#tad the amazing animated circus

[mottimonday]

yet to perfect the style of @the-amazing-animated-circus. i think i shall start i pilgrimage to the faraway temples to study. a lil stretched carnival pomni too!

[daikizen]

cooking with Shounen Ragatha

Probably won’t finish this, but I’m pretty confident in doing small gifs like this-

[starleska]

THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS PILOT IS HERE AND IT IS FANTASTIC 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[ice-cream-writes-stuff]

Cheshire's Chase

《Catlad/Stray x Reader! HEADCANONS》

More Catlad Tim! HEADCANONS! Mini fic at end! Slight Robin Au too!

Tim is obsessed with the Batfamily (Regardless if you are Robin/Vigilante! Reader)

Tim often writes in a small journal about the crime-fighting family!

He looks up to Dick since he met him before at Haley's circus before his parents had became a bit detached.

Jason never met Tim as Robin, but did look up to him! Finding this Robin a tad bit cooler than when the first Robin was taking crooks down.

Nightwing on the other hand babies Catlad when Tim is first starting out! The two would even sneak out from their parents- *ahem* "parental guardians", to get some air and just talk. [Tim just straight-up fanboying and trying to play it cool. He asks questions about Batman, Nightwing, Robin, and etc.

-

Sighing stupidly at your phone, you felt your cheeks, warm as an oven and your heart all mushy. A small squeal leaves your lips as you twirl about on your way to Wayne manor. A skip in your step without a care in the world as you ring the doorbell.

Instead of Alfred greeting you, Bruce Wayne meets you at the front door. 

"Ah, (Y/N), thank you for arriving in such short notice."

"Of course Mr. Wayne!" You yell, a bit too much excitement in your voice.

The play-boy billionaire eyes you with a questioning look. "Alright.. Well, I must head off now. Alfred and Dick will be back to the manor in a few hours. You know the rules, so I'll be off. Take care of Damien, have a good one!" The CEO waves goodbye as he heads to his garage.

You do a small wave back, soon heading inside the lustrous manor.

Your feet tapping against the cold floor as you wander around the manor for the "baby" you were supposed to be "sitting".

"(L/N)." Damien calls out to you from the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms. Ace and Titus sitting beside him with straightened postures.

You smile at the tiny kid, waving at him to come down. He does so, with a eye-roll and a click of his tongue. The two dogs following behind him like soldiers.

"You seem in good spirits (L/N), more so than usual." The boy said, the two of you outside in the ginormous backyard as you pick up a toy ball for the dogs. 

"Ooohh... Yeah, I-I guess something good did happen today...!" You state, your voice becoming higher pitched and faster. Ignoring Damien's cold stare as you throw the toy ball, Ace runs after it, while Titus looks at his Master for confirmation. Damien nods, smirking a bit at his animal companion as he runs off toward Ace. 

"Well what is it?"

""Scuse me?"

"What made you this "happy" today?" The young Wayne reiterates, petting Ace and Titus once they brought back the ball and another ball?

Where did they find the other one??

"IT-S Uhnnn, teenage stuff, it'll make you SO BOreeed, don't worry about it, kay?!" You grab one of the balls and chuck it so fast and far it flew outside the gardens.

"Damn.. I mean! DANG!" You try to censor yourself, forgetting there was a child present. 

"(L/N), I know what cursing is, your just like Grayson whenever he loses his balance." Damien scoffs, and you chuckle at the oh-so "perfect Garyson" falling on his face whenever he tries to black-flip to impress you and Damien.

"I know, but your still a ity-bity tike! I don't wanna ruin your child like innocence!" You whine dramatically, attempting to go in for a hug as Damien expertly avoids your hug attack.

"Augh, your worse than Garyson!" He hisses, this time changing his route to inside the manor.

"Come on, we need to get that ball back!"

"Fine..!" You groan out, pouting. "But I think it's an accomplishment that I'm worse than him!"

Wandering around the Crest Hill neighborhood, you stare in awe at the pristine houses and ginormous manors and mansions of rich households.

Damien nudged your leg when he noticed the stupid expression on your face.

"You've seen Wayne Manor before, these buildings aren't as amazing. That one over there isn't even old, it's rather plain too."

You eye the one Damien pointed out curiously, "who's home is it?"

Damien shoots you a look, which you could only offer a timid smile.

The boy sighs and names all the residents on the street, explaining to you the reasons he even knew were due to his father's connections with the higher upper-class citizens of Gotham. Most of them attended the charities they frequented.

"The newer building is Drake Manor-"

Damien becomes quiet as he turns around, you following his position.

A familiar teen walks up to the two of you...

Oh.

SHIT-

"(Y/N)? What are you doing here?"

Your body trembles in place as you turn around, Damien who notices your frightened stance. Glares at the newcomer that decided to approach the two of you.

"TIM- I-I mean! Hi-! Drake, Tim Drake??" You babble, wanting to find the nearest rock and crush it on your skull.

"Uhm, yeah, that's me.. Why are you in Crest Hill? I thought you... Wait, do you live here?" Tim coughed, realizing his slip up.

"OH-ya see.. I had.. A baby-sitting gig, so that's why I'm here. BU-Ut... No, I don't live here, in this area, or neighborhood."

Tim's eyes don't meet your own, he rubs the back of his neck and apologized for the assumption.

"No! It's fine, really!" You honestly were just more focused on the fact Tim even knew you existed. The two of you didn't really talk with each other, except on the occasional "hi" or nod in greeting when seeing each other. (Which would always light up your day!)

"And the one that does live here is standing beside me." You gestured to Damien, who squares up in front of Tim. 

Not frightened or shy by the lanky looking male in front of him.

"It was nice seeing you, Drake. But we have to keep looking for our ball, excuse us." 

Damien, grabs your hand, trying to tug you away, but you stay rooted on the sidewalk.

"W-well I guess will see each other later?"

" Definitely," Tim said. His slips form into a grin as he walks back to his destination.

"Yeah.." You giggle stupidly. 

Once Tim was out of sight and hearing, you stumble forward as Damien pulls you along.

"Wait! Damien! Calm down! My legs are asleep right now!" You cry out, he ignored you as the two of you find the ball and head back to the manor.

-

Mini Catlad And Other Batbrats HEADCANONS

Nightwing babies Catlad when first meeting them. Red Hood shoots at him, Robin tried to kill him.

Robin in this Au has a fun rivalry with Catlad, the two often bickering instead of fighting, or both at the same time.

I would like to think Catlad has intentionally flirted with you while babysitting Robin or Damien just to piss off the kid. But I can see that the two respect each other. But won't admit it unless they were both about to die.

"What's wrong?" Catlad smiles evilly at the two of you, or rather, mostly towards Robin. Who seemed fed up with the thief's antics. While you and Damien had decided to go to the museum to check out a new exhibit. (Dick had begged you to take Damien in his steed because of reasons.)

But, the two cat burglars had decided to make an entrance...

Batman was off running after Catwoman, while Robin stood protectively in front of you. Glaring at the cat-themed villain, while you smile at Catlad. Remembering the two of you rendezvous on apartment roof-tops a few days back.

You started to pray for his safety when Robin threw out a flash bomb at your friend.

-

[Hope you guys enjoyed it! I need to start thinking about making a bat-brats as villain series. Also, hint for the next one, it's gonna be a hoot! Get it?]

[tadssstrange]

(maybe I should do some greetings post for people that come to my profil?)

(ya, that sound like good idea)

Greetings Newcomer!

♡⁠(⁠˃͈⁠ ⁠દ⁠ ⁠˂͈⁠ ⁠༶⁠ ⁠)

(fuck, nobody actually says Newcomer, Tad you are an idiot)

*ekhem*

(nobody do that in text ya know?)

*EKHEM*

(Tad you prick)

My name is Tad! (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

(no shit Sherlock)

This is my main nick scince... ever, it's been so long that I treat it like a second name. Even one of my OC is called Tad Strange! (But I didn't show him yet)

(Tad you egocentric fuck, nobody care)

I'm a minor, soo plsss act normal here (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

(like someone actually wanned you)

My favorite Singer is Will Wood! And the fav genre is... (⁠*⁠﹏⁠*⁠;⁠) everything that (for me) sounds cool!

(that not telling anyone anything)

My main intrest are games, cartoons and Anime (aka. I'm nerd) and sometimes other media (books and shows) my favorite game is Deltarune and fav mangas are Shadow house and Sachi-iro no one room! (⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~

My main fandoms are:

•Deltarune/Undertale

•Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel

•The Amazing Digital Circus

•Disenchantment

•Welcome Home

•South Park

•Dayshift at frieddy's/Dialtown

•Cuphead

•Good Omens

•Don't hug me I'm scared

•Steven Universe

•Spooky month

•Will Wood

(The first 3 are the one that I am the most hipperfixated right now [it might change])

My pronous are he/she/they/it/thon so if you were so nice that if you use all in turns

(the second part of this scence sounds weird, that what you get for using google translator)

I'm a lesbian :3

(once again, nobody care)

I don't have dni, but simply because I like to arguing with people, so that would be weird if I argue with people that I don't want to interact with me ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Sadly I'm the one shy kid, I want to talk to more people on the internet to became more conffident (and gets some more friends) (⁠´⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠ω⁠°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⁠｀⁠)

I'm 5'7" right now (171-172 cm)

This place is ofcorse safe for queer/trans/and neurodivergent people! (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)

(because it would be weird for me if wasn't)

I might have adhd but I'm kinda to afraid to get diagnosis, so I propably get it when I grow up (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠)

For some people that like typology I'm INFP 7w8

Anyway, I Hope you will like it here! I will try to make this place safe for everyone! And we became friends! (⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠)⁠つ⁠⊂⁠(⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠)

Bye-bye! ⁽⁠⁽⁠◝⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠௰⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠◜⁠⁾⁠⁾

[dulamanstudios]

We're thrilled to share a case study from

our upcoming presentation on animations that inspire

us—featuring The Amazing Digital Circus by

@glitch_prod and @gooseworxmusic ! 🎉🎈

Congratulations to the TADS team on your anniversary

and all the incredible milestones! Can you believe the

impact they've made in just a year? 😍✨

TADS was partially funded by Screen Australia, an

governmental board that supports artists by funding

innovative projects. Stories like this showcase how

vital national and international support is for creators,

allowing brand new, original ideas to shine—ideas that

might never see the light of day if funding only went

through commercial channels that favour “surefire hits.”

Just imagine if TADS hadn’t had that support—we might

never have had the joy of seeing it on our

screens!🌍✨

One unexpected and incredible side effect of TADS’

popularity? Renewed interest in animation history. Its

nods to Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure (

1977) brought attention back to this nearly forgotten

gem, now beautifully preserved thanks to

@TygerbugGarrett's (on X) careful restoration work.

🙌❤️

Success stories like TADS give us so much hope for the

future of animation, and we hope it brings you some

inspiration, too. Let’s keep celebrating the power of

original ideas and the heroes keeping animation history

alive! 🥂🚀

[canmom]

Animation Night 192: comfy and easy to wear

Hey everyone, it's Animation Night! Nobody I know is having emergency operations this week, so I can get back into the swing of things~

I've been, as is my habit, accumulating short films over the last few weeks. There have been some pretty exciting ones, too! Lots of familiar faces, but some incredible new ones too...

The most exciting to me is the unbelievably stylish Kamigoroshi prologue, solo animated by Tomoyuki Niho. Niho is one of those 'webgen' animators - animators who taught themselves online before entering anime as key animators with unique styles - and among an earlier wave at that, appearing on landmark projects like Birdy the Mighty: Decode.

That in the end led to some controversies, as in the second season of Birdy, Niho animated a divisive scene in which he took the characters very loose and off model to have more dramatic movement and camerawork... which upset fans to the point that the scene which would end up reanimated in a more conventional way on the home release. Niho was, thankfully, not deterred and continued to contribute lots of compelx action and effects shots on a number of major series, from fullmetal alchemist to jujutsu kaisen.

But over the last few years, he was working on something bigger - something glimpsed only in brief clips uploaded to youtube over the last few years, which finally dropped a month ago. And it's nuts. We watch a fox man building a miniature diorama city and populating it with tiny people, only for the people to stage a rebellion against their creator - all with a uniquely strange and intriguingly unsettling vibe, and sakuga juice from every pore. Safe to say it's worth the wait.

So we'll be watching that for sure!

Gooseworx and Glitch Productions have dropped the latest episode of The Amazing Digital Circus last week, which you have no doubt already heard about :p I talked a little about this series back on AN 182: Gooseworx toned down her surrealism a tad from her solo works, but the show makes up for it with exceptional and charming character animation, all playfully toying with the history of 3DCG. With all the fuss, I actually haven't watched this episode yet, so I'll get to experience it with you. I hear Pomni gets possessed in this one?

The Gobelins animation school is back, kicking off the season with a Layla, a spicy one about a group of three naive teenagers who acquire a sexbot but then realise they'd rather have her as a skating buddy. This one's already gone round quite a bit when I posted it a couple weeks ago, but we'll definitely be giving it a watch.

The next groub of students give us Wormwood, in which two scientists reenter a zone rendered unihabitable for ten years by a Chernobyl-style disaster - one of them seeking his childhood home. This one is pure vibes and mood, playing hard with negative space and excellent sound design.

PxAY OFF! by Marco Cárdenas is channeling Imaishi's Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt very hard, in a good way! A debt collector gets in a fight/baseball match with a band of monkeys. It's frenetic and funny in all the ways it should be.

Perpetual fave Vewn gives us a face reveal, presenting a tutorial on how to make an animated film... but it's a Vewn film so let's just say it's more than that. lmao.

And continuing our streak of 'students being just too damn good', the students at ChungKang Animation School in Korea, directed by Jihye Yang, give us this film Macguffin - an exceptionally cool piece about students immersed in a weird, atmospheric fantasy game with strong echoes of Puparia, Heavenly Vessel and similar god-tier short films. The animation, colour design and overall atmosphere in this one is just extroardinary.

All of that in just the last month - but there's some delicious old films to watch too. Because sometimes Youtube will just serve you up a fascinating Armenian short film about astronauts turning into animals. Урок/ The lesson (which won't embed for some reason) is a 1987 film from Armenia's Sahakyant Animation Studio, and it's so much, at every moment. Robert Sahakyants, the counterculture animator in the eastern-bloc scene who founded the studio (and quite possibly the director of this film), is surely worthy of a proper night in his own right - when I have a chance to digest AniObsessive's detailed article on his career. But let's enjoy this little taste for now!

Do you remember this little 48hr bee yuri anime film we showed the other night? Turns out that the animator was my friend @catnumbers's roommate at CalArts, and the two of them made this absolutely extraordinary 48hr film together:

So clean; and cat animated the awesome action shot at the end so make sure to give her lots of praise for that :p

On another track entirely, palaeontology youtuber Mario Lanzas put together this awesome tribute to oldschool paleoart, Antediluvian. The pictures made before people had the faintest idea of what dinosaurs were and their best bet was when they lived was before Noah's flood, now brought to life in a gorgeous ecosystem...

And to round us out, Ian Hubert has released the second episode of his incredible Blender-vfx scifi series Dynamo Dream. Hubert is pretty much the GOAT of compositing people into elaborate scifi scenes using Blender, and has created all kinds of tutorials to show how surprisingly simple methods can accomplish these spectacles - the latest episode sees a bit of elaboration on the main couple's dystopian situation and a descent into the dark...

....crap that didn't embed either, goddamnit youtube.

That's me at the ten-video limit, and it's about time we got started, so come join us at twitch.tv/canmom for a crazy cool month's worth of short films! See you there, films starting in about 20 minutes around 20:20 UK time~

[amazingmsme]

i don’t really know much of anything about the amazing digital circus but HELLO PRETTY BIRD LADY!! as for questions, who all out of the show’s cast do you think she’d be closest with? also feel free to use this to drop any random fun facts about her if you have any 👀 - mothysfluff

SHE REALLY IS A PRETTY BIRD LADY! She’s inspired by a phoenix & a scarlet macaw, & she’s an acrobat & aerial silk artist for the circus. But tadc is really good & there’s a lot to theorize about! & the animation is very vibrant & fluid! There’s only 2 episodes, so it’s not much to catch up on if you’re interested!

This got a tad bit long, so most is going under the cut

Macawla is so nervous at first, so she’s much more accepting of her fellow girlies. It’s what she’s used to, it feels familiar to her. She’s fine with Kinger, but his nervous energy only sets her on edge even more than she already is. I feel like Ragatha & Gangle are her favorites to be around because she gets along best with Ragatha, & she feels sorry that Gangle’s comedy mask always breaks & she wants to be able to cheer her up. Plus her bird brain saw her & was like oooo petty ribbon? Pretty ribbon for me to play with? Gangle is more than a little intimidated at first, but she convinces her she means well

I think Zooble is the first one she actually got to know because they’re both the first to dip tf out on an adventure, but they’re antisocial & she was still too jumpy to really form a close connection, but they’re on really good terms. When they’re together they usually will just sit in comfortable silence, or she’ll ask if they wanna watch her routine

Once she becomes accustomed to the digital circus, she starts to be a much more flamboyant & loud personality, & it’s a bit overwhelming for Pomni. She has nothing against the harpy, but she kinda needs to learn to tone it down. They’re both nice to each other, but their personalities just kinda clash, & it makes Macawla feel guilty & bad, even tho she doesn’t really know what to do. But she can feel some kind of connection there little does she know Pomni’s irl disappearance was the lead she needed to push her investigation in the right direction & ended with her getting caught at the C&A corp. & put into the digital circus

At first she was sooo shy around Jax cause uwu there’s a guy her age stuck in this hell hole? & then he opened his fucking mouth & she was like oh never mind, you’re literally The Worst. She was fresh meat for bullying, & let’s just say she’s very bully-able. But on the flip side, she is that nice kinda bitchy, like the Heathers or Regina George where she’s just faking it & grinning through her teeth & then gives the sickest burns ever. She does NOT put up with his shit & she teams up with Ragatha to keep him in line

She doesn’t trust Caine as far as she can throw him & is sus of literally everything he does. She entered the digital circus under dubious circumstances, so she really doesn’t trust him & thinks he knows way more than he’s letting on & it constantly trying to catch him in a lie & meanwhile he’s just being his typical weird & wacky self & trying to prove he’s on their side. She doesn’t believe any of it for a second. Unfortunately, she finds him incredibly entertaining

[soundsfaebutokay]

Get to know me better!

Tag 10 people you wanna know better

Thank you for the tag: @amzngdevil 💕💕💕

I just realized that I've been on tumblr for more than a year (!!!) so maybe it's time to get over my reticence and start having fun with these question games. So here we go!

Relationship status: happily single

Favorite colour(s): pink and green

Favorite food: mmmmm, adobong manok sa gata (chicken adobo in coconut milk)

Song stuck in my head: The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace by The Amazing Devil. (In my head I am screaming this out very dramatically. I deserve an Oscar for acting normal actually.)

Last thing you googled: Sarah Snook Joel Fry Persuasion (yeah, that's the Persuasion adaptation we should've gotten in a better world but apparently it was cancelled because they didn't wanna compete with Netflix 😭😭😭)

Time: 4:15 AM

Dream trip: A tour of all the great gardens of the world

Last thing you read: currently rereading The Silmarillion

Last book you enjoyed reading: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (last month)

Last book you hated reading: Atonement by Ian McEwan. UGH.

Favorite thing to cook/bake: Sinigang (meat and vegetables in tamarind broth)

Favorite craft to do in your free time: pressed flower art, seashell and driftwood mobiles, futzing around on a free online photo editor and making TAD lyric postcard thingies

Most niche dislike: TV gardeners planting mature trees without removing the wire and burlap wrapping from around the root ball. WHY. WHYYYYY. JUST TAKE IT OFF GODDAMMIT HAVE MERCY ON THAT POOR TREE!!!

Opinion on circuses: the fictional one in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was fantastic. The real one in Germany that features holographic animals seems cool. Also, acrobats are superhuman.

Do you have any sense of direction? NO. I have to check which one of my arms has a birthmark whenever I'm asked to tell left from right, if that gives you an idea.

Tell us about your D&D character: I don't have one. :( I don't know anyone irl who plays D&D. :( :( :(

Tag-list (you don't need to do this if you don't want it!): @spoonietimelordy @warlordess @trekkiepirate @hockles @arleney @wren-of-the-woods @ereborne @miriel-therindes @crescendoofstars @onetwothreemany

[adobe-outdesign]

Reviews of All Scrapped Spaceword Betas

Exactly what it says in the title. This is also for my reference, as I might redesign some of these later for funsies. 

I’m only including Pokemon that were 100% scrapped (we’re not here to argue what might have become what) and aren’t evos/pre-evos of existing Pokemon. Also, I’m using the English fan-translations for the names because I don’t speak Japanese.

Flambear/Volbear/Dynabear

Our original fire starter, and yeah, I can see why this was scrapped. For starters (heh), it looks more like a rodent that evolves into a lion than anything resembling a bear. And secondly... it doesn’t really have a clear focus, nor a memorable design. It’s just kind of a rodent-bear thing with flames tacked onto it. 

The best Pokes usually have a "catch” to them, and these guys lack that. For example, this got replaced by Cyndaquil, which has the concept of flaming spikes that form out of its back. That’s memorable. This, well, isn’t.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of focus/interesting design

Pokes to fill the void: Teddiursa and Ursaring are probably the closest in terms of being bears. Something about it also reminds me of Growlithe/Arcanine, probably because it’s a fluffy fire thing that evolves into a bigger fluffy fire thing with a mane and black markings.

Cruz/Aqua/Aquaria

This has the same problem as the Flambear line, just less extreme. It’s okay, being a little plesiosaur that evolves into a bigger plesiosaur, but it also lacks an interesting catch to it. The pearls are maybe something, but they’re not really emphasized, just kind of tacked on. Plus Dragonair kind of has the crystal neck ornaments on lock. And the horn. And the underbelly. And the water theme...

Whoops.

I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to a plesiosaur water starter in the future, but it would probably have to be completely redesigned.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of focus/interesting design; too similar to Dragonair

Pokes to fill the void: Dragonair, as mentioned above. If you want a plesiosaur, Lapras is always a thing.

Putting the rest under the cut for length.

Sunmola1/Anchorage/Grotess

This is one of the most chaotic beta evolutions out there, aside from beta Girafarig. I can see the resemblance between Sunmola1 and Anchorage to some extent--counter-shaded blue fish with two fins and a short body--but the anchor part of the evolution comes out of nowhere. Then it sporadically turns into a gulper eel, which has nothing to do with the previous two evolutions at all.

I’ve heard some people suggest that Sunmola1 basically gets dragged into the depths and turns into a deep-sea creature due to its anchor, which is a fantastic idea. However, if that’s what they were going for here it’s not really clear, and I think it could be executed much better.

Individually, Sumola1 is a little plain. Not terrible, but I think they could do something more interesting with the little head thing. Anchorage is memorable, but there’s something very un-Pokemonish about it. I think it’s just the fact that it’s basically cut in half--I keep expecting the backsprite to show its organs or something. Grotess is also a bit too plain.

It’s also worth noting that at some point, this was the evolutionary line, which is more consistent but much less interesting (save for the middle evo’s eyes, which are pretty great).

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of evolutionary consistency; some designs plain or not very fitting for Pokemon

Pokes to fill the void: Alomomola is a sunfish Pokemon. Sharpedo is a shark crossed with an object, and Grotess almost certainly became Huntail and Gorebyss.

Rinring/Bellboyant

These two... are pretty good. They have a simple catch--black cats with bells--and the designs are nicely executed and memorable.

If I had one complaint, it’s that they maybe seems a tad unfocused in the backend of things. They’re dark types, but have a bunch of “cutesy” moves, and it’s not clear why’d they be dark apart from being black cats. They seem to have a magical girl vibe (Bellboyant looks a bit like Luna from Sailor Moon, which is probably not a coincidence), which also has nothing to do with the bells or the dark theme. I do think that the designs themselves are fine though, and that if you just focused on the sound concept a hair more you’d have a pretty great Pokemon.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Not entirely sure, these definitely would’ve been popular. Might’ve just been a balancing thing, or it lost the dev popularity contest. 

Pokes to fill the void: Skitty kind of has the same vibe as Rinring. They also remind me a bit of the Meowth line, being cat Pokemon with metal attached to them. The Purrloin line takes over the “dark-type cat” aspect.

Bomseel

I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, it’s a very plain looking Pokemon. The idea of it balancing a fireball/bomb on its nose instead of a ball is clever and memorable enough... except that it’s dependent on it being on that pose. It can’t balance that 24/7, and once it stops all you’re left with is a plain sea lion with dark points.

However, it’s fire/water. The only fire/water we have right now is a legendary, so it would be sweet to have one that’s just a regular poke. So it’s not that the concept itself is bad, using a water-based animal and adding a fire type; it’s just more that the execution is lackluster. Give this guy a hook not related to the fireball and make the seal itself more interesting and I think you’d have something here.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of interesting design

Pokes to fill the void: Volcanion is our only fire/water Pokemon for now. In terms of seals/sea lions with a circus theme, Popplio is a decent enough match.

Tigrette/Electiger

Someone at Gamefreak hates tigerballs, because this line was planned for Gen 1, scrapped, then planned for Gen 2 and scrapped again. Which is strange, because while it’s not the best design it’s not bad either. It’s very very cute, and could definitely find an audience.

However, I’m not really sure what the premise is here. If it’s based on tiger clay bells, then it doesn’t really play into the bell theme much at all. And if it’s not... why is it so round? It’s not that the roundness is bad, but it would usually form the hook for this Pokemon, like it collects static electricity in its fur that makes it puff out or something. Maybe some dex descriptions would’ve made this clearer, who knows.

Also, Electiger is literally the exact same design as Tigrette, just bigger. It would either need a completely new final evolution or would need to show up as a single evo. 

While that sounds harsh, I do really like this design. Fix the evo, figure out/build on the hook of it being round or bell like, and maybe refine the markings a touch and it would be pretty perfect.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Not sure. Might’ve been too similar to Pikachu (both being yellow round electric type Pokemon with zig-zag tails, and og fat Pikachu was also very round). The need to rework the evolution also might’ve turned GameFreak off of it.

Pokes to fill the void: Spheal and Rowlet are both pleasantly round. Pikachu is cute and electric themed in a similar way. In terms of tigers, Raikou is also electric-type. The exact way the stripes are done here is also very similar to Litten.

Kurstraw/Pangshi

GameFreak. GameFreak, you are telling me that we almost had a voodoo-doll Pokemon based off of Ushi-no-Toki-Mairi that evolves into a fucking jiangshi panda?? You are killing me here.

A few interesting things to note here:

Kurstraw evolves at level 1. How? Why? No idea. It could just be a placeholder, but...

The fact that Kurstraw was set to have Curse as its signature move (then called “nail”) and that it only learned this move at level 100 makes it evolving at level 1 seem intentional.

To make things more confusing, it almost seems like (and this is speculation on my part) GameFreak’s intention was to encourage players to not evolve this thing. Stats are comparable, Kurstraw only gets its signature move if you level it up to where it can’t evolve, and Kurstraw has the better moveset (getting frigging destiny bond at lv. 16, while Pangshi gets... splash (which. makes more sense when you consider it’s called “hop” in Japan but it’s still useless). If that was what they were aiming for, then that’s a really unique mechanic that would really make this poke stand out.

Design wise, Kurstraw is... well, it’s a doll with a nail rammed through it. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not very Pokemon-ish. Meanwhile, Pangshi is maybe a little too much like a Jianshi rather than being reminiscent of one, right down to the little hat. The pose, fangs, and panda colors (which resemble Jiangshi mandarin robes) are more than enough to get the hook across.

What I really love about these two are the expressions. They are just like, so dissonantly happy. Kurstraw is literally like

and Pangshi has the dead-eyed thousand-yard stare of Espurr, except unlike Espurr it looks completely and utter deranged. It looks like if this Pokemon ended up in Mystery Dungeon, it would respond to every question with “my favorite color is blood”. Amazing.

Possible reason for being scrapped: I think these two might’ve been scrapped just because they were too scary. I mean, it’s a voodoo doll impaled on a giant nail that evolves into a literal actual corpse. The implied violence was probably just a bit much for GameFreak.

The reason I think this is, beside the fact that they have fairly solid designs, good hooks, and all of their stats and moves in place, most beta Pokemon have had their premises revisited at some point. But we’ve really never gotten a voodoo doll Pokemon since this, and we definitely haven’t gotten any jiangshi Pokemon either, which suggests the problem lied in the very concept rather than the execution.

Pokes to fill the void: People say that Kurstraw was reworked into Banette, but if anyone Pokemon resembles it to be, it would actually be Mimikyu. They both have cloth bodies with drawn-on smiley faces that resemble something cuter than them and they both want to curse you for existing.

For Pangshi... well, there’s Pancham if you’re looking for tiny pandas. If you’re after a jiangshi though, you’re out of luck.

Wolfman/Warwolf

This Pokemon has a great hook. I mean, a Pokemon that wears a pelt that transforms it into a werewolf? Hell yeah. Not to mention it might be a reference to an obscure Nordic tale about people donning wolf pelts to turn into wolves for ten days.

Design wise, it... well, Wolfman looks almost exactly like Venonat. I’m not the only one who sees this, right?

That aside, I think the idea could be played up a little more. Wolfman is fine, save for its Venonat-ishness, but Warwolf doesn’t do much for me, basically just being a larger version with claws and fangs. If the idea is that it turns into a werewolf by wearing the pelt, what if its evolution looked somewhat like a wolf? Or better yet, the actually body of the thing changes to fill the wolf skin more, so it looks like its a part of it? That would really elevate this Pokemon to a new level.

Possible reason for being scrapped: I’d guess that it’s the same problem as Kurstraw and Pangshi--too scary. I mean, that is a dead pelt of some kind, which means that it killed and skinned some kind of Pokemon, and that’s not getting into questions of what Pokemon they got that from.

It’s also worth noting that when we did finally get a werewolf Pokemon via Lycanroc, it was minus the pelt concept.

Pokes to fill the void: Lycanroc as our werewolf Pokemon. In terms of design, Venonat is very similar as noted above. And something about it really reminds me of Snorunt, being little critters with glowing eyes that wear a cloak of some kind and live in the cold (this line was ice-type).

[too-many-regular-show-aus-help]

Hi. You can call me PD (Pronouns She/her and They/them). And I like Regular Show. And I like making AUs about Regular show and I made this blog so I don't clog up my main blog with them. Please be aware that I am going to make AUs at an alarming rate, because I have nothing better to do. Most of these AUs are also crossovers because I really like those

Also as a quick disclaimer, if you like Benson and would like him to be alive, you will not like this blog. Trust me. You won't

Current AUs

(Note: The ones in bold are the ones I hyperfixate on the most)

Doug and Park AU - An AU where Mordecai and Rigby are roleswapped with Doug Shablowski and Park Avenue respectively. That's the whole AU

Everything Is Fine AU - a crossover with this kinda obscure webcomic where Mordecai and Margaret both live together in a society that actively punishes people who do not fit the status quo in harsh ways, and I don't have much planned because the webcomic only finished it's first season. Go read it, please I'm begging you

Wizard With a Gun AU - An AU for an as of now unreleased game that you should play when it is released. It's what it says on the tin. Everyone is a wizard. And they have a gun

FNAF AU - Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and Hi-five Ghost work or used to work at a pizza place with animatronics. Benson has an argument with Mordecai in his office and he overeacts just a tad bit and kills him. Benson hides his body in the freezer. The others find him in the freezer, Benson locks them in the freezer and they all die. Lovely. But then they posses the animatronics and fuck with the guards until the place is closed and Benson dies in a fursuit. Very lovely. Then he goes to the Fazbear Fright of the AU and then it burns down

Mystery Flesh Pit AU - The park workers work at a strange national park owned by the Anodyne CEO, Benson Dunwoody. It's just funny shenanigans of body horror and horrible deaths until the 2007 incident where everything goes horribly wrong. Most of the park workers escape and Benson dies. I don't know how but it's in a way that makes being apart of the Circus Clown Chymus look comfortable

Hotline Miami AU - In 1989, strange phone calls start popping up giving people locations and different animal masks and they tell them to kill people from the Russian mafia, this strange group does this by manipulation and threats. Six of these individuals, Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, Hi-five Ghost (he has a human name I gotta think about it), Skips and Park Avenue are all visited by a strange being known as Richard who asks them questions about their morality. Still working on it. All I know is that it involves the park workers (and Park) dressing up as animals (they're humans in this AU) and killing lots of people, and maybe each other too. Benson is also a really, really terrible piece of shit

Mandela Catalog AU - Things in this AU is actually... Regular... Too Regular. There may not be giant evil arcade game monsters, a bunch of baby ducks or even sandwiches that kill you, but rest assured, there's still something. And honestly between the chaos you originally got, and the chaos you have now, you might want to go back to we're you were before. Because trust me, even if things seem more peaceful, nothing is worth the risk

Dinosaur AU - Regular Show... But they are Dinosaurs

The Amazing Digital Circus AU - Benson is trapped in a strange digital world with numerous past enemies (and some girl he might have known) and they all go on adventures being terrible to each other. Except for the only nice one. The only nice one

Again. I will probably add more so yeah :)

[superbatbigbang]

The Superbat Big Bang 2019 Masterlist

We’ve officially come to the end of the 2019 edition of the bang. What a fantastic turnout we had: 27 teams posted, and all of our teams that went into art claims made it across the finish line. Our participants put in an amazing effort this year–I hope you’ll join us in giving everyone a hardy round of congratulations.

Click through and/or scroll down to see all of the work posted during the 2019 bang.

Week One

June 29th Detachment bonehandledknife, Sdiosb, SDeeyS (NSFW profile) Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 29k, Explicit (DCU) Bruce is politely poked in the cheek by a flying dick one night. Hijinks, and more worldbuilding than you can shake a dick at, ensue. fic on Ao3 | art by sdiosb | art by SDeeyS (NSFW) | masterpost — June 30th Again I Go Unnoticed Sam4265, TKodami Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor/Bruce Wayne, 42k, Explicit (Smallville) Bruce Wayne moved to Smallville when he was eight years old, beginning a friendship with Clark Kent that would come to define the world. But for now they’re just teenagers in love with all the wrong people, running in circles until they finally find their way to each other. fic on Ao3 | art on Ao3 | masterpost — July 2nd The Incandescent Rose truc, lesbidar Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Terry McGinnis/Dana Tan, 9k, Teen and Up (Batman Beyond) Terry McGinnis (the new Batman) impulsively asks marriage proposal advice from his mentor and grumpy father figure Bruce Wayne. When the older man describes a proposal in which he had been yelled at and abandoned, Terry can’t help investigate the matter by seeing some of Bruce’s most knowledgeable friends and family members. This search prompts someone else into action. fic on Ao3 | art on Ao3 | masterpost — July 4th Flowers in the Dustbin G.G. Kinko (Cheese_kun), magpiebee, SDeeyS Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 9.6k, Explicit (No Specific Continuity) Bruce, now in his early sixties and married for nearly twenty years, was caught off guard by a sudden thought that he suddenly hated the sight of Clark. In an attempt to salvage a marriage that was threatening to fall apart due to Bruce’s sudden indifference, he booked a vacation to remake the bond…from one landmark to the next. fic on Ao3 | art by magpiebee | art by SDeeyS | masterpost — July 5th Mercy for a dreamer Dino_Cattivo, Jayjayverse Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 25k, Not Rated (No Specific Continuity) Clark is happily married to Bruce. But his husband starts acting strange and Clark gets suspicious. At first Clark suspect Bruce of cheating but there is something bigger at work here affecting everyone around him. And Clark is set on finding out what it is. And with every piece of the puzzle he finds the situation just gets more confusing. Clark just wish he could wake up from all of this and go back to the times before everything fell apart. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost —

Week Two

July 7th The Game of Love Kaizokuhime, lovelastart Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 12k, Explicit (Alternate Universe) In WayneTech VR Augmented Gaming, a guild of superheroes has arisen who volunteer to help police that reality. One of these superheroes, Superman, has had a crush on his fellow member, Batman, for many years, but thus far has had little success on asking him out, even as fellow guildmembers. How will their relationship progress? And how intimate can they truly become without knowing the other’s identity offline? fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — July 12th Recontre Icedlemon, Ms. 3, Santheum Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 13k, Teen and Up (DCU, Alternate Universe) Life has a way of bringing people together, even if they’re from different planets. fic on Ao3 | art by Ms. 3 | art by Santheum masterpost — July 13th The Opposite of Love Butterflyslinky, mirybdraws Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, 10k, Explicit (Alternate Universe) Twenty years ago, Batman and Superman formed a bond to stop an alien threat. Now that Bruce wants to get married for real, he and Clark will have to travel to an alien planet to break that bond. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost —

Week Three

July 14th Clark Kent, of Krypton TerresDeBrume, stuvyx Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 98k, Mature (DCU, Alternate Universe) Batman crashes on Krypton a few days before the Turn of the Year celebrations and Kal-El’s life takes a sharp turn to the left, on a path that will ultimately lead him to becoming Clark Kent. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — July 15th Through a Glass Darkly susiecarter, lesbidar, Santheum Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 111k, Explicit (DCEU) Post-BvS AU: Batman killed Superman—and then Metropolis was wrecked by Doomsday, not long before Steppenwolf arrived and conquered the world with innumerable swarms of parademons. Bruce’s nightmare has come true, in every way but one: what’s left of humanity is fighting to survive in a hostile wasteland as Steppenwolf manipulates the power of a pair of mother boxes to gradually reshape the planet to serve his needs. But rumors of a threat that could be greater still are finally forcing Bruce to consider taking truly drastic steps. Like bringing Superman back from the dead. fic on Ao3 | art by lesbidar | art by santheum | masterpost — July 16th Bodyguard missigma, Ischa Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne/Female OC, 12k, Explicit (pre-New52 Comics) Today, it is not Batman who is under attack, but Bruce Wayne. Mired in a court battle, he fights to keep his company out of bankruptcy and himself out of jail. But that fight is quickly forgotten as he barely survives an assassination attempt. Clark rushes to his side in Gotham City. With the help of Dick Grayson, he comes to the terrifying conclusion that not only is someone trying to ruin Bruce Wayne, but that person must know his true identity. To protect Bruce, Clark appoints himself as his bodyguard. Despite Bruce’s protests, he accompanies him as Bruce attempts to rebuild his tattered reputation with a new business deal. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — July 18th Alternative Beginnings Ischa and Icalynn, with-your-poncho-on Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 25k, Explicit (Alternate Universe) In which Clark’s parents sell the farm and join the circus to keep Clark safe and Dick and Clark grow up as brothers. When Clark is sixteen he falls in love with the very handsome Thomas Kane–but as suddenly as Kane joins the circus he disappears, leaving Clark without a word and brokenhearted. Five years later they meet again in Gotham on the day Dick’s parents die. Clark, feeling guilty about letting the Graysons die and determined to not fail Dick, leaves the circus to get Dick back–and get some answers from Bruce Wayne. But of course Bruce Wayne isn’t the only one with secrets. Meanwhile Dick is out for revenge. He wants the man who killed his parents: Tony Zucco. Dick’s and the Batman’s paths are about to cross. fic on Ao3 | art on Ao3 | masterpost — July 19th I Would Go In Chains (Just To Set You Free) BatsAreFluffy, adumbtree-draws Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 23k, Teen and Up (No Specific Continuity) After an offworld mission goes horribly awry, Clark begins to wonder if the past is really behind him and Bruce. And what better way to deal with the issues than with planetary peace talks, forced transformations, and a psychic bond that doesn’t allow for lying? fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — July 19th I’ve Seen Your Flag On The Marble Arch minT (justiceleague), mirybdraws, Dino_Cattivo Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince/Lois Lane, Past Clark Kent/Diana Prince, 18k, Mature (Animated Movie Verse) He draws Clark to sitting position and pulls him close, hands on either side of his head. He feels the rise and fall of Clark’s chest against his body, and he doesn’t let go because he needs to feel it, to be sure. There’s a crackle over their comms, and Barry’s voice cuts through the noise around them, jarring. “Holy shit, are Batman and Superman hugging?” A reimagining of the events of - and preceding - the Death of Superman, if Clark had fallen for Bruce instead of Lois. fic on Ao3 | art by mirybdraws | art by Dino_Cattivo | masterpost —

July 20th Faal Dovahkiinro Wund dippkip, liodain Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 19k, Teen and Up (Alternate Universe) Ever since that fateful day in Helgen, it seemed Clark’s life in Skyrim was doomed to be anything but simple. Dubbed “Dragonborn” but offered little guidance, Clark must muddle his way across the unpleasantly cold countryside with only his reticent friend Bruce for company. Together they will hunt down a serial killer, save a young boy’s life, and kill a few dragons along the way - all in a day’s work for the Dovahkiin. fic on Ao3 | art on Ao3 | masterpost —

Week Four

July 22nd A Knight’s Heart LilisBooks, carry-on-my-wayward-artblog, boomdeyadah Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne; Lex Luthor/Clark Kent (one sided), 15k, Mature (Alternate Universe) King Bruce is fighting a war he has no desire to be in whatsoever, especially since the war cost him more than he could’ve ever thought, just before it all began. Clark is just a knight fighting for what he has lead to believe is right, unsure of the reasons behind the war King Luthor has against all kingdoms. Is when these two men met that their beliefs are shaken to their core and the connection they share is more than it first leads the eye. This is a tale of knights and Kings, of war within kingdoms and a search for truth and justice with a tad of love along the way. fic on Ao3 | art by carry-on-my-wayward-artblog | art by boomdeyadah | masterpost — July 23rd A Beautiful Lie Killer_Rabbit_of_Caerbannog, JolBalrok Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, minor Clark Kent/Diana, minor Clark Kent/Lois Lane 16k, Explicit (DCEU with nods to Injustice) ‘Pet Sematary’ Barry had said, and Clark wonders if he’d somehow been right about that and he’d come back to life… wrong. False memories tangle with whispers in his head, a future Darkseid promises him, and through it all Clark tries to remember that in this world, his world, he doesn’t know what Bruce Wayne’s kisses taste like. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — July 24th Supplicant Holdt & spacewolfcub, Ms. 3 Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Pamela Isley/Bruce WayneBruce Wayne/Other(s)Clark Kent/Other(s), 51k, Explicit (DCEU Alternate Universe) The training and scars of Nanda Parbat run deep— Bruce has always fought the demons that make him want to stalk the night and rend pain unto the deserving. After a decade of trying to stay afloat, using BDSM as both punishment and moral compass, he turns to The Agency. Through them, he finds Mistress Ivy, whose Services help him keep ahead of the encroaching darkness… until he finds his lifeline gone without warning when Ivy’s extreme methods and poison play are revealed and she is exiled. The Agency has a reputation to uphold, secretive as they are. For years, they’ve offered him a chance at salvation—for a price. It is no different now and Bruce grasps desperately at their offer. Can the Service Provider known as Mr. S, the so-called “SuperDom,” help him rein in the Bat? fic on Ao3 | art on Ao3 | masterpost — July 25th The Words We Never Said Mechformers, susscx Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 13k, Explicit (DCEU) Bruce is done pining. It is time to move on, time to heal and live out the rest of his life away from the man of steel. But what is two lovesick puppies to do, when they both need each other, as they need air to live? Misunderstandings are bound to happen, feelings trampled and cast aside as the two greatest men alive try to figure out the ancient wonders of confessions. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — July 26th The Shape of my Heart Brenda, Selofain, carry-on-my-wayward-artblog (CrocInCros) Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 27k, Explicit (DCEU) Bruce is impossible, stubborn, willfully self-destructive, and so self-sacrificing it's a wonder he hasn't suffocated under the weight of it. And Clark is stupidly, dizzyingly, crazy about him. Or, post-Justice League, five things Clark learns about Bruce that make him go all heart-eyes, and the time he finally does something about it. fic on Ao3 | art by Selofain | art by carry-on-my-wayward-artblog | masterpost — July 30th The Greatest Way lesbidar, haljords (barrybinary), androbeaurepaire Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 17k, Teen an Up It’s Diana that ascertains their problem. She has an uncanny way of discovering truths that are best kept buried. After a year together, Bruce and Clark are having troubles. To save their relationship, they agree to answer a series of questions designed to foster emotional intimacy. It goes about as well as you’d expect. fic on Ao3 | art by haljords | art by androbeaurepaire | masterpost —

Amnesty

July 31st No More Heroes (In a World so Cold) ComposerofDiscord, SDeeyS Hernan Guerra/Kirk Langstrom, Pre Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 27k, Teen and Up (DCAU/Justice League: Gods & Monsters) Clark and Bruce are visited by an Amanda Waller from another world. She asks for their help with her Superman, Hernan Guerra, who has gone rogue. Clark accepts, and Bruce goes with him When they arrive, Clark wishes to see who Hernan is and what he has done, while Bruce investigates the day Hernan went berserk. With what Bruce has gathered from his investigation and what Clark has seen of Hernan, they must decide who they can trust in the GnM universe: Waller or Hernan, or is there something much larger at play? fic & art on Ao3 | masterpost — August 1st A Golden Bell Hung in My Heart cattyk8 Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 9k, Explicit (DCAU and DCEU Mashup) After finding themselves transported to Faerie, Superman and Batman must navigate an enchanted forest in order to get themselves back to their own plane of existence. Which would be easy enough—they’re not the World’s Finest for no reason, after all—if not for the fact that they’ve been cornered by a unicorn attracted by Superman’s virginity. Of course, who better to pop the Man of Steel’s cherry than Gotham’s Dark Knight? fic & banner on Ao3 masterpost — August 3rd that dwell in dust flirtygaybrit, g.g. kinko, TKodami Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 53k, Mature (DCEU) Things are different after Clark Kent returns to the world: tainted things are made beautiful once more, a long-dormant seed begins to grow, and eventually, nature reclaims its own. Or: Clark plants a garden, Victor keeps a terrible secret, and Bruce faces the consequences of bringing someone back from the dead. fic on Ao3 | art by TKodami | art by G.G. Kinko | masterpost — August 4th Extra Art for The Game (of Love) lovelastart Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, art only art of game characters | flying dance — August 4th Catch a Falling Star architeuthis, G.G. Kinko, mashimero Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, 22k, Explicit (DCEU) Bruce is in the middle of a stakeout when Clark returns from an offworld mission, full of ideas. fic on Ao3 | art by G.G Kinko | art by mashimero | masterpost — August 4th On The Cusp vesper_house, milki3way Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince/Lois Lane, 47k, Explicit (DCEU Alternate Universe) Clark’s life isn’t what he imagined it would be. Instead of having a flourishing journalism career, he makes coffe at the Typewriter - coffee shop owned by Lois, his old crush who’s currently dating Diana. He’s lonely, he’s broke, and the only thing that makes him happy is his charity work. However, it takes just one day to turn everything round. Internet fame, investigations, billionaires with secret identities and homeless cats follow through. fic on Ao3 | art on tumblr | masterpost — August 5th Rewrite the Stars crypt_mirror, albilibertea Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, ~20k, Explicit (DCEU Alternate Universe) Clark Kent the Superman, Bruce Wayne the Dark Knight, their soul marks fated them to be together. But fate and destiny seem to have other plans. Even as they play their part, they pay the price. Could they ever rewrite the stars? fic on Ao3 | art on Ao3 | masterpost —

Inktober & Art Prompt Challenge

alienswearglasses (ComposerofDiscord) | When All I Wanted Was You: Day 12, Restraint ariesnohope | Week Six: Snow Day carry-on-my-wayward-artblog | morning kiss, kryptonian styled batsuit, Couch Cuddle, Kidnapped!, Day Four: Rescue, Day Eight: Rainbows, Disco! dino_cattivo | Day One: Capes, Day Four: Rescue, Day Five: Space, Day Eight: Rainbows, Day Nine: Sun, Day Ten: Watchtower, Day 11: Feat of Strength, Day 13: New Costume, Day 15: Interrupted, Day 16: Bat Gadgets, Day 17: Kryptonite, Day 18: Blindfolds, Day 20: Last Son of Krypton, Day 22: Tentacles, Day 23: Flying Together, Day 25: On a Farm, Day 26: Tender Embrace, Day 29: Inopportune Robin, Day 30: Low Effort Joke, Day 31: Soft Vore kaizokunohime | Day One: Capes, Day Two: Masks, Day Four: Rescue lovelastart | stabbed, Day Two: Masks ms. three | superbat practice, Day One: Capes, Day Two: Masks, Day Three: Costume Switch, Day 12: Restraint sdeeys | Good Morning Kiss+Manly beard, Day Six: Teamwork, Suit Porn + Swing Dance, Day Three: Costume Swap, Day 12: Restraint, Day 31: Soft Vore steals-thyme | Week One: beards (manly), Week Two: Kidnapped! sunaddicted | Day One: Capes, Day Three: Costume Switch, Day Five: Space, Day Six: Teamwork, Day Seven: Alleyway, Day Nine: Sun, Day 12: Restraints, Day 13: New Costumes, Day 14: Notebook Doodle, Day 15: Interrupted, Day 16: Bat Gadgets, Day 17: Kryptonite, Day 18: Blindfolds, Day 19: Bad Disguises, Day 20: Last Son of Krypton, Day 21: The Dark Knight, Day 22: Tentacles, Day 23: Flying Together, Day 24: A Stately Manor, Day 25: On a Farm, Day 26: Tender Embrace, Day 27: :peach emoji:, Day 28: NSFW Bars in unlikely places, Day 29: Inopportune Robin, Day 30: Low Effort Joke, Day 31: Light Vore

And that is it for the 2019 Superbat Big Bang! Please be sure to drop our authors and artists kudos, likes, and reblogs and let them know how much you enjoyed their hard work!

[fox-guardian]

J&H Mermaid!AU  Ch. 2: Thanking the River

The next day found the two gents returning to the base of the waterfall, just where they had fallen in before. This time however, Lanyon wasn't exactly dressed for an aquatic adventure.

"Why are we here again?" He asked, keeping his nice everyday shoes a safely dry distance from the water.

"I swear to you, Lanyon," said Utterson, stepping towards the river's edge with his fishing boots, "something -- or someone -- saved us yesterday. I just... wanted to thank them."

Lanyon threw his head back and laughed, "You're mad. You're going to thank, what, a fish? No one else was there yesterday. You likely saved me, hit your head, and floated up to shore, safe and sound. You just don't remember saving me after hitting your head."

"That doesn't make sense, Lanyon."

"It makes more sense than thanking a river for not killing you."

Utterson glared at him. Wasn't he supposed to be the adventurous one?

"Well," said Lanyon, putting his hands in his pockets, "I'm going home. Come see me when you decide to return, alright?"

"Alright..." he replied.

He started scanning the river for that strange being he'd seen before. He waited until he couldn't hear the crunching of pebbles from beneath Lanyon's shoes before stepping further out. The river was at least 6 meters across from where he stood, and he wasn't sure how deep exactly, but at least deep enough to drown if he fell in again. He carefully stepped out onto some rocks, calling out to see if anyone was there. If anyone saw him, he knew they'd think he was mad. A small price to pay to meet this mermaid again. 

He turned and looked towards the waterfall itself, nothing. Not a shadow of a person. He looked downriver, and there, resting on a log, was the figure he'd been hoping to find. It waved a pale, webbed hand at him, and a golden flipper at the end of its tail splashed against the river's surface. Utterson smiled wide, and gave it a small wave in return. He then stepped back to solid ground and began closing the gap between them. For a moment, the figure disappeared beneath the water, only to appear again seconds later by a large rock that met the river's edge, just in front of Utterson. It lifted itself up onto the rock with its arms, and laid its body against it, squinting down at Utterson with those dark eyes. 

"Hello again~" he said, in a voice as smooth as river stones and as deep as the ocean.

Utterson stared up in shock. "Y-You can speak!"

"I can," he replied, "I apologize for not speaking before, I was out of breath from helping you and your friend. That, and I wasn't sure what to say. I'd never been so close to a human before."

Now it was Utterson's turn to be speechless for a moment. He could see his mermaid saviour splashing his tail behind him, he looked so relaxed, as if everything was perfectly normal. Utterson supposed it would be, for someone who has always been a mermaid. The mermaid chuckled at him. 

"U-Uhm," Utterson started, "I-I actually came back to thank you for that, so erm..." he nodded gratefully, "t-thank you."

"Are you always this articulate?" He asked, leaning his head on his hand. 

Utterson chuckled, a tad embarrassed. He was caught stuttering to a mermaid. Incredible.

"I'm glad you came back," he said, "I had been hoping that you would." He reached out a webbed left hand and tilted his head in the other direction, "I've missed you."

Utterson stepped forward, reaching out to take his hand with both of his own. His hand was wet, the nails were oddly well manicured, and the webbing felt like strange skin. Up close once again, and more relaxed this time, he could see the creature's features more closely. He saw crow's feet stepping on the outer corners of his eyes, dark circles beneath them, and a bit of grey hair towards the back of his head. He saw a gentle, relaxed smile on his pink lips, and faint dimples on either cheek.

"My name is Henry Jekyll," he said simply.

"Oh," Utterson said, "My name is Utterson, Gabriel John Utterson," he replied.

Henry's golden ear-fins flicked up and his eyes went wide, "Oh dear, how much of that was your name?" He smiled awkwardly, "I'm still new to your language, you see." 

"Oh!" he said, laughing, "You can call me 'Gabriel', or 'Utterson'. Whichever you'd prefer."

Henry relaxed again, still absentmindedly splashing the water with his tail. "I like 'Gabriel'," he said, "It sort of rolls off the tongue..."

They stayed there for a minute or so, resting in the warm sunlight. Then Henry's expression darkened. His brows furrowed and he seemed more alert, tense even. 

"Something wrong, Henry?" Utterson asked.

"...Why did you come back to find me?" he asked almost accusingly.

"I told you, I wanted to thank you for saving me and my friend."

He paused for a moment, "...Can you tell me what a 'circus' is?"

He was confused, what an odd question. "They're places that people go to watch people and animals perform things. They're not my preference, but some people like them. Why?"

Disgust seemed to flash across his face for a moment, "...I've heard humans talk about seeing us. Calling us 'mermaids', and how if they caught one, they'd be rich after selling it to the circus. Something about a ‘freakshow’...”

It finally hit Utterson why he looked so upset so suddenly. He clutched Henry's hand with his own. "Oh... Oh, Henry... I would never do such a thing to you. You've saved my life, you've saved my friend's life... I could never betray you like that."

Henry's deep, dark eyes seemed to plead with him, "Do you promise?"

"Of course, Henry, with all of my heart."

Henry finally smiled again, and held Utterson's hand more tightly, "Thank you, Gabriel. Could you do for me a small favour?"

Utterson stared up at the ethereal being before him, "Of course..."

"Come visit me again. I like spending time with you."

Utterson could feel himself smiling like an idiot, "O-Of course! I'd love to! I'll..." he cleared his throat and composed himself, "...come by when I'm available."

Henry chuckled at him, "Of course." He let go of his hand and turned himself around on the rock, his long, glistening tail now dripping water onto the grass, and turned his head to face Utterson once more, "I hope to be seeing you soon, Gabriel." And then he propelled himself back into the water, gone.

Utterson sighed in disbelief. A real mermaid. He couldn't ruin this, he had to keep quiet for Henry's sake, no matter how amazing it was. Though, he was going to tell Dr. "I Don't Believe In Mermaids Because They're Unscientific Balderdash" Lanyon, of course. After all, he still deserves to see the one who saved him, and Utterson was feeling oddly smug knowing that he had been right after all.

[sheepanonsblog]

~1~

Chapter One of “The Keepers Key”: Misplaced Circus

~~~

“Come one! Come all to tonight’s great show!” An announcer's voice boomed loudly over the large crowd.

This time around the entire tent was full, it was the first show of the year, and it was the big reopening of the Misplaced Circus. This year there were going to be new faces, better acts, and a new ringleader. One who took over when the other died of a heart attack. The circus had to take a break then, but now it was back and better than ever. With that came a cramming crowd of ecstatic souls. All of them wondering if anything had changed.

Now, the circus had been sold out, and the entire town was there, but one face stood out in the crowd of poor and ragged people. Nathan Sharp, a well dressed and well classed figure was sitting in the front stands among the peasant children. They ran by him as they waited for the show, and he smiled at them kindly. One little girl even came up to him to give him a flower, he gladly returned the gesture with a warm smile and a small bag of coins. This brought him joy, but the circus acts would do that too.

See, the reason this man was in the front row, among mostly poor, is because he wanted to be in the circus. He wanted to act and sing and let the world know him as something more than just a lonely snob. He was quite the contrary. The main thing that made him different was his kindness towards all kinds of people. Aside from that though, he burned his money, not caring about the consequences. When would such a rich man have his well of coins run dry? It would only be dry in a separate life, which was far fetched to his mind.

Soon the crowd let out a loud cheer when the ringleader came out, and he caught the blessed eyes of Nate. The man told himself not to stare, but no one could look away, he wasn’t alone in his thought process. The ringleader was in a truly bizarre outfit. He had higheals on, a red tailored coat, and shining black pants. If he wasn’t a discount Brenden Urie already… Well, the colorful lights didn’t help his dramatic look. Everyone cheered him on, then they went silent when he raised his hand up.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of all ages! And all of you weirdos out there!~ I welcome you to the show of a lifetime! It’ll be like nothing you’ve ever seen before! And it’ll all be controlled by me, your Ringleader, Matthew Patrick! Or Matpat, yeah, that has a nice ring to it. Anyway, I won’t bother you with much else… Let’s kick off the show with our most dangerous actors! Mark, show them what you have for them!” The Ringleader announced with an energetic voice.

Suddenly a cloud of smoke came up from the back of the tent and a big bulky creature ran out, followed by a sleek creature, then a fluffy one caught up with the other two. A lion, a tiger, and a bear… Oh my. The three ferocious creatures turned around when a man suddenly ran out through the smoke. He was short, well built, and he had a small horse whip in his right hand. The three animals ran up to him and didn’t look too happy at the fact that he had the whip.

The short man rose his hands up and made a small growling noise as he approached the bear. The lion and the tiger stepped back as he did this, they were well trained. The bear stood up on its hind legs, then it put its paws against the tamer’s hands. Mark smiled and spoke to the bear as both of them started to dance. It was an odd sight, but it was oddly amusing too, so the crowd loved it. After that small act, the tamer did tricks with the lion and tiger, making them do amazing things. Mark was probably crazy, Nate mentally concluded.

Once his act was over, a small car drove out into the center of everything. One of the doors opened and a guy worked his way out of the extremely small vehicle. The first one was followed by a second bigger one, then a third who was even bigger, then a fourth who towered over the other three by at least a few inches.

“Here are our clowns! Tyler, Ethan, Bob, and Wade!” Matthew announced.

The four clowns danced around for a bit, pulling things out of nowhere, and catching people by surprise. One of the kids was crying in the crowd, due to their fear of clowns, and the small clown, Ethan, went up to them. They looked at him for a few seconds before he pulled out a whole bouquet of flowers for them. That caused them to stop crying, then Ethan gave them a small hug and honked his little horn, causing them to giggle. Something clicked in Nate’s head after a moment, that was the little girl who’d given him a flower...

It was nothing, probably just a coincidence, so he continued to watch the show. Once the clowns were done with their act, they picked up the small car and ran out of the tent with it. The next act came out, and they were on the tightrope. Nate looked up and he gulped. Just thinking of being up that high with no net made his stomach knot up. She gracefully walked out onto the rope, and she did a few basic tricks on it before she got a bit crazy with it. Nate had to look down, she must be crazy too, he thought.

“Give it up for Amy! What a talented soul!” Matthew cheered along with the crowd.

Nate looked up after a moment and he wondered what was next. The tent suddenly went very dim, and a slender figure walked in. He had a long green robe on, and he had shining emerald necklaces and rings all over him. Matthew looked at him and his smile turned into a grin of sorts.

“This man of mystery and fortune is Jack, he’s one of the best acts we have here, and we wouldn’t be what we are today without him… He’s going to choose someone special from the audience tonight, someone who will have a chance to be our biggest act yet, but I don’t know who it is. Jack, do you?” Matthew asked.

Jack stood silently, then he looked around and read a few faces. “No, but I know he’s here.” He said.

“A he… Hmm… What else do you know?” Matthew asked with poisoned interest in his voice, it was like he’d done this a million times.

“He’s wealthy, a tad dull, and he…” Jack suddenly turned to where Nate was sitting and he pointed him out from the rest of the crowd. “Him.” He said with a small smile.

“M-Me?!” Nate exclaimed, getting up.

“Yes you! Get up here!” Matthew called with a laugh.

This isn’t real, Nate thought over and over as he walked out to where they were. No, this is a trick, a joke, a scam. His thoughts didn’t get better from there. Jack walked up to him and set a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down, you’re okay, you’re okay now.” Jack said with a smile.

“For now…” Matthew mumbled.

“What?” Nate asked, he swore he heard something.

Matthew cleared his throat, playing it off as if he hadn’t said anything. “What can you do? What’s your talent? Why were you picked?” He asked, the room suddenly felt different.

“I can sing sir.” Nate said with a small smile.

“Ahh… I see. Is that it?”

Is that it? Wait- Is that it?! Nate started to mentally panic. Jack sensed it and he silently calmed him down again.

“I could be so much more!” Nate suddenly exclaimed with a new found enthusiasm.

Matthew smiled at that and he nodded. “And you will be. I think Jack wasn’t wrong in choosing you… Just go back there and go get acquainted with the others. We’ll talk later.” He said.

Nate nodded eagerly one last time before he ran off towards where the other acts left. It was happening. What he wanted was happening now. Finally, for some unexplained reason, he’d found a part in what he wanted to be with. The Misplaced Circus… His dreams were coming true in one night, and now he was one of the weirdos.

Well, almost.

[polhtrust]

Talking alphabet leap frog

Talking alphabet leap frog full#

Talking alphabet leap frog code#

Talking alphabet leap frog series#

Happy Place: In A Tad of Christmas Cheer, after Edison fails to send Tad back to his proper reality following his It's a Wonderful Life wish, the two discover that Tad tore himself out of the picture of his family and they literally need to find the torn piece.Fully Dressed Cartoon Animal: Everyone in the Learning videos are this trope, not counting the baby versions of Leap, Lily and Tad in toys.Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: In the Scout and Friends videos, notice how Axel automatically puts seatbelts on the characters during the "I'm With You Scout" song.Expressive Ears: In the Scout and Friends videos, Penny certainly has them.Distant Duet: Tad has a heartbreaking one with Mrs.Disembodied Eyebrows: In The Letter Machine Rescue Team, many of the letters have these, so though sometimes the appearance of it depends on what angle they're shown at.Continuity Nod: In (Learn to Read at) The Storybook Factory, Quigley brings up Tad's adventures at the Letter and Talking Words Factories.Christmas Special: A Tad Of Christmas Cheer.For an example of a brother and sister, Mr.Call-Back: In The Magnificent Museum of Opposite Words, the guests of the museum at the time of opening consists of characters from previous DVDs Phonics Farm, Numberland and Adventures in Shapeville Park.

Talking alphabet leap frog series#

Breakout Character: Professor Quigley, who was originally designed as the teacher of the original DVDs, went on to get his own (short-lived) game series on the Leapster L-Max, containing Letters on the Loose and Counting on Zero.

Talking alphabet leap frog full#

Art Shift: The Letter Machine Rescue Team marks a shift to full CGI from the past DVDs' Flash Animation.

Also many noticeable minor improvements from Letter Factory right up to A Tad Of Christmas Cheer.

Art Evolution: A major one that crosses with Art Shift between A Tad of Christmas Cheer, and Let's Go To School!.

The series goes through a few reboots, from using tad and Lily in a different style of episodes teaching the same concept, then focusing on Scout and his friends going through the same concepts, and finally a CGI cartoon focusing on Tad, Leap, and Lily learning the same concepts. The next couple of episodes focus on using said letters to make words, before shifting to numbers in Math Circus, where anthropomorphic numbers perform circus acts of adding and subtracting.

Anthropomorphic Typography: The first episode, Letter Factory, involves the protagonist, Tad, learning his alphabet at a factory that produces anthropomorphic letters.

Other animals, however, are more or less the colors that you'd expect them to be.

Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: There's Scout the green puppy, Violet the purple puppy, and Eli the blue cat.

This was followed by The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park and Numbers Ahoy in 2011. This was followed by Math Adventure to the Moon in 2010. Upon returning from the hiatus, the first video released was Let's Go to School in 2009. During this hiatus, the three main characters (and Edison) were completely redesigned and many of the supporting were Brother Chucked or Put on the Bus. Then the series went into another two year hiatus before the next video. This was followed by a two year hiatus and then A Tad of Christmas Cheer in 2007.

Talking alphabet leap frog code#

It was followed by The Talking Words Factory in the same year, The Talking Words Factory 2: Code Word Caper and Math Circus in 2004, (Learn to Read at) The Storybook Factory in 2005. The first title, Letter Factory, was released way back in 2003. LeapFrog regularly releases DVDs featuring animations of the characters its franchise created. This page contains tropes that applies to the DVD releases.

[runfromthemedic]

Star of the Circus

Chapter 3

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Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.

-Tad Williams

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Leora woke to a pounding headache and a mouth that felt like it was coated in grit.

Scrubbing the roof of her mouth with her tongue a few times, the carney decided that water could wait and snuggled farther into the bed to sleep off the dregs of what felt like a really bad hangover.

Then she remembered where she was.

Bolting upright turned out to be a bad idea as she over balanced, tumbling off the bed and onto a sleeping Tsuna. She had no idea why he was on the floor in the first place but his startled screech did nothing to help ease her headache. Or panic.

Because she was in an anime.

An anime that she had watched in her free time. An anime where the underworld was everywhere, people could burst into Flame, and cursed babies kept the world from ending while their dead counterparts policed the criminally inclined. An anime where the main character’s life would go to hell when he was thirteen. A main character who had run her over and dragged her home with him before presenting Leora up to his mother like she was a puppy he wanted to keep.

A main character who had stopped screaming and was now looking at her in concern.

It was hard to move once the initial adrenaline spike wore off. Everything just felt so heavy; her arms, her legs, her head. Like the blood had frozen in her veins, making each numbed movement stiff and awkward.

Her vision narrowed down to a point, focusing only on Tsuna. His spiky hair and concerned, too big eyes. He was talking, probably to ask her a question, but the words were distorted, barely heard over the pounding in her ears as it fully sank in that this was real.

Leora wasn’t sure how she managed to get to her feet and stay upright. She wasn’t sure she actually garbled out the strangled sounding I have to go, or how she made it down the stairs without breaking her neck. One second she was staring at Tsuna, the next she was out of the house and running.

The cold was still in her blood, creeping its way from her chest, inching its way in waves down her limbs in time with the pounding in her ears. But she kept running. She tore through the residential area, making lefts and rights in a mad dash to get away. When the scenery gave way to something familiar she sprinted by the warehouses, covertness abandoned.

Leora tore over the bridge, Home Base her supplied somewhat hysterically, and kept going into the woods. She ran until she couldn’t see the buildings anymore. She ran until her legs, cramped with bare feet that were scratched and bleeding, gave out.

Unable to get back up, to keep going, to run away, Leora curled into a ball and screamed.

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It was dark, she noted absently. The ground was cold too, mist curling around the edges of trees and shrubs, but Leora kept her eyes firmly on the small gap between the trees and the few stars that were peeking through. She didn’t try to get up.

Her whole body ached again, like when she first woke up into this nightmare. And it was a nightmare. She’d lost the only place she’d ever called home, the only people she’d ever called family, and for what? Some fucked up fanfiction plot that she’d never truly wanted to experience.

A small part of her whispered that they hadn’t abandoned her. That they really, truly wanted her and hadn’t abandoned her like she meant nothing.

That small relief was drowned out by the larger part of her, the more practical side, which pointed out that she was never going to see them again.

It hurt.

God, did it hurt.

Leora knew she needed to get up soon, needed to get warm and find shelter. Probably needed to eat. She never did make it to dinner at Tsuna’s house, and she had done her panic-run-freak out before getting any breakfast. She should be hungry.

She wasn’t.

All she really felt was numb, empty, and kind of broken, like a shattered cup that someone had glued the pieces of back together wrong.

What was she supposed to do now?

She didn’t have any money. No clothes, no shoes, no place to stay. No real reason to get up every day.

That last one made the broken feeling worse. Her whole life from the age of six had revolved around the circus, doing her part, making them realize that she was worth the investment they put in her. She had found her place, her niche, something she was good at, enjoyed doing.

That didn’t exist anymore.

She didn’t choose to jump dimension, didn’t want to be in an anime. She had no reason to change the plot. The only reason she’d met Tsuna was because he bowled her over. Everything worked out in the end so she wasn’t needed.

Leora entertained the thought of just lying there, not moving, until everything just stopped. Until she stopped.

Not two seconds later she was hauling herself up onto unsteady feet, stumbling back the way she came, being careful not to twist her ankle on one of the many roots hidden in the dark.

Sifu Yaozu and Amma Eva always said she had good eyes. They probably wouldn’t be happy a trek through an unfamiliar forest, barefoot, and at night was what she was using them for, but they would understand.

Her family would never forgive her if she just gave up. Right now she only needed to live. She’d find a reason later.

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Leora ended up sleeping in the woods that night, despite making it out of the trees. The numbness was still there, making it harder to grab things, and climbing back up the rope to her bridge would become more suicidal than safe.

There were also groups of men standing between the warehouses, smoking, drinking, and being altogether intimidating. So she slept under a bush for the few hours it took for the sun to rise and the gang to clear out.

Then she went back into town to find a more secure place to call Home Base.

No one was glaring at her this time. She got a few odd looks for being barefoot, but for the most part she was invisible to all the people around her.

It was kind of amazing what a change of clothes could do, but the few stares that she did get made her skin crawl. She didn’t want these people looking at her.

So she kept to the roof tops.

She made a short detour into an alley behind a restaurant to scrounge up the breakfast she didn’t really want but knew she needed – the burger tasted like ash – and Leora was back to hobo house hunting. Joy.

Sarcasm fully intended.

There really wasn’t much to work with, if she was being honest. After hours of jumping roofs and ducking in and out of alleys Leora didn’t have much to show for it, besides being more comfortable in her smaller frame.

Namimori was severely lacking abandoned buildings and rundown apartment complexes. When it started getting dark again, Leora settled for sleeping on top of a small antique shop until the next day. Not that she slept much. After the first nightmare of the big top burning down she resigned herself for staring at the night sky until morning.

As soon as the sun came up, she was off again.

She was back on the antique store roof come nightfall, frustrated, and chilled from a surprise shower sometime around lunch time. She had dried off, but she was still colds.

She had managed to snag several water bottles and a few apples that she hadn’t eaten yet from the market district during the chaos that apparently was a special sale day. Leora didn’t see what was so special about it. To her it looked like a horde of starving hyenas masquerading as housewives attacking each other for a pack of toilet paper.

It must be a culture thing.

Either way, the hoard had been too preoccupied to notice their wallets getting lighter so that worked for her. She was now the proud owner of ¥22,000. An actual apartment might actually be possible, albeit a really cheap one, if she could make off with at least another ¥10,000 from the market district.

Hopefully.

Leora really had no clue how much apartments should cost. She’d never needed one before, least of all in Japan.

So, apartment hunting. One that would be decent enough to not be falling apart around her, but questionable enough that they wouldn’t call the police on the 112 cm brat trying to rent an apartment on her own with no parents, no papers, and no shoes.

She really needed to find some shoes, but all the kids size ones where sold in the department store. She wasn’t a good enough thief to make it past all the clerks and video cameras. Plus she was still barefoot. A kid walking into a department store barefoot and dirty was pretty much the same as wearing a blinking neon sign that screamed Desperate: Keep In Sight!

Why the hell did she have to turn into a kid on top of falling into another dimension? It just made things so much harder. And cliché. She wasn’t even going to start about how cliché this whole clusterfuck was.

Day three of hobo house hunting actually paid off.

The building itself was tiny, only two stories with eight apartments to the whole building and on the edge of Namimori near the warehouse district. The bricks were a grey streaked brown in some places, black in others while the stair case and railing were badly rusted. Paint was peeling in thick stripes off most of the doors and what she could see of the tiny, barred windows was coated in grim. Most of the lightbulbs by the doors were busted out and the glass left where it landed. A small vacancy sign was propped up by the only door that looked like somebody cared enough to wash it.

The place looked like a drug den in the making, and any sensible person would have instantly said ‘nope’ and kept hunting.

Leora knocked on the door with the sign.

Someone inside dropped something, cursed, then dropped something else. There was a lot of clattering, more mumbled curses, then the door was yanked open by the scariest woman Leora had ever seen.

She wasn’t that much taller than Leora’s small stature, maybe another thirty centimeters or so, with a rail thin body the carney had only seen on the starving or really, really old. A towel was pinned haphazardly over greasy hair that fell into a sagging face that looked like it had been smashed with a frying pan. When she sneered Leora could see that she was missing teeth.

“Wha’ da yah want, brat.” Her breath reeked of sour food and alcohol, and made Leora’s eyes water. It took considerable more will power than should be necessary not to step back to breathe easier.

“An apartment.” The woman spat on the ground and pointed a cracked fingernail in Leora’s face.

“This ain’t no toy house brat. Go home an’ play with yur dolls.”

“I don’t have dolls.” Leora said with a calm she didn’t feel. “Or a home. You gonna rent me one or not?”

“Wha’d you do? Got mad at mummy and daddy? Run away?” the crotchety old bitch spat, pulling a cigarette out of a pocket and lighting up with the lighter she’d pulled out the other.

“No. The place went up in flames with everyone in it.” Leora spat back bitterly, watching with a curl of satisfaction as the old bitch jerked in shock. “How much for an apartment?”

It was less a question and more of a demand, and they both knew it. The landlady eyed her for a bit, dragging on her cigarette before blowing a lungful of smoke in Leora’s face.

“¥39,000.” Leora snorted.

“¥20,000”

“This ain’t no charity, girl.” The landlady growled, jabbing her lit cigarette in Leora’s face.

“The place is a wreck and I doubt the rooms are much better.” Leora countered, crossing her arms. “You want me to pay more, fix the place up. ¥20,000.”

“¥35,000.”

“¥21,500.”

“¥34,500.”

“¥22,000.” The lady looked murderous.

“¥34,000.” She grit out around her cigarette. “Apartments ain’t cheap, brat.”

“They are when they’re run down and don’t have any tenants.” Leora tossed back, “¥24,000.”

“¥33,000.”

“¥28,000 and I’ll throw in two bottles of sake with a carton of cigarettes once a month with the rent.” The landlady looked dubious.

“How’re yah gonna get that you brat?”

“Do you really care as long as you get it?”

The lady squinted at her through a haze of smoke, trying to find any cracks in Leora’s utterly bored expression. Finding none, she took one last drag on her cigarette before dropping it and grinding it under the toe of her fuzzy pink slippers.

“If da cops come by, Ah’m tellin’ them yah broke in.” she announced before pulling out another cigarette. “You can have 2B.”

Stamping back inside her apartment, the old lady slammed things around for a bit before returning with a battered looking key. She stomped up the stair with more force than Leora thought they could hold before stopping at a door and unlocking it.

Pocketing the key that was tossed at her head Leora pulled out ¥22,000 and handed it over. The woman snatched it greedily before starting to count. She scowled when she realized it was short.

“This ain’t ¥28,000 girl.”

“You’ll get the rest tomorrow. Your booze and cigarettes at the end of the month. I’ll pay rent every first of the month.”

“You don get ta call the shots, brat.” Leora’s new landlady sneered. It apparently was her default expression. Leora glared right back.

“Do you want my money or not?”

The old bitch scowled some more, spat at Leora’s bare feet, and stomped her way back down the stairs. Waiting a minute longer to hear the door the floor below her slam shut, Leora closed and locked her own door.

Then she turned around to see her new living space.

There was a short hallway leading into the main living space just past that weird little step thing all Japanese households seemed to have that held a small sink, a burner, an ancient looking washing machine, and an equally ancient looking mini fridge. Across from that was the bathroom.

It didn’t have much of a bath. The tub looked more like an oversized bucket that could easily be spanned by her smaller arm reach. The toilet was crammed right next to it in a corner. There wasn’t a sink – she figured that she was going to have to use the one in the hallway – but there was a mirror on the opposite wall. The water ran and the toilet worked, so Leora overlooked how dirty it was.

The main room wasn’t much. Small, square little room with a scratched wooden floor, a small window, and a single bare light bulb that was starting to flicker. Leora scrunched up her nose at the gritty feeling the floor had. She didn’t want to know what the grey stuff on the walls was.

A closet took up some of the available space. A dusty futon was crammed in the bottom half of it and Leora did a mental happy dance at the find. Once she managed to beat the dust out and wash it, she would have a halfway decent – if somewhat threadbare – bed.

All in all, her filthy little shoebox place wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. It definitely beat sleeping in the woods or on somebody’s roof again. And no roaches. She couldn’t stand roaches.

Taking one last look around Leora left her new apartment, careful to pick her way around the glass that could embed itself into her already abused feet.

She needed to get her hands on the remaining ¥6,000 and some cleaning supplies. And shoes. She really, really needed to find a pair of shoes.

Her feet couldn’t take much more of this.

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Getting the remaining money turned out to be harder than she thought. There weren’t any more sales going on currently at the shopping district to distract people from the lightening on their purses. There also weren’t that many people out shopping this close to dinner time. So Leora did something that was probably stupid.

She helped herself to the pockets of a group of high school aged delinquents who were smoking and well on their way to being drunk off their asses.

She had to pretend to be lost, stumble a bit, act afraid, and bolt almost immediately after, but she now had ¥9,000 and enough cartons of cigarettes to cover her bitch of a landlady for the next two months.

She probably shouldn’t have promised sake as part of her rental agreement. That would be a lot harder to get her hands on than cigarettes.

Stopping at the park from her first day walking around Namimori, Leora went through a mental to do list.

She needed to get her stuff from the bridge. No one should’ve seen the rope, but there was still a chance someone might. The stuff might not be very useful, but it was from Home. She wasn’t going to risk losing it.

Cleaning supplies was still high on her list. The whole apartment needed a good scrubbing, and she wanted to be able to fall asleep there without waking up covered in dust.

Laundry detergent was another one. Tsuna’s clothes were starting to smell after her mad dash through the woods, sleeping on rooftops, and more dumpster diving. The futon needed a good wash too.

Wincing as one of the many cuts on her feet stung, Leora shifted her priority list around to put shoes at the very top. Which made it tied with a first aid kit.

…Probably should get the first aid kit first. The cuts really needed to be cleaned.

Standing on her much abused feet she started to leave the park, intent on making use of the last few hours of daylight she had left.

“Wait!”

Jerking around, Leora came face to face with a running main character who promptly tripped, falling into the carney and sending them both sprawling. Again.

Leora wheezed as Tsuna’s elbow jabbed into her stomach in his mad scramble to get off of her.

“Hieee, I’m s-sorry!”

“Ss fine.” She managed after she took a minute to get her breath back and levered herself back upright. “We need to stop meeting like this. You’re heavy.”

Tsuna’s already distressed face when bright red. Averting his eyes, he twisted his hands together, fiddling with his fingers in a nervous way that she had done when she was a kid herself.

Standing up and dusting herself off, Leora held out a hand to help him up. He looked shocked, and a tad bit wary, but he still took it after a moments deliberations. He went bright red again when she started dusting him off.

“I’m sorry I ran out like that.” Leora said after an awkward moment where the two of them just stared at each other. “I just really…needed to go.” Get away get away her mind supplied, the semi-hysterical chant that had been pushed into a corner since she’d broken out of her panic, but not completely silenced.

It was easier to push aside the more she focused on other things. Like talking to Tsuna, oddly enough. This was the quietest it had been yet. She thought being near one of the main sources of her big breakdown would make it worse.

“Um, it’s going to be a while before I can return your clothes.” Leora added as an afterthought, more than a little sheepish, and ashamed, of the fact. “All of mine are gone, so…yeah.”

“I-it’s fine!” Tsuna hurried to assure, arms flailing around a bit. “You can k-keep them as long as you l-like.”

Tangling his fingers together again, Tsuna took a deep breath before squaring his shoulders and looking her directly in the eyes.

“D-do you want to come over for d-dinner? You m-missed it last time.” Almost immediately after the words left his mouth his determined face crumbled, turned bright red, and his eyes went straight to the ground. He fidgeted even more than before.

Meanwhile Leora was seriously weighing the options.

On one hand it would be wasting what few hours of daylight she had left. She wasn’t stupid enough to walk around the warehouse district at night, but she really wanted her few possessions to be in a safe and secure location. Her apartment might be a step or two up from a hovel, but the lock was surprisingly sturdy.

On the other, free food. She didn’t have anything but the two apples she’d stolen from the market…which she forgot to eat. She hadn’t really gotten her appetite back once most of the numbness wore off. This not being hungry thing was going to be dangerous if she wasn’t careful.

They also might have a first aid kit that she wouldn’t have to steal or spend money on.

She was also feeling just a teensy, tiny build guilty for probably scaring a kid with her run-away-freak out after he’d taken her home as an apology for running her over.

“If your mom doesn’t mind, sure. I need to apologize to her too.”

The smile Tsuna shot her was blinding. Literally. Leora had to fight the urge to shade her eyes from the sparkles that were popping to life around his head.

Holy shit, it’s genetic.

Feeling a bit theatric – probably because of the sparkles, the circus master would’ve killed for those kind of illusions – Leora swept out her hand as she bowed from the waste.

“Lead the way Sawada-san.”

Flustered, but still grinning, Tsuna started off down the street, Leora falling into step beside him which seemed to make him smile even more.

The grin stayed in place until they had made it back to Tsuna’s house, when he caught sight of her scratched up feet while taking off his shoe and screeched.

“Hieeee, what happened to your feet?!”

“I lost my shoes. Does your mom have a first aid kit I can borrow?”

Bodily hauling her across the floor to the kitchen in a mad dash to get to his mother, and the first aid kit, was completely unnecessary, and equally unappreciated. He ended up tripping halfway there and making them both face plant into the floor.