalties and keeping her off balance. Google "Push and Pull" relationships

3. Ambessa makes Caitlyn into the perfect scapegoat while she pursues her goals:

As long as the conflict with Zaun continues, Martial Law continues, which means Caitlyn maintains control, which means Ambessa who is actually in control continues to be

Uses same "push and pull" with Caitlyn

Proven to be discussing how she is the real power in Piltover as we saw earlier

Plays on Caitlyn's grief for her mother to keep pushing her to chase Jinx

This is all a very in-depth topic. I have a few much longer deep-dives if you are interested.

Caitlyn & Zaun:

I was going to get into your CaitVi stuff but honestly if you hate Caitlyn based on these sorts of points there isn't much point. I did want to touch on one more point you make quite a few times.You state repeatedly its clear Caitlyn never cared for Zaun and even cite a quote from season 1- "it must have been so scary going down there" as evidence of her anti-zaun prejudice.

"It must have been so scary going down there"- I admittedly could not find this quote. Here's what I did find.

S1 E2 40:07-

Caitlyn- "You really went to the undercity to get these? Weren't you afraid?"

Jayce- "A little danger is worth the risk don't you think?"

According to the Arcane Wiki she sixteen at this time. I'm not really sure where you are getting any prejudice from her comments. But lets remember a few things:

Zaun is fucking dangerous. Vi and her family get into a fight and Vi has a knife pulled on her as they are coming back from their heist

She's a sixteen year old girl from a wealthy family who has NEVER been into Zaun. All she has are rumors, stories, and overly embellished parental warnings for the sake of her safety.

Caitlyn's Care For Zaun:

S1 E4 24:49 to 24:31:Meets enormous heavily tattooed Zaunite criminal on the airship who was wounded by Jinx and treats him with respect and care/"you're from the undercity..easy" bandages wound "I can protect you"

S1 E5 5:24: Saves Vi's life. A zaunite she barely knows

S1 E6 24:23: Verbally equates Zaunites and Piltovans/"We aren't monsters you know. We're people, just like you"

S1 E6 20:31: Trades her only means of protection to save Vi's life

S1 E6 19:51: Firmly and affectionately hugs shimmer mutated Huck for his help saving Vi

S1 E7 20:56: Offers herself in Vi's place before she knows Ekko is friendly

S1 E7 17:50 to 17:26: Speaking to Ekko/ "Ekko, it's wrong what's been done to you. You'd be well within your rights to keep it. I couldn't blame you. But... if you do. This cycle of violence will never stop. This is our best shot at setting the record straight. This city needs healing. More than I ever realized. Please, let me help you". She of course then agrees that he will keep the gem and walks down the bridge with him, fully intending on standing beside him while he is the one who gets to address the council.

S1 E8 33:06 to 32:51: Speaking to her parents/ "My actions? You know what else reflects on the council? Its citizens living on the streets. Being poisoned. Having to choose between a kingpin who wants to exploit them, and a government that doesn't give a shit."

S1 E8 18:59 to 1836: Addressing the Council with Vi by her side/"Councilors, this is Vi. She was born in the undercity. Even though we failed her in countless ways, she risked everything to show me what life was really like down there. People are starving, sick, ravaged by Shimmer. They live in constant fear of the coordinated efforts of violent crime lords. One man leads these efforts. Silco"

S2 E1 32:59: After all that has happened Caitlyn is still testifying honestly that as Mel states, the attack was "one deranged individual"

S2 E1 33:18- Caitlyn immediately protests "innocents will be caught in the cross fire" when the invasion is endorsed

And of course from there we know what occurs. (All the stuff listed above!)

Wrap Up:

You mentioned quite a few things in those few posts and there are several things I could discuss in return but I chose these two things in particular for now. I didn't intend for this to be so long but when you start hunting time stamps to ensure your stance is credible the word count starts growing. I look forward to your thoroughly thought-out response back up by source material with full context given.

[ghostie-in-wonderland]

Dancing with a ghost - any character x reader

angst; gn!reader; break-ups

My eyes opened up, the sun blinding me, causing me to flinch backwards. I groaned, pushing my body up. My bed cold on the side that used to be warm. I don’t think I can remember their warmth anymore. The pillow doesn’t smell like them either. I got up, walking to the bathroom, starting to get ready. One toothbrush, one face wash, everything that used to be a pair was now just one. My eyes looking up at the ceiling as I rinsed my mouthwash, tears flooding my eyes as I remembered only a few weeks ago. 

I spat my mouthwash in the sink. A laugh leaving my lips as I looked at them. Their response being a goofy look. I looked down at the sink, a wide smile on my face, as their arms wrapped around my waist. “I love you.” 

A frown coming to my face as I lifted my body away from the sink, their voice flowing through the air like a light breeze. My cheeks remembering the old burn from how much I smiled. I stepped out of the bathroom, walking to the closet. Their laugh echoing in my mind as I remember gently tossing them items to wear for the day. Every step breaking my heart more and more, although I don’t know if a heart this broken could break more. 

"Do I look good?” They always knew the answer. Of course they looked good, they were perfect to me, they never looked bad in my eyes. A tear falling down my cheek, my hand quickly going up to wipe at it. A sob leaving my lips as more memories flooded my brain, memories that were engrained into the walls. 

“What’s your problem?” Their voice wasn’t usually so sharp towards me, but maybe it made sense. 

“You’ve been gone for so long.” My voice echoing. “It feels like you’re a figment of my imagination.” 

"Maybe I don’t want to deal with you. Have you thought about how difficult you are?” 

I pulled my shirt on over my head. Maybe if I did things differently, maybe if I had been different. What could I have done better for them not to go? My hands going to my hair, holding my head like I was in pain, another sob leaving my lips. I could practically feel their arms wrapping around me to comfort me. Their soft whispers flooding my mind, except it was all gone. They weren’t here and they weren’t going to be coming back. I walked towards the kitchen, memories continuously flooding my memories. My foot falls seeming to dance with a ghost of someone who was long gone. 

“It’s for the best. I can’t be with you anymore. I can’t deal with this.” I was too much. I needed to be less. How does one be less though? My friends kept saying that they were the problem. They were the issue. I wish I could believe them. 

“Here’s your lunch, love.” My voice echoing in my empty apartment as I could hear their response. “Thank you, gorgeous. I’m so in love you. Have a good day.” Their lips brushing against my cheek. The memory of that look, that burning look. It wasn’t a bad burning though, one that made me feel warm, made it feel like I was whole. The feeling almost there. It was so light now, I could barely remember how either of them felt. Everyone kept telling me it’ll get better. How is something supposed to get better when it feels so wrong to be without them? 

I grabbed my keys off the counter, the jingle of multiple keys, an item short though. Our matching charms on our keychains, little reminders of each other to get us through the day. They had taken their’s off a couple days before they left. Mine broke off though. The jingle was wrong because of that. I walked to my door, their footsteps dancing around mine in the empty apartment. A tear falling from my eyes as I quickly wiped it away. After all, they were gone, and I was left to dance with a ghost. My door shut behind me, I turned, double checking it was locked, before finally heading towards the exit. My heart turning into a finer powder every day as I came and went from that apartment. As I remembered every detail, the good and the bad, of us.

[sun-of-4-gun]

seeing your six ear macaque design (btw so freaking cool) makes me so curious about him :0! do you have more info about him?

AHH thank you!! that makes me so glad to hear (≧⁠▽⁠≦)♡*⁠。I have a whole idea of how he was made but nothing too solid! if anyone has any other insights I'd love to read them!!

this is something I've decided recently that when Six initially popped out of the ground, he looked a lot more like Monkey King. a scruffy, young adult six-eared macaque with dull red fur. he is an exact clone save for minor details that will kickstart big changes

it was instant for him to go out explore & experience the world, learn about this & that. he found his way to Flower-Fruit Mountain and it's clear to him that regardless of people, monkeys, and even demons just don't like him. his freakishly gross amount of ears certainly don't help or an underbaked unsettlingness about his whole vibe being uncanny & off, but he don't give a damn (yet). he just wants to be received positively for a change, so when he quickly found kinship in the legend of the Monkey King, he thought to seek him out in the hopes of understanding, but that idea is immediately snuffed out in favour of straight-up just becoming the Monkey King himself instead! he wants all the blind adoring glory and none of the work, but he needs help. assistance if you will, 'cause there's no Monkey King without his Stick. that's the whole reason he is where he is

long story short, Six is able to clone Stick and forge his own staff; Suixin Tie Ganbing (or Rod/dy) who I haven't designed cause I'm struggling (⁠^▽^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ I don't imagine it's as characterised as Stick, if any. like a soulless copy y'know? Six knows Monkey's heart & mind so intimately, but lacks an awareness in that he is still more like the guy 500 years ago + caught up with knowledge to present time. of course, by becoming a specious macaque, he sacrifices his ability to predict the future & utilise that sixth sense, as Monkey isn't a six-eared macaque, but one of ✧ numinous wisdom ✧ and ultimately gets the upper hand to destroy this imposter, who apparently all along is a split aspect of his very own psyche & soul, a literal two-minds & double-heart situation. unlike Six, Monkey is a complete-ish person, and his counterpart has a lot of growing up to do. its a big difference between 500 years of self-reflection to 5 years of figuring out one's desires & purpose!

so Monkey aims to kill Six, a rotten part of himself that he tried to bury years ago, kept hidden from his master out of shame and deep inner conflict that it literally ate him up on the inside, and when it was too much to bear he cut open his chest to find an actual root of wickedness growing from his heart like a tumour, festering from the back of his mind and manifesting into a second organ that desperately needed to take control and get out. I imagine Sandy witnessed this and Horsie knows about it, but nobody said anything because Monkey seemingly "defeated" it when he buried this parasite into the dirt, thinking it would quietly die with nothing to leech off of anymore. this came back to haunt him, obviously, his own self or at least some corrupted mirror staring him in the flesh

but he doesn't kill him, seeing himself within literally and metaphorically, the second thoughts are clear and instead of destroying the six-eared macaque, he buries him alive instead. because if Buddha can stick him under a mountain for 500 years and that turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him, why can't he do the same for this guy? he's a screwed up version of him, but like him nonetheless. he was 5 years old himself when he got mountained anyway!

except that well, it's still the six-eared macaque, his own species, and for whatever reason it was after that Tightening Fillet Spell by Guanyin that Six is cursed to be tethered to Monkey King in every physical & emotional way, especially by their own doing. all thoughts, joys, grief, love, rage, pain, pleasure and else of Monkey's will be second-hand to the specious macaque and he has no choice but to listen to & feel everything his creator feels & experiences. it sickens him, infuriates him, these sensations are tormenting regardless of his own desires for 1,000 years of complete depravity & deafness to everything of the outside world but the Monkey King and once he's freed from the earth by chance of a quake, he wants nothing to do with Sun Wukong. though that's impossible when he's literally connected at the heart & mind by some one-sided chain. so logically, he has to kill him.

his time underground allowed his sense of self to develop & ultimately change his appearance, so now he's also somewhat complete-ish as a living being. except he can't exactly move on with his creator in the way, as how can he trust his own emotions & sensations when all he's known are another's the past millennium? he'll get help & some assistance again, and he'll use the same jade dagger that was discarded after getting rid of him the first time to stab Monkey in the heart and sever their connection once and for all

[stardust-thief]

The Amazing Spencer [M]Reid

an: i thought of this idea at work and i cldnt get it out my head, spencer as spiderman is so chefs kiss, i kinda wanna do more with this au but idk!!! i like the idea of the entire bau being friends and some of them are seceretly superheroes around nyc, also the title works shut up

synopsis: spiderman!au where spencer is spiderman and his best friend penelope is his guy in the chair/very worried medic, 0.7k words

cw: mentions of past violence, descriptions of bodily harm/wounds, tobias hankel is the lizard/dr curtis connors, very ooc spencer im so sorry

masterlist

Spencer had been doing this for a long time, he was used to coming home late - if at all - bloodied and bruised. The constant fear for his life had dulled over time. Of course, it was something he still worried about, especially when it impacted his friends and family, but the guilt wasn’t all consuming anymore.

Earlier that evening Spencer got a tip that the Lizard, also known as Tobias Hankel, had escaped from prison and was running loose across New York City. He remembered the first time Hankel had been a problem, those were not memories he looked back on fondly. Especially because he was too high to remember most of them. This time, he intended to put his years of experience to good use and not get kidnapped and drugged! His plan was relatively successful, it left Hankel beaten on the doorstep of the prison he escaped from and left Spencer feeling only mildly loopy from blood loss.

Landing in the fire escape, he slowly lifted the window pane to his apartment. “Garcia? Are you awake?” Penelope Garcia had figured out about Spencer’s double life pretty quickly, she could always tell what Spencer was thinking. At first she had completely refused to believe it, how on earth could her beanpole of a best friend swing around New York and beat on bad guys? Eventually, her resolve had softened and she swore that she would help in any way she could. Her first suggestion had been to rebrand as “The Boy Wonder”, but that would’ve just got Spencer ridiculed even more so that was an immediate veto. Normally she gathers intel on the people Spiderman is hunting, and sometimes she would stay over to help with the first aid Spencer would inevitably need.

“Spencer?” Her soft, slipper-clad footsteps hurried to the living room (they were pink cats with sparkles on the ears, Spencer had got them for her one Christmas). “Oh my god, Spencer what happened? You look like you were thrown off 12 buildings and mauled by 20 cats, consecutively.”

He shrugged, “you’re close. Although I would have preferred the cats.” Spencer stumbled over to the couch and unceremoniously flopped onto it. “Hankel got out, had to grapple with him to get him to go back. Prison really changes a man, he had a lot more tricks up his sleeve for me.”

“Tobias Han- Spencer,” she moved to stand in front of him, jaw dropped, “Spencer, Tobias-freaking-Hankel escaped and you didn’t tell me? You just went out to fight him, are you crazy? What if he kidnapped you again Spence, no one would know and you would be hurt and alone-”

“Pen, I’m okay, I promise. I didn’t tell you because I knew you would freak out. But I’ve grown a lot since facing him the first time, I wouldn’t have let anything bad happen.” He loved Penelope Garcia with all his heart, but she could worry and work herself up about every little thing. It made him feel so guilty that he added onto it with this whole Spiderman thing. “Look, I’m sorry I kept you blind about it, I will let you know next time. Now, if it’s not too much trouble, could you maybe help me with this.” He gestured down to his thoroughly torn open chest, Hankel had set his claws in deep and the wound was burning.

Spencer watched as Garcia’s eyes followed down to his chest, “Oh my god you’re bleeding out! Spencer this should’ve been the first thing you said! Okay, I’ll get the first aid kit, but oh- Spencer, that looks really bad, we might need to go to the hospital.”

“I’ll be fine, I don’t have super healing for nothing,” he gave her the cheekiest smirk, then softened, “We’ll see after you clean me up, honestly I think you have some superpowers too, I always feel better when you patch me up.”

She narrowed her eyes, failing to hide the beaming grin on her face. Spencer watched as she turned to find the medkit in the bathroom. Sometimes, days like these were hard. Getting beat on by gigantic lizard monsters was never anyone's idea of fun. But it was all worth it when he remembered why he did it. He was eternally grateful for Penelope’s help, she was the most devoted person he had ever met. Without her he probably would be long dead already, New York left without its protector. If she could help patch him up at the end of the day, then he could easily swing around the city, and maybe catch a bad guy or two on the way.

[zhuoyichenpretty]

aww yeah ep 20 GOOD

I guess I do (very casual, broadstroke) episode commentaries now, halfway through the show lmao. Spoilers below!!

Bai Jiu BETRAYAL?

Wen Xiao WANTED?

Zhuo Yichen DETECTIVE-ING?

Ying Lei BACK?

*crowd cheers*

The dots are connecting like crazy with the big bad's whole inner core crusade and also with the simultaneous demon case like I did not recognize Ao Yin as the demon Li Lun first released eight years ago but oooh do I enjoy that minor payoff.

Love the repeated use of the demonic-spell-restraining sigils now that we've been introduced to them though I wonder why the Bureau doesn't ever seem to make use of them. Maybe they don't deal with enough powerful demons to need to paint those in their own (very empty) dungeon? Or perhaps just plot convenience. (edit: someone has pointed out the Bureau indeed uses them!! I'm just blind <3)

Anyway I kind of wish in the Chongwu Camp dungeon PSJ fought a little bc she's so cool in action and their bailing was a little abrupt, but it makes sense that they'd have an immediate getaway plan. Also this is an ep 19 comment but that line Mr. 3-Face Mask delivered about PSJ being fated to always be betrayed by her little brother(s) HURT. So good.

Back to the Bureau, I do love me a good framing, and I'm also happy to get a tiny bit of the episodic demon-murder-case style back. WX was v clever to hide out in Situ Mansion, and (small detail but) I appreciate that the others catch her up on the Bai Jiu thing onscreen. As an aside, I also like that the actress for WX got to be double-casted even just briefly. Seeing some of the actors get to play around with portraying various extremes in characterization and costuming is a ton of fun.

And then yay Bai Jiu backstory at last~! It's crazy how much that blood moon fucked up everyone's lives eight years ago huh.

Everything ZYC says to him is on point (and honestly, ZYC is really quite adept at comforting others, he just sucks utter ass at it when it's his fault and he has to apologize lmaooo) but of course my favorite scene in the whole episode is as follows:

The very slight shine in the waterline, the bittersweet smile/grimace as, deliberately or not, ZYC's words indirectly echo everything about the circumstances between the two of them right now??? Whew. They did that for me specifically.

Anyway, this was a good one to chew on for me, packed with plot movement enough that I didn't feel unsatisfied with just one episode. I'm glad that so far it seems like the release schedule bears in mind what episodes should be watched in pairs for maximum effect (eps 16/17, 18/19 specifically) and which ones are okay to stand alone for the day, but I also don't want to speak too soon haha. We'll see how ep 21 fares.

Also since this is a ZYC stan account (lmao) I have some obligatory ZYC thoughts that I haven't managed to fit anywhere else. I've been meaning to comment on this for a while now and was reminded by this episode: I love the fact that ZYC actually smiles quite often. I think it's a bit surprising every time he does because he so easily fits the archetype of stoic broody action hero, but it really is just an archetype he's fit himself into, and it's never clearer than when they flash back to smiley baby!ZYC (how freely and purely he used to give those smiles away...).

On the other side of this is also how caustic and biting he can be with his words, whether sarcastically or otherwise, and how clearly his face telegraphs his emotions in general. I love that he actually emotes quite a lot and isn't cold and unaffected in the least, just pouty frowny and awkward.

The last piece to this for me is probably his age (which I very much appreciated being established super early on) and how convincingly TJR portrays him as young and inexperienced and extremely earnest. He's so sincere in everything he does that it really doesn't take much to move him, which also (imo) makes his arc less overdone.

We all know from the start what direction his development will likely go, how he'll learn he's mistaken about ZYZ and how he'll grow to have a more nuanced view of the world as he creates more bonds with others. But he's so emotional and emotionally aware that it doesn't really take much push and pull to get him there. And actually, it's not untread ground to him—he is moreso thawing, in part returning to the open-hearted nature that he had to very abruptly shutter away rather than fundamentally changing as a person. I think to me, that makes his character more compelling to watch because his cynicism about the world is perhaps the least sincere thing about him. It's entirely learned, and not by choice. Relatable.

[vulpixisananimal]

"So. . ."

(You were lying down on a couch. You were doing woodcarving; it was theraputic. Mirabelle had just come over from cleaning up and sat at the other end of the couch.)

"Hello Mirabelle, got any questions for your friendly star~"

(She tittered at that.) "Hehe, maybe a few. Even if it, might not matter much."

"Talking is still nice, ask away."

"Well. . ." (She thought for a second.) "Well are you, doing ok?"

"???" (That took you by surprise. You were expecting something about how the loops worked, or where they came from.) ". . . I'm, well I'm doing great! We've only been doing this for a few loops and that's practicaly No time at all~"

"W-well, I suppose, but I meant more in general."

(You paused carving.) "Hmm?"

"Well, Siffrin said you showed up soon after we beat the King. And, well, I was wondering, has it been alright? I-I mean, sharing a body with Sif and all. A-and like, since we didn't know you were around did we do something that made you-"

"Oh hush Mirabelle." (You twirl your dagger casually.) "It was a lovely time in Bambouche, really! The beach was just so nice, it was a good way to meet Nille too! No need to explain the whole being a star thing~"

"I guess so. . ."

"I will say, as much as I like Stardust," (You lower your tone to a dramatic one.) "Sharing a head with them is agony sometimes."

(She giggles again.) "Is it really that hard? Or. ."

"It's complicated. So, so complicated." (You thougt for a moment.) "Talking to eachother is like. . . Almost like someone else is having thoughts in your own head. And you have thoughts back. It can be hard to tell whos thoughts are whos, but you can 'talk' very fast."

"Because you're just thinking to eachother?"

"In a way~" (You tap your chin with your knife.) "It's hard to explain, but I might to better a better job next time, tee hee~"

(Another giggle.) "It makes some sense, I think."

"From what I've read it's a very complex disorder." (Odiles voice. You turn, she was finding a place to sit down.) "Each person experiences it differently too."

"Complex doesn't even start to describe it. . ." (You decide to just put away your carving.) "Headaches are almost constant."

"With how Siffrin thinks? Well I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"Oh the burdens we must bare."

"What burdens are we bareing today?" (It was Isabeau walking in now.)

"The big furry types of course~"

"Ha! Haha!"

"Well you two have something in common."

"Tee hee~"

(You sat up and made room or Isabeau on the couch. He sat down and talked.) "Bonnie and Nille are just putting some leftovers away." (He looked over at Mirabelle.) "You're sure there's no bruising? Bonnie still has a headache."

(. . .)

"I'm positive, I double and tripple checked."

(For the love of Stars will you just tell me what I missed already?!? CLEARLY something happened you're not telling me.)

(I will not tell you.)

(You are infuriating.)

"Kid probably just needs a lie down." (Isa comments.)

"Once this is over we all do." (You say, you still felt exhausted from all this time craft. Will you at least tell me when we're out of this blinding loop?)

(I can agree to that.)

"Speaking of such. Would you mind if we try talking to Stardust now?" (Odile asked.)

(You nod.) "If ever there was a time for it~"

". . . So how do we do this?" (Asked Mirabelle.)

"Well, first I'll get Siffrin back here. It might get a bit confusing for us but don't worry about that~" (You thought for a moment.) "Although, Isabeau, if that mind craft is still afflicting Siffrin, could you try making sure he doesn't do anything stupid?"

"Uh, alright! I think I can do that."

"I'd like to ask Siffrin the questions if that's alright." (Odile had gotten up from her seat and walked over.)

"Of course, and Mirabelle if you could. . ."

"Morale support?" (She suggested.)

"Morale support!"

"Perfect, moral support it is."

(Alright. . . Siffrin. . .)

(You breath in, and out. Stardust, where just where are you Stardust. You were forced out quite abruptly, but you could come back with. . . The thoughts of Isabeau? No no, something bad maybe? Probaly not. What about his favorite foods? Oh well they did love that Pan Au Chocolate-)

(Huh?)

(You feel a bit dizzy. There you are Stardust~)

(Loop? What happened. I was forced out of front by Mal du Pays, I didn't remember much afterwards. You're here because they want to ask you a few questions. Yes? Why though?)

(They're worried about you. Something happened. So if you don't mind. . .)

(You blink a few times, you had a mild headache but it cleared fast.) "Uh. . ."

"Siffrin?" (Huh? Or Mirabelle was at your side. Isabeau and Odile too.)

(You rub your head.) "Hi uh. . . What happened?"

(Mirabelle glanced over to Odile, who started talking.) "Are you feeling alright, Siffrin?"

"Dazed, headache, confused. Did something happen??"

"I'm getting to that." (Odile continued.) "Do you remember what happened?"

"Uhm. . . I was talking to Ramos? Yeah, yeah Ramos came over to see Isabeau."

(You glance between the three of them. Loop what's going on?)

(Mental check in, Stardust.)

"And what did you talk about."

"It was. . . Right! We were chatting about our adventures, how we met Isabeau, and uh. . ."

(You glance at Isa as Odile continues.) "What else?"

"Well, well, they were curious if Isabeau mentioned them at all." (Why was it so hard to remember?)

"And you said. . ."

(You smiled.) "I said 'of course he did!'"

(. . .Stars.)

(Huh? Did you say something wrong? They all looked worried. Isabeau spoke up.) "Are. . . Are you sure Sif?"

"Positive, right?" (You think hard.) "Because. . . Because you talked about them helping you for the Defenders exams?"

(Isabeau looked. . . Sad? What was going on?!?)

"That, didn't happen, Siffrin." (Odile said.) "I'm, sorry but that's not true."

"Huh?!?"

(You could feel your breathing quicken. What do they mean??? Ramos was, was Isabeaus best friend, right? Hadn't you been excited to see them?!? That's why you came here in the first place right???)

(You have a headache. What was going on?!? No, no Ramos was your friend right?)

"Siffrin?" (You turn to Isabeau, he was holding out a hand. You grab it and squeeze. He doesn't even flinch.) "It's. . . Well, just take a breath first, ok? With me? Just like you showed us, right?"

(Right, right, just breathe. In. . . . and Out. . .)

(Feeling better, Stardust?)

(No, yes, maybe. Just. I'm just confused.) "Alright, alright, please tell me what happened, please."

"Siffrin, well, Ramos isn't really, a good person right now, I think." (You turn to Mirabelle as she continues.) "They, well, Loop told us that they've been effecting people with Mind Craft. You included."

(??????????)

(It's a craft type that effects ones memories, ones mind. Your perception of Ramos has been altered, Stardust.)

(Odile talking now.) "It should be reversable, but from what I know it might be more difficult as it may be powered by a wish. If that's the case it could. . ."

"It would just take a while!" (Mira jumps in.) "But! The good news is Loop isn't effected?"

(Your breathing is getting heavy again. What? But, Ramos was a big figure in Isabeaus life, right? There where all those stories! Like, like.)

(You cannot remember.)

(It's a trick, Stardust~ A nasty one at that.)

(You lean into Isabeau, you feel lightheaded.) "A-are you sure? I, I mean. . ." (It. . . It was really hard to believe. You had this feeling, this instinct, that Ramos was a friend, the best, the. . .)

"Sorry Sif." (Isa gently put a hand on your head. You didnt flinch.) "We'll get this figured out, ok?"

". . . Promise?"

"I promise!"

"Of course I promise!" (Mirabelle chimed in.)

"I don't want to see what happens when your memory gets worse. I promise we'll figure it out." (Odile adds.)

(You nod. And sigh.) ". . . Thank you."

(Your head hurts. Loop, can you, can you please just deal with this?)

(Of course Stardust~ It might be better since-)

(Because Ramos might still be able to effect me. Yeah. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone.)

(You breathe in, and out. And in the future, you can take over in a pinch if needed, ok?)

(Same back to you. stars, even for Mal too. Just in case.)

(Thank you.)

(. . . . .)

[You got the Memory of Switching! When equipped, this will make it easier for you to switch out with your headmates, even durring battle!]

(You pause a second before moving. Isabeau is comfortable, he's got a hand on your head. No need to pull away immediatly.)

(Is now really the time?)

(Hush you. Stardust's gone now, let me have this.)

(You took one more second before getting up and stretching.) "Well! That was quite enlightening~"

"Loop?"

"Yes yes, Stardust decided to go for now, didn't trust themself to act rational."

"Aww. . ." (Isabeau awkwardly rubbed his side.) "I can't imagine how he must be feeling."

"Now where have I heared that before." (Odile adds, going back to her own seat.)

"We miss anything?" (It was Nille, she and Bonnie where walking in.)

"Just checked in on Siffrin." (Odile sighs.) "Unfortunatly, the mind craft stuck."

"Crab" (Nille sat down on the ground.)

"Stupid Crabbing mind crab" (Bonnie stormed over to a chair and sat down.)

"Language."

(You laugh.) "You'll never get Bonbon to stop swearing at this rate."

"Oh I will!" (She replied, rolling her eyes.)

"Nuh uh!" (Bonnie stuck out their tongue.)

"Yuh huh!"

"Nuh uh!!!"

"Yuh huh or you a stupid face."

"YOU'RE a stupid face!"

"Gasp!! Bonnie! How could you! Your own Sister!"

(You fail to hold in your laughter.)

(Why couldn't ever day be this simple.)

[luna0713hunter]

Tell me a lie

Part 1

Modern au!Choso x reader,breakup,angst,hurt/comfort,happy ending i promise

The day you break up with Choso, ironically,is the anniversary of the day you two met.

Breaking up with Choso,was easy;you two weren't real couples to begin with. The whole thing only started out as a joke;since the two of you kept getting hit on in College almost every day,you thought it'll be a funny idea to play pretend with your best friend.

"what if we pretend to date?i bet that'll help us out."

It was a joke. A stupid, thoughtless joke.

A joke,that got real too fast.

"what if we did?"

So you did. At that time,it seemed like the best idea; after all,you and Choso never had any romantic feelings toward one another,so it wouldn't hurt right?

But breaking up did hurt. No matter what.

Falling in love with Choso was easy. Of course it was;he was the kindest guy you've ever knew. He was your best friend since the first semester in college,and the only guy you could rely on.

Falling in love with Choso was easy, because you've always loved him deep in your heart.

The sky was blue,night was dark,and you loved Choso Kamo.

Simple as that.

But as you watch Choso stare down at his hands across yours on the small table tucked in the corner of a cozy cafe,you cant help but to wonder how easy it would be to reach out and wrap your fingers around his.

But no. You wont do that; because that wasnt the deal. You both had agreed that after college ends,so does your fake relationship. And thats why you're here;to end whatever was going on between the two of you.

"so...thats it." You clear your throat,trying to muster enough courage for an awkward smile, "the last day of college. "

Choso doesnt say a word.

"what,uh,what would you do now?"

Your eyes remain on the way his long, elegant fingers tap against the coffee mug he's holding.

Tap,tap,tap

"I'll look for job. Take care of Yuji."

"oh yeah!you mentioned he's gonna live with you from now on,must be exciting!"

And finally,Choso looks up. And how you wished he'd continue to look at you forever.

"if we're done here,i should go pick up Yuji from his daycare."

And you just nod, dumbfounded as he grabs his coat and pays for both of your drinks. You dont say a word,not until he's almost out of the door,before glancing back at you with the smallest,most forced smile you've ever seen from him.

"it was nice being with you,y/n. Take care."

"you too Choso..."

I Love you

You dont say. Instead,you just sit there,staring out of the cafe window as the first snowflakes of winter start to fall.

And if you've shed a tear or two,no one would know.

+++

"yes!yes thank you so much!!! I'll head straight there!!!"

As you rush to the nearest bus stop,you check the address your friend has sent you. If you took the bus right now,you would be there in no time!

Why the rush?

Lets just say,job hunting was going nowhere. So as soon as your friend from college mentioned she knew someone who needed a sitter for their sibling,you jumped at the opportunity.

As you get off the bus,you double check the location your friend has sent you and smile;the house is nothing big,just a regular household you see on streets. The front yard has few flowers and plants,and when you ring the doorbell,your heart beats loudly against your ribcage.

The door swings open,and when you dont see anyone in front of you, you raise your brow until you hear a tiny,excited voice calling for you.

"Hi y/n!!"

Your eyes draws downward,and you let out a small squeak;the small boy standing in front of you is nothing but adorable. His spikey pinkish hair is messy,and his big brown eyes are so innocent. There are scratches and small bruises on his cheeks,arms and knees,and the huge, blinding smile he's giving you makes anyone's heart melt.

But that's not the reason you're almost having a heart attack no.

The reason is-

"Yuji!i told you not to open the door without me!!"

Yuji,the small boy turns around and smiles sheepishly.

"Sorry,Choso-nii!"

You swallow,and as you're wondering if its too late to turn around and run,the man himself,Choso freaking Kamo opens the door wider and upon seeing you,grows quiet.

There's an awkward moment where neither of you say anything.

"...y/n. Why are you here..?"

You cough,and hold up your phone for him to see.

"Remember Yuki,from college?she told me her friend needed a sitter for his younger sibling...so.."

"You're my new sitter,y/n?!"

The small squeal has you melting and you knee in front of Yuji and ruffle his hair.

"hey Yuji,i see you still remember me."

The boy gives you a toothy grin, showing you he's missing a few,and nods.

"Big bro always talks about you-"

"Yuji," Choso's calm voice snaps both of your heads his way, "why dont you go watch tv while we speak?"

Yuji,the ever polite kid he is,rushes inside. Leaving you alone with your kinda-friend who you haven't seen in six months.

Not since your break-up.

When Choso clears his throat,you nervously glance up at him and hate the way your heart throbs,even after six months.

You still love him.

"so," he awkwardly steps aside, "want a cup of tea?"

[wanderingmind867]

Here's my ideas for a season five of Batman 1966. This took so long to write. It felt exhausting. So I think this is my last post on all this for a while. If you read all of it, I don't think I'll be blamed for that decision.

Season 5: Season Five would be the last season before Robin goes to university and Batgirl goes on to become a congresswoman (or perhaps it's the season where all of that happens). I will work those story beats in somehow over the course of this season, but the more important thing is maintaining a sense of charm with this season. It'd still have 70-80 episodes (probably), but I think some of my focus would become dedicated to Introducing the League of Assasins, and having Batman '66 embrace the vibes of James Bond or Mission Impossible.

Episodes 1 and 2: Batman and Robin deal with Tiger Shark (Lloyd Bridges), a rich oceanographer who lost everything in a big scandal years ago; and who now moonlights as a cutthroat criminal in tiger patterned scuba gear. His hideout would be at the docks somewhere, and his henchmen would all have aquatic themed names.

Episodes 3 and 4: Batman and Robin team up to fight against The Minstrel (Van Johnson), their old musically inclined foe. He's broken out of jail to get revenge on The Dynamic Duo (as he promised he would way back in Season Two), and only the dynamic duo is capable of stopping him. But when The Minstrel hacks into all the computers and technological devices in Gotham, it becomes clear that they'll have to fight both him and his army of machines.

Episodes 5 and 6: Batman and Robin encounter The Bookworm (Roddy McDowall), who's now using famous crimes in books as the inspiration for his own crimes. But this episode doesn't explicitly feature too many Sherlock Holmes references. Mostly because I want to save all those references for a later date, because they can probably sustain a whole seperate story with The Bookworm.

Episodes 7 and 8: Catwoman (Julie Newmar) opens up a bold new discotheque in the heart of Gotham City. But things don't end up going according to plan. When Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson stop by to experience a night of fun and entertainment, they end up stumbling onto Catwoman's plot to rob all the dancers blind. Coincidentally, Barbara Gordon was also in the crowd that night (on a date with Jason Bard) and so Batgirl hops into the fight too!

In the end, it becomes clear that at least two of the Catwomen were involved in this fraudulent operation (Eartha Kitt was in on it too), and that means double trouble for our terrific trio! Can our heroes successfully save the day? Or have the feline felons finally achieved the impossible!?

Episodes 9 and 10: The Penguin becomes engaged in a new crime spree, when he learns that the deed to his family's old manor was never actually handed off to anyone. Technically, he's still in charge of the old Cobblepot estate! So Penguin manages to challenge all this in court, and successfully manages to win himself back his ancestry.

Batman and Robin still end up investigating him, though. Especially since his estate is now being used as a hideout for some of gotham's worst criminals and crooks. It'll be hard to prove, but Batman and Robin need to break Penguin's clean new record, and end the sympathy he keeps evoking by always talking about losing his heritage. Because he can't be allowed to use his manor as an aerie of evil!

Episodes 11 and 12: A story involving Mister Freeze.

Episodes 13 and 14: The League of Assassins storyline really begins here, as The Mad Hatter (David Wayne) returns to Gotham from England. He was released from Scotland Yard on good behaviour, and now he's seemingly all set up to establish a fine haberdashery in the center of town.

But despite trying his best to remain on the straight and narrow, The Mad Hatter ends up relapsing into hat thefts and mad schemes. Batman and Robin have to be called in to stop him, and he ends up sent back to the penitentiary. Meanwhile, a mysterious shadowy figure is watching from a high tech monitor, directing all their other agents to begin attacks on the Batman. He's meddled in their affairs for the last possible time…

Episodes 15, 16 and 17: Batman and Robin run into The Scarecrow, who's looking to break into a science lab to expand the power range of his fear toxin. Batman is too late to stop him, as The Scarecrow successfully tests the fear toxin on him. That's why this is a three parter, by the way. It's because part two is just one long flashback, finally introducing us to all the core events in Bruce Wayne's past. Losing his parents, being raised by his Uncle Phillip, deciding to become batman, etc. But in the end, Batman still manages to defeat Scarecrow. Mostly through the help of Robin, who helps his mentor and father figure recover his sense of self.

Episode 18: This episode would be a solo adventure with Batgirl and Jason Bard again. It'd also be the episode where I begin setting up Barbara's political ambitions. Barbara and Jason go to see a popular youth politician in the Gotham area, when said politician finds himself under attack by Poison Ivy and The Siren. Both are attacking him for different reasons (Poison Ivy for ecoterrorism reasons, The Siren for mysterious reasons tied in with the League of Assasins), but they successfully hypnotize his entire campaign team into turning on him.

When everyone turns on him, Barbara suits up as Batgirl and goes into action alongside Jason Bard. They manage to save the day, but Barbara ends the story very sad and reflective. The Gotham area doesn't have too many youthful faces in politics, and she fears it's breeding apathy. She wants to try and do something about all of that…

Episodes 19 and 20: A Christmas Special, and one of the last few storylines not to be tied to the League of Assasins plotline (for a while, at least). Mister Freeze and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds team up to hatch a mad scheme involving eternal winter and the theft of as many diamonds as possible. Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Jason Bard all end up having to deal with this case, even though it's all happening the same week as Christmas.

Sadly, crime never takes breaks, so neither can our heroes. But still, the story would end with a happy ending of sorts: Bruce Wayne and family spending the holidays with Commissioner Gordon and family. Meanwhile, the state penitentiary has organized a Christmas party. Safely allowing mad criminals like The Joker, The Riddler, Catwoman and The Penguin their brief moments of respite and revelry in a life of mad crime capers and failed schemes.

Episodes 21 and 22: A famous international criminal known as The Great Dane (Victor Borge) arrives in Gotham City, and he brings his remarkable talents with the piano to bear a most delightful fruit. While he performs in concert halls all throughout Gotham, his men go out and rob the city blind. Nobody can pin anything on him, though. He's one smooth operator.

Batman and Robin successfully manage to locate his hideout, but then they learn that the Dane was expecting them. And he's prepared a most devious trap. With the push of a button, Batman and Robin are lowered down a trap door and locked inside The Dane's Wolf cages. His babies, his wolves are the dane's pride and joy (and his engine of disposal for enemies).

Episodes 23 and 24: Batman and Robin end up dealing with The Joker, who's broken out of jail because he's been personally slighted. A popular entertainment magazine listed the best comedians of our era, and they never mentioned him! Him, The Clown Prince of Crime! Joker takes this as a sign that the world doesn't respect him, and it leads him to break out of jail to prove his skills as a comedian.

Harley Quinn also shows up in this story, serving as joker's partner in crime. She's more or less his permanent assistant now, joining him on all his capers (but occasionally pulling some of her own). But their efforts to prove their comedic value leads them to once again match wits with Batman and Robin, as the greatest comedy caper of all begins.

Episodes 25 and 26: A new villian comes to town on Valentine's Day: Cupid (played by Dean Martin), a suave performer who plans to hypnotize the citizens of Gotham. He wants to have a world where everyone loves him and fawns upon him, and he's going to use any and all methods at his disposal to achieve said result.

Episodes 27 and 28: The Riddler bursts onto the scene once more, as Gotham is menaced by riddles and clues delivered via acrostics. It's a new method for The Riddler, one he's hoping will help him finally get one up over Batman and Robin! But when Batgirl and Jason Bard also get involved, well… will four heads prevail where two might fail? Only this episode of Batman has those answers!

Episodes 29 and 30: King Tut is back in town, and he's become convinced that Catwoman (Eartha Kitt) is the goddess Bast. So he kidnaps her and tries to force her to be his queen. The Terrific Trio of Batman, Robin and Batgirl all have to come together to rescue Catwoman, as Tut himself has built an incredibly elaborate shrine to Bast's glory. Catwoman also tries to sneak out of Tut's pyramid, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to escape from. For once, King Tut has spared no expense in his worship of the gods.

Episodes 31 and 32: Batman and Robin run into The Penguin and Egghead, both of whom are competing to steal different rare bird and/or egg themed objects. The dynamic duo go out on the hunt for both of them, and they do eventually manage to capture them. But our heroes never even realized that these villians had more to their rivalry than just wanting the same objects.

No, they were competing for the rights to join the League of Assassins, a prestigious criminal guild looking to expand it's tendrils into Gotham. Lola Lasagne was the one who came to them with the proposal, and she was using them as pawns in the league's schemes. Since she escaped punishment here, she'll be back to menace Batman some other time. Namely, she'll be back next episode, as Batman and Robin travel to Texas to confront her!

Episodes 33 and 34: Batman and Robin travel to Texas to bust up Lola Lasagne's branch of the League of Assasins. But she's got a new partner down in Texas, a crooked gangster (played by Walter Matthau) who's invented many elaborate traps and gadgets to stymie the dynamic duo.

While Batman and Robin try to deal with the League, they end up accidentally running into an old set of allies: The Green Hornet and Kato! It turns out their neck of the woods was being victimized by the League of Assasins too, and so they'd come to Texas for the same reasons as Batman and Robin. So this old group of four teams up once again to battle the forces of evil! They go their separate ways at the end of the story, but they both wish each other luck on their quest to defeat the League.

So while there is an established story reason for Batman and The Green Hornet to reunite, this story is also me cynically attempting to pitch a Green Hornet season 2, where The Hornet and Kato fight off the many powerful members of the League of Assasins, who're attempting to infiltrate the criminal underworld.

Episodes 35 and 36: Batgirl and Jason Bard are helping defend Gotham while Batman and Robin are away, but they end up running into an old foe again: Signalman (played by Andy Griffith). Signalman has broken out of jail to try and get the attention of Catwoman (played by Lee Meriwether) who has some kind of connection to him. What that connection is remains unclear. But the one clear thing is that Signalman really cares about her, and he wants to draw her attention again.

Episodes 37 and 38: This could be a two parter, or it could be another tv movie. But Two-Face is back again. And this time we're going to do the comics thing, with the split personality and the anger and the paranoia. Harvey Dent is Gotham's District Attorney again, and he's interrogating an infamous mobster in one of Gotham's Courthouses. But just when it looks like he's got the crook on the ropes, he pulls out a vial of acid and splashes Harvey right in the face!

Since Batman was sitting in the gallery (in his civilian identity of Bruce Wayne), he was unable to get to Harvey in time. And by the time he does get to him, it's too late. His previous deformation has happened again, and this time it might be permanent. Two-Face is back, and his two sided crime spree is just beginning anew! Robbing two piece suits, bicycle shops, bicoloured stores, etc. Everything fits the Two theme, or else!

So this episode does actually have all the tragedy of a modern Two-Face story. Because it's clear Harvey Dent is mentally unwell, and that he's got a temper and probably really needs help. But the silly aspects are kept in touch too. Namely the obsession with the number two. Everything is dictated by his coin, and all his crimes (whether they be good crimes or bad crimes) hinge on some variation on the number two.

Oh, and the final note about this story: Batman is led to believe the League of Assasins is responsible for Harvey's disfigurement, which makes him now have a personal vendetta against the League. But did the League actually do it? Shockingly, no. This time it was all the Court of Owls (something we're not gonna learn until at least a season or two away from now).

Episodes 39 and 40: The Cluemaster and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds team up to commit a series of deadly crimes involving magic and puzzling clues. Batman and Robin are almost defeated and killed by this mad team, but they eventually manage to capture them. And once they have them in custody, we learn that they were brought together by the League of Assassins, who had many agents and allies in the Gotham area. Marsha and Cluemaster refuse to rat on their allies, besides giving Batman a clue to investigate in London.

Episode 41: Batman takes off on an cruise to London, little dreaming that Catwoman (Julie Newmar) is also on the boat, planning to hold it for ransom. Her and Batman end up getting in a scuffle over it, but by the time their fight is over, the boat has been utterly ruined. So Batman sends her to jail, and then prepares to take a flight to London instead of a cruise. But little does Batman know; a second Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) is continuing to follow him. She masquerades as the pilot on his plane and helps him get to england.

And before anyone asks: Robin isn't in this episode (or the next few in this league storyline). Batman was worried about Robin after his near death in the fight against Cluemaster and Marsha, so he's forbidden him from following him to London. All this means is that Robin and Batgirl are going to a nice team-up story back in gotham, however.

Episode 42: With Batman leaving for London, someone has to guard Gotham. So Robin and Batgirl guard it while Batman is away. Batgirl successfully manages to find time away from running her political campaign to help, leaving Jason busy running all of that (and unavailable to help in this episode). And while it's just the two of them in gotham, they end up having to deal with both The Joker and The Bookworm, who are competing to steal a rare copy of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, which has recently been acquired by a famous antiquarian living in Gotham.

Episodes 43 and 44: Arriving in London, Batman ends up fighting off against some old enemies of his: Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and Lady Penelope Peasoup. It turns out that they're the ones responsible for testing Cluemaster and Marsha to see if they were worthy to join the League. But before Batman can get to them, they distract him by sending The Puzzler (yet another of the league's operatives) to bait him into a trap.

The Puzzler leads Batman to a castle near Loch Ness, where him and another of the league's operatives, a young socialite known as Lady Ophelia Keswick, bait Batman into a trap involving illusions and drugged food. Batman manages to escape from their trap in the castle dungeons, but he's too late to capture Lord Ffogg and Lady Peasoup. They escaped. But at least Batman can take The Puzzler and Lady Keswick to Scotland Yard. Then it's back to the United States, where Batman has to await news of the League's activities.

Episodes 45 and 46: Before Batman can leave for Gotham, he's baited into investigation a mysterious crime wave in Paris. The perpetrators? None other than The Clock King and The Sandman! Both members of The League, they've combined their skills to make a sand that can freeze time. So together, these two have been robbing Paris blind with their new "time sand". Only Batman can stop them now; but is even the dynamic duo up to the challenge?

This episode would definitely have a famous french celebrity in a wall climbing cameo. Maybe Maurice Chevalier, or Leslie Caron or something? Definitely a famous french celebrity of the 60s or 70s.

Episodes 47 and 48: Batman returns to Gotham City, only to find it's now been taken over by the combined forces of Nora Clavicle, Poison Ivy and The Siren. Turns out Nora Clavicle was an agent of the League too, and now she's planning an extra special trap for Batman and his allies. Locking him and robin in jail and manipulating most of the city's women, it ends up falling on Batgirl and Batwoman's soldiers to save the day and rescue Gotham from the evils of these three villainesses.

And yes, this episode contains a record number of women. Pretty much all the major female henchgirls over the past four seasons make minor camoes in this episode, excluding the ones who actually seemed to reform. That's just to give you an idea of how intensely jam packed this episode set is.

Episodes 49 and 50: Batman and Robin have to deal with The Minstrel, once again. Since The Minstrel's whole attire and gimmick revolves around Gilbert and Sullivan's song: "A Wandering Minstrel, I", The Minstrel has logically decided to take everything up to the extreme now. Crimes specifically based on different Gilbert and Sullivan operas drive the Minstrel's new crimes. Can Batman and Robin stop this musical maestro before he steals the spotlight (and the spoils) once more?

Episodes 51 and 52: Barbara Gordon's political campaign is almost destroyed by False Face and Clayface II, both of whom have been hired by the League of Assasins to distract Batman and Robin. So Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Jason Bard all end up having to deal with the tumultuous chaos of False Face and Clayface's frame job on Barbara Gordon's congressional campaign. Meanwhile, the leads on The League of Assasins are still null and void for Batman, something that won't change for at least a few more episodes.

Episodes 53 and 54: Batman deals with Shame, who's currently working solo again (since Nora Clavicle convinced his wife to leave him).

Episodes 55, 56 and 57: The Joker and The Scarecrow both end up breaking out of jail at the same time. But instead of having those two disrupt the orderly structure of gotham society, a new villian pops up to steal their thunder! Presenting The Thespian (Leslie Nielsen), a dramatic tragedian capable of bringing a tear to anyone's eye. With a charmingly delivered speech, this mad performer can dampen anyone's mood (including The Joker and The Scarecrows).

So while Batman and Robin start out Episode One planning to deal with Joker and Scarecrow, Episodes Two and Three end up firmly focused in on The Thespian and his tragic crimes. A real showstopper, this villianous rogue commands the scene whenever he's in it. With his hideout at the theatre and his henchmen all having themed nicknames based around tragedy and sadness, he truly is a foe to be threatened by.

Luckily for Batman, though, him and robin manage to successfully defeat The Thespian by turning his own gases back around on himself. Now reduced to a crying wreck, Batman manages to learn that he's another agent of the League of Assasins. And from him, Batman successfully pries the location of Lord Ffogg and Lady Peasoup. So finally, Batman can get back on the League's trail (solo, once again).

Episodes 58, 59 and 60: Batman heads to a small country nestled in the Balkans, where he finally manages to confront Lord Ffogg and Lady Peasoup. But before he can defeat them, they reveal their new ally in the form of Doctor Cassandra Spellcraft and her husband, Cabala. Yes, these two old foes of Batman were also members of the League of Assassins, and Batman has walked right into their trap!

Now trapped in a dungeon, unmasked and at the league's mercy, Batman ends up meeting Talia al Ghul (played by Sophia Loren), daughter of Ra's al Ghul, the head of The League. Teaming up with her, the two of them successfully manage to escape from the dungeon and confront our four antagonists. But in the middle of the scuffle, Lord Ffogg attacks Talia with a blade. And in retaliation, Talia shoots Lord Ffogg in cold blood.

After Batman comforts her for a little while, Talia leaves without a word. She leaves Batman to report Lord Ffogg's death, and to get the other three criminals to jail safely. But now that Batman has made himself known to the highest echelons of this secret society, it's only a matter of time before their leader comes looking for him…

Episodes 61 and 62: Batman returns to Gotham, just in time to help Robin deal with a new crime spree being put on by The Riddler and The Bookworm, who've come to realize they're not that different from each other. Together, the two of them have led a massive crime spree while Batman was in Europe. And Robin was unable to handle them all alone. So now that he's back, Batman has to try and help Robin deal with them.

Episode 63: Batgirl and Jason Bard have an adventure completely independent of Batman and Robin. While the Dynamic Duo is busy with The Riddler and The Bookworm, these two have to deal with The Penguin, who's been planning to orchestrate a separate scheme involving the illegal smuggling of some priceless caviar and cigars. His expensive tastes require him to smuggle most of his fine food and amenities in from across the ocean, you see. So Batgirl and Jason have to go out at sea and play coast guards for the day, as they prevent Penguin's shady smuggling deals from going through.

Episodes 64 and 65: Batman has to deal with Lady Shiva (played by Nancy Kwan), an elite member of the League of Assasins who was sent out to try and kill Batman. She stalks him all over Gotham City, which leaves Batman so distracted he never once manages to find the time to investigate Robin's absence. But that's a topic for the next episode. For now, we get a martial arts style brawl between Batman and Lady Shiva.

Episode 66: While Batgirl runs her political campaign and Batman deals with Lady Shiva, Robin has successfully snuck off from Gotham City to try and pursue the League of Assassins. So in this episode, we catch up with him in the middle of asia somewhere. While he's trying to infiltrate the league's headquarters, he accidentally runs into Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) too. It turns out she's been hunting the League since way back in episode 34. So she's successfully gained entrance into the League, and now it's time for her to report back to Gotham with her findings.

But because of Robin entering the picture, things get more intense. Catwoman and Robin have to successfully escape from the league's headquarters without being caught. We catch brief glimpses of Ra's al Ghul and his men, but we don't really have any guest villians this time. This episode ends with Robin and Catwoman getting caught by Ra's, and it's really more of an episode designed to build up to the dramatic two parter that begins after this.

Episodes 67 and 68: Batman is confronted by Ra's al Ghul (played by Ricardo Montalban), head of the League of Assassins. He's kidnapped Robin and Catwoman (Lee Meriwether), and he baits Batman into working with him to save Dick Grayson from a rival assassins society. But the twist is naturally that there was no rival assasins society, and this was all just an excuse for Ra's to test Batman.

Batman finds Robin half beaten to death, and he loses it. He beats Ra's in a fencing match, a hand to hand combat duel, and then successfully blows up the league's hideout somewhere in asia. This looks like the end of Ra's al Ghul and his League of Assassins. But it probably won't end up being the end…

Episodes 69 and 70: Batman is trying to deal with a still recuperating robin, yet an old enemy from the past has resurfaced to menace gotham yet again. The Cavalier (played by Tony Curtis), that evil musketeer of mayhem, has returned to loot gotham for everything it's worth. And Batman has to stop him, while also protecting a recovering robin from taking excessive damage.

Since Robin is injured and Batgirl is away (currently running for congress with her campaign manager Jason Bard), Batman has to turn to Batwoman to help him stop The Cavalier. And Batwoman brings in her niece Bette, the original Batgirl (although she now goes by Flamebird). So this new/old trio of crime busters now have to team up to stop The Cavalier and protect Gotham City.

Episodes 71, 72 and 73: It's Halloween Night, and Bruce Wayne is holding a fancy party with Kathy Kane. Dick Grayson is beginning to recover, so he's there alongside Bette Kane. Batgirl and Jason can't make it, but Aunt Harriet, Leslie Thompkins, Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara all show up. The night is going incredibly well; all until Solomon Grundy shows up to ruin things.

Yes, it turns out that all the old rumours about Slaughter Swamp were correct. Every Halloween Night, he rises from the grave to wreak havok on the people of Gotham. Being a mindless creature of the swamp, there's no way to stop him. You can only delay him until he sinks back into his grave. So with him on the rampage, Batman, Batwoman and Flamebird have to save the day yet again. They delay Grundy until the Dawn of November 1st, but he still seems unstoppable. Over the course of the night, Catwoman (Julie Newmar) even joins them, but nothing helps.

It's then that a dimensional wormhole opens, and The Huntress (Helena Wayne) steps out. She reveals that Solomon Grundy actually isn't from this earth. He's from Earth-Two, and he needs to be sent back where he belongs. So Batman, Catwoman and Huntress team up to capture him (while Batwoman and Flamebird protect the citizens of Gotham). During this episode, we'd hint at Helena's parents being the Batman and Catwoman of her earth, but we'd never say it outright. And after Solomon Grundy is corralled back through the dimensional portal, we'd never see her or solomon grundy again. So yeah, the Halloween special would be absolutely wild here.

Episode 74: This hour long finale barely even features Batman in it. It's all about Batgirl and Jason Bard. With Batgirl running for Congress in her civilian identity as Barbara Gordon, election day is about to come to pass. Will Barbara win!? Well, we won't know that until the end of the special. Because Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn decide to crash the polling stations, and they bring chaos and mayhem to the streets. Batgirl has to suit up and prepare to go into action against them.

So Batgirl defeats Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and then saves the day. After that whole adventure, we get the results of the election: Barbara won her election, and she's going to DC as a Congresswoman! Flying out to watch her get signed into Congress are Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Kathy Kane, Bette Kane and Commissioner Gordon and his wife. It's a beautiful moment. It's also probably one of the last times we're going to see Batwoman and Flamebird. But rest assured: this isn't the end of Batgirl. No, Batgirl is going to do what she did in the comics: continue doing superhero work, and balance that with life as a politician.