#the bat kids love it (after doing a dna check)

[jackdaw-and-hattrick]

Dying at this idea I just had: People become convinced Danny is the love child of Bruce Wayne (known manwhore) and Harley Quinn, because

-he looks just like a young Bruce, if (somehow) marginally paler, but with Harley’s button nose and big eyes.

-Then there’s his big, Harleyesque personality with Bruce’s faith in humanity and both’s proclivity for taking action against what they see as wrong.

-He’s a gymnastics champion like Harley with real intelligence buried deep under layers of plain silliness, though much more capable sobering up when situationally appropriate.

-Dangerous big animals love them and they have no answers why

-Both Danny and Bruce have BDE (Big Dad Energy)

-(also both Danny and Harley are high key metas but everyone just doesn’t mention that)

Both Harley and Danny do everything in their power to feed the rumors (without saying anything directly, that would be cheating), including Harley egging Bruce on camera while shouting “pay up bitch!” And Danny taking up wearing one of Harley’s jackets.

[rapz-rites]

Demon Spawns

Damian Wayne x Powered!Fem!Reader

When your’s and Damians future kids come to the present

A/N: Inspired by @cipheress-to-k-pop version of this. Please give me some feedback, it’s always appreciated :3

Word Count: 2500+

Warnings: mentions of a miscarriage, was lightly proofread and revised

Future

-Honestly, it’s not Mar’i’s fault

-You needed someone to watch the twins as you and damian had to go away on a business trip for a few dayside hours hours and I

-Mar’i eagerly accepted

-Yes, she knew she wasn’t supposed to bring the twins to the cave but she didn’t think this would happen

-The worst she expected was that they broke on of Tim’s gadgets

-She didn’t expect them to accidentally send themselves to the future

-You were going to kill her

-Mar’i did the only thing she could think of at the moment, call her best friend, White Rabbit, aka Lian Harper, to help her get them back

Present

- You and Damian had been dating for a year already

-You really loved him

-After 3 years of knowing him and 2 months of dating, it was only a matter of time until you both found out about each other

-Damian being Robin didn’t entirely surprise you, it just made a lot of sense

-The constant disappearing, the odd phone calls, the weird excuses

-At least he wasn’t cheating (Damian would NEVER cheat)

-Growing up adopted you never knew your birth parents, just that they had to have been metas because you have powers

-You had powers like Kori and more, you even kind of looked like her

-People joked that you could have been her daughter before she came to Earth

-Those jokes make her uncomfortable

-You thought everything about her was interesting: she’s heir to the thrown on Tamaran, her sister sold her, she’s been married 4 other times, and even the fact that she 9 stomachs

-Today was a normal day at the Manor

-Everyone was just chilling in the BatCave

-Bruce and Tim were working on a case on the BatComputer

-To you, everything in the BatCave started with a ‘Bat’

-BatKeys

-BatSeat

-Your secret name for Alfred was Batler (Bat + Butler )

-Dick and Kori we flirting talking by the weapons

-And you were watching Damian train with Jason

-Watching Damian train was one of your favorite pastimes whenever you were in the cave

-Suddenly a bright light purple light flashed in the middle of the cave, right between Damian and Jason as they were jumping to attack each other,

-The light startled them, causing then the jump back

-All the heroes prepared themselves in a fighting stance

-Next thing everyone knew, two small babies, a girl and boy, were in the middle of the cave

-They looked like they could be twins, but you couldn’t say for certain from where you were standing

- Everyone was surprised, two random babies just appeared out of nowhere

-“Aye, Big Bat. Bet you don’t have a protocol for this, do ya?” Jason says trying to break the silence

-The two babies looked around confused

-They couldn’t be older than a 9 months

-Last they checked they were with Mar’i in the BatCave, now they were in the BatCave with strangers they didn’t recognize

-BOOM, waterworks

-“I’ll go and get Alfred” Tim said dashing up the stairs

-Everyone knew he was probably the least qualified to deal with children, mainly because he’s always sleep deprived

-Naturally the two most recent parents went and scooped one up

-“How did they get here?” Dick asked rocking the girl in his arms

-They both calmed down a bit looking at the person holding them and back at each other and back at the adult

-They stopped crying, but were still fussing

-“While they’re like this let’s get saliva for a DNA test to find out who their parents are”

-Bruce took two swabs and collected saliva from each of the babies

-After, Dick and Kori passed the babies around to see if anyone could calm them down

-It wasn’t until Bruce handed you the little boy that he stopped crying, cooing in your arms and little hands reaching for your face

-Jason stopped, looked at Damian, and questioned if it would be the best idea to hand a baby to him

-“Is handing Damian a crying baby the best idea?”

-“Probably not, but it’s the only idea we have” Dick responded

-Handing the baby girl to Damian, she looked at him and stopped fussing, smiling at the face in front of her

-“Never thought I’d see the day” Jason chuckled

-“What do you think their names are?” Kori asked gaining everyone’s attention

-“How about we get in a circle, go in a circle calling out random names and see who they go to” you spoke

-Everyone nodded and hummed in agreement

-You and Damian placed the babies on the floor jointing everyone else in the circle

-Before you could call the first name, a voice interrupted you

-“After this game, I believe you will be needed these”

-The voice belonging to none other than Alfred said

-Tim decided to join the circle at that point

-“Thank you” you called out

-Alfred gave you a small smile and nod before heading up the stairs

-You all started with your little game ‘Name the Babe’

-“Makayla”

-“Isaiah”

-“Nick”

-“Elizabeth”

-After 5 minutes of calling names and receiving no reaction from the babies, a ding

-It was from the BatComputer, signaling the results from the DNA test

-Dick and Kori

-Bruce opened the test and everyone had a face mixed with shock and confusion

-Under ‘FATHER’ was a picture of Damian

-”The Demon spawn had a spawn.”

-Under ‘MOTHER’ was a question mark and underneath it was ‘match not found’

-You turned to Damian with a look a shock, confusion, and… betrayal and one that said ‘please don’t tell me you cheated on me’

-Damian took a step towards you, and you took a step back

-You rushed up the stairs heading into the manor

-Damian rushed after you

-“This makes no sense. Damian has only ever been with anyone other than YN and Raven”

-“And he’s not the type for random hookups”

-Bruce checked the database and noticed he didn’t have yours or Ravens DNA in the system

-“Kori contact Raven and have her come to the BatCave”

-“Bart!” Tim shouted

-“What? Haven’t you been paying attention, Damian is the father not Bart” Jason retorted

-“I know that! But Bart’s from the future. Who says the babies can’t be too?”

-Back in the manor, Damian was looking all over for you

-Your car was still parked in front, so you were somewhere in the manor

-Fifteen minutes later Damian found you on his bed, facing the window, looking at the garden

-You’ve always loved how Damian’s room faced the garden

-He slowly walks towards you until he’s also on the bed

-“Beloved-”

-“I was pregnant”

-“What? When?”

-“Four months ago. I lost the baby early on, I didn’t even know until I went to the ER. I thought it was food poisoning from that Thai place I went to with Steph and Cass, but they told me I had a miscarriage. I was 3 weeks”

-“Why didn’t you tell me?”

-“I didn’t know how and I was somewhat relieved. I always told myself I’d wait until I was married to have kids. Also we can’t raise a kid now Dami. We’re only 21 and you work in a dangerous field.”

-You put your foreheads together, caressing his cheek with your hand

-Damian just wrapped his arms around you, pulling you down, forcing you to lay with him and you accepted his embrace

-“Todd messaged me”

-“What did he say”

-“Tim come to the conclusion that the babies most likely came from the future and father doesn’t have yours or Raven’s DNA is the system, Raven is on her way so they can run the test again”

-“And if they’re not mine”

-“Let’s not worry about that right now”

-After an hour of silence and Damian just holding you, you both make your way back to the BatCave hand in hand

-Raven, and even some League members, are now there too

-“Can I see the little ones” Diana asked with a smile on her face

-She has always had a soft spot for children

-“Careful. She just ate” Kori informed her, handing Baby Girl over

-While you and Damian were gone, Tim made the executive decision to call them Baby Girl and Baby Boy until the mother was determined

-“Awww, so precious”

-The Themyscrian rocking the small baby in her arms

-Baby Girl soon became fussy, most likely from Diana’s cuffs

-Diana handed the baby off to Raven

-It made sense

-We were here to see if you or Raven would be their mother (yk that motherly connection)

-Once Baby Girl was in Ravens arms she quickly calmed down, almost as quickly as she did with Damian

-You didn’t show it, but you felt a pang in your heart

-Damian just squeezed your hand lightly but you couldn’t take your eyes off Raven and Baby Girl

-Bruce spoke up, breaking you out of your trance

-“I need both of you to get a good saliva swab”

-You and Raven both did as told

-“Here. My arms are getting numb” Dick says handing Baby Boy to you

-You smile at the tiny human in your arms

-After 10 of waiting, a BatComputer dinged

-Bruce went to open the results

-Damian standing right behind him, and you and Raven on each side of him

-On the screen where a picture of the babies

-When did they take that picture?

-The babies were at the bottom middle and above them was the same picture of Damian as earlier and under ‘MOTHER’ was a picture of…

-You

-WAIT! How did they get that picture?

-You were too happy to question that

-“Happy to say that Baby Girl and Baby Boy are Y/N’s and Damian’s ”

-“Thank Azarath”

-You laughed at Raven, she pulls you into a hug

-“These babies are so adorable but I don’t think I’m cut out to be a mother. I’ll gladly babysit though”

-“Wait. You guys have been calling them Baby Girl and Baby Boy?”

-No one other than Wally West would ask that question

-“Come one. You can think of something better to call them”

-Before you could say something, Damian stepped in

-“Actually we already know their names”

-You smiled

-You handed Baby Boy to Damian

-“This is Soren Jackson Wayne”

-“Jackson after Drake”

-You walked over to Raven, who was holding a sleeping Baby Girl, and picked her up

-“And my gorgeous daughter. You are Jaylena Mariah Wayne. Jaylena inspired after Jason but means blue crested bird aka Nightwing. For that time you both saved me”

-You and Damian make eye contact not breaking it even when the others spoke

-Dick and Jason both smiled

-Jason punched Roy’s side

-”See that. Demon spawn named his spawn after me”

-“Don’t worry father we plan on naming the next ones after your mother and father”

-You looked away quickly,

-Bruce had a shocked look on his face

-“There’s going to be more?!”

-Jason could already see it: A demon army

-Suddenly another bright light flashed in the middle of the BatCave

-Everyone but you and Damian had a fight stance ready

-Bruce and Dick stood in front of you and Damian

-Two people now stood in the middle of the BatCave, they looked like vigilantes

-One was dressed in all white, with a matching white masked with bunny ears falling along her wavy ginger hair

-The other, well anyone could tell who she was

-Mar’i Grayson

-“Hi mom. Hi daddy”

-The girl in all white removed her mask as she walked towards Roy giving him a big hug

-“Hi dad”

-It was obvious to say that Dick, Kori, and Roy were baffled

-It wasn’t even a few hours ago they saw their daughters in the care of Barry and Iris, playing along with the other superhero kids

-Now they were teenagers, vigilantes at that too

-Mar’I was walking towards you with a pleading look

-“Sis”

-Sis?

-Mar’I never called you sis

-She always called you this funny tamaranean name she heard from Kori, it’s supposed to be a pretty flower but dangerous or something

-“I am so so so so so sorryyyyy. I know you told me not to bring them to the BatCave by myself but it was only for a minute to get something. I didn’t think they would get sent to the past. I put Sor and Lena down for a second then boom they’re gone. Please don’t kill me”

-She turns to Kori and Dick

-“Please don’t ground me”

-You step towards her

-“I can tell you didn’t want this to happen and I know my future self will probably get on you for this. So just please, please get my babies home safely”

-Mar’i nodded eagerly as you handed her Jaylena

-“I promise. I really don't want to be on the LoA’s bad side” she chuckles

-Damian looked slightly confused at the remark

-He gave Soren to Lian, staring her down with a look that says ‘drop or hurt my son, I’ll hurt you’

-“Daaaaddd”

-“Stop scaring my daughter Damian”

-“Tt”

-“Anyways… Congrats on your…nevermind” Mar’i stops when she noticed your promise ring that Damian gave you

-Soren looks at Mar’i, reaching for her but found it no use when Lian wouldn’t let him

-He looked upset

-As he started fussing a blue power orb slowly started to form about a foot above him

-Thinking of only your kids safety, you quickly absorbed the energy

-“Our kids have powers?” Damian asked in shock

-Naturally you were in shock too

-You barely knew the full extent of your powers compared to other metas your age, and now at least one of your kids will have them too

-“At the moment only Soren does. He uhm… does that sometimes. So far it only happens when he’s mad or extremely fussy.”

-Lian’s watch starts beeping

-Before she can even open her mouth Mar’i talks

-“We really have to go now”

-Damian walks up next to you, placing a hand on your waist

-“Bye Uncle D. Bye bye sis”

-Again with the sis?

-You and Damian give a small wave goodbye

-Just like that, with a flash, they’re gone

-Everyone goes their respective ways

-Tears start to well in your eyes when it’s just you and Damian in the BatCave

-“Let’s go to bed, Beloved. It’s been a long day”

-You follow him to his room and you both go to sleep

-That night you dream about your future with Damian, Jaylena, and Soren

Back to the Future(hehehe see what i did there)

-“Great! They’re still sleeping. We can get them to bed before Y/N and Damian get home”

-Mar’i was ready for this day to be over

-She knew she would get hell from you and Damian for what happened

-“Oh. We’re home. What happened?”

-Hearing your voice, Lian took that as her que to hand Soren over to Damian and hop out

-Mar’i turns around to see you and Damian dropped head to toe in LoA attire

-“Uncle D. Sis. Back already?”

-Damian walks over to Mar’i also taking Jaylena in his arms

-He walks over to you, with both twins in his arms, placing a kiss on your temple

-“I’ll put them to bed while you deal with Mar’i”

-With that Damián walks up the stairs into the manor

-“Before you blow a fuse, I know I shouldn’t have brought the twins to the Cave but I had no choice. I couldn’t leave them upstairs by themselves. As soon as they flashed to the past I immediately got help to go get them. And I almost ruined your proposal surprise but i didn’t so that’s something. I promise this will never ever EVER happen again”

-“Go home”

-“What?”

-“Go home. It’s late and we’re all tired. We’ll talk tomorrow”

-“Oh ok”

-You retire to yours and Damian’s shared bedroom as Mar’i leaves

-“What did you tell her”

-“To go home and we’ll talk tomorrow. You know she almost ruined your proposal”

-“Not surprised”

-You slip into bed, cuddling up next to Damian, head on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around your waist

-You bring your left hand up admiring your engagement and wedding rings

-“It was a great proposal”

-“Damn right it was”

-You chuckled

-You look up at a sleeping Damian, admiring the man he grew to be

-Physically he’s always been attractive, but he grew mentally and emotionally

-He wasn’t the same boy who entered the manor when he was 10, emotionally and mentally detached from everyone, doors and windows shut to everyone, stubborn as a mule

- Actually, Damian will always be stubborn

- You both grew to care deeply for each other

… after writing for about 15-20 minutes I decided I wanted to make a part 2 but of the proposal…😚

I kinda want to make another version, the kid is like a teen. Should I???

Should I write why Mar’i called the reader ‘sis’?? Wouldnt y’all like to know? Do you have any ideas?

[dazii-kons]

reverse dc au but its not robins

You read that right! Let me introduce you to the most random, nonsensical swap AU,Despite the title, the Robins are in it, but they aren't the main focus.

.....Well, I guess Damian is a pretty big part of it, BUT here he was never a Robin, so I stand by my point.

Shadow Damian and Hopeflare Jon, partners in "crime" since they were Veil and Superboy, are on a mission to take down the last CADMUS base that’s left. Surprisingly, it actually is the only existing one (sorry, Match fans—he's not going to show up for a loooooong while).

They arrive to find a bloody mess and a broken environment. There’s no heartbeat, no sound of breathing, nothing any living person would make...except the sound of dripping blood.

Checking all the rooms, Damian finds the one where all the bodies seemed to have been escaping from, and inside, he finds... a mini version of his best friend???except he has curly hair styled in an undercut,his skin is tan and he's wearing a bloody hospital gown.

Thus comes Subject 13, aka Project Cm.Kh/S>sb(a metaphor for a CADMUS-made Kryptonian hybrid of Superman’s son beta), a clone of well ,Superman’s son made with the DNA of Hopeflare, Lex Luthor (who has a bit of techno-meta DNA from his mother), and an unknown human donor (Lois Lane), whose aging process has been stopped by an explosion. He’s stuck in the body of an 11-year-old, a skinny and fragile little boy with knowledge many historians could never dream of. And as a bonus, he comes with a stack of new, unknown powers—so fun!

Short story long, he gets out very quickly with no trouble,as if he wasnt fighting two jl leveled heros and uses the weird pink telekinesis like power (ttk) to make the building collapse. Oh, and also, he hates Jon and somehow knows Shadow's secret identity by just looking at him-not even his face ,that's masked, so it would still be weird, but not as much—but at his chest, more specifically the dark little “s” crossed by an “h” (which is Shadow's symbol).

The mini Jon, as they decided to call him, vanishes from existence for almost six months, making Damian almost convince his partner to stop looking because he’s ruining himself.

In this time, Kon—still choosing a last name—is having the nicest time of his life in the house of Tim Drake-Wayne (age 11) and two of his friends: Stephanie Brown (age 17) and Bernard Dowd (age 10).

Stephanie was kicked out for her addiction by her hero father. Still struggling with it, she was in a situationship with a villain whose name is unknown, but she has moved on from that, Currently, she is two months pregnant, and after a long talk with Tim (who's shockingly smart for a kid), she decided to keep the baby because, screw it, she /Tim/ has the money and enough time to give them a good life. She moved in with Tim because his parents wouldn’t notice anyway, considering they let an 11-year-old have an apartment and live alone. (Jack and Janet are neglectful, but they do love Tim and aren’t fanon.)

Bernard, who was found by Stephanie beaten to a bloody pulp and about to be sacrificed to some vultures, was practically forced to come live with them after Stephanie had one conversation with his parents and her 'soon-to-be-mom''fuck you bitch'' instincts kicked in.

They decided on the name Kon purely because Tim found footage of OG Superman calling that his cousin, Supergirl. That, and since it was the only Kryptonian word that sounded somewhat decent that was found in media, they went with it.

Tim is the protégé of Batman, the second Veil, and rarely goes out on missions since the big bat thinks he’s too young (as if Damian wasn’t 7 when he became Veil),But he still does, sometimes Catwoman and her own kitten, stray, join him

Stephanie is Lilac Arrow (currently looking for a new name, feeling like it’s too close to her father's, and she doesn’t admit it to him—not anymore) and is an ex-Speedy, an active vigilante since she plans to take a longer break of six months until the baby is at least two.

So Kon is finding himself with his friends, learning how to be a person with rights and a life to live.

The whole fic is just consumed by these three being besties as they get older, maybe with a sprinkle of TimBert childhood sweethearts, nonbinary Kon, Stephanie getting to raise her son, and Jon going batshitt about finding his little something that’s for sure related to him while Damian is just done.

Flaline is also there as Damian's emotional support, promising to kick Jon’s ass to take care of himself when he can’t. i prob make more of this au with other characters or of this exact scenario but idk,tell me what you think

[the-sky-queen]

Aha! Shadouge babies time! I made my favorite ship some fan children and it's finally time to post them. The picture quality wasn't that good so I tried to adjust the filter. Didn't really work out, but oh well.

Anyway, introducing the Robotnik kids! Ember, Spark, and Dawn!

Ember

- Age: 16

- Male

- Adopted

- A quiet, reserved, and socially awkward little dork. He will stare at you silently to get your attention because he’s too scared to interrupt whatever you’re doing.

- Definitely traumatized by GUN.

- Never wears gloves or shoes when he can get away with it.

- Ember was created by GUN in an attempt to make a perfect version of Project Shadow, one GUN could control completely and use as their personal weapon. Ember shares none of Shadow’s DNA and is a full hedgehog. He possesses Chaos Abilities and they are much more stable than Shadow’s powers, so he doesn’t need inhibitors. Ember was raised by GUN until he was roughly seven years old. At that point, he was discovered by Rouge and Shadow. After spending several months with him, they discovered the terrible way GUN treated Ember. Outraged, the couple took the organization to court. In the end, they won the battle and Ember’s custody. They adopted him into their family.

Spark

- Age: 6 and a half

- Male

- A bouncy, happy kid with a bit of a stubborn streak.

- He never keeps secrets and even if you don’t tell him, there’s a good chance he’ll hear anyway with his big bat ears.

- Has Chaos Abilities, and needs inhibitor rings to keep them in check.

- Shadow and Rouge thought they’d never have biological children. The last time they tried was before they adopted Ember and it . . . didn’t go so well. Needless to say, Spark was very much a surprise. He ended up being born early and needed to be put in the NICU. But after a week, Spark was ready to come home, thanks to the accelerated healing he inherited from Shadow. Ember was initially worried that Spark would replace him, as he was Shadow and Rouge’s biological firstborn. Luckily, he soon came to adore his little brother.

Dawn

- Age: 4

- Female

- A mischievous, cunning, smart little girl who gets into anything and everything. She loves shiny stuff, making things, and getting into her mama’s makeup.

- She’s drawn on the ceiling before.

- She’s in her ‘I can get myself dressed, and I don’t care if these clothes go together’ phase right now.

- She doesn’t have Chaos Abilities

- Shadow and Rouge were reluctant to test their luck again after Spark. But somehow, Dawn came along. There were no complications this time, and the Robotnik family was gifted with a happy, healthy baby girl. Spark loves to mess with her while Ember is a protective older brother.

[jayflrt]

Yoiiiiiiii! Great minds think alike😙

But I’ve actually been wanting to talk about this for a couple of days. I recently saw a YouTube Short that listed the most hated trainees in survival shows. Seon represented for I-Land, but K and Ni-ki were mentioned in the comments. A LOT. And I saw one comment that didn’t have any replies, so I couldn’t fact check it quite well (it’s been so long since I watched I-Land and I didn’t know if what EJ said has been outside of I-Land so—), but it made the comparison of Ni-ki being the most hated because of what he did to Taki and EJ because of what he did to Daniel. I was very scared that this is going to be true but like I said, I could not fact check it exactly. But now that I know that it’s true, I have very complicated feelings.

I started to watch I-Land a long time ago, after I became a fan of ENHYPEN, and I’m honestly so fucking glad I did. I don’t know if I would be as big of an ENGENE if I watched the show first. Ik that a big contributor of that would’ve been M Snake’s evil editing and that they were just desperate kids fighting a life or death situation, but I still have so much trouble separating the two.

I didn’t even finish the show. I can’t remember exactly to what point I stopped watching. An episode or two after the second part started?

This is why I… strongly disliked (?) K for a very long time. I could not, for the life of me, get over the DNA unit and how he treated Ni-ki (it was especially bad since Ni-ki was pretty much my bias and I had grown to really love him). So even when &TEAM debuted, I could not look at him the same way (mind you, I didn’t watch &AUDITION at the time either. But I did start to watch it maybe a couple of months ago but then I stopped watching it🙃). But then I did end up giving him a second chance (and it was really strange).

But now finding out what Euijoo did is really messing with me and now I can’t look at HIM the same way😩 And it sucks because I loved him a lot— I LOVE him a lot… idk.

It’s honestly so crazy how this talk started on your account while this was happening in my brain lol.

I’m sorry for the long ass message, but I’ve been DYING to talk about this. It’s fr been eating me up😭😭😭😭 ENHYPEN and &TEAM are like my top two groups but I really really really wish I was blissfully ignorant of what they did in I-Land🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

omg yeah :(( tbh riki had much different intentions and voted taki out because he felt like taki could improve first and then come back to iland, and he communicated that perfectly to taki too. so i don't get the riki hate for that reason because everyone had to vote four people out anyways and it's hard to gauge to be faced with something like that right off the bat 🥲 ej's intentions with voting daniel out were .. interesting LMFAOO but it was also a decision they were making as children who just were competing to debut so i guess he was looking out for himself :') sometimes u gotta put yourself first !! tbh the final 12 were all people who were very proactive about putting themselves out there and had the survival show mentality while still being able to bond and not see each other as threats, which is why i do think more trainees needed to be a lot more forward 😔

yeah im glad i watched the show after they debuted too !! mostly because of the voting stuff bc honestly i didn't know the members too well before i watched the show LOL so i was genuinely surprised when k didn't make it since he seemed to be a producer favorite for a while 😵‍💫 but yeah that whole thing between him and riki reeeeally put me off for dna and i think he got even worse for flicker unit :/ he redeemed himself a little later in that episode and from then on but im glad you like k now ! yeah it's probably way different seeing him in a fixed group where he's secure instead of on a survival show where he's fighting to debut 🥲 i think since he was oldest out of the final 12 it felt more bittersweet when he was eliminated 🚶‍♂️

i get why it bothers you !! but im sure for ej's case i don't think any of them took the voting to heart or anything :') daniel was still suuuper happy for ej once he got to go back to iland even though he was sent to ground !! and ej was hugging daniel when he made it into the final 12 so the voting is definitely dramatized to feel worse than it is

[butwhyduh]

Dead Clown 🤡

Jason todd x reader

Warning: smut, murder but it’s okay.

Jason pulled his helmet off and ignored the rain that poured down his face. He had to see this without a filter. He even considered taking off the domino mask but he was out in the open. The pouring freezing rain had him shivering but Jason was unaware. He literally couldn’t believe the sight before him.

The joker was laying in his back, the pasty skin on his forehead was marred by 2 small holes. The back of his stupid green hair looked almost black when mixed with blood. Blood and water mixed in a pink puddle around his head. Jason forced himself to check for a pulse before hitting his comms.

“Bats, you need to get down here,” he said in a shocked voice. “The joker is dead.”

“..... are you okay,” Bruce said in a measured voice.

“I’m fine. He was dead when I got here,” Jason added knowing he was number one suspect.

“On the way.”

Batman and Red Robin showed up shortly with Robin not far behind. It didn’t take long for the detectives to believe Jason’s innocence. The evidence didn’t match him.

Jason sat on a piece of concrete near the scene as they worked. He had hoped to see this for years now. But it wasn’t the same. Maybe it was because Jason didn’t get his revenge or because it looked too neat. Two quick shots to the brain. Probably didn’t even see it coming before he was lights out.

Bruce walked over to him as the other two took photos and bagged evidence. A little blood here. Some fabric fibers there. No fingerprints because of the heavy rain but a bullet casing.

“Did you see who shot him?”

“No B. I literally got here and he was already out. He was supposed to have a drug drop but I guess that didn’t happen,” Jason said with a shrug.

“You were going to fight him alone,”Bruce said with a raised brow.

“No. Just reconnaissance. I would have called it in,” Jason defended himself. Bruce gave him a side look before moving on to the case.

“Commissioner Gordon is on the way,” Tim said. He held bags of evidence carefully in his lanky fingers. “We’re finish collecting-“

“Can we go home, father? It’s freezing cold,” Damian interrupted. Bruce sighed before looking at him.

“Red Robin was talking but yes, you both should back to the cave to process everything. Red Hood, you too. The commissioner knows you have a history with the joker so it’s best you leave too. I’ll take care of this,” Bruce said carefully. Any wrong word might set Jason off with his trauma over the death of his murderer.

“Uh yeah, sure man,” Jason said clearly distracted. He would usually argue with everything Bruce said and this made Bruce even more worried for the young man. He sent a quick message to Dick before the commission met got there.

——————————

“We’re running the tests right now and there really isn’t much else to do. Robin already went to bed. Go home Hood and get some sleep,” Tim said by the computers. Jason hadn’t bothered to get out of his suit or shower.

“How long? How long until you get results?”

“Oh, uhhh maybe 12 hours? A while. Sorry DNA testing isn’t like in the movies. The meta or clone tests are even longer. It probably won’t be until tomorrow night that we know anything,” Tim said turning in his chair. “Get some sleep.”

Jason considered giving him a nasty comment but held it. He certainly felt dead on his feet and had a nice warm woman waiting at home for him.

“Call when you know anything,” he said with a growl.

“Yeesh, yeah. I will,” Tim said backing away. “Say it. Don’t spray it,” he muttered as Jason walked away.

———————————

Jason trudged into the apartment leaving wet clothing in his wake until he stumbled to bed in nothing but his boxer briefs. You were going to be mad at him for the mess in the morning but that could wait. He looked at you asleep on the bed. You looked so sweet and innocent. Like an angel compared to his dirty hands that practically dripped blood every night.

He slid under the blanket and pressed close to your warm form. You gasped awake before relaxing when you realized it was just Jason. Did you not realize he could kill you 84 different ways in your sleep? It didn’t really matter as you snuggled your head into the crook of his neck and slid your legs to entangle with his. Jason’s arms automatically wrapped around you and rubbed your back until your breathing was even in sleep. He stared at the ceiling until the hint of dusk could be seen outside.

Jason woke with a gasp followed by a moan as he felt perfect wet heat encompass his dick. He looked down to see the blankets move rhythmically as you slid your mouth along his dick. He blinked himself more awake to truly enjoy it.

It wasn’t the first time you had woken him as such but it was certainly a rare occurrence. Reserved for birthdays and Christmas, he couldn’t imagine what he did to deserve such a wonderful wake up.

“Fuck! Princess,” he groaned as you swirled before taking him deep. You hummed questionably.

“What did I, mmmm, do to deserve such a fuck! Perfect mouth. Perfect wake up,” he said pushing covers down to show you between his legs. You looked up at him with big innocent eyes as you licked long hot strips up his cock. You took him deep in your mouth before sliding off with a pop.

“I can’t spoil you?” You purred and he twitched. How did he get so lucky? “Do you want to finish in my mouth or can I ride you first?” You asked and he god honest choked on his spit.

“Baby, *cough* whatever you want, what. Ever. you want,” he said and you grinned before climbing up his body to straddle him. His hands ran along the side of your body before gripping your hips. You sunk down on him with a little mewl.

“Fuck Princess, you’re so wet. Do you like... do you like sucking my cock?” He asked breathlessly.

“Of course, Jaybird. Sometimes I touch myself when I blow you, like today,” you admitted with a sweet little giggle. He almost came right them. How could you say the dirtiest things while being the sweetest person he’d ever known?

Jason reached his thumb down to rub your clit as you moved. You whined before nodding at him. Your mouth fell open and your hips sped up. He knew that you weren’t going to last long. You really did get hot and bothered blowing him. You made little whined and whimpers before moaning his name loudly as you came. Your body clenching on him was enough and he thrust up into you as he came as well. You bent down and kissed him deeply. Jason was panting by the time you pulled back.

“Loved that for sure, but what the hell was that, Princess,” Jason asked breathlessly as you climbed off and threw on some clothing. You chuckled a little before tossing him his boxers.

“Just wanted to wake you up this morning. Do you want some pancakes, Jay,” you asked. He sat up and pulled them on.

“You certainly did. And I never say no to food. Especially my favorite food,” Jason said with a grin. “Is it secretly my birthday? Am I dying and you’re prepping me beforehand?”

You laughed. “You already did that, baby.”

Jason gasped a little before laughing.

“I just wanted to treat you like you deserve. Pick a movie. There’s a new slasher out that you can tear apart,” you said walking in the kitchen and grinned at Jason’s heart eye look he gave you.

He looked through the movies without paying them much mind. He’d seen the joker dead the day before and now his girlfriend was spoiling him. He didn’t know what to think about. He’d think about the joker finally being dead. He couldn’t hurt Jason or those near him any more. You’d been kidnapped 6 months earlier and it had almost ripped Jason apart when he found you bloody and beaten. Luckily alive though.

Then he thought about how sweet you were. A perfect angel who had nothing to do with that life. You couldn’t kill someone if you tried. He just wanted to keep you in an innocent bubble, especially after being kidnapped.

“Jay? Jason?” You said near him and he jumped. He had been so lost in thought that he didn’t notice you coming over to him with a plate of food. Heart shaped pancakes covered in whipped cream stared up at him and Jason had a little grin on his face.

“Sorry, thanks. This looks good,” he said and you grinned before sitting with your own. Jason turned on a movie and sat next to you to eat.

Jason’s phone rang.

He gave you an apologetic look before answering.

“Yeah,” he answered before quickly standing up to talk in another room. Definitely bat business, it sounded like. He came back in a few minutes putting on his suit. He bent and shoved most of a pancake in his mouth. Jason pulled you to your feet and swirled you around before holding you by the waist. You giggled.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I’ve got to work. But when I get back, I’m making up for this morning, okay? Breakfast was amazing,” he said before pulling you into a dizzying kiss. You nodded before he left.

——————————

Jason arrived at the cave and realized something was instantly wrong. Tim, Dick, Damian, Bruce, and even Alfred were waiting for him around the computers. He slowly walked up. They didn’t think he did it, did they? Jason looked around in case of a fight.

“I have some bad news,” Dick said. Jason just stared at him. Dick sighed. “We know who killed the joker. You won’t like it. You- you might want to sit down.”

Jason frowned at his tone. It was the tone you used when telling a kid their parents died. He looked at the computer to see surveillance footage of the roof where he found the joker. He clenched his fist as the mad man walked in the screen.

“You know, this is the worst meeting place in the world,” joker said with a laugh. Jason’s eyebrows rose. He hasn’t expected audio. “So what do you have that I might want on the birds?”

A female voice off camera could be heard saying, “peace of mind.”

“Doubt you could give me that Princess,” he said in a mocking tone. His posture was casual even though the lower half of a woman’s body had walked into the screen and she held a gun in hand pointed at him. She froze at his words.

Jason couldn’t look away if he wanted to.

“Yeah, I know,” joker said. “I forget faces. Too many changing and quite a few people are a little two faced,” he said with a laugh. “But I never forget a voice. You sounded so much more sweet when you were crying tied to a chair. And the way you sobbed when I brought out the crowbar.... music to my ears. I bet it just reminded you of a certain bird that just didn’t quite make it the first time.”

“Shut up. I- I don’t care,” she said. Jason’s heart was in his throat. He knew exactly who that was before Tim’s DNA tests were complete. She moved around a little nervously.

“Honey, Princess,” he said drawn out in a mock of Jason’s voice. “Unless you plan on using that gun, put it down and we can play a game. You like games? You play one with the red bat all the time. Does he know? Does he know that you’ve been hunting me for.... geez, since you were kidnapped I’d bet.”

“Now drop that gun and I show you what pain really feels like,” he growled and she shot him in the forehead before he moved. He made a disconnected sound before falling to his knee, perfect height to be seen in the camera. She shot him again between the eyes and he fell back silently. His body splashed on the rainy roof before blood began to pool behind his head. The woman looked for a second, her body language painfully stiff, before running out the way she came.

The cave was silent as Jason realized what he just saw. He blinked a few times before clearing his throat. Has she- did she-??

“I assume the DNA matches?” He asked and Tim nodded before sliding him a paper copy. 98% match. Only chance it wasn’t you was an evil twin or clone but no, he noticed the clothing and mannerisms. It was you.

“Are you going to bring her in?” Bruce asked quietly and Jason gaped.

“I sure as shit ain’t. She killed the man who kidnapped her and abused her. That sounds like self defense to me,” he defended. Dick looked at him in pity and Jason quickly looked away.

“It was premeditated, Jason,” Bruce reminded him.

“I know. I’ll take care of it. She’s not going to prison. I’ll talk to her,” he said. Bruce gave him a hard look. “You come near her- I swear to god, Bruce. I’ll shoot you myself.”

Jason got up to leave. Dick moved out of his way. He wasn’t getting in this.

“Jason,” Bruce said but Jason was already gone.

——————————

Jason was a pretty smart guy but he was completely shocked at this moment. What possessed you to kill the joker? To seek him out? A man that tried to kill you and you were willing to meet him alone? Not even Jason wanted to do that. And that morning you were treating Jason special. He thought for a second that you killed the joker for him. It chilled him to the bone but he put that thought out of his head. No, you had your own reasons to do it.

Jason walked in the apartment cautiously. Who knows how you would be acting, the perfect girlfriend or finally breaking down when you realized you killed a man. He found you in the bedroom asleep. You didn’t look like you had just killed someone and for a second Jason had doubt but the video and DNA didn’t lie.

He crawled in bed with you. You pulled him close and laid your head on his chest and Jason’s heart hurt. You looked fine but killing people left scars and your first time killing someone was not something you forget.

You woke with a gasp and cry hours later. You trembled and grasped at Jason tightly. He woke up confused before pulling you closer.

“Hey, Princess, I’m right here. You’re okay,” he said rubbing your back and holding you close. “What’s going on?”

“I see him. When I sleep. Every time,” you breathed almost in tears. Jason kissed your cheek and he felt wetness on your skin. You had been crying. He didn’t want to ask but now was as good a time as any.

“Princess, what did you do last night?” Jason asked so quietly. You looked up at him quickly and it confirmed everything he needed to know.

“Nothing. I was here. All night. Wh-why?” You asked, lying terribly. Jason sighed. He closed his eyes before willing himself to speak.

“You know I’m a detective. I can tell that you’re lying,” Jason started gently.

“What does that mean,” you said a little too quickly. Your breathing started to speed up again and Jason hated the look of fear on your face.

“I’m not mad. I won’t turn you in. Just tell me what happened,” he said softly, watching you intently. You wanted to shrink away a little.

“I can’t,” you whispered. Your eyes started to water and you blinked them away.

“Did you do it? Did you kill him? I can help you,” Jason said and you froze. “Talk to me.”

“I-I did,” you said looking at him in terror. Your eyes were red rimmed. “I did.”

“I’m sorry,” he said pulling you tight to his body. You broke down in little sobs and clung to him. “I’m so sorry that you thought you had to. I should have. I’m sorry.” He wrapped you up and made little shhh noises and you cried until you fell back asleep.

You woke up later with a pounding headache wrapped up tightly against Jason. He was on his phone but sat it down when he saw you were up.

“Hey,You don’t have to worry about it. I’ve taken care of everything,” he said ever so gently. You nodded.

“What does that mean?” You asked slowly.

“Red Hood took the wrap on it. No great loss with one less psycho in Gotham. Harley Quinn had an impromptu parade with hyenas and jugglers and everything. Nightwing made an appearance. Dick said Barbie slept through the night for the first time in months and she said she’d help you with anything you need,” Jason said trying to be positive. You gave him a dry smile.

“That’s nice. What about- what about Batman?” You asked.

“He’s Batman. But he’ll get over it. And the next time you kill a murderous clown, let me help. He could have killed you. And if anyone knows how to hide a body, it’s me,” Jason said giving you a squeezing hug. You smiled despite yourself.

“I’ll remember that. I’m a little sad I missed the hyena parade,” you admitted.

“Oh she’s having a parade every day this week. An anonymous donor gave her a ton of fireworks. Fairly certain it was Tim,” Jason said.

[creatureofmystry]

MLB x DC Universe Headcannons

I just love the idea of MLB and DC (expecially Batfam cuz Mari is such a Wayne) being in the same universe and crossing over. So one night, I just had an idea overload of different ways the Marinette would know the batfam/be a part of the DC universe. And if any of my shitty ideas somehow inspire or prompt you, then please be my guest. 😊 _

1) “Ladybugs of Past and Present”

Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s mother, was once a previous holder of the ladybug miraculous. When Fu activated the miraculous and put them in circulation, Hippolyta could feel its magic waking back up. Knowing there must a reason for it to be out, she sent a message to her daughter. Diana searched, finding Marinette and Adrien as the present holders of the ladybug and cat miraculous. She vouched and brought them into the Young Justice program while they also made their own team, Project: Zodiac (or something like that).

[Sometime when Diana takes Marinette to meet Hippolyta]

“Great Hera, Tikki, you have not aged a day” -Hippolyta, cause she does know how to make joke. 

“And I would say the same to you” -Tikki

“Mother, you can make a laugh?” -Wonder Woman, honestly a bit confused cause her mom have never not been serious before.

And Marinette is just speechless cause she’s starstruck meeting Wonder Woman’s mom AND a previous Ladybug holder.

_

2) “Rockstar Niece”

Jagged Stone is Marinette’s Sweet Uncle J. During the summers, Jagged Stone would take Mari with him on tour. HIs summer tours are throughout America, so Mari gets to sightsee the country. Jagged’s first tour that he gets to take Mari on (5-ish), he’s also booked for the annual (for whatever reason) Wayne Summer Gala. When Marinette meets the Waynes, they are so enamoured (Dick and Tim couldn’t help it) that they tell Jagged he’s always invited as a guest, Mari of course being added to the permanent guest list too. About 6 years later, Mari is practically adopted, spending the first half of her summers with Jagged, going to the Wayne Gala, then spending the rest of her summer with the Waynes. Overtime, she figured out the secrets of the family and was there to welcome Jason back from the dead (when that happens). Anyways, now 11(-ish?) Mari meets Damian and the two become good friends… after an… impressionable first meeting.

“Tch, let me guess, you’re another one of father’s adopted strays” -Dami

“YOU MUST BE DAMIAN!!! DICK TOLD ME ABOUT YOU!!” -Marinette, who just ignores what he said for a hug.

“hiiiiiiiiissssssss” -Dami, touchy with touch

“...” sprays water in his face since he decided to act like a cat.

“I say, Master Bruce, the children are getting along quite well” -Alfred

_

3) “Pen Pals” 

Jon Kent and Marinette Dupain-Cheng are part of an international pen-pal program, starting when they were very young (maybe like 4 or 5-ish, super super young) where they told each other everything (Jon can’t just say that his older bro is a clone made from Superman and Lex Luthor’s DNA, or that his dad is Superman, or that his best friend is Robin, but yea. Lois and Clark probably proofread his stuff until he’s like 9) with pictures and everything. When they’re old enough to get phones & stuff, they call, text and vid-chat along with their letters (love without blood). When Mari is maybe 9-11 (somewhere around there) she starts flying over during the summers to hangout with Jon (and his friends and big brother). While there, she meets Kon, Bat fam, and Clark (some who she already knew, some who she didn’t) & lightly hints that she knows who all they are once she figures it out (it didn’t take her long to do so). 

Now whenever she visits and is at Wayne Manor (Jon likes to have sleepovers practically every weekend) while they’re on patrol, Mari subtly messes with their minds (super subtle, they’re the world’s best detectives after all) until they finally look through the cams and see Mari giving them one of those smiles (those shit-grinning cause it’s just so hilarious how it’s gone on for so long) & and a playful wink. 

[5 seconds later]

“Mari!” “Pixie-pop!” “Angel!” “Teacup!”

“Seriously, am I the only one with a normal nickname for her?” -Tim

“Ms. Marinette would like to inform you that ‘it took you long enough’” -Alfred (who so knows that the girl has been playing them since the third night she stayed at the Wayne’s)

“Where are my adoption papers?” -Bruce (who is seriously adopting any talented black-haired child)

_

4) “Mari and Mar’i” 

When Mar’i is young, Dick and Kori take her with them to see Paris (btw, this would be during the winter). They’re strolling along through a park and lose track of Mar’i who finds Marinette (9-10 ish). Marinette comforts and distracts Mar’i while noticing the young(er) girl is Tameranian (her hair is very warm and she’s wearing significantly less layers than should be worn for a human of that age during the winter, plus that sun-kissed skin tone. She’s seen Kori in her fashion magazines (and, from time to time, on the news as an ambassador) so she easily make the connections). Dick and Kori finally spot Mar’i with Mari who introduces herself to them. Mar’i asks if she can see her “Auntinette” again and Marinette just goes “if your parents are okay with it.” Dick and Kori are totally cool with it (not many are willing to watch her and have the time to do it) so they ask Marinette if she can babysit Mar’i whenever (with good pay of course) if she’s up to it (cause she’s still pretty young). Marinette can’t say no to Mar’i’s babydoll eyes (and she’s so much easier compared to Manon, who’s only 2 rn), so of course, she says yes. 

Now Marinette is Mar’is official babysitter and sees Mar’i often whenever her parents drop her off (using zeta tubes to quickly get to Paris and back). Marinette gets treated like an honorary Wayne (cause she’s the most responsible) and gets invited to their family stuff (w/ travel pay taken care of, of course). It doesn’t take her long to realize the fact that she babysits Bruce Wayne’s & BATMAN’S granddaughter, but of course, being the responsible one she is, keeps the secret… while also playing with them via Mar’i.

[One Day]

After Marinette leaves for her plane…

“Uncle Dami!”

“Yes, Spawn?”

“Auntinette said to tell you after she left that Robin’s sut needs a major upgrade & that you look like a traffic light… whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

[Another Day]

“Uncle Jay!”

“What’s up kid?’

“Auntinette said that to let you know that Red Hood doesn’t make any sense ‘cause Red Hood wears a helmet. Not a hood.”

[The next time]

“Uncle Tim!”

Yawn. “yea?”

“Auntie told me to give you this” (pulls out super caffeinated coffee) “and that Red Robin’s cowl is a menace to all things fashion”

[Again…] 

“Daddy!”

“Yes, Starshine?”

“Auntienette said she’s proud of Nightwing’s costume ‘cause it’s one of the only in the batfam that isn’t an astro-city to the fashion society.”

_

5) “Marinette, the one who’s always getting chosen”

Before Mari became (becomes(?)) LB, she comes across a different powerful piece of jewelry, from a different order of guardians where her will of mind is not only her shield from being akumatized, but it is also what drives her powers. That’s right, Mari walks past a flea market and activates a GL ring. The guardians pick up on this activity and send Hal (it is his sector) to check it out. Hal finds the ring with Mari but it still needs the light of a GL to charge and fully work. 

[During the explanation]

“Look, kid-”

“Marinette.” 

“Look, kid, I just need to know why you have that ring.”

“You think I know? I was just walking through the market and all of a sudden, this possessed ring, if that’s even what this is, started following me, then zipped in front of my face til i held my hand up so it can put itself on my finger.” 

“Kid-”

“It’s MARINETTE. Get it wrong one more time and you’ll see why I don’t need a possessed piece of alien jewelry.” -Marinette, making sure you get her name right. “Besides, if I stole it, I would remember. I’m a klepto” -Marinette, probably holding his ring too at this point.

Hal obviously doesn’t want the wrath of the Dupain-Chengs (just the kid Marinette scares him enough), so he tells the guardians that JL will take care of most of Mari’s training (once they get her a lamp for her ring, of course) & has her take part in training at Mt. Justice with the Young Justice team and special training with the Bats. Mari does all this under the guise of an international student exchange program for Mari to stay with the Waynes (not yet knowing that it’s the bat fam) and attends G.A. Mari doesn’t do much, but it takes her 24-36 hours to know who EVERYONE is.

[the next week after settling in]

“Hey, Mars,” -Dick, in his Nightwing gear

“Hey, Di-is the GREATEST SHOW!” -Mari, changing the subject(… not really)

“How long did it take you?”

“Not as long as the Kryptonians…” -Mari, going off into a tangent (still trying to change the subject”

[When Marinette meets Tikki]

Back in Paris:

“Sooo… I’m getting powerful jewelry that gives me powers and a suit, needs to be recharged, and comes from some Order of the Guardians? What’s the difference between you and my ring?” -Marinette, who at this point is very confused as to why she keeps getting picked on for this kind of stuff. 

“One’s alien, one’s magic” -Tikki, hoping Mari will end it there & lowkey hates that the GL Corp. got to her first.

“They’re both non-human made energy sources” -Mari, cause once you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all before. 

“You can’t heal the Akuma without the miraculous, and there are more than just rings. Yours are earrings, there are hair clips, bracelets, necklaces and more” -Tikki, after having a minute to think

“Fine, only because you said they’re the only way to heal the, what was it again, akuma?”

_

6) “Their Unofficial Official Barista”

Part of Tim’s job as Co-CEO, is to make sure all the branches are running smoothly, sometimes that means he has to fly abroad to manually check in. Tim goes to Paris to check on the W.E. Paris branch. He goes to a nearby Patisserie (Tom and Sabine’s) to see a young Marinette (somewhere from 8-11) drawing in her sketchbook at the counter. She explains that her parents are at a catering event, but she’s there to man the little bakery. Tim asks for a super caffeinated coffee and Marinette makes it with ease, claiming it was on the house with how bad he looks (and how much sleep the man clearly needs). Tim begs for her knowledge and asks if she can teach his butler. Mari’s willing to show him the next time he comes, so he gets the whole fam to go (viz tubes so they don’t waste time) maybe a week later. Everyone gets their own drink (plus a free pastries) and Marinette teaches Alfred her coffee, but it’s just not the same so Tim, using the tubes, goes to get coffee from the girl whenever he can. 

Mari is horrible at getting up on time (the life of an insomniac, never getting to sleep even if you want and then barely waking up on time) that she is up super early, makes Tim his coffee (plus a croissant) and tries to go back to sleep (making her inevitably late). Tim would walk up to the pick-up counter where his cup and to-go bag is while Marinette runs out of the house to get to school. Eventually, the rest of the Batfam (as well as the Laegue, TT, and YJ) frequent the place, slowly becoming (Dami too) Mari hides it, but she knew all the batfam the first day they came and she showed Alfred how to make the coffee. When the others start making more regular appearances, she learns the identities of YJ team, WW, GLs, and others. Obviously when LB and CN appear as heroes with HM as their villain, they immediately reach out to help. Because 1. Batfam clearly notices that it’s Mari and they sure as heck won’t let her deal with that by herself, and 2. The JL is worrying too much about their favorite barista (even though she’s not really one), especially with the Gigantitan scare. So, of course LB & CN (can’t make him bad everytime) get inducted into YJ.

[After Ladybug finishes defeating Gigantitan and detransforms] 

“Bean! Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” -Tim, being an even more protective older brother than Dick, which shouldn’t be possible

“Yes, I promise. I’m fine” -Marinette, who just accepts the fact that she’s adopted an older brother (and his famliy)

“Tube over, we’ll have Alfred make sure” -Dick, already pulling out the medical supplies for Alfred.

“I-” 

“You shouldn’t worry your brothers like that, Marinette. Now come over so Alfred can clear you,” -Bruce, who just happens to overhear the conversation

“I’m sorry, Miss Marinette, they are very adamant that you’re in pitch perfect health before going out again,” -Alfred, who’s not actually sorry

“Fine” -Marinette, accepting her fate of her adopted, protective family. 

_

7) “Thicker Than the Blood We’ve Shed”

Why is Marinette so freakishly strong? Because she was trained to be. Before she could even talk, Mari was taught to be an assassin. She and Damian were frenemies, both competing for top spot as best in the League (of Assassins). They often spared together and became rivals who pushed each other (which sounds great in that context if you forget about the fact that they’re killing people and turning it into a competition). When Damian’s care is turned over to Batsy, Mari also comes along for the ride. She implements herself into Dami’s classes at G.A. & watches him from afar. (Damian, not being an idiot, of course knows all this and knows that it’s probably for Mari to give a report to Talia.) When he becomes Robin, Mari obviously knows, but waits to see if anything drastic would happen (his care was given to the Batfam, they had already expected this to happen.) She then heard word of the bounty Talia put on Damian’s head. Marinette knew there wouldn’t be much she could do to help, but she ave Dami a warning about the upcoming situation before fleeing the country. 

From there she got to France, changed her name (it wasn’t originally Marinette, it was Shénqí, chinese for miraculous/magical (or something else if you want)), was adopted by Tom & Sabine, and left her time in the League in the past. When she received Tikki, she didn’t want to be a hero because she didn’t think she deserved it after her up-bringing. Eventually, she did become LB (being a trained assassin does help with lucky charms, considering she was taught how to kill with basically every and anything), and life was good for her. Then Rossi came.

[Gotham field trip]

While at Wayne Tower…

“How idiotic are they?” -Damian, who after reuniting with his long-lost sister-from-a-different-mister (yes, Marinette was able to convince him to say it once), can’t understand the stupidity she has to deal with.

“Are you Robin?” -Mari, who is too tired, so just goes straight into the analogy

“Yes.” -Obvious and simply is.

“Exactly” -Mari, who can’t even put a limit to the amount of thought the one brain cell the class shares doesn’t use. I mean please, the so-called “reporter” believed that the first cosplayer she saw was the actual LB when they don’t even have the same hair! And let’s not forget the origins arc, where LB’s first citizen save was Chloe.

[jade-eclipse-lithium]

I’m Jade Eclipse Tokoyami. Big brother of the Tokoyami Siblings, which only includes me, Tokoyami Twin and Eri. We are blood-related.

Well Eri is our cousin but we raise her like our little sister. The DNA checks out.

My quirk is learning, as long as i know how exactly one’s quirk works i can use it as my own.

Thanks to this sudden change of DNA of mine, i helped a lot people that was hurt even died in the well-known timeline.

I have two forms like All Might do, but the other way around.

To go undercover and stay low, my hero mode is like a background character.

6 feet, black hoodie, nothing special in particular. I uses my quirk in secret like incidents magically solved by itself.

That’s called my hero mode, which i use the instant i step out of my own house.

I don’t use my real form to go out cuz it scares people and I becomes the joke of town.

3 metres, even more fangs showing, just the look that attracts many people.

There’s something I have in both forms.

White hair/fur/wings

Jade green eyes

Change of colours of eyes due to mood

Blind, mostly “see” like bats in the dark

In this au, everything’s going fine and we’re just goofing around, doing our work.

By also goofing around, i found ourselves a home, a family that loves unconditionally.

I’ll introduce us from the oldest. I assume everyone knows best about their quirks.

Tomie Takami

Oldest parent, the oldest sister in the parents

Our legal guardian

Realized her wrongs

Won’t hesitate to roast the living hell out of anyone even Endeavor

Always goes and try to be better about taking care of her kids

She’s the boss of our therapy centre for victims of crimes and such

I found her on the street when i was four

No. 10 Hero: Gentle Man

Danjuro Tobita, our oldest dad, second brother within our parents

Helped him when he failed trying to save a falling guy

Got praised as a hero

Taught him how to invest

Richz then buy house and took us in kindly

Has La Brava as wife and is a power couple with her

They’re my favourite platonic couple

No. 6 Hero: Stain

Chizome Akaguro, middle dad but smartest and most skilled

Found him training to be a serial killer in some abandoned factory

Realized everyone can be a true hero if they try after hitting his head

Best warrior babysitter

Could but wouldn’t kill the villains

His quirk is super convenient on capturing villains

He’s super cool like my religious Piccolo from Dragon Ball

Army Hero: Twice

Jin Bubaigawara, youngest dad, the most childish one in our parent

Overcome his trauma with our helps

Wants to help the villains to get their lives on track

Gets over emotional every time

Will beat you to death if you dare to hurt our family

Trying to make his clones more durable and is working

We all love our grey Deadpool dad

No. 3 Hero: Hawks

Keigo Takami, oldest brother but most childish

Spoils our not-grownup siblings

Very lazy

Wouldn’t pick up his sock

Shows and needs affections

Best father and son with Twice

I found him on the street when i was four x2

No. 5 Hero: Handy

Tenko Shimura, second oldest, sassy

Not afraid to kill a scum of the earth or two or more

Applies cream and chapsticks

Loves animals, specially dogs, has bunch of pets in the house, like many many pets

Has absolute control over his quirk

Except when his emotions lose control

I found him on the street when i was four x3

Lizard Hero: Spinner

Shuichi Iguchi, third oldest, more gamer than Handy

Inspired by Stain, cosplays him, followed him and lives with us

Sticks his tongue out like lizards

Learned how to drive in GTA

Has access to all weapons from Stain

Tries really hard and tries to be intimidating

He doesn’t look intimidating when he tries to

Jet-Black Hero: Eclipse

Jade Eclipse Tokoyami, eldest of the Tokoyami, fourth oldest but smartest and most skilled

Helps the ex-convicts to get their lives together even provides therapy session for the prisoners

Past serial killer, killed by the guy who talks through the radio and can put electricity waves into his voice

Doesn’t know what I’m doing 27/8 but stuff just sort out but everyone talks me off when i said that like “u know exactly what ur doing u brat”

Has god-like power but loves not using quirk to beat villains so people assumes his quirk is like All Might’s but way stronger

Trans 🏳️‍⚧️

I’m an alcoholic

Blood Thirsty Hero: Toga

Himiko Toga, oldest female in the siblings, lovable

Home-schooling

Loves affections from the older siblings

Loves caring for younger siblings

Have crushes pretty easily

Can definitely kill a guy

She deserves everything she wants

Pakour Hero: Pinocchio

Rody Soul, oldest of the Souls, cocky

Loves his siblings more than anything

Tries to be the adult but fails

Second-year at Ketsubutsu Academy High School in Ms Joke’s class

Has a pilot license, our dependable air support

Uses parkour as his advantage

I found him when i was scavenger hunting the Humanrise

Jet-Black Hero: Tsukuyomi

Fumikage Black Tokoyami, middle child of the Tokoyami, quiet

Watch out for the quiet ones

Knows about the Tokoyami’s background story and it’s not afraid to share it

Keeps his emotion positive to keep Dark Shadow in control

Was quirkless

Smart but not academically

Mah fluffy birdie

Dark Shadow Tokoyami

Same with Fumikage, playful

Actually a girl but sound like a boy and prefer he/it

Died but is conjoined with his twin, Fumikage, and became his quirk

Sounds a bit like electricity waves in his voice cuz he died by electricity and became a radio demon

Feed on Fumikage’s negative feelings and darkness, this also keeps Fumikage positive

Loves to eat flesh like how Eclipse ate their nine oldest siblings

Too bright for a creature in the dark

Roro Soul

The middle child of the Soul, smart

Smart for his age

Still trying to develop his quirk

Wants to be a hero to help people

Favourite hero is Mirko

Can ninjaflip a man

He is smarter than the twin

Eri Rewind Tokyami

The youngest of the Tokoyami, caring

Can control her quirk to heal, e.g. she healed All Might but not his quirk

Aims to be a healer hero in the future

Favourite hero is Recovery Girl

Always with Overhaul

Goes to visit various heroes with Overhaul

Our baby girl

Lala soul

Youngest of the Soul and youngest in the family, cheerful

Draws heroes and ask them to sign on them

Helps Handy with the pets more than anyone in the house

Still kindergarten

Loves dancing

Favourite hero, Present Mic

Our baby girl

I’m currently eighteen by the time the twin, who are 15, started their first year, by the time Rody start his second year.

I have a job in UA as a teacher assistant, technically a staff. I like the freedom in UA.

Also a bodyguard of our new teacher, if you know what I mean. If you know, you know.

I have started my own agency with Nine, Slice, Mummy and Chimera. By the time it reached October, it’s a year.

Many villains in the well-known timeline is good heroes out here, even the Liberations aren’t planning to start a war.

The biggest problem is what’s going to be our dinner, and it’s a every day question.

No need to worry about All For One and his nomus, they’re in prison before USJ.

Kids are training to be heroes in a kinda peaceful way, just enjoying their lives.

But of course there was some tragedies I wasn’t even exist by that time to prevent it from happening.

Like Kurogiri is still that smoke guy in here, but I raided in the Doctor’s place before the disaster of USJ

He returned to his past self and use the name “Kurogiri” as his hero name to make All For One feel stupid.

I could further explain what happened to specific one of them if you guys wanna know.

Enjoy this ridiculousness but kinda satisfaction from my blog!

Ps: This are real thing that have been said, even from the commission. I just hope they’ll fire me for this.

[thevindicativevordan]

You did one for Hulk (incredible btw). Got any thoughts on Spider-Man?

He used to be one of my favorites.

It's easy to see why Spidey took off as Marvel's premiere character, and competitor with Batman for the most popular superhero ever. If you'll indulge my DC bias, Spider-Man sits at the intersection between Superman and Batman. Like Superman, Spider-Man never knew his birth parents, and was instead adopted and raised by an elderly couple. Uncle Ben and Aunt May are the people Peter thinks of as his mom and dad, and it's their lives that help shape Peter. Both Superman and Spider-Man wear colorful red and blue costumes, both have iconic jobs working for newspapers with cantankerous bosses, and both have a lot of Jewish DNA in them because of their creators. Like Batman however, Spider-Man has a tragic parental figure's death to motivate him, he has a very poor reputation with the public, they both style themselves on animals, and both have strong roots in the cities they protect. That Peter's greatest foe, the Green Goblin, also stands at the intersection between Lex Luthor and the Joker makes for a great parallel. Add in that Spider-Man has the second best Rogues Gallery in comics, and it's clear Peter drew on the best attributes from his predecessors as a foundation.

What separates Peter from them though is that he was the first hero with real problems. Neither Superman or Batman had to worry about paying rent regularly like Peter did. Both stood apart from their peers by choice, while Peter wanted to make friends but wasn't able to do it. Krypton and the Waynes died through no fault of Supes or Bats, but Uncle Ben's death was something Peter was at fault for if indirectly. Then you had Gwen Stacy killed as a direct result of Peter's superhero career, introducing the idea of heroes who could fail. Spider-Man was pitched as the flawed hero, the human hero, the guy you could think of yourself as being if you got superpowers. You would screw up and make mistakes, but you'd try your best regardless. Of course the readers would be drawn to, and identify with him, and that's both the secret to his success and what keeps fucking him over. A lot of guys see Peter as their self-insert, so they keep trying to return to their youth through him which keeps derailing him as a character. My entry into Spider-Man fandom came during one of the brief lulls from Marvel trying to reset him to what they see as his "roots".

I remember seeing the Rami Spider-Man movies in the theater and being utterly entranced. I played the first Spider-Man movie tie-in game pretty religiously as a kid (fuck that level where you infiltrate OsCorp, those robots were insane), as well as other Spider-Man games such as Web of Shadows. Can still hear the theme song of the 90s animated Spider-Man show in my head, that show's versions of Green Goblin and Venom are still my favorite takes. All this is a rambling way of saying that "my" Spider-Man was formed during a period where Marvel seemed ok with Peter being more adult, something they've been trying to roll back ever since.

Peter was a college student in the 90s cartoon, the comics had him and MJ married (my first Spidey comic was vol. 1 of JMS' Amazing Spider-Man run, so Peter and MJ being married is the "default" for me), the video games were set in the Ramiverse so he was a college student there as well. It's such a weird era to look back on in retrospect given what's to come and what came before. Peter had problems and was flawed, but he was also so much more mature and thoughtful, intelligent in a way beyond just being a science whiz. He and MJ had a great dynamic as a couple under JMS. They were so clearly in love and also utterly unwilling to take each others shit that it was just a joy to read. That relationship really was something I dearly loved, and of course I took it poorly when Marvel broke the two of them up. Making it a plot where not!Satan comes down and takes their marriage away only rubbed salt in the wound.

Suddenly Peter was a lot more immature and stupid, and Marvel was insisting that this was "how he should be". Marvel was claiming that Spider-Man was all about youth, thus he needed to remain young and marriage free in order to work, which flew in the face of the character as I understood him. To me, Spidey was a character about the opposite, he was about growing up.

More than any other character in the MU, Peter was the guy who embodied character development. In his early years under Lee and Dikto, Peter was an asshole with a chip on his shoulder. Far from being the martyr figure everyone sees him as today, Peter initially just kept trying to make money with his powers. He was constantly moaning and bewailing his lot, because he was a fucking teenager! EVERY teenager treats ANY setback like it's the end of the world. Yet over a period of years, both in universe and out, Peter grew into the great hero everybody sees him as today. He became kinder, more charitable, and made friends with his peers. He acquired a steady stream of super hot girlfriends, ultimately marrying MJ. Peter married MJ before Clark Kent married Lois Lane, that's a huge freaking accomplishment! Totally makes sense that Peter would get married first because while Superman was more or less frozen in place like all DC heroes, Spider-Man was the one who embodied the Marvel trait of growth and change. The world kept throwing shit at him and Peter dealt with it as best he could, and that gave me hope because if he could overcome the forces arrayed against him to find some degree of happiness, so could I.

One More Day completely obliterated all of that. I didn't recognize this character anymore, I didn't care about the shallow relationships they teased him entering, relationships we all knew didn't matter. If Peter couldn't stay married to MJ, he wasn't going to last in a relationship with Carlie Cooper or any of the girls Slott set him up with. Peter being immature worked great when he was actually in high school and college, but Marvel wanted to write him as a high schooler without actually deaging him. The contrast between how he was characterized before and after OMD was just too jarring for me.

Ultimately I left for a while. I read Superior and Spider-Verse, but I was no longer religiously following Amazing Spider-Man any more. Checked out Ultimate Spider-Man which I had never read, and I enjoyed it, but I also held a grudge against it's success. Clearly this was the series that enshrined high school Spider-Man as the "ideal" status quo for a lot of people, and I couldn't help but blame the series for Quesada's successful torching of a more mature Peter Parker. I also read Spider-Girl which took place in an alternate continuity where Peter was still married and he had a daughter with MJ named Mayday. I loved that series a lot, and Mayday became my favorite Marvel superheroine. Eventually I came back to ASM with Spencer because a few of my fellows told me he reminded them of JMS, and I've enjoyed his characterization of Peter. Doubt the marriage will be coming back any time soon but it's nice to read a more adult Peter after how he was characterized under Slott.

Hard to say what the future holds for Peter. Tough to say for certain but with the end of high school Peter in the MCU approaching, it feels like we're on the edge of another shift in status quo for Spider-Man. May be that the creation of Miles is allowing Peter to finally start to mature again since Miles can be the corporate wet dream of an eternally young "diverse" Spidey. The insistence on putting Miles into more and more of Peter's stuff, with Peter mentoring him, makes me hope that Marvel is becoming more ok with Peter growing up. The Insomniac Spider-Man is a college graduate, he feels the closest in tone and character to the Spider-Man I grew up with under JMS and Rami. They even got to kill Aunt May off, something Marvel is still terrified to do in the comics, and the relationship between Peter and MJ is portrayed as crucial to both (as it should), even if MJ is a little too Lois Lane lite for my liking.

Hopefully Spider-Man can shake off Quesada's lingering influence and start being what he was created to be: the guy who moves forward rather than running in place.

[amoretheiwa]

Closet Conversation

Tim and Kon have had a thing going for a little while now--a friends-with-benefits kind of things. But Tim isn't sure he can't keep up the pretense of only friendly feelings towards Kon. So things start to come out... That's basically it.

Read on AO3

Read on Tumblr below the cut

Tim found himself hating Kon just a little bit when the Kryptonian finally pulled completely away and didn’t seem even nearly as out of breath as he was. Sweat made Tim’s face damp and he willed his arm not to swipe at his forehead, chest still heaving.

Kon grinned at him—teeth blindingly white and lips still swollen—as he began to reach for his costume pieces.

“I think I have a new favorite room here,” he said with a wink.

Tim pushed down the emotions—and arousal—that evoked and rolled his eyes.

“If every place we did anything like this in ended up as your favorite room, half the Tower would be your favorite.”

Kon raised and wagged his eyebrows.

“Exactly.”

Tim scoffed and turned around, searching for the discarded pieces of his uniform. In the midst of their little…tryst, the oddest things ended up in the oddest places. His boots were in opposite corners and his cape was stuck over the door handle.

“One of these days someone is going to need something in one of these closets and they’re going to find way more than they expected.”

Kon snorted.

“So what? Good for them.”

Tim tensed for a split second before going back to getting dressed. Their friends with benefits arrangement was mutually beneficial. Kon got out his insane amounts of pent-up sexual tension, Tim got stress relief and the added bonus of close proximity to his current crush/best friend. If he could even still call it a crush after the past few years.

Maybe it was the Bat-training, maybe it was his attempt at keeping feelings out of the whole thing, whatever the reason, Tim was finished getting dressed even as Kon was still looking for his top. Tim allowed himself to watch as his friend floated up to the top of a cabinet. His butt looked good at this angle. Tim felt his cheeks flush and turned around, crossing his arms. Robin tradition or not, he mused bitterly on the stories he had heard from Dick, messing around in random rooms in Titans Tower does not seem smart or safe.

“That was dumb,” he muttered under his breath, closing his eyes.

“What was?” Came Kon’s voice most definitely too loud and too close.

Tim whirled and glared at his…friend.

“This,” he gestured at them both, at the room. “This whole thing was and every time we have done it and probably every time we will do it. It’s a dumb thing with dumb perks.”

Kon furrowed his brows, blue eyes glinting.

“What’s dumb about it?”

Tim scoffed.

“Everything. It’s firstly unsanitary,” Kon outright laughed. Tim pursed his lips. “Secondly, it could end causing problems between teammates.”

Kon tilted his head.

“How so? Unless you don’t like my skills,” here the half-Kryptonian wiggled his  hips, “I don’t see any reason to stop.”

Tim felt his heart jump and his blood roil. Ignoring the fact that Kon could hear all the ways his body was betraying him if he was even bothering to pay attention, Tim continued. He turned around again, crossing his arms.

“Say you and Cassie get back together, or you meet someone else. It just would be problematic!”

Kon shrugged and pulled his shirt on. He went to tuck it in as Tim spoke again.

“That was dumb.”

“I know. I heard you the first three times.”

“Crazy dumb. Crazy, stupid sticking fingers into light sockets kind of dumb.”

Tim glared at the wall, not saying anything else. Before he knew what was happening, Kon was pinning him against the wall just as he had been before, only this time both his hands were above his head and Kon wasn’t touching him anywhere else.

“What’s so dumb about this, Tim?” He asked in a low, sultry voice. It wasn’t exactly the same as his sex voice, a little more serious and less out-of-breath, but still far from his hero's voice.

“Is there something that bothers you about this Tim, or is it something about me?”

Tim swallowed, his throat suddenly extremely dry. Even though they had just spent quite a bit of time in there, certain parts of his body were telling him they were more than willing and ready to go another round, maybe even two, with Kon.

“This isn’t a personal commentary on either of us, Superboy.”

Kon leaned in closer to Tim but still didn’t touch him anywhere else. The familiar tingling of his TTK wound its way up from his ankles to rest low on his hips, pushing him further into the wall. He attempted to swallow again.

“Isn’t it though? You don’t have any problems with Bart and Jaime, or Steph and Cass.”

Tim tensed and a good portion of his arousal went away.

“Because they’re all in a public, committed relationship. Any of the potential fall-outs are at least partially anticipated.”

Kon pulled back some.

“Really, Tim? You’re going to go full-on Bats on me like this?”

Tim resented the fact that even Kon called him out on his more Bruce-like qualities—it wasn’t like Jason and Dick weren’t enough. He grit his teeth and tried to pull his wrists free from Kon’s hands. The clone didn’t fight him but didn’t let him just slip away, either.

“This has nothing to do with being a Bat, and even if it did that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”

Kon floated back some, giving Tim some more space without really freeing him.

“No, you’re right,” Kon put a hand through his hair, “this has nothing to with being a Bat. This has everything to do with you and your repressed emotions. It might make you fit in with the rest of your crime-fighting clan but you didn’t inherit it from them.”

Tim contemplated slapping Kon right then and there. The only thing that stopped him was knowing that being the one to initiate physical contact would mean Kon had won in some sick twisted way.

“I’m no detective but I think there’s something else that makes you see this as dumb,” Kon said softly, almost gently.

Tim flinched and closed his eyes. He was by far not prepared for this change in tone. Fighting, he could do—it’s all he and Kon had ever done before they became friends. But emotions, pity? Hell no.

The silence in the closet was deafening, and if his heartbeat was even half as loud to Kon as it was to him he knew there was no point in hiding. They stood there for what felt like hours before he opened his eyes. Behind his mask, he felt a sense of anonymity rarely afforded to Timothy Drake-Wayne. But in front of Kon? Kon-el, Conner Kent, the clone of Superman himself and containing Lex Luthor’s DNA, was not stupid. Even if he liked to be underestimated as such. He knew it was a lost cause that he was going to have to either come up with a really good lie (even by his standards) or tell the truth, as heart-wrenching as it would end up being.

Tim was just about to open his mouth and say—he didn’t know what, but something—when their communicators went off.

“All Titans, come in. We’re needed ASAP!”

Kon pulled all the way back this time and sighed.

“We’ll finish this conversation later.”

Tim didn’t follow Kon out immediately, instead letting his head fall back against the wall.

If I have any say in the matter we won’t.

Tim had almost forgotten about the uncomfortable conversation that happened after his and Kon’s most recent…meeting. Almost. And God did he hate that he couldn’t bring himself to just calling it what it was—sex, ­unattached and as platonic as it can get sex. Fucking, banging if he wanted to be crude, but it wasn’t much more. No making love for Tim Drake. No, he is much too busy and sleep deprived as it is, let alone emotionally repressed as others had so kindly put it.

He would have completely forgotten about the fact that his best friend (are they even still best friends at this point? What were they supposed to be?) still wanted to talk if it wasn’t for said friend. Tim had hit the showers—finally—after their quick mission. A gangbanger that had gotten too big for his britches decided to dabble in Venom and wrecked a few city blocks by the time they were able to stop him.

While he pulled on some civvies, Tim winced. It was far from the worst battle he had ever been in (hello Ra’s al Ghul, Damian) but bruised ribs were bruised ribs. ­­­­A knock on his door had him tensing. His schedule did not allow him to spend much more time at Titans Tower. After all, he had business back in Gotham of both the suit-and-tie kind and the crime-fighting kind.

“Come in,” he called out. Whichever Titan it was hopefully wouldn’t take up too much of his time.

He heard his door open but knew immediately it wasn’t Bart or Cassie; both of them would have instantly been chattering about something or other. Tim knew in his gut it was Kon before he turned around.

“Do you need something?” He asked, voice cold in a manner he didn’t frequently use on friends and family, just barely keeping himself from crossing his arms.

Kon made sure the door was shut before walking over to Tim’s desk and sitting in his seat. The clone leaned back a tad, just enough that his t-shirt rode up his jeans some. Tim was suddenly very grateful for Kon’s fashion taste and the fact the high-waisted jeans covered skin that otherwise would have been visible and very distracting.

“Yeah, I do, but not right now. This is more of a…a prelude to talking about what you and I need.”

Tim made the split-second decision to not sit down but did finally give in and cross his arms.

“Fine. I don’t have much time so spit it out.”

He hoped that the minute shaking he could feel wasn’t noticeable, but who was Tim kidding? Even with half of Superman’s genes, this was still a superpowered Kryptonian. He leaned against his dresser, the distance exactly enough to not be awkwardly far away but not so close as to make the conversation too intimate, too personal.

Kon eyed Tim. It wasn’t a sensual checking out or aggressive sizing up, just a drawn out and unsubtle observation. Tim began to fidget, a tell and a nervous habit Dick and Bruce had yet to fully train out of him.

“Well?” He finally prompted, undeniably impatient.

Kon leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and hands clasped together.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you brought up earlier, man, and I want you to know that I wasn’t just being a jerk for no reason.”

Tim snorted.

“Like you’ve ever needed a reason to be a jerk.” Kon snapped his head up and glared at Tim.

Tim raised his hands in surrender, genuinely regretting the words.

“Sorry, I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. Continue.”

Kon pursed his lips for a beat before doing just that.

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I still stand by what I said earlier even if some of the…personal digs weren’t relevant. It’s a Bats thing to stay emotionally unattached and I’m not like that. I hate it, I actually really hate it. So even though we’ve got this friends-with-benefits thing going on you’re still one of my closest friends. Besides,” he leaned back again, grinning now, a glint in his eyes and the beginnings of a smirk around his mouth, “it’s not liked we don’t keep each other happy.”

Tim swallowed. His heart was racing but he also felt kind of faint. Instinctively the oblivious side of him wondered if he had maybe been poisoned but he knew instantly that that wasn’t the case.

“So you’re saying that you want to keep this up, nothing changing, even though I think it’s dumb?”

Kon groaned and closed his eyes, rubbing his hands over his face.

“I don’t know man. Ideally, there’d be more than just amazing sex in random rooms but since that’s all you’re gonna give that’s all I’m gonna take.”

“Fine b—wait, wait what?” Tim’s voice squeaked in a way it hadn’t in a few years. Kon’s eyebrows furrowed and his cheeks flushed slightly.

“Do you like me?”

Kon looked miffed at having been interrupted but shrugged.

“Yeah, man, I guess. We are friends after all.” Tim stood up and shook his head.

“No, no, you don’t understand. Do you like like-like me? Like, physically and emotionally attracted to me? As in don’t want to just fuck?”

Kon rolled his eyes.

“Well duh. Why do you think I broke it off with Cassie? I straight up seduced you dude, I just realized pretty quickly you weren’t into me on the same level. It’s cool though.”

“Why did you think I’m not into you? I thought it was obvious and you were just humoring me while getting all the benefits.”

Kon raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak but froze. He dropped his head back and started laughing.

“What’s so funny about this?” Tim said, speaking louder so that he could be heard over Kon’s laughter. Emotions were racing through him like a heard of horses but the most prominent one had rapidly become confusion.

“It’s, it’s just that this whole time I, I tho-thought,” Kon wheezed, “thought that you. I don’t know, I just didn’t think you were interested that way.”

Tim felt his jaw metaphorically drop.

“Are you kidding me? We could have been dating this whole time?”

Tim ran his fingers through his hair and gripped it, pacing. Kon stood up and smiled. He walked up to Tim who had begun muttering at light speed, and gently stopped him, holding his shoulders.

“Tim, hey, Rob,” he said softly.

Tim looked up at him and sighed. He bit his bottom lip, and Kon’s eyes flashed down toward his lips.

“Let’s let go of this whole mess and just start over, okay?”

Tim nodded vigorously. Kon grinned and leaned in, kissing him softly. When he pulled back, Tim seemed to be a little in shock.

“So, Robin, Tim Drake-Wayne, would you like to go on a date with me tonight?”

Tim pulled back a little and stared Kon down.

“As much as I want to say yes, I’m way too busy tonight. How about tomorrow? I can make time for a few hours if you can.”

Kon grinned and kissed Tim again, lingering this time.

“I can always make time for you, babe.”

“Babe?”

“Well, yeah, if we’re boyfriends then I reserve the right to call you babe.”

Tim couldn’t deny that he wasn’t getting flustered and flustered quickly.

“Alright, Kon,” Tim grinned, “it’s a date.”

[lostinfic]

Christmas Eve (stuck) in the Lab

Chapters 1-7/10ish

Summary: Dr. John Smith and Rose Tyler both work at the Natural History Museum in London, he as a scientist in the labs, and she as a salesgirl in the gift shop. They are only friends, but the upcoming staff Christmas party promises developments they’ve both been longing for. But John and Rose end up stuck with Martha, Donna and Jack in the laboratory, and shenanigans ensue: decontamination showers, cocktails in beakers, a game of truth-or-dare and a Secret Santa rigged by meddling friends.

Tags: mutual pining, friends to lovers, fluff with light angst, found family

Rating: Teen (for now)

@doctorroseprompts​

Many thanks to the lovely and generous @onthedriftinthetardis​ for the beta.

Ao3

❄ 

Prologue - May

Rose got off the bus in South Kensington and nearly ran into a passerby.

“Rose?”

“Shareen?” She barely recognized her old friend, she looked so grown-up with her cinched trench coat and laptop bag. “How are you?”

“I’m great. I’m on my way to university. Last exam of the semester, and then graduation.” She crossed her fingers with a hopeful smile.

“Wow. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. You?”

“Oh, I’ve a job interview.”

One look at Rose’s jeans and hoodie told Shareen the kind of job it might be.

Rose lowered her head and bunched her sleeves over her hands.

You were right about Jimmy, Rose wanted to say, I shouldn’t have chosen him over my friends.

“We should do something, sometime,” Shareen said, her smile conveyed pity rather than affection.

Rose nodded, though she knew it wouldn’t happen. They wished each other good luck and went in opposite directions.

As soon as she had her back to Shareen, she lost her smile. That could’ve been me too, she thought. She shook her head; nah, I wasn’t made for university.

Around the corner, the Natural History Museum loomed, cathedral-like, with its two towers framing the main hall and the large arch above the entrance. On the East and West wings, two storeys of Romanesque windows reflected the grey sky. Lions, bats, wolves and pterodactyls carved in stone looked down at her from their perches on the facade.

Rose avoided their stony glares.

She was interviewing to work in the gift shop, no reason to feel intimidated by this great institution.

She took a deep breath, then entered the Museum.

In Hintze hall, the skeleton of a blue whale hung from the ceiling, suspended mid-swim, gigantic yet tranquil. Underneath, groups of school children walked single file, bumping into each other, distracted by the grandiose hall. Clusters of visitors, map in hand, planned their visit and photographed each other.

Something about the echo of footsteps and chatter, and the way sunlight streamed through the glass roof took her right back to her childhood. Even then, she knew Jackie brought her here so often because it was free. They would spend hours here in winter, leaving the flat unheated to save on electricity. But she didn’t care, she loved it.

Tears pricked her eyes as she remembered how curious and full of wonder she used to be as a child. She longed to be that girl again.

Oh, but she really wanted to get this job now.

❄

Standing in a corner of the gift shop, Lilian, the manager, gave Rose’s resume a cursory look.

“Band manager? For three years?”

“Yes, I booked gigs in clubs, oversaw the budget of the tours, and managed the promotional merchandise.”

And did all the laundry and the cooking and the cleaning, turned a blind eye to his drugs and alcohol use, and believed him when he said the other girls didn’t mean anything to him. 

Three years of living for someone else’s dreams.

“Your last job was at Henrick’s. Only six months. Why did you stop working there?”

Rose mimed an explosion.

To be honest, she might have blown up the place herself if someone else hadn’t beat her to it. Bunch of snobs, they were.

“Oh, right.” Lilian laughed and placed a check mark on her form. “Now let’s see your customer service skills.”

Unbeknownst to Rose, the museum, a centuries-old, respected institution dedicated to science was home to one messy-haired, Converse-wearing, chaotic genius who loved a little shop.

“Oh no, not him,” Lilian said, but too late, Rose was already walking toward him with a big smile on.

“Hello—” she eyed the badge attached to the breast pocket of his lab coat— “Doctor. How may I help you today?”

He was scanning a display of rubber figurines. He grabbed two miniatures of prehistoric mammals.

“They’re two for one,” she tried.

“What was the smilodon doing on the territory of the diprotodon?”

He moved the tiger-like figurine toward the bear-like one. He stared at them as if they would talk to him and reveal their secrets.

Rose bit her thumbnail. Did he really expect an answer? Was this part of the interview?

“Maybe he was looking for food?” she ventured.

“Kilometres away from his home?”

“I’d walk miles for the best chips.”

He grinned and looked at her, properly, for the first time. There wasn’t a trace of mockery in his smile, only genuine delight. She found herself smiling back.

Suddenly, he gasped.

“Yes! Chips!”

He spun on his heels and rushed out of the shop.

Lilian patted Rose on the shoulder. “I don’t know how you did that, but you’re hired.”

“I think I just let him just steal those figurines.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll put it on his tab.”

Rose sighed with relief and thanked Lilian.

“So, who was that?”

“Doctor John Smith, he’s the research leader at the Ancient DNA lab. The youngest one in the lab’s history, I’m told, hired before he’d even finished his doctorate.”

“Really? He’s a nutter.”

“Oh yeah, but harmless overall.”

❄

Over the months following Rose’s hiring, the frequency of the Doctor’s visits to the shop increased. Her coworkers even began to tease her about it.

He would show up and babble about multiplex sequencing of mitochondrial genomes or rant about sample degradation of human remains in the field.

Rose didn’t understand everything but got a kick out of his wild gesticulation and experiments with items from the shop. She would ask him questions, and sometimes they would be the right ones to help him out.

Although she was becoming fast friends with many museum employees, of all her new acquaintances, the Doctor was her favourite.

She didn’t know him — not really. But what she knew, she liked. She liked the way he treated everyone with respect, from the janitors to the curators. Although he had his moments of bad mood and anger, he found joy in every little thing. It was contagious. They spurred each other on, it seemed. They raced wind-up toys from the shop after hours, gave silly names to specimens in the exhibitions, pranked the tour guides and hid treats for the kids staying overnight for Dino-snores. But that’s the thing, they only ever saw each other at the museum. The closest thing to a date they had was attending the same lecture one night in November. His hand had brushed hers on the armrest.

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed on days he didn’t show up. But Rose refused to read more into his behaviour than there was. She had made that mistake before, seeing love where it wasn’t, and stayed in an unhealthy relationship. So, until proven otherwise, the Doctor was just an eccentric bloke who came to her when he was bored or stuck.

Read more on Ao3

[currentfandomkick]

Marinette did Not sign up for this part 5

so, this happened. i would feel bad, but the characters hijacked this story after chapter 1 and i’m just along for the ride and checking that words makes sense.

First part here Previous Here ao3 Here

--

“Hey Alya, you haven’t been getting more hits on your blog from Gotham lately, have you?” Marinette asked.

Alya rolled her eyes as honestly, could her bestie be any less obvious? She could see the “new” necklace. The one that only shows up when Multimouse is on call. Honestly—why is it everyone keeps thinking she doesn’t know who’s who? She’s the Fox—Illusions and Truth are her bread and butter.

“Now that you mention it,” Alya pulled up her latest stats. “Yes. The whole site—jeez these guys must have just found out and want the scoop from the best source in Paris,” Alya preened.

Marinette acted… different after she got that answer. Moved in on herself. Alya could feel the attempt at a cover-up before she even asked.

“Hey, is something up?”

“Nothing! Nothing is up, why would something be up! Ha, that’s a good one Alya!”

Ah, the miraculous-related tic was in full swing then. Marinette isn’t exactly the most in-the-know miraculous user, and the Mouse is always taken back after its been used. She could be forgiven for assuming Alya, the expert in all things Miraculous second only to the Original duo and their boss, would not know that something was going on in a certain spotted heroine’s life, and it was all hands on deck.

“Okay,” Alya switched to her theory notes, “Any new names to add to the ‘would not be surprised if they were Hawkmoth’ list?” Marinette is a goldmine on this topic, and while miraculous adjacent, definitely able to ease the whole ‘not in control’ and helpless feelings this situation was probably stirring in her girl. She knew it was for herself atleast.

Marinette perked up with a familiar ‘I know what you will say, but lets do this anyway’ type of sly smile. “Okay, so we do agree that it has to be someone that knows Gabriel’s schedule and doesn’t want to interfere with it for the most part, right?”

“Well,” Alya wasn’t letting this hunch go anytime soon, no matter what LB and Chat said about evidence against. She knew she was onto something with it, and for all she knew, some miraculous magic could be interfering. “I still say it could be him and Natalie taking turns, but that doesn’t rule them both out.”

Marinette shot Alya a look, of the ‘I strongly disagree, but feel it is futile to remind you why’ variety.

“I’m kidding, your boss isn’t Hawkmoth, I know… He’d totally have better designs for akumas if he was.”

Marinette leaned forward conspiratorially. “You should have seen him tear into the Bubbler one when I brought it up as an example of horrible design. His face was perfect!”

Alya would love to imagine the many, many ways to torment Gabriel after what she and Nino have come to understand about the man from their friends. Ranging from negligent and uninvolved control freak at best to manipulative, victim-blaming, and abusive POS. If Adrien and Marinette were a little less attached (re: not pedestalling the man so much), then she could get them to see the truth and they could go over the pair’s options to get them both away from his BS and make the man pay for the all the crap he put Adrien through, and was starting to put Marinette through. Why else would the girl be running herself ragged—especially the past week—if the man wasn’t a demanding asshole boss?

“That’s great, next time, get a pic or vid and share the love.”

“I will, so I met another one of his suppliers and…” Alya began to take vicious notes, glad for Marinette’s attention to detail on these things. It made looking for possible Hawkmoths much easier on her and Max—yes she knows who Pegasus and Cowboy are, Markov in a hat is still Markov in a hat. It was a wonder that no one else noticed.

Alya grinned when she saw Trixx peek out of her hiding place, a wide smile that reminded her exactly why Alya could catch everyone’s identity while her friends still hadn’t put together she’s Rena; a Fox casts illusions. To do that well, you have to learn to seek and see the truth, and get your evidence. And Alya? Is a damn good fox.

----------

Tim hates his stupid insane list of designers. He managed to knock of half by using his own damn filters, thank you very much for dominant genes from the Wayne side that could be seen visually. It knocked out a good chunk (about two thousand out of five thousand) on hair alone. He decided he would let it keep running for those that linked their socials to their psueds and aliases.

The problem was the handful (about ten) that didn’t. He’d have to meet them in person, used his glasses to get pictures, and run those against social media posts in Paris to find out who these more private designers were—all to find out if they really are in the right age range, and if their natural features do put them in the ‘likely a Wayne’ category for Wayne dominant traits (and those possible given Bruce’s own DNA makeup, which he doesn’t know Tim has. Hey, he’s the Robin that Gets Shit Done, never said he was the polite one. That’s Dick’s job, not his.)

---------

Adrien hates not having Plagg with him. Not that Tikki isn’t great and all! Really! Just… he misses him and his stinky cheese, okay?

“Adrien,” Natalie knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Natalie entered the doorway, but no further. “When is Marinette free for consultations next? we have a high end client who would like to commission her as soon as possible.”

“Give me a minute…” Adrien checked his ‘overseeing Marinette’ schedule on his phone. “Uh, she has walk-ins around four until five tomorrow.”

“Excellent. Will she be at her home or the studio Gabriel has provided for consultations?” By her tone, he could tell which Natalie and Father would prefer.

“Let me check with her.”

“See that you do.”

Adrien sent a lipstick, X arm lady, and house emoji to Marinette.

In a minute she sent back a thumbs up and apartment building emoji.

“Studio it is.”

Natalie nodded. “Excellent choice. I will let them know to be there at four ten, given Marinette’s… difficulty arriving on time.”

Adrien grimaced a bit on that as yeah… no longer having a Danger sense meant her punctuality was… not very good.  “Are they speaking to Marinette or MDC?”

He’d need to know if he should just pick her up or not. MDC didn’t have to get picked up—designers to celebrities are allowed to be late and can blame it on getting caught up in a few details on a commission design for a walk-in consultation. Marinette was tied to the Gabriel Brand and needed to reflect that, therefore, be there on time and ready.

“Marinette for now, though they expressed an interest in MDC as a budding designer, and they are well within the MDC price range,” Natalie hinted.

Adrien kept the hiss growing in the back of throat quiet. Marinette chooses who MDC works with, not his Father.

--------

Stephanie is both delighted and upset when she sees Cass. As its Cass—she probably figured it out already damn it!—but its Cass and she missed her since she left a few months back for a mission and got caught up in the Chinese crime scene again.

“Hey Cass!”

Cass grinned when she saw Steph and made her way over.

“Found her!”

Stephanie was gutted. She really wanted to win, just this once, at a detective thing. You know, be the normal one that managed to out-do the prodigies and geniuses. Not to be again. “Oh, that’s great. Where is the baby bat?”

Cass shook her head. “Not her, Soup Girl.”

Stephanie opened and shut her mouth. Then lit up as she still has a chance! “Oh, right—right! You said you wanted to meet her a while back.”

Cass nodded. “Her family is nice.”

“Did you talk to her or…”

Cass shook her head. “Busy.”

“Ah.” That made sense. “Well, uh, still competing?”

Cass raised an eyebrow. That was a yes.

“Maybe we should work on helping her on the hero side of things together, you know, so we don’t freak her out when we all swarm her place. Make the whole thing a bit less…”

“Dramatic.”

Stephanie nodded. It would help ease the girl into the family, and keep Cass on that case instead of finding Baby Bat for a bit. Win-Win for Stephanie and Baby Bat.

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

Chatte Noire really, really hates dealing with akumas. She's built for strategy, to see tricky parts and work out how to make them safer for the team and minimize risk. She is not made to be Chatte Noire. Yet here she is, in an akuma attack, trying to play the role of a Black Cat—identify and destroy threats to the team. Problem is, she lacks Chat Noir's heightened ability to sense danger. In fact, she lacks it completely--and she knows the team isn't happy.

The attack is taking longer than it would if she was Ladybug. This would be over if she had just managed to keep her big mouth shut and not talked to Aquaman. Then the Justice League wouldn’t be involved. Then the whole promise to Murder Robin would not be broken and Paris would already be saved for the day instead of dealing with another Sandboy attack going on well into the night, with a cure that won’t be able to handle fatigue, energy renewal or relax the body for sleep post ‘I’m scared out of my mind’ fear.

She made sure to avoid this Sandboy’s attacks and she would save whoever got caught. Her Cataclysms may not be as strong as Chat’s (his do make the whole thing go away) but she is just as quick on her feet and just as good at getting civilians out of danger.

“Chatte!”

“On it Buggaboy! And not yet!”

It was too off for the Lucky Charm. They’d need Viperion, and he was stuck underwater with Aquaman trying to get him out at the moment. Until then, she just had to minimize damage, keep civilians away from their nightmares hunting them down, and keep moving and planning and work everything out while playing bodyguard for the team at Cha—At Mr. Bug’s call.

She hopes things turn out okay.

Then she sees a bat symbol and the world vanishes.

----------

Red Hood blinked when he saw some girl running around on rooftops in… Isn’t Chat Noir supposed to be the cat one? Where the hell is Ladybug—and why is some guy in her place? Shit, did the baby bat lose her miraculous or was it stolen? Damnit, now he has to steal it back for her!

“Okay, how did LB get hit when she isn’t even here?” The fox girl groaned as she dodged another attack. “Aren’t these guys supposed to go after who’s scared of them?”

The bee girl rolled her eyes. “More than just Ladybug can be terrified of the bats. They’re the Ghosts, remember?”

“Hey, can we argue about fears and who has rights to them some other time?” fake ladybug asked, flinching and moving closer to the Turtle guy. “Uh, Chatte, that way!”

Cat girl—Chatte— said something he didn’t catch and grabbed a kid stuck in a mob and bounce out.

“I—” the boy threw his hands up. “We’re screwed. She really, really isn’t getting the whole Cat thing.”

Red Hood pulled out his guns, checking that the darts were loaded and aiming for Spots.

“Chatte---guy with a gun!”

This time cat girl managed to look over and froze. She started… hyperventilating? Shit—kid’s having an attack.  

Red Hood lowered his gun and made sure to get closer to her---seeing as the other heroes—Dragon girl, Monkey boy and Snake Guy were busy with the bee and fox girls trying to circle some kid on a pillow. No clue where the other kid in black was, but the cat girl losing it? that was his current focus.

“Kid, come on, breathe.”

“Oh my—” the kid looked at him like he was the threat. “Fuck, no—I shouldn’t have talked back to---shit. Shit, now I’m gonna—”

“VOYAGE!”

Just like that, Red Hood was dropped into Gotham harbor. Jason didn’t even get to look around to see what happened. He did manage to tread water and work out which was to go to get to shore.

“Oracle!”

“Jesus Hood—sending Robin to your location. What happened?”

“Some kids stole baby bats’ jewels, some akuma attack, the actual cat thief was hyperventilating and then I end up here.”

“Oh, B is not going to like this.”

“I already don’t like it.” Batman growled out over comms. “Did someone say voyage?”

Red Hood wracked his somewhat waterlogged brain. “In French, yes.”

“One of the local heroes.” Jason could feel Bruce’s annoyance. “Why were you in Paris.”

“Well,” Red Hood kept swimming to shore. “When you find out a long lost bat is in life threatening danger, one must locate and meet this possible winner of the ‘avoided having crappy parents raise me’ lottery to give a well-earned ‘congrats, you’re a well-adjusted person in a family of crimefighter! Mazel tav.”

“Hood.” Robin began on a private channel. “We need to talk.”

“Gotta go B, life to live, baby bat to find.”

“Red Hood!”

“Bye!” Red Hood climbed out of the harbor, finding his baby brother on his motorcycle that was definitely not Bruce-Approved.

“What’s up buttercup, didja miss me?”

Robin scowled at him. “Of course not, the world is more peaceful without the drivel that falls out of your mouth.”

Red Hood snorted. “Yeah, and that’s why you hide in my room all the time.”

Robin refused to make eye contact, shoving Red Hood onto his bike. “Is it true, did my sister lose her miraculous?”

“Unless she’s B and Catwoman’s lovechild and she decided to embrace it.”

Robin was quiet on the way to the cave. “…how long would it take to get the pilot to return and take me to Paris?”

“…you’d make it there around their in time for dessert.”

Robin frowned. “that’s not soon enough.”

“Closest you’ll get. And don’t’ think you’re going alone.”

Robin frowned. “I am not exposing my sister to you.”

“She’s our sister first of all,” Red Hood corrected. “and second of all, I have a bet to win, and I’m behind thanks to this portal guy. So I’m coming.”

Robin rolled his eyes. “Only if you get past Father and Alfred.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Robin smirked as they pulled into the Batcave.

“Father, I believe Red Hood needs your full attention given he was in the harbor for so long, and we all know how cold they are this time of year.”

Jason decided Damian was by and far his least favorite sibling in that moment. “Wait, B, no, look—no signs of hypothermia, no shaking, just need to change and—”

“I will check and ensure you don’t develop it with Alfred on standby.”

Jason glared at Damian, already stripping from his Robin gear with that self-satisfied smirk. “Traitor!”

“I simply want what is best for my siblings, how is that wrong?”

----------

I hope this gave you all a good idea of what’s going to happen next… I do love the Batfam and all, but some of their approaches here… no good and need to have that hit over their head.

And if I’m screwing up ladybats characterization, feel free to let me know so I can fix it---going off what I could find from DC fans and lore but I also do not know these characters inside and out, and want to do them justice.

OH and for anytime i refrence princess Justice, got a refrence for you now! picture the one made by @tinymelonbug right here with the only (maybe?) change being that below the cut it is cut off as a romper: Here 

TAGS:

@heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace @jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04

[madpanda75]

“Taking Chances Part Three: Suspicions”

Finally posting Part Three! Sonny and the rest of the squad get suspicious about what’s going on with Rafael 👀  Check out the other chapters on my Masterlist. Part 4 will be posted this week! ❤️

You and Rafael had been together for one month. One exhilarating month. Neither of you expected to move so fast given your past romances. You had been left broken-hearted by your cheating ex-fiancé. For Rafael, it had been years since he had been in a relationship. He was once in love with his first serious girlfriend, Yelina, until she dumped him for his childhood best friend, Alex Muñoz. There were one or two girlfriends after that, but for the most part, Rafael buried himself in his work.

This time around was different. There was an undeniable connection between you both. An initial spark that quickly unfurled into an intense passion, made increasingly evident by the dirty looks your neighbors would give you the morning after Rafael spent the night. It felt as if you had been together forever.

Luckily for your neighbors, the majority of your evenings were spent at Rafael’s. Not only were his walls thicker, but his place was halfway between the precinct and the gallery, making it convenient for both of you.

One cold February morning you sat at Rafael’s kitchen counter, leisurely sipping a cup of coffee, sketching in your notebook while he got ready for the office. It was routine by this point. He padded into the kitchen, barefoot and half-dressed, wearing only his pants and an undershirt, his suspenders hanging loose at his sides.  

You handed him a cup of coffee, not even bothering to glance up from your drawing. “Never would’ve taken you for a white chocolate macadamia nut fan,” you casually said.

Rafael nearly choked on his drink, instantly recognizing the flavored creamer hit his tongue. “Found it in the back of your fridge, hidden behind a bag of salad that looks like its been there since you moved into this apartment. I had no idea you were an International Delight kinda guy,” you teased, hooking your finger under his belt loop, tugging him towards you.

Rafael chuckled and took another long sip of his coffee. “What can I say, I’m full of surprises.” Leaning forward, he gave you a peck on the lips before glancing down at his watch.  “I better get dressed. I’m running late.” He set his cup down, furrowing his brow as he took in your state of dress. “Is that the shirt I laid out last night? And my socks?”

You sheepishly smiled at him, fiddling with the hem of his light blue pinstripe shirt, your toes curling in his butter yellow socks. “What can I say? I like wearing your clothes. They inspire me,” you said with a shrug and handed over your sketchbook full of doodles. Well, to you they were doodles. To Rafael, they were works of art.

“While I’m thrilled that my Brooks Brothers apparel is your muse. May I please have my clothes back?” He placed the sketchbook back on the counter and checked his phone, expecting you to go into the bedroom to change—but you had other plans. With a smirk, you slowly began to unbutton the shirt, sliding it off your shoulders, revealing your naked body.

Rafael abruptly halted his text to Liv at the sight of your supple form. Licking his lips, he drank you in from head to toe while blindly trying to set his phone back down on the counter.  

“What?” You feigned innocence and batted your lashes at him. “You wanted your clothes back, didn’t you?”

Rafael’s eyes darkened. “You now better than to tease Papi like that.”

You took a step closer and ran your hands up his arms, gently squeezing his biceps, your lips grazing along his neck. The smell of his cologne enveloped you, invigorating your senses. “Hmmm, you gonna punish me?” You purred in his ear.

Rafael let out a shaky breath. In an instant, he had hoisted you over his shoulder causing you to squeal in surprise. With a teasing slap to your ass, he turned around and headed straight towards the bedroom.

*****

Olivia walked out of her office to find her squad at one of the large conference tables in the bullpen, waiting to discuss a recent case SVU caught where a high school senior, Elena Reyes, was raped in her hotel room during a weekend field trip to New York.

“Where’s Barba?” Fin asked when he saw his lieutenant.

Olivia sighed and took off her glasses. “Texted me this morning and said he was running late again.”

Fin leaned back in his chair, his curiosity piqued. “That’s the sixth time this month. Wonder what’s going on?”

“Maybe he has a girlfriend,” Sonny chimed in while trying to balance a pencil on his nose.

Fin laughed. “Barba!? You gotta be kidding me! That man is married to his job. My Grandpa Iggy probably gets more action than him at the nursing home.”

Stranger things have happened,” Amanda said with her head down as she folded a piece of paper into a small paper football. “The man is wound tighter than a tourniquet. A girlfriend would be good for him.” Amanda took her paper football and aimed it towards Fin, who held up his fingers to resemble goal posts. She flicked it across the table, the football flying right between Fin’s waiting hands.

“Touchdown!” Fin exclaimed.

Olivia sighed. “Seriously, guys. Don’t we have anything better to do while we wait for Bar—”

“Sorry I’m late,” Rafael announced, bursting into the precinct.

The lieutenant’s eyes widened slightly, noticing his flustered appearance. A stark contrast to the razor-sharp, collected ADA she was used to working with. “Nice of you to join us,” she quipped.

“Yeah, traffic was a nightmare coming down Lafayette.” Rafael lied. He shrugged off his coat and set his briefcase down, making a beeline to the snacks set up next to the coffee pot. Your unexpected morning sexscapade had left him starving. He grabbed a handful of pretzel sticks and poured himself another cup of coffee before sitting down at the conference table. “So what do we have on the Elena Reyes case?” He asked, popping a few pretzels in his mouth.

Amanda cleared her throat. “You know, counselor, before we begin. I couldn’t help but notice how late you’ve been recently,” she said with a glint in her eye.

“Excuse me?” Rafael arched a brow at the young blonde detective.

Sonny crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side, looking Rafael over. “Yeah, your shirt’s a little rumpled. Hair isn’t as coiffed as it normally is and—“ he leaned closer to Rafael and sniffed—“Do I smell perfume on your clothes?”

Rafael scowled and scooted his chair away from Sonny. “Is there a point to this line of questioning?”

“Yeah, you got a little honey on the side?” Fin added.

Rafael scoffed. “I beg your pardon?”

“Hey, we’re not judging,” Sonny said with his hands raised in the air as if he was surrendering. “After all you’re human. Everyone needs to get—”

Rafael interrupted, “Please for the love of God do not finish that sentence.” Feeling an onslaught of a migraine begin to set in, he closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Pushing thoughts of the lovely morning he had with you aside, Rafael switched gears. He opened his eyes and glared at everyone around the table. “I’m thrilled that my personal life is such an amusement to you all. But if you don’t mind, may we please get back to the Reyes case.”

“Barba’s right,” Olivia said. “Let’s get back to work. Fin, Rollins, you went to the hotel this morning. What did you get?”

Fin and Amanda debriefed everyone on what they found in Elena Reyes’s hotel room. Throwing a wrench in the case, the perp wore a condom and the hotel security cameras had been broken for months, but the squad was able to pinpoint at least three potential suspects.

As the discussion continued, Oliva couldn’t help but occasionally glance over at Rafael. Working in SVU for nearly twenty years had made her an expert at reading faces and Rafael’s face was a tell. His stare may have been icy but the slight blush of his cheeks; the way he averted his eyes—she knew he was hiding something.

Rafael stood up from the table and made his way over to the white board. The smug faces of the high school seniors stared back at him. “There’s still not enough physical evidence. No judge is going to sign off on a warrant for DNA swabs of a bunch of broskis. No matter how you spin it. Keep digging,” he said, grabbing his jacket and briefcase, abruptly leaving the bullpen. He hadn’t been able to stop by his office that morning, having gone straight from his apartment to the precinct and there was a mountain of paperwork waiting on his desk.

While waiting by the elevator doors, Rafael put his hand in his coat pocket, knitting his eyebrows when he felt a crinkle of paper. He pulled out a post-it with a small doodle. The doodle was of him asleep in bed—his hair sticking out at all ends; his face relaxed and content. You must have drawn it that morning.

He flipped the post-it over and saw a note in your hurried handwriting. 

Check your other pocket.

Following your instructions, he reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small handful of black lace and silk, instantly recognizing them as your panties. He stuffed the skimpy lingerie back in his pocket, looking around to make sure no one had seen.

“Saucy minx,” he muttered to himself, unable to conceal the smile on his face as flashbacks came rushing back of your legs wrapped around his waist, moaning things in his ear—so dirty they would make a pornstar blush. What he wouldn’t give to be back in bed with you.

“Counselor,” Sonny called out, running over to Rafael. “Ya’ forgot this.” He handed him a file with several of the witness statements.

“Oh...thanks, Carisi.” Rafael tucked the file into his briefcase.

Rather than go back into the bullpen, Sonny stood there, rocking back on his heels. “Hey, Barba. About earlier, ya’ know we were just playin’. If you did find someone, I’m happy for ya’. She must be a pretty special person.”

Rafael gave Sonny a tight-lipped smile, gripping the panties in his pocket so tight, his nails dug into the meaty part of his palm. The elevator finally dinged, announcing its arrival.  “Saved by the bell,” Rafael thought as he practically ran inside, frantically pushing the button to the lower level.

As soon as the doors closed, Rafael rested his head back against the wall, his whole body sighing in relief. He couldn’t help but feel guilty, sneaking around and dating you right behind Sonny’s back. Carisi may have been as annoying as a puppy yipping at your heels, but he was a good detective and would someday make a great lawyer. How would he feel knowing that the reason for Rafael’s recent tardiness was because of you. The perfume on his clothes and the panties in his pocket were yours. Sooner or later, you would have to break the news to Sonny. Rafael could only hope that he would take the news well.

*****

The texture of the polenta was perfect. The veal shanks were braising beautifully. It was the perfect evening in—all that was missing was your boyfriend. You invited Rafael over for dinner and a movie, knowing he had had a stressful week with the Elena Reyes case and that his fridge only contained a sad bag of salad and fancy coffee creamer.

Of course when you planned your romantic night in, you didn’t factor on a freak snowstorm. Taking a quick peek out the window, you were surprised at how fast the snow was beginning to accumulate. It was coming down in droves. “Guess this adds to the ambience,” you mumbled to yourself.

A familiar buzz pulled you away from the scenic view outside. You checked your phone, expecting it to be Rafael, but instead saw your brother had texted.

Hey, we’re supposed to get a blizzard tonight. Want me to come over? We can make pizza, watch a movie? It’ll be just like old times.

You smiled, remembering back to when you were kids and quickly sent your brother a reply.

I’d love that but I have other plans tonight. Rain check?

Although there was a big age gap between you and Sonny, whenever school was cancelled on account of snow, he would ditch his high school friends and spend the day with you instead. You would spend hours playing outside—sledding, and throwing snowballs. When it got too cold, he would bribe you into the house with countless games of Mousetrap and watch any Disney movie you wanted until you passed out on the couch.

You both were inseparable. Even now as adults, you would hang out at least once a week. Lately, between your job and Rafael, you barely had time to spend with Sonny. You knew he would begin to grow suspicious. The detective in him would be snooping around and asking questions as to why you were suddenly unavailable.

Your phone pinged again. 

Yeah. I just never see you anymore. I miss you, kiddo. Everything ok?

You were just about to text your typical response that everything was fine when there was a knock at the door. Abandoning your phone on the kitchen island, you ran to the foyer and opened the door, busting out laughing the moment you saw Rafael.

He was completely covered, vaguely resembling the Michelin Man, wearing a thermal hat, wool scarf, and a puffy Canadian Goose jacket. You wouldn’t have recognized him if it weren’t for the striking seafoam green eyes peeking out from under the layers of clothes.

“Oh my God! Did you walk here?” you asked, wiping the snow off his jacket and scarf.

“The roads were so bad my Uber had to drop me off at the street corner.” He shed his outerwear and hung them up on your coat rack, finally resembling a human being and not a Yeti from the Himalayas. “It’s really coming down out there. I can’t believe we’re getting a snowstorm in March.”

“That’s global warming for ya’,” you teased, the tiniest hint of your Staten Island accent coming through. Cupping his face, you kissed his frozen pink cheeks, trying to bring some warmth back into his body.

“I brought some wine.” Rafael handed you a bottle of Brunello.

“This is perfect. It’ll pair nicely with the osso buco which I need to check on. Why don’t you open it and let it breathe for a bit while I finish dinner,” you called out over your shoulder while running back into the kitchen.

Rafael followed you inside, a mouth-watering smell wafting through the apartment. Your home was a stark contrast to his. It was cluttered but cozy. Organized chaos, you affectionately called it. Filled with mismatched furniture handed down by your family. Books and photographs of you and the rest of the Carisi clan littered the end tables. The walls were covered in your artwork. There was one piece in particular where you had painted a woman’s arm with a rose tattoo on her bicep holding a hammer, underneath was the phrase, “Smash the Patriarchy.”

He opened the bottle of wine, watching as you stirred a simmering pot on the stove, humming a Dean Martin song to yourself. You were casual and content, dressed in grey leggings, an oversized soft pink v-neck sweater, and thick wool socks. Your hair was up in a messy bun, a few loose tendrils framing your face. The sweater slid down, revealing your right shoulder. It was sexy and alluring, the subtle hint of skin just begging to be caressed.

Unable to resist, he wrapped his arms around your waist and left a trail of soft open-mouthed kisses up the curve of your neck. “Mmm delicious,” he purred.

Your eyes slipped closed as you reached back and ran your fingers through his hair. “Instead of tasting me, why don’t you try this sauce?”

“Who says I can’t do both.” He licked the sensitive spot beneath your ear.

A whimper escaped your lips. “You’re distracting me, Mr. Barba.” You dipped a spoon in the pot and turned to face Rafael, blowing on the hot liquid before holding it up to his lips.

He took a taste, moaning obscenely. “Ay Dios Mio, that is incredible.”

You beamed with pride but tried to brush off his compliment. “This is nothing. Wait till you try my homemade pasta.”

“I’m gonna have to buy bigger clothes if you keep feeding me like this.” He pushed you up against the counter and kissed you hard. You tilted your head to deepen the kiss, massaging his tongue with your own. All thoughts of dinner were quickly forgotten. You were suddenly hungry for something else or someone else. His hands reached under your sweater when he glanced behind your shoulder and spied a photo of a certain blue-eyed detective on your fridge. Rafael froze and instantly pulled away.

“What’s the matter?” You panted, turning your head and following his gaze to the photo. “That was taken at my sister’s wedding in Montauk. I looked awful. I mean, I love my sister but she picked the ugliest bridesmaid dresses. I had so much hairspray in my hair that night, I couldn’t stand near an open flame.”

Rafael reached behind you and took the photo in his hand. You were right. The dress was hideous, a turquoise taffeta nightmare, but it wasn’t the dress that caught his attention. What first struck Rafael was how happy you looked with your big brother, smiling and hamming it up for the camera. It was obvious how close you both were.

Rafael felt a pang of jealousy. Growing up as an only child, life could be lonely. He would secretly wish for a little brother or sister so he could have someone to play with. Now looking back, he was grateful that it was only him. Having to endure his father’s abuse was bad enough, he couldn’t bear the thought of a sibling suffering alongside him.

Staring at the photo of your brother brought back that gnawing guilty feeling he had experienced earlier that week in the elevator. “When are we gonna tell him?”

“Soon,” you sighed and turned back to the stove, adding the gremolata to your sauce. “I’ve just been busy”

“Busy? I think you’re stalling.”

“It’s just…it’s complicated.” You gently pushed Rafael out of the way to reach a platter from the cupboard.

A sinking feeling began to form in the pit of his stomach. “You’re not ashamed of me, are you?” He quietly asked.

Hearing the pain in his voice, you immediately stopped plating the veal shanks and turned towards him  “No! I could never be ashamed of you.” You vehemently shook your head and brought his hand up to your lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. “It’s me. Sonny’s never been easy when it comes to my boyfriends. Not even Theo, my ex, and he was our next door neighbor. You and Sonny work together. I’m just afraid it’ll complicate things. That I’ll complicate things and—” Then you’ll break up with me. You didn’t say it but the words hung heavy in the air.

Rafael cupped your face and softly stroked your cheek with his thumb, finding himself lost in your hypnotic eyes. “You’re Carisi’s sister. This was always going to be complicated. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth. You’re worth it,” he whispered.

“Ok, we’ll tell him this week. I promise.” With a disarming smile, you held out your pinky to him. Rafael snorted a laugh but locked his pinky with yours. “Now that we’ve got that sorted. Why don’t you pick out a movie while I finish with dinner.” You playfully smacked his ass as he walked out of the kitchen.

While you were pouring the sauce over the meat, you heard Rafael call out from the other room. “Hey, what’s this?”

Your head snapped up. Dropping the pot with a clang, you ran out of the kitchen to find him by your easel about to take the tarp off your latest piece.

“FREEZE!” You slid across the hardwood floor in your wool socks, body blocking Rafael from the art. “Don’t touch that! It’s a surprise!”

Rafael’s eyebrows shot up into his forehead. “A surprise? For me?”

“No, for my other boyfriend,” you dryly said, rolling your eyes. “Yes, of course it’s for you and it's not ready, yet so no peeking.” You faced the easel to readjust the white tarp covering your art. Curious as to what the mysterious shroud contained, Rafael stepped closer and peered over your shoulder. “I mean it.” You turned and gave him a stern look before softening your face. “Did you decide on anything? I don’t have a big selection so if nothing appeals to you, we can watch Netflix or something.”

Rafael smiled and grabbed your hips. With your body flush to his, he kissed you, nuzzling his nose with yours. “Tell you what. You cooked so you can pick the movie.”

You bit your lip and lifted your eyes to the ceiling as if you would find the answer hanging in the air. “It’s a toss-up between Titanic or Alien.”

He made a face and rubbed his stomach. “I would say Alien, but I don’t know if I can handle that chest-bursting scene while eating.”

“Hmm good point. Titanic, it is then!” You announced and went to grab the DVD of the sweeping romance.

*****

You and Rafael snuggled up on the couch under a blanket, watching Jack and Rose fall madly in love with each other on the doomed passenger liner while having a lively discussion about whether or not there was in fact enough room on the door for both of them. The decision was unanimous—there was enough to room, although Rafael did argue about buoyancy.

By the time the old lady dropped the diamond necklace into the ocean, you both could barely keep your eyes open, exhausted from a long hard week. Turning off the TV, you trudged down the hall, hand in hand.

You wordlessly got ready for bed. Rafael finished brushing his teeth and walked into the bedroom where you were undressing. Your body illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window. He stopped in his tracks, having never seen a more glorious sight, committing every curve, every freckle to memory.

You caught his eye and smiled, blushing under his intense gaze. Rafael had seen you naked countless times, but this time felt different. The way he stared at you, as if you were some otherworldly creature that had come into his life.

He stepped closer and stood in front of you, reaching out to stroke your hair. “You’re so beautiful,” he breathed.

Your heart fluttered. Slowly, you began to undress him, tugging off his navy blue crewneck sweater, unbuttoning his jeans, shedding layer after layer, until he was naked. “What are you doing?” he asked.

You didn’t respond, rather you placed a soft kiss on the left side of his chest, right over where his rapidly beating heart lay before wrapping your arms around him. There were no sexual undertones in that precious quiet moment. All you wanted was for Rafael to feel your love for him in that simple gesture.

A lump formed in his throat. Rafael had never experienced a love like this. It had been years since he allowed himself to feel this way. He didn’t realize how deeply he could love one person and more importantly that he deserved that kind of love in return. Instead of cautiously dipping his toe into the water, he jumped in feet first. Those precarious walls he had built came crumbling down under your slightest touch. Standing there with you in his arms, he didn’t feel vulnerable or exposed; he felt safe, like he was home.

He lead you over to the bed and gently laid you down on the mattress before moving next to you. That night Rafael covered you like a blanket, his kisses tender, passionate, and all-encompassing. It wasn’t long before you both fell asleep, holding each other close; the snow softly falling outside your bedroom window.

Meanwhile somewhere off in the distance, your phone buzzed, the battery dangerously low.

Hey, I think I left my immigration law book at your place. I’m gonna stop by tomorrow morning and pick it up. I’ll even make chocolate chip pancakes :)

The text message from your brother flashed on the screen once before the battery ran out and your phone died.

@glimmerglittergirl @southern-magnolia @sweetcannolicarisi @delia26 @obfuscateyummy @sass-and-suspenders @eclecticminded @thatesqcrush @katmstanton @amirightcounsellor @beltzboys2015-blog @letty-o @sonnysdoll @lyssa1385 @sweetsummertime99​ @burningsorr0ws @gibbs274 @izzythefanfreak @riodallas​ @babypink224221​ @livxrafa​ @esparza-army​ @obsessionprofessional​ @ottosuricato​ @melsquared79​ @dreila03​ @frenchiefoxy​ @tropes-and-tales​ @thecraziestcrayon​ @goodluckfindingone​ @graniairish​ @lolacolaempath @ashley-chi​ @imjustreallynosy​ @scarletsoldierrr​

[inkblotsandeggshells]

My take on feminine enbodyment and female empowerment

This concept of modern feminism and pushing men out of the picture affects me differently than the average woman, because I was raised without a dad. When my mom adopted me and my other siblings, she never got married and instead asked her best female friend to step in and help raise all four of us. I was very loved, but I felt that absence of a father all my life. It affected nearly every part of my childhood and teenage years, and it continues to affect my adult life. I wanted to get a boyfriend and eventually get married, but the only constant guy in my life was my older brother. Therefore, I had very few examples of what respectful, good, masculine men looked like.

When I was a sophomore in college, my roommate at the time showed me a YouTube channel called Blimey Cow, and they had made a video called “Ten Ways to get the Right Guy to like You.” I hadn’t thought about this video or this channel in a few years, because they primarily make Christian content.  I’m not a Christian anymore, nor do I agree with all the beliefs of Christianity. However, I decided to go back to this video two days ago, because I remembered how these creators directly challenged how our culture defines female empowerment. Specifically they used this video to present that challenge, with an emphasis on noting the difference between female liberation and female objectification. Some of the suggestions they made to help girls find the right guys included showing interest in their hobbies, supporting their local chivalry, letting the guys in their lives know they appreciate them, putting less emphasis on how much skin they show and more emphasis on who they are as a person.  As a 20 year old college kid, these young content creators made a bigger impact on my views on men, women and the hyper-sexual movement than I would have thought. As a result, their video gave me the nudge to dive deeper into this topic through writing.

When you first learn of the term “female empowerment”, it sounds attractive enough: women being seen as a force to be reckoned with, authoritative, strong leaders who are goddesses in nearly every way. Rather than being stuck at home to take care of the kids, women are encouraged to pursue their career dreams, step into more masculine leadership roles and “be the boss”, for lack of a better term. It all sounds appealing until you start to dig deeper into what’s behind the phrase “female empowerment.” One big part of how I discovered this occurred last summer.

In July of 2020, I chose to invest a serious amount of money to an online holistic sex course. It was called Well-F*cked Woman, created by a woman named Kim Anami. Through using the tools learned through this six week course, Kim claims to have helped thousands of people all over the world, especially women, to connect with the untapped power of their sexual energy. She believes that a big reason why people are as stressed, unhealthy and unhappy as they are is because they’re not having the right kind of sex. Moreover, they’re not having the right kind of sex often enough. Whether you’re in a couple or single makes no difference. If you want to gain body confidence, get orgasms or even heal ancestral trauma, Kim claims this course would teach you how to obtain all those things by utilizing your sexual energy.

When I read the information on it, I became very intrigued. After several days of listening to her podcasts and reading her blogs, I became more convinced that this course could be a big help for my personal well-being.  At the time, my goal was to use the course to heal some of the imbalanced sacral energy I still had. Hopefully, it could even heal some ancestral wounds I carried in my DNA. If I achieved that, finding a romantic partner would be more of a bonus than a direct goal. So when I received the stimulus check from the government, I used that money to pay for the course and one of Kim’s jade yoni eggs.

For each of the six weeks, we would get a video with a written syllabus to discuss different topics, most of which revolved around sex. One week we would focus on self-love practices, one week we would talk about the relationship between sex and money, another week we learned about food, etc. In that first week, I began the exercises easily enough. However, I also started to feel very conflicted about the information we received in this course. For example, in the syllabus about self-love, one of the first statements Kim made about women is that “most have rape fantasies.” Admittedly, I didn’t really understand what that meant or what it was, until a friend told me. Once I did understand it, it bothered me deeply, to say the least. As someone who claimed that her work helped heal women’s sexual trauma, to hear Kim make such a statement right off the bat made me feel uneasy.

In a separate journal, I had written down my progress of the course and some of the conclusions I had made about what it taught and about the woman who taught it. In one entry, I had observed that it seemed to take a lot of money to become a “well-f*cked woman”, by Kim’s standards. If needed, it could possibly add up to hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. For instance, if you wanted to use a jade egg as a sexual healing tool, that cost $300. The six week course itself cost almost $1000. Kim also recommended using therapy injections to change your neural pathways, if you were a victim of sexual trauma.  Just getting one injection is expensive enough, but if you “need” more than one injection or appointment, that will add up fast. Sadly, such treatments are not easily accessible to everyone who wants sexual healing. It certainly wasn’t for me.

Additionally, a recurring message that came up in the course was that it’s important for couples to have sex more than once a week. In this case, it wasn’t talking about the faster paced sex described as being numb and fleeting. On the contrary, Kim wanted us to aim for the slower, orgasmic, breath focused sex where you’re working to maintain and build up a flow of sexual energy. While in some ways, this course educated people on sex differently than our modern culture, some aspects seem pretty similar to me. For example, one night stands are still seen as acceptable situations to practice generating this energy. We were encouraged to practice sex acts two to three times a week, to the point of becoming sex addicts. Also, even though Kim frowned upon pornography, we were still taught to utilize BDSM as a way to create polarity in our relationships. This was to make sure that “spark of passion” was maintained for the long term. Lastly, Kim would sometimes demonstrate problematic double standards when it came to showing examples of how to respect your partner. In one of her stories about “helping” her partner become confident with himself, she talked about making a point to touch his private parts in public, whether he was okay with it or not. If not, she claimed “it was his problem.” In my opinion, if they’re genders had been switched, she would have been called out for her disrespectful behavior immediately among the group.

In this class, Kim discouraged us from using substances like alcohol and drugs during the practice, because of how they damage the body. On the other hand, she promoted addictions to sex as something positive, as something to attain for as a human being. Whether you are in a couple doing the act or you’re a single adult who’s just masturbating, you were encouraged to have some kind of sex several times a week. According to Kim, it needed to get to the point where you felt you couldn’t go about your day without generating this energy. “What an addiction does is that it causes you to stop thinking,” says Michael Knowles, who was a guest on the Candace Owens Show discussing modern feminism.  “It enslaves you. It makes you prone to certain behavior, and when you’re not thinking, that’s when the people who want to grab power can come in and force it on you.” Too much of anything can be detrimental for your well-being, on all levels.  During a time where protection of boundaries for my spiritual life had become very important, this way of thinking pushed me to discover what kind of boundaries I had and to stick to them. In this case, it lead me to the conclusion that if being like Kim meant being addicted to sex, disrespecting the men I care about, and using methods of sexual control for the sake of “polarity”, then I would rather not be like her at all.

With all that being said, I believe the big question is this: how exactly does the WAP culture of free sex and female empowerment differ from the holistic sex culture I learned about in the summer of 2020? How does our pop culture differ from the Well-F*cked Woman course, in how we’re being educated about sex? In my opinion, one culture pushes the more superficial, fleeting benefits of sex in our faces, while the other pushes for using sex and sexual energy as a way to harness untapped power. This power can, supposedly, be used to energize us, heal our bodies, and manifest things into our lives. Regardless, both cultures seem to be more concerned with using sex to gain power than using it as a means to express true love.  Both cultures seem to encourage women to “embrace their femininity” by leaving their underwear off more often. Both cultures seem to promote double standards on how partners should respect each other and their boundaries. Both cultures still push us to become addicted to sex in order to have a fulfilled, happier life, because according to them, every aspect of our lives will disintegrate without it.

As a result of the lockdown, last year turned out to be most isolating time for us, and it was intense enough to put many people into a deep state of depression. At a time when everyone is stuck online and forced to keep further apart, this is when people in the online sex business—holistic or otherwise—will benefit the most from that loneliness. They can use it to make those profits and fill their own pockets. This becomes more obvious when you observe their marketing tactics, including the ones I noticed for Kim Anami’s website: unless you give me your money and do what I tell you to do, you will never be “well-f*cked.” Everything in your life will deteriorate unless you become “well-f*cked.” You will be a brainwashed zombie forever, easily manipulated, unless you become “well-f*cked.”As my friend Lee Yun would say, “These tactics are designed to create an empty void in people that can’t be filled.” In the cases of some individuals, even if they were to try, it would cost them more time, money and energy than they were lead to believe.

For those of you who wonder if I still keep up with the practices I learned from this course, I haven’t. At least, I haven’t kept up to the degree that would be necessary. My jade egg is sitting on my altar collecting dust, even as I write this. Because of the amount of money I spent to buy the egg, this is not something I’m proud to admit. A jade egg is a sacred, special tool that deserves to be put to use for the highest good, and eventually, I will find a teacher that can help me do so. I just don’t want to have to conform to this holistic “WAP” standard to get there.

Surprisingly, by reflecting on my past through watching Blimey Cow’s videos, I realized there are still some values about sex, intimacy and femininity that I learned as a teenage Christian that matter to me now as an adult witch. In my opinion, sex is something very sacred that should not be taken so lightly, because of how it connects you to your partner in an intense, physical and spiritual way. For me, I take it seriously enough to still choose to wait until I get a husband and to choose not to masturbate. Additionally, when I do have sex with my lifelong partner, it will be as much about him as it will be about me. This means respecting and honoring him as a man as well as I know how. In my opinion, if you encourage people to use something like sex to attain higher spiritual goals, but neglect to show basic respect to your partner’s boundaries about his body, then in the words of Jordan Taylor from Blimey Cow, “you’re doing it wrong.”

 Michael Knowles interview with Candace Owens on the Candace Owens Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejWIEMs8ecg

Blimey Cow’s YouTube video, “Ten Ways to Get the Right Guy to Like You”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqF_PtugyBk

[fragmentedink-archived]

Hell to Pay: Chapter Twenty-Three

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, IX, IX, XX, XXI, XXII

Cowritten by @lux-scriptum

A/N: trigger warning for smut, and for Excessive Levant Crying

In the few weeks that passed, they settled into a sort of rhythm. Having a schedule seemed to calm Cameron down, and Lev had to admit it made him feel better too. He knew what to expect, to an extent, though Nik and Eden found ways to insert variety into their lives along the way.

Lev shifted, adjusting his pants grumpily. He’d been perfectly happy to use Eden’s naptime to fall into bed with Cameron and Nik, but when Nik cheerfully shoved a plug in his ass after they’d both fucked him, Lev knew exactly which one he’d used. Nik hadn’t turned it on yet, but Lev knew it was only a matter of time before he did.

Lev paused outside Eden’s door. He could hear her babbling inside, so she was definitely awake, but Lev was surprised to see that there was only one sentry at the door. He thought about asking, but Eden’s volume was increasing every second he hesitated, clearly unhappy about being left to her own devices. When he looked inside, she was already sitting up, a dewinged bat stuffed animal in her clutches.

She screeched at him, waving the two halves of the toy at him.

“We really should stop giving you stuffed animals,” Lev muttered. He scooped her up, humming softly. He checked her diaper, and made quick work of changing her before replacing the tattered stuffed animal with a rattle. He got smacked on the head with it for his troubles. “Why are you so mean to your Da, hmm?” He asked, sliding out of the room. “What have I done to deserve this?”

That was apparently funny, because she giggled and tried to bite his shoulder.

“You’ve been around Cameron too long. No biting of the people. Especially your Da,” Lev scolded, heading for the kitchen. Most likely where the other two would be, anyway.

He didn’t quite make it. Amara appeared out of nowhere, spinning him around. He tucked Eden close and pulled away, huffing at her.

“What are you doing here? And be careful. She’s still little,” Lev scolded, checking Eden over. He got his finger bit for his troubles, before Amara caught Edens attention. Eden reached for her, and babbled angrily when Lev hushed her.

“I’m here to kidnap you,” Amara told him solemnly, before poking Eden’s nose. “Damn. He even makes cute kids. Think he’d spare me some DNA to knock Cin up with?”

“Amara,” Lev said, exasperated.

“Yes?” She asked innocently.

Lev sighed, and edged around her. He flicked a wall of shadows up in Amara’s face when she tried to follow. Her annoyed squawk was worth the payback he was sure would follow. She was still on his heels by the time he ducked in the kitchen.

“Amara’s kidnapping me for the day,” he said tiredly in lieu of hello.

“Damn right I am. You abandoned me for a pair of cocks and I’m insulted. Impressed, but insulted.”

“You should be,” Cameron said without hesitation, starting across the room. “You’re not taking him.”

Lev was quick to push Eden in his arms, both to stop Cameron from strangling his cousin, and because Amara had hooked a finger in Lev’s belt loop determinedly. “Yes, I am,” she said sweetly. “Promise to return him with minimal damage, but he needs a day away from this insanity.” She settled her chin on Lev’s shoulder.

“Yes, because your insanity is that much better,” Cameron replied dryly.

“Hey,” Lev tried. “I don’t mind, really.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t mind almost dying, either,” Cameron retorted.

“What, and you’re not kidnapping me too?” Nik demanded from the counter.

“Nah,” Amara said dismissively. “Not today, Saint Nikolas.”

That didn’t seem to amuse Nik, who muttered, “See if I ever feed you again.”

“Fuck you,” Amara said cheerfully. “You let my sister sleep under the same roof as him.”

“Would you rather she sleep in the street in the middle of winter?” Nik retorted.

“She has other family, you know,” Amara said. She pulled away from Lev, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. “Come on, buddy, we’ve got things to do. Motorcycles to terrify you with. Takeout to make you order.”

Both Nik and Cameron looked disgusted with her food choices. Lev waved at them. “I’ll be back tonight,” he called as she yanked him out the door. “If I’m not please come get me.”

He barely heard Cameron’s response of, “Give her food poisoning,” before Amara marched him past some very grumpy looking sentries and out to her bike. The poor thing was old and more worse for the wear, but according to Amara it ran. She stuffed Lev in a leather jacket to keep him warm, and handed over a helmet. He almost told her off for not wearing one herself, but it’d never worked in the past, so he just sighed and pulled his on.

“Drive slow?” he asked.

Amara just laughed at him.

----

For the next five minutes, Nik watched Cameron feed Eden before he ended up saying, “So…. she just walked in here. How do you feel about that?”

“That she’s lucky she’s Lev’s cousin because I would have broken her legs otherwise,” Cameron replied, feeding a spoonful of meat to the happy babbling demon baby wiggling in her high chair. “Won’t be able to walk in if her legs cease to function.”

“You know she does it just to get a rise out of you,” Nik said.

“You make it sound like I care.”

“I mean,” Nik said, taking a drink of his black coffee, “you clearly do. Since Lev had to put the baby in your arms before you went through her. She must have gotten under that icy white skin of yours.”

Cameron flicked his cool pale blue eyes at him. “No. She just needs to learn where she can and cannot open that fat mouth of hers. And she cannot open it in my house where I will feed her to my guards.”

Nik made a face. “I do not imagine Lev would be too fond of cannibalism against his cousin,” Nik mused. “Me neither. I am rather fond of my fuck buddies.”

Cameron’s mouth twitch clearly was a figment of Nik’s imagination. “And I do believe that function is now obsolete.”

“Be as that may,” Nik said. “I am still attached.”

“Why.” But before Nik could answer that rude question, Cameron said, “Never mind. She’s just as bad as you are. Two peas in an annoying pod. My mistake.”

Nik clicked his tongue. “You charmer. Are you like this with all your boyfriends. Oh wait, I forgot, you refuse to acknowledge this not relationship. My mistake.”

Before Cameron could respond with one of his irritatingly famous quips, Eden smacked her hands down on the tray, screeching at both of them for daring to take her attention. Cameron flicked her nose. “Stop it, I’m feeding you, aren’t I?”

She babbled angrily at him around the spoonful of food Cameron shoved in her mouth. Cameron pointed at her, eyes narrowed into a glare. “I am literally right here. Stop screaming and use your damn indoor voice.”

“She’s a baby.”

“So are you and I managed to train you to not yell in my house.”

“You’re so cute. Using pet names,” Nik said, batting his eyes at him. “What else do you got for me? A darling? A sweetheart? A my love?”

“A broken neck?” Cameron offered.

Nik pouted and went to top off his coffee. “I thought babies made the heart grow fonder.”

“That’s absence,” Cameron corrected. “Open a book once in a while.”

“I read.”

“Pornography does not count.”

Nik tried kissing Eden’s cheek, but got smacked by her. He bit down on her shoulder lightly before resting his chin on Cameron's shoulder. “You both are so mean to me. I can’t believe it, I thought I was her favorite.”

He knew Cameron rolled his eyes. “Her favorite is literally anyone that gives her attention at any given moment,” he said. “A complete stranger could give her point five seconds of attention and she’d have a new parent.”

“Here I thought I brought a special something to our relationship.”

“You didn’t, don’t worry.”

Nik bit down on Cameron’s shoulder. Hard enough to break the skin. “Asshole.”

Eden was laughing at them both between bites of her food. Cameron’s only response was, “If you’re going to bite, make sure I can actually feel it.”

“See, if I did that then you’d be naked right now.”

“So confident,” Cameron said, getting another bite in before Eden refused any more. He went to pick her up and Nik followed them back to the nursery. “I’m sure you’d like to believe that.”

Before Nik could respond, he felt his pocket buzz. Nik cut Cameron a withering glare before pulling his phone out to see a text from Lev.

Lev: How’s Eden?

Nik wrinkled his nose and watched Eden wrestle and kick at Cam while getting cleaned up.

Nik: Trying to put her foot thru Cam’s stomach

Lev: Bitty girl not happy she has to get clean?

Eden screeched angrily while Cameron wiped down her face with a baby wipe. Cameron blissfully ignored her temperament and went about continuing to clean her up.

Nik: Something like that. At this rate she’s going to end up eating the baby wipes. I’m sure it’ll be fine

Lev: Try making faces at her. She thinks she’s being ignored

Nik relayed the message and Cameron rolled his eyes. “Or she’s just being a brat because there’s a baby wipe on her face and she’s being forced to get cleaned up.”

“Well,” Nik said, “I’m sure you are capable of telling Lev that.”

“So are you,” Cameron said, sitting Eden up. “You’re the one with the phone.”

Eden shoved her fist in her mouth while babbling and kicking her feet. Nik frowned when he looked back down at his phone. Amara apparently had stolen Lev’s phone.

Lev: Stop distracting Lev.

Nik: Im sorry but LEV distracted ME fiRST

Lev: 🖕

Nik: Very mature, Mar. Nik: Also Cam said he was going to feed you to his guards if you keep walking in the house like that

Lev: mmmm sexy Lev: Stop distracting me. Shutting off the phone now

Nik shoved his phone in his pocket and moved out of the way while Cameorn went to the dresser to get another black long sleeved onesie after stripping Eden down. “Amara’s holding Lev hostage. I think he wants help.”

“He’ll be fine, I’m sure,” Cameorn said, dismissively. “He’s the one that went with her. And as often as Amara claims, she can protect him if something happens.”

“I mean help from her.”

“Well that is a pickle,” Cameron said, scooping a newly clothed Eden up. “Oh well. Come on, you little monster. I think it’s playtime with some toys that don’t make any noise.”

Eden was looking at Nik over Cameron’s shoulder while they started for the living room, and clawing at Cameron’s skin contentedly. Nik hummed. “Her eyes are turning green.”

“I saw,” Cameron said. There was a faint tone in Cameron’s voice that Nik wasn’t quite able to place. “My mother has the same ones. So do my brothers. It would make sense she would too.”

“Would you rather she didn’t?”

“I don’t care either way.”

Nik knew better than to not press any further. “What toys we playing with,” he said, starting for the closet with all the toys. “I bet she wants to play with the piano.”

“I bet she doesn’t.”

----------

Lev locked the door behind himself and huffed. Amara was ten times worse than he remembered. Or maybe Lev was less in the mood to deal with her shenanigans. He settled on the bathroom counter and pulled out his phone. In less than a minute he called Nik, hoping that would calm him down before he did something like pick a fight with Amara he knew he couldn’t win.

It had been hours now, and he wanted to hear Nik’s voice.

“Hello, Levant. How are you?”

Oh. Oh he sounded too cheerful for Lev to trust that.

Lev swallowed his pride and said, “I made a mistake.”

“Oh?” Nik asked, amused. “And what’s that?”

“I should have just let Cameron snap her neck,” Lev moaned. “Come get me? Please?”

Nik’s voice got distant, as if he had pulled away from the phone, but Lev clearly heard him say, “Hey, Cam, Lev said you can snap Amara’s neck.”

“Nik,” Lev blurted. “I wasn’t serious.”

Again Nik’s voice was further away as he said, “Wait, no. He changed his mind,” before saying to Lev, “You can’t just tease him like that, Lev.”

“Nik, please,” Lev tried. “I wanna come home.”

“Okay, but you chose to abandon us for Amara. You could have just stayed with us and the baby but you decided to leave on your own accord.”

Lev felt his bottom lip tremble, even if it was a stupid reason to cry. “I was trying to keep the peace. Cameron looked like he was going to hurt her, and I- It was the quickest way to get her out of the house. I didn’t think she’d be this bad.” He sniffed hard. “Nik, please? I don’t wanna be here.”

Nik was quiet for a moment, before he said “Sure. I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you,” Lev said softly.

“No problem. But I suggest staying in there until I come or else Amara will never let you leave.”

Lev made a noncommittal sound, and just said, “Love you,” before he hung up.

After a few moments there was a knock on the door. Lev sighed and slid off the counter. When he opened the door, Amara leaned against the doorframe. “That bad, huh?”

Lev burst into tears, but she just pulled Lev into a hug and led him to the couch. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there sniffling, but he woke up to Nik leaning over to smother his face in kisses. Amara was gone, thank the stars, so Lev gave a grumble and tried to pull Nik down on top of him. Nik let him, settling on top of him so he could kiss Lev properly. After looping his arms around Nik’s neck, Lev sighed softly, kissing back sleepily.

Lev noticed Amara’s approach just seconds before she smacked the back of Nik’s head with a rolled up magazine. “Not on my couch, you bastard,” she complained.

Nik looked up at her, sticking his tongue out. “You’re just jealous.”

“Of you fucking my cousin? No. Just grossed out. I don’t wanna see that. Go home and fuck him if you want to so bad. Not like he wants to stay here anyway,” she retorted.

“I’m- I didn’t mean to offend you,” Lev started in a small voice, only to squeak as Nik shoved his hand down Lev’s pants.

“Dunno, Mar, he seems fine to me.”

Lev dug his nails in Nik’s wrist, giving a small, mortified, “Nikolas.”

That at least distracted Nik, who bit down on Lev’s throat. “Mm?”

Lev bit back whatever sound was trying to escape him and said, tightly, “I wanna go home. I’ll blow you or something, but not on my cousin’s couch while she watches.” Even Lev’s newfound exhibition kink had its limits.

“Yea, yea. Sure. Let’s go.” Nik smacked a kiss on Lev’s cheek before pulling away and standing. Lev stood more slowly, adjusting his clothes. He slid a hand in Nik’s before looking at Amara.

“Thanks for not killing me,” he said, lightly.

“Meh, maybe next time,” she teased back. “Get out of here and go get some dick, before you stink up my apartment more.”

Nik resisted Lev’s attempts to push him out the door long enough to shoot back, “Speak for yourself. You have sex just as much as me.”

Lev sighed in relief when he got Nik outside. He quickly burrowed into Nik’s side, and said, “Cam’s not annoyed with me, is he?”

“Nah. He has the baby to be annoyed by,” Nik said, leading the way to a sleek black bike. Lev pulled to a stop, eyeing it with distaste.

“You rode a motorcycle here?” He asked, more defeated than anything else.

“No. I walked here.”

Lev caught the helmet Nik tossed at him just barely, and sighed. “Of course you rode a motorcycle.”

“Only the best for you, babe,” Nik promised.

Lev huffed. “Somehow this feels like a punishment,” Lev muttered as he pulled the helmet on.

“Now why would I do something like that?” Nik asked.

Lev shook his head, and just motioned at the bike. Might as well get it over with. He climbed on behind Nik, wrapping his arms tightly around him. If Lev didn’t know better, Nik smiled at him over his shoulder.

“Hold on tight,” Nik said.

Lev shoved his face against Nik’s back, and didn’t open his eyes for the rest of the ride.

----

Nate had shown up right as soon as Nik had walked out the door. Right before he disappeared, Nik had told him that he was off to rescue Lev from Amara. If Nate hadn’t known better, he’d have thought Lev had purposefully tried wiggling his way out of training with him. But he did know better, which is why Nate now found himself sitting on Cameron’s living room floor with a six month old wiggling demon baby chewing on a pair of toy keys.

He still couldn’t believe that this little girl was created from the same DNA as Cameron of all people, but she was right here, the spitting image of him, despite the wide smile on her face and her hazel-green eyes. Nate poked her nose. “You are the cutest little shit,” he said, fondly. “I bet you make Cameron’s life hell.”

Eden babbled happily at him, waving around the keys, clearly in agreement with Nate’s assessment. Nate found himself smiling and poking her belly. “Goooood.”

“You can play with the baby without talking,” Cameron said, from the chair. “Or are you unable to be quiet like your brother.”

“I am physically incapable of doing what you want,” Nate replied, rolling onto his back to put Eden on his belly. “If that means talking nonstop, so be it.”

“What does my brother see in you?” Cameron mused. “Clearly it’s on a physical level because I cannot see otherwise.”

“That’s because you have the emotional intelligence of a rodent,” Nate said, wiggling Eden’s toes. “Isn’t that right, baby?” Eden squealed and smacked his stomach, nearly falling on her face, had Nate not been holding her in place. “Mmm. See?”

“Yes,” Cameron said, “I’m going to take the word of an infant. Great idea.”

Nate decidedly ignored whatever it was Cameron said next, and kept playing with Eden until Nik and Lev decided to grace them with their presence. Nate tilted his head back and looked at Lev who opened his mouth before instantly snapping it shut, eyes bright with apology. “Nate. You- I forgot- I am so-”

Nate said, “Nik, take the baby.” His brother was already moving before he had the whole sentence out. When he was to his feet, Nate smoothed down his shirt. “It’s okay,” he tried. “We all forget things, and honestly, who wouldn’t want to forget training?”

“Bay,” Cameron said, instantly.

Nate rolled his eyes at him. “No one asked you.”

“Well, you clearly asked someone.”

Nate ignored him and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Are you going to be able to train today?”

“Do I have a choice?” Lev winced, adding a small, “I’ll be fine.”

Nate gnawed at his lip ring. He wasn’t sure how to suggest they not do it, if only because he also wasn’t the biggest fan of training. He wasn’t exactly the best warrior, and he had no intention of being one, but he was of the right temperament to be able to help Lev, and he supposed that was why his mate had suggested it be him to do it. He was likely the one to go the easiest on him. “If… it makes you feel better, it’s not exactly my favorite hobby either. We could… skip for the day, if you want?” Lev did look like shit, but Nate wasn’t going to say that.

Lev shook his head. “No,” he said, “Bay’ll be mad at me if we don’t.”

“Bay’ll live,” Nik said. “We can protect you.”

“No,” Nate said, cutting his brother a look. “What’s going to happen if by some chance Lev is alone without either of you there to protect him? Hmm? Demons would chew him apart.” He gave Lev an apologetic look. “But we can take it easy for today. Work on magic?”

Lev nodded. “Okay.”

“Well, we already know he can make buttplugs,” Nik said, bouncing Eden.

He had never seen Lev move as fast as he had when he whipped around to look at Nik like he was insane. “No? That was Silas.”

“My mistake,” Nik said, dryly.

Lev flushed a bright gold, when he turned back to Nate. Nate forced himself to not smile at the mortified look on Lev’s face. “I’m sure you can do great things with your shadows. Why don’t we go ahead and head to the gym to find out?”

“Okay,” Lev said.

Nate gave him a small smile and led him back to the gym. It was just as pristine as the rest of the house with state of the art equipment, which clearly made sense considering both Nik and Cameron’s… extra curriculars. He went to sit in the middle of the training mat with his legs closed. “Show me what you can do,” Nate said. “I want to see how they work.”

Lev looked around a bit, before wenting to an unlit corner and just… disappeared. No.. he pulled the shadows.. Around himself. Nate’s brows shot up and he went to get up to inspect. Nate couldn’t see him- he wouldn’t be able to see anything if he hadn’t known that Lev was there. He could still smell his magic, still sense it; the same sweet angelic scent that all angel magic had.

The shadows started fading away and Lev’s golden eyes eventually reappeared. “I’m pretty good at hiding when I need to,” he said, sheepishly. “It just doesn’t do me much good in a fight.”

Nate smiled at him, pleased. “Well,” he said, “it’s been my experience that a good defense is sometimes just as good as a good offense. There’s no point of a fight when you can’t defend yourself and you just need to be able to defend yourself until you get to safety. Or in this case, to either Nik or Baylor. Or me.”

“Or Cameron,” Lev said, solemnly, clearly not realizing that Nate had left Cameron off that list intentionally.

“Okay,” Nate said, starting back for the mat. He settled back down on the floor and looked up at Lev. “So we know you can hide well. Can you make things with your shadows? Or solidify them somehow? If you can’t fight with them, then you could put up a wall and run. It’ll slow down any attackers.”

Lev was flushing a bright gold while he settled down in front of Nate. “Silas and I made a little progress with that but that was fifty years ago.”

Nate bit at his lip. “And you haven’t tried anything since?”

Lev looked down at his hands. “We… a lot of the stuff we did, I haven’t… we didn’t do it in the training room. I didn’t find anyone I could trust with that until recently, and I don’t like failing, so I haven’t tried. Sometimes when I’m annoyed with Amara, I can… throw some in her face, but it’s not.. Super substansial. It never has been.”

Training through alternative methods, or sexual methods, did seem right up Silas’ alley, Nate supposed. It was also up his, as well. But he did not think that particular training method would go well for anyone involved. Least of all him, unless he wanted castrated by his mate. But he was far too fond of his cock to even attempt it, even if he wanted to. “Well,” Nate said, biting his thumb nail. “I do not think I could help you with that kind of training. I’m sure Silas would want to, but I’m sure neither Baylor or Cameron would allow that, and I’m sure Silas would not go against my mate’s word. But I’m also sure that neither Nik nor Cameron would be against helping you, uh, train.”

Lev had gotten golder and golder with each word before nearly being as gold as his eyes by the time Nate finished, staring at him wide eyed. He gave a very faint, “I couldn’t ask that of them.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble for Nik,” Nate said, dryly. “He’d be very eager to help.” Nik was almost as bad as he was, if not worse than he was when it came to finding reasons to fuck around. Nate just had more self control on the matter. Besides, his mate definitely would not do that, just because he actually enjoyed training. So abusing magic for the sake of getting laid was not in the cards. Though, he didn’t know how his particular brand of magic could be used for sex- unless Baylor felt like getting fucked by a ghost. Or straight up dying.

Though-

Knowing his mate-

Lev looked so embarrassed. “I couldn’t- I wouldn’t know how to-”

“If you want, I can ask him?” Nate said.

Lev somehow flushed even more before hiding his face in his hands. Nate winced. “Sorry. Just a suggestion.”

“Nooooo,” Lev moaned, before giving a small, “Maybe?”

“I don’t mind,” Nate tried. “If it’ll help your training….”

The poor omega was so gold. “If you think I should…”

“I’m never one to suggest no sex,” Nate confided in him. “I don’t see any cons with this. Except maybe a sore ass. Though, I can’t imagine you’d be too upset about that. Not if you’re dating Nik of all people.”

Lev shook his head, head still in his hands. “Well… if you really think I should… but… Bay?”

“We’d still be doing our part,” Nate said, keeping the mild irritation out of his voice. “You’d just… be doing extra credit.”

Lev nodded quickly. “Oh I know, I didn’t mean- I know, I just, does he have to know about- about my- my sex life?”

Nate chewed at his lip ring. “He won’t know too much,” he said. “And either way he won’t care, or tell anyone. Even Silas.”

Lev finally looked up. “I didn’t think he’d tell anyone,” he said. “I guess I thought he’d not be okay with it.” Lev paused for a moment. “It’s not very… conventional.”

“Well, neither is being a hybrid raised among humans, and bound to humanity for nineteen years, but here my mate is. I don’t think he’ll care so long as you are training.”

Lev nodded a little. “Okay.”

Nate smiled brightly. “Okay,” he agreed.

-------

Cameron sat in the living room with Eden and Nik while Nate and Lev were off training until Nate finally left; but not before Nate pulled Nik to the side and Lev beelining for the wiggling infant on the floor. When Nik came back, he looked faintly amused. “Nate’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Fantastic,” Cameron said. “I’ll be at the club.”

“Your pissing contest is getting annoying,” Nik mumbled. Lev looked up at that, confusion etched on his face. “Nate doesn’t like Cameron,” he explained.

Lev’s frown deepened. “But Cameron’s nice.”

Cameron looked at him, disgusted. He was many, many things, but in the last three hundred years, no one had the gall to call him nice to his face. “Never say that again.”

“But you… are? You’re nice to me,” Lev said.

Cameron gave Nik an icy look when Nik started wheezing. “Stars,” he said, wiping away nonexistent tears. “Imagine calling Cameron nice. You’d probably think anyone that didn’t just kill you was a nice person, wouldn’t you?”

“Bay’s not nice,” Lev said, sadly.

Bay would probably be just as disgusted with this observation as he was. When Cameron said as much, Nik said, “Lev, stop talking. There is no way you’re going to win this conversation.”

Lev’s only response was pressing his face against Eden, who decided to smack Lev in the face, babbling angrily at him. Lev’s small wounded sound had Cameron rolling his eyes. “I think it’s time for bed.”

Nik seemed to perk up at that, but Lev looked borderline devastated. “I can do it.”

“I’ll do it,” Cameron said, going to stand up. “Bring her, if you want, I guess. But I’m going to do it.” Cameron didn’t give either of them the option to argue with him and started for the nursery. He had a routine and he was not going to let Lev’s hormones get in the way of it.

He let Lev change Eden into her pajamas but ended up taking her from the angel, saying, “Go get prepped for bed while I put her down.” Nik was already walking out of the room, pulling his shirt off. Cameron said, “Your turn.”

Lev handed her over, but not before getting on his toes and rubbing his cheek against Cameron’s and kissing the top of Eden’s head. Cameron refrained from wiping his cheek on his shoulder from the feeling of goosebumps jolting through his skin. “Night, bitty girl,” Lev said, to Eden before following after Nik.

Cameron wasn’t sure what to think of that nickname, other than the fact it wasn’t all that creative. She was an infant, of course she was small. But he elected to not say anything and just lightly bounced Eden while he went to sit in the rocking chair.

Her small hands clenched at his shirt while Cameron coaxed the bottle of formula into her mouth. She latched onto it like a starving man in the desert, but started settling against his chest while sucking at the bottle.

Cameron pressed his lips to the top of her head, inhaling the pure baby smell mixed with her scent. He tried not to think about how she happened to share the same eyes as three members of his family, that apparently despite this, she was supposed to look like him, though, he couldn’t see it. But perhaps that was just wishful thinking on his part.

----

Lev took a thorough shower, less because he needed one desperately, and more because he was relieved the day was over. He finally took out the plug, now that he had the chance to, and left it on the bathroom counter while he scrubbed himself down. Knowing how long Cameron took to get Eden to sleep, Lev figured he had the time to just enjoy himself.

“You're taking too long and I want attention.”

Nik’s voice startled Lev. He jerked, almost slipping, and whipped around to find Nik watching him, having poked his head behind the curtain.

“I was- I’m almost done,” Lev promised. He slicked his hair back and blew a drop of water off his nose. “Give me a few minutes?”

Nik pouted, but sulked off to the bedroom with a petulant, “Fine,” two fingers already in his ass. Lev watched him go, eyes wide. He turned off the water despite what he’d said, and fumbled for a towel. After drying off hastily he slipped into the bedroom and bounced onto the bed beside Nik. Nik didn’t even look up from where he was presenting himself, fingers still deep in himself. Lev ran his hands up Nik’s thigh, and then said curiously, “Can I...?”

Nik gave a soft moan, and just gave a “Yes,” which was hot enough in itself.

Lev nudged Nik’s hand out of the way and settled more comfortably as he slid a couple fingers in Nik. He didn’t get very far before Nik opened his eyes and looked at him.

“Use your shadows,” Nik demanded.

Lev blinked, hand stilling. “I- are you sure? I’m not- I’m no good- It’s not gonna be good.”

“You're only going to get good if you can learn how to satisfy me.”

Lev grimaced, but pulled his fingers out, eyeing the slick that coated them.

“Lick them clean,” Nik said, catching Lev’s eye.

Even though he could feel his face heating, Lev obeyed without thinking, sucking his fingers in his mouth. He held Nik’s gaze, taking his time. Once he was done, he braced his hands on his knees and reached for his magic, tugging shadows into existence. He ran them along Nik’s side, unsure if it was even tangible yet.

“You’re doing good,” Nik said, humming softly. “But make them a little stronger, Lev.”

Lev flushed. “I- I’m- okay,” he said faintly, digging his fingers into his knees. He slid them further, winding down Nik’s thigh curiously, before nudging them up. “I- can you even feel anything?” he asked, letting them vanish.

“A little,” Nik said, nodding.

Lev took a small breath. And then another. And then another, less small breath. His nails left indents in his skin as he summoned his shadows again, running them carefully along Nik’s skin. He was just starting to push at Nik’s hole with all the caution he could muster when he realized Cameron had appeared in the doorway of the bedroom and was leaning against it with his arms crossed.

Lev went gold, his breath catching. His shadows jerked forward, more solid than they’d been all day, shoving into Nik. Nik choked on his next moan, but Lev had already let his magic vanish.

“I can’t,” he said, scrambling back. “I- I can’t.”

Nik was panting as he said, “What’s wrong? You were doing fine.”

Lev shook his head. Once again he dug his nails into his knees, trying to figure out how to explain. Before he could put his thoughts in order, Cameron was at his side, uncurling his fingers with a firm, “Stop.”

Lev pressed his palms against his thighs instead. “I don’t trust myself not to hurt you,” Lev finally said. “I’m not good enough yet. I’ve never- I don’t use them on people.”

“That’s half the fun,” Nik joked.

At the same time, Cameron said evenly, “You’re not going to hurt us.”

Lev shook his head again. “You don’t know that. I don’t have any sort of control over this. I don’t- I can’t and I won't use them on you before I know I’m not going to fuck up and do any sort of harm.”

Cameron shrugged. “That’s your choice, but you’re not going to hurt us. We’ve both been through worse.”

It wasn’t until Lev wrapped his arms around himself that he found the words he wanted to use. “I don’t like having the opportunity. I can’t. I can’t.” He didn’t think Cameron really understood why this bothered him so much, and he didn’t know how else to explain it to him. He looked over at Nik, who was sitting up by this point, and tried not to cry. “I’ll- I’ll fuck you if you want something in- if you want me in you, but- I’ll just keep working on my magic with Nate, I think. At least until I- I trust myself.”

Nik leaned over and kissed him softly. “It’s okay.”

When Lev crawled into his lap, Nik wrapped his arms around him. Lev rubbed his face in Nik’s neck, and sighed. “Do you still want sex?”

Cameron snorted from beside them.

Nik ran his hands down Lev’s back. “I always want sex.” His hands drifted lower, grabbing at Lev’s ass. “How about I ride you? That seems fair.”

Lev nosed under Nik’s jaw before nipping at his neck shyly. “Okay,” he said softly. “I can do that.”

tagging: @idreamonpaper @incandescent-creativity @livvywrites @halstudies​ @alittleyellowdinosaur

[themockingcrows]

Companionship Through Circuitry Ch. 4: Treasures New and Old

This chapter is SFW This chapter available on my AO3!

From weaponized Furbies to old school prewar technology, Bro is finding his hands in many pies. Hal wishes he'd leave the pies the fuck alone for the most part.

     The small wheels of the Furby were sturdy enough to handle the terrain inside of the building with ease, so long as the bigger debris was avoided. These weren’t monster truck wheels, after all. Every so often a ping would be sent back to Bro’s location in the stairwell where he was secured out of sight, ready to be back up once Hal was done exploring and mapping out the place. He’d already covered significant ground, only needing assistance when it came to changing floors, and was holding his own against some of the mutated pests that had taken up residence in the various empty rooms.

     The modified laser was perfect for quick shots, and most of the critters seemed to be expecting humans or at least food they could smell. The small mechanical device wasn’t very appetizing looking, more of a curiosity. Bro was pretty sure he’d never seen giant insects that close up before unless they were dead, the radiation having done a number on their dna sequences since the war. Their protruding eyes were kind of fascinating to see up close, though Bro was content to watch from his distance rather than get hands on.

     I don’t appreciate this, you know

     “Don’t appreciate what,” Bro said into his end of the walkie talkie. “Freedom to move around? Weapons to protect yourself with?”

     I don’t appreciate being stuffed into this toy and you damn well know it.

     “Cry me a river and check the next hallway, I’ve got a feelin’ there’ll be somethin’ good there.” 

     There were other toys there. You could have put me in something useful. Something sturdier. Something-

     “What the fuck is that thing?”  said a voice from further down the hallway Hal was trundling down. A human who’d been living rough for some time, with attitudes that were even rougher judging from the wild clothing they wore, came into view. A man, when he got close enough to be seen clearly. A raider, if some of the markings on his clothes were authentic and not just slapped on for fun. Great, just what he fucking needed, a pack of wild men to deal with.

     “Find something to eat?” called another voice. Bro quietly grunted and got up out of his hiding spot to go get ready. Humans could be destructive with shit they didn’t understand, and the last thing he wanted to do was lose Hal. He’d become pretty attached to the AI by now, and losing him wasn’t an option anymore, not with the end goal being so interesting to him.

     “Nah, just found… something. I don’t know what this thing is,” the first man admitted, reaching down to snatch the Furby off the ground after a few attempts, the small wheels motoring this way and that to avoid being picked up. “Some kinda toy?”

     “What, find a new teddy bear?” joked the other voice out of view.

     “Nah. This thing’s cute though,” he chuckled, touching the spinning wheels and the moving beak before setting it back down on the ground. The Furby failed to move. “Hey, c’mon over and get a look while it’s still.”

     The second man finally appeared, itching his back with the baseball bat he held, hair tied back into a messy bun. He popped a squat in front of the still Furby and smirked.

     “Aw. Lookit the lil shit, it’s cu-”

     Zap.

     The laser was probably overkill as far as power went, but Bro was proud of the addition and how stable it proved to be. The fact that Hal was a killer shot was just a bonus, landing the guy right between the eyes before the guy could get the word out all the way, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. The first man panicked and jumped back as the Furby zoomed back to life and backed up several paces.

     Bitch.

     Bro was able to take a shot towards the man’s shoulder with his sword  before turning and cracking him upside the head with a fist, sending him down in a bleeding pile. Nothing like a small fluffy creature buzzing on the floor after firing a deadly laser to act as a distraction for a 6’6 man with a sword creeping up on ya. It probably would have been more prudent to use long range… but sometimes he just needed to have an excuse to clean his sword off rom residue that wasn’t radroach or abomination. 

     “Y’know, you could’ve just singed him and he might’ve run. I was on my way,” Bro said, nudging the dead fellow with a toe of his boot. “I don’t think he even has anything interestin’ on him.”

     I hold no apologies for being called ‘cute’. 

     “You’re right, you’re adorable. How dare they.”

     Laser has entered the cooldown period. You’re lucky.

     “Your own fault for shootin’ full force, if you want to roast me you’re gonna need to learn your limits first Hal,” Bro said as he abandoned the toy and walked ahead to peek in different doors. Big fat load of nothing… till he found the place the second man had come from. Paydirt. A temporary camp site, complete with food and water. Packaged food, no less, prewar and sturdy enough to last ages thanks to its healthy doses of preservatives. Giving a pleased whoop of joy, Bro took off his bag and took to stuffing what he could carry into it, taking his time to look around for other important looking things. Keys, cards, electronic tidbits that might be useful, ammunition. Bandages. Christ could he use some bandages, or disinfectant, he’d forgotten to stock up on extras at the last place they’d stayed and it was going to bite him in the ass, he could just feel it.

     While he found some disinfectant in the form of a high octane liquor, the bandages were at least sanitary looking and standard. Eh. A drink and something to clean with. It’d work. Otherwise interestingly he found a notebook, one with most of the pages in it no less. Perfect. He’d be able to write Dave again tonight and send the letter off when they hit a trader or a town next. Right on schedule.

     ...Or maybe too much of a schedule. Kid was probably being inundated with letters and not sure what to do with them since he couldn’t write back. If he even wanted to.

     Bro paused for a moment before grabbing the notebook and stuffing it into his bag after all. If Dave read his letters or threw them in the trash, at least he was reaching out on his end and showing he was willing to talk. It was the best he could do, he supposed. Be there and be ready for replies if they came.

     You’re going to get fat if you eat all that processed garbage. Why did junk food survive but next to none of the decent food survive.

     “Preservatives and chemicals for flavorin’,” Bro said, snapping out of his thoughts. The one man was only knocked out, after all, not dead. He’d be coming to eventually, best to be long gone by then. “When there’s more chemicals than food in the package, the food’ll last through goddamn anything.”

     I’m starting to think that if you encountered a fresh vegetable you would collapse inwardly like a dying star.

     “Everything I’ve ever come into contact with had some traces of radiation in it, it’s part of the post-apocalyptic lifestyle, Hal. It’s just a waitin’ game to see how much will make you sick and how much just adds a zesty aftertaste.”

     ...I’m unable to tell if you’re joking or not and that is concerning for my future mobility. I can hear the atherosclerosis from here.

     “All you can hear are the dulcet tones of my voice, admit it,” Bro said, giving one last look around the room before reaching for Hal. The laser fired a small zap, stinging his hand and making him yank it back, watching the toy zip around in circles teasingly. “Ah c’mon, don’t be a lil shit. I was gonna put you back in the glasses. Don’t you like the glasses more than the Furby?”

     I like many things more than the Furby.

     “C’mere then,” Bro said, reaching down to snatch the toy up by its fuzzy body, the weight more substantial now than it had been fresh out of the box. The skin was stretched taut over all kinds of goodies now, and he was careful as he plugged the shades into the side of the Furby by way of the metallic port, waiting and watching as the small loading symbols flickered in front of his eyes. Once again, Hal’s eyes opened in front of his own, pupils dilating briefly in recognition before they flickered away and he was left with the usual interface once more.

     “There. Better?”

     If you really loved me you’d have built something better with all those spare parts.

     “I don’t love you. I tolerate you.”

     Frankenfurby is a token of your affections as surely as your letters to your spawn are.

     “Those’re different,” Bro murmured, tucking the doll away carefully in his bag and securing it closed. He wasn’t sure if he could hear groaning or was just paranoid, but better to leave than to find out. Slowly, he backtracked down the hallway past the felled men before speeding up to the stairwell, hurrying down and out of the building while he could. All in all a successful scavenge, his luck was really holding out now that he had his new toy.

     Friend.

     … Yeah, he’d call Hal a friend now. Maybe prematurely, but it was hard not to bond with someone whose sense of humor was so similar to his own, bot or not.

     Are we still on target to approach where my body was last being kept?

     “Should be. I’m only swervin’ once in a while to find places to stay, or to get goodies after all. There’s a few places I’d love to hit between here and there, though it’d be too rough goin’ for the furb to be active.”

     What are these locations you are wanting to go to and why.

     “Well, one of’ems a vault. I know if there’s people in it they’d be good for tradin’ with and prolly have somewhere to stay or know where it’d be good to stay in the region. If it’s a decrepit one it’d prolly been picked clean… if you give up after the first few areas,” Bro smirked. “Dig deep and pick enough locks, know how to sweet talk the electronics, and usually you’ll find a treasure trove of some kind. Or at least so I’d assume, given that I’ve not exactly crawled my way through enough to formulate a mean average on accessibility to the damn things.”

     Hal whirred briefly as if thinking before speaking up. What kinds of things would you be hoping to obtain from there that you cannot obtain from elsewhere that we’ve been going into? These ‘goodies’ you mention.

     “More prewar things mostly,” Bro said as he sized up a slope and skidded down it with his feet turned. He had to sit down once, scuffing his ass, but he made it to the bottom without falling at all. A quick dust, and he was back en route. “Food, ammunition. Weapons. Medical supplies is a big important one. Old prewar tech is like findin’ the needle in the haystack, but once you find it it’s sweet.”

     Old prewar tech like what, more odds and ends?

     “Sometimes. Sometimes it’s more like findin’ entire bots untouched in their charging bays,” he explained, eyeing the surroundings cautiously. He was more exposed out here, and he didn’t exactly enjoy it, but sometimes it was a choice between being exposed and being boxed into an area chock full of super mutants.

     No thank you, he’d take his chances out here thanks. Could hear and see shit coming that way while he was awake.

     Would these untouched bots have data cables perchance.

     “I’m not uploadin’ you into a Gutsy, Hal.”

     I’D BE SO MUCH MORE USEFUL, YOU’D BE MISSING OUT!

     “I like you bein’ portable. I also like you not bein’ capable of friendly fire. No, I didn’t forget that laser earlier, you fuck, my hand still stings from it.”

     Okay, what if instead of uploading me into a Gutsy you uploaded me into the mainframe computer? reasoned Hal. I could manually override everything in place since lockdown, and likely would be able to communicate with you through various data ports.

     Bro’s steps slowed a bit. That, he liked the sound of. Just need to make it to the overseers office and make sure it was clear before uploading him… or maybe even uploading him from another unit, if it was still functional.

     “If you ever got stuck in there, would you be patient and wait for me to figure out how to get you out?”

     And give up the God like control I would have over the giant rodent population? You tease me.

     “I’ll take that as a yes, and an Okay for where to head to next,” he hummed.

     If he could make it out of there with enough swag, he could sell the extra and have plenty to spend till the end of the mission. ...Was that what this was now? A mission? A mission to get to an AI’s body that may or may not even exist...for what. There was no guarantee Hal would even want to stay with him at the end of all of this. Odds are he’d get freedom and go running with it like Dave had, leaving Bro on his lonesome again.

     The thought put an unpleasant knot in his stomach. No, Daave hadn’t run away, he’d grown up and left the nest like everyone else did eventually. And even if Hal DID leave him behind, so what? He’d have had a bit of an adventure, restocked his cash supply, probably gotten more things to keep himself busy with. There’d be more stories to tell over a few shots of booze, more things to write to Dave about, and more things to remember when he was old.

     Nothing happened without a reason. This wasn’t a fruitless venture, he’d already had more fun than he assumed was possible.

     Are you okay? Hal asked suddenly.

     “Huh? Yeah, why.”

     Your eyes looked pensive and you seemed miles away. No reaction to the mole rat coming in from the left.

     Cussing, Bro turned and whipped his sword out, raising it up to-

     “...Hal. Where’s the mole rat,” Bro asked, scanning around in circles with his weapon raised.

     It’s fictional, but you proved my point about being distracted quite well.

     “Hal. I’m gonna bust you into twenty pieces if you keep that shit up.”

     Do you wish to talk about it? The things that were catching your thoughts.

     “You my therapist now?”

     Curiosity has captured me and you’re the nearest target.

     “I was thinkin’ about the nearest vault and what we might find in it,” he lied. Hal’s loading screen flashed in front of his eyes again before the outdated map appeared like a hazy display over reality.

     If we continue at the current ambling pace it would take till tomorrow evening to reach the nearest vault, given that nothing between here and there has become too irradiated to support living creatures or has become irradiated enough to support terrible living creatures.

     “One way to find out, huh.”

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

     The vault was an opened one, leaving the usual rundown of various critters to deal with near the entrance. Pests. This was his pearl to unearth, not theirs to eat. They could have the leftovers, maybe he’d crumble up a bag of chips and leave’em nearby as a peace offering or something, not that the dumb animals would understand or appreciate it at all. As it was he took potshots at some of them and just stomped on the insects before they could be a problem, wiping goo off his shoes on the metal rack steps inside the big steel door. It smelled damp somewhere, made sense. The rest of the air just smelled old and musty, rusted. Worn down. There was still electricity though, these bastards really were meant to last.

     Bro made his way through a few doors before finding his way to some signs, following them to the main recreation area. Graffiti tagged the walls with various people he’d never heard of and probably never would know of, and most of the things were picked over or left broken open to rot. Raiders. Messy fuckers, lived somewhere for a while then moved on when the supplies ran out.

     Just meant there was probably gold in there further than the numbskulls could reach, and he just had to be patient.

     Paydirt came when Bro finally found a computer monitor that was not only unbroken but accessible to the main system, taking a seat to toy with the keys for a while. He spent some time reading old logs, scouring it for data that might be useful, keys being left somewhere or security being heightened in different areas. Not much to work from, though. He pursed his lips and made a soft tutting sound before shaking his head and standing.

     Aren’t you going to upload me?

     “Not here, no. If I find a security terminal maybe, or if I can get to the Overseer’s office, that’d be the best shit. You’d have access to a wider percentage of the place, if not all of it once the override’s overridden.”

     You underestimate me, I could probably reach there before you.

     “You could also get firewalled by some shit you’re encoded with because you’re still an AI tryin’ to hack somethin’. ‘Sides, I’d rather have the company for now,” Bro chuckled.

     At least the scenery is interesting. I believe the last three dicks on the walls were larger than the first three dicks on the walls.

     “We’re in the tainted parts,” Bro said, hopping a barrier to reach the first locked door they’d encountered. Smirking, he pulled off his bag and got a few small tools out, sparking the data screen back to life after a few minutes of jimmying the wires. He made quick work of it, letting the door open before allowing the charge to drop, rendering the door permanently open.

     “Child’s play,” he said softly, putting the tools into his pocket in case they were needed sooner rather than later before letting himself walk through and down the much better conditioned hallway. There was no graffiti here, but the smell of mildew was still strong, meaning there must have been a leak somewhere. Internal leak was one thing, an external meant radiation. “Hal, keep a geiger check goin’, warn me if we’re gettin’ anywhere too hairy.”

     There are elevated levels, but they’re within the safe amount so long as you don’t do something foolish like sleep back here.

     “Figured. Don’t worry, I don’t feel very tired right now.”

     If anything he felt alert, awake, ready to fight. He almost wished something would lurch around the dimly lit corner thirsting for his blood so he could decapitate it. Stress presenting itself in violent ways was just a part of life here, and fuck could he use some stress relief before the night was up. Getting here had been more stressful than he assumed, involving some stealthing past massive horned abominations with razor sharp claws and dealing with some leatherbound fuckheads who just HAD to decide he was worth heckling.

     Another bit of wandering, most rooms not holding anything useful or worth lugging out of there, Bro finally hit jackpot. The overseers office wasn’t locked down, it seemed. The bloodstain on the wall gave a few clues to why that may be, but the lack of a skeleton to follow up with made the guessing game all the more interesting in his opinion. Hopping into the creaking leather seat, he rustled for the connection cable from his bag.

     “Ready, Hal? I want you to light the place up, unlock shit, and see if you can access the sound system,” Bro rattled off, instructing the AI as if those weren’t the things he was already planning to do.

     I’ll send feedback to these monitors as well, no doubt there are some cameras still working, Hal promised, eagerly awaiting the moment of plugin.

     Briefly, Bro was concerned he’d caused a power outage. The room went pitch black, as did the rest of the vault that he could see from the rounded window and doorway, save for the monitor in front of him.

     “Hal? Fuck.”

     The screen flashed green, before taking on a red hue as pixels fell by the wayside. A small loading screen image appeared, same as in the glasses.

     Loading. Loading. Loading, came a voice from the sound system around him, soothing and methodical. In the distance, however, Bro heard unworldly screeching and hisses, and his blood ran cold.

     “Lights back on any time, Hal.”

     Loading. Loading. Loading.

     More hisses and screams, this time closer, reacting every time they heard a voice on the speakers.

     “Haaaaaal. Any time now would be pretty fuckin’ sweet,” Bro hissed, slowly sinking down below the desk and pulling his weapon out, hiding but prepared as he waited.

     The lights flickered back on, too bright and intense enough to sting his eyes before lowering back down to the softer indoor degree. Bro scooted out and lifted up enough to look at the screen, smirking when he saw a small, digitized version of a human with red eyes and white hair doing a bouncing dance in the corner. This wasn’t a simple data upload, it was practically a hijacking.

     “...Hal? Can you hear me?”

     No response. Frowning, Bro looked up to the corners to find the cameras, repeating himself.

     “Can you hear me?”

     No. But I can see you. I can see a lot of things.

     “Show me,” he mouthed towards the cameras before looking to the displays once more. It was like he’d feared: those hisses weren’t just in his head. The place was lousy with feral ghouls, and fuck if that was one thing he hated dealing with. Normal ghouls? Chill folks. Feral ghouls were a goddamn mess that didn’t stop hitting and they were smart enough to run while aiming for the soft bits. At least they weren’t infectious like in those old books he’d seen. Prewar people had been obsessed with the idea of the living dead. Well, congratulations fuckers: you were the reason they existed now.

     He assumed his sword could get through most of them, the rest he’d need to aim for the head to take down. Biting his lip, Bro stood up and took the chair once more, typing to get a more detailed message across to Hal in case the simplistic lip reading couldn’t carry over. 

     Can you unlock the doors?

     Done and done.

     Is there a path towards the medical bay or security room that isn’t littered with ghouls?

     Negative. Your new friends are everywhere and they don’t seem very happy to hear me.

     “God damn it, of course, the two places I wanna hit and they’re crawlin’,” Bro hissed in disgust. 

     Do you have a clear view of these areas?

     Absolutely, Hal said before the camera views changed, showing different hallways and signs, then finally the interior of the medical bay and the security office. Each had its own ghouls, but even from there Bro could see enough treasure that his mouth watered. Treasure in ammo boxes and containers that weren’t rusted and permeated with water. Treasure in medical cabinets, maybe even some chems. Bro was absolutely not above using chems if the need arose in a fight or the interest was high enough in a calm moment, but the thought of having prewar chems that not only were in good condition but plentiful?

     “Lock and load, Hal.”