#scenes from gordon's bedside

[starwriterulia]

Tomb of the Goshenite Stargazer Dragon - Chapter 5

SUBJECT MATERIAL WARNINGS FOR THIS FANFICTION ARE INCLUDED IN THE MASTERLIST POST OF MY BLOG AND THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THIS FANFICTION.

Bat dividers by @violetbudd

Scene cut and creator support banners by @cafekitsune

Latest update: August 18, 2024. Added chapter summary. Added scene cut and "Support your creators by reblogging" banners. Added ⏭️ emoji below end of chapter banner with text explaining its function as a navigational button.

Chapter summary: Stephanie and Faith fail to be intimate, Faith citing that they're siblings now, and Stephanie understands and apologises. Faith shares the near-incestous memory she had hidden out of shame, Barbara outside the door listening. Barbara shares this with Dick and Tim off-screen, and their mission to be friends with Faith and guide her is reaffirmed. The next morning is Monday, and Stephanie and Faith eat breakfast, and as Faith practices with Tim, she talks with Dick about what Ra's might have experienced and done in her Dragon Tomb, revealing a loophole Ra's could access in her Puzzle Tower, a door to it in her Dragon Tomb, that Dick makes her amend immediately, Barbara helping. Faith divulges her love for Tohou, almost all off-screen, as the group play Wii games after dinner. Stephanie and Faith go to bed with their pyjamas on.

Fandoms: DC Comics, Batfamily, no Batcest, Thalassic Space (OC; takes inspiration The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and other sci-fi, fantasy and horror titles, as well as original concepts, such as the science and lore of the galaxy.)

[In order of appearance] Characters: Faith Lawson (TBA; self-insert), Stephanie Brown (The Spoiler). Barbara Gordon (Batgirl), Tim Drake (Red Robin), Dick Grayson (Nightwing).

Word Count: 7093 (Slightly long, but not too long!)

Content warning: Mention of a sexual ick (feces from how Faith's body tenses up), details of the struggles of wiping after using the bathroom due to dwarfism, a retelling of Faith's near-incestuous experience, discussion of Faith's stressful experience of learning about sex on the Internet without her parents' proper guidance, canon-typical violence, major character death.

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6

Stephanie flicked on the bedside lamp as Faith entered and closed the door. "All right," Stephanie took hold of Faith's left wrist with both hands and pulled her to stand at the left side of the bed. "Lift your arms! Lemme see you again, girl!"

"Um."

"Are you scared?"

"Well, now that I'm part of the Batfamily, it's inappropriate. I know this is just what you do, but I'd rather people like me."

"Oh, oh shit, I totally get that! I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for hitting on you, too."

"Thanks"

"Do you just wanna talk, then?"

"Can we talk and platonically cuddle?"

"Hell yes!"

"Yay!" As the girls crawled into bed, Stephanie laying down and extending her right arm, Barbara arrived at the door with a plate of apple pie and ice cream in each hand. "Do you want to be on top like this?"

'Yep, Barbara, you should have waited an hour.' Barbara thought.

"Yes, please." Faith said, lowering herself to rest her head partially on Stephanie's shoulder and partially into her armpit. Faith sighed. "So, part of my asexuality is that I give myself the ick."

"Mhm?"

'I should just go.' Barbara picked up the plates. Her watch vibrated. She looked at it.

"When my body tenses up to cum, I shit a little, and that turns me off, and I can't finish."

'SOFFFIAA just sent me a message.' Barbara interacted with her watch to open the Messages tab of TSRPG, and navigated to chat with SOFFIAA.

"Oh, well that's not good. Do you ever just sit on a towel?"

SOFFFIAA has turned her attention to you, bearing a message.

SOFFFIAA: Please don't go.

"I do, but then the towel needs to be cleaned." Faith said. Barbara heard Dick approaching, and glanced at him.

SOFFFIAA: You wanted to know the story Faith hasn't told you.

"And it smells like piss, so I just..."

SOFFFIAA: Have you figured out that I am actually Faith's Anima?

"Sigh, I just end up rubbing my dildo against myself a little bit,"

BARBARA GORDON: Hm. No, but it makes sense.

DIck whispered, "You're talking to SOFFFIAA and eavesdropping?"

SOFFFIAAA: Well, now that you're informed, please stay.

"'Cause I can't reach with just my arms, which is why my panties sometimes smell like piss,"

"Aw."

"Yes, Dick Grayson, I am." Barbara said.

BARBARA GORDON: OK. I will. Thanks for the heads up.

SOFFFIAA: It was my duty and pleasure to assist with the healthy status of your friendship with the Great Little Starwriter.

"Unless I had the time and desire to actually lift my leg or really bend over,"

SOFFFIAA has turned her attention away.

Barbara closed the app as Tim came near. "Liiiittle creepy." She whispered. 'Oops.'

Dick said, "It can probably still hear you. Er, she, sorry."

"Sorry, no offense, SOFFIAA. You know the stereotype."

"But when I feel the shit coming, I run to the toilet, and then I've lost the horny." Faith said. As she spoke, Barbara, Dick and Tim waited for Barbara's watch to recieve a new message. It didn't.

"Aw, that sucks."

"Huh, an artificial consciousness that actually isn't capable of evil?" Said Dick.

"I just wish I didn't have a body."

Tim said, "Well, SOFFFIAA is an actual person. Chandra, remember?"

"Riiight."

"Oh, Faith." Stephanie said, kindly, gently placing her right hand on Faith's back and massaging. "You can't do that, and neither can I. And please don't say that you could, with magic."

"'Kay." Faith mumbled, dropping her hand and gaze.

Stephanie sighed through her nose. "How can I help you?"

"I just want to cuddle and kiss a girl. Can't kiss you, as we've said."

"Oh, I know."

"Also, I don't think I'd like the taste or feel of pussy, much less ass. And having Ra's dick in my mouth was really uncomfortable."

"He mouth-raped you?!"

Dick angrily whispered, "He mouth-raped her?!"

Tim bit his lower lip in anger. "Bruce didn't share that with us."

Barbara said, "I guess he just assumed she would tell us."

"Yeah." Said Tim.

"Yeah, Ra's was actually there. Honestly, I was curious, and I thought it might satiate his pursuit of me for a little."

"It wouldn't have."

"Nope." Said Tim.

"Yeah. Also, my hormones were why I didn't use magic to throw him then and there. Giving a dick head with a bit of throating hurt in the awkward way I thought it would. Having a small mouth and a gag reflex didn't help. I mean, it got easier, but he said something that gave me the opportunity to manifest Argophael, and then I threw Ra's."

"Right, oh-kay. Well, you got it done. Throwing Ra's, I mean. Sorry you had to experience that."

"Thanks."

"But like, this? Being this close to a girl? It's a lot less stressful than what my brain thinks about with a guy."

"It is, isn't it?'

"'Cause they smell different, and my body and brain reacts different, and I don't want the baby fever I get 'cause I'd have a high risk pregnancy. Also, my IUD is supposed to be useless because I'm a demigoddess, but it's a lie."

"It is?"

"It's in the Script, which is why Urania told me that. My Role as the Great Little Starwriter is to provide information, but not all of it is true, outside of Thalassic Space. There's a reason that all of the named characters in the stories are actually Actors. None of it's real. When Ra's finds out, he's going to be pissed."

"Right, 'cause his plans to use your powers to kill people and use the environment for his cause will be foiled."

"Exactly."

"Huh. Do you want to never have sex with a man?"

"No, I do, just a little, to know what it feels like. But I'm so small, and I get so stressed, and then I shit, I-I can't even use my dildo for longer than two minutes, unless I'm sitting on a towel, and my hormones take priority over the ick, which is really rare."

"Aw, I'm sorry, Faith."

"It's OK. It's not your fault, or even mine, I-I just learned about sex in a scary way 'cause of the Internet."

"What did you see?"

Barbara quietly put down the dessert plates on a nearby table so she could properly listen to the door.

Faith sighed heavily. "You know how, in the Vocaloid community, Rin and Len Kagamine aren't siblings, just mirrors of each other, but a lot of the fandom views them as siblings?"

"Mhm."

"Well, I have a brother." Things clicked in the Batkids' brains. "I dunno why he knew what sex was and agreed to it. He was ten, I was twelve. The farthest we got was our clothes off on his bed."

"Oh, ha, uh, OK."

"Sorry, I don't like this memory, I never talk about it."

"I can see why. You don't have to keep talking about it, if it's making you so stressed, Faith."

"No, I want to finish it. Then Mom came in, asking what all the noise was for, and then she got loud asking why we were naked. I got the most spankings, of course, and I told her that I got the idea from the Internet, so I had my phone taken away for a month. The thing is, my subconsious has made the memory worse in that my teenage brother is the one who wants to do it, and I'm my adult self with the memory and the knowledge I've learned about why incest happens and is a fetish, and I just wake up angry and screaming and wishing I could just erase the memory from my mind. And I know it's just a dumb thing I almost did as a kid, but I don't like sex as an adult because I keep thinking of the power imbalance between men and women, if you don't think about people who flip that on it's head, but I had to learn about that from the Internet, not hetero-normative society."

"And I had to learn from the Internet about the power that adults have over children, and what child autonomy is. Consensual sex is between two adults with a socially acceptable age difference, or who are the same age, and sex is supposed to be romantic, non-stressful and fun. I-I'm just so lost from having all of this information, and the things I've seen online, trying to see what sexual acts I do and don't like. I've always felt more comfortable watching two women or men or queer people having sex, not a man and a woman. The monster fucker part of me came from the second fandom I joined, TMNT, but in 2012 thanks to the Wii game."

"Oh God, that movie." Stephanie and Faith laughed.

"Sex with a penis looks painful, and I don't understand why they repeat certain words in certain ways instead of sometimes saying those words to communicate when something feels good or needs to stop. I do like the moaning and sounds, though." Faith sighed.

"It sounds like you like safe, consensual sex that's a little on the quiet side, Faith. That's perfectly normal."

"I know. The only thing I can do about it is role-play with myself so I'm control, but like I said, I gross myself out, and I can't finish."

"That's not true, you can ask for help."

"I tried, with online dating, and there's no one in my town who likes what I do who's not a minor or dating, and you know what online dating is like, right?"

"Yeah, it's no picnic."

"Exactly. Me trying to help myself is what happened earlier today with my Animus."

"Right."

"All of this shit is why I'm on the asexual spectrum, a-and one more reason for me to not talk to people." Faith said. Stephanie hummed. "My experiences with online dating have just confirmed what I learned, and have further confirmed my fears and icks about what it's like to be a cisgender woman. I've even learned about what it's like to be transgender, and I like to be friends with them and people of other genders because they feel safe. I know I'll never be in a romantic relationship with a queer person, even a woman, because I'm stuck in my brain, and in the past, a-and again, I'm just so, so lost." Faith sobbed.

Stephanie gently said, "Faith. That's not true. You can love whoever you want to."

"Yeah, but I can't even cry because Mom said it's a pity-party, and I'm supposed to cry for others, not me. So I don't want to live, and I don't want love, and I don't want sex, I just want peace and freedom, but I don't know what that is outside of a story, so I made a whole galaxy." Faith huffed. "I'm tired." She whimpered, nestled into Stephanie, and closed her eyes.

Stephanie was speechless for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, Faith."

"It's not your fault, and it's not mine, I just learned things that have made me so scared and icky, and I just have to deal with it."

"I know. It sounds like it. Well, thank you for being so brave and telling me about that memory, and how you feel. I promise that none of us will ever take advantage of you like that, OK?"

"I know. It's why I didn't immediately ask Platonia to cut the shit and send Ra's home a husk of himself for a year. I wanted to meet you guys, I-I wanted friends!" Faith started crying, burrowing her face into Stephanie. Stephanie clicked her tongue and tightened her grip around Faith, rubbing her back. Tears began to run from Barbara's eyes. Dick's eyes watered as he reached out to caress Barbara's arm. Tim had lowered his own wettened eyes and sighed.

"All I want is friends, but all my life, it's been so hard! And I know why now, and what to do, but it's still so hard! So I made a galaxy, and, and..." Faith grumbled, and tucked her face into Stephanie's body. Stephanie felt the tears from Faith's eyes. How they didn't flow. How they were trapped.

Stephanie cried for her, and sniffled. "I'm so sorry, Faith."

"Thank you for listening and not screaming that I'm an incestuous piece of shit."

"Is that what you're afraid of people calling you, when you tell them that story?"

"Yeah, and I don't tell it often 'cause sometimes my friends have trauma directly caused by incest, or familial molestation. But my Homestuck friends, they understood, they were kind to me, and then we moved on! And I try to live like that, I try to move on, but the dream world, my subconsious, it won't let go."

"Maybe that's OK, Faith." Faith groaned and shook her head. "Maybe that's your brain's way of telling you why it's important to remember."

Faith sniffled, looked up a little, and nodded. "That makes sense. I've probably realised that before, but like all of the good things that come from my memories, and even what I'm supposed to be doing in the present, they get lost in noise."

"Can you let go of those thoughts for now, and cuddle with me?"

Faith nodded. "I'd like that."

"Good." Stephanie said. Faith relaxed into Stephanie, her eyes closing again, her right hand carressing Stephanie's lower abdomen. Seeing this, Stephanie closed her eyes too.

"You smell nice." Faith quietly said.

"You do, too." Stephanie replied.

Barbara knocked twice. "Uh, it's me! I've got apple pie and vanilla ice cream, if you want it." Dick and Tim moved left, away from the door.

"Yeah." Faith muttered.

"Sure, Barbara. You can come in." Stephanie said. Barbara opened the door with her free hand, picked up the plate she had set down, and entered the room, closing the door with her right foot. Barbara put the plates on the nightstand, and sat on the bed. "Did you hear any of that?"

"Yeah. I had literally just stopped at the door when she started. Faith, hey. Can you look at me, please?" The little woman turned her head to look at Barbara.

"I just want you to know that it's all OK, now. You know what you were about to do was wrong so much that it's been a burden that your subconscious has used to take away your courage to live a good life." Faith nodded. "That's why you're so afraid of sex and only comfortable with it in your mind, when it's completely under your control, right?" Faith nodded more. "You just happen to have magic now, and it became an illusion fulfilled by your Animus, your male-self, earlier today. Although, that illusion did burn part of the forest." Faith giggled. Barbara and Stephanie chuckled. "Good, that tells me you're not angry at yourself for that."

"I'm not trying to say you should suck it up and get over it, OK, hon? I just want you to know that you've been heard, and that you have permission to move on from your friends." Barbara said. Faith's eyes leaked, and she sniffled. "It's OK." Barbara whispered. Faith cried three tones, and turned while sitting up to hug Barbara, who returned the hug. Stephanie sat up and held Faith from behind, wrapping her arms around Faith's stomach. They were quiet for a full minute. "You gonna be OK with her, Steph?"

"Yeah. She said she just wants cuddles. We're family, now. I really shouldn't hit on her. I won't, again."

"Oh, I get that, that's good. And sisterly cuddling sounds lovely. I'll leave you two alone, then."

"Thank you." Faith said in her tears. "For not saying I'm horrible."

Barbara clicked her tongue and stroked Faith's hair. "I don't think you've never been horrible, Faith. You dealt with the hand you were given as well as you could, all alone. We're here for you, OK? No more dealing with yourself and the world alone." Faith nodded, sniffling. Barbara removed herself from the bed as Faith and Stephanie laid down, and then Barbara left the room. She approached Dick and Tim, and said, "Let's, uh, go downstairs to talk about this."

Barbara, Dick and Tim arranged themselves near the computer. They were all crying, Tim and Dick red with anger. "I'm going to friggin' cap Ra's in the nutsack, when I see him." Dick growled.

"I'll take his head off." Said Tim, sniffling. "He doesn't deserve to know the real reason Faith's so defensive with him, or why she caved in and gave him a little satisfaction and control."

"Yep." Said Dick.

"Damn right." Barbara said.

Tim said, "She let him take her here just so she could stop being alone, for once. W-We can't let her into his hands."

"Yeah, what happened this morning is all he's getting." Dick said.

"Agreed." Said Barbara.

Dick said to Barbara, a fresh tear rolling down his cheek. "I'm so sorry I looked at her like that, Babs."

"Dick, I-I think that was OK, in a way. She was laughing about it. Like Steph said, none of us are going to take advantage of her."

"Yeah." Dick mumbled, sniffling and wiping his eyes.

"We're, we're gonna be the best friends she could ever have." Tim said. Barbara and Dick nodded firmly, humming in accord. "And we're gonna make her into a really awesome Batgirl." Barbara lifted her cheeks and nodded. Dick nodded, too.

"How about we, uh, call it a night, boys?" Barbara said. Tim and Dick nodded.

"I'm gonna make her a "We're so sorry" gift basket." Tim said. Dick and Barbara laughed.

"Hell yeah, she'd love that."

Dick said, "Do you even know what to put in it so she doesn't tell you that she doesn't like something you picked out, but appreciates it anyways?"

"Oh yeah, I've got it all figured out. Lactose-free chocolate, a couple of fantasy related toys, maybe a nice plushie, something to read, and I'm guessing she's a Skittles kind of girl."

"Oh, for sure, she's a Skittles kind of girl." Barbara said, Dick laughing.

"Hm, Original, Sour or Berry?"

"Go with Original."

"Right. Or maybe I'll do Original and Berry?"

"How big is this basket gonna be, Tim?" Dick said, laughing.

"Oh, as big as I can make it." The three laughed. "Should I put a gift card for something in there, do you think?"

"Ooh, that's a good idea." Barbara said. "I had a look in her bag, and I think she does like fashion."

"Perfect."

"But she thrifts. She told me about her favourite outfit."

"Oh, OK, so maybe I'll get her a gift card for the book store at the mall instead, or for the game store. Heck, why not both?"

"Why not?" Barbara enthusiastically repeated.

Tim sighed. "OK, I'm done. Goodnight!" Tim began to go upstairs.

"Goodnight." Said Barbara and Dick.

"I'll get flowers!" Dick called out.

"OK!" Tim replied.

"Oh, she would love that."

"I'm guessing lilies are her favourite."

"I think so, yeah."

"Shall we head to bed to, babe?"

"Yes," Barbara said, starting to walk towards the stairs with Dick. "I think I've had enough brain activity for one night."

Sunday, February 11, 2024. 7:30 AM.

Barbara and Dick were cooking breakfast, and Tim was lounging upstairs on the couch when Stephanie and Faith emerged from the bedroom. "Well, good morning!" Tim said.

"Good morning." Faith said, groggily but smiling.

"Feeling better?"

"Now that I slept and took my meds, and had a bit of candy from my bag that I brought over, which surprisingly didn't expire during its trip from Earth-33, yes."

"Oh, good." Tim said, laughing, then Faith entered the bathroom and shut the door. Stephanie sighed. "Are you good?"

"Yeah. She had me worried, last night, before Barbara came in. I slept good too, i-it was just a shock to hear that the reason Ra's is affecting her so deeply is from a memory like that." Stephanie said. Tim nodded, humming. "Dick and Barbara are downstairs cooking?"

"Yep. Should be just about done. Then we're on for training, if Faith is OK with that."

"Actually, I have to make an errand, so you'll have to save me a plate."

"Sure, not a problem."

"Thanks." Stephanie quickened her pace towards the stairs. Faith emerged from the bathroom with combed hair, and a smiling Tim walked her downstairs.

"So, who's your favourite turtle?"

"Oh, Raphael."

"Oh, ha ha! So it's not that far of a leap for your favourite Robin to be Jason."

"Yeah, I've got a type of fictional man."

"Who's your most problematic fictional male crush?"

Faith sighed. "Ruvik from The Evil Within."

"Oh, wow, that's a choice all right!" Tim and Faith laughed.

"What?" Barbara said, laughing, as Tim and Faith came to and sat at the table, where Barbara and Dick sat beside each other, Tim and Faith across from them. "What about Ruvik from The Evil Within?"

"It's his danger-boy swagger, OK?" Faith said, chuckling.

"Danger-boy swagger?" Repeated Tim, Barbara and Dick.

"Yeah-ha ha. I saw him, and I was like, 'smash', and that's the thought. That's it."

"Oh-ho-ho-kay!" Said Tim.

Stephanie returned with a small box of white chalk, seeing the table had been cleared but a plate covering another plate on the kitchen counter, and Faith practicing blocking with Tim, Dick coaching, arms open, eyes watching Faith's movement. Barbara was interacting with the computer. "Yes, and then down, yes. Yes, eh, a little more force, if you can?"

"Hngh!"

"Yeah, like that!"

"Ow." Faith mumbled.

"Her forearms, Dick."

"I know, they're short and the bones are bowed, so it hurts more for her."

"Volleyball, but so much worse." Faith groaned.

"Again, please."

Stephanie lifted her left hand, which held the box. "I got the chalk for you!"

"Oh, thanks! Um, later." Faith said, as she and Tim continued the motions.

"Okie!" Stephanie put the box of chalk down on the desk area.

"You want to get your other Relics today?" Said Dick.

"Yeah. I thought that might be a good idea. Ra's has surely gone back into Platonia to look for more information, and Platonia might have directed him Backstage. The Staff, probably scared shitless, told him about the Backdoor, which goes into the eighth grade hallway of my high school, which the Rondo Theatre is in."

"Right, the theatre is the high school auditorium."

"Ra's might have explored a little, realised he was in a dream world, but not have known its name, ow!"

"Sorry!" Said Tim. "Try raising your arm a little like this."

"Oh, like this?"

"Yes, and then back to!"

"Oof, OK," Faith said. Dick chuckled. "And then he might have tried to wake up. If he did, he'd be back in Platonia, and he'd start a timeloop that would only break if he left the school. So, Ra's, outside and standing on campus, would have either been faced with the existential dread of the O-type star or the moon as they are in the Dream World On Paper, or looked at the sky and felt no fear."

"The latter option."

"OK, so then he wouldn't have woken up. He's still looking for information, so he's been around Mansion 1, the Town Play, and has talked to the dreaming people, people in a coma, and people who live in the 28 Mansions as their afterlife."

"Right, I remember."

"Bend your knees but not your back a little, hon!" Said Barbara.

"Ow, mmph, OK. Like, ow, this?"

"Yes, good."

"Either Ra's was pulled into the kind of the conversation that normally starts when you meet a neighbour or a new acquaintance, something you do when you're just dreaming and letting things happen,"

"Mhm." Said Dick.

"Or he might have observed a conversation, but either way, he would have realised the statuses of the Town Play citizens. He might have asked where to learn more about Red Storm Earth, or if they knew who I was. He might have asked directly, 'Can you tell me about Red Storm Earth?'. The citizens would have told him that it's a Staged Scenario, and all of the details, and that because it's Staged, it doesn't actually happen. It's just an elaborate and convincing Special Event that can be performed at the Rondo Theatre. That would anger Ra's, and he'd probably ask why, or have said 'It won't be that way for much longer.', and attacked, and the poor citizen would be woken up or returned to Mansion 0 and required to walk the Landfill Where Loved Things Go to the Staff Office, and from there receive a go-ahead from one of the workers to take the elevator back up. If he hit someone in a coma, they'd die and go to Mansion 0, too."

"Anyway, Ra's would have asked the nearest citizen, scared shitless of course, about who I really was, and how to acquire me, heugh," Faith made a vomitting noise.

"Swiper no swiping!" Said Stephanie. The group laughed.

"And the citizen would have told Ra's that I'm just an author, the creative mind behind Thalassic Space, that none of it's real if I'm not alive and no one has been approved as Editor of my documents, and that Ra's can't have me. Ow!"

"Mind your ribs!" Said Tim.

"They, or another citizen, would have said that Thalassic Space only has evil because evil people have Soul Bridges and have been to the Dream World on Paper, people like Ra's. Another person would have called the Oracles by then, and they would appear and try to kick Ra's out of the Dream World on Paper. It would be a battle, instead, since Ra's' status as a demon means that you have to literally pull him out of the Dream World on Paper. We might not have all day until he critically injures or kills an Oracle, the latter of which would be one hell of a scary accomplishment. Ra's' Passive Ability that I will remind you is only applicable when in Thalassic Space, Demonic Insight, would have told him to take the robes of that Oracle, giving him Dreamer Mage powers. He might have accepted that suggestion, and the Oracles would flee, taking the citizens into shelter. Ra's would be bored, probably, and then return here. Well, to wherever he fell asleep. I doubt that Argophael threw him all the way home. I was just aiming for him to land on the other side of the ocean."

"So he's somewhere in Europe or Africa, which is close to home." Said Dick.

"Yep. Ah-ha-ow!" Faith began to cry, and rub her right bicep.

"Sorry, but that would have happened." Tim said.

"I know, but my nerves are right there."

"Sorry. You OK?"

"Yeah, just ow. Let's keep going."

Dick said, "Good. Reset a little, TIm."

"Um, so regardless of where he landed, he's done playing games and trying to get information. I don't think he's going to learn about the Invitation of Nerobzal. I think the League has, though."

"Oh?" Said Dick.

"Yeah. Ra's might have touched the entrance door, or opened it, on either of his visits. He could have walked to the town and figured out where he was. When I sent him home, the first time, he definitely told the assassins where the door was. They've been in my tomb. My cat anthro friends didn't stop them. They hid immediately. Anthros have a heightened sixth, seventh and eighth sense, which are vestibular, proprioceptive and interoceptive. It's part of the mutation their Five Mortal Qualities undergo when a fetus is exposed to more than five minutes of magic. Embryos and sperm can also be mutated this way."

"Right," Tim said. "And as a result, sixty-five percent of Thalassic Space's population are anthros."

"Yes. Uh, so if Ra's used Platonia to return to the Dragon Tomb with the League, they snooped around my tomb, whoops!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine! That was good!"

"OK, good! Um, they killed the draugr, probably taking treasure, and awakened the Dragon Priests again. I have no doubt that they were defeated and at least one qA eaten alive by the Dragon Priests, and then the rest fled. Keep in mind that the Dragon Priests are Actors too, so if one gets killed, someone else just fills the Role."

"Mhm." Said Dick.

"Platonia returned whatever assassins were alive home, but a door opened for Ra's into my high school in the Dream World on Paper, probably one of the classroom doors as I was entering the gym hallway, and then he followed me and what happened next happened. Anyway, geez, long way to get to what I was saying, I just didn't want it to be out of the blue."

"You're fine, we appreciate the thought." Said Dick.

"Thanks."

"You're so good at telling stories!" Said Stephanie.

Faith melodically said, "Thank you. Um, so Ra's might go there one more time. He's either going to fight the Dragon Priests again, or he's going to look closer at the lower level of the first two rooms and realise there's a pattern. It's the solution to the small door in the third room that's a little like a maze, and has some standing draugr sarcophagi around it, along with some empty vertical alcoves that have candles, pots and gold, ya know, as Skyrim dungeons do."

"Mhm."

"Beyond that door is my Puzzle Tower, which I will remind you is also guarded by cat anthros. Either Ra's was like, 'Aw, hell no!'," Faith said. Stephanie and Barbara giggled. "And turned back, not wanting to waste his time, or he explored a little. In one of those rooms is my Dragon Hoard. All of the non-performative art gifts I've received are stored there. In the back-right of the room is a traditional ram horn instrument guarded by a slumbering black goat. This horn can summon Naamah. Ra's would have been drawn to this room, and wouldn't need to find the solution to its puzzle because that horn would have called him to find it and use it. Naamah would pity Ra's for being given the blue-ball treatment by a Cultist of Asherah, and given him a fresh Nest."

The others widened their eyes, parted their lips, held their breaths. Tim stopped moving. Noticing a moment later, so did Faith. Dick was out of wind. "No." He made eye contact with Faith.

"The horn is meant for the people of Thalassic Space to abort an unwanted anti-Christ or insect demon without dying. Not everyone is comfortable or wanting dark magic in their family or community. The only place that was desired was Bafsina, before the Palette Civil War. Ra's could just cut my stomach open, stuff the Nest in there, and I would die."

"No." Dick shook his head.

"You would have to drench me in boiling saltwater or burn me to stop its spread, of course."

"No." Dick shook his head furiously.

"Ra's won't want to cause disasters that are just fake, for show on Stage. He'll want to hurt me. And he won't want sex, anymore."

"No!" Dick closed the distance between him and Faith, coming between her and Tim. "You can't just make stuff up like this!"

"It's not made up, Dick." Said Tim.

"I don't want to hear it!"

"It's true, though. It's in the document, along with the other magical items that can summon various angels, demons and entities. It would be that easy for Ra's to just get it over with."

Dick sighed heavily with his chest. "So we don't have time, or even a flipping chance, to help you defend yourself."

Faith shook her head. "Ra's is angry. I don't think this is going to end well, and it's going to end soon. It might end today, with how easily Ra's can access Platonia, and come back."

"Could he come here?"

"If he knows I'm here, yes. He'll try the Batcave, first. Or, he could ask the Umbrella Man where I am. It wouldn't be cheating. It would be asking for directions out of Platonia to the desired destination, and since Ra's is a demon, the Umbrella Man would see him as a friend."

"Frick!" Dick gripped his hair with both hands. "Faith, why did you make it so easy for him?!"

"Because Thalassic Space is supposed to be friendly. So it's friendly to intruders, if the intruder becomes a friend to the Nero Spirits and-or canonical evils."

Dick dropped his hands and shook his head, making eye contact with Faith. Faith had curled her arms up around her chest. Barbara said, "Dick, you're scaring her."

"She should be scared! You know what you've done, right?"

Faith slowly said, "Offer him an easy way out?"

"Yes, and an easy way to kill you!" Dick sighed and shook his clawed hands in the air in front of him, gesturing to Faith, who looked to the floor. Dick sighed again. "I'm sorry, I, I just can't let you let this happen."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Take it away from him." Dick pointed to the desk, where Faith's Chromebook sat. "Open up your document, and change it. Make it so that demons who aren't from Thalassic Space can't use Platonia or any powers from Thalassic Space."

"What's the reasoning behind it, though?"

"Are you seriously asking that?"

"I need a reason and a connection to a god, demon or entity for it to make sense within Thalassic Space's logic."

"THEN MAKE ONE UP!" Dick shouted. Faith moved her left side away from Dick, and hurried to her computer. She opened it. It started up slow. Dick stood behind her, arms crossed.

"Dick." Barbara said, cautiously.

"No."

"Dick, give her some space." Dick looked at Barbara. He huffed and turned, walking away and leaning on part of the desk near Barbara. Faith entered her password, waited about ten seconds for the app icons to load, and opened Microsoft Word. She pressed CTRL + F, and typed "Horn of Naamah". She began to edit the section. She hummed, eyes on the ceiling. "What is it, hon?"

"I don't know the Egyptian gods off the top of my head, I need the list of who's related to the afterlife and evil. Doesn't have to be both, just one of the two."

"Well, that's Anubis, the god of death, and Apopis is the god of chaos."

"Perfect, thank you. What does Apopis look like?"

"He's a serpent."

"What colour is he, usually?"

"What colour?"

"Yeah, look up images and tell me if he's black, gold or something." Faith said. Barbara typed on the computer. "Just for a quick entry into the Character List. I've only got the ones I've needed, so far. Every god in the pantheons I haven't needed is just implied, not named or described."

"He's gold with blue details, hon."

"Ooh, perfect, thank you." Faith typed for five minutes. "OK! I think that's enough."

"Let's see." Barbara walked over and looked at Faith's screen. "Yeah, OK."

"Do you wanna read how I described Apopis?"

"Sure." Faith clicked on his named in the Outline. Barbara read.

"Mm, yeah, that's good! I like that."

"Thank you." Faith turned her back to look at Dick. "I'm not angry that you were so agitated by the loophole. I'm actually glad that you reacted. It's not easy, writing with no feedback. Things fall through all the time, and it won't all make sense without help."

Dick sighed, and softly smiled. "Thank you for not taking it personally, Faith." He approached, and hugged her. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

"It's OK, I forgive you." Faith patted his upper right shoulder. Dick broke the hug, and found a smile on Faith's face. Dick sighed again, his smile growing. "So, now that I've taken away Ra's access to my stuff, can we go back to training?"

"Of course. How about we give Tim a break, and you go against me?"

"OK!"

"Good! Enough!" Dick said. Faith rolled to the right, ending her straddle of him, into a stand. She was making eye contact with Tim.

"Are you OK?" Tim asked. Dick grunted as he flung himself onto his feet, crouching then straightening.

"Was that a bounce?" Faith looked shocked, her mouth gaping.

"Was what a—?"

"Yeah, that was a little bit of a bounce." Said Dick. Faith smiled widely, teeth apart.

"Oh! So, your body is trying to remember how to jump again!"

"I think so! Eee!" Faith clapped.

"Oh, that's awesome!" Said Barbara.

"Yay, Faith!" Stephanie said.

"Woo hoo!" Dick said. "Well, we'll move onto that tomorrow, then, and see how that goes, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Good."

"Would you like some help in the shower again, Miss Faith?" Barbara said, coming towards Faith. Dick went to the kitchen to help Tim and Stephanie finish preparing dinner.

"Eh, maybe?"

"I think so. C'mon." Barbara and Faith began to the stairs. Faith stumbled as she took the first corner, and Barbara caught her back and left shoulder. "Whoop!"

"Aa! Thanks!" Faith said, as Barbara set Faith down.

"No problem!" They entered the bathroom, Barbara closing the door and watched Faith undress, groaning in pain occasionally, and put her clothes on the counter, as Barbara removed her own clothes. "There's our pretty little Batgirl." Faith giggled. 'Glad that's still an instant pick-me-up.'

Barbara helped Faith step over the bathtub. Barbara turned on the water, Faith sighing in content. Faith hummed a Tohou Eurobeat song.

"What T.E.B. song is that?" 'Yesterday, it was little flare.' Barbara said, helping Faith apply shampoo.

"Gensou ga nari yamanai."

"The Fantasy That Does Not Stop Echoing. Do you know the lyrics to that one, too?" Barbara applied shampoo to her own hair. 'Her Japanese pronounciation isn't that bad. You can tell she listened to it lots, as a teenager.'

"Mhm!"

"Seikou no ura ni

Dare mo kitto shiranu saidosutori..." As Faith sang, Barbara helped Faith wash out her hair, apply conditioner, and wash that out too.

"Itsuka gensou yori tooku made

Sono ude ni tsukame Legend of Shade. That's it."

"Yay!" Barbara cheered, a little bit quietly. The girls giggled. "I will say it again: you're pretty good at singing."

"Thanks." Faith grabbed the loufa and applied Dove refreshing body wash with cucumber and green tea to it. "I'm just a light lyric, like I said yesterday, so nothing fancy, but I get the job done pretty all right."

"Oh, I think you're better than 'pretty all right'. I think you have a very nice singing voice." Barbara said, as Faith washed her arms.

Faith blushed, smiling. "Thank you." Faith cleaned her arms, stomach and legs as she continued talking. "And, like I said, I don't usually sing in front of people 'cause Mom said I don't sound good, but my choir teacher said I'm not bad, so I'm confused and embarrassed."

"Aw, I know, hon. Confidence is a hard thing, for lots of people. And, like I also said, yesterday, you will get better, now that you've got us, and even we have our days, m'kay?" Barbara said. Faith nodded. Barbara helped wash Faith's back and shoulders before rinsing out the loufa and giving it more soap and using it for herself. Faith turned off the water, then the shower head, and the girls stepped out and used separate towels to dry themselves, and separate hair brushes to untangle their hair. They redressed and went downstairs, where dinner had been laid out on the table: stir fry with steak strips, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, broccoli and cauliflower.

"Ooh, yum!" Said Faith, as she sat beside Stephanie and Barbara sat at the right head of the table, Dick to her left and Tim beside him.

"You like stir fry?" Said Tim.

"Hard to mess that up!"

"True. Well, dig in."

"Please use the tongs." Said Dick. They all laughed.

"I'd be a monster to use my hands for this." Faith said, grabbing the tongs and filling her plate. Everyone filled their plates, and quietly ate for several minutes.

Dick said, "You've made a lot of progress, in two days, for someone with disability."

"Thank you!" Said Faith. "It hurts, but I can tell I'm actually learning fast, so I think it's worth it."

"Oh, definitely."

"Mhm!" Barbara and Stephanie commented.

"Yeah." Tim added. They reviewed, correcting Faith and filling in gaps in her knowledge of how what she'd been learned worked, and why, and describing a few alternatives they hadn't shown her yet, noting which ones might be impossible for her until she became a lot more agile and gained more core and overall strength. Stephanie and Dick served more apple pie and ice cream for dessert.

"So, who's your favourite Tohou?" Tim asked.

"Oh God." Faith replied. They all laughed. "The one I wanna kiss, the one I wanna be? Which emotion, aha ha ha, do you want me to have towards this Tohou?"

"Whatever emotion you want, I don't care, just tell me about your favourite Tohou." This led into a ramble about Tohou Project that lasted for forty-five minutes. Somehow, Faith ate her ice cream before it melted, and finished her pie. The group moved upstairs to play Wii Sports Resort, and Faith was still going.

"And that's why I'm super gay, and super not sorry." Faith took a bow, flourishing her arms, a Wii remote strapped to her right wrist. The others laughed. "Once again:" In a very good toad voice, "MARRY ME, MARISSA! And that's just up to Mountain of Faith, in brief detail! I didn't even talk about the lore, I was just talking about the girls, and their patterns, and what they mean, and their relationships, and what I've learned from all of that," A sharp inhale. "I haven't even started to tell you what I've learned about storytelling or how awesome ZUN's music is," Another inhale. "Which is why I love Tohou Eurobeat so much!" Faith panted, then focused on Swordplay versus Stephanie. The friends laughed more. "Bippity boppity, your points are now my property!"

"Oh, shit!" Stephanie said, laughing. After everyone caught their breath, the group talked about Nintendo's history, and present, and eventually it was eight o'clock. Dick and Barbara suited up and went on patrol, and Tim went out for a date with Bernard, leaving Stephanie and Faith to play Mario Party 8 with each other and bots until it was 10:30, and Faith had to take her medications. They called it a night, changing into sleepwear and sharing the bed again.

Click emoji to navigate to next chapter ⏭️

[death-or-exile]

Doe Reads: Batman '89 Echoes #2

After being delayed for like...a million years....this issue finally, FINALLY arrived, and it did NOT disappoint! I recall it was originally solicited to come out on 1/31, because I was going to be out of the country, and was sad I was going to miss it...but uh, guess I needn't have worried! But enough about me, let's dig in!

spoilers under the cut!

(Doe Reads Batman '89: Echoes #1)

We begin following our dearest friend, Alfred, as he is out and about doing his shopping. However, he is being followed by a shadowy someone or someones...It appears that they intend to approach him, but are stopped when Alfred is approached by a street window-washer. After the window washer, leaves, Alfred finds a note card with a very familiar logo tucked under his wiper...

....a discreet message from Robin, aka Drake Winston, who was introduced in the previous Batman '89 series. We learn that he's still very much in touch with Bruce, and presumably has been for some time; assisting him with whatever he's doing, wherever he is, and seemingly acting as an occasional go-between for Bruce and Alfred. Although personally I do believe Alfred when he asserted last issue that he doesn't know where Bruce is and hasn't heard from him -- I imagine Bruce is pretty off the grid to serve his mission and protect Alfred (and I promise that's not a Unabomber style off-the-grid joke).

Drake also answers the question for us of who is tailing Alfred...

Drake assures us that Bruce wouldn't leave Alfred in the dark like this if the stakes weren't insanely high, and that if it all goes wrong, they'll definitely need him so it's better to have him out of the loop for now. Alfred agrees to bring Drake the fingerprint kit the next day, and Drake gives Alfred one last piece of info - if something goes wrong, there are three names he needs to get to Captain Gordon: Maynard, Desmond, and Kashif.

From here, we move to Arkham, where Crane and "Robert Lowery"(aka the Firefly, aka Bruce Wayne of course!) have their first formal session. Not only is this our first real look at Crane and his I guess...bedside manner? Theraputic vibe? but we learn a lot of interesting tidbits from this discussion that flesh out the story a good bit.

Firstly, to go back to issue #1, Dr. Hugo Strange is name-dropped as the doctor "Lowery" requested to see after he was apprehended, and who was "unavailable". However, Crane introduces himself to Lowery as someone who worked closely with Strange, so he's more than qualified and able to take on the task of treating "Lowery".

Here, we get confirmed what was alluded to in issue #1 - that the lawyer and judge involved with "Lowery" were paid off in some way, to ensure "Lowery" would be brought to Arkham rather than a penitentiary. "Lowery" asks if it was paid for by the estate of Dr. Strange, remarking that Dr. Strange had "acknowledged what he'd done to (us)" and tried to make amends. This seems to give more weight to "Lowery"'s words at the end of issue #1: "Because that's what I am -- a weapon. It's what they do. Start with a man...and make a monster. It's what they did to me."

Crane begins a fear test on "Lowery", showing him a series of images on screen that increase in intensity and graphic content, in order to measure his responses to them. It starts as simply as a boy and a puppy, and ramps up to show scenes of violence and rotting corpses. finishing up on a photo of Batman, followed by a photo of a scarecrow in a field.

After the fear test, Crane says that "Lowery" is sane and functioning enough to stand trial, but that he's too much of a celebrity to afford to go to a standard prison; his life would likely be at risk. Just to be safe, he's even been checked into Arkham under a false name - Lewis Wilson (names upon names!) Crane says that ultimately the choice us up to Lowery, but he suggests that the smart thing to do would be stay at Arkham (with the other violent cases there). Before he has much of a chance to say anything either way, Crane has "Lowery" escorted to Shady Lane, the area of the hospital where the other extreme cases are, but not before we see that he clearly has his doubts as to whether or not this is the real "Robert Lowery".

It's time for us to catch up with ACN's favorite Dr. Q, who's storming through the station. Apparently since her special interviewing Alicia which was preempted in issue #1 was apparently shunted to a 7am slot, the ratings were low. As she passes, network producer (? still not 100% sure what his title is here) Chuck follows her out into the hall and praises her work on the interview.

At first she believes him to be gloating, but he insists he is sincere and convinces her to follow him up to his office for a chat. While there, he lays out what he sees to be an incredible opportunity. He wants Harleen to use her authority as a therapist at Arkham to obtain a current photo of the Firefly, something that no other station or newspaper would have -- in other words, a scoop. In exchange, he promises her a primetime slot, five nights a week. This does not take much convincing on her part, haha.

Back at the madhouse, "Lowery" is finally at Shady lane. There appear to be some colorful cameos here, and lots of interesting new characters. After being given a warning by a very skrungly man folding origami that his cover as Lewis Wilson is basically blown already and that many staff on the ward would be happy to take the bounty placed on his head, we meet Philco, the ward's living television, as well as Maynard, one of the three names Drake gave to Alfred to turn in to the commissioner in case of emergency.

Maynard and "Lewis Wilson"/"Robert Lowery" meet, and after a bit of a rough introduction, Maynard recognizes "Lowery" as a kindred spirit. "You're one of us. The Monster Men. The Sammy-Poppers...the Strange Rangers."

Maynard says he was able to identify Lowery as such from having read his manifesto; that he recognized Dr. Strange's influence in much of it. After this back and forth, Maynard is distracted after his clipboard is vandalized by another patient; the sheets on the clipboard are covered in green question mark scribbles and "kryptik puzzles" by one E. Nigma...

Upon seeing this, "Lowery" has a violent outburst, attacking the guards, and is stopped by force in short order. As Maynard is escorted away, guards separate "Lowery" into an area out of the view of cameras. "Lowery" asks if he's going to collect his bounty, but to our surprise, the man is an associate of Drake Winston's -- letting "Lowery" know where he can get the package from Drake. The guard doesn't seem to know who "Lowery" really is, he's just operating as a favor for the Winston family.

The other guard, one of the ones escorting Maynard, is next seen reporting directly to Crane, who believes it's no coincidence that "Lowery" and Maynard found each other right away, believing they're trying to revive the "Strange Rangers", whatever that is. He also asks after the other two names that we were alerted to at the beginning of the issue, Desmond and Kashif, who are apparently well in hand. He stresses to the guard that "Lowery" must be kept alive at all costs. Once he believes himself to be alone, we see Crane looking inside a well lit cupboard filled with some choice items....our first look at The Scarecrow!

...before being interrupted by the unwelcome appearance of Harleen Quinzel!

Harleen is there to convince Crane to let her try her brand of persona therapy on "Lowery". After some absolutely top-tier wheedling and whining, and absolutely fabulous desktop posing, Harleen is stonewalled by Crane and leaves. She calls Chuck on the way out to let them know that they've hit a snag in their plan, before she's struck by a moment of inspiration:

After hanging up on Lowery, we finally join Harleen in one of her much discussed persona therapy sessions. She's meeting with her group, bringing in makeup kits. The gist of persona therapy seems to be creating a differentiation between a person's "true self" and the face they put on to the outside world. The "true self" is their actual thoughts, feelings and impulses, and when they put on their makeup, draw on their face, they're allowing those thoughts and feelings to come out. When they're in their "naked face", they view that as a kind of mask that they wear to appear normal and functioning to others, to keep those impulses and feelings in check.

A patient asks how come they never get to see Dr. Quinzel's true face, and she agrees, it's only fair that she shows them her "true face" as well. She applies the makeup on herself and we're...halfway to Harley Quinn!

....and END SCENE!

It was so so interesting to learn more about the Hugo Strange angle to what's going on in this issue. I think Bruce/Lowery's statement about being made a monster by Hugo Strange, coupled with a hypothesis by Commissioner Gordon in issue #1 (that the captured robber who killed the false Batman at the beginning of the story showed rage similar to PTSD, and she clocked him as a veteran) is going to connect to maybe some kind of experimentation on members of the military? With Crane involved, can we expect some kind of....compound that causes a soldier to lose his ability to fear, making him unstoppable on the battlefield? Or is that kinda just more Crane's MO, being who he is and all, and perhaps Strange was up to something similar but different (or something else entirely?) I'm gonna go with my original assumption for now, especially since it seems to be confirmed that Lowery was doing specifically fear tests with Strange in the past...but time will tell. What does Bruce know?? What is he investigating!?!?

I also like how Harleen's persona therapy is effectively kind of....tying her to clown imagery / possible future clown henchman in a way that's organic and independent of Joker stuff, which I was very curious about, him being dead and all. I do remember back in the day, in the old internet rumor mill, the theory was that Harley in any 90s era movies would be like...the Joker's daughter taking revenge on Batman for what happened to her father? But that never sat right to me as a possible origin for her, just too weird. Even more complicated when you consider Duela Dent Joker's Daughter, who even knows.

As an admitted shipper, I find the scene between Harleen and Jonathan absolutely delicious -- the way she interrupts his reverie, the way she tries to convince him to give her her way, and their exchange of jabs; seeing how smug it makes him denying her something she wants so badly...oof, I love it. The difference between Harleen's big expressions and Jonathan's more subtle ones is so fun to watch.

I must admit, it took me all the way to literally today to remember that The Firefly's civilian name is not Robert Lowery, it's Garfield Lynns. Ooops, sorry all you Firefly heads out there. In doing the googling though, I noticed that Robert Lowery was the name of the second man to ever play Batman on screen, in the 1940s serial. Which I did not know! Coincidence? I'm gonna say no but like...who knows, really, haha.

I'm also curious about the naming of Maynard as our Riddler (how do we get from Maynard to E. Nygma? Just a pseudonym?) Truthfully upon reading this the first time, I could tell Maynard was supposed to look like someone but I couldn't place him for sure -- it wasn't after I saw a twitter exchange that it hit me that Riddler's casting here is Martin Short, which I actually love and think is great (I feel like the old rumor I remember the most for a Riddler, pre-Jim Carrey casting was Robin Williams).

This is the panel that looked most like Martin Short to me. It's just kinda funny, Joe Quinones has an absolute skill for bringing out the celeb likenesses in these characters so I'm just really surprised I didn't get it right away. Guess I'm not enough of a Short fan haha. I imagine we'll see more of him soon, although I guess he does kind of put a wrench in my theory of Strange creating fearless super-soldiers. Maybe he was doing something else with Maynard? So much to learn!

And finally, speaking of cameos, there are a couple others I want to acknowledge here. I am convinced that this man, in the hallway of the Shady Grove intro panel is Danny DeVito, change my mind, haha. The man in the center absolutely must be Tim Burton. And....I can't place Philco. He's drawn in such a specific, particular way, I'm convinced he's SOMEONE but I just don't know who. If you know, tell me!!! (also not really sure if it counts as a cameo or a design choice, but I'm calling the zigzag flooring a nod to Twin Peak's black lodge, haha)

I admit to following Joe Quinones' social media even more closely than usual in the time between this issue's delay and its release to find any meager scraps of art / info to keep me alive during that time. I posted everything I could find here as it popped up, but I actually uh....ended up doing a closet cosplay of Harleen based on the panels previewed (the red turtleneck, the checkerboard skirt, tights, red heels) because....I literally already had almost the entire getup already. Years of being a cosplayer (especially a Harley cosplayer!) and having eccentric fashion tastes pay off sometimes! haha.

Here's hoping #3 stays on schedule! Hope if you got this far you enjoyed the read!

[mrmustachious]

For Gordon’s birthday, I decided to put together a rec list of a bunch of Gordon fics I love! There are so many more I could rec, so these are just a few of the amazing fics out there. Feel free to add your faves too, whether that be your own ones you’ve written or fics by others you love! I’m sure Gordon would approve of sharing the love 💛

List below the cut because it got loooong

AO3

-Stars in the Sea by Fyoex

The Tracy family thought the hydrofoil accident had been left far behind them. But head trauma is a fickle beast that isn’t quite ready to let go.

-Scenes from Gordon’s Bedside by @gaviiadastra

One-shot exercises, connected by a family grieving, hoping, and trying to make sense of why. Blended Universe

-Gordon & Explosive Device & Storage Unit by @strongerwiththepack

Gordon's in trouble when an underwater storage facility explodes with him still inside.

(Note: I requested this so I am a little biased!)

-Risky Rockpools by @strongerwiththepack

The Tracy family get a reality check when they remember that living on an isolated island in the middle of the South Pacific ocean isn't actually all that safe.

-Being Gordon Tracy by @psychoseal

Gordon’s life story!

-Malfunction by shadowfox8

Gordon is enjoying some time in the ocean when Thunderbird 4 decides to play some tricks, giving our loveable prankster decompression sickness.

-Where the mermaids live by @fallenfurther

Gordon decides to cheat on an important test but is caught by the school bullies. They are happy to let him keep the grade as long as he does something for them. Gordon knows he's getting in deeper than he should, but the consequences go far beyond what he expected.

-The Most Dangerous Game by @godsliltippy

Scott and Gordon find themselves unwilling participants.

-Motionless by @godsliltippy

One can never expect a rescue mission to go smoothly when Langstrom Fischler is involved. Gordon knows this and yet, that information does him no good when lives are at stake and it's his job to get everyone out safely.

-Every time it snows by allandmore

A simple mountain rescue goes wrong for International Rescue. Gordon battles the elements and his memories, and Scott has a tough decision to make.

-An Aquanaut Walks Into a Bar... by Corby

Gordon has a conversation in a bar, and Virgil has strong opinions about that. Childhood memories, and the stories we tell ourselves and others.

-Picnic by ThatGirlSix

Every Tracy has a type of job they hate, be them car crashes, hotel fires, mine collapses, whatever. Gordon absolutely hates tornadoes with a passion. No, really, he hates tornadoes. His life would be so much better if they never did another tornado job ever again. The rest of the family is starting to think so, too.

-Consequences by @tracybirds

Gordon is in a bit of a bind, and the older bros will need to help him out of it in a big way.

-Tears Of The Ocean by @janetm74

The ocean is a harsh mistress and Gordon has been burned by her. Will Scott be able to help him get through this? A pre-iR, military bro's fic.

FF

-No Accidents by Glazier Blue

Gordon thought the Hydrofoil crash was behind him. But there was a lot more to his "accident" than his family realised. It looks like the past with WASP has come back to finish what it started. Now Gordon's life hangs in the balance. Can his family stop history from repeating it self?

-Conformity by Figure in black

It was nothing...just a small boy grasping onto his understanding of language. He would soon grow out of it...

-My Brother’s Pain by FABThunderbird

Virgil and Gordon are both exhausted after a dangerous rescue. On their way home Virgil notices that Gordon is not only dealing with an injury, but he sees his brother struggling to open up about what he had witnessed during this rescue.

-Look Before You Reach by nhsweetcherry

Gordon experiences trouble on a rescue - all because he dropped his watch!

-A Tangled Web by crystalquirt

Something has caused heat and trace amounts of radiation in the deep sea. Thinking it volcanic, Gordon takes Thunderbird Four to be sure after John detected an unusual amount of dead sea life in the area. The water around the phenomenon has turned brownish yellow, all the way up to the surface. One species still thrive there.

My Fics!

Well I couldn’t make this without dropping some of my faves that I’ve written!

-Birthday Surprise

It's Gordon's birthday and the first one since his dad came home. He deserves a great day, doesn't he? Maybe not.

(Note: It’s his birthday, I had to include this one!)

-Into the Spider’s Nest

When Gordon comes across something he was never meant to see, he ends up tangled in a potentially deadly web made up of his worst nightmares. His chances of getting out dwindle with each passing day, but when he finds someone just as stuck as he is, they may end up becoming each other’s lifeline, as well as their only chance to make it home.

-Not Ever

Gordon has a confession to make, and Penelope feels like the worst girlfriend ever.

-Just Keep Swimming

A nice, relaxing day on Tracy Island leads to Gordon discovering something that shouldn't exist.

-Breathless

The one scene that was missing from the finale, plus all the scenes that led up to that moment.

-these drugs, they separate me from my mind

Gordon has big dreams. He is going to make it far, and knows he has what it takes to get there. Until one day he is offered an easier, faster way to get to where he wants to be. The only problem is it goes against everything he believes, but maybe he should take the opportunity whilst he has it?

-Sleep Under the Fish

One day, a strange boy appeared on Penelope's beach. And then he disappeared. Little did she know about the world that lived beneath the sea, and what that one encounter would open her up to. A Thunderbirds/Luca AU

To-read Recs

So I have yet to read any of these, but they are just a few of the fics I have marked for later that seem interesting! And I thought it would be fun to rec them in case others find them interesting too (yes I am behind on a lot of fics!)

-Live and learn by Scherzandro

Scott and his brother have been at odds since Gordon joined International Rescue a couple of months back, but when the pair are stranded in hostile territory they might just learn a thing or two about each other, if they live long enough...

-One Word by alchemistsarego

If Gordon Tracey was asked to describe his current situation in a single word, that word would be ‘uncomfortable’. Now of course being trapped in a volcanic cave with only his radio as a source of light while covered not only in his own sweat but his blood also, the word didn’t quite do what he was experiencing justice. In fact, there were many other words that would describe it better. Claustrophobic. Terrified. In agony, perhaps.

-Tracy Seaside Orchard and Farm by @gaviiadastra

An alternate universe. Gordon has a successful farm... and seems to have nothing to do with this International Rescue thing.

-The Heart of Te Fiti by Eraman

So this is gonna be a major AU which will mostly follow the plot of Moana/Vaiana with many changes. Gordon hears the sea calling him, but with his three older brothers missing and his father forbidding him from going near the ocean what is Gordon to do? He knows there is something he and Alan has to do, something only they can do but how can they when they are not allowed to leave?

-Terrors in Space by @godsliltippy

Just a routine space rescue. Sure. "Routine"

There’s soo so many more fics I could add here, but I need to stop at some point lol. But like I said, if anyone else has any more recs, they can drop them below. I’m sure there’s many fics even I haven’t read yet! Anyways, I hope at least someone found something here they like, and if you did, be sure to drop a comment on whatever you read 💛💛

[katblu42]

(Scenes from Gordon's Bedside by @whatgaviiformes) So many Gavii fics to choose from - I love so many!

Also, so many Nutty fics to choose from, so many that I love!

And loads more fics I love to choose from by Tippy!

And some shameless self promotion! My first (for Thunderbirds), and one of a number I'm kind of proud of.

hi all, feeling nostalgic. Please recommend me your favourite TAG fanfics

[whatgaviiformes]

Fic: Scenes from Gordon’s Bedside - Masterpost

Hello there! (I am ok, still struggling with life a bit. But here.) I realized I didn’t do a great job sharing and advocating for this piece once it was fully completed, so I felt a master post was in order. And, yes, I do want to advocate for it because this story has a special place in my heart. I hadn’t picked up a creative pen in YEARS, and it had easily been 10 years since I dipped into Thunderbirds (with exception to a few toe dips). And y’all inviting me in so warmly. This story to me was the start of that, so thank you!  - Gavii

____

Summary:  One-shot exercises, connected by a family grieving, hoping, and trying to make sense of why. Blended Universe - and it is a hydrofoil fic so preIR

Characters: Tracy Family with a focus on Gordon and Virgil, but everyone makes solid appearances. 

Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Family

Words: 15.3K ~roughly 700 words per section (kind of) Not all sections were posted on tumblr because I was still figuring out what I liked for posting (still am!). So, I only included a tumblr link below if the section in full was included as a post or under a read more. If it was a quote with a link to Ao3 or FF, I did not list tumblr. The story can be read in full or as individual one shots, thus the reason for the Masterpost. Hopefully this will provide better navigation through the work if you would prefer to read the sections independently.  -----

Chapter Navigation

From the Beginning:  Scenes from Gordon’s Bedside | FF | Ao3 Chapter 1: Virgil - a moment in Gordon’s hospital room | FF | Ao3 Chapter 2: Scott & Virgil - Scott doesn’t really remember the travel, but he knows he needs to get there - until he is and suddenly Virgil is there. | FF | Ao3 Chapter 3: Virgil: Waiting. People bonded by a compassionate moment in time | FF | Ao3 Chapter 4: Interlude:  "I am Gordon Tracy."  | FF | Ao3 Chapter 5: John & Alan - some text messages passed between bros  | Tumblr | FF | Ao3 Chapter 6: Scott: Muscle Memory - the family waiting for surgery news  | FF | Ao3 Chapter 7: Interlude II - Gordon at the edge of the world | Tumblr |  FF | Ao3  Chapter 8: The News -  News that Virgil knows Gordon’s not ready to hear   | Tumblr | FF | Ao3 Chapter 9: The News B-Side - Gordon was not ready to hear the news  | Tumblr |  FF | Ao3  Chapter 10: Music Makers - Healing and Music in 6 movements

Tumblr - l Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Ao3 | FF

1 - Gordon has missed the cherry blossoms

2 - Gordon can’t move but he can still annoy his brother

3 - The News Redux

4 -  A short Interlude

5 - An argument 

6 - simulations can be too real. 

EXTRAS:

This gif thingy I made with a quote from Interlude II

[lucidreamsxx]

Obey Me! Random Headcannons pt.1

- Asmo watches Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Bretman Rock's youtube channel religiously, it's the only human realm show he truly enjoys since it has so much drama and Bretman is an embodiment of a bad bitch and that speaks for itself.

-Mammon has definitely tried printing money before. It was fine till he started to use it and got caught instantly.

- Solomon once tried to pole dance cause Asmo asked him to...never again...

-Lucifer and Mammon have walked in on Asmo doing the dirty, multiple times.

- Satan burned the HoL down once and Belphie slept through the whole thing.

- Leviathan sometimes pays part of Mammon's debts for him. He's still his brother after all.

- Beel once ate a bite of Solomon's food by accident and had a very high fever for a week. In which he could'nt eat anything but soup and porridge and drink honey lemon tea. He avoided Solomon's stuff like the plague after.

- Long before the Great Celestial War, Mammon as a young angel once fell from the celestial realm by accident to the human realm covered in gold dust. He fell into a village, and was soon called a god and carried on a pedestal and was offered gold. He was collected by Luci soon after and was given a talking to by Michael.

- Lucifer likes watching Gordon Ramsey. He thinks that the way Gordon curses is absolute perfection.

- Simeon gets all blushy and flustered whenever he writes PDA scenes for TSL.

- A rat once got into Barbs's kitchen, man got on the kitchen island and refused to come down till the rodent was disposed off of. In the end Diavolo himself came in to get it.

- Barbatos just very recently got into Måneskin after Belphie recommended it to him.

- Luke stress bakes and gives all of it to Beel.

- Mammon refuses to let his crows anywgere near Beel cause he refers to them as 'mini-noisy- chickens'.

-Levi knows almost all of the Human realms kpop and jpop groups. His favourite is Twice and he's a ot9 and a Momo stan.

-Mamnon likes to go casino hopping.

-The one movie all of the demon bros sat down and watched together without complaining was Éncanto. It did indeed remind all of them about their own dysfuntional family.

- Diavolo sometimes has sleepovers with Asmodeus, Barbatos and Solomon and they all watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians together. Dia is so into the family feuds.

- Belphie fucking despises alarm clocks, he goes livid if there's one in a 5 meter distance of him.

- Satan absolutely hates the human realm history channel. As a demon who's been through almost all of history's moments he gets ticked off whenever a fact isn't accurate or it's bullshit, which in reality is alot.

- Mammon LOVES the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise. He feels a kinship to Sparrow sometimes and thinks those are one of the best films ever made. Has the entire blu-ray boxset in his room.

-All the demon bros+ mc and royals and members of purgatory hall stand up for Mammon whenever they hear someone talking shit about him (other than themselves). Lucifer once smacked the shit out of a lower demon for talkin crap about Mammon and calling him a scum. Over protective much?~

- Asmo is secretly a major shareholder of most of the beauty and skincare brands on the human realm.

- Lucifer has a drawing drawn by Mammon, of himself and Lucifer which he has laminated and kept in the bottom of his bedside drawer. He looks at it whenever he feels down.

[gumnut-logic]

A little Virgil and Alan, and stupid mistakes.

Warnings: drug references.

-o-o-o-

It was a persistent beep that tore him from a weird dream of painting Two in Van Gogh style stars and suns. A swipe at his bedside table and something he had no care to identify crashed to the floor.

Blurry eyes found his clock and discovered numbers that shouldn’t exist. Four was one of them and immediately reminded him of Gordon, but it was the AM following it that hurt his brain.

“Virgil?”

John’s voice slapped clarity into his neurons and his body started moving automatically. Before he knew it, he was on his feet and halfway to his bedroom door.

“No incident.” John’s voice was sharp and obviously understanding regarding Virgil’s brain function at this time of the morning.

The words sunk in and Virgil wilted on the spot. “What?” One word was all he had.

“Sit down.”

That sparked worry. “What?”

“Sit down.”

Unable to really do anything else, he did what his brother asked as consciousness slowly seeped into awareness.

“I’ve received a call from Brandon Berrenger.”

“What?”

“Alan attended a party with Brandon last night.”

Virgil blinked slowly. He remembered dropping his little brother off in Auckland yesterday for his long-awaited award ceremony which then Virgil and the rest of his brothers had to miss because of the monsoon in the remains of Bangladesh yet again.

Virgil had been adamant that Alan not miss the event and had dumped him at his hotel which conveniently held Brandon as well. Security hadn’t been happy but Alan had been climbing the walls since the incident with Kayo. Virgil understood and talked Scott and Kayo down, giving his brother the space.

And trusting in Brie, Alan’s security specialist.

The award was for a video game design. Alan had spent quite some time putting his little Indie game together and it had become a hit in a very short period. Virgil was so proud.

His little bro deserved a little fame all of his own.

“What’s wrong?”

John wouldn’t be contacting him at 4am if there wasn’t something wrong.

“I’m calling in the debt from your first art show.”

Virgil’s eyes widened and he shot to his feet. “What? What happened?”

“You can’t tell Scott.”

“Fine! Tell me what happened and where I am needed!” He headed towards the door.

“Take Two, but leave her at the airport and pod out for minimum disturbance. Brief you enroute.”

Virgil was halfway to the hangers and his auxillary launch chute. “FAB.”

Two was in the air before John would tell him anything. During that time, every scenario that could possibly be linked to his blasted first art exhibition raced through his head.

It had been a low point in his life. College and his rainbow of hair colours and multiple piercings as he tried to discover who he was, struggling to conquer demons of his own. He’d fallen into the dark side of the college scene for all of two weeks before John dropped in unexpectedly; and Virgil had the shame of his little brother having to pick him off the floor because Virgil’s ‘friends’ thought it might be funny to ‘celebrate’ his exhibition.

It had to have been the shortest trip into the college drug scene ever. Virgil still had the scars from the piercings. Shortly after that, he had switched from art college to engineering.

His hair had been black ever since.

And no one but John knew of the incident.

Damn.

The dots connected.

“Aw, hell, Alan.”

Two roared into Aotearoan airspace and he was given clearance to land. He was of two minds whether to take the pod or grab a car. But he was still on call and as far as the family knew he was on a simple rescue…

“It will be a dud callout. Act grumpy when you get back.”

“You’re going to take flack for that.”

“Not the first time, Virgil. Go get our little brother.”

It took further clearance to launch into Auckland’s airspace, but John handled it smoothly and Virgil was quickly darting over rooftops and skyscrapers to reach the hotel.

“You might want to hurry.”

John’s tone had Virgil landing the dragonfly quietly on the roof of the hotel and jumping out, medkit in hand. Everything was quiet and oddly un-emergency-like.

The rooftop door unlatched as he approached and Virgil was darting down the stairwell into the hotel. Fortunately, he didn’t have to go far. Perk of always renting out the penthouse.

The door to his brother’s suite opened before he could reach it, but this time it wasn’t John’s doing. Brandon, worry on his face, darted out into the hallway. The moment he spotted Virgil, he rushed over.

“Hey, Virg, I’m glad you came. Alan, well, he’s cool, you know, but not that kind of cool, maybe?” He was scratching the back of his head as if he had lice. He looked Virgil up and down. “You came in Thunderbird Two? Full-on International Rescue? Oh, god, Scotty is gonna kill me!

“Where is he?”

Virgil hurried past him. Fortunately, he didn’t have to go far. Alan was sprawled on the sofa in the main room, Brie beside him.

“Virg-il!” His little brother swung out an arm in greeting and nearly knocked Brie flying. Her reflexes solved the problem by darting out of the way. “Come and sit with me. Take a load off.”

Virgil blinked and hurried forward, landing beside Alan. An attempt to take his vitals was derailed by Alan suddenly throwing himself at Virgil and wrapping him in a floppy hug. “Virgie, big bro, smotherhen, I am so happy to see you!”

Virgil found himself almost choking with the enthusiasm strangling his neck. His eyes darted to Brandon and the mix of guilt and worry nesting there. A glance at Brie and he made it clear there was going to be one hell of debrief after this.

The security guard swallowed.

That and he hated the name ‘Virgie’.

“Alan, I need you to sit back for a minute. Okay?”

But his little brother was cuddling into Virgil’s shoulder and muttered something of the negative variety complete with a protesting ‘Virgie”.

Brandon was fidgeting where he was standing. “I think, but I don’t know, you know? That Al might have had one of the special pieces of cake.”

Virgil narrowed his eyes at Brandon. “Special?” He knew exactly what the boy meant, but clarity was important in all situations.

“Uh, yeah, I think there might have been some weedcake.”

Alan snuggled up more and muttered ‘I love you’ into Virgil’s uniform.”

“You think?”

“Um, yeah. But! I thought he knew, you know? And then he was super happy and dancing with all the girls, and well…” Brandon’s shoulders drooped. “He was having fun.”

Virgil unconsciously stroked Alan’s back.

“Brie?”

She straightened in her seat. “Mr Tracy began acting erratically.” She swallowed. “When he started taking his clothes off, claiming he was hot, I decided to remove him from public view.”

It was only then Virgil, focussed on the health condition of his brother more than anything else, realised that Alan was dressed in clothes slightly too big for him.

“We managed to get him back to the suite before he became entirely naked, but he did not want to leave the party.”

“Why was he at a party in the first place?”

“Hey, he won an award, bro! For creating the coolest game ever. The boy deserved a celebration.” Brandon tipped his head a little. “I know some people.”

Obviously the wrong people. Virgil frowned and Brandon took a step back.

“Hey, no, man! The people who did this weren’t my friends. Honest!”

Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to focus on Alan rather than the predicament, he used a little muscle to separate himself from his little brother. It was easier than expected as Alan had all but fallen asleep.

“Love you, Virgie.” His eyelids were drooping as Virgil yanked out the mediscanner and ran it over him. As expected, vitals pointed to intoxication, likely from marijuana.

He grabbed a testing kit and, with a swab from his brother’s mouth, activated it. It would take a few moments to do its thing, so he put the test aside to wait for the results. It wasn’t often they needed to test for drugs on a rescue, but since an incident that had nearly cost Scott his life, the tests had been a mandatory part of their kit.

“Virgie? Sing me a song? Like Mom used to sing you?”

“Alan, how are you feeling?”

Alan blinked at him. “Tired. Sing me a song?”

“Why don’t you lie down and rest?”

“I want you to sing.”

Virgil eyed Brandon, but surprisingly found no humour there, only honest worry.

“Okay, Allie, you lie down, rest, and I’ll think of a song.”

“Yay!” His little brother was immediately animated enough to curl up on the sofa, eyes hopefully staring up at Virgil.

The test beeped positive.

Virgil grit his teeth.

Fortunately, it didn’t appear to be a high dose, but he would be happier double checking with a blood test.

First he needed to get his little brother home. “Hey, Allie, want to go for a ride?”

Alan frowned up at him. “Do I get a song as well?”

“Sure.” Virgil packed his kit away, all the time running through possible symptoms for the inevitable crash his brother was likely to go through in the next few hours.

It was going to take so much to keep this hidden from Scott.

Virgil hated hiding things from his big brother.

But there were some things Scott was just better off not knowing.

Alan flung his arms out. “Carry me?”

A blink, but Virgil realised that there was no way he was prepared to let his high little brother attempt to walk out of here.

Without a word, Virgil stood up and scooped his little brother into his arms.

So much lighter than Scott.

Yet so much heavier than he used to be.

Alan once again curled into his shoulder as Virgil shimmied him into a comfortable hold. He eyed both Brandon and Brie. The former hurried to open the door, while Brie jumped up, cut in front of both of them, and peered out into the corridor as the security force she was supposed to be.

Virgil made his way up through the stairs and onto the roof to the dragonfly pod. It took some manoeuvring and heavy lifting to get his brother into the backseat as by this time he was drifting into sleep.

Hopefully sleeping it off would be the cure. In any case, Alan was grounded for the next couple of days at least until the stuff was out of his system.

Climbing into the front seat, he eyed both Brie and Brandon, who had scrambled up the stairs after him. “I expect a confidential report from you, Brie. Brandon, I believe John wants to talk to you again.”

The redhead went white as a sheet. “Okay.”

Brie stood as militarily straight as she could. Virgil was of two minds as to whether Kayo needed to be informed. Would she tell Scott?

That was something that could be discussed with John. Tomorrow.

As he launched the pod skywards, Alan shifted in his seat. “Love you, Virgie.”

Virgil sighed.

“Love you, too, squirt.”

-o-o-o-

[whatgaviiformes]

Ahhh this is perfect!!! Uke!Gordon is my spirit animal.

“Gordon playing the ukulele and having a habit of humming along to himself while he plays

Virgil sticks his head in one day and he’s lying down with his feet up on the wall, singing the ‘I Lava You’ song”

@tracybirds I live to serve

[luthienne]

well, what are your thoughts [about the batman]?

i've been ranting about this on the phone w my best friend for the past hour sdlkfjslkjfs.

[do not read past this point if you care about batman spoilers]

it felt like the film introduced a ton of themes but didn’t actually explore any of them in any meaningful way. immediately we see that gotham is a place entrenched in violence, where every single person has to inhabit and navigate violence—but we don’t see that explored past those first few moments. the narrative then immediately pivots to the serial killer — the riddler. which in turn pivots to organized crime. everything that happens feels like it happens to move the plot along and never carries any deeper meaning beyond that. these are themes already explored in the dark knight trilogy. does that mean they shouldn't be explored again? of course not, but it doesn't feel like it was explored in this film through a new lens.

violence for the sake of violence. what does it mean to inhabit this world? what has happened to arrive at the point where all criminals see the bat signal in the sky and feel fear (a point that is narrated) yet a gang sees batman come out from the shadows and has to ask who he is? a world where gordon can bring batman to active crime scenes, where a vigilante isn’t immediately met with police force and arrest? how do we get a real sense of emotional payoff if we haven’t had a chance to understand or witness how we’ve arrived to the dire point we’ve collectively arrived? why should i feel deeply for the choices bruce is making if he hasn’t been developed as a character?

ok we've arrived firmly in the middle of the narrative—that can be interesting, too. but if he weren’t playing the role of batman and we didn’t have that history to draw on while we watch? why then would we care about this character? his relationships with other characters onscreen felt hollow to me—his dynamic with alfred, with gordon, with selina. if the first thing he is going to express to alfred after he wakes up in the hospital is betrayal, then we should feel that sense of betrayal, which means we should feel the sense of closeness that has led up to this moment of utter betrayal that cannot even wait at the bedside of this man who nearly died bc of his proximity to bruce.

the soundtrack was so powerful — the dark, funereal theme not used to mark the presence of villains but instead to represent batman. inversely, schubert’s ave maria perverted and turned into the dark theme for the riddler and his violence. but it doesn’t feel like we got an emotional payoff for this inversion of themes. if batman gets the dark, funereal theme then what does it symbolically represent the death of? of bruce wayne? of his past? of his humanity? if the ave maria theme is going to be altered and turned into something dark, then what religious symbolism exists in the backstory or plot to make that especially impactful on an emotional level? what pure thing is being twisted while we must witness only and cannot stop?

(also if the riddler is going to be known for his riddles then they should maybe be... difficult riddles?? batman was just immediately able to guess the answers right away, every time.)

what makes bruce wayne/batman vulnerable? what makes him the very human character that displays tremendous courage every time he puts on that mask and goes out? that's one thing that i feel the daredevil series did so well—when matt brawls, he gets knocked down. he struggles to get back up. we as the audience understand that he is human and tired and one (emotional or physical) blow away from not getting back up. when bruce gets shot point blank with a rifle he... still has the core strength to hold himself up on a railing? to keep running and to keep fighting and to somehow register no damage at all until or unless it serves the narrative purpose. so what are the stakes? physical or emotional? what is in danger?

it just felt like his character was very one dimensional. why should we as spectators care about him if we don’t get even a glimpse into who he is as a person? of what makes him human or vulnerable? what are his motivations? in anything he does? why does he go out to punch people at night? to help others? then why would he pursue a reckless car chase that could harm so many people? i want to witness his inner conflict and its personal consequences. i just—want more from a story as bleak as this. and i don’t want the arc to be explained to me (beginning: “i am vengeance” / end: “ok i have to be more than vengeance i also have to be a symbol of hope”) i want to see it, i want to see the grief that made him who he is, that haunts him; i want to see the grit that pushes him to re-make the choice every single day to keep putting on that suit, i want to see the implications of what he does—this duality of his identity, his life divided into two parts and what that means for him. i just want more than what we got.

[veryveryverytemporarily]

Wrote the second part of AU where Aaron moves into a flat share. This part is a bit angsty but then it will lighten up.

(You can read Part 1 first here )

Come sail your ships around me

There was a lot of milk left over so I made a quiche. Assuming you’re not actually allergic to fresh vegetables, I made enough for two. Better for you than take-aways. Please wash up the dish when you’ve done.

 Aaron’s eyebrows play as he reads the note. Alright - so he’s had the odd take-away since he moved in a couple of weeks earlier – it’s been an adjustment period. It’s not as if he lives on them. And, anyway what’s his housemate doing? - Going through the bins? It makes him wonder for a moment what else he’s been snooping through.

He leans over the quiche in question to examine it. Definitely something green in it. He wrinkles his nose. But on the other hand, the kitchen smells savoury and warm and good.

He washes his hands with a sigh under the kitchen tap, shrugs off his hi-vis.

He takes a spatula and places half the remaining quiche on a plate. Grabs a bottle of beer from the fridge and pops the lid. He treads lightly down the metal steps to the garden and sits at the bistro table.

With the sun shining through the leaves, he takes a first bite. It’s crisp and light and he inhales it, serenaded by the resident blackbird, goes back inside to fetch the rest.

 ‘Hello.’

He’s on the stairs when he hears the voice. It takes him a moment to locate it. There’s a bloke standing on the other side of the garden fence, who he wouldn’t be able to see except from this elevated position. The bloke has keys in one hand and a package wrapped in greaseproof paper in the other.

‘I’m Mike, your downstairs neighbour.’

‘Aaron,’ he nods introducing himself.

‘Lovely weather,’ Mike goes on. ‘Not that you and Robert get to see a lot of it. Have you settled in alright? He told me you were coming. You must be like ships in the night, the two of you. I suppose it’s one way to keep the interest alive?’ He smiles rather salaciously, then goes on, ‘Are you a foodie, too?’ Aaron watches his eyes travel wistfully to the plate in his hand. ‘You’ve fallen on your feet with that one!’

Mike’s mobile phone starts ringing and he fishes it from a pocket with the hand holding the keys. ‘I have to get this – possible job interview, but don’t let me keep you. You’ll have to come round for a beer one evening and tell me how you two met - maybe I can bag myself one!’ He cracks another grin. then looks down and says hello into his phone. From inside there’s the sound of barking as he disappears under the entrance porch into the house.

Aaron stands for a moment holding his plate.

Now there’s no one to see him, he pulls the corners of his mouth down. How well does this Mike know Robert? Clearly, well enough to pass judgement on his cooking. Whereas he, Aaron, who shares his space, has never even met him face to face. He can’t explain why but he feels a sudden irrational resentment of Mike the Neighbour.

 He watches an action film until bedtime and, after, sleeps fitfully, wakes suddenly, convinced he can smell fish and chips.

It sends him rolling down deep into a tunnel where he can’t breathe, and his heart rattles like a bird flung back and forth against the sides of a cage.

He sits up, arm pits running, turns on the lamp; it’s not enough so he climbs out of bed, crosses the room and turns on the big light.

He grabs the robe that isn’t his from behind the door and wraps himself in it, moves back and sits against the bed head, tugging the cover up.

His chin drops and he feels the tears smart from his eyes and run over his cheeks. Why is he still such a loser, letting himself get dragged down?

Was moving here was a massive mistake after all?  He’s out of sight. His Mum’s getting on with her life with Paddy, with the pub. Adam’s at the farm and probably going out with lasses. They’re probably glad he’s gone. And who can blame them?

He’s all adrift.

He casts about the room looking for something to distract him from the pain and the panic.

His eyes land on the book on the far bedside table. He clutches at it, bringing it near and gazes at the cover. Space Minotaur – he reads the blurred title. Frankly the illustration on the cover is ridiculous. He wipes his nose on his arm, opens the book where Robert has left a book mark, takes a cursory glance at the page. Somehow, he finds himself reading one sentence, then another.

This Ariadne is clearly in love with Captain Theseus and her father is a dick. He’s the real monster not the Minotaur. The captain has been tasked with saving the galaxy by defeating the Minotaur in a labyrinth of worm holes that will take him to a parallel universe. Will he ever get back? Aaron imagines himself as Ariadne as she implores him not to go. Theseus kisses her. It’s really nice. He turns the page.

There’s an erotic scene which Aaron skip reads, blushing wildly, but still impressed by Theseus’s pounding member.  Now Theseus has to go. Ariadne says she can help him trace his route back through space in his ship with thirty oars … the words start to swim in front of his eyes.

 He wakes cocooned in the robe.

The white pages of the open book beside him reflect the morning sun. Some of the pages are creased where he’s slept on them. He smooths them, places the book back carefully on the nightstand, gets up and goes to the bathroom to pee.

He thinks about Gordon. In the cool light of day, he can imagine that what happened, happened to someone else, not him. He remembers at work listening to the radio, he’d heard someone say how all the cells of your body replace themselves every seven to ten years. In which case he’s not the person all those things happened to anymore. He doesn’t have to be.

  I got you a bookmark of your own. Please don’t turn down the corner of the pages again, it ruins them.

PS. I made a larger tiramisu this time since I noticed you liked the last one. It’s in the labelled box in the fridge.

 He picks up the bookmark and inspects it. Time has moved on. Robert - well both of them now - are on book three of the Demigods in Space series, but this is from the first book: Aaron never did find out what happened to Theseus - whether he got back safely - because Robert presumably finished the story and replaced it before he had time.

The bookmark is just a flimsy rectangular strip of card. On one side there’s an illustration of the Minotaur framed by stars, on the other Captain Theseus. His impressive member is trapped inside some jazzy metallic space trousers; his face enigmatic, hidden by a helmet and visor except for some locks of escaping blond hair.

He frowns, takes the bookmark to the bedroom and lays it down on his table. All evening he’s conscious of it there - waiting for him to turn in for an early night.

[waitineedaname]

Benrey knew about bouquets theoretically.

They were what the winners got in some sports games, and they were bought by sitcom boyfriends when they’d fucked up with their girlfriends. They were bundles of flowers that held some kind of meaning that was really beyond Benrey.

The thing was, he never saw one in person until months after they’d all made it out of Black Mesa. They were all at the Boomer household, throwing them an anniversary party. No one was quite sure if it was their one year anniversary or fiftieth anniversary -- neither of them would give anyone a clear answer -- but Bubby had presented his husband with an enormous bouquet of flowers, trying and failing to appear like anything but a sappy fool. 

Benrey was fascinated by it.

Xen didn’t have flowers. There were plant-adjacent things, sure, but most of them tried to stab passersby or emitted poisonous gasses. Benrey was sitting on a barstool next to the bouquet in its vase on the countertop, and he had yet to be stabbed by the dethorned roses, and the sprigs of lavender didn’t emit anything except a soothing scent that reminded him of the hand lotion Gordon wouldn’t let him eat. He gently ran his fingers over the layers of carnation petals while Coomer spoke beside him.

“-language of flowers was introduced to England in the early 18th century by Mary Wortley, Lady Montague, whose husband was Ambassador to Turkey. By the Victorian era, almost every-”

“Flowers have a language?” Benrey said, looking up and zoning back into the Wikipedia infodump. 

“Yes!” Dr. Coomer informed him brightly. “Floriography (language of flowers) is a means of cryptological communication through the use or arrangement of flowers. Meaning has been attributed to flowers for thousands of years, and some form of floriography has been practiced in traditional cultures throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Western culture, William Shakespeare ascribed emblematic meanings to flowers, especially in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Similarly, in a scene in his Henry VI, Part 1, English noblemen pick either red or white roses to symbolize their allegiance to the Houses-” 

“So different colors have different meanings? Like, uh. Like Sweet Voice?”

“Yeah!” Tommy answered him this time, Dr. Coomer too busy telling the rest of them about Victorian flower meanings. “And- And each kind of flower has a different meaning too. It’s like a whole language!”

Benrey stared at the bundle of flowers in front of him. He sang out a Sweet Voice note the exact shade of one of the scabiosas and smiled.

He didn’t tell anyone his plan when he started. Something told him that would ruin it somehow. It felt more meaningful to have it be a surprise. He did his research in private. Wikipedia may be gone, but there were still plenty of websites eager to inform him of all the strange meanings Victorians applied to flowers. (What the hell was “assiduous to please” supposed to mean?) He stayed up after Tommy and Gordon had gone to bed, and sang notes of Sweet Voice as softly as he could, searching for the right correlations between flowers and Sweet Voice colors.

A bouquet arrived on Bubby and Coomer’s doorstep first. Cheerful American starworts and chrysanthemums wrapped in convolvulus, accompanied by sprigs of larch and black poplar. (White like sagebud to misty golden, you’re a bold one. Morning glory, I’m glad you got through this story. Black poplar to yellow larch, I’ll follow where you charge.) Bubby was wildly confused by its appearance, but the next time he saw them, Coomer took Benrey under his arm and gave him a noogie that would’ve drilled a hole into anyone else’s skull.

Gordon and Tommy’s came next, and Benrey made sure they arrived at the same time. Gordon was the one to find them, having opened the door to two bouquets addressed to the two of them. “Uh, Tommy?” He called out over his shoulder, picking up his bouquet and examining it. Bright Peruvian heliotropes peered out from between hundred-leaved roses and pencil-leaved geraniums, all surrounded by southernwood and Irish ivy. (Purple as heliotrope, you give me hope. Geranium to rosy pink, I’ll love you forever, I think. Green as ivy and southernwood, for you, I’ll be good.) “Do you know anything about this?”

“No,” Tommy said, walking up behind him and peering over his shoulder. When Gordon stepped aside for him, he scooped up his bouquet too. His was entirely made of flowers, a bright splash of color: the warm colors of the red periwinkles and scarlet lychnis offset by the American cowslips and traveller’s joys. (Scarlet, with you, my worries I forget. Purple like cowslip, I think you’re smart as a whip. White, you make my life bright.) “Benrey, do you- did you do this?” 

“Nah, man.” Benrey shrugged, hands in his pockets. “Y’all must have, uh. Some kinda secret admirer, or something.”

Tommy stared at him for a long moment, and Benrey could swear he saw the wheels turning in Tommy’s head, but if he was going to say anything, he was distracted by Gordon ushering them into the kitchen to find vases.

He was hunched over his laptop that night again, trying to figure out if he could feasibly make a tiny arrangement of sorrel, bearded crepis, and juniper to put on Joshua’s bedside table (Green to juniper blue, I’ll protect you. Yellow, I’m proud of this tiny fellow) without Gordon accusing him for bringing weeds in the house, when a voice broke the relative silence of the living room. 

“Ben?” Gordon said groggily. Benrey jumped in his seat and sang out a string of surprised teal. “You’ve been coming to bed late like every night this week, what’s up.”

“Uh, nothing. Just… browsing. Making deals on… eBay.” Benrey bluffed. Gordon squinted at him, clearly not believing the lie, then glanced at the laptop screen.

“Are those flowers?”

“...What are flowers.”

Gordon snorted and draped himself over the back of the couch. “I fucking knew it. You’re not sneaky, dude.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What are flowers.”

Gordon flicked the side of his head. “Why were you keeping the bouquet thing a secret?”

“I dunno.” Benrey looked away, embarrassed. “Thought it’d be a fun surprise.”

Gordon chuckled and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I never expected you to be the sentimental type.”

“Didja like them, though?” Benrey looked up, hopeful.

“Obviously. I put them on the kitchen table, they’re beautiful.” Gordon straightened up and reached for Benrey’s hands. “Now c’mon, Gordon want cuddles.”

“Gordon want cuddles? Cuddles from Benrey?” Benrey teased, taking Gordon’s hands and standing. “What about Tommy?”

“Tommy also want cuddles. He’s the one who told me to go get you.” Gordon said, pulling him up the stairs to their room. “Also, he figured out the flower meanings. Why the hell is there a plant for bantering?”

“The Victorias knew banter is important to any relationship, man. It’s like you don’t even understand enemies-to-lovers, smh.”

“Stop saying abbreviations out loud.” Gordon laughed, shoving him into bed, where Tommy sleepily grabbed him.

The following afternoon, Benrey found a vase of roses addressed to him, alongside several seed packets.

[thewanderingace]

The Batman was utterly amazing!!!! I saw it yesterday and I have had so many thoughts running through my head ever since. It was such an incredible movie. Absolutely surpassed my expectations. I only have one complaint is that it was dark. As in visually. But it's fine.

Major spoilers below the cut (in random thoughts)!!!

Robert Pattinson's acting choices are superb. I loved the way he differentiated from Bruce Wayne to Batman. It really fit the "this is the real you" thing Riddler says to Batman at the end. Cause when Rob is Bruce Wayne he hunches a bit, changes his walking style, and is generally much more awkward and nervous. Meanwhile he's strong and confident and menacing at Batman. And I just loooove that.

His relationship with Jim Gordon was so good!! It really showed the friendship between them and I loved how well they worked together, the trust they have in each other and they had some pretty hysterical moments. I loved the prison scene a lot. Between Gordon protecting Batman from having his identity revealed to the two of them pretending to fight while the whole precinct watches and then Bat punches him and runs as planned, "you could have pulled your punches". LOVE IT!

Oh my god Bruce and Alfred. Alfred in general. Absolutely PERFECT. I cried when Bruce was racing to get to him before the Riddler did, when he screamed when he heard what happened, and then every scene of him in the hospital by Alfred's bedside. I loved it so much. I loved angsty upset Bruce. And Andy Serkis is such a fantastic Alfred. He's amazing. That smile he gives Bruce after Bruce admits how afraid he is to lose someone else he cares for just broke me.

Zoe Kravitz as Selena Kyle!!!! PERFECTION!!! I gotta admit, I wasn't sure about her as Catwoman but god she stole the show in every single scene she was in. I was hooked from the first moment we saw her and it just grew with every scene afterwards. She's incredible and I hope it's not the last time we see her. And her fight scenes!? Damn that was good stuff. I also loved the chemistry she had with Robert Pattinson (and Selena with Bat). They had a great buildup and I love it.

The plot. It was so so cohesive and well written. Like, incredibly so. I'm so glad this movie was 3 hours because if even one of those scenes was cut it would have ruined the story. I so appreciate how everything fit in together so nicely and nothing seemed out of place. The Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman, Bruce, Jim Gordon, Alfred, etc. They all had their own individual stories but they all fit so perfectly into the overall picture. It's impressive tbh. Not many scripts are that cohesive. And the story felt complete. Everything was wrapped and told so well. I'm so damn impressed.

The cinematography as GORGEOUS!!!! I get really annoyed by this whole "we have no lights on set" thing tv and movies are doing now but this is Batman. I fully expected it to be dark visually. And there are sooooo many amazingly beautiful shots in this movie I wanna cry. The opening narration with Bruce, the first Batman fight scene, the gunfight in the club, the walk up to the Penguin in the upside down car, the scene where Bruce is leading the civilians in the flood, every silhouettte of batman, and soo many more. They are BEAUTIFUL!

There were a lot of funny moments as well which I didn't expect! Oswald in general is hysterical 99% of the time but when they leave him tied up and he does the penguin walk I fucking died. The cop scene were pretty funny. Love Officer Martinez. "Hi Mr. Wayne!" 😂.

Awkward meow meow Bruce. Need I say more? I love him. I need more awkward Bruce in my life.

The narration at the beginning was such a clever way of opening. First the stuff with the Riddler (what a hell of an intro) and then Rob doing narration for Bruce/Batman? So cool

Batman journals!! I'm sorry I find this pretty funny. He doesn't just log his movements and actions and what he sees but he writes out his feelings and thoughts.

I loved the Batman backstory in this, how it was threaded throughout the movie and also how it affected Bruce. Starting with him staring at the boy who lost his father not once but twice (once as batman and once as bruce) and then through the reveal of who he family is. Love it. So much.

The joker reveal at the end?! WHAT!?

The Riddler is creepy as FUCK!!! Damn!!

There was such a good balance of action to emotion which is something I appreciate so much. I hate when movies all action and little substance but this is so perfectly balanced.

Bruce's eye make up. I cannot believe we actually had a whole scene of Bruce putting on his eye make up. But also, his eyes are beautiful when he has the mask and make up on. Damn. So pretty.

THE MUSIC WAS SO GOOD!!!

Bruce's story in this film was learning about hope and how he can be a beacon of hope and justice and that vengeance isn't what he or anyone needs and I just love it.

THE BATMOBILE!!! How the fuck did they make this early batmobile version seen such like it's own incredibly intimidating character. Wow

The whump! I'd be remiss if I didn't go on about the whump. And we got some really great whump. Top two moments are the explosion/knocked out scene and the catwalk stuff. Rob you did AMAZING with all of that. The slowly passing out, the pain noises, the grimaces. *chefs kiss* so good.

[topsytervy]

Cupcakes ~ JJ Maybank and Rafe Cameron

Blurb: Rafe and JJ decide to do a bit of baking for you since you're on your period

Word Count: 1,399

Warnings: swearing, mentions of periods?, grammar/spelling mistakes, i think thats it.

I couldn't choose between the two so i did both and decided on the reader, JJ, and Rafe being a trio. The writing gets a tad dicey at the end but I never know how to wrap these little blurbs up so I'm not surprised.

~~~~~

You laid in your bed, fetal position, an unopened Midol bottle on your nightstand with a water bottle, a heating pad clutched to your abdomen as you clenched your eyes shut at the pain coursing through your stomach. 

If you were being honest, you were really fucking close to taking one of those knives from the knife block in your kitchen and cutting out your own uterus.

That sounded like it would hurt less than the absolute agony that your period was causing you.

Your phone buzzed and you winced as you flipped over, reaching across the bed to grab the device and hitting the accept button on the call.

"Hello?"

"Oh wow, you're up? She's actually up, Rafe. Anyway, Rafe and I are at the store right now but we were thinking since it's a beautiful day we either go to the beach or, if it's too crowded, we just hang by Rafe's pool. Oh, yeah,  pick up two bags of the flamin' hot Cheetos." JJ's voice rang through the phone.

You went to sit up but whimpered as your cramps punched you in the stomach.

"Y/N? You okay?"

You heard Rafe whisper a 'what's wrong' and JJ hushed him.

"Mhm. I just don't feel like going anywhere today. You know…girl issues." Silence filled the other side of the line and you exhaled sharply. "Period, JJ. I'm on my period."

"Oh!" He responded. "I'm sorry, Y/N/N. Do you need anything?" 

"Uh hello? Can I know what's happening or am I just the wallet around here?" You heard Rafe right next to the phone.

"No. I'm pretty much all set. I'm sorry that I can't join you two." You apologized, tears welling up in your eyes.

Stupid emotions.

JJ heard you sniff on the other side and he immediately started trying to make it better. "No, no, no. Please stop the tears."

"Now she's crying. Give me the damn phone, Maybank." You heard slight rustling before Rafe’s voice came over the phone speaker a lot clearer. "Screw talking to JJ. Talk to me. What's going on?"

"I hurt a lot and my periods ruining the plans you and J made and now I'm sad cause I can barely move so I can't hang out with you two today and I feel horrible."

Rafe walked towards the end of the aisle and looked at the signs above to aisles before finding the one he wanted and going towards it. "Y/N, it's not that big of a deal. It's okay to blow us off cause you're in pain. It’s like if you broke a leg. We're not mad at you for something you can't control."

"I'm sorry." You sniffed.

"And that's the other thing. Quit apologizing. You have nothing to apologize for."

"Okay."

"Now dry those pretty little eyes of yours and then close them to try and get some rest, okay?" 

Rafe’s eyes scanned over the boxes of cake and brownie mix until he finally found what he wanted and grabbed the box, throwing it into the cart that JJ was now pushing.

"Okay."

"Bye, Y/N/N. We'll talk to you later." 

"Alright. Bye, Rafe."

Rafe hung up, handed JJ his phone back, and continued down the aisle, grabbing two tins of frosting. 

"Cupcake mix?" JJ raised an eyebrow at the older boy.

"Yeah. We're gonna make Y/N/N cupcakes."

JJ picked up the box and looked on the back before scrunching up his nose. "What if we made them from scratch?"

Rafe turned to look at the blonde boy. "You think we can handle it?"

"As long as Rose and Ward aren't home to make a fuss, yeah."

Rafe grinned as he pulled out his phone and googled recipes for cupcakes. "Alright. Put the box back. We're getting the frosting premade though. And we obviously need the paper to put in the tins along." Rafe started listing, his eyes trained on his phone as he continued walking.

****

Two and a half hours later, Rafe and JJ were parked in your driveway, a box of cupcakes in JJ's arm and a bag containing Rafe's sweatshirt and JJ's sweatpants swinging from Rafe's hand. 

They carefully and quietly made their way upstairs and into your room, unsure if you were sleeping or not. You turned over, rather regretfully considering you had found the perfect position to keep the cramps somewhat at bay, when you heard a bag rustle. Your TV was on and playing How To Get Away With Murder, a slightly concerning choice your two best friends noted.

"Did we wake you?" JJ asked, worry written on his face.

You shook your head. "No. I haven't been able to fall asleep yet."

"Well, we made cupcakes." JJ grinned, holding up the box. 

"When you say we made cupcakes, do you mean from the box?" You shot the two boys a look.

"No. We made them, from scratch. By hand. Followed a recipe online. You can even check Rafe's search history."

Rafe grimaced. "Uh...maybe don't. Or let me clear a couple of things first." 

You ignored Rafe's sentence and sat up, immediately placing your head on your knees. 

"Have you taken any Midol?" Rafe asked, coming over to sit on your bed.

"No. I can't get the damn bottle open."

Rafe nodded before grabbing the bottle off of your bedside table and opening it with ease as JJ set the cupcakes on your desk.

JJ grabbed a water bottle from your mini-fridge and twisted the cap off, handing it to you while Rafe poured two pills into the palm of his hand. He placed them into yours, putting the cap back on the bottle into the little drawer of the table.

You popped them into your mouth and took a swig of water as Rafe spoke. "We also brought you your favorite shirt of mine you like to steal and your favorite sweatpants of JJ's you like to steal."

You nodded as you swallowed the water and pills in your mouth before grabbing the bag and heading into the bathroom to change. You always swore that their clothes were way softer than yours so you felt pretty grateful that they brought over their clothes for you to wear.

When you walked back out you saw, Rafe and JJ sitting on your bed, JJ holding a cupcake in each hand as Rafe held one in his.

"Alright. Get over here so we can try these bad boys." JJ nodded to the empty spot between him and Rafe. You climbed into the spot, Rafe setting the heating pad back on your stomach as you leaned against the headboard, taking a cupcake from JJ's hand.

You peeled off the paper, leaning across Rafe to throw it in the trash can, before taking a bite out of the treat.

You hummed. "I'm pleasantly surprised. When did you two become bakers cause holy shit? This is pretty damn good." 

Rafe shrugged as JJ beamed.

"Just call us whoever the hell the guy from Cake Boss is." JJ bumped his shoulder against yours as you snorted.

"Please. You're no Buddy Valastro. Yeah, these are delicious but that's like me making spaghetti and saying I'm Gordon Ramsey." 

"At least you like them and they, hopefully, made your day better." Rafe slung an arm over your shoulder.

"The cupcakes do make this slightly more bearable." You pressed a kiss to Rafe's cheek before turning and placing one on JJ's as well. "Aren't I lucky to have two baker boys as my best friends?" You grinned, not missing the smile on Rafe and JJ’s faces when you said that.

JJ rested his head on your shoulder. "You are pretty lucky to have us as friends huh?"

"Yeah, I am. Now if you could hand me the remote so I can put on a show that doesn't have an excessive amount of sex scenes in it, that'd be much appreciated. That’s the last thing I wanna watch with you two. Oh and grab the box of cupcakes. I have a feeling those are going to be my lunch.”

Rafe and JJ shot you a glare. 

“You can have another cupcake after you eat an actual meal,” JJ told you as Rafe stood up. 

“I’ll go see what I can whip up in the kitchen. You stay here and make sure she doesn’t snag another one.” 

~~~~

[lesbian-percy-weasley]

How To Make Your Crush Fall In Love With You In Three Easy Steps by Gay-Natasha-Saves-The-World on Ao3 (aka your Frankenstein references in Harry Potter fanfiction dealer)

Chapter 2: Make Yourself Desirable

Ship: Perciver

Content warning: Spoilers to the American satirical comedy But I’m A Cheerleader staring Natasha Lyonne and Clea Duvall in the first paragraphs. (It’s free on YouTube if you haven’t seen it)

Summary: Percy is starting to question his feelings about Oliver while Oliver tries everything in his power to prove to Percy he’s sort of an intellectual

A/N: Online school has totally messed with my sleep schedule so midnight fic release woohoo

“I swear film studies attract the worst type of people,” Penny sighed as she sat down at the library table with her friends. “This Tarantino fanboy was trying to talk to me about Pulp Fiction and then acted like I killed his dog when I said I didn’t like it. Cinema peaked with But I’m A Cheerleader and you can’t convince me otherwise.”

“Oh please, what’s so good about that movie?” Cedric complained. “Ummm, it’s gay, it’s a commentary about how gender roles are bullshit, it has a happy ending, and prince Zuko is in it,” Penny argued while she was opening her lunch.

“I would hardly call getting disowned by your family and being homeless a happy ending.”

“Did you not pay attention to the movie at all? First of all, they weren’t homeless; they were staying with Larry and Lloyd Morgan-Gordon. And second of all the last scene of the movie shows Megan’s parents in a support group for people with gay children so clearly they didn’t disown her.” Penny could deal with a lot of bullshit, but someone saying But I’m A Cheerleader was a bad movie was not one of them.

Percy however found this hilarious, but he was trying to hold in his laughter since they were in a library and his laugh was notoriously loud. Penny and Cedric were continuing to argue about the movie and Percy managed to gain composure. That’s when he noticed Oliver looking at him from next to a shelf.

He gave him a small friendly wave before he walked away of embarrassment. Strange. But Percy decided not to think a lot about it.

“Was that your boyfriend?” Penny teased Percy. “Don’t be ridiculous, it's just my friend from English.” He replied trying everything he could not make his face blush. “Oh, so he’s the person we have to thank for getting you to finally shut up about it.” Cedric laughed.

There was no hiding Percy’s blush now. “Oh wait, I get it. He’s not your boyfriend but you want him to be.” Penny exclaimed like this was a great revelation. “No!” Percy said a bit louder than he meant to, earning a harsh glare from Ms. Pince. “He’s just my friend. Besides, I doubt he’s gay, and even if he is, how would he know I’m gay.”

“Your computer screensaver is literally a picture of Oscar Wilde. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.” Cedric replied matter-of-factly. Percy couldn’t even muster a reply to that. Yes, Cedric was right but that still didn’t prove that he would have any chance of ever being with Oliver.

I mean just look at him. He’s a lanky, ginger nerd who was too shy to have more than 2 good friends and Oliver was a gorgeous and popular star sports player. Even if Oliver was gay, why would he want to be with him when he could be with any other boy in school?

Before he knew it, lunch ended and he had to go on with his day. But the thought of Oliver would be on his mind for the rest of the day.

Oliver was extremely tired after track practice. Besides the growing mountain of homework he had, he wanted to read the book for Percy. As much as he wanted to ignore it, if he did his grades would drop even lower and he would absolutely be kicked from the team. So the book could wait for now.

By the time he was done with his homework, he felt like he was about to pass out. But he HAD to read the book. It couldn’t be that hard to read, right? After all, he watched the movie with his parents a few years ago.

Oliver couldn’t even get past page 3 of Frankenstein before almost dozing. “I thought there was supposed to be a monster…” He mumbled to himself as he set the book down. He decided that he will try again tomorrow. If that didn’t work he would just SparkNotes it. It was almost 11 pm anyway.

For the next week, Oliver spent virtually every bit of the little free time he had reading Frankenstein. It was deceptively small for the amount of effort it took to read it. But late one night, he finally finished it.

The amount he took in was debatable but he understood enough to prove he read it. Just as he was thinking about messaging Percy about it, his phone beeped. He picked it up to see Percy had already messaged him.

ThatPercival: Do you still need help with the English homework?

Oliver.Would: Nah, I figured it out.

ThatPercival: Oh, okay.

Oliver.Would: I’ve been getting better at English this semester lol. I actually just finished reading Frankenstein.

ThatPercival: Really? What did you think about it?

Oliver.Would: I thought you were right about it being a better Jekyll and Hyde.

ThatPercival: Right? Mary Shelley did it first and better. I don’t know why we don’t read it instead.

Oliver.Would: If you got to pick the books we read in school people would actually pay more attention.

ThatPercival: I doubt they would pay any more attention to Pride and Prejudice or the Picture of Dorian Gray than they already do when they’re reading The Great Gatsby. But I would have more fun.

Oliver.Would: Touche. But at least we would be reading better books. You don’t even understand how boring English was before you came along.

ThatPercival: Speaking of English, what happened in the first semester that made Mr. Lupin have assigned seating? He never did that last year.

Oliver.Would: Oh yeah, Marcus Flint punched someone in the face over a seat.

ThatPercival: Asgjfhksdfkfdj What????

Oliver.Would: Yeah some kid sat in the seat he usually sat in, they argued about it for a few minutes and then he just punched him. He got suspended for a few weeks and Mr. Lupin had to change the rules. It was the only notable thing that happened in the first half of the year.

ThatPercival: That seems like a pretty severe reaction for someone sitting in your seat.

Oliver.Would: Yeah lol.

The conversation died after that and Percy felt quite sad about it. He would talk to Oliver all night if he could. It didn’t matter if he would see him in the morning. He’s found himself wanting to talk to Oliver about everything. Found a meme about the book they read in class? He would send it to Oliver. His siblings did something generally annoying? He would let off steam by talking to Oliver.

He still talked to Penny and Cedric about the random shit they always talked about, but he wanted to talk to Oliver way more. It just felt more, natural? Why would it feel more natural? He’s known Penny and Cedric since middle school and he’s known Oliver for like 3 months.

He put his phone on his bedside table and sighed heavily. All of this was just so confusing. He could read and understand some of the most advanced works in literature but his brain was a different story. Oliver made him feel an emotion he couldn’t describe.

His pondering was cut off by the ungodly noise his siblings were making seemingly right outside his door. They always seemed to do this at the worst times. It was 10:30 at night, what could they possibly be doing? Before he even got to the door, his mom was already telling them off.

Now he could return to trying to decode his feelings for Oliver. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Penny said a few weeks ago. Did he really want Oliver to be his boyfriend? Okay, maybe there was some truth in that. But there was still no way Oliver would want to be his boyfriend.

So what if he read a book he mentioned once? Maybe he was just trying to be friendly or expanding his literary horizons. That doesn’t mean he wants Percy to be his boyfriend. Why would he want to be his boyfriend? The two of them couldn’t have been more different.

But he shouldn’t waste time thinking about it. He had to sleep. He put his phone on the charger, turned his lights off, got into bed, and tried not to think about how madly in love with Oliver he was.

[scxrsgxrd]

Remedy // Gordon Merkel

Part Four

Part one here

Part two here

Part three here

Part five here

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say another big thank you to anyone reading this series! It means the world to me that people are enjoying my writing and I love reading your responses🤍

WARNINGS: 18+ mature language, sex, mentions of violence.

Five years earlier

Merkel rose to the feeling of the sun beating down against his face and bare chest, and slung his arm over onto.. nothing? His eyes opened instantaneously as he felt the bare space on the bed next to him. Without thinking about the fact that he was completely naked he flung himself towards the bedroom door and down the stairs, his heart almost skipping a beat when he saw the back door was opened slightly.

“Klara?” Merkel yelled her name multiple times while pacing around the back garden, his hands gripping and tugging on his hair while his stomach tightened with anxiety.

“Merkel?” He whipped around when he heard a soft voice, Klara. She stared at the scene in front of her, wide eyed. Her husband was stood as naked as the day as he was born in the back garden while the old lady next door was staring at him with the same expression,

She flung the watering can she was holding towards him in an attempt to cover his modesty, but it was too late. Old Mrs Fischer had already seen everything on display and shooed her cat back into the house while muttering about how back in her day sexual relations were kept inside the house.

“Merkel what the hell are you doing?” Klara set her eyes on him before gesturing for him to go back into the house before anyone else could take a good look at her husband in his birthday suit.

“I just.. I woke up and you weren’t there, I panicked.” Merkel mumbled before pulling his wife into an embrace and kissing the top of her head, once again admiring the height difference between them as she rested her forehead against his chest.

“I was watering the garden, you looked peaceful so I didn’t wake you.” She hummed, leaning up slightly to kiss his shoulder before setting her watering can down and bursting into a fit of giggles.

“Hey, it’s not funny. Mrs Fischer already had enough problems with us.” He frowned and nudged her shoulder gently, but found himself grinning at the sight of her. Her eyes were lit up and her smile was so wide that he couldn't help but mirror it.

Once Klara had managed to compose herself she grabbed a package from the kitchen counter and handed it to her husband.

“This arrived for you this morning, I figured it might be a late wedding gift.” She kissed his shoulder once again before heading back out to the garden to finish off her watering.

Merkel immediately felt a pit in his stomach when he saw the cursive writing on the front of the parcel, the cursive writing that had formed the address he had kept so secret. He tore off the paper, revealing a small Cartier box. He peered out the window, checking that Klara was still busy before opening the box and inspecting its contents; a silver bracelet. As he pulled the bracelet from the box a note fell out, a note written in cursive.

So sad you didn’t invite me to your wedding, darling. I was hoping to be able to give this to Klara in person, I do hope I got the sizing right. Much love, H.

Merkel stood frozen to the spot, reading the note over and over. How the fuck does Helene know about Klara? He had never once revealed an ounce of his personal life to his boss, despite her constant prying. 

That was the first time Merkel had underestimated Helene, and it should have been the last.

“Who was the package off?” Klara asked him when she re-entered the kitchen, not noticing Merkel hold the bracelet behind his back as she washed her hands.

“Nobody important, just uh, another pair of cufflinks.” He quickly made his way upstairs and shoved the bracelet and note in his bedside cabinet, making a mental note to properly dispose of them when Klara was out.

Once he had finally dressed himself, he sat down on the bed with his head resting in his hands. Of course ignoring Helene wasn’t going to work. Of course she knew where he lived. Of course she knew about his wife. There was only one thing for it; he had to see Helene himself.

-

“Merkel my darling, I was so delighted when I got your call.” Helene gushed, kissing him on both cheeks before sitting down and clicking her fingers towards the nearest waiter and ordering a bottle of cognac to their table.

“I didn’t come here for a drink, Helene.” Merkel mumbled, keeping his eyes fixed on the table.

“You asked me to meet you at this hotel and you don’t want a drink? Marriage isn’t as blissful as you were expecting?” Her smirk made his stomach wrench and he turned his gaze to her, watching as her eyes raked up and down him numerous times. He needed to be more confident or she was going to eat him alive.

“Marriage is exactly as blissful as I thought. I asked you to come here because it’s.. public.” 

“Well, I didn’t think you were an exhibitionist.” There was the smirk again.

“I want out.” His tone was more assertive this time, and this new found confidence seemed to stun Helene for a few seconds as she was, for the first time, lost for words.

He watched as her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed slightly, focusing on every inch of his face before she pointed her index finger at him.

“Do not play me for a fool. There is no ‘out’ of this job, not unless I say so. And you of all people should know the consequences of having a contract terminated.” Helene hissed, looking warily over her shoulder as a couple walked past them.

“I don’t want this life for my family.”

This time Helene snorted, the corners of her mouth curling into a spiteful smile at the mention of Merkel’s personal life.

“Do you remember when we first met? The life I saved you from, and this is how you repay me?” Merkel nodded and set his eyes onto the floor, shuffling his feet against the carpet as Helene had once again gained the upper hand.

When he glanced back in her direction she raised an eyebrow and tapped her fingers against the table in front of them.

“I’m waiting.” 

“I’m sorry, Helene.” Merkel knew there was no there was no other options, he had to run.

-

“I don’t understand, we only bought this house a few months ago and now you want to leave?” Klara watched as Merkel was manically hauling clothes from their closet into a bag, he had arrived home an hour ago and declared that they were leaving, but refused to answer any of their questions.

“I don’t want to leave. We have to leave.” Merkel growled as he dug out a tin from the back of the closet, and opened the lid to reveal what looked like hundreds of different bank notes in various currencies as he shoved them into the bag.

“Why?” He froze as his wife asked him this question. He hadn’t been able to think of a reasonable answer, there was no time; they had to up and leave before Helene grew even more suspicious.

“I just need you to trust me, can you do that?” 

She nodded hesitantly. Merkel was never one make demands, and by the look in his eyes Klara knew that arguing with him would be futile, he was determined for them to leave within the next hour.

“Is this because of a work thing?” She asked after a few minutes of his silent packing. Merkel’s job required him to frequently travel, but he’d never been soo adamant that she travel with him before.

“Yes, something like that.” Merkel zipped up the bag and took hold of his wife’s hands, leaning down to kiss her tenderly, breathing in the sweet scent of her perfume as he closed his eyes, Helene’s voice still echoing in his ears.

“Can you at least tell me where we’re going. Will it be hot or cold?” Klara murmured against his lips, causing Merkel to smile and shake his head before moving his lips against hers once more and snaking his head up the back of her neck.

Merkel drank in every inch of his wife while she was on top of him, rocking herself against him as her whimpers filled the room. He lay one hand on her waist to guide her as he cupped her cheek with his other hand, running his thumb along her bottom lip before slowly pushing it into her mouth. Her eyes met his as she sucked on it gently, her doe-eyes making him twitch inside her as she rocked against him slightly harder. His teeth sunk into his bottom lip as he felt her walls tighten around him, and he slid his thumb out of her mouth and trailed it down her stomach before rubbing slow, harsh circles on her clit. The pressure made her stomach twist, and she began to call out his name as her orgasm took a hold of her. Merkel carried on circling her clit, clamping his hand onto her waist as he felt himself twitch once more, and the sight of Klara falling apart on top of him while calling out his name was enough to push him over the edge. He kept his eyes on her as he released himself inside her, her satisfied hums encouraging him as he thrust his hips upwards to meet hers. She set herself down onto the bed next to him, and it didn’t take long before her eyes drooped shut as she snuggled her face into his warm chest.

He had agreed to compromise with her; they’d leave in the morning. She had still been reluctant to agree with him, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer; her safety was imperative to him. He ran his hand down her back and kissed her shoulder gently, careful not to wake her as he continued to run his fingers up and down her spine. Her skin was soft under his calloused fingers, and he sighed deeply as guilt washed over him; he was dragging her away from familiarity and into the unknown, all because of a foolish choice he had made when he first met Helene.

-

Klara was getting restless. They had been in Vienna a week but Merkel had given her strict instructions to stay inside the apartment while he went to the bank. She sat at the kitchen table, twiddling her thumbs impatiently while she envisioned the different sights she could be seeing, or the cafés they she could be visiting; but instead she was stuck inside the cramped apartment alone.

After an hour had passed she sprawled out onto the sofa while gazing at the spiral pattern on the ceiling, tracing along it with her eyes, trying her best to telepathically send a message to Merkel to hurry home, who takes longer than an hour at the bank?

After another twenty minutes Klara decided she’d had enough. She walked into their bedroom and dove under the bed, yanking out the bag she had brought with her and shoving her hand to the bottom of it, pushing a few t shirts out if the way until she reached it: her mobile phone. Merkel had, for some reason, ordered her to leave it in Berlin, but there was no way she was going to sit in an apartment by herself all day completely shut off from the outside world. She pressed the power button on the phone and settled herself down onto the bed when the screen lit up. She spent a few minutes scrolling through the endless photos of herself and Merkel, sighing deeply as she reflected on their life in Berlin, in their home. 

Then, she had an idea. She’d research the best places to eat in Vienna so she could compile a list for when Merkel eventually came home. She went onto google and began typing, fetching a notepad and paper as she trawled through numerous reviews of different restaurants across the city. She was halfway through noting down one of her findings when she heard a knock on the door. Elated at the thought of Merkel returning home she jumped up immediately and almost sprinted to the door, but when she opened it, there was no Merkel. Instead, there was a woman who looked to be in her mid forties stood in the doorway, she was dressed impeccably; flowing black trousers with a white blouse tucked in and finished off with a black jacket. Her hair was perfectly styled, not a strand out of place and she was wearing a coating of bright red lipstick; her appearance alone almost made Klara cower.

“Ah, so you must be Klara, it’s so nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” The woman smiled and clicked her fingers, two burly looking men appearing behind her.

“Wh-who are you?” Klara could barely stutter as she took a few steps back, but the woman followed her into the apartment, her heels making her tower over Klara.

“I thought you might not have heard so much about me. My name is Helene.” The woman yelled a command to one of the men behind her in a language Klara didn’t understand. His fist then connected with her face, turning everything black.

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[whatgaviiformes]

10. Music Makers - Part 1 / Scenes from Gordon’s Bedside

Chapter Summary:  Virgil and Gordon and music Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 You are Here

Chapter A/N: In honor of 10 chapters of this concept, the plan is to give you a hell of a chapter 10 with a few moments in time strung together. I decided to go ahead and share what I have with you instead of waiting. Once the chapter has been shared in full over tumblr, I will post the full piece at Ao3 and FF.net. It may or may not make sense to remain as chapter 10 or be it’s own thing. Do share if you have an opinion. :-) 

The title Music Makers comes from “Ode” by  Arthur O'Shaughnessy, and it is very lovely. Part 1 A/N:  Music Referenced: Einaudi’s “Primavera”  Spotify | Youtube

***

Music Makers - Part 1/6

“You missed the cherry blossoms.”

San Francisco wasn’t too unlike Denver in Spring, but while Denver had some beautiful display of cherry blossom trees over in Cherry Creek, the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival was an event, the second largest outside of Japan coming in right behind the one in the nation’s Capital. Virgil remembered the trip they’d taken to Washington DC as a family, the spring he caught flowers buds in his hair.  The festival had seemed bigger than the one that took place in San Francisco the past two weekends, but then again, he had been just a small child at the time.

This time, his heart hadn’t been in it with John leaving and Gordon still not awake.  The slow rain of pink through his fingertips made him think his brother. Drifting. And he would not have gone in the first place if John hadn’t dragged him out of the hospital for a bit of fresh air…for his last few days on terra firma - John’s words, not Virgil’s.

“I don’t really want to leave right now,” John had said, silhouetted against the line of pink trees, stormy emerald eyes blinking against the glare of the sun.

“John,” Virgil had whispered, “you have to.” It wasn’t because John had no choice. There was always a choice, but the ISS was John’s dream, a once in a lifetime opportunity that he could only take up while under NASA’s employment. Once their project got off the ground, John Tracy would no longer be an astronaut. His work would be anonymous; he’d be invisible. They all would be.

Gordon would hate if he took that opportunity away. John needed to go to space.

Virgil knew his brother belonged above the mesosphere, that John’s veins were made of a particular brand of stardust that was quite potent in its call towards home. But it was to be John’s first time beyond the skies, and Virgil would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little fearful for his little brother rocketing through the atmosphere into the vacuum of space.

“Are you frightened?”

“Of what’s out there? No,” John had explained, a crushed petal falling from his grasp. “Of what I’m leaving down here – I’m terrified.”

April had turned into May all too quickly, yet ever so slowly at the same time. Scott had been called back to duty, and Alan back to school. John had returned to Houston for his last trainings before take-off. Virgil had missed his graduation ceremony.

Gordon remained motionless, and the cherry blossom trees had lost their vibrant colors.  

“You would’ve liked them,” Virgil says, but there’s no response from the figure on the bed.  “John would’ve been able to give you the scientific name. Uhh… here, let me try to find…” He slips his hand out from under Gordon’s to type the search in his phone.

“Oh, gee, there’s a lot. Prune-us Sair-ah-sus,” he says finally, pocketing the device. “I probably butchered that. I was never good at Latin.”

He picks up the hand again.

“Do you remember when Mom dragged you along to my first piano recital? Probably not. You would’ve been just three or four at the time, and Alan wasn’t born yet. I had never played in front of an audience before and so I practiced for months beforehand. It was Einaudi’s Primavera.”

He hums a portion of the tune, sinking back into the memory of being eight.

“Mom probably hated hearing it after the first week.” For just a beat, he lets himself chuckle thinking of their mother dealing with his earnest younger self. “Dad had gotten me my first suit for the recital, and Mom helped me with my hair so I could look like a professional. I’m sure we have pictures somewhere.”

Virgil pauses a moment, smiling as he remembers the rest of the story.

“You always said you liked my playing, but you wouldn’t know it from that day! You screamed and screamed, and Dad had to take you out of the auditorium while you fussed. I remember trying to look out into the audience, but I couldn’t see through the lights. But it was just Scotty, John, and Mom who met me after my performance, and I just knew that you’d ruined my big day.”

Virgil notices that a small sliver of light shines through the windowpanes to dance along a strand of red in Gordon’s hair.

Gordon in his purest form was joy – a laugh to accompany a joke, a sparkle in the eye with a mischievous glint, an open ease in the way he walked and spoke, a smile when you need it most. Gordon’s soul was a reservoir of light that he could never quite fill to full. Because just as quickly as he soaked the rays of the sun into his being, he released them to share with the world around him.

When Gordon was born his hair had been an almost white blond– Alan’s had been the same way. But as Gordon grew, the blond darkened into gold the color of sunflowers in fall. In winter, when Gordon wasn’t spending 90% outside, hints of auburn would poke through.

He wonders if the auburn has the same sun soaking powers as the blond around it or if auburn is what happens when you make a ray of light sad.

“Apparently you told Dad that my song made you cry,” Virgil continues. “And that you needed to give me a hug so I would stop being sad.”

He sighs wistfully.

“It’s how I felt watching the cherry blossoms, Gordon. It was like seeing spring and knowing the beauty is still there, but not being able to reach it, like watching through frosted glass, and I understood why you cried.”

This time when he hums the melody his fingers flutter in movement and intermittently Virgil sings the melody, replacing notes with “da” before falling back into hums.

Virgil loses himself in the lonely music, in cherry blossoms through frosted glass, in green eyes looking longingly to the stars, in the flickering of a sun ray desperate to find a path to his brother’s light.

He knows how his piano reacts to his hands, the exact distance from the keys to his fingertips as they descend.

As the music ascends, his keys rise to meet him.

A twitch.

Tap.

Virgil’s music falters.

Tap… tap…

“Gordon?”   Like a dream, he watches fingers nudge his hand. His heart races as he meets his brother’s gaze. Honey eyes tell a story of confusion, blinking, searching. “Gordon!”

Tap.

“…ug.” The word is intelligible, but Virgil knows what it is by Gordon’s eyes.

Hug.

Virgil reacts.