#that joke only works if the 'prediction' was entirely nonsensical and somehow came true

[mihotose]

apollo did not give random internet users the dodgeball of prophecy the random internet users just used their brains and came to a probable conclusion

[sometipsygnostalgic]

adventure time wizard city liveblog

 well here we go

my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014

this takes place at the same time as obsidian?

DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE

DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE

yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk

@spaceacepearl​ joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN

This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene. 

“get offa my bus kid”

Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new! 

OH MY GOD--

HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME

HAHAHAHAH

THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER

i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs

my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”

cadorka..... wow

We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses

“this smells of DARK MAGIC” “yall kids know thats illegal right” peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL

i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb

SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch... 

i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead

how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up 

i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out. 

im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...

Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date. 

“they only laugh because youre different” “i know” “SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT” oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness

ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings. 

PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road! 

candy people in their natural habitat

Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors. 

“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady

the mystery of how he gets clothes

and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?  

NANI

what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories. 

OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over 

peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER

love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him 

wow, blaine, wow

they have a crush

LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!

i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible. 

TRDGFYGHJH

WE

WE MADE  A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS

PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET

ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity 

who plagiarized finn’s signature???

turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!

i love this band

i understand your pain peps

you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)

I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian. 

that... that poor kid is still a rock

and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose

i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist. 

i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good. 

WH

WHAT

DID SPADER JUST DIE

IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM 

oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck. 

Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland. 

THESE ARE JUST HUMANS

OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS

my child

is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this

HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME

the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose

bufo killed one of his own students? but why????

“MY UNCLE’S A COP”

“no one likes a rat”

i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?

HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN

did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,? 

EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL

MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HAVE QUESTIONS

god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time

these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y. 

fdgfhgf because he’s like 500

“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”

sorry, cadebra, i have news for you

is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be, 

ANTS

oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :( 

HELP

the writing on the wall...

SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST

PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????

THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW

okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T

wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not

HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF

sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????

fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense

This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!

LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG

LEAF MAN

DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY

DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY

HE LIVES

MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL

okay, it’s over :) 

first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing. 

it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance. 

it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self. 

i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol. 

THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff! 

God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.

That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her. 

It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special! 

I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate. 

I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end. 

I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!!  I wish they drew more from that episode. 

Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him. 

The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule. 

I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER. 

We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!

I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!

Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T

i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger! 

[nodesiretogrowup]

alrighty, play-by-play recap time!

“A shining civilization, until it fell...INTO THE SEA.” Something about that line/delivery makes me laugh

Kind of wish we had seen them solve to clues to Mervana

Why was this Huey’s quest? He doesn’t end up doing much. Did he chose this adventure?

“I like them.” “We know, Webby.”

Scrooge and Huey nerding out together is ADORABLE

Louie is already done

“Cool, now there’s two people who want to put us in constant danger.” Donald understands your pain. We need an episode focusing on Louie and Donald

I NEED to know why Della hates fish 

Why is Della piloting the sub if she hates the ocean? I feel like Donald would be more qualified

“HEY, KNOCK IT OFF!” That was SUCH a sibling moment

LP isn’t here because he needed a break after last week’s episode OR something went down when he was with Oceanika and he can’t be in the ocean for some reason

Louie knows how this shit goes down

So according to Louie’s chart; Huey has been sacrificed the less with 10, then Webby with 15, Louie at 23, and Dewey at 63 

“DEWEY’S ON TOP!” Sweetie, that’s not a good thing. How many of those times do you think LP saved him?

I bet Donald had/has a tally sheet too

Webby is PRECIOUS

“Life’s not some fairytale filled with happy endings and...” “MERMAIDS!” Webby is SUCH A MOOD this episode 

It’s so cute how in AWE all of them are...

Except for Della

One more Della moment in the theme

Poor Donald

Those things in Aletheia’s headband look like eyes and I can’t unsee it. Also, STARFIRE THE MERMAID!

BEAST BOY THE MERMAN! He pretty much looks like a duck/mermaid version of Greg. It’s great

“So, speaking as a mermaid, WHAT’S IT LIKE TO ACHIEVE MY DREAM?!” WEBBY IS ME

I know the “suffering builds character” line is a joke, but it rubs me the wrong way

How is Scrooge’s hat not floating away?

Della’s reaction to saying fish is how I feel about eating fish

“Look at this stuff, isn’t neat!” THAT’S MY GIRL! I bet The Little Mermaid is Webby’s favorite Disney movie

This was much less dangerous than the last time Webby played hacky sack

Scrooge 100% DONE when they say that he’ll have to give up his worldly possessions

 THERE’S THAT ONE MERMAID THAT LOOKS LIKE GOSALYN! I’m gonna pretend they are distantly related

Why is Honestus’ statue so BEEFY?

 Louie is ALREADY calling bullshit

NO ONE MAY TOUCH THE DONALD

“Wow, a laid-back society where everything is free. Sounds PERFECT for you!” “It’s too perfect.” I love when Louie and Webby are paired off. They have pretty much opposite views of the world

“IT’S. A. TRAP! And take it down a notch, Beakley!” “Sorry, I was trying to drown out your nonsense.” You’re harshing her vibes, bro

 “These hippies are harmless!”

Donald playing drums is adorable

“Operation Flower Power was...groovy.” FIRST THAT SUMMER IN PARAGUAY, NOW THIS! TELL ME YOUR SECRETS! Beakley probably has fucked as many people as Launchpad, possibly more

The face Louie makes after Beakley leaves is great. He knows Beakley fucks and does NOT want to think about that

I want to know all the warnings on the cave. My favorite of the ones I could see was NAAAAAHHHHHHH!

“Those MER-MURDERERS” Alliteration is fun, kids!

Digging the more proactive Louie, even if it is just to keep himself from dying

Donald is digging the vibe and Dewey is SO FOCUSED on playing the drums

FUCK YEAH, ARTS AND CRAFTS! Dewey was like “MY TIME HAS COME!” And Donald seemed pretty happy about arts and crafts too

Donald was TOTALLY checking out his own ass

Dewey is SO FOCUSED. Arts and crafts are SERIOUS BUSINESS

He looks SO PISSED when Scrooge takes the tail

Why do they have toxic markers? Hell, where did they even GET those markers?

“They’re ALL our markers” That face she makes is great

Dude, the harp fucking DRAGGED Honestus! We stan!

“It’s a beautiful castle made of coral and shells...” Webby, those are ruins

I knew that fish monster was Honestus. He had a crown and everything. Also they call him a sea serpent but nothing about him is serpent-like 

“This is a chase” Is that really any better than a trap?

BEAKLEY TO THE RESCUE

“I’ve never been happier to see an adult!”

“Same thing we are-snoopin”

Webby ended up being spot on that the Mervanans had no idea what was really going on

“Something is going on here.” And Louie raises his arms in victory

I want more Beakley and Louie episodes. They are both cynical but deal with it in different ways, especially when it comes to Webby. Plus Louie has a unique position when he’s been the one that had secrets kept from him

“Her optimism is her strength!” “You can’t hide the truth from her forever!” “I kept her in a mansion for a decade, that worked out pretty well.” I don’t know why but this reminds me of how the Crystal Gems and Greg dealt with Steven

I love that Huey’s tail has the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook logo on it

Me and my sister agreed that Donald’s tail looks like an Easter egg

DONALD IS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR! NAMASTE, MY FRIEND

Dewey has flames on his tail because of course he does

“Man, these are hard to get around in. And off I go.” He just accepts that he’s falling

I’m with Louie, FUCK STAIRS

Della has that dumbass energy. We stan. Also, she and LP need to hang out. I feel like they’d somehow both lose in a game of Go Fish. Stupid, beautiful pilots :’)

“MOM LOOK AT MY SUPER COOL FINS!” “*gags* I have no family.”

CAPITALISTS DO NOT GET TO KNOW TRUE PEACE

Donald and Huey nodding after Aletheia calls Scrooge a judgemental boomer, beautiful

“I don’t want inner-truth, I want outer harp!” That’s a good line

“Scrooge, back to the arts and crafts section!” And then his face! Golden!

Louie clinging to Beakley’s arm is so cute

I LOVE YOU, HARP LADY!

“But I only tell the truth, a thing the merpeople used to value.” I feel like that could apply to other (current) situations

Whenever Honestus speaks during the song I lol

Also, what hard work was going on above the sea? Was there like a war or something? I need more!

I think the Harp and Honestus were a thing at one point

If the merpeople become more monstrous the longer they stay in the water, why are the ones who have lived their ENTIRE LIVES in the ocean still humanoid? How long was he gone? How many generations have come and gone? Why didn’t he age? I NEED MORE INFORMATION

Poor Webby. The person she trusted the most has been lying to her for who knows how long! I think we know what Webby’s arc for the season will involve

Louie does NOT want to be in the middle of this

MER-MURDER-MAIDS!

I want to PERSONALLY THANK the GENIUS that had David Tennant use hippie slang. You did the lord’s work

The face Scrooge makes when he thinks that they are gonna take his money is PRICELESS

I feel bad for the Mervanans. They were left to fend for themselves. They did pretty good for themselves all things considered but still

Della taking baby steps only to be pushed right back into her comfort zone, I felt that

She’s just like, nope

“Gotta get harp down. Gotta save family. Maybe sell the harp later.” The kid has his priorities straight

The way the Harp acts when Beakley picks her up is a mood and I ship it

“Is that what I sound like? Oh, boy.” I love the way Bobby says “oh, boy”

“We would never!” “Yeah, we’re vegan.” At least these merpeople actually flat out say they don’t eat fish, unlike other merpeople who act all high and mighty even though they probably eat fish too

I love the one dude who just kinda flaps out of the water

“I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.” “CORRECT!”

DUDE, DON’T INSULT THE MAN’S COOKING SKILLS! IT’S YZMA, KRONK, AND THE SPINACH PUFFS ALL OVER AGAIN!

I think Donald is just always angry ala Bruce Banner

Donald is me when someone says the wrong thing to me on an already shitty day

He just slings Dewey over his shoulder and drags Huey. I feel like a family meeting about chili is in their future. Though the Harp didn’t say whether or not Dewey was lying so...

“Our king returned and tried to eat us.” In the words of Zuko; that’s rough, buddy

“We’re all monsters on the inside.” “WE ARE?! GET IT OUT OF ME!” Vero is having a very bad day

“Mervana isn’t a place. It’s, oh boy, it’s in your heart!”

Louie and Webby make each other better and that’s what’s great about their team ups

“We need your inner-truths to move from your hearts to YOUR FISTS!” WEBBY WILL FUCK YOU UP

“WELCOME TO MERVANA” BITCH!

Poor Harp. It’s not her fault that she only has one setting

I WANNA RIDE A MERMAID! No, not that way! ok maybe that way too

Webby’s eyes sparkle when the merpeople get to land

DROP ON THE DECK AND FLOP LIKE A FISH

“TIME TO SEND THIS FISH BACK TO SCHOOL!” Della knows how to one-liner

Her Naruto run is great. I bet she’s been watching it with the kids

Della is gonna wash her leg SO HARD after that

I don’t think Honestus should have gotten off so easy. The dude’s a dick who only cares about himself. I know that wouldn’t mesh with the moral of the episode, but I still hate him

Della looks so fucking confused, like LP usually does. THEY ARE MEANT TO BE BESTIES

Dewey kept his tail. So cute!

“She’s kinda harshin’ my vibe.” I know, my dude, I know

“And it’s finally where it belongs.” “Telling shiftless hippies to get a job!” Scrooge is harshin’ my vibe. Stupid capitalist

The head kiss Beakley gives Webby GIVES ME LIFE! SO PURE

Well of course she’s fibbing! Beakley is/was a SPY! Her job was secret keeping!

I really enjoyed this episode. I, like Webby, ADORE mermaids so I wasn’t gonna complain there. I liked that the merpeople weren’t actually evil because that would have been predictable af. It really ties in with the legacy theme of this season. Just because the people who came before you were jerks doesn’t mean you have to be. I think I enjoyed the other episodes a bit more but that’s probably because they were a bit more focused on a single character and only introduced a few new characters. I give it an 8/10, not enough Launchpad and not NEARLY ENOUGH fish puns

[danyka-fendyr]

Bartender

Okay so I promised @faintrecognition I would write this like a month ago and then I proceeded to grapple with various plot ideas, start then restart, and just generally procrastinate. This isn’t edited but at least it exists. Anyway, here’s a Reylo AU fic. Enjoy!

Taglist:@rhabakoli @dreamwritesimagines @alwaysadreamingoptimist

Wordcount: 1686

Warnings: Some mild language. Barely even there tbh, and I wouldn’t count it.

               Rey had no great love for her job as a bartender. It was not, by any means, the most rewarding of jobs. Mostly it involved men unsubtly checking her out, trying to use her as a therapist like they were tipping her well enough for that, or getting drunk enough that they tried to destroy the bar she worked in, prompting her to take several self-defense classes after first getting this job. As it turns out, pool sticks can be wielded as bow staffs with some level of effectiveness.

However, her status as a bartender was largely non-negotiable thanks to her deadbeat absentee’s parents heavy debt. They might as well have sold her into slavery when they got themselves in debt up to their shoulders then up and died. Since before she could remember, Rey had been working to pay that money off, and bartending tipped very well, so here she was.

She figured the second oldest profession in the world had to be better than the first. Right?

All of which brought her to this moment, holding the wallet of a man who was long gone, left in the pocket of what seemed to be a very expensive blazer, displaying the name “Ben Skywalker.” Which could only mean one thing. One thing that was hopefully not going to cause a lot of trouble in Rey’s life but probably was.

She was holding the wallet of Senator Leia Skywalker’s only son, and she was going to have to contact him to give him back his credit card. Somehow she doubted there was going to be a reward for this. The only reward Rey had in store for the night involved wiping down the sticky counters of the empty bar and seeing if she could fix the perpetually blinking second L in the sign outside, which currently read “The Mil_ennium Falcon.” She had mostly given up on it, but the owner had promised her a bonus if she figured it out before he had to break down and call a repairman, so she had hit the wormhole of YouTube home improvement videos yet again.

She sighed, deciding that the best option for her tonight was to call now and see if he even picked up just to get it over with. She doubted he would and, if she was being honest, sincerely hoped he didn’t. The last thing she needed tonight was to deal with some arrogant jerk. Even if his ID picture was handsome.

While she wasn’t a fan of looking through people’s stuff, she didn’t hesitate to delve through his wallet until she found the business cards she knew would be in there. Rich people and socialites. So predictable.

She dialed the number from the bar’s phone, since she firmly classed this as a work problem. She was still on the clock and had to deal with it? Then it was a work problem. She waited several rings, patiently resigned to when it would tell her to leave a message. But that did not happen.

“Hello?” A low, tired voice answered.

Rey realized with a start that there was a very high chance that this was the voice of Ben Skywalker. Of course, it could be the voice of anyone. An assistant, a secretary. However, she was pretty sure she’d seen him in an interview on TV once, and he sounded something like exactly this.

She was absolutely unprepared for this.

“Hey, so uh…it’s your bartender. From The Millennium Falcon.” Get to the point Rey, before he hangs up on you. “Just calling to let you know you left your credit card here. And also your entire wallet. And a blazer. It’s a very nice blazer. Was it tailored? Because it looks tailored. Really nice work.”

Oh gosh. She sounded like an idiot. She hadn’t had time to script this!

Thankfully, he seemed amused by her little ramble.

“I’ll make sure to tell Finn you like his handiwork.” He chuckled, a sound that should not have seemed so velvet smooth over the crackling of the phoneline. “I’ll be there to pick it up in 20.”

That was the second time this man had thrown Rey for a loop tonight, and she had to make an actual effort not to scream.

“Oh, you really don’t have to. You can just come in tomorrow and get it.”

“No, it’s alright. You guys aren’t finished closing yet, are you?”

Rey looked around at the true mess surrounding her, knowing that it would take her hours to clean this since her boss refused to hire on any extra help, and gave in.

“No, we’re not finished closing. You can come now, if that works for you. Just knock three times and I’ll come unlock the door for you.”

“Okay. See you soon.”

She would have replied with the same, but he hung up on her before she could. Rude.

While she waited for him to arrive, Rey took to doing her actual job. Wiping down and sanitizing counters, tables and chairs, sweeping up the floors, and generally putting elbow grease into every flat surface of the establishment. The entire time she was waiting anxiously for his knock, so when it came she didn’t hesitate to go check to make sure it was him and then open the door.

“Hi. Your wallet is on the counter.”

Belatedly realizing how short that must have sounded, Rey mustered up a tired smile before turning back to her work. There was a particularly bad spot at this one table she just couldn’t seem to get out, and she was thinking about taking some grease remover to it to see if that helped.

“Are you cleaning up here all by yourself?”

Rey looked up at him, surprised at the attempt at conversation, and got her first real good look at him. He was tall. As in, possibly part giant kind of tall. He stood several heads above her, an imposing presence with his dark eyes and long hair framing his face. If she had been a lesser woman or seen fewer unfortunate twists of fate in her life, she might have been intimidated by him. As it was, she was just trying not to think that he looked a little bit sexy.

What? She was only human.

“Uh, yeah.”

Good work Rey. Truly, a riveting conversationalist. Your communications professor would be so proud.

“Coworker call out sick?” He rumbled.

“No.” Might as well answer honestly since she wasn’t going to see him again. “I don’t have a coworker. My boss is cheap and I owe him too much money to discriminate.”

He raised an eyebrow. “How’d a girl your age get in so much debt?”

She bristled at that.

“I’m not a child,” she said. “And to answer your question, it’s not my debt. It’s my parents. They left it to me as an inheritance. I suspect you know a thing or two about those?”

He scoffed.

“You could say that. When did they die?”

“I was just a little kid. Don’t really remember it much.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Not your fault, is it?”

She gives up on the spot on the table and instead goes for the broom perched against the wall. Unfortunately, this takes her path right past Ben Skywalker, who takes this as encouragement to talk to her more.

“So if you’re so strapped for cash, how do I know you didn’t rob me blind?” His tone is only half-joking.

“You don’t. I suggest you check your wallet.”

He did just that and seemed to find everything to his satisfaction as he nodded his head and slipped it back into the pocket of his coat.

“Let me get this straight. You work for the guy you’re in debt too? How do you know he’s not rigging it? Messing up your payments so you owe him longer?”

Rey didn’t dignify that with a true answer, only a withering glance in his direction.

“Oh. He is. Then why do you still work here?”

He sounded genuinely confused, enough for Rey to take pity on him and provide a verbal answer.

“Because he owns me, pretty boy.”

He seemed greatly amused and surprised by her use of the nickname, the corner of his mouth turning up involuntarily.

“Okay, well I could own him.”

Rey was confused by his bragging. Sure. Of course he could own him. He could probably own anything he wanted, given who his parents were.

“Good for you.”

She gave an unenthusiastic fist-pump, which only served to amuse him further.

“And if I own him, then it stands to reason I also own everything he owns.”

Rey came to understand what she thought to be his meaning slowly.

“So me. You would own me.”

She grits her teeth, trying to hold back several cuss words. This arrogant, scheming bastard. Thinking he could just buy her like one of his infamous model dates, maybe swing her around to a few charity galas before he got bored and she was used up.

“Well yes, but also no. I would own you briefly before absolving you of your nonsensical debt. The sins of the father, after all, should not be the sins of the son.”

Rey felt the deep-set urge to take back everything she had ever thought about him and apologize profusely.

“Why…why would you do that?”

“Honestly? You’re the first person I’ve met in a while who hasn’t tried to kiss up to me. I was hoping to offer you a new, better job, where nobody would cheat you out of your money. How do you feel about being my…advisor, I guess?”

Rey stared at him in shock. There was just no way this was happening.

“There would be health benefits,” he said by way of reassuring her. “Dental and all that.”

Dental. He thought she was worrying about her freaking teeth.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be your advisor.”

“Excellent. I’ll inform my assistant, Hux. Can you start tomorrow?”

“I…”

“You’ll be free tomorrow,” he said.

She knew he didn’t mean she would have enough time.

“Yeah. Yeah I can start tomorrow.”

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 46 Part 1: Young Marik Goes to a Craft Fair/Immediately Murders His Own Dad

Ah Yugioh, last episode got pretty weird, and this one, I’m pleased to say, is that much weirder.

We start with Mokuba, who either has a PHD in languages studies, or is just completely full of BS. And, when it comes to the Kaibas, we’ll just never know. It could go either way and I’d absolutely buy it.

Of course, none of this matters since Kaiba is cursed, in case you forgot. His curse is a lot easier than everyone else’s because all he does is vibe with a ancient relic he refuses to think is real and then hallucinate his dead wife he refuses to talk about.

I am still kind of reeling over the fact that Seto’s Previous-Life’s Dead Wife is Blue Eyes is canon. I’m sure they thought turning this card into a person would be simple and fun. It’s still fun, for me, for that room of writers that now has to untangle this mess they just created? Yeah good freakin luck with that.

Also, I forgot something last episode.

Much better. Seto’s catching up, slowly but surely, to Marik.

(read more under the cut)

And I mean...Seto is just low-key unaware that he’s vaguely obsessed with his Great^nth Grandma, right? Like that’s the canon? Nice. I mean there’s a 5000 year difference and she is like a card, so...legally it’s fine, whatever, it’s not like they can ever hook up.

But like...didn’t Seto tear a Blue Eyes completely in half in the first episode? That’s kind of messed up now! Granted, back in Episode 1 the writers probably didn’t know that 1 season later they’d all be sitting around a table and going like “so...what if they were married???”

Like...how weird is it now that Grandpa still has that torn up Blue Eyes?

(I say as if this is a big deal on a show where the canon flagship relationship of Yugi and Tea involves Yugi who is 3 people and Tea who is, as we find out at the end of this episode, also 3 people. Mind you, 2 of those people is just 2 Bakuras, but it’s still an awkward 5-way. Who would they even be kissing if they were kissing? ((JK we all know it would just be Bakura and Bakura)) )

Does Grandpa and Arthur even realize how freakin weird it is that their token of eternal friendship/marriage is literally the dead waifu of that random rich guy over there? That Arthur was like “remember my not-romantic love always, by wifing with this wife who is also my wife. Goodbyyyyyye.”

Was Episode 1 just Kaiba walking in on a three way with his predestined card-ex? Was that how he got so freakin pissed? It actually would make more sense than what actually happened. And like I’m pretty sure that particular Blue Eyes chose Grandpa over Seto so, what even is that? Is that like a divorce or something?

Also, and this is the most important thing about this entire situation, did Pegasus really try like a billion times to resurrect his dead wife unsuccessfully (I hope) but TOTALLY resurrected Kaiba’s dead wife in the process? Like, just by accident he resurrected not just any dead wife’s soul into a playing card but his sworn enemy that Pegasus super tried to murder and destroy that one time? Like damn, that’s some good irony right there.

...it’s a lot to process in a show where like 4 people are also body swapping at the same time.

Anyway, back to this episode, Seto can also read this Ra card. But, I assume he cannot marry it because he and three of the four sides of his Blue Eyes Wife have just changed their status from “It’s complicated” to “It’s still complicated” (the fourth version hanging out with Solomon Muto is still card divorced and living her best life)

Faced with definitive proof that all this is absolutely real, Kaiba never actually graduates from the Denial step to any of the other steps of acceptance.

Neither would I. Neither would I.

Never forget, that him actually accepting any of this makes him a widow to a freakin paper freakin card.

I will say, that my prediction that Kaiba’s relationships, if he ever got into one, wouldn’t last more than 2 minutes apiece came true in the weirdest way possible.

I’m glad we got this lore bomb that will disappear into the Yugioh’s forgotten plot-threads graveyard faster than you can say “and then Bakura put a piece of his soul into the Millennium Puzzle.”

Speaking of,

And so enters our exposition, who decided to actually leave her bedroom and see what else is on this blimp. Took her long enough. If she had come out, I dunno, before Joey dueled, then her brother, Odion would have never been struck by lightning since she could’ve been like “lol guy’s, that’s not Marik” but wtv. Nice to see you, Ishizu. You are late, as usual.

Also, the art team left us a breathtaking still life.

Meanwhile, holed up in this room staring at Mai Valentine for the last 30 minutes on this little aqua cube, Serenity has decided she is done with this BS they keep calling a card game. I guess her vow to be brave and suck it up lasted all of half an hour.

And it was during this complete 12yo meltdown that Ishizu was like “oh, that reminds me, I also have a brother who’s having a complete meltdown” As if this would somehow help Serenity feel any better about being trapped on a blimp with them.

So, Ishizu takes a very long sip of water and starts her very long story about When Marik Truly Went Evil But This Time The Flashback’s For Reals Last Time He Was Kind of Evil But This Time We’re For Serious Telling You Exactly The Moment He Went Cray.

Please admire the nonsense stairs and columns supporting nothing in this image. Nice.

Now before, I knew they lived underground but I kinda figured they left occasionally to get snacks and pick up babies from the side of the road. Apparently it’s only certain people who can do that, so not only has this kid been living underground but he has never seen sunlight.

But here’s my question um--what happened to all the other cultists? Like we’re assuming that we have 5000 years of an underground situation, and if their growth happens geometrically since human beings tend to have multiple children, then there should be like thousands of people down here. Like SO MANY people. Was there some sort of plague? Did all the cultists just keep killing each other as each one went completely mad down here? Like, what’s the story?

I have made so many jokes about Marik being a crafty bastard who knits hats but I kid you not he literally went to the flea market. He has only one hour in the real world and all he wants is to see the Handmade Industry.

Again, Marik would be the hero in any YA dystopian novel, guys. Any of them. Like I’m pretty sure I read three separate books by three separate people in the late 2000′s about underground mole people cults and Marik would have been the hero in every single one of them. Leave it to Yugioh.

Odion decided to stay behind as a lookout rather than go outside in the stinky sunlight, meaning that Marik got to feel a sunburn for the very first time ever as he looked directly into it’s surface.

So I can see the allusion that they wanted to make. That without light you can never see shadow--and that because he literally stepped out into the light, his shadow was finally able to fully manifest itself for the first time.

But...Marik was locked underground, how long could he have realistically lasted before losing his mind just like his Father already has?

And then Marik finds the one relic that truly drives him mad, a discarded magazine. But not that type of magazine. I’m actually not quite sure what type of magazine this would be, TBH. it’s got some REALLY good anime soda on the back, and then pets, and then autos? I don’t know.

This motorcycle had spooky music and everything. Truly the embodiment of evil, a mid-30′s gentleman driving to work with a sensible helmet.

He also saw a TV and confused the hell out of this vase salesman.

And then, no weird episode is truly weird enough without an abrupt visit from Shadi.

So they rush back home to the very obvious cellar door in the middle of the desert that no one except for this cult has ever found.

But, unfortunately, these kids are really, really dumb and so because Shadi told them to go the hell back home, Shadi set in motion the tools needed to send Marik completely off the deep end.

So Shadi is just really really bad at his job or he really wants to watch it burn, I’m thinking probably both.

We get a voice-over from Ishizu that Marik’s father was using the rod on Odion but we don’t actually see much. I think a bunch of this probably got edited out because obviously, abuse is something you can’t really show on kid’s daytime TV, although...they kinda did anyway.

OH.

I mean, he is possessed so like he would act real different but there was absolutely no fighting back on Marik’s part to kill his own Dad. He just straight up went for it. Complete 180 on this character in a matter of time it takes to look at a picture of a motorcycle.

And so, Evil Marik decides it’s time to kill Odion, much like he’s been trying to do in our current timeline, but seeing his older brother snaps Marik out of it, which would have been just real confusing for him. I mean Yugi’s snapped out of his Pharaoh blackouts in strange positions, sure, but this one in particular is like “wow I just killed my Dad.” If he even knows.

Bro was saying he actually didn’t know at this point. Of course my Bro has a lot of spicy Yugioh headcanons and he’s becoming less and less reliable the more we watch. (Bros editorial note: how does one remember what actually happens in this show?)

Why were you even here Shadi!? Just to be judgy and then peace out? Like back in Season Zero it felt like Shadi had a...job. Here he’s just like...watching the show with me. He’s just the most useless millennium item, I swear.

After this sad tale, at least we have Joey to remind us that Marik’s killed 100+ people since then.

So yeah, Marik killed his Dad because he saw a Motorcycle.

Literally killed his Dad because he saw a motorcycle and it awoke a desire in him to leave the nest, and then Odion got beat up because Ishizu was too dumb to ever notice that they had an alarm on the freakin front hole in the ground.

A Motorcycle.

And we can pretty much assume that his Dad’s been threatening to kick out Odion basically forever to get Marik to stay put, right? That this has definately happened before but this time...there was a motorcycle.

Truly evil, motorcycles.

In this show where one guy was literally dueling Yugi while tying him to a bandsaw--those motorcycles though. Pure satan.

Bro just asked me that if Pharaoh’s tomb had free wifi, Would people live there on purpose and I’m just going to leave that there.

Anyway, here’s a link to read these in order from S1 Ep1

[firstagent]

Appmon #47 Quick Reaction

Since we first saw the red glow in Yuujin’s eyes back in the first episode, we’ve had questions. Like any questions, we come up with potential answers. The most popular theories suggested that Yuujin wasn’t actually human, but some sort of AI-powered bot presumably working for Leviathan. Then we had a good laugh cracking jokes about Skynet having a Terminator unit in the game. Once we came to adore Haru and Yuujin’s relationship, the theory was never disproved, but we had hope that there was some sort of twist to preserve what might be the most moving friendship Digimon has ever seen (not involving actual Digimon). Now we hit the big reveal and... nope, it’s exactly what we speculated in episode one.

Perhaps the bigger surprise in the episode is how willing Rei was to allow it to happen. His observations have led him to all sorts of clues and all sorts of trouble, so he’s not the type to ignore something as concerning as false data in Yuujin’s history. Surely he had to have formed guesses and surely some of them had to involve Leviathan. So why would he sit idle and let Hajime put Yuujin in a prime position to capture the one thing Leviathan’s after? The implication here is Haru’s the only one Rei told about this. This is of course due to Rei’s concern for Haru and how much he’s softened up since Hajime’s return. He’s far more mellow now and even seems self-aware about his Choo Choo obsession. It’s a lovely evolution of his character, but this is where he needed to be a paranoid taskmaster and find a way to keep Yuujin away from Bootmon.

The rest of Hajime’s plan is brilliant however, and once Gatchmon delivers his payload it seems like a pretty easy win. Eri and Astra just have to startle him one more time, which proves to be comically difficult. It definitely feels like padding, but the sudden inability to scare Bootmon is a fun test of Eri and Astra’s loud personalities. Scaring and surprising should be easy for them! It goes to show how unhappy Bootmon must be if he’s not only afraid and lonely, but so used to being surprised that it doesn’t alarm him anymore. This is a subplot that feels like a subplot and can be forgotten as such, but we’ve seen worse time-killers before.

It’s more exciting than the main story, a slow careful climb up the cliff Yuujin will inevitably push Haru off of. It’s that inevitability that makes their simple conversations work, as we can tell it’s building to something awful. Funny how their talks hit many of the same notes as tri., staring into an unknown future. Equally funny is that while Taichi laments how he’s drifted apart from his old friends, Haru and Yuujin consider each other their only certainties going forward. It moves slowly, especially interspersed with Eri and Astra’s nonsense, but it’s hard to peel your eyes away knowing how bad things will get.

And bad it is. Right after promising they’ll always stay friends, Yuujin coldly orders Shutmon to kill Bootmon (notably, Shutmon agrees far too readily). For all the speculation and twists on the original notion, Yuujin turns out to be the Terminator unit we suspected and, apparently, his friendship with Haru a long trap. The scene itself is set up and framed well as we watch Haru’s entire life collapse. And yes, this isn’t end of the story and this friendship will somehow come around to prove to be true and likely key to stopping Leviathan. It’s just sad that a moment so devastating could also be so predictable.

My Grade: B

[lexiconallie]

9 platonic damiTim? Like, making friends without knowing who they are and bonding, but still fighting in real life :3

Read on AO3

Damian clicked the picture a second time to zoom and sighed. The photographer, username gothamlensflair, had taken this one some time during a period of three days two weeks ago, between the moment when Poison Ivy had broken the horizon with her giant man-eating gardenias and the point where Batman had somehow convinced her to stick to the small man-eating gardenias -- the stems kept breaking on the giant ones, so she cleaned it up and marked it as a failed experiment before working to nurture the smaller gardenia plant.

The flowers had been terrifying in actuality, but the shadows they cast upon the buildings near the plant were striking, and gothamlensflair had taken full advantage.

The photograph was beautiful, as gothamlensflair’s photos always were. Damian let himself smile as he reblogged the picture and composed his usual complimentary sentence to the photographer. Then he sat back for a moment and furrowed his brows at the screen. Was it good enough to join the dozen small frames of photos he’d already printed out from this person’s blog? Yes, he decided, it was; he rummaged in his drawer for yet another small frame and his freshly sharpened pair of scissors.

He had forty-six minutes until he needed to get into costume. He might as well use the time looking at his photos as much as he wished.

Patrol was frustrating, and somewhat dull; Damian had volunteered to patrol with Grayson, but Grayson and Drake had apparently made plans to do reconnaissance on a group of criminals. Damian was not allowed to intimidate anyone into giving them the information they needed, so he had to sit and watch as the other two listened to whatever the criminals were saying.

Finally they patrolled as one should, by looking for criminals and then fighting them; this was only for thirty minutes, though, before they stopped for a ‘snack break’ on top of a residential building by the shore.

Damian suspected they’d chosen the spot for its convenience; still, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant roof to sit and watch the moon’s reflection ripple in the water.

“Oh, wow, what a view,” Drake sighed, which immediately ruined any enjoyment Damian had taken from the sight ahead of them. “Nightwing, is this roof accessible from the ground?”

“Sure, if you’re not worried about whether you’re legally allowed up here,” Grayson replied. “Why?”

Drake pulled a small camera from one of his compartments (a waste of valuable space, Damian thought) and snapped a quick photo.

“I wanted to take a picture. It’d look great on my desk, don’t you think?”

Grayson laughed. “Just make sure none of us are in it before you put it in the frame, all right?”

“No, I’m putting a closeup of you on my wall,” Drake said. “Thirty-two by forty-eight, that one where you’ve got that special ‘I’ve just been punched in the stomach’ look on your face.”

“I appreciate that, I appreciate that a lot.”

Damian sighed noisily and rolled his eyes. The view was indeed wonderful, but he didn’t want to spend more time than he absolutely had to listening to this nonsense.

“Oh, are you getting tired, Robin?” Drake needled, packing his camera back into his belt. “Do you need a nap?”

“I thought naps were for old people like you,” Damian retorted.

“Hey,” said Grayson mildly. “Play nice, kids. My tender old heart can’t take the tension.”

Damian and Drake snorted at the same time, then glared at each other until Drake crossed his arms and looked back out at the water. Damian wrinkled his nose. He’d won, but it felt like a loss; he knew that if he’d had a camera on him and any skill with it, he’d have taken the same opportunity to capture that moment. There were traits he did not wish to share with his predecessor, and an aesthetic appreciation for things was one of a long, long list.

Damian muttered something under his breath in a language which Drake didn’t understand but Grayson did; Drake understand the tone well enough, however, and both of Damian’s companions threw a narrow-eyed look at him.

Damian predicted that he’d have the definition for the word ‘nice’ superglued to his door again by daybreak. He already had a container of salt prepared so as to wreak his vengeance upon Drake.

He was wrong; this time, it was merely the word ‘nice’ written in capital letters in toothpaste on his bathroom mirror. Creative, Drake. Damian still drew out a maze in salt on Drake’s sheets after school that day. He used Drake’s small camera to capture a picture of his handiwork and admired the photo for a moment before giving in to his curiosity and going to the last photo Drake had taken.

It was, in a word, beautiful. Damian wasn’t entirely surprised. His predecessor had to have skill at something, or Batman would never have taken him on; however, Damian hadn’t thought that Drake put any effort into the photos he always took.

Damian’s finger hovered over the button to delete the picture. He twitched, and his finger brushed the button for a long moment; then he growled and put the camera back where it belonged a little too hard.

He left Drake’s room a little too fast to be unsuspicious, but then again anyone who saw him would have rightfully thought him suspect for entering the room in the first place.

He decided to count that as a victory. He’d been tempted, but he resisted. Perhaps Father would be happy with him for that.

Or perhaps he’d never know.

Damian buried himself in his computer the rest of the afternoon, only taking a short break for snacks for himself and Titus. The person who ran gothamlensflair had replied to his comment with a pleasant message, thanking Damian for being so kind and offering to discuss the technical details of photography, as Damian had expressed an interest in his latest compliment. Damian accepted, and only had to wait fifteen minutes for a response.

The person who ran the blog called himself Lens, and he was very friendly, with touches of humour to offset the technical nature of his advice. Damian had known, through the man’s photography, that he was very dedicated to his craft, but he hadn’t suspected there was much work involved, nor such intense focus on the artistry of it.

It was...humbling. He’d heard someone ask Drake once, what photography entailed, and Drake’s answer had been trite: “Just point and shoot,” Drake had joked, flashing a smile. Which was all very well and good until one acquired an actual camera and had to search for two minutes to find the on switch, not that Damian would ever admit to that. This advice was more intensive, and while it was clear Lens had attempted to make it as accessible as possible, Damian had to retrieve his camera from his drawer to clarify what Lens meant.

Damian replied with thanks, and a promise he’d show the photographer the product of his advice. He refreshed the blog once more before he’d close the browser and froze.

He recognized the latest picture. It’d only been uploaded in the past three minutes, but he recognized it, and that was because it was the picture Drake had taken on the roof with him last night.

There were two options. One, the option he hoped for, was that gothamlensflair had somehow gotten ahold of Drake’s camera and decided to upload that photograph and claim it as his own. The other...the other was that gothamlensflair was Drake.

He had a feeling he knew which one was true.

Drake sent a message back saying, ‘That’s great! I hope you can take some soon, I’d love to see them.’

Damian didn’t answer.

He did his best to avoid Drake the next day, which wasn’t out of character for him. Drake hadn’t yet retaliated for the salt labyrinth on his sheets; Damian had more than enough excuses to dart out of Drake’s sight every time the man came in the room.

It was two days after that, though, that Grayson confronted him to ask what was wrong; Damian didn’t realise Grayson had any intention to corner him until he was already sitting on the sofa with Titus’ head on his lap and a bowl of soup perched precariously on the arm of the sofa, Grayson at the other end, eyes focused meditatively on the puerile acrobatic contest program on the television.

“You’ve been acting strange for a few days, Damian,” Grayson said. “Is there something up that I can help with?”

Damian kept his silence for a moment, then gave in with a sharp twist of his head away from the man.

“There’s nothing,” he started, and stopped himself when he saw Grayson’s eyebrows shoot up. “Nothing...that you can help with.”

Grayson turned to look at him, gauging his sincerity, and nodded. “Okay. You know I’m here if you want to talk.” Then he grinned. “So how about some ice cream, after that soup?”

Damian couldn’t eat the soup quickly enough for his own liking.

Drake sent another message later that day, asking if he’d gotten the chance to take any pictures yet. Damian replied with a brusque, ‘No,’ and tried to forget that the computer existed for a few hours.

Drake was hurt that night. It would be folly for Damian to feel guilty about that. He didn’t like Drake, and it couldn’t be entirely his fault that the man almost lost part of an ear to an overeager slash with a sword; but he was foolish, and he felt guilty.

Damian should have noticed the man with the sword would attack when he did. He hadn’t, and Drake had suffered for Damian’s inattention.

Damian’s camera was sitting useless on his desk from when he’d dropped it there after reading Drake’s informative message the other day. He picked it up now and glared daggers into his wall, considering. There was nothing Damian could do for Drake in regard to his health -- Pennyworth and Father had that covered adequately -- and Drake wouldn’t accept any offers of sympathy from Damian; the man likely wouldn’t even believe it, coming from him. The most Damian could do was...approach Drake from another angle.

He ran out the front door in a hurry, sprinting down the driveway at a clip fast enough that Titus was galloping beside him, rather than his usual calm trot.

There was a spot he’d been eyeing, before Damian discovered that gothamlensflair and Timothy Drake were one and the same. It had been a construction site, before the person backing it had turned up dead in his apartment five months ago with enough evidence surrounding his corpse to put him and his criminal compatriots in jail for the next eighty years -- in a fair court, at least, which was never the case in Gotham. There were still steel beams piled haphazardly in places, although the more mobile pieces like the fence, or any tools that had been left, had drifted off to be put to use by the more enterprising thieves around. It was a dismal spot in the daytime, but at the in-between hours of twilight or dawn, the dim light made the whole area seem like it had come from a story. He’d wanted to take pictures of it for a while -- preferably before someone, most likely Father, finally decided to buy the land and do something with it. And Damian thought Drake might like the pictures.

The lighting was perfect when he got there. There were a few purple clouds hanging in the sky, but they were offset by enough patches of dim blue to make it an interesting backdrop rather than Gotham’s signature gloomy. Damian hopped over the spot where the fence had been and tried to take Drake’s advice in determining the optimal spot for his photography.

The pictures turned out well. Even his critical eye couldn’t find anything that a few minor tweaks in his photo editor couldn’t fix. Damian had mixed feelings about that. On one hand, he was proud to create an artwork; on the other, he did hate needing help in the first place -- especially from Drake.

It didn’t matter, though. Drake would never know Damian was the one who had taken the pictures, or his advice.

Damian thoroughly ignored both Pennyworth’s hints at dinner that Drake was in a much better mood and the reply from Drake to his own message, which had contained the product of his trip. There was nothing good that could come of a message which began, ‘You’re in Gotham too!’ -- Damian should have known the man would recognize that abandoned construction site. They’d investigated the owner’s death at the same time.

Drake made himself a nuisance in Damian’s constant company for the next day, which should have made Damian suspicious had he not been distracted by their online connection. Damian went to bed at night only to find that every available surface had been covered by rubber ducks, each one made to look like it wore Grayson’s Robin costume. Damian almost let himself smirk; it seemed Drake was feeling much better.

Then Damian found a duck in his nightstand drawer, and a jolt of panic shot through him. If Drake had gone into his desk as well...he would have found where Damian had stuffed all his framed photos when he’d realised who gothamlensflair was. That in itself didn’t make it obvious that Damian was gothamlensflair’s ‘biggest fan’, as Drake had called him online, but Drake, loath as he was to admit it, was not as imbecilic as he sometimes acted -- it was only the matter of a few mental connections to lead to the truth, and Drake was well-known for his skill in that area.

Damian marched over to his desk and yanked the drawer out from it, nearly pulling it from its tracks entirely. His instinct had been correct. Not only was there a duck sitting in the middle of a pile of paperclips and staples, but the photos were missing.

Damian contemplated sitting down on his desk chair for a moment to recoup, but shot down the thought almost immediately. He was many things, but he’d never allow anyone to call him a coward. He would have to confront Drake.

There was enough time before patrol for him to gossip with those chatty women at the supermarket thrice over; if Damian had his way, his conversation about gothamlensflair with the man himself would last no more than two minutes. He hunted Drake down nevertheless, knowing that it would be better for him to have spare time in case Drake had run off somewhere to hide from his potential wrath.

His planning was for naught. It was child’s play to find Drake -- he was lurking in the kitchen and stealing bites of cookie dough when Pennyworth wasn’t looking.

“You took something of mine,” said Damian, planting his feet in the doorway and leveling his most impressive glare on Drake.

Drake spun around guiltily, a piece of cookie dough held between his fingers, but relaxed when he saw it was Damian.

“I don’t think so,” Drake replied, a small frown forming on his face. “As long as I hold the copyright, I mean. Where’d you get them, did you hack my computer?”

Pennyworth was politely pretending not to listen, but the man couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. Damian stubbornly did not shift in place; his glare only intensified.

“I would never stoop to your levels, Drake,” Damian said, “I don’t dig through other people’s private things like that.” Never mind that that was a blatant lie, it scored a hit on Drake.

Drake’s frown deepened. “Your private things,” he repeated, his voice changing to sound like it did when he was about to break a case. “You consider the pictures yours. You liked them?”

Damian stayed silent.

“You liked them,” said Drake, surer this time. “You like them. And you didn’t hack my computer to get them, you found them. You follow my blog.”

“I didn’t know it was you,” Damian burst out, unable to keep it in. “You write differently online to when you write reports.”

“It’s a different mindset,” Drake dismissed. “But I don’t talk much on the blog. That’s usually just pictures. You talked to me.”

“No,” said Damian, but it was too late.

Realization dawned upon Drake’s face. “You’re the one who leaves detailed comments on all the pictures you like. You’re the one who asked for advice last week. What -- Damian? What?”

Damian gritted his teeth and attempted to emulate Superman in his eye-lasers. “I appreciate art,” he said, “this cannot possibly be a surprise.”

“It so can,” Drake countered. He sat down, blinking quickly as he stared into space, obviously putting thoughts together. He’d forgotten about the cookie dough, which ended in his hair in a long, pale streak obvious against the black. “Well, I did know you were in Gotham,” he said finally. “I should’ve guessed it was someone I knew. My luck runs that way.”

Damian contemplated throwing a chair at him. It wasn’t a good idea, however; Pennyworth was still in the room, and judging by the height his eyebrows had reached, he was paying full attention to them.

Instead, he ran. Rather -- it wasn’t quite running -- he exited the room and hastily returned to his own room.

It was finished. He’d confronted Drake, it had been as unsatisfying as he had predicted, and that was all that would come of it.

Damian would never admit to the pang of sadness he felt as he deactivated his blog.

(A week later, he found a note on his desk that said, ‘I took some new pictures. They’re on your computer already if you want to see them.’

He let himself smile.)