#some kinda rule against using it in league fights

[soni-dragon]

my bug leader that i finally made a ref sheet for :P

[lockandkeyblade]

First Rule of Ghost Fight Club

Hey look ma, there's a multichapter now!

Several months ago the GiW, flush off the success of having the Anti-Ecto Acts passed– even if they had to hide it beneath several hundred adjustments to agricultural and infrastructure legislation– made a mistake.

Their little campaign of hatred was going well, maybe too well– so why not make it public? Why not grasp for a little more power, incite some torch and pitchforks? There were a dozen roads the stupid bastards could've taken, but they wanted the shortcut. The highway.

They decided that their next campaign against the ghosts would be to release several videos highlighting the utter destruction left in the wake of their fights. Show America there was something worth fighting on their hometurf. Make them angry. Make them vicious.

Jason figures they’d expected some backlash for it. There would've been a PR guy, or ten, or twenty, paid the big bucks just to sit around and consider it all. He'd interrupted enough board room meetings in his youth past life that he's got a pretty damn good idea of what to visualize; a bunch of white guys, forty plus, sitting around and deciding how people they did not know, understand, or give two fucks about were likely to receive this kind of news.

Ghosts were real, and terrible. The slogans were equally as bad, of course. And that wasn't on the PR team- that was on whatever dead-eyed millennial got paid way too little to give a fuck. Grandma can't cook you pies like she used to- she's too busy eating your soul. Little Timmy who fell down the well has taken one too many pointers from Samara Morgan. That kinda shit.

Someone was still gonna care about 'em. Someone was gonna call this inhumane. Someone would look into that Act and realize ghosts; talking, once-living people (some of 'em), had less rights than the average lab rat. Someone would start a protest.

The GiW would've thought about that and prepared for it. They must've felt invincible enough to chance it anyway, because they started uploading their 'documentaries' on the barbarity of ghosts online. Probably stroking their cliché ass moustaches and puffing cheap cigars all the while.

The fuckers would've expected all that. What they didn't expect, when blasting the world with their little softcore snuff vids, was how into it the world became.

Ghost fights? Were fucking badass.

And now the whole world knows it.

Gotham, especially, knows it. Gotham loves it. This was the kind of thing that was made to take over the nightlife of an already unhinged city; sports bars replacing football with the newest renditions of that one robot dude smacking down a couple of buildings, taking bets on what was gonna get him first– Danger Twink, Little Red Flying Hood, Morally Ambiguous Scientists, or The Man.

Proper names for each entity- and every other painfully stereotypical character involved- were hard to come by, initially. Most of those founding videos had the sound swapped out for the screams of children, flat voiceovers of scientists reminding the people that ghosts don't feel, so don't feel for them.

The bars played 'em on mute and blasted their own tunes over the top. Others had their own live MCs to commentate on the action. Robot dude got the name Gadget Goatee, the sweetass punk rock girl was On Fleek. The ghost seemingly addicted to boxes was Box Ghost. Names like that. When camera crews of reputable (and not so reputable) sports channels started sneaking into Amity Park, some names got adjusted. Some didn't.

The day pre-fight interviews began to happen was the day Jason seriously started considering why the Justice League hadn't gotten involved yet, enough to ease that question into conversation with Dickiebird. To sate his curiosity, no other reason. Turns out, Danger Twink had asked them not to. And the Justice League, full of some of the most anal and controlling people Jason has ever had the misfortune to meet, had listened to him. The petition signed by almost the entirety of Amity Park's population had probably helped.

Apparently, the city didn't want or need help. On the fighting front, at least. Nightwing is as in the dark for what, precisely, had been shared about why that was, but it was enough for Batman to raise the requirements for permission to be obtained by any hero wanting to go into Amity Park’s space– and for the rest of the founding members to approve them. 

JL's continued efforts to flatten the GiW and their miserable Anti-Ecto Acts had been cheerfully encouraged. Everything else, though? That was Danger Twink's problem. Or Phantom's joy, if you asked Jason's opinion on the matter. Not that anyone did.

The reality these days was that the government agency, high off their own fumes- as they often were- managed to fuck themselves right out of existence. And the ghosts? The ghost fights?

They were there to stay. Impressively contained within Amity Park with a startling level of confidence and control, all thanks to one girl on a hoverboard and a dead guy.

Place was even considered a chill place to visit, contrary to the continually televised property damage. The fights continued to maintain a level of popularity that was almost feverish, stealing their way into primetime television, spawning a couple dozen streaming services that would inevitably cannibalise themselves.

Oh, Jason could see the appeal of those fights. Hell, if he thought he could get away with it, he’d join ‘em. Sure, most of Gotham was into it for the more obvious reasons. Vicious mauling and extensive infrastructure repair that wasn't their problem, for once. Something new to bet on, some cool people (dead, alive, or never alive in the first place) to throw merchandise around for. The phenomenal amount of simping, the utterly batshit rule 34 that could be found online. A few ghost themed cocktails. All that good shit.

Jason just liked the sound.

He hadn't gotten into the videos until he could hear 'em, the ghosts themselves. It was something he kept to himself, seeing as- hey, no one else was mentioning it. His family was likely to think him insane again, so that was another deterrent. Nah, let folks think Red Hood enjoyed having that shit on in the background for...inspiration. Of the this might happen to the next person who crosses me variety.

But nah. He just, liked the sound.

It was like a secret concert, just for him. Some of those fights might as well be fucking operas. Full on musicals with a bit more green blood to 'em. Every ghost sang in a way Jason couldn't describe. There was a vibrato to it all, otherworldly and entrancing. A resonance that seemed to sink past his skin, right down to his soul.

They sing about obsession. They talk about what matters most to them, the parts of their unlife that are their beating hearts, their drive, their love. Every fight is an illicit fantasy, an almost embarrassing revelation of the people beneath the caricatures– Gotham sees neat fights, and Jason hears souls. 

It was simultaneously off-putting and addictive.

And fuck him sideways, but sometimes? The songs were kind of cute.

Especially the ones for Danger Twink. Most of the songs were for Danger Twink. Phantom, as he kept trying to tell the media, over and over again. The kid barely looked legal, though it was hard to tell when he was, y'know, six feet under. Brat could be 

Bruce's great grandpa several times over, for all he knew.

But he wasn't, if the songs were anything to go by. As far as the ghosts were concerned, this implied to be twenty year-old was, in ghost terms, baby. He was baby.

All the other ghosts knew it. All the other ghosts adored it. A solid fifty percent of the songs Jason could hear, day in, day out, were basically gooshy renditions of look at our small king. Our light. He has grown so much.

That Phantom’s response is usually the equivalent of mom please, you’re embarrassing me, as he makes a crater out of the earth with his opponent? Classic.

In a way, this whole shebang the world was addicted to was just a community trying to rear their child. Their potentially important child, or just important to them. Jason really didn’t know which way it was leaning, and it’s not like he could ask.

Really, he was just content to witness, maybe fantasize, a little, about what kind of songs they’d sing under his fists. What kind of song Phantom might sing, if Jason pinned him into the dirt.

One video changes that.

It’s a new one. Gotham is terribly excited by it; wherever Jason goes, he sees advertisements and hears people talking because– new ghost. New ghost. A new challenger approaches. The bars and the television companies keep any hints of who or what this late entry to the game might be, and it’s smart. Everybody’s talking about it. Fuck, even Tim is talking about it, and that little idiot hates the whole thing. Thinks it’s sickening that any being’s pain could be turned into sport.

Not that he’s wrong, just, y’know. No one’s really being hurt. 

Jason thinks he might also be… a little anticipatory. He’s gotten awfully familiar with the usual roster, their songs something that rattles off in his head throughout the day. He knows– heh. He knows what Phantom sings back to them. Intimately. Has that part memorized, and he’s not ashamed to admit it.

He wants to hear Phantom sing about something new. That’s what’s exciting.

It’s exciting right up until he’s slouched down at a bar, eyes fixed to the screen and the cheers of the crowd around him drowned out by a tune that turns his blood to ice, stirs up something that’s been quiet in him for years, until his eyes flash green.

Because the new ghost doesn’t want to play with Phantom. He wants to own him. Like a dog. With discordant notes that sound like laughter, high pitched and crazed, like a metal pipe slamming into his face, over and over again–

And Phantom is defiant, glorious, powerful.

Afraid.

Jason doesn’t remember getting onto his bike, but as he heads east, he knows exactly where he’s going. Fuck permission, fuck the Justice League, and fuck Phantom for trying to handle that sort of shit on his own.

He doesn’t know how he’s gonna do it, but this Plasmius guy? Is about to learn what it’s like to die. For the second time.

[lou-struck]

Dodge This!

Mirio Togata x reader (ft. Tamaki Amajiki)

~ Mirio has a new hobby and he just had to bring you along to cheer him on.

W.C. 2.6k

a/n: this was a sleep-deprived idea but I really am happy at how this turned out. I really had to incorporate some non-canon pop culture references for narrative sake. 

The dimly lit pathways do little to conceal the drying puddles of rainwater on the street around you as you and your boyfriend, Mirio Togata, pass rows of darkened buildings in the city's warehouse district. 

"Are you sure we're heading to the right place, Mirio?" You whisper, looking around for any sign of another person. "It seems awfully quiet around here."

He gives you a smile and drapes one of his strong arms around you, pulling you close. "There's nothing to worry about, y/n; we'll get to the gym soon. I just can't wait for you to see me play."

The game in question, dodgeball…

It's no secret pro heroes have some of the hardest jobs out there. Over time, pros have found ways to unwind after work just like everyone else, joining book clubs, poker groups, and adult sports teams.

The latter of which has been gaining more traction in recent years.

After hearing about a quirk-friendly recreational dodgeball league, Mirio jumped at the chance to sign up for a chance to use his quirk for something other than work. The first few times he had gone out, he returned sweaty, slightly bruised from ducking and diving against the gym floor, but more happy than you have seen him in a while. 

This is saying something because he is literally a big ball of Sunshine, hope, and optimism. All wrapped in a thick coating of good humor and affection.

At first, you did not want to go. Not because you weren't interested in watching a bunch of Pro Heroes throw rubber balls at one another but because it seemed like this was his thing. This little league has been so therapeutic for him you didn't want to inject yourself into the experience. But after weeks of pleading from him, you finally relented, knowing that in your heart, he wants to share this new and exciting part of his life with you, the person he loves most in the world. 

"Oh, watch your step there," he says suddenly. His large forearm shoots out in front of your stomach to stop you from stepping into a massive pothole full of rainwater. 

"Thank you." Looking down into the deep hole in the ground, you shudder, imagining the uncomfortable sensation of walking around all night with a sock drenched in rainwater. "You really saved me there, Lemillion." your smile is soft as you meet his twinkling gaze. 

His smiling cheeks flush a light pink color at the soft way you said his Hero name. "Anything for you," he beams, taking your hand and guiding you over the obnoxiously large puddle. His hand stays comfortably on your own as you continue walking down the paved street. He happily hums the Mission Impossible theme song, his current hyper-fixation, until he comes to a stop in front of a large warehouse. The white fluorescent light on the outside flickers as it is circled by big white moths.

"And here we are," he declares, turning his attention to you. His features turn serious as he places both of his hands on your shoulder. "Now, do you remember the first rule of underground dodgeball?"

"Ummm, don't talk about underground dodgeball?" you reply as his poker face shatters into his usual joyful features.

"That's it,” he laughs, his body practically buzzing with excitement. 

"I should've never made you watch Fight Club, "you mutter under your breath as he takes some sort of access card out of his jacket pocket and slides it into the electronic lock. It beeps in response and the little red light on the side of the sensor turns from red to green as the metal doors open for the both of you. 

You are flabbergasted at the complexity of the private facility. "All this for dodgeball?" this is kinda high tech, and you wonder which one of the country's extremely wealthy, retired Pro Heroes decided to fund this operation. 

"Yeah, isn't it the best?" he asks, practically bounding down the short hallway toward the ever-growing sound of chatter. His mannerisms remind you of a golden retriever on its way to the dog park. The mental image brings a smile to your lips as you step into a massive gymnasium, its warm overhead lights illuminating the whole room. 

A massive indoor sports court lies in the center of the room, surrounded by a few rows of bleachers. 

There are already a multitude of heroes and sidekicks standing around the room, some tossing red rubber balls into the padded walls with a scary strength behind them. The impact sends shivers down your spine as you worriedly look to Mirio. But he doesn't seem nervous in the slightest at the possibility of decapitation by rubber ball. Instead, his blue eyes are alight with the fires of competitive determination. 

"This is…" The word frightening lingers on the tip of your tongue, but he beats you to the punch. 

"Incredible isn't it? In here we get to let loose a bit and have fun without worrying about our rankings or the media."

You nod, noticing the carefree smiles of the other Heroes in the room. This league is a good thing for them to have fun and just act like they are normal people whilst throwing rubber balls at each other.

He looks at the clock counting down on the switchboard above the gym and shoots you an embarrassed grin. "It looks like we are cutting it a bit close today. My game starts in five minutes, so I'll have to warm up a bit so I can really impress you."

"I'm already impressed with you Mirio," you smile fondly. "I'll go up to the bleachers and get all settled in."

You turn to leave him to his own devices, and you feel a gentle pull on your wrist before you can step away. "Wait," he says firmly, the look on his face dead serious. "You're forgetting something."

"You cock your head to the side and try to remember what he could be talking about. When he sees that furrow in your brow, his serious face melts away, revealing that mischievous boyish grin that never fails to make your heart skip a beat. "You forgot my good luck kiss."

"Oh my," you mock gasp, "how could I forget such an important thing?"

He shakes his head, "It's a crime for sure; you'll have to pay double for this infraction."

"I think that can be arranged," you chuckle, closing the short distance between your two bodies and pressing two gentle pecks to his lips. The kiss is brief, but you can still taste the berry-flavored chapstick he put on earlier lingering on his lips. 

You pull away and playfully tug down on the hem of his shirt. "Good luck, Mirio," you murmur, nudging him off toward the court where his other teammates are waiting for him.

It's a short walk up a lightweight metal staircase to the raised bleachers. Since these leagues are pretty low profile, there aren't many spectators. You see a few groups of people waiting to play in the next round, but near the back of the bleachers, you spot a familiar-looking head of indigo hair sitting all by themselves. 

"Hello, Tamaki," you say, coming over to sit next to your friend. "I didn't know you were on one of the dodgeball teams."

"I'm not," he replies, popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth. The heavenly aroma of butter fills your nostrils as you pull your gaze away from the bag he must've gotten from one of the little concession areas in the warehouse. "But someone at my agency wanted to make plans tonight, and I told them I was busy, so I decided to come here so I wasn't lying to them."

"Oh, I get it," you say sympathetically. "But I'm glad you're here. I don't really know anyone else, so it will be nice to have someone to talk to."

He gives you a small smile and tilts his popcorn bag towards you. "Thanks y/n. Here, take some. I saw you were looking at it earlier."

"Thank you," you smile embarrassedly at the realization you are just as sneaky as Mirio. "Was it that obvious?"

"Just a little bit," he says. 

Suddenly, you are interrupted by the sound of a rubber ball hitting the wall with a terrifying force. It barrels back at the player who threw it like a boomerang. "Wow, do these balls just not pop?"

"Not usually," Tamaki says. "Since these games are for Pro Heros, the equipment was designed by support specialists to be extra durable. Occasionally, things will break, but it's way less common than with normal equipment."

"I see," you say quietly. Instinctually, your eyes dart over to Mirio in concern, but he looks so genuinely happy stretching and talking with his teammates it gives you a sense of security. If he isn't worried, you shouldn't be either.

A short man in a referee uniform steps up to the side of the court and blows the silver whistle from around his neck. The clear, high-pitched sound echoes off the walls, signaling to the teams of six to take the court.

A line of red rubber balls sit motionless in the center of the court. The players are touching the back walls with just the tips of their fingers as they stare the balls down hungrily as they try to decide which one to go for first.

There is a competitive intensity in the air that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but when you finally zero in on your boyfriend on the court, he doesn't seem to be at all intimidated. 

Instead of the balls or his opponents or anything else game-related, you see that he is looking up in the bleachers right at you. A big, goofy grin rests on his face as he waves up at you enthusiastically. 

You laugh and give him a small wave back just as the starting whistle blows, and both teams are off. Mario doesn't run toward the line of ammunition at all; he hangs back and paces across the floor with an open, unassuming posture that basically invites his opponents to chuck a ball at his chest. 

It doesn't take long until the first player takes the bait. A woman with plum-colored skin and a long silver ponytail steps up and throws the ball his way with a wicked speed. It has a slight backspin as it barrels toward his face. 

It gets closer and closer until he activates his quirk, and it passes harmlessly through his body and hits the wall behind him. If it weren't for the special workout clothes he was wearing, you would worry about him sinking through the ground and popping up completely naked.

"Nice throw," he smiles, crouching slightly to pick up the now harmless ball. "If that had hit me, I would definitely feel that tomorrow." He winds up his throw and slings it across the court with a curve. 

The woman dodged just barely, but the man behind her wasn't so lucky. The ball hits one of his spring-loaded knees as he tries to leap out of the way and is sent off by the referee. 

"Way to go Mirio." you cheer happily. When the sound of your voice reaches his ear, he can't help but puff out his chest with pride. 

'Watch me,' he mouths, stepping into the middle of the court. 

"Looks like someone is getting overconfident," Tamaki mutters next to you. 

"What do you mean?" you ask as Mirio sneaks a smile your way just as his opponents throw three balls at him at once. Thanks to his quirk, he is basically untouchable. If this whole 'hero thing' doesn't work out, you are sure he will have a promising career in the underground dodgeball circuit.

Because that is totally a real thing. 

"Wow, he's incredible," you murmur to Tamaki. 

"He is," the hero replies, "but Mirio has a weakness."

"Really?" you ask, struggling to think of how he can lose at this game, "how so?"

"Just watch, you'll see what I mean," he replies, taking a long sip from his water bottle.

And watch you do. 

As the game rages on, Mirio's teammates are picked off one by one until Mirio finds himself staring down his opponents. The woman with the silver ponytail and the man with the strength quirk you saw earlier warming up. 2 vs. 1 may not be a fair fight, but you have full faith in your boyfriend. 

 His evasive maneuvers are professional and practiced. He is so good at dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging some more until all of the balls on the playing field end up on his side, safely out of his opponent's reach.

With a bright red ball in his hand, you see him wind up his throw, rush to the top of the court, and send it flying through the air with all his might.

But the man from before, smiling in his black leather singlet (which cannot be comfortable), catches the ball with one of his giant hands as if it were a balloon. 

Mirio is out. 

The ref blows the final whistle, and the match ends. 

After shaking hands with each one of his opponents, his smile falls, and he sulks over to you with his head hung low. "Ahhh, I was so close," he groans, plopping down next to you and leaning his sweat-dusted brow on your shoulder. 

"But you played so well," you say gently, consoling him. "This is so much fun to watch. Thank you for inviting me."

He perks up and puts his chin on your shoulder. "You had fun?"

You nod and press your lips to his forehead. "So much fun."

Tamaki clears his throat. "You player well, fo you play again?"

"Tamaki, thank you for coming." Mirio smiles, looking over to his best friend. "Yeah, I think we play again after this game. Do you want to play? I think we can add in an extra player."

The indigo-haired man's eyes go wide as he starts to shake his head. "N-no, I can't."

"Why not?" Mirio asks cocking his head to the side."

You watch as Tamaki tries to come up with an excuse. “Because… because…”

"That doesn't sound like a reason to me." you hum thoughtfully. 

Mirio claps his hands together. "Perfect, then you'll be playing on my team in the next round."

"We could get ice cream afterward." you offer as the shy hero accepts his fate.

He narrows his eyes. "Fine, I'll play. But you're paying."

"Done," you agree, as your boyfriend looks like he is about to burst from happiness at the idea of playing dodgeball with his best friend. 

"This is great!" he exclaims, patting Tamaki on the back. "There's extra clothes in the locker room in the back, go get changed."

"You sound too excited about this," Suneater mumbles as he heads off toward where the locker room must be, with the slightest hint of pep in his step.

Your boyfriend looks at you warmly, his sapphire eyes filled with love as he takes your hand. "Thank you for helping me convince him to play. I think this will be good for him to let loose a bit."

"I think you guys will have fun." you say earnestly, "I can't wait to watch."

Mirio gently pokes your cheeks. 

"Hey y/n?"

"Babe?"

"The love of my life?" 

You scoff as his enthusiasm brings a smile to your lips. "Yes?"

"If we win the next game can I get two scoops?" he leans in close to you and peppers your face with bribing kisses, your favorite form of currency."

"Mirio, if you win. I'll get you three scoops."

Tagging: @enchantedforest-network

[ilk-insolence]

Raph and Leo Analysis: Hot Potato BrainCell

Thinking about it, Bug Busters and Jupiter Jim Ahoy! were parallel situations for Leo and Raph. They were the only brother that voiced concerns about following a charming but suspicious stranger into their headquarters, were both ignored, and ultimately proven correct for their wariness and had to go rescue their family. What’s even more ironic was that their concerns were blown off specifically by each other in those episodes.

Obviously, this was a result of Raph and Leo being well-written complex characters with amazing contradictions (and the differing variables), but I wanted to understand the specific mechanics and rules behind their game of hot potato with the brain cell.

(long post!)

A pattern that I’ve come to see looking at different moments of “common sense” for Leo is that they’re all instances of him being worried for the safety of his loved ones. The most well known examples, found in this post that the majority of the fandom has seen (therefore I can avoid rehashing them all), are all Leo just trying to keep his family safe. Some additional moments are when Leo asks if sticking Splinter in a plastic ball is cruel or not in Down With the Sickness [15:51], him being the only one worried about the by Albeartos in Al Be Back [16:11], and when Leo remarked that it’s kind of messed up to use Donnie’s game addiction against him in The Purple Game [18:00]. Occasionally, Leo’s concerns even spread to people he didn’t know, like with Bullhop in Bug Busters, and when he asked April if she still had the orb holding the people of New York in Finale Part 3: Anatawa Hitorijinai [6:35]. Outside of that, Leo has the exact same batshit, reckless decision making skills as the rest of his brothers. (Should I even list examples--?) Air Turtle (bought the obviously demonic bridge), Clothes Don’t Make The Turtle (he pushed all his brothers into a pit without a plan because he was so excited), Bad Hair Day (agreed to grow hair to get into a discriminatory retreat instead of, I don’t know--getting a wig), The Evil League of Mutants (willingly went to New Jersey), Flushed But Never Forgotten (tried to replace his brothers with googly eyed rocks), and so forth. Leo being reasonable is Leo being worried, displaying a level of understanding and tact that the rest of his brothers kinda skip over. His common sense is from his protectiveness and care.

However, there are times where Leo’s common sense/worry gets pushed to the side when Leo pursues an agenda. Pizza Puffs, Minotaur Maze, and The Gumbus are some examples. It’s also what happened in Jupiter Jim Ahoy!, where Leo dismissed Raph’s desire to leave Moncrief’s house because he wanted to hang out with one of his favorite movie star heroes (and avoid Splinter). Even though Leo is shown to have a healthy sense of stranger danger, his worry was overridden by the allure of a real life Jupiter Jim.

Raph’s general good sense is similarly powered by his love and worry for his family. However it’s also powered by responsibility; not only as the oldest brother, but as a hero to New York City. Out of the rest of his brothers, it’s clear Raph is the most dedicated to the duty of protecting people. It’s why situations like Pizza Puffs (the mission chart), and The Longest Fight occur. It’s also why he’s the one that repeatedly gets his brothers to focus on the fight, like in the hypnosis in Clothes Don’t Make a Turtle [15:32]. However, being responsible and worried isn’t exactly the same thing as making reasonable decisions. Raph’s dedication to hero work can sometimes turn on him, make him too excitable to make sensible choices. It’s why he was chill with going after the spine-breaking/mangling bad guys for the Mad Dogs’ first mission, or create the whole FAB situation in Stuck On You, or immediately begin fighting the Foot Clan in Mystic Library [6:32], or why his solution to The Mutant Menace problem was to go outside and “‘smack people in the face with good deeds!’” [12:22]. Raph’s eagerness to being a hero can occasionally push him to behave rashly. (Kind of like his anger.) This is what happened in Bug Busters, where Raph got so swept up with the concept of catching the oozequitoes, of Big Mama’s help assisting him to do better hero work, that he completely dismissed Leo’s concerns surrounding Big Mama’s motives [7:45]. Admittedly, Leo’s suspicions is also due to him just being better at reading people, but Raph’s complete dismissal of his concerns shows that he was being stubborn around the subject too. Conversely, in Jupiter Jim Ahoy! Raph’s protectiveness over his brothers was greater than his love for Jupiter Jim, which fell in line with his responsible nature as the big brother, making him be the reasonable brother for that episode.

And that’s how A-team played hot potato with the brain cell.

oh god I didn't even touch on the movie at all wow.

[baronfulmen]

Holy shit Pathfinder 2e is even better than I was expecting you guys

Look I don't want to dump a long post on everyone but please click to read more. Come on. It's actually interesting.

Okay so I know Tumblr, here to get you interested is a fun fact: There's a specific god that will help you trans your gender.

The rest is more about rules and gameplay but click anyway.

Having three totally interchangeable actions per turn is SO GOOD, and having actions worth doing means you don't end up just doing the same thing every turn like in 5e.

Anyone, regardless of class, can choose to use their turn to:

Move, move, and move again.

Attack, attack, and attack again (not actually a good strategy but it's nice to have the option).

Roll intimidation to make the enemy frightened, trip them (which is more likely to succeed now that they're frightened), and then hit them (which is more likely to work now that they're on the ground).

Move, shoot someone, then duck behind cover.

Cast multiple spells if you know spells (most often good spells cost two actions to cast, but some cost one so you could cast 2-3 spells in a single turn sometimes).

Cast a spell (if you know spells) that is the equivalent of a concentration spell in 5e, and then use an action to keep the one you cast last turn going too (then next turn you can use an action to sustain BOTH of them and also do a third thing).

Hit someone, step back out of their range without provoking an attack of opportunity (though wonderfully most people can't do those anyway which means people actually move around in combat thank god) and then raise a shield to get an AC boost.

Roll to recall what the thing you're fighting is weak against, attack it, and then (because that first action told you it has a gaze attack) avert your eyes.

Etc.

That's without any feats or class features (I mean as noted above not everyone knows spells and stuff but you get what I mean) and there are other actions I didn't even mention. PLUS, it means spells can do different things for different numbers of actions!

(Those little diamond shapes are actions, so you can see that this one spell can be cast for one, two, or three actions with different effects)

2. Degrees of success mean that things don't fail outright as much and you can get bonus effects from tons of things. Also it means that every little bit helps which encourages strategic gameplay (like the tripping and intimidating stuff mentioned above).

Rolling ten or more higher than your target is a critical success, and missing it by ten or more is a critical failure. Also, getting a nat 1 or nat 20 changes the degree of success by one level. So you can get a nat 20 on something way out of your league and have it bumped from a failure to a success, or you can roll so well that you crit succeed just because you got a 31 on a DC 20 save or something (numbers are bigger in Pathfinder because you add your level to almost everything, but it's all balanced out and is fine I promise).

Like, look at what tripping does:

Or spells!

See, it's not purely save-or-suck!

3. There are so many cool ways to customize your character!

Pathfinder 2e is built on feats, but unlike 5e they're actually balanced. You get skill feats! You get class feats! You get ancestry feats! A lot of them are minor by themselves but FUN and you get SO MANY that no two characters will ever be alike. You can also (optionally) take an Archetype that lets you kinda sorta multiclass into not only other classes or a medic or a special kind of whatever but also random shit like "guess you're a ghost now".

Right now there are 3,983 feats. Yes really. This isn't as intimidating as it might sound; a lot are for specific classes, specific archetypes, specific ancestries, or for skills your particular character doesn't care about. Some are also restricted to higher levels, or have other requirements like having a certain skill at X rank or having some other earlier feat. Also at any given time you're looking for a particular type of feat, so your list will be smaller and totally manageable. It's 100% fine and easy to pick one. Like, when I was picking a level 2 class feat for my summoner these were my options:

Not so many that it's overwhelming or anything, but because you (over time) select so many different kinds of feats it really lets you fine tune your character to be whatever you imagine.

4. There are specific rules for things you can do while wandering through a dungeon or the wilderness or whatever!

Yes, sure, in 5e you can say "uh, I'm gonna keep casting Guidance over and over as we walk" or something, but a lot of the things people ask to do are hard to rule on. Can they really be constantly ready in case combat breaks out? How do you give them an advantage for that sort of thing without it just being a free buff?

But in PF2e there's rules for that! If you think there's gonna be combat, you can take actions such as:

Scout! This means if a fight breaks out everyone gets a +1 to initiative!

Avoid Notice! This means if a fight breaks out you roll your stealth for initiative rather than perception (everyone is trained in perception and it's the default thing you roll for initiative, but theoretically the GM could have you roll anything, like if you were trying to act friendly and then surprise attack maybe you'd roll deception) and if you roll well you can start combat hidden!

Defend! This means if a fight breaks out you start with your shield already up, raising your AC!

And then there's non-combat focused stuff too, like searching and keeping detect magic up and all sorts of stuff. There's a whole page of activities.

5. Some of the magic items are really funny.

[hollowshadow2]

Reverse robins AU

Damian-phantom/claw

Damian is first OFC, he was conceived back when Bruce was training with the league from age 0-10 he was raised by the LOA and then when he was 10 Talia sent him to Gotham, and then he became phantom Bruce didn’t know how to raise a child, and definitely not an ex-assassin, at the time so fighting between the two were common when he was 19 he stopped working with Bruce and then went to work alongside cat woman, she was in a on-off relationship with Bruce while he was raising Damian so she helped raised him some and that’s why he went to her, he becomes known as claw.

Cassandra-swan

Cass is the first batgirl(kinda) her parents sent her to kill an important political figure but then her and Damian meet again having already met before at the LOA, for awhile she wasn’t a vigilante for 5 months just getting settled into her new life, she was adopted by Bruce and watches over Damian, she went into ballet her vigilante name being swan, she and Damian got into fights as well but not as much as Bruce and Damian, Damian being more lose about the no killing rule at first (he later follows it more strictly) and cass being fully against killing

Stephanie-phantom/banshee

Steph is the second phantom to haunt Gotham, her father being a villain trying to compete with the riddler, her mother a drug addict, one day she follows her father planing to take him down and Bruce finds her, he trains her with permission from her mother wanting her to have a better chance at life, she later was ordered to fake her death, moving out of Gotham to continue training while undercover, she later comes back as banshee

Timothy-phantom/wisp

Tim the 3rd phantom, he was close friends with Steph, she never told him her identity but he knew, after figuring out her identity he found out the others and began to stalk the bats to make sure steph was safe but he believed he failed, in order to make sure Steph’s dreams don’t go forgotten he forced Bruce to take him as phantom later he became wisp. when Jason comes around he’s not all that friendly

Jason-Phantom/wrath

Jason, the 4th phantom and now wrath, he was caught stealing from a store by cass who drops him off with Bruce, he becomes phantom after a while before running off to save his mother, just to be tortured and killed by the joker when he was 12, he later comes back with use of the pit, he returns to Gotham at 14 as wrath, his actions ruled over by rage.

Barbra-watcher

Babs stared helping Bruce and the phantoms out when she was 8 she would have her father bring her to the job and then she would help them with case files and sometimes they taught her different moves, she dreamed of being a great vigilante like them, but the joker shot her and so she couldn’t, but she later sets up the technology so that she could continue to help, she works part time at the library she becomes known as watcher

Richard-robin

Dick, the first robin, he is currently in training and the youngest Bruce wanting to bound with Tim drags him to a circus where they watch a kid lose his parents, Bruce has Tim watch over dick while he gets legal things handled.

[yuurei20]

Malleus Info Compilation part 16: Malleus, Silver and family

Silver finds himself wondering if he could ever “turn (his) blade against” Malleus and Lilia if they one day chose to fight him of their own volition, during the Halloween event.

Silver says that “Lilia and Malleus have been looking out for me for as long as I can remember. I’d train with Sebek, and sometimes Malleus would sneak out and visit us”, insinuating that Malleus' visits to the cottage where Silver lived with Lilia had to be conducted in secret.

In Silver’s ceremonial robes vignette we learn that he, Lilia and Sebek patrol the grounds before Spelldrive tournaments, in case of spies. Idia says that Malleus is “game-creakingly OP”, making their efforts “kinda overboard”, and Silver explains that “Before coming to this school, (Malleus) was so well-protected that he never set one foot outside the castle without a whole cadre of guards”. When Idia asks if Malleus rules Diasomnia “with an iron fist” and everyone is scared to defy him, Silver insists that, “Malleus doesn’t need fear to lead anyone….I will do anything for the man I have pledged my loyalty to. Without Malleus and Lilia, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I simply want to repay my debt to them.”

Silver argues with Sebek over how strictly they should be staying close to Malleus, insisting that “Malleus deserves some time to himself”, but he questions this conviction after Sebek says “to leave him alone for even a second would be an act of supreme negligence”.

After learning the extent to which Kalim depends upon Jamil, however, Silver decides that “being overprotective must be avoided at all costs”.

Jamil uses Silver’s devotion to Malleus to manipulate him into fighting ghosts during Spectral Soiree.

During Firelit Sky, Malleus purchases coffee for Silver as “it might help him stay awake”, and Malleus has a voice line where he says, “Silver trains hard every morning. There’s something to be said for that level of perseverance.”

In his birthday vignette Malleus explains that he receives a birthday card from his Grandmother, the queen of Briar Valley, despite how she is kept extremely busy by overseeing the country alone in his absence. In addition to the card, she also sends him rose seeds.

Malleus says that he would plant roses at the castle in Briar Valley every year on his birthday and, as a result, there is now a large rose garden there. In his second birthday vignette, she sends him cufflinks.

Malleus also mentions that his grandmother used to tell him tales about the Scalding Sands. Malleus has no siblings, and he insists to Jamil that “one should treat their family with respect” when Jamil tries to send Najma away during the Firelit Sky event.

We do not hear much else about Malleus’ grandmother, though in a chat he says that his magic “can’t even league a candle to” that of his grandmother yet, and that “the queen is leagues beyond me”.

In a vignette we get what might be the one and only reference to his parents thus far: he says "this land's forebears toiled in the hopes of giving their descendants a happy, peaceful life. I wonder if it was the same for my grandmother and Lilia...and for my mother and father."

[kitakami-kid]

kieran's probably having the weirdest day ever lol

also some notes on how his team did!

- crispin was surprisingly a challenge! politoed and talonflame were pretty much fighting over the weather like that one scene in sleeping beauty where the fairies fight over aurora's dress color (and dragonite kinda relied on the rain so i had no choice lol)

- every other E4 member was pretty easy, including lacey, despite his two dragon types and lack of steel/poison coverage minus gyro ball

- politoed did extremely well! i didn't really expect that since i always two-shot kieran's. however, i did build it with lots of bulk + leftovers since i didn't have a wacan nor a sitrus berry

- hydrapple is SUCH A TANK! who needs a speed stat if you can take so many hits with minimal damage? i know the tera fighting is more of a reflection of his character, but if he used tera steel he would do much better

- the actual battle itself against kieran was pretty even! but i guess that's obvious since we had the exact same lineup (i didn't even do switch outs or sending out pokemon based on type advantage, i just went down the same order as him). however, even though i started the league with the same levels as him, they ended up much higher in the end which was ultimately the reason i won.

- i also had a strict no-healing items rule, just to be fair

my thoughts? kieran's team is pretty solid and he is actually capable of beating the league! with a few tweaks, he'll be golden! and he should also hunt for a shiny grimmsnarl because i can't get over how fucking cool it is... it's in a dream ball too and i really love the pink smoke bomb effect. his name is asmodeus and he's my fav

[meiko3323]

Curses, there's sand in my shoes.

the feeble scholar working hard to collect the ascension mats for his roommate. 🌿

my first time entering a fanart contest, pretty nervous >///< i hope its not against the rules to cross-post it here, though i combed through the rules and i dont think it specified anything.

even before i started posting my art, ive always kind of wanted to participate in a hoyolab fanart contest some time but never had the opportunity or inspiration. then genshin partnered with the discovery channel and used Kaveh as the mascot and i was struck with a vision - Alhaitham exploring the desert, harvesting mourning flowers for his bf. ive worked on this on and off for 3 days i think. this was a challenge in several ways. for one, ive never had much practice drawing a male torso outside of like Itto that one time. then there was the achilles heel of many beginner artists id imagine - the background. which was kind of the main point of this contest, you had to show off the scenery of teyvat. i actually went to the realm of farakhkert and took a screenshot as reference to make this. there was also the limitations of my dollarama coloured pencil palette that forced me to get creative with layering them to get the shades/ tones as close to the way i want them. last but not least, there was the mental demons i had to fight along the way. but im glad i pushed through :<

among my friends, i call this man The Honorary Dendro Waifu, since we dont have a real one yet (hoyo plz) and w his massive pecs he kinda looks the part lol. i hope i did him justice. i also hid a small Kaveh easter egg (ig you could call it that?) in the pic, its literally very small - the fastener thingy on the string of Allies hat is in the shape of Kavehs cat-lion keycharm :3

ive got no delusions abt winning or even making the runner-up spot, i see the caliber of artists in the space and they are leagues above and beyond me. but this was a fun experience nonetheless. wish me luck ig ^^

[batpham-discord-highlights]

2024 April fools and Anniversary Event Prompt List part 6

See what the event was and it's rule here!

Hero! Prompts:

Hero Lisa

Gotham AU has classes at 2 am, because that's when some people can attend. Jazz had no idea and now she is in a class with a very cute girl that glares at everyone and everything, claiming that "her dad put her to it". Anyway, Rose wants to go back doing her own stuff and she wants Slade to leave her alone

Hero Cashmire

Damian likes to draw. It's relaxing and he's good at it. When he ends up with a cast on his dominant arm after a patrol, leaving him temporarily unable to hold a pencil, it hits him harder that he wants to admit.

Every hero has a theme song, even if they don't know it. It's not something that's consciously playing, it's the soundtrack of the universe, unhearable but effecting reality all the same. Unless you're Danny, the ancient of space that is. He can hear everyone's themes because he can hear the fabric of the universe playing for them. Sometimes it's a beautiful symphonic masterpiece. Sometimes it's a JL meeting where everyone's yelling and their themes are in all sorts of keys and it's making Danny's head hurt

Hero Owen

Tim Drake is not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Last he knew, he was at the Batcomputer chugging along on 2 cups of coffee and 6 energy drinks. But now the sky is green and the ground is blue, and a blood red castle towers over him with what is definitely a face for an archway. And what is that black and white blob floating in the doorway?!

Tim should sleep. He really should sleep. He’s been seeing the weird shadow figure out of the corner of his eye for over 24 hours now, and it has evaded all attempts to be looked at directly. Not to mention, he’s tripped over five different things, hit seven corners, and misplaced three cups of various liquids. When his luck hit the fan like this, it was usually a sign he should sleep. It was weird it was happening so quickly though. It’s only been 3 days since his last proper night of sleep, and usually it took at least a week for things to get like this. In other news, Danny was having a great time. Which was suspicious considering it was the anniversary of when he met Johnny and Kitty, and the bastard of bad luck liked to make a holiday out of it and send Shadow to mess up his day.

Villains! Prompts:

Villain Ky

The speedsters tend to vibrate at just the right frequency for danny, and most other realms folk, to interpret as as a soulscream. So, they’re kinda screaming in agony nonstop and nobody knows how to tell them this.

Pushed to the limit, Condiment King finally turns to the one thing known to stain any and everything: ectoplasm.

Villain BreKitten

Tim and Jason were just chilling (they totally weren't fighting, totally) in the Batcave when suddenly, they appeared on a strange purple island, surrounded by a sky of Lazarus green. According to the floating robot, they have to fight - and win against - his champion to escape. His champion? A white-haired, green-eyed teenager that clearly does not want to fight them.

The Justice League is cursed to eat one food and one food only until they find the cure - the last thing they ate before they were cursed.

Villain Gremlin

Bart had been crushing on a person from his past (future) for years, never expecting to see him again, until a new hero pops up in the JL with a wonderful ghostly glow

If anyone wants to use and post with these prompts the Ao3 collection link is here, or post with #April Fools event 2024

[shatteredvioletnuzlocke]

Chapter 5: Mezagoza (Patch)

Not too far away from Arven’s lighthouse, was the tranquil village of Los Platos. Palm trees touched the sky, children ran down the amber, brick-paved roads, and Vivilion fluttered to bushes with fragrant flowers. After the hectic day they’ve been having, Patch and Nemona decided to grab a treat at the local Sugar-N-Ice cart. Patch went with a classic, mint chocolate chip. While the champion fancied a fruity mango cone.

Once the two paid for their food, Patch began to lick their ice cream. The sweet sensation of peppermint cooled them off and sent a tickling chill to their head.

Patch spotted two young children having a Pokémon battle; it was a Scatterbug against a Bountsweet. The silkworm released threads of string shot, but the Bounsweet countered with a rapid spin attack. Yet it proved to be useless as the fruit Pokémon’s twirling only managed to wrap itself in a ball of silk. 

“Use bug bite!” the Scatterbug’s trainer cheered.

As the Scatterbug tore away at the cocoon it made, a memory snuck into Patch’s mind. Violence doesn’t solve anything as much as you think it does, Arven’s voice echoed. Patch began to fear for the Bountsweet. Once the Scatterbug chewed through its silk, would it also gnaw away at the Bountsweet’s flesh? Just thinking about it horrified them, and they felt the need to step in before it got gruesome.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a Scatterbug with that tenacity!” Nemona chimed in, feeling casual about the whole ordeal.

“I don’t get how this can be fun to watch,” Patch passively confessed, “they could get hurt.”

The champion gave them an encouraging look, “I get you're still trying to figure out what you want to do as a trainer, but you have to understand…battling is kinda natural for Pokémon.”

“What do you mean?” Patch asked.

“Pokemon fight with each other all the time in the wild and some Pokemon are bred just to fight. If you deprive them of that, they get wound up and testy,” Nemona explained.

The new trainer found some fair reasoning in the Champion’s knowledge; it did seem somewhat cruel to keep nature from taking its course. Yet there was still a tinge of doubt that they couldn’t shake off.

“I get that…” they nodded, “but would that put them at a greater risk of getting killed?”

Given such a heavy question Nemona took a moment to scarf down their cone. Finally, after that she responded.

“Oh, the league would never allow that… There are special rules to prevent those kinds of things. So a Pokémon can only lose battle unless they get exhausted.”

Patch was surprised, the Pokemon battling was more thought out than they realized. 

“Of course,” she went on, “Pokemon still need to be taken to centers after a fight. And we can’t prevent a Pokemon from dying in the wild, it’s only for general trainer and gym battles.”

Patch felt thrown back into their obsessive thoughts. So gym battles are safer than the wild…crazy. I don’t know if this makes me more comfortable to battle. I’m being more careful when I catch Pokemon. But… What happens if I don’t let them battle at all? Will they hate me? And what about Kapheria? Arven already told me not to make her fight… 

“Yo, earth to Patch?!” Nemona waved her hand in front of the dazed trainer. 

They snapped back into reality “Oh, sorry!” 

“Come with me,” she giggled, “I wanna show you something!” 

They threw away their now melted cone, being too distracted to finish it. They followed Nemona down the path, occasionally licking the peppermint-flavored stickiness off their hand.The two trainers walked to what seemed to be a gas station located in a village with no cars. A bright red sign with a Pokeball symbol spun slowly from a pole. The gas station’s anning had the same color scheme as the sign, underneath stood a woman dressed in a medical outfit and a man dressed in an apron. There were no gas pumps or enough space for a car to drive in.

“What are we doing here?” Patch looked around confused.

“This is the Pokémon center!” The black-haired trainer smiled.

This?! This can’t be! Patch was familiar with Pokemon centers, the one back in Nacrene was at least an entire building. This station was out in the open with only a desk. How would anyone get treatment like this?!

“Do you need a quick fix?” The nurse kindly asked.

They weren’t sure what to say, but they felt curious as to how it worked. “Sure,” they answered.

Patch went into their polyester bag and scooped up Tamarind and Kombucha’s Pokeballs. They handed the Pokeballs to the nurse who locked them into some type of machine. The chattering typing of a keyboard could be heard, as the nurse clacked at a console in front of her. 

“Here you are, all healed up!” The nurse claimed.

In awe Patch took the two Pokeballs, It’s that easy?! 

“Over here!” Nemona called to them, standing near yet another weird machine. It resembled some kind of fancy vending machine. 

“What does it do?” Patch wondered. 

“Put one of your Pokemon here, and find out!” She playfully suggested.

There was a circular slot intended for a Pokeball and a crevasse breath that looked like it would dispense something. Being particularly curious about this high-tech center, Patch inserted Tamarind’s Pokeball. Above the slot, a screen read: Fuecoco. 

“Alright, now what?” The brown-haired trainer turned to find Nemona looking through her bag.

She pulled out three CDs in cases, “Pick one,” she said, holding them out like folded cards.

Patch confoundedly grabbed the case in the middle and found that it had a pink disk inside. So I must have to slide this in? They took out the disc, holding it from the sides to avoid smudging it with fingerprints. Upon sliding the screen went into a loading menu, and then displayed a green check mark. This still doesn’t make sense to me. The confused trainer let Tamarind out of his ball. 

“Tamarind?” Patch knelt to the fire croc, “Do you feel okay?”

The Fuecoco’s cheeks were puffed out and his eyes were pressed closed, he looked constipated. The trainer began to fret, their fire type was about to burst.

“Fuey!” Tamarind wailed in a honeyed pitch. Instead of fire the crocodile produced visual, pink sound waves shaped like hearts.

“Nice,” Nemona said, “That disarming voice will for sure come in handy!” 

Patch recognized that disarming voice was the name of a fairy-type attack. It then began to click, that machine teaches Pokemon different moves! It was all so astounding, Paldean technology was truly unlike anything they had ever seen! 

“Here,” the champion handed them a golden brown colored disc, “Teach this to your Lechonk!”

They inserted Kombucha’s Pokeball into the tutoring machines and slid in the disc, “What’s that one for?”

“Mud slap!” Nemona grinned, “Great for lowering accuracy!” 

Patch hadn’t a clue of what that meant but they trusted her judgment.

“You can have some of my extras,” she offered them some more discs, “then if you want different attacks, the TMM will make you new ones from ingredients.” 

“Really?” Patch asked intrigued.

The champion nodded and pointed to the machine, “I made this one with Wooper slime!”

“Oh cool…” they faked a smile. What the hell?

As soon as the move was learned, Patch placed Kombucha’s ball back into their pocket. But they became fixated on the prairie near the center. It was wide open with plenty of space and small sky blue pools where golden Psyducks waddled to go swim. Two Skovets scampered around the pale green grass, as an Azurill bounded along on it’s tail. The enchanting feeling of nature was seemingly inviting the trainer to visit.

“You can go on and catch something, I’ll just be awhile” Nemona reassured them, “but once your done, then we really have to head out.”

Patch squinted towards the sun, now bending to the east. Damn all that took up a good portion! 

They picked up Tamarind, “I won’t be long!”

With their fire croc in their arms, Patch jogged along the grass scanning the area for their next teammate. Compared to Poco Path, the land had more to offer. A small, pink Happiny totaled about in a bed of mauve pyrenees. Next to her a little, plump Fidough began digging a hole. So cute! 

Patch’s family had a pet Fidough back home named Piper. While tempted into approaching it they didn’t want Piper to feel replaced; there was only one Fidough in their life and that was enough. What else is there? 

All the more curious, the young trainer wandered towards a grove of shady trees. The sun was completely obscured beneath the trees' canopy, giving off a cool temperature. The only light seeping through, was the Fuecoco’s flickering tuft.

“Fuey…” Tamarind yawned.

“Don’t sleep now, buddy. We’re almost to the academy,” Patch whispered.

From the dim glow of the crocodile, they noticed loose strands of silk hanging off the branches. There are bug Pokémon nearby! Hopefully it’s just Scatterbug this time! They held Tamarind tightly in their arms, hoping that his warmth would protect them. 

But then they spotted odd placements of color along the grayish bark; blotches of blue, yellow, and red. Painted bark… Patch recognized with a growing smile, my next catch is here! They followed the pattern trees with eager footsteps. 

“Shoo shroo!” A high voice squeaked. 

Underneath the trunk of a blank tree a small gray rodent with a black face peaked out of the grass. 

“Shroodle!” Patch softly squealed. 

Shroodles were one of Patch’s favorite of the native Paldean Pokemon, because they shared an artistic soul. When studying Paldean fauna, they learned that Shroodles could produce ink-like bile that was used in the most expensive paints.

“Shroo?” The Shroodle gazed its huge cyan eyes at the human.

Oh gosh it sees me! Should I attack it? I don’t wanna hurt the little guy! The shrew padded closer to the human. How can I tell if it’s friendly? The Shroodle stood on its hind legs, sniffing Patch with its bulbous snout. Wittle man, they pouted, what if…

Patch plopped their bag to the ground, keeping Tamarind in one arm to keep him from getting loose. They placed an empty Pokeball beside the Shroodle, as it was bigger than the rodent and Patch was worried they would bonk them. 

“Shroo?” The Shroodle sniffed and nudged the ball, “Shroo!” 

The Pokeball rolled and the Shroodle played with it like a toy. Not my idea, but okay! 

“Shroo, Shroo!” The Shroodle scampered.

When the little Pokemon pressed the button, Pokeball opened and it was instantly sucked in. It bobbed for a moment but then clicked, indicating a capture.

“I CAUGHT A SHROODLE!” Patch hollered.

Their excitement was so loud that Fletchlings began to flutter out of the trees, screeching with distress. 

“Coco!” Tamarind wiggled his feet as he began to slip from his trainer.

Patch put down the croc, as their arms were getting tired from holding him for so long. They ran back to the Pokémon center, they’re hands flapping with giddy. Back at the center, Nemona was busy with the TMM with Fuerte and Pierce beside her. 

“Back already?” Nemona asked. 

Patch stopped to catch their breath, “Look… what I caught!”

They opened the Pokeball and held out their sweaty palm where their new Shroodle materialized. 

“Shroodle!” He peeped.

“You caught… a Shroodle?” She cringed. 

Patch’s purple eyes dilated, “His name is Arturo and I love him!”

Arturo seemed like a handsome name for a handsome lad. Now that they caught him, Patch could use his ink to make all the good paint they want. No more cheap acrylics that would dissolve into a clear solution! 

“Okay… cool,” The black-haired trainer gave a thumbs up, “Now, let’s get going! We’re nearing sunset!”

The two trainers made their way down a dusty path that split the prairie down the middle. Upon the top of the hill a massive cobblestone wall stood taller than the palm trees in Los Platos. It spread far beside the prairie, seemingly never-ending, but Patch knew behind the wall sat the City of Mezagoza; but more importantly the campus of Uva Academy. 

“Why does Mezagoza need those walls anyway?” They speculated, “Is it to keep out stronger Pokémon?”

“Not at all,” Nemona answered, “They were built by the old king centuries ago.”

Patch recalled very little about Paldean history, to their knowledge the region only ever had one king; not that Paldea ever needed one to begin with. A large mahogany wooden door awaited them and what appeared to be two sentry guards at the entrance. Both were wearing the same entire; white helmets with purple stripes and oddly enough Uva Academy uniforms. I guess they're on their way to campus too? Yet the other students sat lazily and ill-mannered in front of the gate as if to guard it

“Oh hear we go…,” Nemona sighed.

 So they know each other, Patch thought. 

The taller of the two students stood up, “Ay, you heading into Meza?” They tapped their boot against the dust impatiently.

“Yes…” Nemona gently pushed Patch aside, “And since when does the city have a toll booth?” 

The other student with dark hair flinched, while the first one faced the champion confidently. Whoever these two people were, Nemona had beef with them.

“You have two options…” the proud student offered, “Either battle us or j-”

“Diego, you idiot!” The shorter student muttered behind her clenched teeth, “That’s Nemona! Champion ranked trainer?!” 

Diego’s brown eyes widened and his smile quickly disappeared upon hearing the word “champion”. “Oh shh! Uh actually I just remembered I have somewhere to be!” His accent fluctuated under pressure.

“No no,” The champion refused, “I wouldn’t mind a battle.” 

By then the dark-haired student had fled the scene, it was just Diego trembling in his combat boots. Nemona’s tangerine eyes were burning not out of rage but with passion, she would never pass up a good fight. 

“Shall we?” She said tossing a pokeball in their hands.

Sweat was streaming down Diego’s quivering face, “Okay” he winced.

Patch gazed up at the sun, the blue sky beginning to turn warm from the east. Battling came first apparently, and who were they to tell Nemona no. A gentle tailwind came through as the battle began, Diego threw a pokeball with green stripes into the frey and out came Grimer. It’s purple sludgy, drippy body flowing to the ground, carrying a putrid musk that nearly made Patch’s eyes water. That smells worse than my Lechonk! Surprisingly, when Nemona sent out her Pokeball it held a tiny orange rodent. 

A Pawmi, they thought puzzled, why not just send in Pierce? It would make things go much faster. Strange choice aside, Nemona was a champion for a reason.

“Punchy, Charge up!” She commanded.

Electricty began to accumulate around the little Pawmi, yet the Grimer remained unharmed. Nemona… what are you doing?

“Gumbo, use mud slap!” Diego called.

“Gruhhh!” The Grimer belched out drops of black sludge from its gaping mouth.

“Dodge with a quick attack!” Nemona pressed forward. 

Her Pawmi suddenly jolted from the incoming mud slap. Although they weren’t  completely unscathed, as the backside of their orange fur was stained with black. 

“Charge once more!” The Champion retorted.

Nemona quit stalling, Patch’s anxiety became restless, Just hit him with something! With each new charge the Pawmi’s fur became a little more golden with electricity. But before both of them knew it, the Grimer took advantage of Nemona’s passive position and engulfed Punchy in it’s oozing body. Oh no! Patch panicked at the Pawmi drowning in sludge, Why are you letting this happen?! 

“Come now,” Nemona reached into her pocket, “Don’t think you’re winning?!”

In her hand, she held some kind of deep black Pokeball with a jewel-encrusted where the button would be. Patch assumed she would be sending in a much stronger Pokemon but the black Pokeball seemed to be gathering particles of light. Did that mean whatever Pokemon was inside was strong, they had never seen anything like it. Mysteriously it emitted a dazzling light, then Nemona threw it at her Pawmi.

It then dawned on Patch that it was something familiar, That’s a Terastlizing Pokeball! I’d never thought I’d see it this soon. As Pokeball opened, odd crystalline rocks pierced out of the Grimer’s body which nearly split it apart. The slimy Pokemon pulled itself away from the cluster which then shattered. In its place, Punchy stood with a shiny coat faceted like a gemstone. He wore a crystal crown resembling a lightbulb, signifying that he was an electric type. 

Patch was dazzled by the beauty of it all, Amazing! I wonder if I could ever do that?!

“Now Thundershock!” Nemona cheered. 

“Paw paw!” Punchy cried, unleashing a dazzling jolt of electricity.

The Grimer’s arms flailed about as it was hit and it let out an agonizing wail, “GRUUUUUHHHHHHH!”  

Diego quickly recalled his Grimer, his brown eyes shaken with fear. 

“Get out of here!” Nemona calmly murmured to her defeated opponent.

Diego ran off almost immediately, leaving the gate to Mezagoza completely unguarded and free to enter through. 

“Mui bein, Punchy!” Nemona congratulated her Pokemon.

A glimmering dust surrounded Punchy, and within a blink of an eye, his crystalline coat was back to normal. The Pawmi was just a bit bigger than Arturo but still able to fit in his trainer’s palm. 

“If you ever see anyone with similar helmets on, don’t talk to them! They’re with Team Star!” The champion informed Patch.

“Team Star?” Patch asked.

The name of it struck accord with a similar group back in Unova; Team Plasma. It gave Patch unpleasant thoughts, Plasma had nearly swayed the people of Unova to join their cause of giving up their Pokemon. During that period Patch was too young to understand what had transpired, but they were now old enough to look back on it in horror. If Plasma had succeeded, would they even be a trainer now?

“Did they want something from us?” Patch swallowed their bad memories.

“Maybe, but they just want new members,” Nemona answered with her Pawmi on her shoulder, “It’s kinda sad though, people who flunk out of the Academy go on to join them. Some of them even play dirty and disregard the League’s rules.”

An alarm was set off in the young trainer’s head, Disregarding the Rules?! Does that mean they’ll kill my Pokemon?! Would they kill me?! No matter what it meant they were thankful for Nemona protecting them from harm’s way. Yet, Patch couldn’t make up a plan if they ran into a Star member in the future. Would they be forced into battling? Could they just say they knew a Champion to get out of it? Maybe… battling another trainer was just as inevitable as losing a Pokemon.

“Anywho…” Nemona looked toward the sun, “If we keep stalling you might not be able to check in to your dorm room.”

The blue sky was now blended with a hue pink, then gold with a splash of amber surrounding the nearly setting sun. Nemona knocked on the mahogany door and it slowly creaked open; revealing the awaited city of Mezagoza. As Patch stepped through the ancient threshold, they felt they were living in the pictures of brochures they read. Just as they imagined, Mezagoza was an artful, grandiose city that couldn’t be contained on a single canvas.

The ground was paved with colorful bits of stone, arranged in a way to make it feel that you were walking on a mosaic. The buildings were painted blue or yellow with white accents to make them feel coordinated. Various shops made up streets, offering various knick-knacks and keepsakes. Nearby restaurants peppered the air with promising aromas that would soothe your nose, widen your eyes, and cause your mouth to water. Upon climbing a flight of stairs, Patch saw that a battlefield made up the center of the city. This time being paved with the finest alabaster marble and the field's borders are surrounded by a different color of tile to represent each type of Pokemon. 

Standing at the highest level of the city was the Uva Academy building. It was structured similar to a castle and its piercing spires couldn’t be missed no matter where you stood in the city. On the left of the building an arched bridge was connected to a separate tower where a tree grew. On the right, a faced dome stood out of place among the medieval structures and it was clear that it was added fairly recently. In the center of the building was a giant glass Pokeball in the belfry. 

“Is there any other way to get up there?” Patch asked, intimidated by the massive staircase leading up to the building. 

Nemona laughed, “You’re not a Uva student without climbing that staircase! Come on!” 

They treaded onward to campus, still dreading the rigorous climb. Well, it’s better than the Skyarrow Bridge, they thought. Patch was already out of breath when they made it up twenty stairs, while Nemona was already at the top waiting for them. Oh, come on! They complained in their head. The day had been long, but if it was going to be over they just needed to make it to their dorm. As they climbed more stairs they let the new possibilities in Paldea fester in their head. First day of being a trainer, in a day or so it’ll be my first day of being an art student. I’ll get to learn Pokemon anatomy. The Pokemon I caught today could model for me! I wonder how I would keep them still? Tamarind would probably be easiest, it’s easy for him to relax. I hope I can catch more Pokemon though. Finally, after all of that, they arrived at Uva Academy,

The campus courtyard was just as big as the city plaza, with plenty of room for grass and cypress trees to grow. Students who had already checked in were scattered about either on their own or forming cliques with others. Fate could only decide who Patch was going to befriend, but they had faith that the art classes would lead to happy connections.

“So now we’re here!” Nemona took a good stretch, “I wish I could have gotten you here sooner.”

“No no, it’s okay! Today was crazy!” Patch shrugged.

“Anyway…” Nemona yawned “This is where we have to part. You need to get settled into your dorm and I have to review my class schedule.”

The young trainer nodded back without a word. Although they had only really known Nemona for a week, they were the closest connection they had in Paldea. In a way, she held a mentor-like role to them and it would only strengthen as Patch would be seeing them around campus.

“Just get your keycard from the front desk,” the champion waved to them as she walked away, “Feel free to stop by my office anytime!”

From there, Patch followed the travertine path to the academy’s front door. Upon entering the building, they found themselves in a glorious hall akin to the inside of a castle. The wooden ceiling felt stories high, yet the hall was not overcrowded with echoes. A set of opposing staircases led to a second floor, which was supported by alabaster pillars. A library made up most of the hall, with every mahogany shelf being chalked to the brim with books. I wonder if they have any Swords of Justice? Patch thought marveling at the assortment of books. A white banner was hung above the front desk that read “Welcome New Students”. A brown-haired student and their Mawile sat behind the front desk, waiting for students to check in.

“Patch Callune?” The stylish student asked whilst applying makeup.

“Umm… that’s me,” Patch nervously adjusted the hat from covering their eyes. 

The upperclassman handed them a keycard, “Room 302. Take the stairs to the left, then go up the elevator to the third floor.”

The student immediately left their post with their Mawile beside them. Am I the last to check in? I hope I didn’t make them sit there all day. Part of them wished they had arrived earlier when Clavell, but the other half was grateful for staying with Nemona. Without her, they wouldn’t have caught two new Pokemon as well as a temporary member.

Up the stairs, they went to the elevator which wouldn’t open unless they scanned their keycard on a sensor. The elevator itself fit the ornate aesthetic of the school with rich wooden walls and a purple carpeted floor. However, Patch could not find any buttons to press and the doors quickly slid shut. Beneath their feet, they felt the elevator moving upward which only made Patch more confused. Soon after the doors slid open into an entirely new corridor lined with doors on each side. Could this be my floor? Patch strolled along the hallway to see that the door closest to the right was labeled 302, their room. 

A little relieved, the exhausted trainer scanned their keycard over the lock and the door opened to a pleasant little room filled with boxes. It wasn’t as big as the guestroom back at Nemona’s but it was still cozy. On the leftside their small kitchen space complete with a sink, countertop, and some cabinets to hold snacks. On the other side where most of Patch’s boxes took up the floor, but once they unpacked it their would become a nice space to sitdown and relax. A desk sat in the corner of the room, perfect for drawing and studying. Across from it was a bed, already made in anticipation for Patch’s arrival. 

This is it, they gleamed with excitement, My humble abode until I graduate! They slid most of their boxes to their desk to open up some open space, and then they reached into their bag and released their Pokeballs. All at once, Tamarind, Kombucha, and Arturo appeared before their trainer; curious as to where they were. Being the smallest, Arturo scampered about into any dark corner he could hide in. Tamarind sniffed the boxes to see if there was any food inside them. Patch made sure to keep Kombucha from rubbing his putrid odor on the fresh sheets of their bed. I should figure out how to give a Lechonk a bath… 

While the other Pokemon were roaming freely, Kapheria was still locked inside her Pokeball. Patch wanted to let her out but worried that she would exacerbate her crack in such a tight space Knowing well that Kapheria deserved some attention, they caved in and preceded to release the metallic dragon. Once out of her ball Kapheria took up a lot of space within the confines of the dorm, but their was still enough room for her to properly raise her head and tail  

“Arg?” Kapheira purred. 

Patch held the dragon by the sides of her jaws, “Have a good rest girl?”

“Arggggh!” she yawned letting out a big roar.

“Aww,” Patch scratched beneath her chin, “This is going to be your new home. You’ll be staying with me until your trainer comes back!”

Patch felt a tug at their sock, and they turned to see Tamarind at their feet. The Fuecoco held out his arms to his trainer, gesturing that he wanted to be held. As the trainer picked him up and felt the warmth of crocodile’s body, they sensed a blissful relief in their overly-shaken heart. Despite knowing their Pokemon for only a day, Patch would happily care for them like their own children. Despite feeling intimidated they would allow their Pokemon to battle if it kept them from going stir crazy. Despite feeling unsure of everything, Patch would always have their Pokemon by their side.

<- Chapter 4- Chapter 6 ->

[madametamma]

I've been rewatching Maws to get some ideas for a fic of mine.

But when I stopped at this scene, that's when I had an epiphany.

Kara fighting two strange enemies.

A Red Lantern and a Thanagarian warrior.

She fights against both of them until she is knocked out for a moment and thrown away. It was at that moment that she regains her feet that her eyes widen in horror.

For lunging in front of her were the faces of not only one, but two of her best friends, the two people she thought she had killed when Brainiac controlled her.

Their eyes once full of love and friendship, now full of hate and disgust at her.

Razer and Shayera Hol.

What do you think?

Honestly I'd add more. If you can, you should make a whole twisted justice league that was created for the purpose of taking down Kara.

Shayera and Razer are perfect but I'd also add,

A non-super powered, but extremely intelligent and capable character who watched his parents die in one of Kara's attack. He spent all his time since then training for his vengeance. He'd be a Batman stand in.

A pilot who's tech allows him to go at speeds that match Kara's, who's kinda jokey and light hearted with the rest of the team to help mask his own sadness that's meant to be a Flash stand in,

and a female warrior from a planet far off who hasn't personally been affected by Kara but who has a strong moral stance against bullies and tyrants and has decided to use her skills to free the universe of Kryptonian rule, meeting so many victims along the way that strengthens her resolve to destroy the kryptonian menace.

What direction were you thinking of going with this? Are they unable to get past their anger and refuse to believe that Kara was also a victim? or do they discover there's no point in making Kara pay for acts she didn't choose to commit?

[quiettime3]

Punch Club

The first rule of Punch Club is please do talk about Punch Club, actually. That’s kinda what a review is for! This game is another strange genre mash up, like many titles I love. One part boxing game, one part management sim, and another part action RPG, it’s a great concept that seems like it would be perfect for me. The retro-inspired aesthetics also speak to my tastes, and you get a lot of control over the direction of the story. Unfortunately, even though I played more than 7 years after the Xbox release, I ran into so many issues that I just couldn’t get through to the good stuff Punch Club should have had to show. Perhaps it should have stayed quiet after all.

When you start the game, there is an almost overwhelming amount to learn. The game seems pretty self-aware on this front - your ingame mentor teaches you to focus on one or two traits, since your statistics are constantly degrading over time, and failure is never too consequential in the beginning. Still, even a few hours in, it was hard to figure out exactly what my stats did to each of the numerous abilities I had to choose from when I would go to spend my points. A few more tooltips or even practical demonstrations could have worked wonders. I eventually settled on an agility focused build, investing into kicks and spending my days skipping rope and punching a speed bag to level up the blue stat above the others.

This generally served me pretty well, and I was able to progress through the rookie league and even an underground ultimate fighting ring over the hours. The game features masses of classic movie references, including an enigmatic stranger named Tyler who invites you to street fights in obvious homage to Fight Club, and battles against a series of mutant crocodiles whilst delivering pizzas in a sewer that all but namedrop the iconic heroes in a half shell from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These pop culture nods sometimes felt a little out of place to me, but it’s a nice touch for those they appeal to. There’s a little randomness no matter your build thanks to the combat system, where you set the moves you’ll have and then simulate a fight with the CPU making the choices of what to use when, but it’s still satisfying and I did feel like I got a decent amount of influence over the outcome of my brawls.

I had a couple of different crashes and odd interactions during my time with the story, including moments where I would enter a space to do something specific (like entering my home to sleep or eat) but get locked into a side story fight without any option to come back when I was prepared. There’s also a lot of branch points for Punch Club’s story, many of which aren’t particularly well telegraphed. This could be a bonus for some, as many players love to come across quests like this naturally, but I found it kind of frustrating given the stat decay system doesn’t exactly encourage aimless wandering.

My main gripe with Punch Club was a bit more significant. Shortly after entering the game’s second act of sorts, I completed a side quest chain where you become a superhero, defeating the bad guys, and expected to be loaded back into my home. Sadly, the game actually put me in an area I hadn’t been to before, with a character who I was supposed to go and meet. He was now sitting silently, and no matter what I did, wouldn’t introduce himself, locking me out of the main story. Loathe to lose my save, I checked the internet, and found that this issue has been present for over 7 years - since the game’s release on Xbox. It had never been fixed. I hit a game breaking bug, 6 hours into my run.

I did eventually go back to finish a second run, but I used a guide to speed my way through, and still struggled to avoid glitched dialogue and crashes to black every now and then. Punch Club sort of disappointed me - it was a game I really wanted to love, but it kept letting me down. If you want to play this one, pick it up on PC, not Xbox, and especially not mobile - by the sounds of it, the android version doesn’t even get past the first loading screen before bricking itself. It’s a shame, because there really could have been something there, but I can’t recommend this in its current state, and I think hoping for a patch is a lost cause by now.

Pros:

• Movie buffs will love the references, especially to action movies

• Building your skillset feels satisfying and combat is tense to watch

• I love the artstyle of this one

Cons:

• So many crashes and glitches, even when they’ve been known about for years

• Between these major bugs and the frequent minor typos, it just doesn’t feel polished at all

[paladin-blog]

No shade to the OPs but I kinda hate this post. There's a lot more to Waddell's life than some whimsy - baseball was his third love, behind fishing and drinking. His alcoholism was so bad he was kicked off/traded from multiple teams, brutally assaulted his parents, married three times in a decade, and destroyed any and all relationships he had. To ignore this and use the funnier parts of a violent drunk's life to argue with idiots about an already infantilized and stigmatized condition is infuriating and unhelpful. The "idiot savant" trope oozes from the tweet, somehow ignoring the simple truth that an athletically gifted farm boy who grew up throwing rocks at birds and doing hard labor would be a gnarly pitcher in the dead ball era. Sure maybe he was autistic, maybe he had ADHD, maybe he was just dumb, maybe it was all three - but it's wildly speculative and frankly irresponsible. This is where the soapbox gets kicked out from under me, but you can keep reading if you care to learn more about Rube and baseball history.

~~~

Described as a "kid at heart", Waddell was indeed assigned a handler during his tenure on the Philadelphia Athletics (ie. a babysitter), not due to his fleeting attention but due to his drinking. The handler was a trained fighter, and was there to make sure he didn't and couldn't drink, by holding onto his money and fighting disgruntled bar owners trying to collect tabs.

While team owners owned everything including their players until the 70s, early 20th century baseball lacked the whole indentured servitude type beat that the draft and federation brought along. Players, especially pitchers, fucking off between starts or traipsing around New England wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem if it happened today. Waddell was a pitcher, an insanely good pitcher, and considering drinking didn't impact his performance (except passing out on the mound in 1907) it's not impossible to surmise he would've been drunk/hungover on the mound as well.

This isn't to blame everything on his drinking, but to frame any potential postmortem diagnosis. Without context, being easily distracted makes you imagine a batter staring off as a ball whizzes past him into the glove, going down on strikes. Being a pitcher, there is no split second decision making, or plate decisions, to worry about. He could easily look off into the stands, coo at the puppy or whatever, turn back and deal another nasty curve. He was an extremely confident pitcher, known for shooing his team off the field during exhibition games, to prove his dominance on the mound. As I mentioned, this was the dead ball era. Pitchers ruled the game, as new rules, uneven and heavily reused balls, and slightly better fields and fielders put batters in a tough spot.

Anyways, my overarching point is to label Waddell as autistic or ADHD without mentioning his alcoholism is ignoring a very relevant cause and effect. His health suffered immensely because of it, and like many people of that time, he died of pneumonia. He was 37.

Rube Waddell was inducted into the Hall of Fame via special committee in 1947. Rube played against and even rivaled the great Cy Young, but unlike him, would not be revered for his historical feats, due to, surprise surprise, alcoholism massively shortening his career and professional image. Rube was the first pitcher in history to have consecutive 300 strikeout seasons, which is a club now shared by only five other players. Rube led baseball in strikeouts six straight seasons, and earned a Triple Crown during this dominant stretch (led the league in Wins, ERA and Ks). He didn't play during the Athletics' world series run, and like many other great pitchers, never won it all.

[noras-dc-shenanigans]

Half-Ghost Billy Batson

(Inspired by a post that I can’t find😡😤. If you recognize it please let me know! I have searched. Everywhere. I remember it starts off with Billy contemplating how he’s different and his dad didn’t want him, and then Danny shows up.)

Danny Fenton grows up, gets crowned King of the Infinite Realms, and then discovers that time it weird in the Zone if the portal you came through doesn’t stay open. He’s been ruling for over a century, but it’s only been a few years on Earth. Early on he made sure to keep popping in and out to visit family and friends and keep up a human identity, and so was able to age normally too.

By the time he’s 25 (2015), he’s in a serious relationship with a woman named Mary Batson, and has decided to tell her about his other life. Before he can however, he is ‘killed’ in an explosion at his civilian job as an engineer.

He’s fine, but was weakened enough that he reverted to his core, and Clockwork retrieved him and took him to the Realms to heal. He does, goes discreetly looking for Mary, and discovers it been a year and she died in a car accident. Heartbroken, and with no civilian identity anymore, he starts spending all his time in the Zone, only making weekend trips to see family/friends.

Unknown to Danny, Mary was pregnant, gave birth, and little William ‘Billy’ Daniel Batson was saved via emergency C-Section after the accident and placed in foster care, because she had no family and no one looked into the father’s well enough. Mary only survived long enough to name her son and give them Danny’s name.

10 years later, Billy gains the title of Champion of Magic. The influx of so much magic also triggers his… other genes.

As Billy, he is faster and stronger and heals quicker and if he concentrates really hard he can turn invisible and walk through things— at least for a few moments. He also discovers that he’s essentially a cat, since he can hiss and purr and randomly sprout claws.

Billy only uses a mirror if he needs to give himself a haircut, but the next time he looks he notices the tiny little baby fangies. And that his eyes are more teal than blue, his hair has a few white spots in it, and his ears point a little more. No wonder no one’s been bothering him lately.

(He’s basically 75% human and 25% ghost, so unless he gets hosed down with pure ectoplasm and also eats a bunch of the stuff, he’s not going to be able to ‘go ghost’. He’s just hasn’t got enough Phantom in him to manage it.)

As Captain Marvel, the magic of his patrons and the Rock of Eternity kinda work as a counter-measure against the partially-dead thing, as the magic sees it as a threat to the Champion’s health and fights the genes’ effects like it’s a virus. So the magic is basically shutting down all of the actual powers he gets as Billy. But he does get little things that the magic doesn’t care about, like sharp little fangs and pointy ears.

Billy just thinks it’s all side effects of the magic, and uses his new ‘adaptations’ as Billy to survive on the streets.

The Justice League comes knocking about 6 months in, meet this huge chipper dude who can evenly match Superman and uses magic in a way that causes other magic users headaches and rage, and invite him to join.

That’s when they notice that he’s a bit… strange.

Not like, in a bad way! Just, the other day Batman did the ‘appear behind you from nowhere’ thing and when Marvel noticed he full on hissed at him, like a feral cat, before looking sheepish and apologizing.

A few weeks later, they’re rescuing some kidnapped meta kids and they find Marvel sitting cross-legged on the ground, several toddlers draped over him and a very distinct purring noice emanating from his chest.

A week after that, and Superman confides worriedly that sometimes Marvel’s heart will just… stop beating, and/or he’ll stop breathing, and that when his heartbeat is gone there seems to be a strange hum coming from the center of his chest.

Then another 2 weeks later, after a meeting, he and Flash were talking and they both laughed, but when Marvel did he just flashed these very sharp incisors that Flash swears are fangs.

And then one day they call him in to help fight some demons and one growls at him and he freakin growls back, bares his definitely fangs I told you so! And just freakin launches at the thing. They basically roll around like a couple of territorial tomcats, and at first Marvel is throwing punches and lighting but then the demon bites him and Marvel just… bites back.

And then he like… sprouts claws?! And then it really is like a cat fight, with these two just hissing and growling and clawing and biting until Marvel does something and the demon breaks away and flees, whimpering like a kicked dog. Superman has to snag Marvels cape and dodge some claws to keep the guy from chasing after it.

He’s covered in claw marks and scratches and there’s blood like everywhere but once they drag/convince/bully him into going back to the Watchtowers medbay, there’s nothing. The wounds are gone, the blood is fading away, and the suit is repairing itself. Marvel just shrugs and says magic, which, fair enough.

But then they have to have a talk about what the hell that was, and all Marvel can say for his feral-cat behavior is “I just heard him growl and had the uncontrollable urge to bite him. Like, he’s in my territory, and he’s gonna challenge me like that? Heck-no.”

…Territory? Territory?! What does that- does this possibly-immortal being consider all of Earth his territory? Is he secretly a Fae? An eldritch being in less terrifying form? Part demon himself? A cat transformed into a person?

Marvel shrugs.

“I never met my parents, so honestly any of those have a chance of being true.”

Oh No. Oh F*ck. Those were rhetorical!

Meanwhile, Danny is back on Earth and finds out from Tucker that Mary had a kid. They discover this because he was reported missing after he ran away and the cops tried to find out if there was any more family, and do a better job looking this time. Danny is ‘dead’ so they called the Drs Fenton, who told Jazz, who told Tucker, who dug around and realized oh sh*t, Danny has a son.

But they can’t tell Danny this, because some a-hole in a different dimension is trying to invade the Infinite Realms, so Danny has to go kick a**. The time in the other dimension is weird too, so several years pass on Earth by the time he stops the threat, locks away the demon Trigon, and finds a nice home in the Realms for the demon’s half-human orphaned daughter Raven, who fits in very well with the ghosts.

So, Danny’s back and between Tucker and Danny they figure out what city Billy is in, and Danny spends days flying around invisible feeling for any ectoplasm. He finds it, finds Billy facing down some wanna-be teenage gangsters, and watches with growing pride as his son hisses at them with his widdle baby fangs oh my Ancients!

So after the other kids flee from the ‘crazy demon kid’, Danny invisibly follows Billy back to his current hideout in the basement of an abandoned warehouse (only someone Billy-sized or smaller would be able to fit through the window, and then they’d have to do it again to get into his little blocked-off closet. Smart. Very smart. I have such a smart kid, the family will Love him!)

Danny doesn’t want to freak his kid out— strange man+small space=bad no-no— so he just settles himself in front of the exit and starts chirping. Calling.

Billy, who has never heard the sound before, still knows what it means. Can’t resist following it out of his hidey-hole. Sees the man, cross-legged on the ground, sees his blue eyes flash green-green-green and knows.

“Hi, Billy. Is so good to meet you!”

——————————

2015: Danny=25

2016: Billy born

2027: Billy=11, Danny=27

@im-totally-not-an-alien-2

@stealingyourbones

Hope you guys like this!

[teecupangel]

What if Desmond is reborned in Unity as Elise's or Arno's baby brother?

Oh, oh. I can think of 3 main ideas we can play with.

Now, before anything, we’ll set up some rules that all ideas must adhere to (all of which came from the premise of every Yew Branch I’ve written):

Desmond remembers his life as Desmond Miles

Desmond will have his ancestors’ memories and skills but those memories will be vague

With that out of the way, let’s get to how Desmond could screw up AC Unity’s plotline:

1 Desmond is reborn as Arno’s baby brother and he grows up with Arno.

I think that Arno would be a responsible older brother, maybe kinda like how Ezio was with Petruccio.

Considering it’s only them, Charles would have definitely emphasized to Arno that Desmond’s safety is his responsibility.

Arno’s protectiveness would definitely go through the roof once it became clear that Desmond is a bit of a ‘strange child’ while Desmond is half-exasperated and half-delighted because his new family is definitely leagues better than William Miles and his wife.

There’s no way in hell Arno would leave Desmond alone to play with Élise while they’re waiting for Charles.

Not to mention, Desmond would definitely try to act like the big brother and say ‘go, I’ll wait for father’ and that would only make Arno want to stay with Desmond because that’s what a good big brother would do.

In this scenario, I can see Élise joining them instead, playing where the Dorian brothers are waiting and, when Charles comes to pick them up, he would recognize Élise and maybe they’d even escort her back to her father.

Now, this is where things can go either way. Even before Versailles, Desmond would have realized that Charles is an Assassin which meant that he would definitely be paranoid, using his Eagle Vision every so often. In this scenario, either Desmond sees Shay approaching and warns Charles OR he’s too late and he and Arno see Shay kill Charles.

And that’s where we will have two different routes we can take:

1.a Charles Lives and Arno and Desmond become Assassins under his tutelage

In this scenario, Arno and Desmond would have a brotherly relationship similar to Federico and Ezio with Desmond being the ‘Federico’ and Arno being the ‘Ezio’.

Charles’ main task in the Brotherhood is to travel around the world and, now, it’s to protect the precursor box that the Assassins gave to him.

This means that Arno and Desmond would be raised on the road and seas, maybe even on the run and hiding from Shay Cormac who will definitely be looking for them.

And then everything comes to a head when they returned to Paris to help the Brotherhood as the sociopolitical unrest in France starts to boil over.

In this scenario, Arno and Desmond would probably remember Élise but there would be no messy love story between Arno and Élise. They would be one-time playmates turned wary allies as Élise would be trying to find who killed her father and the brothers would have the same goal because Élise’s father had been close to finalizing a truce between the Assassins and his more moderate Templars.

Bellec may or may not betray the Brotherhood. If he does, it would be Charles that would stand against him (with the help of his sons).

Shay would probably make an appearance in Paris later on because he learns Charles is there.

Desmond would be with Arno and Élise when they fight Germain and Élise won’t die. Whether Arno and Élise would actually end up together though… hhhmmm… I’ll leave it to you, nonny.

1.b Charles dies and the de la Serre takes the Dorian brothers in

Desmond would definitely find out that the de la Serres are Templars. It might take a few years, he’d probably spend a year or two grieving Charles’ death and being there for Arno, but he’ll definitely find out.

During that time, Arno would develop a crush on Élise.

Once Desmond is sure that they’re Templars, Desmond would be faced with two choices: stay with the de la Serre who have been nothing but kind to them (although they do tend to be treated like servants at times too but that’s fine) or he gets Arno to run away with him and try to live on their own

If Desmond tells Arno they should run away, Arno would say no because he likes the de la Serre and he doesn’t understand why Desmond would want to leave. At this point, it’s either Arno would tell the de la Serre Desmond’s plan and Desmond would run away alone (leaving Arno) or Desmond finds a way to get Arno to agree to leave with him.

Staying with the de la Serre will also complicate things

1.b.1 Desmond stays with the de la Serre

If he stays with the de la Serre, it would be more of “I wanna see what the Templars are planning” than any gratitude he might feel for the de la Serres.

He won’t stop Arno from getting close to Élise.

The de la Serres would probably not realize Desmond is spying on them and Desmond would know when Élise has started her Templar training. That’s when Desmond would advise Arno to be careful.

Arno would think that Desmond doesn’t approve of Élise and they would start their whole secret relationship.

Either Desmond doesn’t find out because he’s busy trying to spy and not getting caught or he knows about it but doesn’t say he knows because he wants to honor his brother’s choice.

Monsieur de la Serre still dies and the plot of Unity kicks off with Desmond and Arno becoming Assassins.

Arno wants to find out who killed Monsieur de la Serre, Desmond is just there to make sure Arno doesn’t do anything really dumb.

Bellec still betrays the Brotherhood and Desmond is the one to kill him.

Germain still happens but Élise lives in the end.

1.b.2.a Desmond and Arno run away together

If they successfully run away, Desmond would use his Eagle Vision to find the Assassins. Either they find the Parisian HQ first and get taken in by the council (maybe even Mirabeau?) OR Bellec finds them first and he takes them in.

If they grew up with Bellec as their foster father, there’s a high chance that Desmond would be able to stop Bellec from betraying the Brotherhood later (through the power looovvee logic and reasoning).

They get trained as Assassins and when AC Unity kicks off, they’d be part of a 4 member squad and perhaps even in charge of de la Serre’s death (which was given to them because of their history).

Élise and Arno would have a bitter ex kind of vibe in their relationship and Desmond gets caught in it, along the lines of ‘he chose you instead of me’ or ‘I left her for you’ and their squad will tease that it’s like a fucked up loved triangle between Arno, his biological brother, and his foster sister (all said in jest, of course).

1.b.2.b Desmond runs away alone

If Desmond runs away alone, he would be the only one that gets taken in and raised as an Assassin.

He’d always check on Arno but never show his face.

Arno, on the other hand, would feel absolutely guilty for what he’s done. He’ll try to run away too to try and find Desmond but he’d get caught every time.

At this point, either de la Serre gets into contact with Mirabeau to talk about Arno or, and this is the more dramatic route that would definitely make everything messier, Élise gets Arno to be trained as a Templar, maybe even whisper to Arno that they can look for Desmond as Templars.

Élise’s party in AC Unity will now be a party for both Arno and Élise as they are inducted into the Templar Order.

AC Unity plot happens with Arno and Élise working together as Templars while Desmond takes over Arno’s parts in the game.

This would definitely have a kind of ‘Abel-Cain’ setup between Arno and Desmond with Desmond being the ‘Cain’ as he doesn’t trust the Templars and Arno is torn between his loyalty to the de la Serre and his brotherly love for Desmond.

Might even come to blows with “You left me.” “Well… you made it clear who was your real family is back then.”

2. Desmond is Arno’s half-brother, born after their mother left Charles and Arno

In this scenario, I think it would be interesting if Desmond meets Arno when he joins the Parisian Brotherhood (maybe after their mother’s death and she tells Desmond the truth on her deathbed?).

Depending on their age gap, Desmond could join the Brotherhood during AC Unity’s main game plot OR during Dead Kings DLC.

2.a Desmond meets his half-brother during Unity’s main game

Desmond would act more like Arno’s partner during missions. They won’t have any familial bonds so there are a lot of awkward talks and sometimes they just ignore their familial ties and act more like two colleagues trying to get to know one another.

There will be bonding moments of course but things will come to head after Desmond tells Arno that he’s too focused on Élise. The two of them will have their 3rd act break up at this point.

Desmond would be the one to find Arno drunk after Élise ‘dumps’ him. There might be a one-sided fistfight as well because they’re both idiots.

This is the scenario where Élise living has the lowest percentage, not because Desmond would let her die (of course not) but because there’s a possibility that Desmond wouldn’t even know what Arno and Élise were planning until it’s too late.

2.b Desmond meets his half-brother in Dead Kings

In this scenario, Desmond would be a ‘novice’ tasked to retrieve the missing Arno Dorian

Dead Kings still happens although with additional bonding moments between Arno and Desmond

Their relationship will be more: Desmond is the exasperated assistant of a grieving/brooding Arno

They will also bond over the death of loved ones (in this case, Desmond would probably relate because he still feels the pain of Maria’s death)

Léon gets adopted by Desmond. He likes to call Desmond and Arno his brothers.

And finally:

3. Desmond gets reborn as Élise’s younger brother

This is honestly going to messy, might even be messier than Desmond running away without Arno plot (probably).

First of all: Desmond won’t run away from the de la Serre because they love him and he loves them. He also won’t realize that he’s been born into a Templar family until it’s too late and he already loves them too much to betray them.

Depending on the age gap between him and Élise, he could either be there when Charles Dorian dies and plays with Arno too or he meets Arno after Arno becomes a ward of the de la Serre.

Regardless, here is the plot point that I kinda don’t want to do but, at the same time, I kinda want to just for the sheer unnecessary soap opera level drama it would add to the mix: a Love Triangle between Arno, Élise and Desmond.

To be more exact: Arno having a bi-crisis of epic proportions because he develops a crush on both Élise and Desmond growing up.

Desmond is oblivious to it, Élise is not.

At this point, either we go down the love triangle route OR Élise would do an ‘I want my beloved to be happy’ and be Arno’s wing woman.

Either way, Desmond would develop feelings for Arno as well which he would mistake for just ‘fondness’ because Arno reminds Desmond a lot of Ezio.

Desmond learns that their father is hoping to finalize a truce with the Assassins and he supports it because he loves his father and he still remembers how much Connor had wished he and Haytham could have found some common ground (until Haytham fucked that up and Connor was too angry to even try again).

Desmond and Élise get inducted at the same time and their father dies.

This is where AC Unity’s plot starts to get messy because, to Desmond, this isn’t about Assassins and Templars right now.

This is revenge. He’s the calm one to Élise’s hot-headedness and Arno is taken in for the ride because… well… Arno’s a dumbass who fell in love with a Templar(s).

And now Bellec thinks Arno is being corrupted by the two de la Serres

Élise won’t die in this one. There’s no way in hell Desmond would let that happen.

Pairing-wise, it could honestly go with Arno x Élise, Arno x Desmond or Desmond x Arno x Élise XD

Plot points that will happen regardless of which idea we go for:

Desmond’s skills will compare him a lot to his older sibling (Arno or Élise). There’s gonna be feelings of inferiority going on, that’s for sure.

If Bellec raises Desmond and Arno, he would be kind of a hardass but he would be ‘loyal’ to them. Even if he goes through with his plan to betray the Brotherhood, he would probably let either Dorians kill him because he can’t kill them even if he tries.

Desmond is the best recruiter of the Assassins. He will refuse to do any recruiting as a Templar.

Desmond would be super sus of Germain. He might not know what a Sage is but he knows something is giving him the heebie-jeebies whenever he’s near Germain.

Germain would have a hard time hitting Desmond with the Sword of Eden for some reason. (probably related to the device Desmond activated)

Desmond will definitely try to contact Connor one way or another. Whether he is successful in finding Connor though is up in the air.