#the bat coming through the window was a coincidence

[cafesaturn]

im sure, im SURE that Batman lurks around Gotham all October like "I hate halloween all the devils come out on halloween why should we spend this month celebrating fear when the innocent in Gotham live in terror every night," just being absolutely insufferable, but inside hes like "yay :) halloween :)"

[envysparkler]

So far, Jason’s return to Gotham was going horribly.

Sure, it had started on a high—the drug trade had been easier to take over than he’d expected, even if he had to hold back the nausea every time he saw a collection of syringes or packets of pills.  Black Mask had done exactly what Jason predicted he would do, and the Joker had escaped from Arkham exactly as planned.

And then Batman had looked him in the eyes—as Jason begged, as he pleaded his father to kill the greatest monster of Jason’s nightmares—and walked away.

Even the explosion he’d wired hadn’t managed to do its job—not on him, not on the clown, not on the Bat.

Jason had managed to recoup some of his losses by going after the Replacement—the kid that Bruce actually cared about, the black-haired blue-eyed heir he wanted—and proving that he was still the superior fighter, but it was a hollow victory.  There was no real satisfaction in trashing the Tower—it had never been his the way it had been Dick’s—and his enjoyment had soured by the time he met Drake’s wide, scared, hurt eyes and choked him out.

He’d managed to demonstrate that their security was laughable and their baby heroes pathetic, but he’d left a fifteen-year-old unconscious and beaten on the floor in the process.  It had left a bad taste in his mouth, one even the soothing, green-laced rage couldn’t wipe, and he could still hear the kid’s lost, confused, desperate voice.

“Jason—stop—why are you doing this?  Bruce loves you!  Just come home!”

In the moment, it had only stoked his fury.  Now it matched the roiling disgust in his stomach.  The disgust at Batman.  At the oh-so-sanctimonious heroes.  At this filthy, stinking garbage pile of a city.

At himself.

He—he needed a break.  From the violence.  From the killing.  From the rage.  He needed to get out of this fucking city before he lost his mind, and there was only a couple of things he wanted to take with him.

Unfortunately, some of them were in the Manor.

A photo of him and his mother.  The old, faded red hoodie Jason had refused to let Alfred throw out.  His books.

Before, Jason might’ve asked Bruce’s permission—before he broke into the Tower and beat up the kid—but now Jason was forced to wait until he got news that Bruce Wayne was in London for a business trip—coinciding neatly with the intel that the Justice League had a big, week-long space mission—before he dared to sneak into his old home.

He didn’t try his security codes.  They would’ve definitely fixed that after he pointed out that glaring mistake in Titans Tower.  But Jason had spent more than three years at the Manor, and he’d long since mastered getting into or out of the house without setting off any alarms.

The first bedroom after the stairs was the one with the window that didn’t latch all the way, and the security system couldn’t register whether it was open or closed.  It was a little difficult to reach, involving free-climbing up two floors, but Jason had been Robin and now had League training under his belt and it was easy to haul himself up on the ledge and jimmy the window open.

The bedroom remained barren, bed stripped, desk and closets empty, the room cold with the chill of desertion, and Jason shivered as he toed his shoes off on habit and headed for the door.  Alfred usually went with Bruce on his ‘business trips’, so the Manor should be empty, leaving enough time for Jason to get whatever he wanted.

He had the petty thought that he could leave behind some random destruction—if he was leaving Gotham anyway, he might as well leave a message that even their precious Manor wasn’t as safe as they purported.

But Alfred was the one he’d really hurt, and Jason didn’t want to do that.

Jason tiptoed across the hall on automatic, his steps silent and muffled as he crossed to his old bedroom door.  He paused for a moment to scan it, making sure no one had added any traps, and hoped that his stuff was still inside this room.  He didn’t want to have to hunt through the massive house, and if they gave his room to the Replacement, he was going to fucking set something on fire.

Slow, shuffling steps sounded from the stairs, accompanied by the tinkle of glass and china, and Jason paused.  That didn’t sound like Alfred.  The Manor was supposed to be empty.  Who—

Messy black hair came into view, blue eyes firmly fixed on the wobbling tray held in one shaky hand, the other attempting to hold up a crutch as the Replacement limped up the stairs.

Fucking fantastic.  Jason wondered if he had enough time to slip inside the room before the kid looked up—his attention was pretty firmly fixed on the tray with a bowl of stew and a slice of cake—but he was frozen by the dark, fading bruises across the kid’s face.

Around his throat, finger marks obvious.  The awkward way he was holding the crutch—Jason remembered dislocating that shoulder.  The cast wrapped around the left ankle—Jason could still hear the sickening snap of bone, the scream, the sound of his chuckles over suppressed sobs—

The kid looked up, three steps past the edge of the stairs.  And Jason watched the blood drain from his face.

The tray hit the floor with a resounding clatter, china splintering and skidding in all directions.

The Replacement stumbled back—and abruptly remembered that there was nothing behind him but empty space, jerking sideways before Jason could even start the instinctive ‘look out’.  He flinched, and Jason realized that he’d just stumbled onto the china shards.

Another panicked step—but the shards were clearly digging into the kid’s bare feet and when his good leg spasmed, his bad leg buckled completely, sending the kid crumpling to the ground.

Jason stepped forward automatically, one hand raising—and froze when the kid jerked back, pressing against the railing and all but scrambling into the corner.

Blue eyes were wide and shining, face drawn pale, breaths too fast and too shallow as his chest fluttered, knees drawn up and hands slightly extended, as though to ward him off.  Jason swallowed, and stepped back.

Okay.  He got the message loud and clear.  He was clearly the monster here.  Jason kept his mouth shut, and stalked back to his old bedroom.

~#~

His bedroom was just the way he left it, which was both exactly what Jason wanted, and also extremely creepy.  No one had even tidied up the homework sheets on his table.  It would make sense if the room had been locked and dusty, but it looked as though Jason had just stepped out yesterday.

It was enough to make anyone a little bit dizzy.

Jason retrieved the items he was looking for—the picture with his mom, his old hoodie, a couple of worn copies of books that had ‘property of Jason Todd’ marked in loopy handwriting.  He wanted to take more stuff, but that meant sitting down and figuring out which stuff was his, and which stuff Bruce had bought him, and the Replacement would’ve already set off the alarm so Jason didn’t have much time.

He hadn’t considered the kid in any of his plans—he’d figured that the kid had gone with Alfred and Bruce, or with Nightwing, or somewhere—and barely managed to tamp down on the seething annoyance.  The Replacement was always getting in the way.

Well, at least Jason was going far, far from here.  He’d never have to set eyes on that scrawny little shit again.

Jason collected his stuff and headed for the door—he’d planned to stay another night in Gotham, but he wasn’t up to dealing with the return of a furious Batman and Nightwing.  He’d have to pack the rest of his stuff quickly, and get out, and—

The lunch tray was still on the floor, stew in a growing puddle, cake a soggy lump, shards of the broken plate and bowl scattered all over the hallway.  Jason hadn’t exactly expected the kid to have cleaned the mess, but he had expected the kid to be gone.  Hiding.  Or confronting him with that stick, if the kid was particularly determined and had no common sense.

He hadn’t expected the shivering, curled-up form in the corner, knees up, head tucked down, arms wrapped firmly around shins.  Or the quiet, shuddering breaths, or the choked gasps.

Jason stared at the Repla—at Robin, pressed firmly into the corner like he was trying to make himself a smaller target, and felt the pit of his stomach drop.

He hadn’t moved.  Jason had spent—had spent at least five minutes in the room, and the kid hadn’t moved.

Jason took a step towards the room he’d entered through.  He needed to leave.  Clearly the kid thought—and Jason couldn’t exactly fault him—but Jason needed to go.  Once he left, the kid would come out of it.  Eventually.  Jason couldn’t exactly call anyone, the only numbers he remembered were the ones to the Manor, and they would’ve locked him out of everything in the Cave.

Red.  There was red pooling under the kid’s feet.  The pieces of broken china littered the floor like a minefield, and that was way too much bleeding to be a minor wound.  That was the kind of bleeding that needed immediate attention and probably stitches.

Jason swallowed.

[samgirl98]

Mending a Family 41/?

Prev | Next

Jason woke up with a snarl on his lips. Someone was looking for them.

It felt the same when Talia and her assassins invaded their haunt. Instead, this time, he knew it wasn’t on his property but somewhere in the village. Thank the Ancients for Raven’s cloaking spell.

Had Bruce lied? Was he here looking for Jason? Had there been a tracker he hadn’t seen? Jason swore and got up, his glowing eyes illuminating the room. How could he have been so stupid? Of course, Bruce wouldn’t leave well enough alone. As he put on his shirt, he paused for a moment. What if it wasn’t Bruce? What if it was an enemy ready to attack, to kill, him and his family?

The door opened, showing Jazz and Danny.

“I’ll take care of it,” Jason said as he put on a pair of jeans. Nobody was going to mess with his family.

“You can’t go alone, dad. What if it’s a powerful enemy? You’ll need backup,” Danny said, his eyes also glowing. Actually, Jazz’s teal eyes also had an eerie glow to them, too.

“I need to know you and your sisters are safe. I can’t work the way I have to if I know you guys are in danger, too. Please, Danny-lad, I know it’s hard, but I have to know you’re not in danger. Any of you.”

Jason went to the safe and took out the knife Talia had given Danny and held it toward his son, a feeling of disgust hitting him as Jason offered it, “Here, in case you need it.”

As much as Jason hated seeing his son’s small hands cradling the knife, it was better for him to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Jason gave Jazz a gun and some ammunition. Next was a burner phone with just one other number saved on it.

“If I’m not back by morning, take the kids and run. I’ll call you with my burner phone.”

Jason phased his hand through the wall and took out a suitcase full of cash and fake documents for Jazz, Danny, Ellie, and himself.

“This should last you a while. Please stay safe.”

“You too, big brother,” Jazz whispered before kissing his cheek. “I expect you to be back here before sunrise, or you’ll get the scolding of a lifetime, understood?”

Jason nodded and turned intangible while phasing through the roof.

He expanded his senses and flew north. Whoever was here, whether it was Bruce or an enemy, they were going to get an angry Jason ready to kick their ass.

____

Tim scowled in irritation.

He had Jason’s address, the GPS was up and running, and he had a map open. Yet, he still could not find where Jason was living. How was that even possible?

Tim groaned in frustration as he passed the same sign with a jumping whale on it for the sixth time.

Tim only took his eyes off the road to look at the GPS for a second. Then he looked up and braked in surprise. He stopped an inch or two away from hitting Jason, who was suddenly in front of him. Jason was glaring at him. Tim met him with a glare of his own; he refused to back down. Jason’s glare deepened.

Jason went to the side and tried to open the passenger door. It was locked, but Tim knew that wouldn’t deter Jason. Jason crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Tim, almost as if he thought that would make Tim unlock the door. Somehow, he had Alfred’s look when he was disappointed. How was that fair?

Tim didn’t give him the satisfaction and brought the window down a little instead.

“What are you doing here, Replacement?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Jason.”

Jason dropped his disappointed look and ran his hand through his hair. Tim couldn’t even make out black roots. He wondered idly how often Jason redyed his hair.

“I should’ve known. I should’ve known better than to trust anything Bruce said. Of course, he sent one of his birds to hunt me down.”

“Bruce didn’t send me,” Tim said.

“Sure,” Jason retorted back, “I definitely believe that. It’s just a coincidence that when I get a recording of him saying he’ll leave me alone and make sure none of his birds or bats come looking for me, that’s when one of them finds me.”

Tim scowled, “Bruce didn’t send me. He doesn’t even know I’m here. He sent a memo earlier in the day not to look for you anymore, but I was already in Canada. What do you mean he sent you a message?”

Was that the reason he told them to stop looking for Jason? Was it because Bruce had found him and told no one? How else would he be able to send Jason a message?

Jason glared at Tim one more time before taking out a phone.

“Hey, yeah, it’s me. There’s no danger. At least, no physical danger.”

Wow, rude.

“It’s one of my nosey brothers.” Tim was surprised Jason had called him his brother. Sure, they were both technically brothers, but they had never acted like ones. Tim suddenly remembered Titan’s Towers and shuddered a little.

Jason stopped talking and listened to what the other person was saying.

“You sure,” he asked, “What does Danny think of this?”

Tim straightened at the mention of Jason’s son. Jason zeroed in on Tim’s sudden attention. Tim jutted up his chin, daring Jason to say something.

Jason sighed, “Fine, we’ll be there soon. Be prepared, though; Timmy is a tough one.”

Tim glared at the nickname, “It’s Tim, asshole.”

Jason didn’t threaten him like he thought he would. Instead, he went to the driver’s side and rapped his knuckles on the door.

“Move, Timbit. I have to drive. You’ll never find the place because it’s enchanted from prying eyes.”

“Since when do you know magic?”

“I don’t. Raven does.”

Tim unlocked the door and hurried over to the passenger’s seat.

“Raven knows where you’re at? How did that happen?”

No wonder Tim had been going in circles. It would’ve been impossible to find if Raven had enchanted the place.

“None of your business, Replacement,” Jason muttered.

Jason made a U-turn and drove for five minutes before turning into a little road. How had Tim missed it? They drove through a dirt road leading deeper into the forest for a few minutes. Tim started panicking.

What if Jason had pretended to talk to someone to bring Tim’s guard down? What if he killed him and buried his body in the middle of the Canadian wilderness? No one knew where Tim was, so he wouldn’t be considered missing for a few days.

Just as Tim was about to jump out of the car, a little brick house appeared.

It was quaint.

There was a porch with two rocking chairs and a table between them. The windows had little pots with blooming flowers, and the window panes were painted lavender. A little playground was on the side. All the lights were on, including the porch light.

It looked so…domestic.

“Will I get to meet your son,” Tim asked suddenly. At Jason’s murderous glare, Tim wished he had stayed silent.

“Of course, you know about Danny, you nosy little bastard. Did you tell Bruce about him?”

“No. I told Dick, but he told me not to tell Bruce until we found out more. Barbara suspects.”

Jason’s expression softened at the mention of Barbara.

“How is she?”

“She’s good. She didn’t want me looking for you. She said it would be better to leave you alone.”

“And, of course, you didn’t listen.”

Jason got out of the car and walked up to the house, leaving Tim behind.

“Well, are you coming or not?”

Tim took a deep breath. Finding Jason was half the battle. Now, he just had to convince him to come back to Gotham.

I'm sorry for all the mistakes. I was writing this at night and didn't proofread it. Next, Tim meets Jason's found family

@itsberrydreemurstuff @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @skulld3mort-1fan @theauthorandtheartist @emergentpanda-blog @jaggedheart11 @fisticuffsatapplebees @booberrylizard @fantasticbluebirdfan @thegatorsgooseoose @cyrwrites @kjoboo91 @crystallicedart @amaramizuki666 @spekulatiusmuffin @meira-3919 @kilasmess @bubblemixer @lexdamo @wonderland-daisy @mj-arts-n-stuff @amyheart19 @dolfay @the-church-grimm @undead-essence @aph-mable @lizisipancardo @purrloin77 @writer-extraodinaire @charlietheepic7 @sinfulloccultist @nootherusernameworked @coruscateselene @chaoticchange @itsberrydreemurstuff @gmkelz11 @feral-bunny31 @paroovian @thatonegaybitch68 @d4ydr34min9 @overtherose @fandomwandererer @vipower001 @thordottir45 @blackrabbitt3t @rosecinnamonbun @bianca-hooks123 @epilepticnerd @dat1angel @consouling @flamingenchiladadragon @all-mights-asscheeks @ender-reader @fuyu-bitch @ravenswife

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

I say this with love, but Bram Stoker is such a bad writer. Not in all things. I think that the character dynamics and atmosphere of the novel are both generally excellent and the reason we're all here, but like. The plot. The plot is so ridiculous. And again, like I'm not really angry about it. I don't care if a plot is good so long as It's engaging, but like. Objectively. there are so many contrivances. The plot contrivances have plot contrivances.

- in order to accept the entire premise of the novel, you have to buy that by complete coincidence Count Dracula comes ashore at Whitby and attacks literally the one singular person in the world who has a friend whose husband was also attacked by Dracula. Like that happened by accident!! What in the world are the odds of that happening!!!

- chronic inheritors drop dead conveniently, which I don't really care about.

-Much worse is how much of Lucy's death relies on just the most stupid levels of incompetence over and over and over again. I do hate this, it's teeth grinding.

- always thinking about the final night of Lucy's life. Like Bram. Brammy baby. what??

- I don't think the misogyny of leaving Mina behind falls under the category of bad plot writing but it does stretch belief that none of these men would consider that Mina is the perfect target like they just got through a whole ordeal where Lucy got fed on at night when she was left alone. like hello????!!!! You guys literally spotted a bat at the window and definitely you all were aware that that might possibly have been Dracula and you've all still brushed it off??!!

- the terriers?? Once again, I don't even know how he came up with that as a solution to his problem.

- this isn't really a plot contrivance. But also. The way that Bram Stoker completely forgot how to write Dracula as a character and just relegated him to a box for the last month of the story is so baffling to me. Like at the castle Dracula as a character is so rich? I mean clearly Bram Stoker enjoyed writing him? I hate how much of Dracula's personality we lose by the end of the novel.

Anyway again I'm not trying to be CinemaSins over here. I love this novel. But I do think that this is a lesson that your plot being airtight is actually the least important thing of your novel. Like you can make your plot full of holes and dopey things and as long as it's interesting to read no one will care.

[scoops-aboy86]

lurker here♠️♥️ had another idea?!? you know sometimes you have those random dreams; Eddie (or Steve! but I do love chunky eddie) has a weird dream where some fairy offers to grant his deepest desire and him being a shithead says "I wish I was happy and fat like Santa claus" or something about him just being fat and she grants it and in the dream he actually becomes fat. He wakes up thinking "what a weird dream" but realizes all the weight he gained in the dream was real and the man wakes up with 50+ pounds padded onto his waist

Love it, dream sequences are so fun! There’s so much room for strange and possibly unsettling or confusing things to happen without anyone blinking an eye.

(also on ao3)

Eddie is in his and Wayne’s old trailer, only it looks more like the inside of their new, government payout funded bungalow and the fleshy hole in the roof admits a rope-slash-staircase that leads up into Steven’s house from the basement. 

This is perfectly normal. 

He climbs the stairs and emerges into the living room (not where those stairs actually lead, but it’s fine). It’s crowded with people because Steve is throwing a party, but the music is at least good; it’s the mix tape he made for Steve last week and hasn’t given to him yet. 

There’s a girl in the crowd that he keeps noticing out of the corners of his eye. She’s a dead ringer for Chrissy Cunningham, but that’s probably just a coincidence. Still, she makes him uneasy, so he retreats to the upstairs landing and smokes a joint over the throng of dancing, drinking teenagers outside of Steve’s room. (He wanted to go in, but the door was locked. He’s contemplating crawling out the bathroom window onto the roof and around to Steve’s window, get in that way.)

“Hey Eddie,” Not-Chrissy says behind him. He wheels around, clutching a hand to his chest with the joint still clamped between his lips. “I wanted to ask you something.”

He frowns. “You do?”

Nodding, she smiles. “Yeah, because I owe you one.” (There are streaks of dried blood down her cheeks, her eyes sunken, skin veined unnaturally with black. For a second, it looks like she has the skeletal wings of the demon bats that almost ate him alive last year.) “And being queen of the Upside Down comes with a lot better perks than Hawkins High. What, Eddie Munson, is your deepest desire?”

He takes a long hit that he can’t really taste and blows it out in a wispy, billowing cloud. “To grow fat and happy with my boyfriend, live happily ever after and all that shit. Why?”

She tilts her head to one side. “Huh. I was expecting the rockstar thing, but yeah, I can do that.” Then she reaches out and touches his hand, and her fingers are ice cold. “He’s downstairs, in the kitchen. You should go find him.”

Eddie nods and heads downstairs, relieved for the excuse to get away. The girl seems sweet and all but there’s something about her that sets the hairs in the back of his neck on end. Something about the way her limbs bend, or all the vines. 

The music downstairs has changed from the mix tape to something mellow, low. Most of the guests have cleared out, just a few still hanging around—Robin, of course, talking to that girl she likes that Eddie hasn’t met yet. They look so happy, he doesn’t want to disturb them. 

In the kitchen, Steve has clearly been hard at work. There’s food on every available surface and he’s just pulling an entire cheesecake out of the oven. 

“Eddie,” he calls, beaming as soon as he notices him. “Come here, I made a few things for you. Gotta eat up before you get hungry—that’s the sort of thing that’ll eat you alive.”

Eddie is about to ask what Steve means, but something takes off from his shoulder with a beating of fleshy wings and suddenly he’s starving. The nearest plate is piled with delicate pastries that look like something out of a magazine he flipped through at a checkout stand once. His mouth waters; he takes one. 

It’s heaven on his tongue. Before he’s even finished chewing he’s reaching for another. Steve comes to stand beside him, kissing his cheek and nuzzles into his hair the way Eddie loves, whispering encouragement into his ear. 

Eddie clears the plate and moves on to the next dish, spaghetti in a red meat sauce, and by the time he realizes there’s no fork in sight he’s already reaching for the bowl. He dips his fingers in, brings a clump of pasta to his mouth , and moans at the taste—rich and savory and good. The ends of the spaghetti dangle down his chin, leaving trails of sauce that drip down onto his shirt. Aware that simply slurping them up will leave more sauce on his lips than on his taste buds, he opens wide and shoves the rest of it in with his hands with a muffled moan. 

It doesn’t take long to finish the bowl, drinking greedily between bites from a cup of milk that seems thicker than usual, rich and creamy sliding down his throat in a way that sends a tingle through his entire body. Next is a plate of garlic bread, clearly an entire loaf; it’s gone before he can even try to register how much he’s eaten already. 

Eddie glances at Steve, but his boyfriend nods encouragingly and refills his glass. “Eat up. I made it all for you, baby.”

So he does. Powers through the garlic bread, then a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that’s practically oozing with raspberry jam (his favorite), then mashed potatoes with a puddle of melted butter on top, then fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, ambrosia salad, chicken parm… He loses track after that, too much variety but it’s all so good. He’s humming appreciatively through mouthfuls while chewing and swallowing as fast as he can so he can have more, blown away by the tastes and the textures and the love that he can taste in everything Steve has prepared. Steve alternates between refilling his glass, taking the empty dishes away so he can place full ones nearby, and rubbing soothingly, encouragingly at Eddie’s shoulders and belly. 

By the time it’s almost all gone, Eddie feels heavy. His hands are still occupied, unwilling to let his mouth go empty for more than a second or two at a time if at all, so it’s Steve who reaches down and wrestles with the button on his jeans, pulling on the fabric just hard enough over his taut belly that Eddie moans, and then free—rounded gut making quick work of pushing the zipper down, and Steve reverently lifting his belly with both hands to ease it out to spread over his lap (when did he sit down?). It makes Eddie giggle through a full mouth of food, so much that his cheeks are bulging and he’s breathing heavily through his nose. But he doesn’t feel full, just… There’s pressure, a warm tingling in his skin that keeps rolling over him in waves. It stops whenever he’s not chewing or swallowing, so he keeps going, needing more. 

He isn’t sure when Steve started moving dishes from the counter to the floor for him, doesn’t care. Partygoers wander through occasionally, but he doesn’t really notice beyond a vague awareness that Steve snaps at anyone who tries to touch the food, that’s for Eddie, jesus, if you can’t follow the house rules then get out. Robin drifts by, asks Steve how it’s going and Steve answers to the tune of really well Robs and gives Eddie’s belly a proprietary pat where it’s peeking out of his shirt so far that his navel is exposed. The touch, the praise, and the warmth in his voice makes Eddie glow from the inside out, makes him want to eat more to show Steve just how good he can be. Focusing isn’t usually his strong point, outside of guitar or DnD, but it’s like everything else in the world has dropped away. 

And then his reaching hands find nothing. All the plates are empty, and suddenly awareness hits him like a shock of electricity. 

He’s so stuffed he can barely breathe. Every exhale is a grown or a soft oh has his hands caressed over his tight, round belly, trying to ease that intoxicating ache. Any second, he thinks, he might explode… and isn’t that what he deserves? For eating so much, for overindulging, for chasing the satisfaction of pushing the limit until he could pop? For getting off on it? His dick is even harder than his packed gut, and still he tries to search out more with a desperate whine. 

Because he still wants. He's out of control, has no idea how long he’s been eating. With every move, every breath, every swallow, he feels his skin stretching. But he needs to keep going. Needs more. Can’t stand to let this feeling end—and probably can’t stand anymore, either. 

Steve stands over him, but Eddie’s eyes are fixed longingly on the edge of the counter, beyond which hides his heaven on earth. “What is it, baby?”

“Full,” he whimpers. “Need more.”

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Steve soothes, crouching to cup Eddie’s slightly sticky cheek. “I’ve got more, baby. You want it?”

“Need it,” Eddie whines again, and barely a few seconds later Steve sets the cheesecake he’d made down right in front of Eddie. 

All of it. Right there on the floor in front of him, just far away enough that he could… 

Grunting, Eddie lurches hard enough (on the second try) to lean forward, land on his hands, and roll onto his knees and just. Lick up a big dollop of the glistening, sticky-red cherry topping with a groan of relief. 

So good to have his mouth full again, even if it had only been a minute at most. 

He drops onto his elbows and dives right in, face-first and ravenous, heedless of the way Steve hastily reaches down and gather his long hair up into a messy bun before it can become caked in cake.  He doesn’t care, because this is the fastest way, so close to his outer limit and getting closer with each messy gulp, he needs it. Panting between bites but never quite stopping to fill his lungs because he can’t stop. Doesn’t want to. Would never. 

Pleasure is building up within him like the hum before a lightning storm, and he’s aware of Steve’s warm palms roving over his sides, squeezing, jiggling, testing where he’s grown more sensitive. Sometimes the graze of fingertips over his bare, stretched skin makes him shiver, makes him moan right into his dessert without pausing—speeding up, even. Building higher and higher and he feels so tight, ready to pop, holding himself together at the seams just long enough to finish, and—

His breathing is ragged as he licks the last smears and crumbs off the serving dish, crying out when Steve abruptly tugs him back onto his ass by the back of his shirt and a hand on his tied up hair, and holds a carton to his lips. Gulping it down without hesitation or question, Eddie brings his shaking hands up to feel the container, big enough to hold an entire gallon but it’s near empty, the last rush of it trickling down his chin and throat and settling into the last gaps inside his heaving belly, so swollen and streaked with red lines. 

(It’s only a trick of the light that some of them briefly flicker and wriggle and seem edged with black; and anyway, he can’t know that, even though he pictures it clearly enough, because his eyes have fallen closed. Also in the absolute certainty that comes with dreams, he now knows it’s not milk but heavy cream.)

He breaks away with a wet, muffled burp, gotta have more of that. It feels like he’s gained fifty pounds in one sitting—which is impossible, but. 

“Fuu-uck,” Eddie groans, wraps his arms around his widest point as best he can, belly thrumming with an exquisite ache. His boyfriend’s arms join his, kneeling next to him from the side, speckling his face and neck with little kisses, tasting the mess he’s made of himself. “God, Steve, ‘s so good. Full. Big…” Then he squeezes, rocking his hips weakly up into his own overspilling bulk, and busts a nut so hard his brain fizzles, toes curl, mouth opens in a wail so loud it echoes all the way through to the other dimension beneath Hawkins, Indiana. 

“Eds, baby, Eddie, wake up—”

Eddie jerks awake with a snort, a cry still half on his lips. He’s overheated, wrapped up uncomfortably in the sheets, and he’s surprised by how much of a struggle it is to sit up. As he grunts with the effort of trying, Steve is already reaching over to help.

“Hang on, let me… Are you okay? You were screaming.”

They’ve been sharing a bed and helping each other through the aftermath of nightmares for longer than they’ve been together—and it’s not as though Eddie hasn't had a wet dream about Steve before, but not usually at the same time. Eddie feels his face heat. Wisps of the best orgasm he’s ever had still cling to him, dulling his embarrassment a bit, but his boxers are already clinging uncomfortably and the squelch of cooling come in there doesn’t add anything positive to the sensation. “Not exactly a nightmare, Steve…”

But Steve is distracted by something, shifting in his position of spooning Eddie to propping himself up on one elbow to look, even though the room is still dark. 

“Did you get an extra pillow or something?” he mumbles, still half asleep and sounding it now that he’s registered Eddie’s lack of panic. (He doesn’t wake up gracefully, Eddie’s Steve, for all that he seems to during an emergency. The guy could leap out of bed, club a demodog to death with his bat full of nails, and then be back to snoring under the blankets within minutes of washing his hands of it.)

For a second, Eddie stupidly just thinks, did I? But he can feel Steve’s hand on his skin, which… seems to have more give than he’s used to. 

Wait.

With a wiggle and a grunt, Eddie brings his own hands into the equation, feeling over himself. FInds the familiar soft fabric of one of the worn-holey shirts he typically wears to bed stretched tight, his boxers straining, and realizes that it’s not the sheets he feels strangle-held by. His belly swells out in front of him, and the way Steve is pawing at it in drowsy confusion is making him wobble. He has love handles. It’s… everything he’s ever wanted, but never had the budget or the luxury of being able to achieve.

“Oh my god,” he breathes. Just like in his dream, it’s like he’s suddenly gained fifty pounds or something. 

Steve’s questing fingers find his navel, a few of them dipping clumsily into his suddenly very sensitive belly button, and Eddie moans. He can feel the press of Steve’s rousing cock against his now plush ass and automatically rocks back against it, eliciting an answering moan. “Eds, fuck, you’re—”

“Bigger,” Eddie finishes, still rocking, still feeling himself all over, whimpering a little when he gets to where the tortured elastic of his boxers has rolled down to accommodate his swollen gut. Not even full, just fucking huge. He’s just like this now, apparently, which should be concerning but for now it’s just winding him up to come all over again as he feels over stretch marks and giddily jiggles himself. “I had the strangest dream…”

“If it’s the one where you ate everything in the house during a party, I had that one too.” Steve removes his fingers only to slap at Eddie’s belly, warming the skin and then squeezing, testing the give, panting in his ear. “I made so much food for you and you took it all so good, baby. Everyone saw, got to show off how well I take care of you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie pants back, his entire body lighting up at the words and treatment, something he’s never been able to explore outside of fantasies before. 

Tomorrow, when he’s thinking more clearly—when they both are, they’ll worry about comparing details and realizing that they both had the same dream, that they both saw Chrissy and answered honestly when asked their deepest desire. It’ll spark new concerns about the Upside Down and whether things are really over, if Chrissy can be saved somehow, if the other victims are alive too. The troops will have to mobilize, at least, to check one more time that Vecna is thoroughly dead and dusted.

But for now, Steve takes care of him. Clambers up and rolls Eddie onto his back, too-tight shirt pushed up to his armpits so Steve can suck on his one remaining nipple, kiss down his soft chest and belly, shove the swell of new fat up and out of the way to drag straining boxers off and take Eddie’s hard cock down his throat. Puts those swimmer’s lungs to the test between soft thighs as Eddie whines and pants and fucks into his mouth, guides pudgy fingers to grip his sleep-mussed hair, gropes Eddie’s plush ass—which, when he comes up briefly for air, he whines about how he can’t wait to bury his face there too—

‘Being queen of the Upside Down comes with a lot better perks than Hawkins High. What, Eddie Munson, is your deepest desire?’

‘To grow fat and happy with my boyfriend, live happily ever after and all that shit.’

Eddie comes with a drawn-out cry, back arching as best he can under his new bulk and trembling all over, panting and utterly spent after. Steve clambers up to kiss him, dragging Eddie’s palm to the front of his shorts to show off his own wet spot from coming untouched, just from sucking Eddie over the edge. 

And that’s a pretty good start to living happily ever after, isn’t it?

Permanent tag list: @hotluncheddie

[wooismyuniverse]

his muse ch. 1

pairing: collegeau!lee jihoon x reader

genre: slice of life, fluff, strangers to best friends to lovers

word count: 2,140 words

lee jihoon is an awfully shy kid. he never approaches people nor does he care to. when he got accepted into seoul’s school of music, he was ecstatic. but at the same time, that meant that he needed to make new friends and have time away from the people he already knew. people that he was so comfortable with. the thought of this has terrified him because at a certain point, he’s going to be alone without knowing what to do.

kim mingyu, his roommate, was almost the opposite of him in terms of personality. mingyu thrives to go out and make new friends, and loves the attention especially since he got into the school’s football team. despite these differences, they were more than okay with rooming together because in a way, it keeps them both in their places.

whenever mingyu notices that jihoon is home way too often, he would beg him to come out to a party to relax. on the other hand, jihoon would make sure that mingyu didn’t alcohol poison himself and always had an extra pain reliever for him the next day. they match well together as roommates, as friends.

it was because of mingyu that jihoon was able to be closer with his group of friends. a lot of them are in the frat group, SVT. he found himself naturally talking to seungkwan a lot because they are both music performance majors, and he’s seen him in class a lot. they relate to each other and harmonize well together, in music and in friendship.

during the first few weeks of school, jihoon intentionally would sit in the back. he never bothered to bat an eye to the other students in his music theory class. people are aware of his presence, but are too intimidated to approach him. that is, except for seungkwan. then again, seungkwan being the extroverted person he is, he knows almost everyone in school. but since they both have mutual friends and are in the same friend group, seungkwan likes to stick with jihoon a lot in the school of music.

whenever jihoon has downtime in between classes, he would go outside of the school. there is a middle area called the quad, with four different buildings— including the school of music— surrounding that area. it was aesthetically nice, full of trees, open areas, and benches for students to relax in. there is an open area right in the middle with a large tree as well. after being in the building for too long, jihoon wants to relax with fresh air, sitting on the bench. it became an everyday routine for him to sit on one of the benches, take his laptop out, and work on his upcoming compositions.

as jihoon was taking out his laptop, he noticed one of the girls in his music theory class. as far as he remembered, she wasn’t that vocal in theory class either. but jihoon does remember her as the one that he finds admittedly attractive in terms of appearance. is that enough to make him want to approach her? if he had the confidence, yes. but for now, he doesn’t mind just admiring her from the back. she had her violin case with her and set that down along with her book bag. she also took out her laptop and started to do homework on it. it became an everyday thing is what he noticed, but he didn’t think much about it at the time.

coincidence is an scary thing is what jihoon came in conclusion to. he reserved a room so that he could have a practice session with seungkwan. he had some time to spare and went to the room ten minutes earlier than it was reserved. as he was about to walk in, he saw the violin girl again through the window. she was practicing on the mozart sonata, he noticed. it was a simple piece but a lot of the interpretation was relied in order for it to be executed properly.

before he walked into the room, he just wanted to listen out of curiosity. she had great intonation, tone, and her interpretation for the piece was unique to say the least. it wasn’t conservative which was debatable to be a good thing in the violin industry. but the time was ticking and he decided to walk in. she stopped playing and went to see who walked into the room, her eyes widened. it was awkward at first— the two of them didn’t know to speak up and just stared at each other. but jihoon technically did claim this room, so he eventually spoke.

“hi..” he mumbled. “this room is reserved in a few minutes.”

“oh, i’m sorry!” she quickly packed her things and rushed to leave the room.

“no, no it’s okay. take your time.” he raised his arms up to comfort her rushed state. as she finished packing up, she looked at him and smiled.

“have a nice day.” she said, causing his ears to turn red.

even though it was one statement, it was enough for his heart to flutter. he nodded at her in acknowledgement. she closed the door behind her and was out of sight. he let out a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding and texted seungkwan to ask where he was to continue his practice session with him.

another time he saw her made him think: it had to be fate at this point. mingyu was begging for his friend to get him out of his shell and come out for bowling night with the guys.

“hyung, please come. everyone else will be there, too! please stop staying cooped up in your room and come out.” he begged jihoon.

“you know that i like staying home.” jihoon sighed, rejecting the idea of going out.

“please, i’ll buy you food for the rest of the week!”

“deal.” he said with no hesitation. he can never deny free meals. so, they both carpooled and went to the bowling alley that night to meet up with the guys. jihoon expected for it to be a typical bowling night but as he walked in with mingyu, he was shocked to see a vaguely familiar face.

it’s the same girl in jihoon’s class— the same girl that he had to kick out of the practice room. what’s she doing here? she was laughing at what seungkwan and jeonghan were talking about, and then she caught jihoon’s gaze on her. his eyes widened and he looked away. there are so many questions going through his mind. the main one consisting of: how does she even know them?

“jihoon! mingyu!” jeonghan greeted them and threw his arm around them. “have you met my roommate?” he was pointing to the girl. roommate..?

jihoon was scared to make eye contact again with her, but couldn’t help it. it would be rude just to look away. she still chuckled and felt her face heat up at the sudden attention.

“we’ve met before, actually.” she mentioned, looking up to jihoon. jihoon’s eyes widened at the sudden eye contact. this perked up seungkwan, jeonghan, and mingyu’s attention. jihoon sighed at them. “we’re in the same music classes.” he said.

“i was about to say..” seungkwan said, still shocked.

“yeah, there’s no way jihoon knows people outside of us and we wouldn’t know.” mingyu chortles, giving his roommate’s shoulder a pat. jihoon felt his ears getting red every second. he suddenly thought that having a meal is not worth it to stay here. “i’m mingyu, by the way.” he introduced himself, holding out his hand.

“i’m (y/n), nice to meet you.” she happily shook his hand. “i’m a music performance major, and jeonghan and jisoo’s roommate.”

“you already know jihoon,” jeonghan points out to him, “mingyu and jihoon are roommates. that should be all of us, i think.” he was busy introducing everyone to her, it’s honestly going to be hard for her to remember their names until they meet multiple times.

bowling night went a lot better than expected. jihoon thought that he would be awkward but it turned out to be fine for him. everyone also seemed to hit it off with (y/n). the more he sees her, the more it makes him wonder how she was never in his life before college.

she had a bright smile, constantly laughing and cheering for her bowling team. he has to admit, her laugh was addicting to listen to. jihoon could listen to it all day without getting sick of it. she would ask small questions to him in between turns, to which he would shyly answer. he’s not completely comfortable yet, but he’s getting there. nevertheless, it was a good bonding moment for her and the rest of the crew. jihoon at a certain point felt like he could actually approach her now that he’s acquainted with her. he concluded that he’ll definitely see her a lot more than he thinks, and he’s more okay with that.

after a few weeks, it became an everyday thing for jihoon to sit on the bench, and for (y/n) to sit next to the tree. there is no way that she wouldn’t know that he sits there, he thinks. some days, jihoon would be working on his composition on his laptop. (y/n) would also be on her laptop doing who knows what.

during those weeks, (y/n) was contemplating in approaching jihoon at all. based on the vibes in school and bowling, it would be weird for her to just go up to him. but honestly, she thought that he seemed shy and almost lonely. she was thinking that maybe.. maybe one day she can get him out of his shell. when you see a shy person, instinctively it makes you want to approach them and get them to like you even more.

so on one bold day, she approached him first. jihoon was on his usual spot on the bench, working on his piece when suddenly, he noticed (y/n) approaching up to him. he looks up, a little startled and she gave him a small smile.

“hey.”

he blinked. “hi.”

“mind if I sit next to you?” she asked as she pointed at the empty spot.

“not at all,” he says as he scoots to the edge to make space for her. she thanks him and sits down next to him.

“i always saw you everyday, and we also have mutual friends. i figured that.. i don’t know. i just wanted to talk to you. get to know you more.” she told him. jihoon felt himself being awkward again. he didn’t know what to say, and she could sense that. but she still smiled at him. “sorry, was that too forward?”

“no, no.. i just don’t know what to say.” he mumbles.

“that’s okay! i can always ask you questions.” he’s glad that she got the hint because she started to ask a question that piqued his interest.

“what are you working on?” she asked him, gesturing to his laptop.

“my composition for class.”

“oh, a composition major? that’s awesome! i barely know anyone here who does compositions,” she grinned, causing him to flush even more. “do you mind if i listened?”

while he was hesitant to let her listen, he thought at the same time that this is the perfect opportunity for him to gain more ideas from others. after all, he is in the school of music, full of students who share the passion and talent for it. perhaps getting input from other people will help with his music block. so he took out his ear bud and handed it to her, to which she softly thanked and put it on.

after listening to it with her eyes closed, she put her hand in her chin, thinking hard. this was not what Jihoon was expecting at all. he just thought she would say “oh, that’s great!” or simple compliments but instead,

“i liked your interpretation on this part. letter b, was it? i feel like that could be brought out more in the return because this is supposed to be binary form, no?”

his eyes widened at that. the fact that not only did she give actual music theory criticism, but she said something that he has been pondering for hours.

“sorry, was that too blunt?” she asked sheepishly.

“n-no!” Jihoon stutters. “i mean yes, but.. that’s exactly what i was thinking!” he quickly began to make changes on his composition. she grinned again, hoping to get him to crack out of his shell through their bond of music.

the days that used to be two individuals sitting alone instead became days of bonding. they began to sit together almost everyday ever since, talking about their passion of music and their interests.

intro | pt. 2 |

[multifictionx]

Bulnoriya - OT8

Chapter One

The Crash

"No! Damnit, right now?!"

The beeping red light blinds me as the alarm blares in my ears. And I listen as the ship rumbles, watching as the gray smoke clouds erupt from the raggity old piece of garbage, through the side mirror. But that's not even the most frustrating coincidence about this whole ordeal. Because faintly through the thick smoke, I catch sight of an all to familiar ship. The big ship is hot on my trail, and just when I thought this night couldn't possibly get any worse. "Come on Y/n..your just making it harder on yourself." The old man's annoying voice suddenly can be heard through the intercoms. "You and I both know if i don't catch you, the Nicrim will -" He pauses as if thinking for a moment before he continues. "I'd be fucking rich if i catch you though. Ha- "

"Damn- you just love the sound of your own voice, don't you, old man? I don't give a damn about some bounty.. Do you know even who I am?"

I cut the dirty old bastard off, already having zero patience. If I didn't have to abandon my real ship for this cheap piece of shit this wouldn't be happening. "Always so sassy, ha! You will never change-- Anyway, we can do this the easy way... or the hard way.." The man's voice no longer feigning playfulness. "Fuck you old man..I'd love to stay and beat your ass but my time is precious."

I cut the intercoms off before the man could continue speaking any longer. Soon after I feel the power of the ships shots firing near my ship. Luckily they haven't hit me yet. "Shit what do I do? What do I do?! Okay--"? I take a deep breath in and out.. before proceeding to pull up navigation. Deciding I'm going to use the last bit of life this ship has to warp to the closest planet. But pulling up the navigation I'm hit with a beam making me accidentally hit the warp button before I could see what planet it was.

The old ship is hit with the most ruthless turbulence upon entry of this planet. And I wonder how it still miraculously has stayed in one piece. The planet rumbles with the sound of a horrible storm, and as I look out the front window. Im horrified to see a storm of total chaos... one like I've never seen before... the ship moves sporadically, and I feel as though I've been caught in a tornado of some sort. And it takes one particularly harsh jerk of the ship for me to hit my head so hard on the side of the chair, losing unconsciousness.

...

"Arggh" the abrupt sound of some very loud thunder stirs me awake. And as I try to open my eyes, a pounding unparalleled to any I've experienced forces a wince out of me. It feels like every nerve in my body has been set a flame. The smoke in my lungs barely leaves room for air. Wheezing is all I can manage, and even then, it hurts like hell. The way the ship crashed has my seat sideways, so unbuckling my seat belt makes me drop like dead weight.

"Fuck.."

I curse upon impact with the hard ship, and I'm hoping the cracks I heard weren't my ribs, but the pain is screaming otherwise. Regardless of the tremendous struggle and pain It took me, just to make it to the ships door. I pulled through and made it out of the ship.

"Holy shit..."

It's barely lit outside with the sun setting. The rain doesn't help me to see in the slightest, and it's quite heavy on this planet. It practically feels like the metaphor 'raining cats and dogs' is an understatement. When my eyes adjust from the rain and dullness, I'm alarmed to find..the remains of multiple ships..like some kind of ship graveyard.

Some planets have a serious reputation, but there's only one planet I know this many ships have traversed to, only to never be seen again. That planet is Bulnoriya...

 

Before the Crash

Seriously how the fuck did they find me?! The big armored men ravage my ship in rage. As I watch from slightly afar, my anger grows, watching them tear my baby apart. They are clearly bat shit crazy if they think they're going to walk away from this alive..

Scoping the area, I smirk, when I spot the old piece of junk there riding in. Occupied by their, apparently lousy driver, sleep in his chair. I creep over sneaking on the ship so gracefully I had to chuckle quietly. Preceeding to strike the already unconscious man in a pressure point that will keep him unconscious. Then, I decided not to kill him by keeping him hostage just to let him out in space to suffer a horrific death. But to instead drag him out the ship and tie him up somewhere for at least one of his buddies to find him. After I beat their asses to a pulp. Once I've successfully secured my escape, I made my way back towards the bastards destroying my ship. "Where is she!" The Reptilian man hisses out in rage. "I'm not sure. Who you looking for?" I interrupted with an unamused tone while occupying myself with my cuticles. "Wha-" before the big buffoon could speak, I lunged at him, punching him clean in the throat. He starts choking, and his members start noticing me as well. "That's her! Get that bitch!" Another Reptilian hisses out, and you see one thing about me.. I don't like being called a bitch. "Ya momma," I glared at the ugly ass before throwing a hand knife so fast he had no time to react. The knife sits right in his voice box now. "Aww, look at you.." I cup a hand around my ear, pretending to try and listen. "what was that? Sorry I can't hear you over the gurgling." I coo out sarcastically as the last member looks at me terrified. I buck at him suddenly. "Ah, sorry!" He is running away back their ship like a bitch. I cackle loudly before grabbing my handknife out of his members' throat. Quickly making work of the other member, stabbing him right in the skull, before chasing after him. "Where do you think you're going! The fun was just getting started!" I snicker out, right on his tail. Before he could get too far, my knife pierced his right shoulder as I jumped on his back. Successfully pinning the Reptilian to the ground as he cries out in pain. I lift his head to whisper in his ear, "Should've left my ship alone... you're lucky I'm going to leave you alive. Now, don't follow me. Your ship is mine now." I drop his head hard, getting up off his back. To then take my time walking towards the ship. I start the ship without a hassle before taking off because obviously I can't hide out here anymore.

Present

I'm starting to think that possibly I am meant to die because of all places.. Bulnoriya?! My mind is going haywire, and I start to feel myself begin to panic for the first time in forever. I hold my ribs in pain as I slowly walk away from the ship reluctantly, out of fear it might explode anytime now. The smoke is still leaving my lungs as I cough up smoke. Groaning at the immense pain, it causes to shoot through my body. Ignoring the pain as much as possible, I proceed to search my surroundings for anything to take shelter in. I spot the beginning of a forest near by, the trees are the biggest I've ever seen. And even though I'm terrified to be on this planet right now.. it's breathtakingly beautiful. I slowly drag my feet in the direction of said forest. In hopes that maybe I can find somewhere safe to rest. I continuously cough up smoke as I walk. The pain of walking along with coughing is almost unbearable, but I keep telling myself I've been through worse. But those words prove to be inaccurate because I'm so close to the forest. Yet I feel my body rapidly weakening, and my eyelids grow heavy. Then the dragging becomes staggering, and I feel my breaths becoming shallow. Then everything goes dark..

...

I awake to the feeling of motion, and my head is still pounding. Though, when I go to reach for my head. I find myself not able to move. My eyes shoot open as I struggle against the bonds. In my panic, I observe where I am. I'm being dragged on a giant leaf of some sort, by 6 foot tall..humans? "Mmph" fuck even my mouth is taped.. My sudden noise gets the attention of all three of the men. But they only look at me for a split second, continuing to drag me. What the hell have I gotten myself into?! My heart starts to race uncontrollably beginning to pass out again.

...

Waking up for the third time in such a short period of time. Proves to have taken a toll on my body. Here I am, my mind awake before my body. I can hear everything but no matter how hard I try I can't move. The sound of someone shuffling around by me is all I hear. Then I can feel hands start to touch me, but I have no clue what they're doing. Literally not even a few moments pass when I jolt awake. Only to instantly regret it with a cry of pain. "Fuck!.." I curse out whilst frantically inspecting my surroundings. "Hey! Lay back! You'll mess up the bandage I just did!" The unfamiliar man raises his voice in clear annoyance. "I don't have much of a choice do I?" I snap back with a glare, proceeding to do as the man says with an attitude. "Who are you? Where the hell am I?" I don't really ask it's more like I demand answers. "I'm not obligated to tell you that ma'am. Just sit back and relax while the serum heals your wound." The man grunts out, occupied by some other task. "The hell do you mean 'not obligated'? The last thing I remember I was being dragged by 6 foot giants and I can't even atleast know where I've been taken?" I argue desperately to get some kind of answer. Speaking of giants.. why are all these motherfuckers so tall?  I start to think to myself after noticing the height of the man infront of me. "You heard me. Now relax I'll be back in a while." The man states simply before leaving the room. I curse in anger at the man as he leaves. Now what the fuck am I supposed to do..?  Now that I actually stop and look where I am. I notice this place looks expensive.. Like royalty expensive. There is gold everywhere, lining the walls, paintings, flower vases, even the tools on this man's surgical table are made of gold. Holy shit.. This place is nice. I can't help but think to myself. But before I can continue to gawk at the place. I'm screaming in agony. The pain from my ribs suddenly grows unbearable. The man from earlier comes rushing back in and puts something in my month to clench down on. "Calm down. You'll feel so much better in just a moment. The serum is fixing your ribs." I can't help the tears that flow down my cheeks. Along with the strong grasp I've got on the mans forearm, as I sob in pain. "Shush.. shush.." The man gently brushes my hair, trying his best to calm me down.  And I look at him through wet lashes and blurry vision before.. it's gone. The pain is completely gone. Loosening my grip, I shut my eyes in relief, and my labored breathing starts to slowly stabilize. "How are you feeling now?" The man asks sweetly whilst removing the thing from my mouth. "So much better.." I stretch my jaw as I speak, gazing at the man with gratitude. "Good because the kings demand your presence. You are to explain to them why you've landed on our planet. If you lie, they will know if they don't like your answer.. well, both outcomes lead to death." The man's sweet tone is gone replaced with professionalism. My eyes widen, and I have so many questions just at the tip of my tongue. Yet they go left unsaid, as two guards make their way inside. They don't speak as they each take an arm, practically dragging me away. I don't panic in the slightest, as I really could care less what happens to me at this point. I let them drag me through, seemingly never-ending halls. Till we arrive in front of a set of grand doors. The guards give a knock, and the doors slowly open on their own. The room is huge, with a carpet leading to eight throwns. I start to panic now, not giving a fuck is not working anymore. The guards drop me, forcing me to bow before their kings.

"You may leave." I hear a voice speak before, but I don't raise my head to see who. Hearing their steps dissipate is agonizing, and I feel my pulse spike once I hear the giant doors close. "Who are you? Why have you come here?" A deep voice is heard after a brief silence. "Y/n-Raise your head when spoken to!" The same deep voice cuts me off, and I wince at the booming volume. Slowly, I raise my head only to gasp quietly. The men before me are... beautiful yet look so fierce. "My name is Y/n, and I didn't land here by choice. I crash-landed here by mistake." I state simply feeling no need to further my explanation. My tone is emotionless. "What were you running from to crash land here by mistake?" A different voice speaks up. "The Nicrim." Another simple reply. "What do the Nicrim want a simple girl for?" I ponder briefly on how I should explain that I am no simple girl. "Because I was once the Commander and Cheif of their army. They want me back to do their dirty work." I tilt my head with the slightest bit of attitude. "Commander and Cheif? A little girl like you. Mm, how interesting." My face scrunched in distaste. "This girl may be little, but I could take out your whole army." I spit back as I stand to my feet, no longer in a pliant mood. "I truly doubt that, but you've got grit though I'll give that." The man in the middle says with lifted eyebrows, amusement clear in his timbre. "It doesn't matter if you doubt me. My reputation proceeds me." I challenge already bored with this whole interaction. "And our reputation proceeds us. What makes you think you're any different?" They are pretty much laughing in my face at this point. My aggravation is reaching a boiling point. "How about let's make a deal then.." I start to smile menacingly, with the plan in mind. "We're listening." It's seems to me I'm amusing them too much. It's really pissing me off. "Ten of your best warriors vs me, if I get them to the floor, I win, you give me a ship, and I leave. If they can get me to the floor they win, and you choose my fate." My eyebrows raise in question as they ponder upon the choices I've laid on the table.

"Deal," the man in the middle finally says a devilish smirk gracing his features. Silence falls upon us, and I become confused.

"Are you going to call-," I don't get to finish before the grand doors are opened once more. The men enter forming a wide circle, ten in total. How tf? They didn't even say anything.. "Well, are you going to do anything? You've been staring off into space for like five minutes already." There they go laughing at me again. My anger has peaked, and I don't reply. Advancing towards the circle. They look just as fierce as their kings. "Well, let's put on a real show, shall we." I chuckle at the men. I assume they take that as me saying I'm ready. Because two men charge me at once. The one on the right is closer, so I wait for him to get just a little closer. As soon as that moment comes, I drop like dead weight. Sliding through the mans open legs, I manage to swipe his feet from under him. The other man is hot on his trail, my eyes turn gold, and I use my power of vibration to launch myself in the air. Going right through the mans arms to which he tries to grab me in his surprised state. Wrapping my legs around the man's neck, I forcefully fall back with all my power. Flipping the man whilst landing on my feet, the man's head between my legs. By this time, three others pounce at me. I maneuver to the side last minute. Using my sound vibrations I fly around them, taking them both out as I dropped landing on their heads.  Sending them tumbling to the ground, now standing on their heads. The third one tried to sneak me from behind. Didn't work out for him, though. Doing a windmill backflip my foot connects with his jaw. Making him fall back with a painful groan. Taunting the last five, with a feigned pout before I begin to cackle loudly. I'm having too much fun. "You all should probably come at me all together.. you at least won't get your asses beat too bad." Who's laughing now bitches. Using my a series of complex vibrations, I am able to form a staff. "Let's see what you've got."

...

In the end, I stand victorious. The men are either on the ground or waiting for further instruction, it seems. That is until they all get up, leaving simultaneously. "Looks like I've won." I grin as I draw near the kings. They don't seem upset, but they don't seem happy either for some unknown reason. "Seems so..though we don't intend on letting you go." The man in the middle has an unreadable expression. "What!? The fuck do you mean, we had a deal!" My attitude does a whole 360. Rage coursing through my veins. "That's was until you showed us your unique powers.. I now see why the Nicrim wants you so bad. You're their only hope of overthrowing us and taking our planet for their own. You see, the Nicrim has been trying for decades to overtake Bulnoriya. The only time they were somewhat close was under the lead of someone named The Viperous... We've heard a lot about you, Viperous." This was a setup..fuck! My eyes start to glow, and I begin to levitate, immediately making a break for the ginormous window panel. I almost made it before a harsh pull immobilized me mid-air. What the fuck? My body begins to turn up right, and I'm forced to turn around to face the kings once more. The one in the middle now stands, a purple glow now replaces his once brown eyes. And his hand is engulfed in the same purple glow. He sports the same devilish smirk from just before the fight. Oh, how I wish to smack it off his annoyingly handsome face right about now. "Where do you think you're going, little one?" He asks smugly but I don't get to say anything in return. A sharp pinch in my neck is all I feel. "You bastards.." Then my vision goes blurry as I begin to lose consciousness.

[ratsoh-writes]

After applying pressure to the wounds with the bandages, he makes an impromptu tourniquet with a PVC rod and some rags.

Cory: I wouldn't advice that course of action unless you have a plan and unless you are 100% sure that she could safely get away and call for help. Because I am sure all of this was premeditated and there is a high chance that there are more of... of "Them" outside.

He points at the window.

Cory: All of the windows are strong enough to prevent a car from driving through them, yet a psycho managed to break one of them. And while they were kicking the security, either they trampled with my locks or someone else was helping them. And didn't you notice the lack of police reinforcements? This isn't a one-man operation

He had finished the medical aid for Rolland at this point. His words made Shanon more worried, but he thought that it was probably for the best. All that is about getting his employees to safety and they don't know if the outside is safer.

Ollivander grimaces at Cory’s reasoning but Sharon agrees with him, and so does Rolland

Rolland: listen to mr Cory, he’s right.

The bat monster, a fell monster from possibly fellswap gold you believe..? You’ve never asked. He sits up with a pained huff

Rolland: your string of “bad luck” this week was no coincidence, I mean come on? You just happen to dodge a falling washer machine in ebott city?

Sharon: I-i did press the panic button earlier…

The froggit though isn’t sure if it works. The guard on duty at the bank, chillie, a burly wolf monster is a decent fighter, but no match for the speeds that the mage was going at. There’s no telling how long he’ll last out there. So they need to make a decision wuick

[bethanythebogwitch]

Previously I’ve discussed the real-life inspirations for all fish Pokémon, all other aquatic Pokémon, and all starter Pokémon. Now I’m going to cover all of the legendary and mythical Pokémon. I’ll be going through each generation on its own, so strap in, this is gonna take a while.

Generation 1 starts with our first legendary trio; the legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Uniquely among legendaries, they have regional variants in the form of Galarian Articuno, G Zapdos, and G Moltres. The Galarian versions have less lore than the originals, who are considered heralds of the season of winter (Articuno), spring (Zapdos), and summer (Moltres). While some legendary and mythical Pokémon are definitely unique beings, it seems possible that the legendary birds may have populations and enough diversity for a group to become genetically isolated in Galar and diverge from their counterparts in other regions over many generations. Alternatively, the similarity of the original and Galarian birds may be a coincidence and they are actually unrelated. The birds are all based on different legendary bird creatures in mythological traditions from around the world and on real bird species.

Articuno is the one that’s hardest to pin down to a specific real-life myth. It seems to be more of an original creation made to fill in the trio as compared to Zapdos and Moltres having very distinct mythological bases. That being said, it could draw inspiration from a few myths of more benevolent birds who live on mountains, including the Persian simurgh and Chinese fenghuang. In terms of real birds, it most closely resembles the white-throated magpie-jay, which shares the light blue and white coloration and the three-pointed head crest of Articuno.

(image id: a white-throated magpie-jay. It is a songbird with a light blue back and wings and a white face and underbelly. A black line goes around its neck. It has a medium-length pointy beak. A tuft of blue feathers comes from its head)

Its long tail feathers look like those of a male resplendent quetzal, but blue instead of green.

(image id: a male resplendent quetzal. It is a bird with bright green feathers and a red underbelly. Its tail feathers are exceptionally long and white and green)

Interestingly, both of those species live in central America. Galarian Articuno is still fairly similar to the original and probably has the same real life birds as a basis. Its facial feathers also look like a masquerade mask. The mythical bird Galarian Articuno is based on is a cockatrice, an English monster that is a hybrid of rooster and retile. G Articuno can fire a beam from its eyes that paralyzes enemies and the cockatrice had the power to petrify other beings by (depending on which version of the legend you’re listening to) touching, breathing on, or looking at a target.

(image id: a cockatrice carking on a window. It looks like a dragon with a long, thick tail, bird-like hind limbs, a pair of bat-like wings, and the head of a rooster)

Zapdos’s mythological basis is the thunderbird, originating from a legends shared by many Native American cultural groups of North America. The thunderbird is a giant bird who brings storms, with some versions of the legend saying that the beat of its wings creates thunder and lightning flashes from its eyes. The thunderbird is usually viewed positively, as a symbol of strength.

(image id: a totem pole, the top of which features a carving of a thunderbird. It is a highly stylistic depiction of an eagle with black and white wings and a large head and large, curved beak)

By contrast, another mythical bird associated with lighting that may also have inspired Zapdos is the Zulu impundulu or lightning bird, which is considered a monster. These birds were born when lighting strikes the ground and had magical powers and a thirst for blood. This certainty fits Zapdos’s violent nature more than the Thunderbird does. As for real birds, I initially thought of some kind of crane or stork, but between its long beak, short wings, and violent nature actually points to a hummingbird of all things. Yeah, hummingbirds are pretty violent. When you need to eat 2-3 times your weight in nectar every day you’ll end up having to fight over flowers just to survive. In fact, hummingbirds are so violent that the Aztecs associated them with Huitzilopochtli, god of war and the sun.

(image id: an Allen's hummingbird. It is a very small bird with a long, skinny beak. Its head and most of its body are a dull orange color. Part of its chest is white and its throat is red. Its wings are in motion and obscured by motion blur)

Galarian Zapdos is a ratite. Ratites are a group of primitive flightless birds that include ostritches, emus, and cassowaries among others. G Zapdos’s long beak points it toward one particular ratite: the kiwi. Yeah, Zapdos likes to be a badass version of now very intimidating birds. G Zapdos fighting mainly with kicks is fitting as most ratites are capable of delivering very powerful kicks. Its speed references roadrunners, who can fly but are faster while running. As far as I can tell, G Zapdos isn’t based on any myths.

(image id: a kiwi standing in grass. It is a small bird with a round, brown body and no visible wings. Its head is small, round, and brown. It has a long, skinny beak)

Moltres is based on mythical flaming birds like the phoenix, firebird, and the vermillion bird. The phoenix appears in Greek mythology and is an immortal bird that dies in fire and is reborn from its own ashes. The phoenix may have been inspired by the older Egyptian god Bennu, a god of the sun, creation, and rebirth that appeared as a bird. The firebird features in Slavic folklore where it either glows like fire or is actually on fire. It can be a harbinger of both good and bad luck, like how Moltres heralds the coming of summer but can also start wildfires.

(image: a painting of the firebird by Boris Zvorykin. The bird is similar in appearance to a peacock, with a long neck and a head with three feathers rising from it as a crest. The tail is long and features many eyespots. The whole bird is red and orange, making it look like it is made of fire. It holds a fruit on one foot. The background is a castle behind some trees)

The vermillion bird is one of the four symbols of Chinese mythology, legendary animals that are associated with cardinal directions and constellations. The vermillion bird represents south and the element of fire in the Taoist five elements. It is said to look like a red pheasant that is cloaked in flame. In terms of real birds, Moltres’s long beak and neck makes it look like a heron.

(image: a gray heron. It is a large bird with a grey and black body and wings. Its legs are long and orange. Its neck is as long as its body. The neck and head a re white and it has black above the eyes. Its beak is long, pointy, and orange. It is standing on the ground in a marsh)

Herons are associated with wetlands, a bit ironic for a firebird like Moltres. Galarian Moltres mostly just looks like the edgelord version of Moltres, but its new beak shape makes it look like a cormorant. Another aquatic bird for the fire birdy. Its ability to inflict exhaustion seems to be a pun on the phycological condition of burnout. Like G Zapdos, G Moltres doesn’t seem to be based on any particular mythological bird other than an evil phoenix or the darker aspects of the firebird.

Finishing out gen I is the Mew duo consisting of Mew and Mewtwo. Fun fact: the reason why Mewtwo comes before Mew in the Pokedex is that Mew was originally not going to be present at all, but some last-minute data cleanup freed up enough space to fit a new Pokémon in. There was not enough time to make a way to encounter it, so it became the first mythical Pokémon when special events were set up to give it out. And so a tradition was started that meant if you weren’t in the right place at the right time, it became impossible to actually catch ‘em all.

Mew is based on an embryo in reference to evolutionary developmental biology or evo devo. This is the field of study that examines development in different organisms to infer their evolutionary relationship. One method of doing this is comparing embryological development. By examining how embryos develop you can infer some things about that species’ history. For example, because human embryos develop a tail and then reabsorb it, it can be inferred that our ancestors had tails. You can also compare the embryos of two separate organisms to get an idea of when their ancestors diverged by seeing when their embryological development changes. For example, the embryos of mammals and reptiles stay similar for longer than the embryos of mammals and fish. This can tell us that mammals and reptiles diverged from each other more recently than either diverged from fish.

(image id: a scientific diagram showing the embryological development of multiple species of vertebrate at different stages. The depiscted species are a fish, a salamander, a turtle, a bird, and some kind of mammal. The diagram points out similar features in the earliest stages: gill slits, tails, and eyes. Source)

One of the earliest versions of this science came from the scientist Ernst Haeckle’s idea that ontology recapitulates phylogeny. He studied embryos and noticed that the embryos of more similar animals diverge later than those of less similar animals. He thought that an embryo would pass through all the stages of its ancestors. For example, he thought that a mammal embryo would become a fish, then become and amphibian, then become a reptile, before finally becoming a mammal. He was incorrect, but wasn’t that far off and his ideas helped pave the way for evo devo as a field. Mew allegedly being the ancestor of all Pokémon makes it the Pokémon world’s last universal common ancestor. LUCA in real life was a unicellular organism that gave rise to all current life. LUCA wasn’t necessarily the only thing alive at its time. Other organisms likely existed but their descendants died out while LUCA’s descendants survived. Mew could also be the first universal common ancestor, which would make it the first living organism from which all others diverged, both those who survived and those who went extinct. It weird that the Pokémon world’s LUCA or FUCA is apparently a mammal while plenty of its descendants are not only not mammalian, many aren’t even vertebrates, aren’t even animals, or are inanimate objects or supernatural beings. Mew looks like a jerboa with its large hind legs and long tail, though its head looks like a cat’s.

(image id: a jerboa standing on sand against a black background. It is a small mammal with a round body and a large head. Its hind legs are very long and hold it off the ground. Its forelimbs are very small and are held off the ground. Its tail is long and slender. Its fur is sandy on top and white on the underbelly)

It was confirmed in an interview that its name does not come from the English onomatopoeia for a cat sound. Mew was also designed as a simpler version of Mewtwo, an inverse of how it happened in-universe.

While the birds may be legendary Pokémon, Mewtwo is THE legendary Pokémon. Mewtwo retains many of the embryo characteristics of Mew, but it is much larger and appears more mature. This is due to its origin as a modified clone of Mew. It was modified using recombinant DNA. This occurs when methods such as CRISPR are used to insert gene sequences into a DNA strand to create new sequences that would not have occurred naturally. Because these gene sequences do not occur in nature, they can be used to produce artificially modified creatures such as goats that can produce spider silk proteins in their milk or cats that glow in the dark. DNA recombination is mostly over my head as I don’t know much about genetics, but as the technology improves, we will start seeing some potentially world-changing new technologies and organisms and will have to face some tough decisions about what the technology should and should not be used for. Mewtwo being so powerful and violent points to stories where genetic engineering is used to create monsters. Think Stories like Biohazard (AKA Resident Evil) where genetic engineering is used to make undead and mutates monstrosities or Star Trek, where genetically-engineered supermen battled for supremacy in the eugenics wars. Genetic engineering being played for horror more than it is played for good in fiction. This leans over to real life where genetically engineered crops are helping combat starvation worldwide yet are demonized as frankenfoods. Interestingly, the note you can find about Mewtwo says that Mew gave birth to it. This is closer to real-life cloning where cloned animals are born normally. In all other depictions, Mewtwo goes with the common fictional depiction of cloning where it is born as an adult in a tube. Mewtwo also drawn from stories of aliens, especially the common grey alien, which are often depicted as being psychic. This grey alien origin is more prominent in mega Mewtwo Y. Y also takes more after Mew in being more embryo-like and I think it might also draw from the starchild in 2001: a Space Odyssey. Mega Mewtwo X goes the other direction and appears to be more mature than the original, with increased musculature.

[artzychic27]

Witch Izuku

After not getting his quirk, and with the horribleness of discrimination, quirkless statistics all over the Internet, and middle school, Izuku embraced the darkness since there was no light for him

Inko is a great mom and does whatever she can to support her son, even selling all of his All Might merch to buy some new furniture for his room that fit his tastes

His choice of dress is gender neutral, often wearing corsets, ankle length skirts dresses, black Sun hats, and tops with lace sleeves

He started ignoring his classmates when he was eleven. He reads enough hateful news articles, that their words don’t sting anymore. And he began wearing padding under his uniform when they try to beat him up

Any spider lilies they put on his desk, he cuts the stem a bit and places the flower in his hair

Izuku just spends his days reading pre-quirk era books and conversing with spiders he finds on the roof of the school

One day, after a particularly tough day at school where his teacher decided to punish him for no reason, he had his lunch thrown in the toilet, his favorite book burned, and one of his spider friends killed right in front of him, Izuku goes home early that day, crying for the first time in years

While walking home, a black butterfly blocks his path and seems to beckon him to follow it… To an abandoned shop. It looks like an old curio store, and then the butterfly leads him to an old book, just sitting on a counter

Even though the shop appears to be abandoned, Izuku leaves a few yen on the counter before taking the book and when he leaves… It disappears. Ooo~

Upon returning home, Izuku discovers that he bought a spellboook. While he doesn’t really believe in magic, he decides to try on out and casts a spell on his teacher

The next day at school, when Izuku’s teacher is once again reprimanding him for some stupid reason, a colony of bats suddenly fly in through the window and attack him

That’s gotta be a coincidence, so he tries out another spell on a few students. This one is to make them suffer a great loss

Cue one losing his girlfriend, the other losing the hair he took such great pride in, and the other’s old nose growing back in place of the one from cosmetic surgery

Izuku: Okay. Magic is real.

Now Izuku’s a witch, and he’s going to have some fun all throughout middle school with no one being none the wiser

Inko knows he’s been using magic to get back at everyone, and has no problem with it. It’s about time those assholes got what was coming to them

Their last day of junior high, Izuku is once again ignoring the idiots who surround him when the teacher goes on about the hero course, and by that time, he’s got his ear buds in

Bitch teacher: Oh, Midoriya! Didn’t you want to go to Yuuei?

Izuku: Maybe, maybe not, but that was not your information to share, you quirkist bitch. Now, pick your jaw up off the floor and kindly explain to your demon students that quirk usage is forbidden on school property.

He gets sent to the principal’s office, but not before casting a spell to make his teacher’s hair catch on fire and for his principal’s clothes to restrict him

Izuku goes home with a bright smile on his face… Then he runs into the sludge monster. Using his powers, he turns the monster back into his human form, and the man, Akatani Mika is eternally grateful

When All Might arrives, he only sees a young goth boy and his “uncle”, and takes off to look for the sludge monster

Mika: Kid, I-I owe you my life.

Izuku: I accept tablespoons of blood only.

Mika: … What?

Izuku: What? I need more ingredients. It’s hard to get blood these days.

Mika becomes sort of a father figure over the months, often helps around the house, buys groceries, and even buys Izuku some books

Oh, and Izuku is going for Yuuei, the hero course, since society needs actual competent heroes

Using the hundreds of spells he memorized, he creates a black hole to suck up only what he wants it to- The robots piece by piece

When he comes across Uraraka, he just touches the debris, and it crumbles into bits, then he fucking possesses the Zero Pointer and has it destroy the other robots

Eraserhead/Vlad King: … I WANT HIM!

And after a brutal combat between the teachers, Izuku gets into 1-A where he becomes fast friends with Fumikage and Dark Shadow once the former senses his inner darkness

Fumikage: We shall revel in the dark, my black hearted brother.

Izuku: I look forward to it, bringer of despair.

Katsuki: Fuck! Now there’s two of them!

Izuku gets through the quirk assessment tests pretty easily since he’s spent the past couple of months with Mika going to the gym and building up his strength and endurance

He ends up in fifth, and is pleased to see that the grape got last… BUT ‘TWAS ALL A RUSE!

Izuku, Fumikage, and Dark Shadow spend most of their time together and even attract two new members to their little cult, Reiko Yanagi and Hitoshi Shinsou

It takes a few weeks before Izuku feels he can trust them enough to show him his spell book, AKA, his “quirk”, and they still accept him

After looking through the rules, Izuku sees there’s nothing about dying his uniform jacket black… So he does

Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah. Izuku’s hero costume makes him look like a necromancer, he teleports the villains back to wherever it was that they came from and puts a protective seal over the USJ, he comes in second at the Sports Festival, gets only ten work study from the heroes who weren’t little punk bitches, his hero name is Salem, he does his work study with the Witch Hero, Crimson, and the training camp goes wrong because Izuku forgot to put a seal over it

Katsuki gets kidnapped and now the goth squad has gotta save his ass, incognito

They manage to get him back without getting caught before the heroes can even get there, and Aizawa- who saw everything- promises not to say anything. Goths (plus an emo) gotta stick together

Cue Dorms!

Izuku’s room is similar to Fumikage’s, completely submerged in darkness with a Victorian charm to it. He, Yanagi, Shinsou, Fumikage, and Dark Shadow hold weekly seances there and convince the spirits to mess around with Katsuki and All Might (Who didn’t retire, by the way and still hasn’t passed down One For All)

Quirk Provisional License exam, the Goth Squad all pass, Katsuki and Shouto don’t, on with the show!

Instead of leaving Eri at the hands of that bastard, Izuku uses a spell to freeze Overhaul, drag him back to Crimson’s agency, and then use a truth spell to force him to give over any information he has

They infiltrate his base, arrest everyone, and Eri gets adopted by the Yamazawas

Eri clings to Izuku like a lifeline since he was the one who saved her. He doesn’t mind one bit and even takes her to a seance to meet one of his ghost friends

So now, Eri is a baby bat goth

[tiny-pteranodon]

Stupid questions incoming:

How exactly is Aryan Migration different from like, other migrations? Is it the fact that they did not have a homeland? Was this the place they finally settled at after leaving Africa or were they actually native to someplace else before?

Everyone came from Africa, right? And if so, what is the difference between Dravidians finding this land and what exactly makes Aryans foreigners in some people’s eyes?

oh yes THIS

i should have touched on this that day but the post was getting too long,

no difference at all, in the grand scheme of things, people have been migrating here and there since the beginning, the ethnoclutural backgrounds of places change all the time.

also, they did have a homeland, the pontic steppes, they just didnt build buildings, canals, citadels like many other contemporary societies did. and they did have attachment to the land they lived on, prithvi and her homologues are one of the most important godesses afterall.

and noone actually knows if the first place that dravidians settled was india, or any other society for that matter because by the most agreed upon definition, homo sapiens left africa somewhere around 70-50,000 years ago.

[also, there is no set definition of "human", many consider all the species of the homo genus to be humans, in which case homo erectus (dont laugh) left africa 2 million years ago, and also homo sapiens also left africa once or twice before 50000 ago but those were not permanent and they died off]

so we arrive in asia 70-50,000 yars ago. the oldest settlements are 10,000 old, and the oldest civilisation is egypt at around 5000 years old. now you notice the 65-45,000 year long window between exodus out of africa and starting of the first nation? between this time EVERYONE was nomadic. gunter gatherer at first and then pastoralists and then some places became agriculturists.

there have been so many waves of migrations that cant possibly claim that xyz was the original place of abc people after coming out of africa, i mean just imagine, youre a hunter gatherer, rain doesnt happen on time and the plants are drying, now youll want to get out of that place and go somewhere else, you have no particular place in mind, just somewhere that has food will do. so migrations were the norm for most of histroy, until like two hundred years ago you could just leave a country and go live somewhere else and noone would bat an eye

and everyone was moving around, the americas were settled TWICE, by crossing through the berring strait (which was frozen as an ice bridge back then).

so there is no fundamental difference between aryans and dravidians arriving in india, its just that due to coincidence the dravidians came first.

and i can not claim to know anyones mind unfortunately,

but it might be because right wing hindu conservatives consider muslims and british descendents to be foreigners, so someone promptly pointed out that technically youre a foreigner as well, (though they were wrong in saying that, because no genetically pure aryan is living today, all of us are mixed race, though the hindus are obviously also wrong in claiming that the palce theyve been living in for generations, almost a millenium in some cases is "not their country")

and theres also the caste thing, see in the northern plains (wont make any claims about other places, this is how things are percieved as here) (also im not saying that the following is true, but only that most people believe it too be true, i dont have enough knowledge to support or deny this) upper caste people tend to have more "aryan" phenotype whereas lower caste people have more native phenotypes. so many lower class people feel like that they were the originals owners of this land and in came these foreigners, oppressed us, destroyed our religion, implemented their own oppressive culture etc etc you get the gist.

to some extent this is true (just look at our beauty standards, and no the british didnt cause this) as lower caste were objectively oppressed and kept out of any well do to position under the hindu laws (we had a katha a few days back and the "priest" had the fucking audacity to say that "those who feel like they can be with god by reading the scripture and reciting it dont know that only brhamins can read it in a meaningful way" like what the fuck you bastard)

umm yeah thats it.

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 82

Jump the Shark

"Jump the Shark"

Plot Description: A 19 year old boy named Adam calls Sam and Dean looking for John Winchester; the boy claims to be his son.

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: If there's one thing I've learned in nearly four full seasons, don't fuck a Winchester. You're gonna die. So, I think I'm good.

This week's run of episodes has been buck wild. I mean, we got backstory, pure angst, astral projection, one of the BEST and most DRAMA FILLED episodes I've seen, alternate universe, meeting god, and now secret family member. I feel like I'm just WATCHING ao3. There's one thing missing (this being Supernatural and all), but I'M not missing it.

Oh they got the back window of the impala fixed. Dean's having the ROUGHEST of mornings. He didn't look this rough CRAWLING OUT OF THE GRAVE.

I LOVE how skeptical Dean is. You really can't be too careful. At the same time, everything being presented as evidence that Adam is telling the truth, and Dean's just dismissing it as coincidence...you've never done that before, babe. The daddy issues are so fucking strong in this one. I should know, I specialize in characters with daddy issues

NO I'M NOT FUCKING CRYING. I'm not crying because Adam got the dad who took him to BASEBALL GAMES. They might not have been close while Adam was growing up, but the moment John knew about Adam's existence, he dropped EVERYTHING (*cough his other sons but really mostly Dean because Sam was in college doing his own thing cough*) to go meet him. It might not have been the perfect parent-child relationship and it was probably still fairly distant, but it's a hell of a lot more than Dean got. (Did Horikoshi watch Supernatural before writing MHA? Did he see this and go "I could do a family drama like this") John made it to Adam's birthdays but Dean had to steal Christmas presents so Sam would have something to open...I'M GONNA FUCKING SCREAM AND THEN BEAT JOHN WITH A BAT IN HELL. ALISTAIR WON'T HAVE TIME TO TORTURE ME, I'D HOP OFF THAT RACK TO KICK THE SHIT OUT OF JOHN WINCHESTER IM-FUCKING-MEDIATELY.

God, Dean, petty is a good look on you, I swear. Adam's just finding out that a whole lot of movie and mythological monsters and creatures are real, and your only comment is that Godzilla is just a movie.

GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, sorry, I'm having so many big feelings about Dean today. He's so furious at John. He's so disgusted that Adam had the relationship with John that Dean had for a short time, til he was four, and it was ripped away from him. That was the relationship HE wanted, that HE deserved to have, and he did EVERYTHING TO HOPEFULLY MAKE HIS DAD PROUD OF HIM, followed in EVERY SINGLE FOOT STEP. BUT JOHN NEVER WAS. JOHN ONLY EVER SAW DEAN'S MISTAKES. IT'S HOW DEAN KNEW AZAZEL WAS POSSESSING JOHN BECAUSE HE FORGAVE DEAN'S MISTAKE AND DIDN'T MAKE IT A BIG DEAL. BUT DEAN'S STILL DOING IT by protecting Adam. By saying "Dad didn't want our lives for Adam, and I'm going to keep it that way." Aren't you tired of being nice, Dean? Don't you just wanna go apeshit?

(It's going to take me so long to get through this episode if I keep stopping to make Dean/Touya parallels.)

What the fuck is this monster??

Oh, Sammy, you're more like your old man than you want to admit. You find out you have a little brother and it's IMMEDIATELY "let's train him to be a hunter, he needs to be ready for anything that might come after him." You would hardly believe this is the same Sam who wanted to walk away from this life, who did for a while and went to college and law school, who resented John for making their lives like this.

Oh, but at the same time...at the same time he thinks he's just being like Dean was for him. Doing what he can to look out for him, offering praise when he does something well...his insistence that Adam join in is very John but his approach to teaching Adam is all Dean

Sam. No. John did not do right by you boys. I can't believe you're saying this...Ugggghhhhhh, Sam wants to drag Adam down into the hell that is their lives because his chance at that got ruined. But Dean wants to give Adam the chance that got taken from Sam.

Y'all are both jealous of him...stop lying to yourselves.

Oh shit. Oh fuck. WHAT??? HOW LONG HAS ADAM NOT BEEN ADAM??? Oh...it was the whole time...cool.

So, what term DO you prefer, ma'am?

Did...did ya get that out of your system for another couple seasons, Dean? First Baby took a beating after John died, now you beat in the head of the ghoul who pretended to be the little brother you didn't know you had...What's to come near the end of season six? (Aside from my favorite Cas-centric episode)

THAT'S WHAT I SAID, DEAN!!!!! "you know why you and dad butted heads so much? you're practically the same person" and "you're more like him than I'll ever be" (derogatory)

"Been On My Mind...": No. 8...???

[vents-anon]

k here we go :3c

so to start things off, something like this has happened once before, when i was 13.

exactly. um. ten years ago.

wait what the fuck. that's one hell of a coincidence. i didn't even think about until now, what the fuck. what the fuck.

uh, ANYWAYS:

earlier in the evening, my twin sister went to the ER (she's fine) with my dad, since he's the only one who can (legally, teehee) drive. my mom and i were in the living room, watching tv and waiting for the occasional update, while my younger sister did the dishes. at about 11 o'clock pm (EST), my mom went to bed, and my younger sister finished doing the dishes. i stayed in the living room, watching movies on the hollywood suite. shortly after 12, my youngest sister showed up downstairs to make herself some tea, startle me with the occasional weird noise while she did so, and then fuck back off upstairs, leaving me alone to watch my movies in peace.

two hours pass in relative silence. i watch part of erik the viking, and then the entirety of badlands (1973). i receive some sporadic updates from my sister, and i write dumb fanfiction on my phone. i hear the occasional creak from upstairs or really loud cricket from outside, but apart from that, there's nothing.

at 3 am though, that changes.

i decide to watch the breakfast club, since i have it recorded and i've somehow never seen it in its entirety in my 23 years of existence.

so, i put that on, and settle in for some good old 80's teen dramadey. unsurprisingly, it's really good.

about halfway through the movie, i get up to go to the washroom. i also notice a housefly in the washroom with me and whack it with a tissue box, sending it to valhalla.

HOWEVER,

the exact SECOND i put the box back down on top of the toilet tank, i hear rustling or flapping or SOMETHING coming from somewhere in the general living room area.

i am immediately suspicious, since this isn't the first time something has tried to get into my house from one of the exhaust vents, and it probably won't be the last, so i walk back into my living room, listening carefully.

after a few minutes, i don't hear anything, so i shrug it off and resume watching the breakfast club.

and then i hear the noises again.

it was definitely flapping, and it was definitely coming from my fireplace.

the flapping would stop and start at random intervals for a few minutes at a time for a period of about ten minutes. at one point, i even swore i heard something trying to get into my house from the exhaust vent over my stove (also gas), and about 20 feet away from my fireplace.

eventually, the flapping stops, and i hear some chirping noises. "oh, shit," i think to myself. "i think a bird somehow got trapped in the fireplace vent. i'll have to get my dad to check it out after he comes home and we've all gotten some sleep."

then the flapping starts up again, and i think "aw, poor bird is probably stressed out. i hope it doesn't keep this up all night and die of exhaustion."

the flapping briefly stops again, and then i hear a strange combination of flapping and some kind of rustling, almost skittering sounds. like something is scratching tiny claws on metal or wood.

now here's another thing you should know: i live in a model home that was built in approximately 2008. i don't have a traditional wood fireplace with a chimney, nor do i have a gas fireplace installed on a back wall. i have a double-sided, glass windowed gas fireplace with a small exhaust vent somewhere on the roof, and four metal vents on either side of the fireplace to let air in and the heat out because whoever designed my house was feeling particularly bold that day.

thus meaning, there are very few things that can fit down the chimney to my house, santa claus included, so he uses the front door instead.

ergo, i was EXTREMELY unprepared for what happened next.

just as soon as that strange new noise started up, it stops—

—and a fucking BAT flies up from my floor.

(please keep in mind that the breakfast club is still playing on my tv at this time and almost all the lights in my living room are on because it's better for my eyes that way)

i immediately yelp "OH SHIT" and DUCK, sliding off of my sofa and onto my knees on the hardwood floor because that bat was flying directly towards my head, and i didn't want to be the second family member hospitalized within 24 hours, this time due to possible rabies exposure.

so i'm panicking, the bat's panicking, emilio estevez and ally sheedy are having a heart-to-heart in a high school library, and my dad and twin sister are, to my knowledge, still at the hospital, so i do the next most rational thing i can think of, and yell upstairs for my mom.

who is deathly afraid of bats.

obviously she doesn't reply.

but my younger sister does!

she comes downstairs and stands beside me in the living room entrance, gawking at the bat, who is now flying between the living room and the dining room, while i continue to panic about what to do or who to call.

and then we hear the garage door start opening.

OUR DAD (and sister possibly) WAS HOME.

the first thing i say to him as he walks through the door to our laundry room after a grueling four hour wait for answers at one of the three hospitals in our city is: "there's a bat in the house." because there is a bat in the house.

his immediate response, in an exhausted tone, is: "what do you mean there's a bat in the house?"

cue the bat flying past the living room entrance

"oh," my dad says.

so i run back into the living room, ducking down like i'm running towards a helicopter in a movie or something, pause the tv, grab my glass of water and for some reason the tv remote, and say "i hope you don't mind if i commandeer your office real quick, i'm just gonna see if animal control has a 24 hour hotline," while my dad and my younger sister avoid the bat.

(just my luck, there IS no animal control center for southwestern ontario! great! so we had to deal with this ourselves.)

then, my dad, in his infinite wisdom while lamenting our lack of butterfly nets, realized that we had a bunch of old towels in the laundry room that we could use.

the plan was originally to try and throw the towel on the bat and take it outside, but since it kept looping around the living room and dining room, where we have lots of breakable items, he came up with a better idea.

he would try and herd the bat out the back door with the towel while my younger sister and i blocked off any possible escape routes to the rest of the house with our large horrible human bodies.

the bat did not like this idea, i assume.

the first several attempts were totally unsuccessful in getting the bat anywhere NEAR the door, until my dad turned on the back porchlight and we turned off all the other lights, except for one so that we could see what the bat was doing. i was so desperate that i even tried whistling at the bat like it was a dog. (fun fact! bats are more closely related to dogs and cats than rodents!)

and then the bat flew out the door.

my younger sister and i cheered while my dad immediately rushed back inside the house, closed the screen door, locked it, closed the GLASS door, locked it, and then threw the towel at me to deal with because he needed to wash his hands and try to get some sleep.

so i did and then i went to go and sit down to finish my damn movie because my heart was straight up skipping beats at this point, it was almost 4 am, and i still didn't know if my twin sister was actually admitted into the hospital yet.

and then i couldn't find the damn tv remote.

(i eventually found it and finished watching the breakfast club right as my sister called my dad to come pick her up because the hospital decided that they didn't want to keep her this time and kicked her out. i went with him to go pick her up, and we saw a skunk and a coyote on the way there!)

BAT IN MY HOUSE

GLORIA HOLDEN GET OUTTA HERE YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SHOW UP TIL AUGUST

[robynlilyblack]

I should breathe a little bit softer - Send me an AU along with a character and I'll write a lil blurb (royal au, soulmate, muggle, band etc)

Maybe Sirius Black x Reader as roommates in a muggle au?

Who we spying on?

Sirius Black x gn! reader

Muggle AU

Summary: Sirius finds his roommate in a funny position

Warnings: swearing, roommates that are a little bit in love with one another, mentions of food and eating

A/n: 0.6k words, kinda collage/modern au too since studies are mentioned, this is based off of something I actually have done, thank you for the request, enjoy x

Navigation | Sirius Black Masterlist

Sirius leant backwards, his back pressed into the chair as he stretched. He had been writing this essay for what felt like years, he had gotten up around eight this morning in order to get finished before the deadline at midnight…well 23:59

He laughed as he heard his stomach rumble, he’d been living off of snacks and coffee most of the day, so he really needed something more substantial. He wondered if you had eaten yet, he had time to make you both something before batting his eyelashes in order to convince you to proof read his work

He headed out of his room, still in his checked bottoms and vest, hair up in a messy bun and secured with a spare chopstick. He was about to head across the hall to your room when he glanced at the front door, finding you kneeling on the ground and peeking through the keyhole.

He smirks at the scene, moving silently to kneel next to you “Who we spying on?” he asks, chuckling at your little jump

“No one” you shake your head, panting gently at the fright as you tried not to admire how good he looked for too look

He noticed however, and it made his heart warm. You and he had been paired together an accident in the lease, neither of you realsing it was a shared flat...really you both should have known by how cheap it was. After little debate you both decided to just live together instead of going through the hassle of fixing the mistake.

It worked out well, you and he had a natural connection, and his feeling soon developed past that of roommates. Hedidn’t want to ruin anything by pushing you so he just decided if it happened it happened

“Really? Not even Mr no shirt across the hall?” he teases

Both of you used to have a crush on the boy, he was very attractive, but sadly his personality wasn’t as pretty. Still, Sirius loved to tease you after he had been getting his mail shirtless one day and you slipped down the stairs...and to the end of your days you'll swear it was mere coincidence

“No” you whine shoving him as you stand up “I’m waiting on food…don’t worry I got you some too”  

“You’re an angel” he grins, arm wrapping around you as he kisses your temple “But that doesn’t explain why we are sitting on the floor and looking out of the keyhole”

You subconsciously lean into his touch “Well…we don’t have a peep hole after the hockey incident and the delivery people never knock, so I can spot them coming from the stairs by looking though here” you explain turning to look at him and accidently brush your nose with his as you do

“Sorry” you let out a nervous giggle moving backwards

He just smiles, you did a lot of weirdly adorable things; he’d heard you talked to yourself whilst cooking or cleaning, he’d find you randomly laying on the floor with your eyes closed, listening to music, and once he came back from a weekend away to find you had rearranged the kitchen just make a reading nook by the window

“Never be sorry” he squeezes your shoulder before leaning forward just a little, testing the waters and when you don’t pull back he moves closer, letting your noses brush then your lips…

Knock

Knock

Knock

You both jolted at the sudden noise and scrambled to your feet, yourself a little flustered by your almost kiss while Sirius could have laughed at his luck

“You go get the cutlery and plates, I’ll open the door” he tells you with a smile and as he watches you quickly walk off he sighs before getting ready to open the door “One time they fuckin knock” 

Thank you for reading 💛

[redrobin-detective]

clouds between their knees

‘Robin, anything on your end?’ Batman asked over the comm. There’d been rumors of a gang meeting tonight with multiple possible locations. Bats took the most likely one while Robin, Batgirl and Spoiler were checking out the others. Cass and Steph’s leads were busts so Kon was prepared to take a peek before grappling to B’s location. And if his grapple was a little loose and he was going a little too fast, well who could tell otherwise?

“Not yet,” Kon grunted quietly as he shimmied quickly in through the broken window and down into the warehouse. “It’s dark in here so I’m not expecting much but I’ll check just to be sure.” It would be quicker to fly or just bust down the whole wall but Batman taught him better than that over the last three years. Besides, it wasn’t just his legacy he was messing with. Unlike when he was Superboy, he was part of something bigger and had people in his corner.

“Ok, I’m in,” he gracefully landed on the dusty floor and crept forward. He flipped up the lenses of his domino to do a quick Xray sweep and Bingo! Conner grinned when he took in the scene happening below him. “Jackpot B, I got the high beams up and there’s a hidden basement. I see Black Mask and, oh man, Red Hood is out in the open. We finally got him.”

‘Do not engage without me, I’m coming on your location now. 15 minutes,’ Batman said before signing off. Kon wanted to roll his eyes, his dad was so overprotective sometimes.

‘You better bring him in. As much as I love helping Oracle, I am So tired of house arrest,’ Tim grumbled over the line.

‘He’s made vocal threats against Robin, it was necessary,’ Batman grunted. Even if he wasn’t bulletproof, he wouldn’t let Tim go out with some maniac with Robin vendetta on the loose. Tim always groaned that Kon took Robin whenever there were dangerous missions as if he was secretly hoping to get maimed and killed. Sometimes it was a full time job keeping his big brother from self destructing. 

“I won’t engage B but it’s sealed up good so I can’t see or hear much. I’m gonna get into the vents and get more intel for when you arrive,” Kon said as he quickly cased the empty warehouse before finding a space just big enough for him to wedge into. He really hoped he didn’t inherit Clark’s big shoulders because this would be impossible if he were any bigger. It was already getting harder for him and Tim to share the Robin name and pretend they were the same person.

He lightened his weight a bit as he made his way through until he had a good view of the proceedings. Looks like they were arguing over the ‘green stuff’, ugh lame, couldn’t they just say money but something caught his attention.

“Hood looked up at me,” Kon whispered thoughtfully. As soon as Kon had come into the vent, Hood’s helmet had twitched ever so slightly in his direction. Kon didn’t like to brag but he was pretty good at what he did, it would be next to impossible for some hood to clock him that far away. “Could be a coincidence or he might had infrared or motion detectors in his helmet. If he’s been this hard to track down then we should treat him with caution, we don’t what kind of gear and intel he has.”

‘Oh nice to see we were able to train that muscle in your skull,’ Tim quipped as he snacked on something over the line.

“You’re just mad you can’t lift a cruise liner over your head, Boy Wimpy,” Kon bantered back even as he started slowly backing up.

‘Robin get out of there, now,’ Batman hushed as Red Hood leisurely stood up from the table and stretched suddenly, interrupting Black Mask mid sentence. Kon froze, worried about making any noise.

“This has been fun, Maskie but I’m afraid we’ll need to negotiate the terms of your unconditional surrender to me later,” Hood said lazily. His posture was casual but he was tense underneath. “We’ve got some visitors I’ve been meaning to talk to. So why don’t you put an egg in your shoe and fuck off,” he said before pulling a machine gun from underneath the table and began firing up at the vents.

‘Conner!’ He heard Tim and Bruce yell over the comms but Kon was too busy trying to get out as fast as he could. But the space was tight and currently being slammed full of bullets. Dozens of them bounced against his armor and skin and he thanked whoever would listen that he was out here instead of one of the others. He had almost retreated into the safer part of the vents when the whole thing collapsed on him.

He yelped and fell gracelessly onto the floor of the basement. Kon groaned for effect and pretended to curl up and nurse some injuries. He was really reaching inside his belt for smoke capsules and batarangs. Probably should leave some of the fake blood before he split, just to add to the illusion.

“Aw, the little birdie fell out of its nest,” Hood cooed, hefting the machine over one shoulder. “I thought I told you to scram, Sionis. If you’re not out of here in the next 30 seconds I’m putting holes in you, this one and I need to have a conversation.”

Kon heard the harried footsteps of Mask heading for the hills as Hood stomped forward, kicking away bits of the vent as he approached.

“I was hoping one of you brats would show tonight, especially you. I’ve almost got everything put in place so I’m finally ready to have some fun,” he said with a laugh in his voice as he slammed his boot into Kon’s gut. The boot was heavy, steel tipped and would probably have broken ribs but he didn’t really feel anything. Couldn’t say the same for Hood.

“Goddamn!” The crime lord shouted, jumping away and grabbing at his foot. “The hell is in your armor kid? How can you lug that heavy thing around?” Well Kon couldn’t always avoid getting shot so they had to make armor that was thicker, wouldn’t take damage so he could just pretend the bad guys missed. Plus he barely felt the extra weight even though it was heavier than B’s suit. “Guess I should be glad ole Brucie is taking better care of birds this time around.”

Thomas Conner Wayne tensed on the ground, his plans of escaping lost for a second. How could Hood possibly know that name? What was Kon gonna do about it?

“I’m gonna give you a present, Replacement,” Hood spat out. “A lot better than I got. I’m gonna beat the hell out of you, within an inch of your miserable, little life and then I’m gonna set the timer to blow this warehouse. I’ll give you a chance, won’t tie you up or stop you,” he leaned down close to Kon’s face, “I just wanna see if Bats really upgraded, if you’re better than the last one.” He straightened out.

“And don’t think Daddy Bat Wings is gonna come save your sorry ass, I know he was down by the docks. I made him think the meeting would be there so my crew is gonna divert him juuuust long enough for me to do what I need to. So,” there was a scraping sound, something dragging across the floor. “Shall we begin?”

Kon dove out of the way of what looked like a crowbar and crouched to his feet. He was still pretending to be injured but he needed to get out of here. Of course Hood couldn’t actually hurt him but it wouldn’t do for him to know that. They danced and dodged for a minute or two, but Hood was Good with a capital G. Kon was throwing all his skills and tools into trying to take the gangster down but it really was hard to avoid the vicious onslaught. The man got in a few hits every once in a while and Kon tried to react but he knew it wasn’t good enough and the man was suspicious.

“The hell is Bruce feeding you? Why won’t you stay down you little punk?” Hood yelled, whipping Kon hard across the face with the crowbar. He stumbled back against the table where a small box had been sitting. It knocked onto the floor and exposed something inside. Something green. Immediately, Kon’s knees buckled.

“Shit,” he groaned quietly to himself as he tried to inch away from the deadly rock but it was sapping all his energy. He’d only been exposed to Kryptonite once, at the Fortress because Bruce had insisted he knew what it felt like. But he was such a dad he only made Conner suffer a minute before he closed the box and took him home to Alfred for cookies. He didn’t think that’s how this story would end. He gagged as his stomach rolled and his lungs seized and if he could just move a little further away... Hood just stood there watching in stunned disbelief.

“Are you shitting me?” He asked quietly, stalking forward with surprising softness. Hood moved so much like a Bat, it was unnerving. “I brought that to prove to Mask that I really had stolen his shipment but it led me to an even bigger score.” He scooted the box closer to Kon who finally collapsed from the strain. “Now how did he get his hands on you, I wonder?”

“I’m sorry,” Kon whispered but he wasn’t talking to Hood, he was talking into the comm still plugged into his ear. “I’m sorry, I love you guys.”

“Get away from my brother!” Like some kind of angel, Kon’s blurry vision saw someone drop down from the hole in the vents and slam into Hood. He grabbed the box containing the Kryptonite and slammed it shut. Kon felt like he could breathe again. “Robin, get up. B’s delayed but I got a car outside.” It was Tim, hastily dressed in his Robin uniform and looking more mad than Kon had ever seen him.

“There’s two of you?” Hood cackled, swinging his crowbar. “Oh that’s rich, are you twins? Tell me, did he steal you from the Flashes or the Atom perhaps? you’re certainly small enough. Bad enough he replaced me once but twice over? That’s just cruel, Dad.”

“Robin, I said, get up!” Tim yelled, swinging his staff which Hood dodged. They didn’t work together often since they were playing the same role but Tim’s fighting prowess always left him in awe. And furious like he was now, he was doing a number to Hood. With the box shut, more of Kon’s strength returned until he was able to stagger to his feet. Tim was holding his own but, as Kon had discovered, the Red Hood was beast. He couldn’t do much as Tim was tossed around and slammed into the wall. His skin bruised, he bled as Hood got a knife against his throat with one hand while he unclipped his helmet with the other.

Conner had never given much thought to Jason Todd. No one really talked about him, only Tim when they snuck into each other’s rooms for sleepovers. From the way Tim described him with starry eyes, Jason had been bold but kind, sensitive and intelligent. The man before them was nothing like that, his pale face flushed with anger and his green eyes positively glowing with hate.

“Look at this,” He said gesturing to his knife covered in Tim’s blood. “You’re just as human as I am but we don’t matter, do we? We’re just pawns in his game, pawns he’ll sacrifice if he thinks it’ll give an advantage to his precious mission. That lug over there? He’s not just a pawn, he’s a knight. When B’s chewed up and spit out the rest of us, at least he’ll have his Kryptonian lapdog to keep the legacy going. I suggest you ditch the tights before you end up in the grave next to mine.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Kon hissed, bodyslamming into Hood to get him away from Tim. He ripped the knife out of his hands and threw him roughly onto the table in the middle of the room. He laid there, not moving and Kon didn’t care right now if he was dead or not. He needed to get Tim help. Tim grabbed onto the box, holding it shut while Kon grabbed his brother and flew them out of the basement and into the smoggy Gotham sky.

XxX

“Hey, you awake?” Tim groaned and turned to look at Kon. It wasn’t unusual to have his brother at his bedside in the medical portion of the Cave. It was weird to see him on the cot next to him with the sunlamp on him. His face was still pale with a sickly green tinge to it but he seemed okay.

“Ugh why does my mouth taste like plastic?” Tim gripped, wiping clumsily at his face.

“Alf had to sedate you, your throat needed stitches and you were pretty banged up everywhere else,” Kon frowned and turned to look up at the ceiling. “You shouldn’t have gotten hurt at all.”

“No one knew Hood would be there or that there was Kryptonite in Gotham. There was literally nothing you could have done,” Jason’s crazed face sprang to mind. “No one saw that one coming.”

“I’m not gonna go easy next time,” Kon growled. “He hurt you, he wanted to do some messed up torture thing and that could’ve been you and I don’t care that he used to be a Bat. As far as I’m concerned, he ain’t anymore.” 

“It’s not as easy as that,” Clark said, coming out of nowhere looking tired himself. He was still dressed in pajamas, Bruce must’ve called him in a panic. “How’re you boys holding up?”

“Been better,” Tim said at the same time as Kon. Tim snickered at Clark’s eyeroll. He should know better by now that they were a packaged deal. “How’s Bruce taking the revelation?”

“He sat here through your treatments but as soon as he heard you both were okay he buried himself in his work. I,” Clark paused. “I think he’ll need you again to get him through this, Tim. You saw how he was when Jason died. This won’t be pretty. Conner, we’d heard a large shipment of Kryptonite had been stolen but we didn’t think it had come through Gotham. We’ll be keeping tabs trying to track it down and out of enemy hands.”

“Appreciate that,” Kon groaned, “that sucked ass.”

“It might help to get out of the city for a bit,” Clark suggested cautiously and got Tim’s hackles up. “Bruce has the best sunlamps money can buy but it’s nothing like the real thing. Ma would love to take you for a week or two, to get your strength up. Or you could stay with Lois and I in Metropolis.”

“Thanks but my family is here and they need me,” Kon said shortly, rolling over to face away from Clark. Tim glared hard at the Super until he had the sense to back off.

“Right, of course, I’ll let you two rest and if you need me I’ll um...” He shuffled off, presumably to try and get B out of his own head. Tim huffed away his aggression.

Years ago, Clark hadn’t wanted the responsibility of taking Conner full time but now suddenly he was around all the time. He’d heard from B that Clark wasn’t happy with the current arrangement. He was upset that Kon was adopted while Tim was still living with his dad, that Kon took up Robin alongside Tim, upset that he hasn’t been Superboy in years and doesn’t use his powers while in costume. He’d had his chance to make a family, a legacy with Conner but now he was Tim’s brother and he’d open that Kryptonite box on the man if he tried to take Kon away.

“Kon-”

“I’m fine, Tim,” Conner said sharply. “Look, I’m not going anywhere especially not when all this is going down. I may be a Super in blood but I’m a Bat in every way that counts.” He turned and scooted over so they were face to face and whispered quietly so Clark couldn’t hear. “So how’re we gonna stop Jay before it tears Bruce apart?”

“I have some ideas,” Tim grinned. It ached that it had come to this, his idol rising from the grave to become a criminal. But Conner had become his brother over the days, months and years of training and school and stupid shenanigans. No one, not even Robin could come between them because they were Robin. Stronger together than they were alone. That’s what it meant to be a Bat. 

[asterjennifer]

Mystictober 2022 | Day 4 - Truth

Going out for coffee shouldn't have him think as deeply as it did.

At least he finds the courage to tell you what's going on inside his mind.

─────◇◇◇★◇◇◇─────

You didn't know what's working him up from the inside; yet it's definitely something in the depths of his heart. The way he looked around before sitting down across you from the table.

It's a random day in October; a random cafe you'd found while passing by the other day. It shouldn't have him fumble with his fingertips as it did at that particular moment. You're certain he noticed you realized how he's actually feeling. Which didn't seem to make it less difficult for the man wearing his minty colored hair.

The waitress delivered your coffee with a warm smile, although the decorations inside were all about the spooky month of the year. Pumpkins smiled at you when you entered the store, bats were glued to the windows and there's a puppet of a witch at the back of the wall. It looked nice.

But V barely noticed; instead he kept his eyes down at the ground which wasn't decorated at all. You couldn't put your finger on it, whether there must've been something bothering him the second you entered the cafe.

You sighed, stirring your coffee as you reached your limits by his uptight behavior. “Is there something bothering you?” His attention came back to you immediately.

He sighed softly, the way his shoulders fell without a sound leaving him. “No.. I just remembered something. It's nothing to worry about.”

Somehow you didn't quite believe him. Though he opened up the more time you spend together; this nasty tendency to hide away things for others' comfort still stuck with him like an illness. And although you're working together on both your issues, his seemed a lot harder to manage at times. You couldn't even blame him for that instant reaction.

However, you knew better. Therefore you reached out to place your hand over his; the temperature of him always a tad more cold than your own. “Tell me, please.” Was all you offered out loud.

And truly needed, anyway. V's blueish eyes widened as if this would be the first time you both had this kind of confrontation. The steam rose to your skin when he turned your hand in his; close to the cup of his coffee.

“I cannot hide anything from you, can I.” It's coming lighthearted and so you smiled in return. V nodded to himself before clearing his throat. “This cafe.. It's where I went with Rika after first meeting her.”

A surprise for sure, your shoulders straightened right away in alarming rate by the mentioning of her name. V only shurgged his as he scratched some of the uncomfortable tension off his cheek.

The way he spoke changed with a little more remorse hidden underneath “It's a little coincidence. But I would..” He stopped himself to breathe through. “I'd prefer going somewhere else afterwards.” You watched him shake his head.

Eyes avoiding you as he pulled away into his chair. “I apologize for bringing it up suddenly, I–” You interrupted him by hushing him.

“Hey, hey. It's okay!” You assured firmly. “Thank you for telling me. We absolutely can go somewhere else afterwards.” The care you stretched out was something he hesitated on.

Luckily he did return the hum, a relieved expression to find on his face and it made him look younger. “Okay.. Thank you, (N). You really are such a warm person. I'm very lucky to have you in my life.”

It shouldn't be a big deal; most people would brush off it without second thought about how much it took out of this man to be honest in his life. That he's doing it partly for your peace of mind's very kind, yet very familiar of him in an healthy way. You twirled your fingers with his over the table, looking at your coffee again.

Now that he mentioned it; you're uneasy in your chest as well. “It's not luck, V..” You giggled to kill tension, which succeeded. “It's called communication. And I'm happy you do this with me from now on.