#take it easy on him

[quill-pen]

Okay, I'm gonna be completely honest: Bess would have fallen for Ebenezer even as a grumpy, old miser. She'd meet him and he would be rude and she would adapt to his energy and be rude right back. They would both get furious with each other and Eb would kick her out of his counting house and tell her "Don't come back!" And Bess, being the instigator she is and possessing the "never-say-die" American spirit, would be like: "That ass! ... I'm gonna make his life hell!" And she'd just keep coming back to his business everyday to annoy him and tick him off. Every time she's tossed out; every time she comes back.

And if she catches him in the street, and she DOES because she's looking for him specifically and she literally lies in wait for him, it's even worse because then she gets to embarrass him too. Nothing too bad, because even just taking his arm in hers is enough to mortify curmudgeonly Scrooge, but she definitely follows him all over on his rounds, butts in on his conversations, drags him into ones he has no interest in being in. She never fails to get him all hot and his blood pressure skyrocketing (not for the same reasons as in post-ACC universe... at first). Oh, miser-Scrooge loathes her! That's okay--she kinda loathes him, too. At first. But I guess over time they'd just kind of... wear each other down until Ebenezer is merely annoyed by her and Bess' mission changes from "I want to make you suffer," to "I want to make you smile". And eventually Scrooge develops a semi-soft spot that only Bess is able to call out. He's still really salty and (I can't think of another word so we'll use this) tsundere-ish about it though. Bess definitely realizes and acts on her feelings before he does in this au (she keeps hiding them in hers).

I still don't see an actual romantic relationship taking form until after Eb's reclamation though. Not for lack of trying on Bess' part (I definitely see her finagling a kiss or two out of Scrooge--probably annoying him to the point he kisses her to shut her up), but scroogey Scrooge just wouldn't allow that bud to blossom for numerous reasons, the biggest ones probably being because he's terrified of the emotions and he doesn't believe he's good enough for Bess (that definitely stays the same universe to universe). And sheer stubborn pride would be a reason too, let's be honest about the man.🙄 She'd definitely be a big part of the redemptive journey I think. They probably had a huge blowout right beforehand, Bess finally bringing up the topic of their obvious feelings and Eb getting angry because he's so scared about the idea and shoving her away, probably projecting his feelings of not being good enough onto her. 😬Yeowch.... Bess would kind of have that niggling doubt herself already because of her past, so... it wouldn't be pretty. So all that would probably come up through Christmas Present and Yet to Come.

After his redemption, I don't think Ebenezer would waste any time trying to make it up to Bess, though. He'd scour all of London's gardens to find a bunch of bluebells for her (accented with poinsettia, of course--it is Christmas after all) and present them to her. (This first one, would be a bouquet unfortunately--afterwards he starts getting her potted plants.) I don't think he'd invite her on Christmas Day like everyone else. A) he knows she wouldn't come, because he hurt her and because she'd be spending the day with her siblings and the few family members she likes. B) He realizes this is something that needs to be private--just between them. He doesn't want to make Bess' feel socially pressured into forgiving him; she's free to slap him across the face and turn him away if she wants--he deserves it. But she'd agree to talk with him when he goes to meet her, and Eb would be so relieved and grateful! After thousands of apologies and reasons (not excuses--there's a difference) for why he's been the way he is and acted as he did, he'd get around to telling her he's all in for a relationship--any relationship--with her: Or rather, "... As in as you want me to be". Poor Bess would be SO CONFUSED!🤣 And a tad bit suspicious.😒 But because she always knew there was some good in that heart of his somewhere, she'd mostly just be so happy.🥲 She knows she shouldn't, because this man was literally being such a bully to her and everyone else a few days ago, but she can't help herself: She definitely kisses him.😍

Eb: "... Would it be possible to meet your brothers and sisters? As they are so important to you, I would like to ask them permission to court you."

Bess: "... You remember I have siblings?"

Eb: "Well, you talk about them often enough, Dear."

Bess: "Yes, but as chatter to annoy you. I never thought you actually paid attention! Bob talks about his family as much as me--you never remembered he has children."

Eb: "Bob is English, Bess. His voice is a bit easier to tune out than your American tongue."

Bess: "Oh, believe you me, Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, you haven't the faintest idea just how difficult ignoring my ✨American tongue✨ can truly be yet."

Eb: *immediately burns bright red*

Bess: "Ha-ha! That blush is still the same!"

... I might do this just as a little side project. Idk--we'll see. I think it'd be cute and fun, but I'm not super invested in it beyond this. If I ever feel an urge to write about what their courtship might have been like had they had the option (in the mainline they, um, really kind of don't? I guess, technically, it could be considered courting, but they never see or refer to it as that themselves) I'll probably play with this au. Again, we'll see. It's always a crapshoot with me.

Btw: She'd still DEFINITELY call him "The Big Bad Wolf" in this version. It'd be even more apt actually.🤭 And Prudence still loves her and she loves Prudence. The dog most likely met the sibs long before Scrooge did.

[musubiki]

my favorite fields of mistria boys 🥰

[watchingwisteria]

listen there really was just something about how in the book, snow’s 3-page descent from hesitant lover boy to deluded mfer happens entirely in his mind. lucy gray gives him no indication whatsoever that she suspects him, that she’s going to leave or betray him. he’s just sitting quietly in the cabin waiting for her to return when that seed of calculated suspicion, which he has needed to survive the capitol, takes a hold of him and chokes the life out of any goodness left inside him. it really drives home your terror as a reader that “oh my god did he kill her? did she escape? what happened to her? why would he even think that?” in a way that when the movie had to adjust for visualization it lost some of that holy shit this guy has lost it emphasis.

[mamawasatesttube]

the whole "jason rules crime alley and none of the other bats are allowed there!!1!" thing is so funny like. tim LITERALLY lives in the theater where bruce's parents died,

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Tis but a flesh wound!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[suntails]

reality

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[monakisu]

light gets it from his mom… “it” as in “two-faced backstabbing snakery” ˘ᗜ˘🐍

(late) gift 3/3 for my secret santa @llawlieta !!! for ur prompt of yagami family Fucked Up goodness ( ͒•·̫|💚🍭🎀 hope u enjoy!! HAPPY HOLS! * ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊

[waitineedaname]

feeling insane about the deep dream extra again. I like to make jokes about shen qingqiu seeing binghe hugging his corpse and deciding to fuck that man to qi deviation, but when I think about the emotions communicated in that moment it's so much more. shen qingqiu just got insight into a moment he wasn't around for, when binghe was grieving him so terribly, when binghe still didn't have answers for sqq's actions, when he kept reenacting a moment of nonsexual physical intimacy that left such a profound effect on his psyche

and shen qingqiu obviously can't change what happened in the past, but what he can do upon waking up is kiss binghe, press his hand to his beating heart, affirm (out loud!! a big deal for shen qingqiu!!!) that he wants him -- communicating with his actions that "I was gone then, but I'm here now, I'm alive, I won't be leaving, I love you and want you even when it hurts"

[yeagrave]

"smile, roo!"

@calkale asked for them in flight suits (like a week ago lol sorry!), I hope this suffices!<3

[blossoms-phan]

dan is so fake he’s always like “this is your chance to ask us important, hard hitting, deep philosophical questions” someone asks how do you feel having an entire generation look up to you and he’s like physically? yeah haha we’re so tall 🤪

[tommarvoloriddlesdiary]

Tom: This bloodline ends with me.

Harry: That's the most dramatic way I've ever heard someone say, "I'm gay".

Tom: What? I’m immortal.

Harry: Ohh! Diversity win.

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[dyinghomoerotically]

One of the (many) things I love about Xie Lian is how artfully he combines old man and babygirl. I would give examples, but I don’t think I need to. We all know

[littlebitofdnd]

Sandra-Lynn and Sklonda are having a "What Do We Do About Kristen" phone call as we speak