#sensing a theme here.. robin is never sure what he thinks or wants

[rebouks]

Previous // Next

Alex: Why didn’t you tell me you could see ghosts? TEXT: How do you even bring something like that up in a letter? You’d think I was bonkers if you couldn’t too.. and you didn’t say anything either. Alex: True… [Robin observed Alex as she fell silent, picking at her nail polish. Frustrated by her seemingly blank mind, he wished he knew what she were thinking, but he could never quite grasp anything coherent and had to make do with the faint emotions emanating from her instead. She often felt sad or angry, which confusingly, never matched the energy she gave forth. He wondered if something was wrong, but she changed the subject before he could ask.]

Alex: So, you’re secretly friends with that guy, Levi-.. or you were, right? [Robin shrugged, wiggling his hand from side to side] Alex: Kind of? [Robin nodded with a sigh, deciding he could actually trust Alex; it was infuriating having to rely on his phone to communicate with her, but she didn’t seem to mind and waited patiently] TEXT: Yeah.. he pissed me off so I’ve been ignoring him ‘til he apologises but he’s being stubborn. Alex: I suppose asking him to apologise is beside the point? [Robin snorted, nodding in agreement]

TEXT: He’s complicated I guess.. his family is super shitty and so are his friends but he’s banking on a scholarship from the football team or something so he doesn’t wanna lose face with any of them. He’s miserable having to pretend ALL the time though and now I just feel bad, which is bullshit cos he’s the one who’s supposed to feel bad.. which he does, but apparently not enough to act on.

Alex: Why can’t he just be friends with you and them? TEXT: They’d probably turn on him, then he’d be even more miserable.. I guess me being upset with him is the lesser evil, so I get it. Alex: No one who pretends or runs away is truly happy though.

[Robin nodded absently, wondering if Alex was talking about herself too-.. maybe he’d never know, maybe she was the one person he could have a normal relationship with. He wasn’t sure whether he loved or hated the idea…]

[ladykailitha]

Never Hold Back Your Step... Part 13

This really is getting down to the end here. I'm already at the Mind Flayer in the spot where I'm at in the story so...yeah. Then it would just one chapter after that. Maybe. I don't know. But it's sad to see this one go, too.

Of course as with "Can Anybody See Me?" once this is done, I will begin work on the final story which will take us all the way to the end of the fourth season. Which I hope to get done before season 5. Ideally.

It will have a line from a song in a musical just like the last two (1776 and The Scarlet Pimpernel respectively) so you have any songs you think will fit the theme of the third book (which will be Steve and Eddie clashing over nerds vs sports until that fateful day in March) let me know in the comments or tags or even a DM or ask. It took me months to come up with the title for this one, so any help would be great.

Here we have the dipshit detectives trying to figure out the message and the "secret tunnel".

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

~

Once they explained everything to Robin, she told them about what the message said. And no given the context of the message coming from the mall it suddenly made too sense.

“The clock tower, the shoe shop and the Chinese place,” she crowed. “It’s got to be.”

“You sure you translated it correctly?” Steve asked. “Because what the fuck does blue meeting yellow have anything to do with the clock tower?”

Robin rolled her eyes and huffed out a deep sigh. “The hour and minute hands are blue and yellow and meeting in the west would be 9:45!”

Eddie tilted his head to the side. “AM or PM?”

Robin stared at him for a moment in shock. “Oh. I don’t know. Could be either I guess.”

Eddie looked at his watch and cursed. “As thrilling as all this has been, I have to get to band practice.” He gave Steve’s shoulder a squeeze. “Be careful, Stevie. Okay?”

Steve nodded and squeezed Eddie’s shoulder back. God, he just want to kiss him goodbye, because it might be his last opportunity to do so. But Dustin and Robin were watching and probably half of the mall too. “As careful as I can be.”

“How can you be so super chill about this?” Robin asked after he left. “Like Russians are running around our mall and Eddie acts like this is a normal Tuesday for you?”

Dustin and Steve shared a glance.

But Steve just scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Like I’ve had the worst year. My girlfriend broke up with me, I got my head bashed in by Hargrove, I got harassed by the basketball team, I nearly got water dumped on my head because I won the part fair and square, then the same asshole tried to scramble my brains further, I didn’t get into the right colleges and was forced to work here instead of the rec center pool like have for the last three years, and a fuck ton of other things. Now Russians have set up shop in my home town? This is just the cherry on top of a very shit filled cake.”

Robin and Dustin winced. Dustin knew that Steve’s year was actually way worse than the truncated version he gave Robin, but they couldn’t tell her about the tunnels, El, monsters, and secret labs. Hence, fuck ton of things.

“Okay,” Robin conceded, “it does sound like your average Tuesday.” She looked up at the clock. “You’re supposed to be off, anyway. So shoo and take the genius child with you.”

Dustin beamed up Steve smugly, but Steve just knocked his hat off on his way to clock out.

“Hey!” Dustin shouted after him. He turned to Robin. “Can you believe this guy?”

Robin just shrugged. “You’re the one who’s friends with him, not me.”

Steve walked out moments later, twirling the hat on his finger. He walked past Dustin to the mall food court. He stopped and turned around.

“Are you coming or are you going to keep harassing workers?” he huffed, putting a hand on his hip.

Robin burst out laughing as Dustin hurried to catch up, scooping his hat off the floor in haste.

Steve shook his head as they walked through the mall. “Hey if we grab my binoculars, I bet we could stake out the mall and look for Russians.”

Steve looked at his watch and sighed. Eddie wouldn’t get done with band practice until much later tonight and he didn’t want to go back to his large empty house, because of course his parents fucked off to the Caribbean for the summer. His father had forced him to give up a job he loved for the most humiliating retail job imaginable and then fucked off to some place pleasant, leaving him to rot.

“Yeah, okay.”

Dustin let out a whoop and jumped up and down. “You won’t regret this!”

Steve buried his head in his hands. “I already do.”

~

Steve and Dustin were hiding behind a large potted plant with Dustin’s binoculars watching people go by.

“What are we supposed to looking for, anyway?” Steve asked, scanning the crowds.

“Russians.”

Steve tore himself away from the binoculars to glare at him. “Thank you for that unhelpful assessment. I know I’m supposed to be looking for Russians, but what do Russians look like?”

“I don’t know,” Dustin huffed. “Tall, blond, scary looking dudes, I guess.”

Steve rolled his eyes and kept looking. He spotted Anna Jacobi flirting with Mark Lewinsky and huffed out a a noise of disgust.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said with a sigh. “Anna can do way better than swamp ass Lewinsky.”

Dustin smacked his shoulder. “Can you please take this seriously? You’re supposed to be looking for Russians, not your next date. Besides you already have the perfect girl right there!”

Steve rolled his eyes and went back to looking through the binoculars. “Don’t say Robin.”

“Robin.” Was the immediate response.

“No, man,” Steve said as Dustin grabbed the binoculars from him, “she’s not my type. She’s not even in the ballpark of my type.” Considering that she had boobies and not a dick, pretty much sealed the box on any chances of that romantic relationship going anywhere.

Dustin looked over at him and sneered. “And what’s your type again? Not awesome?”

Fuck you. But Steve sneered and stuck his tongue out. “Thank you.”

Dustin grinned back at him with a little hum.

“Look,” Steve said, “for your information, she’s still in school. And she’s weird. But not like Eddie weird. Weird, weird. And she’s hyper. Like worse than Eddie. At least if you put a book in his hand, he’ll settle down. She’ll tap her fingers and twirl her gum. She was also one of those kids in drama who didn’t think I deserved the role of Thomson. That’s a bad look. And she’s in band? But not a rock band like Eddie, a fucking trumpet.” He twisted his lips in disgust. “No.”

Dustin turned to face him. “Now that you’re out of school, that means you’re an adult. And don’t you think you should move past primitive social constructs like popularity?”

Steve looked at him as if he was joking. “Popularity? Are you fucking with me right now? Did you forget I wasn’t popular for the last four months of high school? Primitive constructs, I tell you. Where the hell did you learn that shit? Camp Know Nothing?”

“Camp Know Where, actually,” Dustin huffed, “And no, it’s shit I learned from life. Instead of dating someone you think will make you cool again, why not date someone you enjoy being around for a change? Like me and Suzie.” He smiled broadly. He turned back to watching the through the binoculars.

Steve was soo close to just telling the little shit that he was dating someone he enjoyed being around, someone who did make him look cooler, someone who loved him for him and not in spite of him. But instead he took a deep breath and said, “Oh Suzie. Yeah, you mean hotter than Phoebe Cates. That Suzie. And let’s think about how exactly you scored a girlfriend?”

He scratched his head, appearing to think about it, then he snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, with my advice. Because that’s how this works, Henderson. I give the advice and you follow through. Not the other way around, all right?”

Dustin sighed. “I just think you could really benefit from being with someone like her, you know?”

Steve rubbed the top of the kid’s head. “I’m doing better than you think I am. Better then everyone thinks I am.”

Dustin stared at him skeptically, but left it alone. Steve knew that there was no way he was going to leave it alone. He just knew that it was going to come back and bite him in the ass in the worst way and at the worst time. He could feel it.

~

“There is a secret room under the mall,” Steve said slowly, not quite wanting to believe this. “And we can get there through the air vents in the break room?”

Robin nodded emphatically. “Yeah, isn’t that cool?”

He had no idea how to tell her how uncool that actually was, because Jesus fuck, the deeper they got into this, the more over his head he felt.

“Let’s go see your secret tunnel,” he said with a sigh, rubbing his face, just suddenly exhausted by the whole thing.

He followed them to the back and looked up at the vent in utter despair. Sighing, he got a ladder and set it up, then hunted around for a screwdriver. Once he found one, he tucked it between his teeth and started climbing. He reached the vent and unscrewed the screws holding the vent in place.

“Oi!” he called out to Dustin. “Hold these!” He held out the screws for him to take. “Don’t lose them, otherwise people are going to ask why there is a great big gaping hole in the wall.”

Dustin rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. Steve put the screwdriver back between his teeth and took off the vent cover.

“It’s a tight space,” he murmured. “Hey, Robin you think you could fit? You’re pretty thin.”

Robin put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “While I appreciate you thinking I’m skinny enough to fit, I question your sanity if you think I’m going down the creepy tunnel.”

“Vent!” Dustin huffed. “You’ve both called it a tunnel. It’s not a tunnel, it’s a vent. And none of us are small enough to fit.”

DING! DING! “Hey!” someone called out from the front of the store. “Is anyone here?”

Steve who had been climbing down the ladder, stopped and shared a look with Dustin. A slow smile took over their faces.

“Erica!” they said together with glee.

They ran out to the front with Robin fast on their heels. They skidded to a stop and their smiles grew to actual grins when they saw that she was alone and not with her many friends.

“Erica...hey,” Steve said smoothly, leaning against the counter. “What can I get you?”

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “Why are you suddenly being so nice?”

Just then Dustin and Robin burst out of the back room and stumbled into front and Erica was even more suspicious than she was before.

So Steve bundled her over to one of the booths and tried plying her with all the ice cream a little girl could conceivably eat, while Dustin filled both Robin and Erica about the messages and all their clues and how they put it all together. It was a hard but impressive sell.

“So will you do it for America?” Dustin asked.

“Well, you can’t spell America without Erica,” she said smugly. “A life time supply of Scoops Ice Cream and you’ve got a deal.”

Robin and Steve shared a glance. Then Steve reached across the table to shake Erica’s hand.

“Deal.”

~

Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

And if you remember something else there from WIP Wednesday... yeah. It wasn't fitting with the rest of the story and had to be cut. Sadness.

Tag List: FIVE SLOTS REMAINING

1- @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @blondie1006

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @angels-of-hades

7- @mugloversonly @y4r3luv @greeniebean911 @birbsauce @acingthecounts

8- @cryptid-system @counting-dollars-counting-stars @ravenfrog @dreamercec @sadisticaltarts

9- @clockworkballerina @bluelightsinthevoid @blcksh33p1987 @i-go-pink-in-the-night @mamafaithful

[leoruby-draws]

Kid Villains, pt 2.

Decided to post more kiddy villains, bit of a sequel to this. First up is Kitten, Mothman's bratty daughter from the 2003 teen titan cartoon:

Modeled her costume after the Rosy Maple Moth, while there are species of moths with the name kitten on them I figured she would prefer a pink outfit.

Thought it'd be kinda cool for her to be a villain for the batkids, she's already evil so why not. I don't imagine her to be all that talented at the job tho she would still be very dangerous if you underestimate her. I think she would work particularly well against Steph, being that Mothman started as a villain for Barbara (Cass might be too high level for her tbh).

Here's some more doodles:

Here's my Scarecrow's sidekick oc, I should probably name her something like Rag Doll or Raggedy Scream maybe? The three boys are oc's modeled after the Terrible Trio, criminals who commit crimes wearing animal masks. Their identities change a lot over continuities, so these kids are probably aspiring to be the next incarnation of this group.

Here's another random oc, a sidekick for White Rabbit (Jaina Hudson). Thought it'd be funny if it was just a kid in a silly rabbit suit, like what the kid wore in that movie, A Christmas Story. I'm not sure on what his personality should be. Maybe someone genuinely nice, a cheerful, polite boy who likes to hand people bombs (unintentionally dangerous) or maybe someone pretending to be nice but is actually malicious. Whatever's funnier I suppose.

Here's some characters inspired by the Super Friends enemies, the Super Foes. You'd see some of them return for the Robins 2021 mini, except for Toy Boy. Giggles and Guffaw are newer, only appearing in the mini.

I messed with their designs a bit to make them more unique looking. Honeysuckle for example was shown with either red or brown hair but I gave her a sorta dark maroon, thought it contrasted well with her green outfit. Honeysuckle btw, is older than the rest, and is more of an enemy to Dick and Barbara, tho her teenage self has no problem attacking the younger sibs.

Also Giggles and Guffaw might look a little similar to a certain anime starring a group of sextuplets, just being a little funny there. I gave these kids some made up names, mostly taken from whatever writer created them. Couple of them worked out pretty well actually, like Bridwell (well, spring, stream) and Estrada (Road).

This next one is a character from the 2004 cartoon The Batman, which I never actually watched but I did see commercials of. His name is Prank ( Donnie ?), a protege of the Joker. He wasn't evil enough to stick it out, but I gotta say I just loved his costume (esp how the jacket resembles Robins coat a bit). Made up a last name for him, just a random one from searching up famous clowns.

Being Barbara's peer, he's also more of a antagonist for the older kids, decided he and Honeysuckle should friends. I kinda want to use them as a sorta contrast to Babs and Dick, that could be fun to do. Also look at baby Dick, I don't draw him enough at this age.

Speaking of Barbara, I've been going back and forth between having her start out as either 12 or 16. All the other kids start out really young, so it makes sense for Babs to do so as well. But I kinda like the thought of her starting out much older, makes her more unique among the batkids (in pre-crisis she became Batgirl in like her 20s btw, cool huh?)

More various rivals for the kids to fight, excluding my oc Pink Rabbit, all of them more antagonists for the kids themselves rather sidekicks of the villains that Batman fights.

Here's Jason and Steph torturing poor little Enigma, who would be considered the bad guy here?

Here's some more proteges, Holly probably exists in this world, she's a bit too old for all this nonsense tho. Kitten is also a Super Foes member and was in Robins 2021 as well, she's been shown to be a sidekick to the Cheetah and Catwoman. Maybe she's just likes to attach herself to any cat-themed villain.

Crazy Quilt is more of an enemy to Robin than Batman, plus he has his own legacy in Crazy Quilt II, so obviously I had to include them. I wonder what name should I give the younger one, Duvet? Silly Blankie? idk

Lastly here's Earth 3(?) Jason Todd as Talon II paying a visit to the Training Wheels universe, seems like hes a bit of a crybaby. I don't think we've seen a earth 3 variant of Jason, so I'm just making up my own version of him. Wonder why he seems so nervous...

Anyways!! That was a lot, hope you liked all that!

[zorosangell]

⛥ﾟ・。 protector: chapter twenty-six

synopsis: " you were supposed to stay a crewate, just another back to watch, " he tightened his hold, " i didn't even notice the change until i woke up one day and realized i'd take a bullet for you "

cw: violence, gore, fighting, mature themes, profanity, MAJOR/MINOR ANIME SPOILERS, follows the plot of the anime, slowww burn.

a/n: reposting from another account

If things went from bad to worse during the argument, then things went from worse to shit during the fight.

Usopp challenged Luffy to a duel for the Merry, which, of course, ended in his defeat.

Though Luffy let him keep the ship anyway.

But beyond that, the crew had gotten word that Robin was the prime suspect for the attempted murder of the mayor.

And now the whole town was after, not only her, but the entire crew.

Sanji and Chopper had ran into her while in town, but she started talking about a situation getting worse and never seeing the crew again before disappearing.

So Zoro devised a plan to capture her during her second attempt on the mayor, hoping to get some answers.

But with Usopp gone and Sanji nowhere to be found, you, Zoro, Nami, Chopper, and Luffy, knew that you would have to go at it on your own.

And as the five of you perched in a large tree outside the mayor's mansion, you couldn't help noticing the looming sense of doom in the air.

Aqua Laguna would not be the only storm coming that night...

"There sure are a lot of people out there," Chopper reported, looking down at the lawn through his binoculars.

"It's a little far, too," Luffy agreed.

"It'll be fine if you rocket through the window, right? After Robin shows up, I mean," Nami asked.

"That's right. If we make a commotion first then they'll just sneak in while we're dealing with the guards," Zoro stated, leaning against the trunk of the tree, "Let's be patient."

You sat yourself a little ways off to the side, criss-crossed, with your eyes peacefully shut, trying to meditate some clarity into the situation.

This overbearing sense of disaster had been following you ever since Usopp left the crew. 

And before your little display clairvoyance on Skypiea, you had never been so fined tuned with auras like you were now.

The fluctuations and shifts, all dependent on where you were and who you were with.

It was too much for your one head.

And being able to sense impending doom, while not knowing how, when, where, or why it was coming, is a power you wouldn't wish on your greatest enemy.

But luckily, your swordsman noticed your distress, resting a hand on your shoulder to snap you out of it.

"You alright?" he asked, voice low so he didn't alert the others.

Your mind was off somewhere else, thinking, quite intently if he took the tightness of your face as any hint.

But being distracted like that, especially with your lives on the line, would be a death sentence.

"We need that head down here."

An easy guess would be it was about your powers, and how you could be doing more to help.

But there was no time to pry, so a guess is what it would have to stay.

You spared him a small smile of thanks, giving a firm nod and focusing back on the task at hand.

'She didn't answer my question...'

But the sounds of shouts from below pulled him away from his thoughts before he could act on them.

"Sounds like something's going on down there," he stated, turning to Chopper, "Whaddya see?"

"They're all kinda standing around now. But..." Chopper sighed, pulling the binoculars away from his face, "they're all huge, and armed, and angry."

"We need to be careful. Those guys have a reputation for being able to handle themselves when push comes to shove. We don't wanna rush in and do anything we're gonna regret later," Nami reminded.

"Yeah, if we try to barge in swingin', we'll just be askin' for trouble," Luffy agreed.

"Says the guy who charged-in in broad daylight..." you scoffed.

"Anyway, don't take your eyes off 'em, Chopper," Zoro instructed, eyes trained on the lawn, "We don't want any kind of surprise down there."

"Right."

"Anything happens, you let us know."

"Okay, you got it."

"I think we're gonna have a really long night ahead of us," Zoro sighed, "But if we blow our opportunity, it's over. We can't let our guard down no matter what happens."

Silence fell over the air, and the wind's sorrow filled wail was only a hint of foreshadowing to the night ahead.

"If we wanna know the truth about Robin, then it has to be tonight, or never."

"Yeah," Luffy agreed, his tone low, "I got a feeling we'll be talking to her real soon."

And as if on cue, a huge explosion went off right on the lawn, blowing most of the carpenters away.

"Whoa! Something blew up!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Yeah, no kidding..." You winced.

An entire section of the house was now on fire, and the workers were buzzing like bees around a hive trying to put it out.

"They all seem pretty worked up," Chopper noted, a little nervous.

"Yeah. There is definitely something going on right now," Zoro stated, eyes scanning over the destruction, "Alright, then. When are we gonna make our move?"

You and Chopper turned to where Luffy once was, only for him to be nowhere in sight.

'For the love of God...'

"Hey, where's Luffy?" Chopper asked.

Zoro and Nami quickly whipped their heads over, eyes going impossibly wide at the captain's absence.

"THAT IDIOT! WHAT ABOUT THE PLAN?! I THOUGHT WE WEREN'T GONNA RUSH INTO ANYTHING!" the two shouted in unison.

You sighed, resting your cheek in your palm as you looked back down at the lawn.

"Too late."

Things had gone wrong fast.

After the four of you, though really you and Zoro, fought through the hordes of Galley-La workers, you eventually made it to the hallway leading to the mayor's bedroom.

Zoro had managed to cut down the door, coincidentally, at the exact same time Luffy burst in through the wall.

Robin, along with workers Lucci, Kalifa, Kaku, and Blueno, were all standing over Iceberg's body.

They went into a long explanation of how they pulled everything off, then attacked a man named Paulie and told Robin that her job was complete.

Though Luffy wasn't too accepting of the woman's farewell.

But Blueno, the fake bartender, blocked his path, and seemed to be able to combat each and every one of Luffy's moves.

"AGH! I said out of my way!" Luffy started, using his Gum-Gum Gatling to attack the large man.

But he dodged each and every hit with ease, as if he was a piece of paper billowing in the wind.

"Whoa! Even though he's big, he sure is fast!" Chopper exclaimed, wide eyed at the sight.

Past the large man's figure, Luffy noticed Robin still making her way to the window.

"Robin!" he called, trying to run after her.

Blueno blocked him once more, distracting the boy by beginning to hop on the air.

'He can fly?!'

"Tempest..." Kalifa and Kaku wound up a kick, before using it to send Luffy flying into the hallway, "Kick!"

But the gust of wind behind it was sharp, almost as if they had swung a very large blade.

You and Zoro's eyes shot wide at the same time.

"Get down! Hurry!" the two of you shouted in unison.

All of you hit the deck together, and narrowly dodged the gigantic slash sent over your heads.

"Luffy!" you exclaimed, turned behind you to check on him.

He had been thrown pretty far.

"They did all that with a single kick? No way!" Nami muttered, examining the huge slash mark left in the wall.

"Technically, it was the sharp gust of wind that followed it," Kalifa corrected, "We call it the Tempest Kick."

Zoro broke into a dash for Kaku, the two of them clashing weapons, Kaku's being a shipbuilding tool.

Taking that as a signal, you went after Kalifa, your mace and her heel clashing as you swung.

"Such an archaic and barbaric weapon," she taunted.

You furrowed your brows, pushing off and swinging your foot instead, which had a sword coming out of it.

She backflipped out of the way, landing in a handstand and sending a kick straight to your face, but you instant formed a shield and blocked it.

"That's a very interesting devil fruit you have," she smirked, flipping upright and starting to hop on air, like Blueno did.

"God's Messenger: Army and Point!" you exclaimed, forming a whip as your feathers popped off, all going to attack her.

She was surprised for a moment as the feathers blocked her vision, and you used the whip to grab her by her ankle, ready to pull her down.

But just as you were about to, you glanced at Zoro, only to see him get punched full of holes by Kaku's finger.

"ZORO!" you shouted, eyes shooting wide as his mouth spat up a ton of blood.

'SHIT! GOTTA GET OVER THERE AND HEAL HIM! QUICK!'

"Eyes up here, darling," Kalifa smirked, using your whip to yank you up to her before turning on Iron Body, making you smash your head directly into hers.

A sickening crack echoed throughout the room, and a single stream of blood poured from your scalp as you dropped to the ground.

"(y/n)!" Nami and Chopper cried, eyes wide and fearful.

It hurt like hell, but you weren't going down without a fight.

You weakly lifted your head, the speech Lucci was giving going in and out your ears until he suddenly began to turn into some sort of leopard monster.

'This just went from shit to fucking shit-storm.'

"No! He's a Carnivore Zoan-type!" Chopper gasped, terrified, "They're the most brutal of them all!"

"Lucci, the workmen are making their way up the stairs," Kalifa warned.

"They won't make it that far..."

With a single kick, the man completely destroyed the ceiling below, sending it crashing down.

"Stupid pidgeon jerk!" Luffy shouted, managing to land a punch on the man's face while he was distracted.

Lucci glared, and swung his arm over faster than you could see.

"Finger Pistol!"

Within seconds, you captain was impaled by the cat-man's claw.

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted, eyes wide.

"No!" you gasped.

Nami's tears could be heard throughout the entire room as Luffy struggled to breath, Lucci grabbing him by his face.

"Have a nice flight!" he spat, throwing the boy straight out the window and clear across town.

"Luffy!" Nami screamed, shaking with fright.

You were at a loss for words.

This couldn't be happening.

Luffy was one of the strongest people you knew.

If he couldn't fare against these guys, what did that say for you?

"Damn you!" Zoro cursed, making a run for Lucci, sword drawn.

"Iron Body."

The swordsman went for the arm, trying to slice it off, but it clashed as if it were metal, and Lucci roundhouse kicked him through the ceiling, dropping one of his swords on the way.

"Protect Nami!" you shouted, ordering all of your feathers to her, "Get her and Chopper out of here!"

They quickly detached, and scooped up the navigator and the doctor, zipping off far away from the scene.

And leaving you as the last domino standing.

You grabbed Zoro's sword and held it close as Lucci yoked you up by your neck, glaring at you so sharp that his eyes would cut down boulders if they could.

You knew he wouldn't be able to go after them.

The risk of being seen by one of the workers was too great, and their plan was already way behind schedule.

So if he couldn't get the other two, then he was going to take out all his anger on you.

"What would you say if I made you feel the most pain you've ever felt in your life?" he asked, his tone icy.

You scoffed, amused by his attempt to intimidate you.

"I'd tell you I'm into that," you smirked down at him, punctuating your sentence by spitting in his face.

He growled, throwing you up and kicking you out the window, sending you careening through the town.

You crashed into a building at full force, knocking it over and landing with the debris on another roof.

"SHIT!" you growled in pain, tightly clutching your shoulder.

You had heard a wet pop the second it collided with the concrete.

It was dislocated for sure.

"Dammit! I don't have time for this!" you hissed through gritted teeth, "I've gotta find Luffy and Zoro!"

Weakly, you pulled yourself up, trying to take a quick survey of where you were, despite the unforgiving wind.

And it seemed to be you were somewhere in the backstreets, the allies below you already completely flooded.

'The boys got thrown pretty far. I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up back here, too.'

You looked down at your arm, its limpness reminding you of the task at hand.

"First things first," you grunted, shutting your eyes and allowing you angelic glow to come over you, healing your arm, head, and neck.

And once your power was finished, the glow left, leaving you as good as new.

"Next," you sighed, turning to glance at your featherless wings.

Waiting for them to completely grow back would take a day or so, and you didn't have that kind of time.

So you'd have to go for the painful, last ditch option.

You dropped to your knees, bracing yourself for the oncoming torture.

'Take deep breaths...'

You began the process, forcing your body to grow more feathers, your grip on your skirt nearly ripping through the fabric.

The pain was similar to that of forcing your nails to grow.

...

By ripping each of them out one by one.

Slowly, but surely, the first few rows had regenerated, but they were not nearly enough for flight.

"Come on! Your friends are counting on you!" You slammed your fist down, your teeth nearly biting through your lip.

You pushed harder, beads of sweat rolling down your temple as more and more feathers grew.

Your breaths were deep and controlled, hoping to breath yourself through it.

'One more push! Almost done!'

You gave your final push, your last few feathers sprouting before your body finally collapsed.

"Done..." you panted, relieved, "Now I gotta... find the others."

Standing up, you grabbed Zoro's sword, only to turn and see a wave almost as tall as the clouds.

It was headed straight for you.

"CRAP!" you exclaimed, unfurling your new wings and jetting off.

You were originally going to head back a little closer to town, but out of the corner of your eye you noticed a familiar pair of boots sticking out a chimney.

'ZORO!'

Without a second thought, you zipped over, the looming tsunami providing a whole lot of motivation.

But as you drew closer, you realized you wouldn't be able to hold Zoro's sword, and give a full-forced bash at the same time.

'Fuck it...'

You closed your eyes and rammed head first through the chimney, completely destroying it.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Zoro exclaimed, wide eyed as the chimney seemed to explode around him.

"Zoro!" you cheesed, catching him bridal style before doing a hard one-eighty, "Hold on!"

"(y/n)?! Did you break that with your head?! The hell were you thinking?!" he realized, noticing the steady stream of blood running down your forehead.

"I couldn't use a weapon 'cause I was too busy holding your sword," you panted, handing it to him, "I snagged it from Lucci before getting thrown out here."

He gratefully took it from you, his face serious as the events started coming back to him.

He and Luffy had been thrown out of the window, leaving you to protect Nami and Chopper all by yourself.

The man could only imagine what you had gone through to keep them safe.

"Are Nami and Chopper alright?" he asked.

"Yeah," you nodded, "I had my feathers fly them to safety. And CP9 didn't seem to go after them. They should be good for a while."

"I see," the swordsman nodded, looking down at his blade.

He should've been there.

"I'm sorry for not being there to help you."

You cocked a brow, a confused look on your face.

"You don't have to apologize, Zoro," you assured, looking down at him with a relieved smile as you landed on the bridge.

You put him down, and threw your arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

"If I'm being honest," you sighed, resting your face in the crook of his neck, "I'm just glad you're safe."

Zoro's breath hitched, and a tinge of crimson graced his cheeks.

'Fuck...'

It shouldn't make him happy to hear how worried you were about him.

But you were so soft, and so warm.

And the way you were looking at him was making something buzz in his chest.

He knew he shouldn't indulge in this.

He knew that this was a line that once crossed, would never be the same again.

Yet he couldn't stop his arms from looping around your waist.

Couldn't stop himself from pulling you closer.

Couldn't stop himself from breathing you in, accepting his new reality.

"I'm glad you're safe, too, (y/n)..."

[gffa]

I cannot even BEGIN to describe how feral this trio of characters makes me, like set aside any potential shipping stuff, just as three characters who each have unique relationships with each other but each of those relationships winds up affecting the other character in this trio. Like-- Dick and Babs are sometimes a team together, two young heroes who are developing a friendship, two young heroes who understand what it's like to work with Tall Dark and Spooky and his need to control everything, that they both understand the other has a need to prove themselves, a drive that will not be stopped no matter what Batman tries to tell them. And eventually they will have an unshakeable relationship, whether romantic or platonic, they will always support each other. And Bruce will use that dynamic to help give Babs gear that will keep her alive until she ~wises up~, and Dick plays along with it, pretends that he's giving it to her because he has a crush on her, meanwhile it actually came directly from Bruce. Yet it also does help give her a sense of someone rooting for her, because Dick genuinely is! Dick and Bruce have a whole encyclopedia set of issues and undercurrents totally separate from this, god knows I've devoted like two hundred posts to trying to chip off even a fraction of Whatever Is Going On Over There, while here they're not yet father and son, but they're not not at that point at the same time, they're just not acknowledging it, but they're also partners, they tag-team Barbara with the good-cop/bad-cop routine when they have her in the Cave to ask why she's doing this, but Dick will turn on a dime and spray her with the knock-out gas, even though he'd projected a harmless aura and sneakily being on her side up until then. Bruce and Barbara have a conflict-driven dynamic, she wouldn't mind having his approval, but it's not why she does what she does, she's not driven by it, she's not motivated by it, this isn't about him. But when they clash, she's often mad as hell, because he wants to treat her like he treats Robin, someone that he can set the rules for, someone he has the right to interrogate and she tells him, no, you don't have a monopoly on helping people or even wearing a Bat-themed symbol. He's not an influence in her life and she genuinely does not want him to be, but at the same time he casts such a long shadow and he's set the mold for all of them, that he's an influence in everyone's life in the Gotham vigilante scene.

And I keep thinking of that one future Gotham Knights issue where Dick tells Bruce that he and Babs are dating and she's so annoyed because SHE wanted to be the one to tell Bruce just so he didn't get to pretend to be all-knowing on her, when Dick just laughs in her face because she's being so cranky and weird about it, he thinks it's hilarious that they're trying to use him as a pawn in whatever chess game they have going between them, because he loves them both but also he's not going to play by those same rules, you guys have fun with that, he'll just watch with popcorn from the sidelines and laugh at you.

Just!! The slippery and sliding dynamics between these three!! At ANY GIVEN TIME two of them could be going through something that spills over onto the third and you never know which two it's going to be! And it's complicated and thorny and crunchy in the best way, there are always good moments and bad moments, and no two dynamics are the same, like what Barbara has with Dick is completely different from what she has with Bruce, which is completely different from what she has with her dad, while what Dick has with Barbara is completely different from what he has with Bruce, while what Bruce has with Dick is completely different from what he has with Barbara, and I'm not sure any other trio really comes close to that (other than maybe Bruce & Tim & Steph, but other than in a few runs, I'm not sure how much of a foundation that is to who the characters are to each other on a bigger narrative level). It's not that they don't exist outside of each other! It's very easy to find Bruce & Dick stories that aren't influenced by Babs at all, it's very easy to find Dick & Babs stories that aren't influenced by Bruce at all, it's even reasonably easy to find Bruce & Babs moments that aren't about Dick at all. They're not all tied up in each other. But they have built their foundations around each other. Bruce, because Dick was the one who knocked down his emotional walls and opened his heart up to having a family. Dick, because Bruce raised him and gave him a path forward in life, gave him direction. Barbara, because if she's going to love Dick (as a friend or as a boyfriend, whichever), he doesn't come without the Bat influence and she has to be aware of the space that takes up in him, as well as if you're a Bat yourself, you're eventually going to clash with Bruce, and boy has she.

And I'm just really, really into that kind of "multiple moving pieces on the board" dynamic, especially when it's not always nice or soft, because each of them care about the other (some more than others, granted) but they are all massively stubborn and often angry people who do not get pushed around easily, who will find a way around you if you try to get in their way, and you never know which two are going to be in conflict and just how that's going to spill over onto the third. I JUST REALLY LOVE DYNAMICS THAT DON'T FIT NEATLY OR EASILY INTO A SINGLE CATEGORY.

SORRY NOT SORRY ABOUT HOW UNHINGED I AM ABOUT THEM WHILE READING THIS COMIC.

[laufire]

june reading meme!

BOOKS

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman. The book was fine, but no His Dark Materials. And Sally is far from being half as interesting as Lyra. I had all but decided on not continuing the series, even if on paper I'm definitely down for some more girl detective stories in my life... but my edition included a few pages from the next installment. And those intrigued me lmao. I won't be picking it up any time soon, but I'll probably give it a try.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. The best part of this novel, by far, were Chapoulet's illustrations. I find the concept of the story very, very appealing, but after so long anticipating reading it, I was so let down by the execution. I found the prose unremarkable and the drama underwhelming. And I fucking hate Raoul and his Madonna-Whore complex lmao. However, I liked enough of it (if most, sadly not what was in focus) that I'm still intrigued about watching the musical properly (as opposed to listening to a few songs).

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. As good as every other Discworld novel, but there are two things that means it's never going to be among by favourites. One, I remain so, so uninterested in religion itself -as in, a philosophy, as in religious beliefs- that really nothing in it "hits" the way the themes in other novels do. And two... it needed women. It SO needed women smh.

Unholy with Eyes Like Wolves by Morgan Dante. This novella is quite a quick read, written by an indie author. It's a gothic story centered on a dishonored widow serving as handmaiden to Lady Erzsébet Báthory. It's a poly sapphic horror romance loosely inspired by Carmilla (Mircalla is the third part of the poly romance, but Noémie/Báthory was the strongest dynamic). The religious themes (specifically related to the subjugation of women) worked a lot better here, in my opinion, maybe because they felt more grounded, and they provided some of my favourite conversations in the book. The novel definitely scratched that itch I'll always have about monstrous sapphic dynamics, and I'm thankful for the recommendation ^-^

COMICS

Barda by Ngozi Ukazu. Very enjoyable! I know very little about this side of DC Comics, so I don't know how this YA one-shot fares in that sense, but it succeeded in making me want to read more about Big Barda and Mister Miracle (big badass hardcore woman/dainty trickstery soft man romances, come to me <3).

Gotham Central: "Dead Robin" (#33-36). I talked about this story arc here. It's given me brand new issues. I love it. I need to read the rest of the run.

Superman for All Seasons. It lives up to the hype as a Superman staple comic. Each issue is narrated by a different character: Jonathan, Lois, Luthor, and Lana, with beautiful illustrations and a great depiction of Clark that, were to be used now, I firmly believe it'd garner far less appreciation than it did then.

Chris Kent's appearances. I went through all of his appearances in new earth (and also the few on Earth-16; do not recommend, they do NOT get him lmao. Why the hell would he judge someone for their parentage...). He's now officially one of the characters whose erasure consist in one of the biggest fuckups of the reboot lmao. He was a great addition to the Superman lore, far better than Jon (in many ways a cheap copy that obeys to the new conventionality trends) could hope to be. *sighs*

The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016). Overall a pretty neat entry to Wonder Woman lore for modern audiences, which is what it clearly aimed to be. I'm sure if I was more well-read on WW I'd have issues with it, but overall I enjoyed it. Though I think it should've been gayer (I think Hippolyta/Philippus was made canon in the mainline after this run 👀).

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

but you still matter: (grima x chrom) because the whole story turns on the memory of a friend

Tracklist + thoughts under the cut

1. Hollow - Cloudeater

I stay empty, I feel the hunger So simple when I was younger I awaken with the thunder A bold statement to end my slumber

2. Valentine's Day - Linkin Park

And the ground below grew colder As they put you down inside But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing

3. Black Sun - Death Cab for Cutie

How could something so fair be so cruel When this black sun revolved around you?

4. When I Watch The World Burn All I Think About Is You (Demo) - Bastille

Oh, lay me down in ash again And watch the world crumble Oh, oh, oh, oh All I think about is you

5. Youth - Daughter

And if you're in love, then you are the lucky one 'Cause most of us are bitter over someone Setting fire to our insides for fun To distract our hearts from ever missing them But I'm forever missing him

6. Back to You - ROMAN

I hear your voice like a crash but It's only a whisper, it’s already fading I yell so loud at the world I'm lost in the shadows It's already fading

7. Echoes of You - Marianas Trench feat. Roger Joseph Manning Jr.

You know I tried to make it vanish I just want to make it vanish But the notes of an old mistake Still ring louder every day

8. Asking for a Friend - CHVRCHES

'Cause I filled my bed with my regrets But it hasn't killed me yet None of it mattered None of it mattered And the mess we made on Fridays Gave me Sundays on my knees But you still matter You still matter

Enjoy crying over Grima :::)

No but see, I was listening to my (large, disorganized) main Chrom/Grima playlist when I started thinking... you know, I could divide some of these songs into sub-categories... make some curated playlists focused on a particular theme...

So I decided to go with "Grima's eternal longing for their dead other half."

There's kind of a... not exactly a narrative, per se, but... a progression, I guess, with these songs. Starting at the beginning with Hollow, we have Grima's feelings of emptiness, of hollowness... and that's it. And then we have Valentine's Day, where it's like, okay, sure, Grima took note of Chrom's burial, but it's not THAT important. "The heartless wind kept blowing." (and what does it say that Robin was the wind at Chrom's back?). Moving on to Black Sun, we get to the idea that okay, maybe it was important, actually. Chrom was the center of Grima's world. His death was cruel. With When I Watch The World Burn All I Think About Is You we see a further concession. Fine, so Grima thinks about him constantly. They're destroying the world but he's what's on their mind. No big deal. But then we have Youth, and the reveal that burning the world down is really just "setting fire to our insides for fun, to distract our hearts from ever missing them." Then we have Back to You, where Chrom's voice is fading, Grima's very sense of self is fading, and no, it's not what they want. It's not. Echoes of You is a swelling of guilt. The remnants of memory, the echoes of Chrom, won't actually go away. And then, finally, we reach Asking For a Friend. Nothing that Chrom and Robin fought together for mattered. They made a mess of the world and failed to create peace, failed to save anybody at all, only brought ruin... but even though their story was a failure, it still mattered. To Grima, Chrom still matters. He never stopped mattering.

I remember reading a post here on tumblr a few years back (and I'm sure I'll never find it now, because well, you know how tumblr search is) about the value of tales that end in tragedy. How these stories tell us that even when our heroes fail, their journeys, their lives, nevertheless mattered. That they had an impact worthy of being shared.

And of course, me and my 24/7 Grima brainrot immediately thought...

Damn, did Grima ever ensure that Chrom mattered.

[fanficfanatic000]

Eddie Munson x fem reader scary how I hate you

Eddie Munson x fem Warning Enemies to lovers Bullying. Chrissy mean girl. Halloween party halloween themed 18+ part 2

:scary how i hate you :

4 days have passed And all you could think about is the party and eddie munson.. it's stupid how he hates me but I still have feelings for him but I guess I'm dumb. ugghh! You put on the costume and drip fake blood from your red lipsticked lips damn its time for the party Robin is gonna Pick me up.

In the car

"Soo you sure you want to go to this party because if no then you and me can go watch a movie." "Yeah i told steve that ill be there so ill be there" "even if eddie and Chrissy will be there?" "Yes even if"

The party

Me and Robin got out of the car and " I'm guessing we walk the rest of the way in" "yeah i guess we do " You walk through the woods crunchy leafs and all no signs of anyone "y/n maybe we should head back." "No just let me listen…" You heard a crunch of leafs from behind you. And you turn only to see the two people you hate most eddie and Chrissy. "Fuck" you whispered then you look at Robin she gives you a look of sorry they're even here. Eddie sees you in your costume and red lipstick "wow i-i" Chrissy interrupts "y/n you look dumb.. " You roll your eyes and kept walking until you came apon a cabin Steve's parents cabin with a pool you walk to the door and knocked twice . Steve answers "Hey guys cmon in." You walk in to music in the background playing a couple making out in the hall and beer pong Robin:"im gonna go get some punch " she walks over to the punch bowl to Nancy wheeler her crush . You sit on the couch already feeling like a outsider then he sat next to you eddie munson in a demon costume while Chrissy is an angel Well I guess when you only bully one person it makes sense "Heyy" he says a small smirk on his face "Hi eddie" "remember when we almost became Freinds" you were surprised he even mentioned it. "Yeah i do how could i forget it " "you know I wish you didn't hate me." "What do you mean .you hate me…." "whatever…want some punch your friend is taking a little.. long" "yeah i-i actually do " he walks away to get punch and Chrissy approaches him grabs the cup of red punch and pours it on you "heres your punch" that's when you finally had it you cried and ran away upstairs to the bathroom you closed the door and fell to the floor crying about everything it finally just all fell out mascara running down your face.

Down stairs Eddie:"Chrissy what did you do " Chrissy:"i gave her punch " Eddie:"your unbelievable and i wanna know did y/n really say that i was a freak and she hated me or was it lies" Chrissy:"i-it was the truth no matter what she says shes the lier" Eddie" shes not though is she " Chrissy looks at the floor Eddie thinks to himself I have to try to fix this

Mascara running down your face until you heard a knock then he let himself in It's eddie "y/n" "what WHAT do you want to be my friend make me fall for you then just ignore me and be angry at me and not even tell me whats wrong then breaks my heart even more by getting with Chrissy..and continues to pop into my life and remind me of what i lost…" tears streaming down your chin and eyes as you explain he doesn't say anything except closed and locked the door and sat down in front of you "i-im so sorry y/n i just want to give you an awnser of why….chrissy told me that you called me a freak and hated me and it made me think how could a girl like you ever like me so i ran and im so sorry for making you hurt but i dont hate you never could." Eddie grabs a toilet paper and wipes the mascara off your face "y/n can I drive you home?" "Yeah.." the metal headed boy walked you to his van opened the door and drove you home. "We're here." "Eddie" "hmm?" "I-i love you " He smiled took a breath "i love you " You leaned towards him slowly then he grabbed you and pulled you close into a kiss. "Will you be my girlfriend?" "Yes"

A day later You and eddie made it official Chrissy hates it and you got payback by turning the school sprinklers ha You and eddie are happier then ever And Robin got with Nancy last night

[boyfridged]

What is your opinion on the Arkham Knight version of Jason

i have to say that I’ve never watched the full walkthrough nor played the game, but I did watch fragments and read the comics (although that was some years ago), so this is what my opinion is based on. &also there are things that i don’t enjoy about it, like the militia and aesthetics that comes with it, but fash undertones are present in so many batman titles, i’m not going to get into it right now.

i would like to say that i’m quite ambivalent, but that’s a lie because i usually have a soft spot for all jason iterations, even if they are very far off from the original characterisation and even perpetuate stereotypes that i can’t stand in canon. and that is, i think, for the most part, the case with arkham jay, an elseworld characterisation that might have even inspired the mainstream red hood comics a bit too much… especially that the arkham universe seems to be much darker and hopeless.

needless to say, I don’t like it in the main continuity, but for that title i didn’t mind it. if anywhere, pieces of media like that are the place to explore these themes.

two things i find interesting:

pre-robin/robin jay: something that is central to my reading of canon jason is his kindness and dedication to the world. this is attitude that ak jason is many ways definitely lacks. he is sensitive of course & motivated by desire to protect the innocent, but he is already cynical before he even gets to become robin.  it makes sense if you consider he’s older than jay when we first meet him in the main continuity, and that ak jay’s circumstances are much worse from the beginning (which is something i don’t appreciate that much tbh. you know i love willis & i don’t like this portrayal of gotham nor the crime alley specifically; not even sure if they call it in game/ak comics the same either). ak jay doesn’t give up (which i love), but he is already much more vidincative and has more of this somber determination. in batman and red hood comics flashbacks bruce sometimes mentions that jason “always” treated crime-fighting like a “game” – and this rings more true for ak jay than it ever did for 80s robin jason. i’d say ak!jay does treat life as a game because he knows that to an extent, it is one – and he is already on a disadvantaged position, which is why he’s willing to play dirty in the field. it’s a gritty take and much less mature and empathetic than what we get in og jason storylines. there’s def something captivating in this unromantic approach – hence its popularity even with rh retcons & fanon, but i'm more willing to accept it here than on earth prime. the way we can choose to believe that maybe robin could affect it and let him work him through his grievances with the world, only for it this chance to get completely crushed.

ak!jason: this is the universe in which jason gets to actually blame bruce for abandoning him (as a result of psychological torture, of course, but he still does), and in which he seeks revenge on him specifically. it’s interesting to see it unfold since in in comics it makes only for a short episode in the lost days for jay. (however, ngl, i also find it interesting that so many fans who are obsessed with jason being autonomous and responsible for all of his actions seem to adore this take.)

so, tldr, i guess while i do like this version of jason, he’s also basically a stereotype of og jason and everything i don’t want comics jason to be, which is a bit ironic. but there is some good storytelling in there and nice panels in ak: genesis.

and ngl i do like the monicker & his design. perhaps more than the red hood one even.

[quinloki]

Some Direction

Fem Reader x Roronoa Zoro

CW: Language, stalking, violence, sexual themes and situations, ptsd 18+ only

Chapter 1 - Table of Consent -

Chapter 2: Directionally

"Let me get this straight," you say, your hands pressed together in front of you as you sit in the backroom with Zoro. You had forcefully, and angrily, kicked everyone else out. "You left the dojo with the intention of walking to the main branch, so you could go through your Match Book in peace, and somehow you ended up here?"

Zoro, previously picture-perfected scowl and all, is sitting across from you, and just grunts in response.

"... Which direction did you go when you left the dojo?" You're almost afraid to ask.

"West."

"Okay, but..." No, no you weren't going to say it, never mind. Let's just put the fact that the Main Branch was north of the dojo off to the side for now. He could've actually gone north, thought it was west, and yet somehow ended up taking a large curve to the south and ended up in your library. "How can you be so bad at directions?"

Zoro's tongue clicks in irritation, and you realize you had said the last part out loud. No sense in apologizing, you had meant it and objectively it was true, and you felt like if you were overly concerned about his feelings he'd just get more irritated.

Sighing after a few moments silence, you set your Match Book off to the side. "Do you want to set up a meeting for tomorrow then?" You question. First meetings technically had to be witnessed, and were often attended by at least one family member from each side. You weren't breaking any laws by meeting accidentally like this, but it wasn't going to count for meeting within 48 hours if it wasn't properly witnessed.

"Sure." His face had been in a scowl for the last few minutes, but something about his tone made you think he wasn't angry, just uncomfortable.

"I'll... come to the dojo then. Your father's there, right? It'll be easier for both of you. I'm sure Brook will give me tomorrow off, so I can be by, uh, 1pm? If that's not too early?"

"It's not."

Well, it was a good thing you were used to having quiet nights. This man was certainly the laconic type. You wondered idly what topic of conversation you could get him on that would have him talking, even better - talking with a smile on his face. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't imagine him with a big smile on his face, and some part of you thought that was a shame.

Everyone should be able to smile.

"Alright then, I... uh... look forward to it." You smile, but it probably looks as awkward as it feels. This whole arranged marriage stuff was even more uncomfortable than you had expected.

He grunts, but doesn't argue. "Are you only bringing one more with you?"

"Eh?" You question, stopping in the middle of getting up.

"Tomorrow. Bringing your mom or dad or both."

Oh right, he didn't get a chance to really sit down and read his Match Book before you interrupted him. Well, he'd have some time to read over it today and tomorrow morning. You finished standing up and nodded to his Match Book.

"It'll just be me," you say, and this time your smile is well-practiced. "Let me walk you out."

He grunts again, but doesn't question your or argue. Not that the poor guy had much room to argue, you just hope he was truly thrown off by the Match Book, and not actually that terrible at directions. Otherwise, you might beat him back to the dojo tomorrow.

You get him through the library without incident, and without running into Nami, though you were pretty sure that was thanks to Robin. When you get to the door you hold it open for him.

"Sorry again for just uh, coming up behind you like that." You apologize as he steps past you.

"It's fine, it worked out." He replies, nodding his head slightly, and walking away. You saw him drifting to the left down the wide staircase.

"Ah, Mr. Roronoa?" You call out, causing him to turn around. You smile and point to the right. "Unless you're running errands, the dojo's that way." You didn't stick around to see if he needed the help or not, stepping back into the library quickly.

You spent the rest of your shift distracted, but no one held it against you. Brook hovered around you a little, but he didn't pester you with questions. He spent most of his time intercepting people who came up to you with questions and directing them on your behalf. The old man was surprisingly quick when the occasion called for it. He had even told you to take the next day off before you had a chance to ask for it.

Such accommodations were to be expected, but the whole thing still felt a little surreal to you. Ever since the World Government had implemented arranged marriages, there had been a slew of TV shows and Movies that had depicted how awkward first impressions could be. Inevitably the two people would come to an understanding, given enough time and communication. It was, at its core, propaganda for the masses, to smooth over the whole situation.

Still, you found yourself replaying sitcom episodes in your head and listening to songs about enemies to lovers as you went about your evening once you got home. You weren't put off of Zoro entirely, but you felt apathetic toward things so far. You didn't really want to spend your life going through a routine that just happened to have someone else on the edges of it.

What unsettled you was that your first impression of him was that he would, like you, allow that very thing to happen. A listless life, with no direction and no momentum. The only saving grace would be the government's insistence that you have at least one child, and the energy and chaos of a child was enough to throw any family into motion.

Wild, unstable motion maybe, but life wouldn't be listless.

You soaked in the tub until the water started to cool, tossed on an old over-sized shirt and drifted off to sleep.

. . . . . .

The next day you let your day start slowly, had a light breakfast, and put on a simple dress before doing up your hair a little. You wanted to look nice, but you didn't want to go to the nines and show up to find everyone else in t-shirts and jeans. You slipped on a pair of smooth-fabric tight shorts under your dress, which made walking more comfortable and saved you from any embarrassing moments if your skirt went rogue. Plus, there was just enough pocket space for a bus pass, your id and house key.

Instead of heels you opted for what were essentially leather-topped sneakers. They looked nice enough for work, but they were delightfully comfortable. Most of your wardrobe was practicality over fashion, but you could still manage being fashionable. You made sure your socks were a little on the thicker side, if this was happening in a dojo, you'd need to take your shoes off and still keep your feet warm.

With one last check to make sure you were presentable you caught the bus to cover most of the distance to the dojo. You could feel someone staring at you while you were on the bus, but you did your best to ignore it. It was a short ride between your home and the dojo, but it would've been a long walk.

The grounds of the dojo were walled off, which meant the entire block was. It was more likely that, as the city had developed around the dojo, the wall had been raised to minimize distractions within. This led to there being a large entryway, enough for cars to go through when needed, with a side door for people to come and go through.

It was done well, honoring the origins of the dojo while still having a clean modern sense, as though it was welcoming the city instead of trying to reject it.

Standing outside the main entrance, looking horribly uncomfortable in a suit and tie, was a grumpy looking Zoro. You did your best to suppress the amused smile that was tugging at your lips as you got close enough for him to turn toward you. He seemed a little embarrassed that you'd caught him grumbling about the suit. In some ways, it looked good on him, in more ways though, it looked awkward on him.

"It seems you're more for function than fashion as well." You muse, trying to help ease the tension with levity.

He grunts, but his silence was a surprising response.

"If you want to lose the tie at least, I didn't exactly stick to tradition either." You admit, lifting up your skirt as he turns to face you. His face twists in shock for a split second before he realizes you were wearing shorts under your skirt. You couldn't help the small laugh that escapes you as your let your skirt fall back down.

"Here," you say, reaching for the tie. "Let me wear it. Then your father won't be able to argue, right?"

"How?" He questions, stepping back from you and loosening the tie himself.

You shrug. "Your Match Book gave me some idea, but I did a lot of research when I was looking to learn martial arts, to make sure I had a good teacher." You take the offered tie and slip it over your head. "There's a lot of weight given to tradition and history, which isn't a bad thing, but that's why I assumed your father didn't leave you much room to argue."

You let your hair down, so that it covers the loop of the tie, and covers your shoulders a little. This way you look like you're wearing a tie, and not a noose.

"There! And look, it doesn't even clash with my dress." You offer a smile. "Problem solved, yes?"

The door beside the gate opened and a rather severe looking man came into view. He was wearing a suit, and unlike with Zoro, the look suited him in many ways. It was as tight and disciplined as you imagined he was. The man's face was wholly unreadable, but contained neither anger nor irritation.

You bow, ignoring the tie dangling from you, and straighten with a smile. "Mr. Dracule, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Miss (L/N), I'm glad you made it without issue." Mihawk's appearance and manner might be tight, but his voice was surprisingly smooth. "Please, come in."

"Thank you." You step inside as Mihawk steps aside. You turn to him after you've made room for Zoro to come in and smile as you hold onto the tie. "I hope you don't mind; I stole your son's tie when I arrived."

Zoro's ears went pink as he steps in and closes the door behind him, and the look Mihawk had been giving him melts away. He smiles at you, and the action is disarming, for the first time you think you might be able to imagine Zoro smiling.

"As long as it wasn't foisted upon you." Mihawk says pointedly, his gaze shifting to his grumpy son.

"Not at all," you assure him. "I was feeling a little under dressed and this simply makes us even."

Mihawk makes a noise that leaves you with the impression that he is simply accepting your explanation, despite not entirely believing it. You feel admonished, and almost start to apologize before he speaks up.

"Zoro, show Miss (L/N) to the tearoom." Mihawk prompts.

Zoro offers his arm to you without a word, and the level of etiquette brings a smile to your lips. You murmur a thanks and slip your arm through his. It was the most physical contact you'd had in years, and it was the first real contact you and Zoro had at all. He was warm, or you were warm, but there was no discomfort in that warmth.

Zoro leads you into the foyer, and you tuck your shoes away with the others you could see, putting on a pair of house slippers that had been provided, and stepping up into the hallway proper. You wait as Zoro does the same, and then leads you to the tearoom.

You were simultaneously relieved and disheartened to see a full table set up in the tearoom, western style chairs and all. It had been a long time since you attended a proper tea ceremony, and you were no longer as practiced at sitting properly for one. You could probably manage, but you'd be sore after. It would've been nice to get into the practice of it, but a first meeting wasn't the correct time to do so anyway.

The tea was delicious, and there was plenty of polite small talk. The whole point of a witnessed meeting was to try and shake off the awkwardness of first-time meetings. Generally, there were more than three people at the first meeting, but three was the minimum. You had no doubt that Dracule Mihawk was capable of keeping you and Zoro in check, no matter how things went.

After tea, Mihawk had Zoro take you on a small tour of the property. The landscaping was beautiful. There was a Zen Garden, a small western style flower garden in another area, and a green house in another location. You and Zoro opted to skip the green house, it was warm enough outside, the green house would just be humid on top of it all. There was a study and a small library, you were already in love with the place before that point, but the library was very well organized, and you gave your praise to whomever maintained it.

"A properly organized library is just relaxing." You muse as you leave the library behind and continue the tour.

"You sound like Mihawk-Sensei." Zoro replies, and you weren't sure if it was a compliment or not. He slides a door open, and it gives way to a large open room lined with tatami mats. No part of the property had been, by any stretch of the definition, messy, but the dojo proper seemed extra immaculate.

"Oh wow. Can I go in?" You question.

Zoro nods. "Sure."

You automatically slip your house slippers off before stepping onto the mats and walk slowly around the large open room. There are traditional burned wood planks that denote the Master, his assistants, and the students. The dojo is doing well, given the length of the roster. There are practical displays for shinai and bokken, and a few ceremonial displays that are likely true steel katanas.

Zoro is leaning in the doorway, just watching you move around the dojo. You're too absorbed in all the details of the room to notice anything more about him, but his gaze isn't making you uncomfortable.

"Is it rude to ask how old the dojo is?" You question, keeping your hands laced behind your back as you lean forward to read an inscription under a set of three katanas.

"The millennial celebration is in nine years." Zoro answers. "According to the official records."

"Mm. It's probably older than that then," you state straightening up. "It's good to celebrate what you can though."

Zoro grunts in response. You're starting to get used to it. It's his way of acknowledging that he's listening without prolonging a conversation he doesn't think needs to be prolonged. Time would tell if your assumption was correct, but there was nothing about him that made you feel he was duplicitous. He seemed like someone who didn't even want to waste time with the obvious, never mind wasting energy trying to hide who he was.

"Are you accepting new students?" You question half idly, half curiously, catching Zoro flinching slightly.

Mihawk answers, stepping into view, and entering into the dojo with you. "Are you interested in learning?"

You nod. "I haven't learned a weapon-centric style of martial arts before, but there's a practicality in getting back into the practice."

"Oh? What have you studied before?" Mihawk prompts.

"Tai-chi and Judo. The former more than the latter." You admit, walking over to two of them. "When I was completing my education to become a librarian, I didn't have the time to continue consistently, and after that I fell into my new job and hadn't looked for a new place to get back into things."

"Did you ever compete?" Mihawk asks, and you were starting to get the distinct impression he was asking on Zoro's behalf. Maybe everything he'd done today had been on the young man's behalf. As far as you were concerned that made him a good dad.

You shake your head. "I learned for self-defense and to keep in shape. Admittedly, the idea of hurting someone on accident during a match made me too nervous to try, and yeah I get that if I'm going to use it as self-defense someone is going to get hurt. But that's... different."

"Mm." Mihawk acknowledges shortly. "Your assumption being that in a match, your opponent doesn't mean to harm you."

"Yeah... Ah, I hope that's not rude of me?"

"To some, maybe. To others, no." He answers honestly. "It depends on the ideology of the person in question."

"Then... how would each of you take it?"

Zoro clicks his tongue and looks away with a scowl, and that was really all the answer you needed from him.

Mihawk offers you a small smile. "We are of a similar mind on this, but I don't begrudge you for your feelings."

"If he has learned his lessons well, then he doesn't either." Mihawk adds after a moment's pause.

Zoro grunts but didn't say anything else on the topic. "You've seen everything, are you hungry?"

"Yes, if it's not too much trouble. I had a small breakfast and the snacks from the tea seem to be wearing off." You answer with a strained smile, putting the house slippers back on.

The rest of the afternoon went well enough. You learned that Zoro wasn't much of a cook, but the meal of the day was a joint effort between him and his father. It was good, you weren't a picky eater, but it was as good as you could do, you were sure.

Light conversation continued, and things started to get a little more personal at the end of it.

"If it's uncomfortable Miss (L/N), you don't have to answer, but you brought neither family nor a friend with you today." Mihawk begins, "According to the Match Book, I can understand the former."

You nod, your practiced smile covering your face as you respond. "I'm sure the details were a little vague in the book, but I don't mind explaining." You take in a breath, no matter how often you told this story, it was always at least a little uncomfortable. "My biological parents were murdered by Kuro when I was five."

There was a lot hanging in that sentence, though neither Zoro or Mihawk reacted. Kuro had been a prolific serial killer 20 years ago, and everyone who had survived his bloody assaults had been believed to be cursed. It was simply referred to as being Kursed when people wrote it down, but the heavy emphasis on the word made it remarkable when spoken as well.

Kuro slaughtered nearly 100 people during the decade he was active, but he had double that in actual victims. The people who survived his attacks seemed to have a terrible aura of bad luck surrounding them, and people around those survivors seemed to die at an abnormally high rate. Sometimes accidents, sometimes disease, it wasn't like people around the survivors were murdered, but someone made a connection at some point and the idea of the curse was born.

You were, frustratingly, part of that statistic. "I was adopted some years later, and when I was sixteen my adoptive parents died in a car accident. After that I kept to myself. I petitioned the courts and was able to have myself marked as an adult at 16 and now here I am."

"I see." Mihawk says evenly, after a moment's quiet consideration.

You kept your same practiced smile. "I'm sure you can petition for a Rematch because of this, if you want."

Zoro's default scowl deepens, and you were surprised how neutral his original expression was in comparison. "Rematch? Over some stu-."

"Roronoa." Mihawk interrupts forcefully.

Zoro looks away, seething quietly.

"I doubt such action will be necessary." Mihawk responds. "My apologies for causing you discomfort Miss (L/N)."

"Oh, no apology needed." You assure him, and it was true. You had been dealing with the plethora of ways that people reacted to you being a survivor of Kuro's rage. 

The man was still on the loose, though most assumed he was too old to continue, since it had been some years since the last confirmed victim.

Next Chapter

[alieninashoebox]

Thoughts on the new Night at the Museum!

Aight, NatM has been my comfort franchise since 2009. When I heard we were getting an animated one I was positively ecstatic. Now that it's been out for a week and I've watched it twice here are some thoughts! (Mostly positive with a few things I thought could have been better!) Things I enjoyed

I LOVED the opening sequence. The animation is absolutely gorgeous

The healthy coparenting between Erica and Larry was great to see. Their communication was great and you can really see how their dynamic has changed/improved since the first movie.

Thoroughly enjoyed Nick in this movie. To be honest, the awkward teenager who needed a confidence boost felt a lot more believable than the popular kid throwing raves in his dad's apartment from the natm 3.

The museum exhibits that were locked in the loading dock was a great way to make that part of the museum seem even creepier

Jed and Octavius were so TOUCHY this movie oh my god.

The bit where Teddy threw his sword at the oil painting and oil actually came out of the painting was pretty cool.

I love that this movie's entire theme/vibe was The Power of FriendshipTM

I think the way they incorporated Nick's love for music into how he solves the problem at the end sent a really important message. I can remember being that age and being told to put writing to the side because it was never going to serve me. I hope some kid dealing that sees this movie and is reminded to never give up on what they love.

The bisexual sticker on Nicky's laptop and the gay pride sticker on the poster in the school. I know it's now much, but even seeing the small things bring me a lot of joy.

The lions look so much like Nala and Simba from the Lion King, it felt like a nice nod to the movie.

I really like the direction the voice actor went with Teddy. I was worried that it was going to just be a Robin Williams impression, which would have just been sad but he did a great job taking the character and making it his own.

Did I already mention how touchy Jed and Octavius were?

Things that could have been better

There's a lot of confusion about when this movie takes place. I'm not sure if its before three or after. It makes more sense for it to be before 3 since the whole theme of three was "if you love it let it go," and having it take place after would completely disregard that. But I've seen some people say they think it takes place after. I just wish we had a clear timeline.

I didn't really like Laa. And that's not just this movie, I didn't like him in the third one either. This series itself is so naturally funny, it doesn't feel like it needs that type of slapstick comedy.

There were little callbacks here and there to the previous movies, but it definitely felt a little disconnected from them at the same time? Despite the fact that SEVERAL of these exhibits were in Battle of the Smithsonian(and one of them nearly died) it felt like this was the first time they were seeing Kahmunrah. There was very little to no mention of the events that happened with his character before other than "your father defeated me once, but now I'm back."

(There are a few other things, but I feel like a lot have been said already and I don't want this to get super negative)

Overall I did enjoy the movie. It's still a little jarring hearing different voices for these characters, but I expect that to change over time.

And that's all for that!

[mugiwara-no-toshokan]

Some Direction

CisFem Reader x Roronoa Zoro

CW: Language, stalking, violence, sexual themes and situations, ptsd -- surprisingly fluffy despite it all. 18+ only

Chapter 2: Directionally

"Let me get this straight," you say, your hands pressed together in front of you as you sit in the backroom with Zoro. You had forcefully, and angrily, kicked everyone else out. "You left the dojo with the intention of walking to the main branch, so you could go through your Match Book in peace, and somehow you ended up here?"

Zoro, previously picture-perfected scowl and all, is sitting across from you, and just grunts in response.

"... Which direction did you go when you left the dojo?" You're almost afraid to ask.

"West."

"Okay, but..." No, no you weren't going to say it, never mind. Let's just put the fact that the Main Branch was north of the dojo off to the side for now. He could've actually gone north, thought it was west, and yet somehow ended up taking a large curve to the south and ended up in your library. "How can you be so bad at directions?"

Zoro's tongue clicks in irritation, and you realize you had said the last part out loud. No sense in apologizing, you had meant it and objectively it was true, and you felt like if you were overly concerned about his feelings he'd just get more irritated.

Sighing after a few moments silence, you set your Match Book off to the side. "Do you want to set up a meeting for tomorrow then?" You question. First meetings technically had to be witnessed, and were often attended by at least one family member from each side. You weren't breaking any laws by meeting accidentally like this, but it wasn't going to count for meeting within 48 hours if it wasn't properly witnessed.

"Sure." His face had been in a scowl for the last few minutes, but something about his tone made you think he wasn't angry, just uncomfortable.

"I'll... come to the dojo then. Your father's there, right? It'll be easier for both of you. I'm sure Brook will give me tomorrow off, so I can be by, uh, 1pm? If that's not too early?"

"It's not."

Well, it was a good thing you were used to having quiet nights. This man was certainly the laconic type. You wondered idly what topic of conversation you could get him on that would have him talking, even better - talking with a smile on his face. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't imagine him with a big smile on his face, and some part of you thought that was a shame.

Everyone should be able to smile.

"Alright then, I... uh... look forward to it." You smile, but it probably looks as awkward as it feels. This whole arranged marriage stuff was even more uncomfortable than you had expected.

He grunts, but doesn't argue. "Are you only bringing one more with you?"

"Eh?" You question, stopping in the middle of getting up.

"Tomorrow. Bringing your mom or dad or both."

Oh right, he didn't get a chance to really sit down and read his Match Book before you interrupted him. Well, he'd have some time to read over it today and tomorrow morning. You finished standing up and nodded to his Match Book.

"It'll just be me," you say, and this time your smile is well-practiced. "Let me walk you out."

He grunts again, but doesn't question your or argue. Not that the poor guy had much room to argue, you just hope he was truly thrown off by the Match Book, and not actually that terrible at directions. Otherwise, you might beat him back to the dojo tomorrow.

You get him through the library without incident, and without running into Nami, though you were pretty sure that was thanks to Robin. When you get to the door you hold it open for him.

"Sorry again for just uh, coming up behind you like that." You apologize as he steps past you.

"It's fine, it worked out." He replies, nodding his head slightly, and walking away. You saw him drifting to the left down the wide staircase.

"Ah, Mr. Roronoa?" You call out, causing him to turn around. You smile and point to the right. "Unless you're running errands, the dojo's that way." You didn't stick around to see if he needed the help or not, stepping back into the library quickly.

You spent the rest of your shift distracted, but no one held it against you. Brook hovered around you a little, but he didn't pester you with questions. He spent most of his time intercepting people who came up to you with questions and directing them on your behalf. The old man was surprisingly quick when the occasion called for it. He had even told you to take the next day off before you had a chance to ask for it.

Such accommodations were to be expected, but the whole thing still felt a little surreal to you. Ever since the World Government had implemented arranged marriages, there had been a slew of TV shows and Movies that had depicted how awkward first impressions could be. Inevitably the two people would come to an understanding, given enough time and communication. It was, at its core, propaganda for the masses, to smooth over the whole situation.

Still, you found yourself replaying sitcom episodes in your head and listening to songs about enemies to lovers as you went about your evening once you got home. You weren't put off of Zoro entirely, but you felt apathetic toward things so far. You didn't really want to spend your life going through a routine that just happened to have someone else on the edges of it.

What unsettled you was that your first impression of him was that he would, like you, allow that very thing to happen. A listless life, with no direction and no momentum. The only saving grace would be the government's insistence that you have at least one child, and the energy and chaos of a child was enough to throw any family into motion.

Wild, unstable motion maybe, but life wouldn't be listless.

You soaked in the tub until the water started to cool, tossed on an old over-sized shirt and drifted off to sleep.

. . . . . .

The next day you let your day start slowly, had a light breakfast, and put on a simple dress before doing up your hair a little. You wanted to look nice, but you didn't want to go to the nines and show up to find everyone else in t-shirts and jeans. You slipped on a pair of smooth-fabric tight shorts under your dress, which made walking more comfortable and saved you from any embarrassing moments if your skirt went rogue. Plus, there was just enough pocket space for a bus pass, your id and house key.

Instead of heels you opted for what were essentially leather-topped sneakers. They looked nice enough for work, but they were delightfully comfortable. Most of your wardrobe was practicality over fashion, but you could still manage being fashionable. You made sure your socks were a little on the thicker side, if this was happening in a dojo, you'd need to take your shoes off and still keep your feet warm.

With one last check to make sure you were presentable you caught the bus to cover most of the distance to the dojo. You could feel someone staring at you while you were on the bus, but you did your best to ignore it. It was a short ride between your home and the dojo, but it would've been a long walk.

The grounds of the dojo were walled off, which meant the entire block was. It was more likely that, as the city had developed around the dojo, the wall had been raised to minimize distractions within. This led to there being a large entryway, enough for cars to go through when needed, with a side door for people to come and go through.

It was done well, honoring the origins of the dojo while still having a clean modern sense, as though it was welcoming the city instead of trying to reject it.

Standing outside the main entrance, looking horribly uncomfortable in a suit and tie, was a grumpy looking Zoro. You did your best to suppress the amused smile that was tugging at your lips as you got close enough for him to turn toward you. He seemed a little embarrassed that you'd caught him grumbling about the suit. In some ways, it looked good on him, in more ways though, it looked awkward on him.

"It seems you're more for function than fashion as well." You muse, trying to help ease the tension with levity.

He grunts, but his silence was a surprising response.

"If you want to lose the tie at least, I didn't exactly stick to tradition either." You admit, lifting up your skirt as he turns to face you. His face twists in shock for a split second before he realizes you were wearing shorts under your skirt. You couldn't help the small laugh that escapes you as your let your skirt fall back down.

"Here," you say, reaching for the tie. "Let me wear it. Then your father won't be able to argue, right?"

"How?" He questions, stepping back from you and loosening the tie himself.

You shrug. "Your Match Book gave me some idea, but I did a lot of research when I was looking to learn martial arts, to make sure I had a good teacher." You take the offered tie and slip it over your head. "There's a lot of weight given to tradition and history, which isn't a bad thing, but that's why I assumed your father didn't leave you much room to argue."

You let your hair down, so that it covers the loop of the tie, and covers your shoulders a little. This way you look like you're wearing a tie, and not a noose.

"There! And look, it doesn't even clash with my dress." You offer a smile. "Problem solved, yes?"

The door beside the gate opened and a rather severe looking man came into view. He was wearing a suit, and unlike with Zoro, the look suited him in many ways. It was as tight and disciplined as you imagined he was. The man's face was wholly unreadable, but contained neither anger nor irritation.

You bow, ignoring the tie dangling from you, and straighten with a smile. "Mr. Dracule, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Miss (L/N), I'm glad you made it without issue." Mihawk's appearance and manner might be tight, but his voice was surprisingly smooth. "Please, come in."

"Thank you." You step inside as Mihawk steps aside. You turn to him after you've made room for Zoro to come in and smile as you hold onto the tie. "I hope you don't mind; I stole your son's tie when I arrived."

Zoro's ears went pink as he steps in and closes the door behind him, and the look Mihawk had been giving him melts away. He smiles at you, and the action is disarming, for the first time you think you might be able to imagine Zoro smiling.

"As long as it wasn't foisted upon you." Mihawk says pointedly, his gaze shifting to his grumpy son.

"Not at all," you assure him. "I was feeling a little under dressed and this simply makes us even."

Mihawk makes a noise that leaves you with the impression that he is simply accepting your explanation, despite not entirely believing it. You feel admonished, and almost start to apologize before he speaks up.

"Zoro, show Miss (L/N) to the tearoom." Mihawk prompts.

Zoro offers his arm to you without a word, and the level of etiquette brings a smile to your lips. You murmur a thanks and slip your arm through his. It was the most physical contact you'd had in years, and it was the first real contact you and Zoro had at all. He was warm, or you were warm, but there was no discomfort in that warmth.

Zoro leads you into the foyer, and you tuck your shoes away with the others you could see, putting on a pair of house slippers that had been provided, and stepping up into the hallway proper. You wait as Zoro does the same, and then leads you to the tearoom.

You were simultaneously relieved and disheartened to see a full table set up in the tearoom, western style chairs and all. It had been a long time since you attended a proper tea ceremony, and you were no longer as practiced at sitting properly for one. You could probably manage, but you'd be sore after. It would've been nice to get into the practice of it, but a first meeting wasn't the correct time to do so anyway.

The tea was delicious, and there was plenty of polite small talk. The whole point of a witnessed meeting was to try and shake off the awkwardness of first-time meetings. Generally, there were more than three people at the first meeting, but three was the minimum. You had no doubt that Dracule Mihawk was capable of keeping you and Zoro in check, no matter how things went.

After tea, Mihawk had Zoro take you on a small tour of the property. The landscaping was beautiful. There was a Zen Garden, a small western style flower garden in another area, and a green house in another location. You and Zoro opted to skip the green house, it was warm enough outside, the green house would just be humid on top of it all. There was a study and a small library, you were already in love with the place before that point, but the library was very well organized, and you gave your praise to whomever maintained it.

"A properly organized library is just relaxing." You muse as you leave the library behind and continue the tour.

"You sound like Mihawk-Sensei." Zoro replies, and you weren't sure if it was a compliment or not. He slides a door open, and it gives way to a large open room lined with tatami mats. No part of the property had been, by any stretch of the definition, messy, but the dojo proper seemed extra immaculate.

"Oh wow. Can I go in?" You question.

Zoro nods. "Sure."

You automatically slip your house slippers off before stepping onto the mats and walk slowly around the large open room. There are traditional burned wood planks that denote the Master, his assistants, and the students. The dojo is doing well, given the length of the roster. There are practical displays for shinai and bokken, and a few ceremonial displays that are likely true steel katanas.

Zoro is leaning in the doorway, just watching you move around the dojo. You're too absorbed in all the details of the room to notice anything more about him, but his gaze isn't making you uncomfortable.

"Is it rude to ask how old the dojo is?" You question, keeping your hands laced behind your back as you lean forward to read an inscription under a set of three katanas.

"The millennial celebration is in nine years." Zoro answers. "According to the official records."

"Mm. It's probably older than that then," you state straightening up. "It's good to celebrate what you can though."

Zoro grunts in response. You're starting to get used to it. It's his way of acknowledging that he's listening without prolonging a conversation he doesn't think needs to be prolonged. Time would tell if your assumption was correct, but there was nothing about him that made you feel he was duplicitous. He seemed like someone who didn't even want to waste time with the obvious, never mind wasting energy trying to hide who he was.

"Are you accepting new students?" You question half idly, half curiously, catching Zoro flinching slightly.

Mihawk answers, stepping into view, and entering into the dojo with you. "Are you interested in learning?"

You nod. "I haven't learned a weapon-centric style of martial arts before, but there's a practicality in getting back into the practice."

"Oh? What have you studied before?" Mihawk prompts.

"Tai-chi and Judo. The former more than the latter." You admit, walking over to two of them. "When I was completing my education to become a librarian, I didn't have the time to continue consistently, and after that I fell into my new job and hadn't looked for a new place to get back into things."

"Did you ever compete?" Mihawk asks, and you were starting to get the distinct impression he was asking on Zoro's behalf. Maybe everything he'd done today had been on the young man's behalf. As far as you were concerned that made him a good dad.

You shake your head. "I learned for self-defense and to keep in shape. Admittedly, the idea of hurting someone on accident during a match made me too nervous to try, and yeah I get that if I'm going to use it as self-defense someone is going to get hurt. But that's... different."

"Mm." Mihawk acknowledges shortly. "Your assumption being that in a match, your opponent doesn't mean to harm you."

"Yeah... Ah, I hope that's not rude of me?"

"To some, maybe. To others, no." He answers honestly. "It depends on the ideology of the person in question."

"Then... how would each of you take it?"

Zoro clicks his tongue and looks away with a scowl, and that was really all the answer you needed from him.

Mihawk offers you a small smile. "We are of a similar mind on this, but I don't begrudge you for your feelings."

"If he has learned his lessons well, then he doesn't either." Mihawk adds after a moment's pause.

Zoro grunts but didn't say anything else on the topic. "You've seen everything, are you hungry?"

"Yes, if it's not too much trouble. I had a small breakfast and the snacks from the tea seem to be wearing off." You answer with a strained smile, putting the house slippers back on.

The rest of the afternoon went well enough. You learned that Zoro wasn't much of a cook, but the meal of the day was a joint effort between him and his father. It was good, you weren't a picky eater, but it was as good as you could do, you were sure.

Light conversation continued, and things started to get a little more personal at the end of it.

"If it's uncomfortable Miss (L/N), you don't have to answer, but you brought neither family nor a friend with you today." Mihawk begins, "According to the Match Book, I can understand the former."

You nod, your practiced smile covering your face as you respond. "I'm sure the details were a little vague in the book, but I don't mind explaining." You take in a breath, no matter how often you told this story, it was always at least a little uncomfortable. "My biological parents were murdered by Kuro when I was five."

There was a lot hanging in that sentence, though neither Zoro or Mihawk reacted. Kuro had been a prolific serial killer 20 years ago, and everyone who had survived his bloody assaults had been believed to be cursed. It was simply referred to as being Kursed when people wrote it down, but the heavy emphasis on the word made it remarkable when spoken as well.

Kuro slaughtered nearly 100 people during the decade he was active, but he had double that in actual victims. The people who survived his attacks seemed to have a terrible aura of bad luck surrounding them, and people around those survivors seemed to die at an abnormally high rate. Sometimes accidents, sometimes disease, it wasn't like people around the survivors were murdered, but someone made a connection at some point and the idea of the curse was born.

You were, frustratingly, part of that statistic. "I was adopted some years later, and when I was sixteen my adoptive parents died in a car accident. After that I kept to myself. I petitioned the courts and was able to have myself marked as an adult at 16 and now here I am."

"I see." Mihawk says evenly, after a moment's quiet consideration.

You kept your same practiced smile. "I'm sure you can petition for a Rematch because of this, if you want."

Zoro's default scowl deepens, and you were surprised how neutral his original expression was in comparison. "Rematch? Over some stu-."

"Roronoa." Mihawk interrupts forcefully.

Zoro looks away, seething quietly.

"I doubt such action will be necessary." Mihawk responds. "My apologies for causing you discomfort Miss (L/N)."

"Oh, no apology needed." You assure him, and it was true. You had been dealing with the plethora of ways that people reacted to you being a survivor of Kuro's rage. 

The man was still on the loose, though most assumed he was too old to continue, since it had been some years since the last confirmed victim.

[yvtro]

Hi! I apologize if this has already been asked and answered many times, I couldn't find if that is the case.

But I would love to hear what you think of Jason in the Arkham Knight video game? Do you like him? Thank you and again, I'm sorry if this is redundant :(

disclaimer: i’m moving blogs. still here to go through my askbox, but you will find me at @boyfridged from now on.

first, i have to say that I’ve never watched the full walkthrough nor played the game, but I did watch fragments and read the comics (although that was some years ago), so this is what my opinion is based on. (also there are things that i don't enjoy about it, like the militia and aesthetics that comes with it, but fash undertones are present in so many batman titles, i'm not going to get into it right now)

i would like to say that i'm quite ambivalent, but that's a lie because i usually have a soft spot for all jason iterations, even if they are very far off from the original characterisation and even perpetuate stereotypes that i can’t stand in canon. and that is, i think, for the most part, the case with arkham jay, an elseworld characterisation that might have even inspired the mainstream red hood comics a bit too much... especially that the arkham universe seems to be much darker and hopeless.

needless to say, I don’t like it in the main continuity, but for that title i didn’t mind it. if anywhere, pieces of media like that are the place to explore these themes.

two things i find interesting:

 - pre-robin/robin jay: 

something that is central to my reading of canon jason is his kindness and dedication to the world. this is attitude that ak jason is many ways definitely lacks. he is sensitive of course, but he is already cynical before he even gets to become robin.  it makes sense if you consider he’s older than jay when we first meet him in the main continuity, and that ak jay's circumstances are much worse from the beginning (which is something i don’t appreciate that much btw! i don’t like this portrayal of gotham nor the crime alley specifically; not even sure if they call it in game/ak comics that). ak jay doesn't give up (which i love), but he is already much more vidincative and has more of this somber determination. in batman and red hood comics flashbacks bruce sometimes mentions that jason "always" treated crime-fighting like a "game" – and this rings more true for ak jay than it ever did for 80s robin jason. i'd say ak!jay does treat life as a game because he knows that to an extent, it is one – and he is already on a disadvantaged position, which is why he's willing to play dirty in the field. it's a gritty take and much less mature and empathetic than what we get in og jason storylines, but i do not dislike it. there's def something captivating in this unromantic approach, and the way we can choose to believe that maybe robin could affect it and let him work him through his grievances with the world, only for it this chance to get completely crushed.

ak!jason:

this is the universe in which jason gets to actually blame bruce for abandoning him (as a result of psychological torture, of course, but he still does), and in which he seeks revenge on him specifically. it's interesting to see it unfold since in in comics it makes only for a short episode in the lost days for jay.

so, to summarise, i guess while i do like this version of jason, he's also basically a stereotype of comics jason and everything i don't want comics jason to be, which is a bit ironic. but there is some cool storytelling in there and my beloved panels from ak: genesis with jay excited about the library.

also like. i think we need to objectivelly agree that his arkham knight design is much cooler than red hood...

[arbitraryregistry]

Excerpt 04

Summary: The kid wants to open a basement door. Need a friend to be with them.

I had always wondered about the small door on the side of the new house. Round, dark brown with a face-shaped handle. It was hilarious and peculiar at the same time. I reckoned I could fit in it easily, Mother is certainly too ladylike to fit in such a small door. The thought of what lies on the other side plagued me day and night. Alas, I have not been able to open it, even after chanting Batman’s theme song with my whole heart. This cannot be, I need a Robin to help me with this mission.

Jumping has always been my top skill. I went over the fence to Brandon’s house easily, my best friend of 2 days. Brandon’s backyard, unlike mine, was void of trees and flowers, only overgrown grass and some chairs decorated the whole area. My friend climbed out of his window as soon as he saw me approaching the house. A sidekick, at last.

Reflection:

Kid narrators are hands down the best yet trickiest kind of narrator to write. In this excerpt, I tried writing about a boy exploring his new house. Like many children, they are wary of the unknown. In this case, it is the door to a basement beneath his house. I would like to point out several things that I wrote here.

The sentence “I have not been able to open it, even after chanting Batman’s theme song with my whole heart” can be interpreted in two ways. The first one is simple, the boy is not strong enough to open the door. The second interpretation is that the boy is too scared to open the door, even after hyping himself up. I got the idea to write in this way when I saw my baby cousin, who was 4 or 5 at the time. They were practicing with some old rollerblades of mine when a sense of dread seemingly overcame their excitement. To prepare themselves for the fall that is sure to come, they counted to three to signal to themself when to go. Alas, they were not able to go at all, due to the fear of falling.

“I need a Robin”, because, Robin is Batman’s sidekick, for those of you that did not know. Well, Robin is more like Batman’s ward but let us keep it simple for the sake of my sanity.

The second paragraph introduces us to Brandon, the kid next door. I purposefully planted many “red flags” in the description of Brandon’s backyard and behavior. If the boy, the narrator, was older, they might be caught on to the obvious neglect that Brandon objected to. Since the boy is too young to understand this, the only undertone he understood was that Brandon’s backyard is different from his. He probably did not make the connection that the backyard is not well taken care of and dying.

Brandon was seen by the narrator climbing out of his house’s window “as soon as he saw me approaching the house”. The boy might think that Brandon is just excited to see him, but as older readers, it raises some questions:

Why did Brandon use the window instead of the door?

Is he just cheeky or,

possibly mistreated by his parents/guardian?

If I were to continue this story, I would focus on both boys’ experiences. The narrator’s over-active imagination in the basement might hint at him being the only child, sheltered and cared for. Brandon’s calmness might hint at him being used to the dark because his guardian never bothered to turn on the lights at home. Maybe both boys would be scared and will eventually get chastised. It would be interesting to see how the narrator’s parents would react to their actions.

This is one of the excerpts that I will most definitely pick up someday, because the existing piece is not beyond my expertise, and playing with an unreliable narrator is one of my favorite things to do these days.

[lfthinkerwrites]

Sage Advice

A fill for the monthly discord theme. This month: Pride

It never failed.

Edward wasn't ten hours free from Arkham Asylum when Batman burst into his hideout, dispatched the one hired gun he had at the moment and had Edward pinned to the wall.

"Oh come on!" Edward shouted. "I haven't even done anything yet!"

Batman's grip on his shirt tightened. "Listen up Nigma," he growled, turning his legs into jelly. "In three hours, Red Robin's going to come here. You're going to tell him exactly what he wants to know. None of your games. If you help him, then just this once, I'll leave you alone."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "And if I refuse?"

Batman pulled him in tight, his eyes narrowed into white slits. "Then I'll hurt you before I send you back to Arkham. Got it?" Edward nodded choppily. "Good." The Dark Knight unceremoniously dropped him to the floor before he left through the broken window he'd entered from.

Edward staggered to the kitchen table, over his henchmen's unconscious body, and sat down in a rickety chair. When the henchman awoke, he sent him off with a wave of a hand. Once alone, he sat at the table and pondered the riddle before him. What did Red Robin want with him? Obviously, nothing too earth-shattering, if Batman wasn't involving himself, but significant enough that Batman insisted on his assistance. Something personal to Red Robin then. Interesting...

Three hours on the dot after Batman's departure came a knock on the front door of the apartment hideout. Edward got up to answer and found Red Robin on the other side. The boy rubbed his elbow and looked down at his feet. "Hi, Nigma," he said. "I know this is weird, but can I come in?"

For the second time that evening, Edward found himself raising an eyebrow. Red Robin had always been more polite compared to the other Robins, but this was just..odd. "By all means," he answered, ushering the boy inside. Red Robin nodded, still not making eye contact with him as he walked to the kitchen table.

"Well," Edward said when he joined him. "Batman said you wanted to ask me something? Ask away."

Red Robin took a deep breath. "Ok. This is going to sound really weird, but I was wondering..." For the first time, he looked up at Edward. "You...you're bi, right?"

Edward blinked, then scoffed. "What, I haven't made that exceedingly obvious over the last decade? What kind of question is that?" Was he being recruited for some kind of Honey Trap scheme?

Red Robin flushed. "Yeah, I know, I know. I just, I wanted to ask you..." He began fidgeting with his fingers. "When did you know you were bi?"

Clarity soon came to Edward's mind. He folded his hands in front of him. "You're not asking out of idle curiosity, are you? You are, or you suspect you are at least, bisexual."

Red Robin gulped and quickly nodded. "Yeah. I was kind of hoping you'd have some advice for me."

Edward stared incredulously at the former Boy Wonder for a long moment, then shook his head. "Surely, you must have better options than the notorious criminal outlaw that you yourself have battered on numerous occasions?"

"There aren't a whole lot of people I can talk to about this," Red Robin said. "Almost all the bi people I know are women, and there's some stuff I feel more comfortable talking to a man about, and there's some stuff you just don't talk about with family, you know?"

"I don't," Edward said pointedly. This was just what he needed, being forcibly recruited to fill a void in this young man's life that Batman was incapable of filling. "I'm not exactly the sage elder type, you know. Why me?"

"I know, this isn't exactly my first choice either but I broke up with my girlfriend and I've been doing a lot of thinking about my life, and there's so much stuff that makes more sense now, but a lot I'm still confused about, and I don't know-" he stopped and sighed. "You've always been so open and unapologetic about yourself like that," he said softly. "I kind of wish I could be more like you in that way."

Perhaps it was his ego being gratified, or maybe it was some strange camaraderie, but Edward felt his heart soften, just a tad. “And there’s no one else in your costumed brigade that you could go to for advice?”

Red Robin shuffled in his seat. “Not…really? I mean, I asked Ghostmaker, but I don’t think I want to follow his advice. And the only other guy I could think of off the top of my head was John Constantine-“

Edward held up a hand. “Say no more.” He leaned back in his chair, cracked his knuckles, and sighed. “Very well. Just this once, I’ll dispense some sage advice. What do you want to know?”

Red Robin smiled, and despite just how odd this whole situation was, Edward couldn't begrudge him for it. "When did you know you were bi?"

"Since high school," Edward said. "Of course, I couldn't act on it until I got to Gotham. Didn't want to give my father and the troglodytes at school any more ammunition."

Red Robin nodded. "Is there a difference between how you date a man versus how you date a woman?"

"There is one slight difference," Edward teased. He laughed at the flush on Red Robin's face. "But I doubt you want to hear any of that from me. In my experience, I've never approached a man differently than how I'd approach a woman. I've always been more interested in what was in a partner's brain than what was in their pants. The important thing to remember is no gender is a monolith. You need to see your prospective partner as an individual first and tailor your approach accordingly."

Red Robin nodded eagerly. Edward was half surprised he wasn't taking notes. Then his face became downcast. "And," he asked. "Have you ever wondered if maybe...you were just confused?"

"Not for an instant," Edward answered. "I am a bisexual man. Whether I'm with a man or a woman, that doesn't change. I happen to have a slight preference towards women, given my upbringing, but it doesn't make my attraction to men less valid. It's the same with you. If you date a man, it doesn't make your past relationships with women invalid. You are just as valid as anyone who identifies as heterosexual or homosexual and don't let any moron ever tell you any differently."

Red Robin smiled again. "Thanks, Edward."

Edward found himself smiling back. "You're welcome, Timothy."

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

Could you write something based on this prompt Dick x reader! villain "I hope we never get to see each other again."

Dangerous People

Pairing: Dick Grayson as Nightwing x Reader

Warnings: Sexual assault and miscarriage. Extremely sensitive themes here, please don't read if you are triggered by such topics.

Word Count: 1.8K

Dick used to think the most dangerous people were the ones who had no morals. The people who did the dirtiest of things and had no way of redemption because there's a piece of stone where their heart should be.

He had seen it a million times over when he was Robin and then Nightwing. It had been that kind of person who took away his parents and he would learn it was the very same kind that took yours.

Detective Grayson met you one rainy night in November when you were brought into the police station in Bludhaven, cold and shivering. Tears were pouring down your face and you looked sick.

He would later come to find that night that your parents were killed by a man named Black. You told him all that you could, insisting that it was him and that they should arrest him.

As much as Dick wanted to, he couldn't just pick up a man and put him behind bars, not without evidence. Although he did promise that he would try his best to put him away. Dick could see the comfort that his words brought you.

The night he met you was also the night he slept with you. Not sex. Just sleep.

He had offered to drive you back home but you just shook your head in tears, saying that you couldn't go back home where your parents had just been murdered. And that you didn't have any money to stay at a hotel.

It was no secret that Dick had a bleeding heart, so when he saw your red and puffy eyes staring up at him, he quickly offered up his apartment for you to sleep in that night.

He took you home, and made you take a nice, hot shower before bundling you up in his spare clothes and letting you take the bed.

You repaid him the next morning by cooking him breakfast.

Thus, began the start of a beautiful relationship.

You panted, breath stuttering in your chest as Dick trailed kisses down your neck. Your fingers were carding through his hair, twitching and tugging at the roots every time his teeth grazed your sweet spot.

He held your hips to his body with a tight grip. He met your lips again with an open-mouthed kiss that swallowed your moans when his hands cupped your chest.

"I'm crazy about you..." Dick whispered underneath his breath when you cupped his cheeks. Your eyes fluttered open to see him watching you with deep blue eyes. You knew what he wanted to say, you felt it.

You kissed him again, slow and soft, conveying everything you could possibly be feeling.

"I love you too."

Falling for you made Dick want to capture Black even more. He knew of the kind of trauma that followed you throughout your life unless you got the closure you needed, so he poured his heart out into finding the man who robbed you of your family in one night.

But he was good, scary good. There was no evidence. No fingerprints, no DNA samples. No witnesses, other than you. But that wasn't enough.

He had known just how to avoid all the cameras and had left the weapon at the scene of the crime, a knife from your kitchen.

Dick felt helpless, he wanted so badly to be able to find this man and arrest him for your sake. He felt like a failure every time he would see the look of disappointment on your face when he said there were no leads.

So, he decided to go into his background. Black, a man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was a shareholder of your parents’ company and Dick wondered if there was something behind the scenes that made him want to kill your mother and father.

But none of it made sense, according to the contracts that each of them signed, in the case of a death then there was no possible way for him to get his hands on your parents’ shares. It was already enlisted to you. And Black had known about it.

So why try and murder your parents when it wouldn't have benefitted him in any way. Could it have been out of anger? In the spur of the moment? No, everything looked too well planned for that.

It was then he got a call from another detective. They got an anonymous tip that there was evidence found at the scene. He immediately went over there only to realize there was something wrong.

The footprints were even, too even. It was unusual that there was equal pressure at all parts of his sole. The cigarette lighter underneath the table was empty.

He had been so sure that he had looked over the place so carefully. How could he have missed the obvious footprint in the carpet and the lighter under the table?

It was then his partner mused that the evidence was fabricated and that Black wasn't the real culprit. That someone was trying to frame him.

And then everything made sense.

***

Dick’s heart pounded in his ears as he ran. Never in his life did the Nightwing suit ever feel so strained against his body. He felt like his chest was being compressed and each breath was harder and harder to take. Still, he pumped his legs until they ached painfully as he ran faster to you.

His head throbbed against his skull with the information he just learnt.

His eyes skimmed over all the words in your file and his heart rate picked up. He couldn't believe there had been so much information that he had overlooked before, simply trusting your words.

It was such an amateur move that he was surprised with himself. How could he have trusted you so blindly without verifying it?

As he read the file, his heart began clenching in his chest. With each word it was getting harder to breath.

You were the victim of a sexual crime case, that was left incomplete, the name of the suspect was censored. The next paper was another case, you were the victim of a planned mugging, it stated that you sustained injuries. The one after that was a medical report, a miscarriage.

Everything started making sense. The puzzle pieces started fitting in his head. The name of your assaulter was censored because he was a major shareholder of the company and partners with your parents. The mugging was planned so that you couldn't get a paternal test done.

Your parents and Black conspired against you. They made you hold their burdens so that their sins wouldn't be revealed.

When he got home to find the door wide open, his blood froze in his veins. He rushed through the apartment to find that it was empty, you had left in a hurry. He needed to find you, especially when he realized one thing.

His Glock was missing.

Dick swallowed roughly when he saw you, jumping across the roof until he was only one building away from you.

“(Y/N) don’t do it!” He shouted, as if you would actually listen but he still bounded across the gap between you, hand coming to wrap around the gun you were holding to deflect the shot against the ground.

The sound resonated through the area and his ears began ringing but he paid no heed, quickly disarming you and throwing away the gun in your hand. You struggled in his grip, screaming and kicking at him before you resorted to roughly elbow him in the face.

He let go of you, feeling pain and stumbling back but made sure that to get to the gun you’re have to go through him first.

You were new at this, you didn’t bother to assess the situation or even try to combat him again before you were lurching for the gun that lay abandoned at his feet and he tackled you, trying to stop your struggling as you rolled around on the rough concrete of the roof.

“(Y/N) wait!”

“No!” You screamed, voice thick with tears, “No more waiting! That monster doesn’t deserve to live for even a second longer!”

You thrashed in his grip, reaching for the gun again and he grabbed your leg, dragging you back before you could wrap your fingers around it.

"Please! Just stop and listen for a second! For me!" He pleaded but you started sobbing when he pinned you down and you realized you couldn't move.

When you looked up at him with tears in your eyes, he couldn't help his own that began falling from his eyes.

"You know what he did to me. You know what they did!" You cried, "So, why are you stopping me?!"

"It isn't right, (Y/N). You can't do this! If you do then you're just as bad as them." His grip on your wrists got tighter, as if scared you would try to pull away again.

"It's too late for me." You told him, "My parents are already dead. I did it."

He knew that. But he wished he didn't have to hear it. You made a mistake, a decision, that couldn't be reversed. And you would have to live with it for the rest of the life.

"I'll let you go." He whispered. He knew what he was doing was wrong, he knew that he was going against his morals but still, he couldn't be the one to take you to prison.

You immediately stopped squirming, shocked, and you looked up at him with wide eyes. Your heart pounded in your chest; he was willing to let you go? After everything you did you him?

He pulled away, not moving from his place on the floor. Dick looked at you one last time and your throat closed at the sight of his heartbroken gaze.

"I hope we never get to see each other again." He choked out, voice strained and you screwed your eyes shut to keep yourself from crying.

You wanted to tell him that you loved him, one last time, but you knew that wasn't what he wanted to hear. You weren't going to disappoint him one more time that night.

"Good bye." You whispered, turning around and leaving. It would be the last time Dick would ever see you.

It was that night that Dick realized that the most dangerous people were those who had nothing left to lose. And his heart would break even more when he realized that you never considered him yours to lose.

He never even got to tell you he loved you.

Forever Taglist:

@simonsbluee

DC Taglist:

@emmacata

@p--e--a--c--h--e--s

@sometimeseverythingsucks

@sokkas-honour

@unstable1902

@lostgirlheart

@missdisapear

@tadpole-san