#there is no reason to get freaky about this exercise stuff

[jennhoney]

I need to make some nickels soon, for continuing survival, but I guess I need a nap sooner.

[frownyalfred]

i LOVED the new eye in the sky chap! of course, you have the soul-crushing rage-inducing angst pile on bruce's end, but i also really appreciated the duke-hal moment; he's so level-headed about the situation that you don't really build up too much stress over him, but then you brought in a different kind of heartbreak with the realization that he's been in this position enough times to know that the least provoking thing he can do is to do nothing at all.

and the FUTURESPEAKING jesus CHRIST — it’s a different type, but your time manipulation fuckery is almost equally as hard to wrap your head around as the stuff in tenet (the nolan movie), it's genuinely so impressive. (sorry, i'm just gonna run my mouth here for a minute, but the idea really caught me and now i Have to share all my thoughts just to get them out of my brain, though i hope that you'll be generous enough to weigh in as well😅) i'd imagine that there's actually relatively very few people, in-universe, who can do this so that duke hears it correctly, because you have to be able to focus your mind and put enough intent into the idea that you're about to say something that it "registers" as the imminent future—which means that you have to, at the same time, be completely repressing your knowledge that you're NOT going to actually vocalize whatever it is, because that intention would obviously counteract the first. and THEN, to make what's already quite a tough mental exercise even more impressive, bruce is: thinking of a futurespeak-response, putting enough focus/intent behind it for that future to crystallize (and again, it's a double-headed task, because of the repression required as well), and then cutting that off in order to think of and say something completely different, *all in about just the same amount of time a normal person would take to respond naturally in a conversation.* (also, slightly less mind-boggling but still quite impressive to me and i want to give him his props: duke, in that last bit at the end at least, is maintaining both his awareness in the present and the mental effort of using his powers to see the future, in order to hear the exact same voice say two different things at the same time, and is able to not only maintain the background effort needed to hear both things, but is taking in enough detail to see/hear/notice "both" bruces' tone and body language. ...i mean, maybe that's not so impressive to people without auditory processing issues lmao, but as someone who's constantly asking people to repeat themselves, or really having to focus on the sounds when somebody's speaking to me, even in one-on-one conversations, it certainly impressed me!)

anyways, yeah, this just inspired a lot of interesting trains of thought for me and i wanted to share lol. your fics are always such great reads, can't wait for your next update! Hope you're well💜

Thank you so much!!!! You absolutely nailed what I was trying to get at with Duke’s powers. I really didn’t want over explain it and have people roll their eyes, but I also didn’t want to leave readers mystified as to what he was doing.

Duke and Bruce are supremely well matched in this fic for that reason among many others — Bruce has a freaky brain and understands time/intention well enough to be able to think, speak, and re-speak that quickly.

He can compartmentalize like no one else. I am not obviously that smart, but the way I thought about it was playing competing melodies on the piano with two different hands - once you find the rhythm, the way they work off each other, you can maintain both easily. Where they gap, where they overlap, where they compete for your attention.

Duke is good at glimpsing a few seconds forward/back but definitely not for long periods. Like Bruce said, he’s going to need help to train that and avoid burning himself out! Luckily he’s just listening and not double speaking like Bruce is.

Someone on ao3 left me this in the comment section and they’re so right lol:

I feel bad for Hal, just a little, just like Duke does. He was tortured by Kal essentially, and where he does want to hurt Bruce (a lot) there are still some lines he won’t cross. I don’t know if that makes him redeemable or just not entirely beyond redemption. I think Bruce seems to know this too — teasing him with that moral code he used to hold so tightly to.

It was definitely a fun space to play around in! Writing this fic is difficult for me (agh worldbuilding) but whenever I try I’m pleasantly surprised by how much fun I have. Thank you so much for reading!!

[studentbyday]

don't ask me to analyze poetry but sometimes i get the last lines stuck in my head bc it's a long road to get to where i wanna be in life...

D-37 & D-36 DAYS TO FREEDOM

yesterday i studied for 3h and 36 mins. i was supposed to study for 6+ hours. today i will try to make up for it bc yesterday was just not enough time to finish everything i was supposed to. i wonder how long it will take me to figure out (and be okay with) a reasonable to-do list. i really feel like i keep overwhelming myself with things to do that i just keep feeling defeated and demotivated every day bc it's impossible to finish it all in 1 day...

learning:

finish 2nd biochem discussion reply (took 2h 😑) ✅ (why is it *so* *hard* to read and understand biochem papers without reading at a snail's pace?? 😩)

finish 1.5 psyc ch for this week ✅ (OMG THE NEUROSCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS SO COOL and also really freaky bc many different brain regions are so dependent on each other so damage may mean you don't actually perceive smth??? unfortunately to allow my brain to osmose the info, i need to slow down 🥺 i wish i could go faster.)

finish biochem sec 1, start sec 2 ✅

self-care:

physio exercises x2 ✅

journal x2 ✅

laundry ✅

update: i could not stick to pomodoro for more than 3h today and i didn't study anymore after that. i could not focus very well after the first hour and a half. i think it's because i didn't sleep well last night. so i'm gonna finally try to be consistent for a week and go to bed between 9-10 even if i don't feel like it and even if i can't fall asleep right away for the first couple of days. also, i think i'll try to reduce the amount of stuff i write on a day's to-do list. i'll still be aiming for 6-8h of studying per day, but we're gonna go with 4 or 5 tasks a day if 2 or 3 of them are small (takes an hour or less) and 3 if all the tasks are big (i.e. takes 2 hours or more) and if i finish early, then everything else i do will be a happy bonus, and if not, that's fine as well bc i'm still gonna get it done within the week, just not this instant. maybe tmr's update will feature a new bujo spread? (i changed it from the 2-page weekly to a super basic 6 column thing that would allow me to timeblock my days but...ofc that didn't help for very long bc all that space allowed me to overwhelm myself every day!)

🎶 liebesleid/love's sorrow - kreisler/rachmaninoff (yes the same set of songs keep getting stuck in my head. it seems to stay like that until i'm able to play them myself. so we're gonna be with this set for a while 😅 as a sidenote, this was a great song to listen to as i journalled about imposter syndrome 😂 it really fit the vibes 😎)

[golbrocklovely]

so this video was interesting to me for a lot of reasons. i definitely liked it more, i think, than tommy and foolish's but i think that's also bc so much more happened.

first off, i think the girls did excellent for their first investigation. they weren't too freaked out, even tho they had every right to be, and i liked their overall presence in the video. they seem pretty cool :)

now… as for the place they went to….

ngl, it seemed a bit freaky, for sure. i'm a little confused how all of the documentation of a place can be burned and yet ppl still know everything about it, but i digress lol

god knows there's probably some stuff that slipped thru the cracks and found it's way into history books.

i think the main issue i had with this video is the lack of physical evidence. i'm not one to discount other ppl's experiences. i believe them all when they say they felt something was there, or was watching them, or they saw something that the camera didn't catch. i'm not gonna argue that.

what i am gonna argue is this: if you truly feel like you are hearing things when no one else is, feeling touched or pressure on your body…. leave. step outside and center yourself. and if it seems to be a reoccurring issue, don't stay there. i feel terrible for niki bc she was getting the worse of it. but girl… walk outside. there's no way i would be chilling in a set of caves allowing ghosts to cop a feel for an hour lol i would be such a bitch about it, they would want me out of those caves asap.

but she's nicer than me so i get why she stayed.

i just feel like in places like that, where it's mostly feelings rather than evidence like devices going off, it becomes an echo chamber. one person freaks out, and bc you care about them, you start freaking out as well. and so on and so forth. and i think that's why investigations that take place in those type of locations, you need to have some form of grounding exercise or something that can center you. and not just being saged outside before walking in.

i always carry or have on two crystal necklaces that i've had for years now. i don't even know if they're real crystals, but bc they make me feel at peace, i make sure to always have them with me regardless. and i think bc none of them had anything like that, things spiraled very fast.

hell, i usually have my crystals on when i do tarot, let alone if i went into a place like this.

i don't fault any of them (except maybe snc bc they should know better by now) for not knowing what to do in situations like this. i can only imagine how fucking weird it must have felt.

the only point i want to argue is that when they were talking about "oh i feel this pressure on my chest, like it's hard to breathe"…. you're hundreds of feet down in the earth. that's gonna happen. the air in the caves is probably from the 1800s. literally body juice (ew) is leaking into the caves. it's not the healthiest air down there.

but aside from all of that, i think the video was really good. the estes methods were both interesting and creepy all at the same time. i hate when colby did the estes method and it was all sexual and pervy… no thanks. i also DESPISE that colby went into a trance for a minute when they went down into the lowest part, or hell. absolutely FUCK NO BABYYYY lol

i think the medium/guide they had was an interesting character, and i feel bad that she felt so emotional towards whatever was following them. also, it was very weird to see something want to attack colby, bc that usually happens to sam. so… i wonder why that was the case. but i have an idea as to why that happened (i'm gonna be answering an ask that talks about it in case you want to know).

overall, great video. enjoyed the collab. maybe if snc are in the uk again, they can collab with niki and gee. can't wait for the next video, which should be daz !

let me know what you guys thought about the video :)

[writing-in-april]

MGG Characters Masterlist

This is my Masterlist for characters that Matthew Gray Gubler portrays. They are sorted by fluff, angst and smut and from first posted to last. Requests are open for this actor. Upcoming fics are on my main Masterlist. ♥️=Author’s Favorite⚠️=Major trigger warning Main Masterlist

Spencer Reid x Reader

SERIES (2+ chapters):

Chronological series:

The Five Stages of Grief : Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer going through the stages of grief after the death of the Reader. (ANGST) ♥️⚠️ —completed—

- Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader meets a mysterious man at the library during book club. ♥️ -in progress- -prompt/request—fic swap— (18+)

Unlinked series:

Spencer Reid & Letters: Group of fics exploring how Spencer and different types of Readers correspond through letters and their relationships.(Fluff- may contain angst & smut in the future) -in progress-

Fluff:

Oneshots:

- Ghost Story : Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer tells Reader a ghost story before the power goes out.—request—

- Curl Recovery : Post Prison Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Curly Hair Reader: Spencer’s hair took a beating in prison along with the rest of his being. Reader helps Spencer gain a little back of what he lost. ♥️-Hurt/Comfort-

- 9 o’clock : Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Barista Reader: Reader is an owner of a coffee shop and learns the identity of her late night regular as well as the reason why he likes so much sugar in his coffee.

- Dahlias :Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer over analyzing what type of flowers to get for Reader for their first date ♥️-fic swap-

- Happy Coincidences : Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: You keep running into Spencer before work will you ever get his number? -request-

- The Best Time To Wear a Striped Sweater: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Where does Spencer’s striped sweater go after the first episode?—1000 follower celebration—

- My Knight in Shiny Armor: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Reader is a fantasy novelist and writes Spencer into their story. ♥️ —fic swap—

- The Melody Lives On: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Seeing Spencer after so long apart makes past feelings come to the surface again.

- Cinematic Coincidences: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer can’t bring himself to go on another date that’s been set up for him- so he stands his date up. Spence seemingly can’t catch a break and runs into the date he stood up. -30 fics in 30 days-

- Origins: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader (Reader is from a specific geographical location): Reader feels homesick after a particularly gruesome case. Spencer can’t buy a plane ticket, but he can try to help recreate part of home with them. -30 fics in 30 days-

- Question and Answer: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Garcia gets Reader to answer some questions about their feelings for Spencer. -30 fics in 30 days-

- Shining Bright Above You: Spencer Reid x Male Reader: Spencer finally gets to go out with his boyfriend after getting out of prison and gets to see the light despite the overwhelming darkness. ♥️-30 fics in 30 days-

- Unwinding in the Vines: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Reader can’t get enough of cuddling Spencer. -30 fics in 30 days-

- Manicured: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer finally lets Reader paint his nails. -30 fics in 30 days-

Blurbs/Ficlets:

- Lactose Intolerant: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader : Spencer loves dairy despite his allergy, it comes back to bite him and reader takes care of him. ♥️

- Spooked: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Reader really wishes Spencer hadn’t picked a haunted house as a team bonding exercise.

- Four More Months & No More Months Spencer Reid x Pregnant Female Reader: Spencer talking to their baby while Reader pretends to sleep.-1000 follower celebration-1250 follower celebration-request-

Angst:

Oneshots:

- Jinxed : Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader : Reader is deeply affected by a case and is comforted by Spencer, at the end of the case Reader gets injured. (ENDS HAPPY)

- Too little Too Late : Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer isn’t sure what he’s fighting for anymore and feels abandoned by Y/N and his team. Set post Revelations. Major Trigger Warnings ⚠️ (SAD ENDING)

- A Greek Tragedy: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader (Masc. coded) :Spencer and Reader’s lives now resemble a Greek tragedy after Spencer returns from his kidnapping. ♥️⚠️(Hurt Comfort) (Light at the first of a tunnel sad ending)-prompt/request-

- Off the Table: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Based off the Ariana Grande song off the table. Reader wants to ask Spencer- I’d love off the table? ♥️⚠️ —1000 follower celebration— —request-

- Converging Parallels: Spencer Reid x Female Single Mom Reader: Spencer goes to a support group Penelope suggested after the death of Maeve. He quickly connects with a single mom who’s experiences have been similar to Spencer’s. -30 fics in 30 days-

- Tiny Vessels: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer is done lying to himself about his true feelings for reader, but isn’t done lying to them. ♥️-30 fics in 30 days-

Smutty (not full on smut, smut is further down):

Oneshots:

- Yeah: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: When Reader’s favorite song comes on while they’re out at a bar with the team, Reader can’t resist wanting to dance with Spencer even if it outs their secret relationship. -request-

- Training Wheels: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Years ago Spencer taught Reader to drive despite the fact that he hates driving. When they become good at driving enough to learn how to ride a motorcycle they get Spencer to come along for a ride.

Smut:

Oneshots:

Sub!Spencer Reid x Reader:

x Gender Neutral Reader:

- Georgia Peach: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: Spencer sees reader eating a peach and goes a little crazy. ♥️ -request-

- Helping hands: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader: After a bad case Spencer needs help shaving after getting injured, he gets help from the least likely person to help in his life. ♥️ (Enemies to lovers) -prompt/request-

- Slapped: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Gender Neutral Reader x Elle Greenaway: impromptu little fic that @sparklinspence and I ended up writing quickly in the reblogs about Spencer getting his cock slapped while away on a case. ♥️

x Female Reader:

- Surprise Pretty Boy  :Sub!Spencer : Spencer Reid x Female Reader : Reader hasn’t had any sex in what feels like forever, so she seduces Spencer. When they get to Reader’s apartment she has a surprise waiting for him.

- Solaris: Sub!Spencer : Spencer Reid x Female Reader : Spencer and Reader finally get a vacation, so they go and see a Russian film called Solaris. Reader coxes Spencer into getting freaky in the theatre.

- Painted Nails: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer’s dom paints his nails for date night and she goes crazy at the sight of them.—-request—-

- Plot twist: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader buys a new pair of heels but they aren’t for her. ♥️ —750 follower celebration—

- Keep Reading: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader brings a surprise for Spencer at their picnic date. -♥️—750 follower celebration— —prompt/request-

- Braided Brat: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer lets Reader braid his hair, he can’t help but tease her. —750 follower celebration—

- Pleasent Surprise: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader asks Spencer if she can try to be more dominant in the bedroom. —750 follower celebration—

- Guest Lecturer: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: gets Spencer riled up during class while he’s guest lecturing. ♥️—750 follower celebration—

-Taking care: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer needs Reader to help him relax after some people were unkind to him —750 follower celebration—-request-

- Good in Red: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer really likes the color of your lipstick. ♥️ —1000 follower celebration—

- Green with Envy: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer gets mad over something reader can’t control and a fight ensues- plus heavy makeup sex after the fight.

- Soured Nostalgia: Sub!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: When Reader moves their stuff in to Spencer’s apartment they find photos that he kept over the years. One photo of the past springs up memories of Spencer’s precious relationship with Elle. ♥️-30 fics in 30 days-

-Erotica Explained: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer finds Reader’s erotica writing. ♥️-30 fics in 30 days-

Dom!Spencer Reid x Reader:

- Star Trek vs. Star Wars: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader Smut: Spencer and reader get into a heated argument over which is better Star Trek or Star Wars, Reader in turn breaks some of Spencer’s rules. —fic swap—

- The Case of the Missing Coffee: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader Smut: Spencer gets on Reader’s nerves just a little too much one day.—fic swap—

-Occupied: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer and Reader get caught in a bar bathroom by one of their coworkers after Reader couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. -500 follower celebration- -prompt/request-

- Birthday Spankings: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: A normally shy reader decides to tease Spencer on his birthday thinking she could get away with it —request—

- Poker Face: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader thought she could get away with speaking her desires out loud as long as they were in a different language. Turns out, someone could understand her. ♥️

- April Fools: Dom!Spencer (not as harsh as others): Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer needs to one up Reader just as he’s about to loose a prank war. —30 fics in 30 days-

- Dressed in Crimson: Dom!Spencer: Spencer Reid x Female Reader:(Royalty AU)Spencer is a stable boy with a passion for learning and Reader is the princess of the palace that he serves in. They’ve been in a secret relationship, the two grow restless about not being able to be out in the open. ♥️ -30 fics in 30 days-

Non specific dom Spencer Reid x Reader:

- Russian Roulette: Non specific dom: Spencer Reid x Female Unsub Reader: Reader and Spencer formed a relationship during an investigation, turns out she was the unsub they were looking for. Spencer finds the Readers hiding place cornering her, but he can’t let her go yet. Major Trigger Warnings ♥️⚠️ (SAD ENDING)

- Mismatched: Non specific dom: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader is Spencer’s roommate and they have been pining after each other for a while. One morning they finally get to act on their feelings.

- The Big Bluff: Non specific dom: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Spencer goes up against a professional poker player. ♥️-500 follower celebration-

- Any Iteration: Non specific dom: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: Reader is nervous that this new iteration of her won’t be something Spencer will like. ♥️

Blurbs:

- A Snowy Morning After: Part One, Part Two: Non specific dom: Spencer Reid x Female Reader: After being snowed in after a one night stand, Spencer wants to go for a round two. -1000 follower celebration—30 fics in 30 days-

Chip Taylor x Reader (MGG character from 68 kill)

Fluff:

Oneshots:

- Chipped: Chip Taylor x Gender Neutral Reader: Chip Taylor watching Beauty and the beast for the first time with Reader. -500 follower celebration- -prompt/request-

Angst:

Smut:

Oneshots:

Sub!Chip Taylor x Reader:

- Party Play: Sub!Chip: Chip Taylor x Female Reader: After Reader gets Chip to voice one of his deepest desires Reader takes him to a play party Reader’s friend hosts. ♥️-30 fics in 30 days-

Raymond Wadsworth x Reader (MGG character from Suburban Gothic)

Fluff:

Oneshots:

- Unsolved: Raymond Wadsworth x Gender Neutral Reader: Raymond runs into the buzzfeed unsolved duo investigating the same place he is, plus their cute camera operator. -500 follower celebration- -prompt/request-

Smut:

Oneshots:

Sub!Raymond Wadsworth:

- Spooks: Sub!Raymond: Raymond Wadsworth x Female Reader: Raymond starts sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong at the next haunting he’s investigating. ♥️ -30 fics in 30 days-

Angst:

Oneshots:

Blurbs:

- Birthday Blues: Raymond Wadsworth x Gender Neutral Reader: Raymond wants his partner to come back from the dead.

Franklin x Reader (MGG character from Beginner’s luck)

Fluff:

Oneshots:

- Bowling Ball Baby Franklin x Pregnant Female Reader: Franklin and Reader get into a fight about him not being there for Reader’s pregnancy. He has a unique way of apologizing.♥️-Hurt/Comfort-

- Gutter Balls Franklin x Male Reader: While meeting up for a friendly game of bowling with Franklin’s team some very rude people try to insert their opinion on yours and Franklin’s relationship. (Has some angst but is v happy). —request—

- Chili Cheese Fries: Franklin x Gender Neutral Reader: Franklin tries to make bowling alley food taste better during a first date. ♥️ -30 fics in 30 days-

Angst:

Smut:

Oneshots:

- The Owner’s Office: Dom!Franklin: Franklin x Female Reader: Franklin won’t stop pestering the owner of the alley about getting a discount. —1000 follower celebration— —prompt/request— ♥️

Lesley Smith-Juniment x Reader (MGG in Hot Air)

Fluff:

- Unintentionally Unrequited: Lesley Smith-Juniment x Gender Neutral Reader: Reader holds in their love for Lesley after his broken engagement. -30 fics in 30 days-

Angst:

Smut:

-Will be adding more characters in the future-

[yuvon-writes-letters]

To, Yu

Okay, I was gone, and the moment I came back, i [The sentence randomly stops]

I’m, not upset at the fact you lied, i actually had an inkling for awhile now while you were describing the rooms for the first time, it looked like you wanted to continue, but stopped yourself at the last second. I understand why you lied, seeing all of those things must’ve been hard, but Lis and I can’t help you if we don’t know anything, ok Yu?

It sounds like, you found ways out, but both are, not good for you? I don’t know, my brain’s all fuzzy and I can’t comprehend words right, maybe I’m getting something wrong.

My point is, when you build up the guts to, please please please explain to us, or at least me, on what’s in that North room, I don’t care if it’s bad we need to know everything we can about the realm so [The sentence stops again]

Sorry, I’m just, kind of on the edge. Of course you don’t have to tell me now, but

If, it’s not intruding on personal space, what the hell happened between you and Jake? I’m assuming that Jake lied about something, but I don’t think we would do any good if there’s bad blood between the two of you. I sent my Jake the letters too, and he agrees as well.

We’re both worried about you, so, don’t hide anything, alright? [The rest of the text is blacked out]

Rai and Jake

|Hello, real person behind Rai here, I wanted to clarify some things because I don’t think I made it clear before (I’m sorry about that). Rai is a complete OC, their not a self-insert at all, and they have their own life completely separate from mine. Although it is true that I’ll be busy on July and won’t write letters frequently, I wanted to give an in-character Roleplay reason as to why Rai is not as active as the first few letters, hence the panicking at the last letter.

I, the real person, am completely alright, Rai, is not, not at all :)|

Rai,

Thanks for understanding. I'll try to hide as little as I can from now on.

What I think are the two ways out are sitting still and looking pretty, which I despise the concept of, and killing the MWAF by paying an even price, which I hate the idea of even more. (Blacked out) I checked out the altar room a little more, and the phrase "An eye for an eye" (or something approximate because Google Translate) was on the back of the altar in Greek. Jake helped me translate it before we argued.

Mixing mythologies yet again. So far we've got Egyptian, Greek, and... Biblical? I think that's from the Bible. Sue me, it's been a while since I took World Religions.

Actually... no. I guess it hasn't. It just feels longer than it actually was.

I'll try to be a little more specific about what's in the north room. It's not... quite as bad as I made it out to be before, but I was already freaking out and in a bad headspace from remembering the freaky stuff, and I blew it a little out of proportion. I'm not sure how I'd even explain what it really is, though.

It's something similar to a hologram, transparent enough that you can see the trees through it. There's some text in white that doesn't seem to be addressed to me, implying that I'm stuck between the end of something and the beginning of another. Then there are a couple bars— five, to be exact —and two of them are filling with orange very slowly. The others are untouched so far. It's implied I'll be out of this place when all the bars fill up to full. I'm not sure this text was necessarily written by the entity, though. If it was, I think it'd address me a little more directly.

I don't think the argument Jake and I had is necessarily all that useful to the investigation, but since I'm trying to not keep secrets anymore, I'll say it regardless. The cause is tangentially related to the case, anyhow.

I asked him a little while ago whether he could find out if there was a missing person's out for me or not, so we could figure out the extent of the stasis. Then drama happened and I completely forgot all about it until two days ago. I asked him again then, and he sort of acted a little cagey while telling me that he was still in the process of investigating, and told me to wait another day. So I did. I don't think he expected me to remember, since I forget things all the time, but I don't forget things I'm really invested in and I REALLY wanted to know the answer to that question.

Jake made an excuse and went offline when I tried to ask again, which sort of made me think the worst. In hindsight, thinking that anyone who could've reported me missing was dead was pretty stupid, but you try being rational in the face of an unknown like that. In any case, I got anxious, and that sort of blew everything out of proportion, and then that made me more and more upset, and given all the other bullshit inherent in this place and the stress I've been through lately I just completely broke down. Had to sit down and put my head down so I was less likely to pass out from my hyperventilating. Luckily, I knew what was going on and I know breathing exercises, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

In any case, when I was back to being semi-functional, I unlocked my phone again, meaning to close out of the chat, but apparently my last few texts before I had to stop had managed to get across to Jake at least a portion of how freaked out I was. He probably figured it out based on all the typoes and the lack of punctuation or something, his "flaw" (if you can call it that) only seems to make him oblivious to tone and not to outright out of character writing styles.

So he finally told me that there wasn't a missing person's out for me, and not only that but everyone who might have put one out pretty much forgot I existed. He got my fucking parents to answer a "survey," and they only filled out that my half-sister existed, not me. Legal documents and stuff were still all in order, but literally the only people who seem to remember I fucking exist are the Duskwood crew and you and Lis and he had the nerve to tell me that he didnt want to tell me because it wasnt essential information and it would affect my judgement

Back now. I screamed abuse into the woods for a couple minutes, so I feel a bit better now.

I can see his point, logically, but for fuck's sake, there are some things that don't have much to do with the case that I do need to know regardless. This is one.

I'm not going to cut contact with him forever. To put it callously, neither of us can afford that. But if I talk to him now, I'm going to end up saying something or other I'll regret.

Right. Other topics.

Rai, are you doing alright? I know you've got personal issues going on, and I'm not trying to pry into them, but your writing is sort of disjointed and you mentioned being "fuzzy" and "not comprehending words right". Are you getting enough to drink and to sleep? I know weird shit happens to me when I get dehydrated. If you ever feel like you're about to pass out, sit down and put your head between your knees. If this continues, maybe you should see a doctor. Do you feel like your head is stuffed with cotton balls, at all? Any other symptoms?

Feel better :(

—Yu

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

[flying-nightwing]

Dark Fox (5/7)

Yoooooo I love this chapter, I think it’s my favourite so far. 

Previous - Next 

Pairing: Jason Todd x League!Reader

Word Count: 5836

Warnings: same as previous

Your eyes were closed but you could feel Jason growing restless. 

It was already the middle of the day and you had not gone out once to train. He kept shifting his position, crossing and uncrossing his legs, and opening one eye to see if yours were still shut. He would also occasionally let long sighs of impatience, like a child stuck inside on a sunny summer afternoon. 

It wasn’t that far from the truth, actually.

“Alright” He spoke up, slapping something on his skin. probably a fly. “This is pointless”

You slowly opened your eyes and stared at him. He was sweaty and swatting away bugs around him, and an all too familiar frustration was growing in his eyes. Although you didn’t do this exercise to spite him off especially, you had to admit you did enjoy to rile him up that way. 

“I know that face” He grumbled, and you raised an eyebrow. “You’re enjoying this too much. Is there even a purpose to this?”

“Yes” 

“Then what is it?” He yelled, throwing his hands in the air. “We’ve been sitting here in silence for more than two hours!”

“Should I make it two hours more?” 

“You are evil”

“I’m making you do this because” You began after an over exaggerated eye roll. “This kind of meditation, when done well, allows you to take control of everything in you. When you feel conflicted, angry or need to find strength, you can tap into that power. But you need to find it first”

“Yawn” He pretended to sleep. “When I made the joke about making tea, I had no idea you’d take it literally”

“Don’t act so smug, you could use it” You replied. “And the tea technique as well”

He gasped.

“Now get back in position, palms up resting on your knees” You instructed, and he only crossed his arms against his chest in defiance. “Jason”

“I’m not doing it anymore” He shook his head like a toddler. “It’s as hot as the devil’s asshole and your little bowl of water is turning this hut in a sauna. And how the fuck are you not dying?”

He gestured wildly at your short sleeve base layer and tactical pants, which you thought was already a wild improvement from what you usually did. In fact, winter or summer, you had always worn your full League suit no matter how uncomfortable it could get. You had learned to ignore it a long time ago.

“Because I’ve been dead since 2004” You deadpanned.

It took him some time to react. “Sorry did you just make a joke?”

“No. I’m always serious” You didn’t concede, but you did suppress a smile. “Now focus”

“C’mon” He groaned. “For once let’s do something fun! I’ve earned it, don’t you think?”

You held his stare that had become wide and almost… Pleading? In a puppy-that-wants-treats kind of way. And thinking of it, he did work all for almost a year without really choosing what to do. You guessed you could make an exception for this once.

“What did you have in mind?” You asked tentatively.

“Let’s go swimming” He grinned, and it sparked an idea in your head. 

“Swimming you say?”

--------

“What do you think they’re doing?”

“I don’t know” Dick muttered, glancing at Tim with a bewildered expression. “But I’ve never seen Jay sitting so still for so long before”

“Do you think they can hear us?” Tim asked, eyes still on jason and you. “Pssst, Jason”

“Hey Jason!” Dick called, louder this time. Still no reaction.

“Jaybird!”

“Earth to Todd?”

“What are you idiots doing now?” 

Both men turned around at Damian calling them out.

“Jason and Foxy are sitting face to face on the floor like statues” Tim replied, crossing his arms against his chest. “It’s kind of freaking us out. There are herbs burning or whatever”

“If you call her that to her face she’ll kill you” Damian pointed out, pushing off the wall he was leaning on. 

“I know, she already pushed me out of a window” He sighed as Damian walked past him to look into the room. He noticed the positions, the shallow bowl of water and the sage burning next to it. It clicked in his head it was something his mother had taught him years ago, still the never ending sitting session in silence were hardly forgettable. You? He wasn’t surprised to see you do it from what he had gathered about you so far. Jason, however, he was surprised he would even considering let alone last so long. He was impressed.

“They’re meditating, you morons” He rolled his eyes. “League stuff. Lets you in into your own soul so deep you can tune out the exterior world”

“Sounds freaky” Dick hummed.

“I’m going to test that theory” Tim smirked, taking a few steps in the room.

“And if you do that it’s Jason that’s gonna kill you” Damian shouted as he walked away. 

“Can’t be worse that being thrown out of a window” 

“I swear one of them is actually going to kill you sooner than later” Dick sighed as he followed his brother nevertheless. He figured Tim would stand better chance at living with backup.

Tim tiptoed to Jason, taking good care to stay far away from you and your range. He had no idea if you had a blade hidden somewhere--you probably did--and exactly how fast you would hurl it at him. He needed to give himself a margin of manoeuver. He extended his finger and slowly, so slowly got closer to Jason.

“Don’t. You. Dare” 

He froze mid air, eyes widening. Jason’s eyes were still closed, but apparently he was aware enough to know he was close. He shared a glance with Dick, not willing to run away just yet even though Jason had quite literally blindly deducted his intention. He moved a bit closer again, and just before his finger came in contact with Jason’s ear, he snapped his eyes open and glared so hard at Tim it made him and Dick scatter out of the room. He help his glare a little longer on the room’s threshold before sighing. 

“I kinda miss the quiet of the hut”

You slowly opened your eyes to meet his stare. You would have given him a smile if your mind wasn’t so far away of your head. 

“Found anything?” 

You shook your head at his question, looking away from the concern that was growing on his face. You had tuned into your mind to find how in the hell and back you didn’t just let the arrow fly and ended it for Luthor. You had hesitated, something you didn’t even know was possible for you. Moreover, you had deviated from the only personal goal you ever had, for what? For the lives of people that didn’t matter to you. It was a good thing you didn’t work for the League on that one, because you wouldn’t have made it out alive. 

It was also a miracle Tim hadn’t ratted you going outside of the plan to go after Luthor. You had fully expected a fight when you met with the rest of the group, but he had kept his mouth shut after what went down. It worried you, because the only reason you could think for him doing that was for leverage, and well, you certainly didn’t like the idea of any of these people here having leverage on you. And with the warning Jason gave you about his detective skills, none of this settled right within you. 

“You’ll get another chance”

It was like he was reading your mind. It wasn’t like he didn’t know you better than anyone, and it was not like you were well guarded right now. You were too distracted to hold up your defenses. Still, you were angry at yourself.

“I let him go” You mumbled through gritted teeth. “I’ve never…”

“I know” He breathed out. “Are you okay?”

“Yes” You snapped. You didn’t need his pity. “I just need to remind myself of who I am”

He held your stare for a second, betraying no emotion. “And who is that?”

You gulped, hesitating despite your better judgement. “I am Thaelib fi alzalam, child of the darkness and servant of the demon”

His jaw clenched ever so slightly, but he didn’t say anything more.

--------

“Am I the only one who noticed Jay’s been… Different ever since he brought back the ninja here?” 

Dick looked up from his paperwork and grinned at Tim. “Right? He’s around all the time now”

“Do you think they’re together?” He asked in between two glances at the files in front of him. They were still on the Luthor case, and he had his own side quest to figure out. “She would seem like his type. Cold, snarky, slightly to very murderous, you know”

Dick laughed. “I mean something definitely happened between them, especially since they allegedly spent all this time together. But actually together? Meh”

“Don’t you have anything better to do that gossip about me?”

Both men’s eyes snapped up at the voice that joined the conversation. Jason was standing in the doorframe of the cave, arms crossed against his chest and a scowl on his face. A steaming cup of coffee was rested on his bicep, but he didn’t seem bothered by the heat of the ceramic container.

“Absolutely not” Dick sniggered, making Jason scoff. “So, you two together?” 

Jason’s eyes went from his older brother to Tim, whose head was cocked on the side. He was watching intensely for a reaction, and it made Jason shift on his feet. He did not like when Tim went all detective on him, especially since he had no idea of the reason why he would do it. It was creepy and invasive, and even him wasn’t immune to Tim’s hyper perceptiveness. Jason cleared his throat.

“You think I’m going to answer this?” He challenged Dick, doing his best to ignore Tim’s weird as fuck behaviour.

“Oh come on Jaybird, do a girl a favor and spill the beans!” He pleaded. “We barely know anything of what went down with you two”

“And I intend it to stay that way” He replied, walking to Dick’s rolling chair. “Now move. Alfred sent me to replace you. You’ve been here for hours and he wants you to take a break”

“Aw, okay” He complied as he stood up. “Can’t say no to Alfred”

“What about me?” Tim finally spoke with a small pout. Jason rolled his eyes and walked to his desk, putting down the steaming mug of coffee in front of him. Everybody knew it was pointless to try and pry Tim away from his work, so Alfred had instead sent him down with about seven shots of espresso in a mug. That was enough to change his expression from betrayed to content. 

Jason waited for Dick to leave and propped down in the seat, keeping watch on Tim from the corner of his eye. His fingers skimmed over the paperwork left behind, but he wasn't very interested in it. He only agreed to replace Dick because like his older brother, saying no to Pennyworth was not an option, not a moral one anyway. 

“So” Tim began nonchalantly, pretending to be interested in whatever was in his face at the moment. Jason braced himself for more invasive questions he would not answer. “How did you not kill each other in the first week of training?”

Jason blinked in surprise at the question. He did not expect something so… Impersonal? He seemingly referred to his and your character, which he must have witnessed while being paired with you the previous night. However, he still remained on his guard, because Tim was being weird. Well, weirder than usual that is.

“I guess… We tried?” He said carefully, frowning. “Didn’t work”

“Interesting” He nodded, taking a sip from his coffee. “I’ve noticed her fondness for violence, which makes sense why you would get along”

“Okay just say what you want to say” He sighed, making a vague hand gesture. 

“No it’s just--” He paused and took a breath. “Something weird happened the other day, after she pushed me out of the window”

Jason raised an eyebrow.

“She landed after me and then she just took off” He said with a shrug. “Naturally I went after her because nobody walks out on me. And imagine my surprise when I saw her facing off with none other than Lex Luthor”

Jason’s muscles tensed, but he gave no other reaction. Fuck. 

“I mean she could have killed him, she seemed pretty obsessed with going there or whatever” He kept talking, obviously noticing his brother’s subtle change of attitude. “But then they just held the stare off until the explosion went off and she instead saved a bunch of people that would have otherwise been crushed to death by concrete. Anyway. Now tell me if I got it wrong, but she doesn’t seem like the type to just hesitate, or care about the others, right? I tried to piece it together, the obsession, the hesitation, her weird knowledge of Luthor’s modus operandi, her whole involvement in this for that matters, but I still come short of the little missing piece to the puzzle. It bothers me”

He watched Tim with his mouth slightly agape. He knew it had been a bad idea for you to go after Luthor with Tim nearby, but he didn’t think he’d put the pieces together that quickly, or rather, that you’d let such a slip go noticed. Nonetheless, he wiped away his astonishment away and replaced it with yet another scowl.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I don’t know, I’d believe you know more than anyone about her”

“I think you’re looking way too much into this, Drake” He dismissed, going back to his papers. “She was raised by the League. Going after a target is her basic instinct, and are you really going to judge her for doing the right thing and saving people?”

“Mhhh” Tim simply hummed, also going back to his own work. Jason gave him one last glance, knowing his deflection wouldn’t hold him back for long. The truth was about to come out, and he feared it wouldn’t be pretty when it did.

--------

“Go on”

Jason narrowed his eyes, his glance slowly going from you to the plank you had lowered above the water and to the post farther into the middle of the river. It rose about seven feet above the surface, and Jason didn’t trust it or your intentions for that matter.

He adjusted the quiver strap and the bow on his shoulder and began carefully reaching the post. Nope, he definitely didn’t trust that setting at all. However, as much as he was mad you had twisted his swimming idea, he was also curious as to what hellish stunt you would make him do this time. He knew you by now, so whatever it was, it would be both dangerous and entertaining. 

He grabbed the post and hoisted himself up by the only step that was carved in the middle of it. He stood up on the small surface, barely large enough to stand comfortably on both feet. He looked at you, and you had already pulled back the plank.

“Hey!” 

You smirked and brought the plank to the other post about twenty feet further down the river. You climbed on it and faced Jason.

“So what now?” He called from his position. “We shoot each other?”

You grabbed an arrow and nocked, but left your bow aimed down at the water. Even from the distance you could see his face drop.

“You’re fucking crazy!” He shouted. “How is this not ending in one of us being dead?”

“You found static meditation too boring” You shouted back. “This should do it to find your balance and inner strength”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” 

“Dodge the arrow” You said, lifting your bow and shooting straight at him.

The arrow flew at him, and in his attempt to dodge it, lost balance and landed in the water. He came up with a gasp, and swam back to the wooden post before the strong current could drag him away. He climbed again, all drenched and glaring at you.

“Or fall and get wet”

“Oh, because you’re so good at dodging arrows from a upright tree trunk without falling” He snarked back as he took off his tank top and threw it on the shore.. “I’d love to see you on the other end of these”

For emphasis he raised his own bow. You shrugged and slipped your bow through your arm and head to rest it on your back, and waited for him to shoot. In a blink he nocked his first arrow, aiming from your left shoulder. You leaned out of the way, stable on your post, then slowly returned to your position. You raised your eyebrow in challenge, and oh did he not like that. The next arrow went to your feet, and you simply jumped, landing back solidly on your feet. He shot at the same place again, you jumped, then aimed for your mid section rapidly after. You landed on your left foot and crouched so your right slipped along the post, resting on the step in the middle. Jason paused a moment, eyes wide, before shooting straight at you. You propelled yourself up, then saw a second and third arrow coming your way before you had the time to stabilize yourself. You saved your eminent fall with a side vault and landed gracefully.

“Oh you must be kidding me!”

“Don’t act so surprised” You teased. “You can do that too, Jason. Close your eyes and take a deep breath, don’t think about it too much. Empty your mind and trust your instinct”

You waited as his shoulders went up and down, and his eyes slowly opened. Without waiting you shot an arrow, an easy one to dodge and he did, seemingly on instinct. You shot another, he jumped over it. His landing was wobbly, but he didn’t fall. His eyes lit up like when he found out a game he liked, and he began shooting back at you. You exchanged hits, not once falling, well, until one of you did. 

Two quick arrow of yours managed to make Jason land a bit too far to the right, and he fell in the water. However, he didn’t resurface immediately, which made you lower your bow and search the water for him. You frowned, and only noticed too late the wave of water coming on your side. Jason then climbed on your post and tackled your waist, throwing you straight into the water with him. You hit the water on the side, and swam back to the surface with a gasp.

Jason stared at you with a devious grin, daring you to do something about it. You hooked your bow on your shoulder and lunged. 

You had to admit, sparing in water wasn’t something you had ever done, and the resistance was getting to you. Jason was already better at hand to hand, but now he had the absolute advantage. His longer limbs allowed him to move better and to pull himself up on the river ground if you were to push him down, and the fact that he was only in shorts didn’t impede his movements as much as your heavier clothing. The current was rolling you down the river, and when you hit a shallower part, you couldn’t see the posts anymore. 

You now had water to your midsection, and Jason took the opportunity from your stumbling on the higher river floor. He caught you in his classic headlock, pressing your back against his chest. You stopped struggling then, knowing it was over for you. But he didn’t release you, and you didn’t move either when he slightly loosened his hold.

Both of you were panting from the effort, his chest was heaving quickly on your back. The water made your and Jason’s skin cold, but his breath was warm on the crook of your neck. Usually you would have tapped out, or flipped him over. But you were like in a trance, and you didn’t understand why you couldn’t move away.

Why you wouldn’t move away.

“Gotcha”

His voice sent shiver down your spine.

“Fuck, Jay”

It took you a moment to realize what you said. His breath stilled on your neck, and you gulped. You had never called him just “Jay” before, you didn’t do nicknames. And especially not with that voice, and in that kind of circumstance. You cleared your throat, and he dropped his arm and took a step away.

"I'll…" You trailed off. "I'll go change"

“Sure” His voice wavered in a weird way. “Uh, go on, I’ll catch up later”

You turned around, raising an eyebrow. “Is... Everything alright?”

“Yeah" He said. “I’m just, uh, going for a swim real quick. Another one”

Without another word, he submerged himself in the water.

---------

You had Damian in a headlock when the trail of bat family rushed down the batcave in a hurry, Jason trailing behind seeming way less bothered than the others. You looked up, and this moment of inattention gave Damian the opening to send you flying over him. Your back hit the ground flat, and your confused stare at your own distraction was met by a grimace of disbelief from Damian. Okay, you were truly out of it. 

“Luthor has devanced his plan, we got intel he would move tonight”

You pulled yourself to your feet, suddenly interested in the rush they seemed to be into. You followed Damian out of the cage and met the group halfway, glancing at Jason. He only briefly met your eyes, returning his attention on Bruce afterwards.

“He is going to move the weapon in an underground facility just outside the city, which means we will lose the signal from the tracker” He briefed. “The classic, three vans, only one carrying the package”

“Do we know what it’s even for?” Jason asked.

“I found something about yersinia pestis being injected in certain areas of Gotham” Damian stepped up. “So basically, a plague weapon”

“A plague weapon?” He frowned. “Why would Luthor would ever be interested in bringing back the plague?”

“Wait” Dick perked up, running to the working tables and looking around for something specific. He grabbed a stack of papers and came back. “Here, I saw he made the recent acquisition of a pharmaceutical company that produces, wait for it, gentamicin. It’s a plague treatment”

“So he’s gonna drop the virus on Gotham with that little device?” Jason raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know--”

“Last year Luthor made the acquisition of a low income housing company mostly operating in the Bowery, Crime Alley and Otisburg” You spoke up, a wary look on your face. “My bet would be that device is to slip the bacteria into the ventilation systems, or the pipes”

“... He did” Dick confirmed, looking through the papers. “That would make sense. He spread the plague at a little scale, he provides the medicine, he wins at every steps”

“He IS trying to slither in the city council” Bruce hummed. “Trying to steal Wayne Enterprises’ seat”

“We need to go now if we don’t wanna miss our shot, Bruce” Dick warned.

“Yes” He snapped out of it. “Three vans. Nightwing, Red Robin, you’ll be assigned to the car that will go down through City Hall District. Robin and I will follow the car going through Gotham proper” He paused, looking at you and Jason. “You two work better together. You’ll go North. I’ll send Dick and Jason the trajectories. Gear up”

Wordlessly, you all went to your own dressing area. Yours was simply a plastic box in a corner with your suit folded, and your weapons on a nearby table. You took a moment longer than usual at the black uniform, but nevertheless put it on piece by piece. The tactical pants, the gloves, the undercoat and the protective layer on it, the belt and the spiked arm bracers. Then the belt, your sword on your back and the arrow quiver crossing above it. You reloaded the shooter on your arm and strapped the sheath on your thigh with your blades, then put on the comm in your ear. 

You grabbed your bow and returned toward the others, who were finishing gearing up as well. Jason came and stood beside you, an unreadable expression on his face. Well, it could be, but you refused to look at him in the face. You instead put on your helmet, the black visor hiding your face. 

“There’s no time to waste, let’s go” Bruce called. “Whatever team finds the van, you stop it and bring back the weapon here”

And with that, you went out. Bruce took the batmobile, while the rest were all on bikes. You and Jason left the cave last, shooting out on the road like two blurs in the night. Your comm was on, tuned on the channel with him only. It took him about five minutes to start talking.

“Tim knows” He said. “Or at least he is close enough to know”

“Doesn’t matter” You clipped back, swerving easily around cars on your way. “This will end soon enough one way or another”

“And you’ll go back to the league?” His voice was bitter, and you could only imagine his expression.

“... Yes” 

“Whatever”

You rode in silence until you reached your hideout point. There was still five minute before the van was scheduled to turn the corner and engage on the one way avenue, and you would execute the plan from then. You both turned different directions to hide in alleys, turning off the lights of your motorcycle. You put one foot down, leaving one hand on the handle. The engine was purring softly under you, warm and ready to take off.

“We’ll attack from the sides” Jason spoke again through the comm. You could see his red helmet on the other side of the street. “We take off the doors quick and clean, if it’s not there we lose them. If it is, I take the van and you cover me”

“Copy that” 

“They should be there in one minute, get ready” 

You adjusted your helmet and readied your explosive arrows. You then crouched on the bike and waited for the van to pass in front of the hideout. You counted the seconds in your head, five, four, three, tw- 

“What the fuck?” You frowned when not one, but three vans heavily escorted with motorcycles sped past you. You and Jason engaged on the road nevertheless, coming up side to side at a safe distance from the vans.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen” He mumbled. “Alright, change of plans. Keep your distances behind them without being seen, I’ll cut them upfront. When I start drawing the escort, blow the doors of each vans. Fuck being subtle”

With that, he parted ways into a smaller street on his right. You remained hidden into traffic, making sure the bikers did not spot you. Not long after, you heard gunshots and they all were drawn at the front, like Jason had planned. You accelerated closer of the last van at the tail. With one hand, you grabbed your bow on top of the handle, waited for the bike to get back straight and slowed down a bit. In a quick movement, you grabbed an explosive arrow and shot on the van doors, immediately regaining your grip on the handle afterwards. The doors flew open, revealing it empty.

You cursed, but swerved nonetheless around the slowing down van and paused in the driver’s blind spot. You knew they’d look for you to pass them, so you got ready with a blade in your hands. You waited a bit more before rolling up to the window and throwing the blade in the guy’s throat before he could shoot you. You repeated the same operation with the next van, also taking down two rogue bikers that had left Jason’s distraction to get to you. That van ended up empty as well.

“Two down, one to go” 

“Alright, hurry up, those fuckers just keep coming from I don’t fucking know where-- FUCK”

“Hang on, I’m almost done”

Nothing in the last van either. You frowned, thinking how easy it had been for you to bust the vans. The bikers guarding the vans surely couldn’t be that stupid to still hover around Jason while you were clearly open, even if there was nothing. But you chased the doubt aside, and instead tuned in the frequency with everyone else

“Our vans are empty”

“So are our” It was Tim who replied a few seconds later. “Wait, vans in plural? B, did you get more vans too?”

“Only one, empty too” 

“Where did your intel come from again?” Tim asked. A moment of silence followed. 

“You and Jason should get out of there, something’s not right on the monitor--”

You lost contact when you were violently hit from the side by a black car. You were projected off your bike and sent rolling down several meters away. Your suit and helmet took most of the fall, ripping and breaking with the rough friction on the asphalt. You visor cracked and the protective plastic lining broke at the base. Your vision was blurry for a second, and your muscles barely responsive. You pushed through the pain anyway and carefully took off your helmet, throwing it away. You looked up and tried to focus on the figure in black coming toward you, and when you did, you gathered your remaining strength and managed a kneeling position. It was Luthor. 

You were about to shoot one of your dart when he shot first, sending  a shockwave through your already weak muscles. You fell forward on all fours with a barely contained scream tearing through your throat. 

“We meet again” His voice was deeper than you expected, and way too calm. You didn’t like it. “I knew if I organized this little parade, you’d come back out there following the masked clowns”

So, it was a setup.

“Where’s the weapon?” You rasped.

“Safe in my underground storing since this morning” He replied smugly. “Don’t beat yourself up, you had no chance. You came too close last time at the lab”

“Kill me now and get over with it”

“Now why would I want to do that? I just wanted to see you from up close” He smirked. “I knew those eyes the second I looked at you the other day. And now that I have you here without that stupid mask, I can see you took more after your mother than I had planned”

You gritted your teeth, panting from the pain of the electrical shock that had gone through you. Hairs were falling out of your braid and sticking to your forehead, yet you didn’t care. You could only glare at him.

“But you’re still my daughter. You belong to me” 

You lunged, but another electric shock sent you back on your knees with a strangled cry. It had been a reflex on your part, since you were usually pretty good a pushing your pain aside. But you had been off ever since your last encounter with him. He got in your head so easily, and now he wouldn’t leave. 

“I am Thaelib fi alzalam” You rasped out. “And I don’t”

“Ah yes, I figured you would deny your name when we finally met” He seemed amused. “And you do, legally speaking. Your mother were under contract to deliver you and walk away. Instead she stole you from me. She stole years of work, for what? So you could become no one”

“You killed her!” You belted out, eyes wide with rage. “You forced us into hiding, she sent me to the League to protect me from you”

“Is that what you think? Or what she told you?” He was becoming impatient. “You were special. You were my first successful genetic clone, but her own selfishness got in the way”

“She wasn’t selfish” You tried to reach for a blade on your thigh, but another shock forced you on your hands. “You were”

“I was?” He put a hand on his chest. “I gave you your superior skills, I gave you your speed, I made you like this. I gave you that gift, that power, that strength, all of it so you could make it out in this world. I did it for you, from a father to his daughter”

You lifted your head a frown on your face. You skills? What was he talking about?

“You didn’t think the League’s training gave you those skills, did you?” He scoffed. “As I told you, you’re special, my girl. I only wished for you to thrive”

“No” You mumbled, narrowing your eyes. Your mother never specified you were enhanced. Did she even know? All that time you thought your successes were from your hard work, but they were really from a genetic modification. You always knew there was something peculiar about you that made you feel like you didn’t exactly belong with the others, and it had just been revealed to you. And what else could he have put inside of you, you weren’t aware about? It made your head spin.

“You’re not one of them, you realize it now” He stalked toward you. “Not the League, not the vigilantes either. Your mother stole you away from what you were made for, and the League merely repressed it. But you can’t fight your nature”

You didn’t look up when he stooped in front of you. You only glanced at your black gloved hands, realizing that all you had suffered only delayed the inevitable. If your mother hadn’t ran away, maybe all of your struggle and pain would have never happened.

“Come with me” He offered. “This internal conflict you have will subside quickly enough once you’re back home, you’ll see”

You ears were ringing as his proposition replayed in your head in loops. Maybe if you agreed he’d stop tormenting you then, maybe he’d leave your head and you could finally rest without obsessing over him. You slowly looked up, but something coming on your side made your eyes widen. Only then the sound reached your ears, and in a quick reflex movement, you rolled away.

Jason was walking toward you, shooting his bullet in rapid fire in Luthor’s direction.

Luthor noticed him half a second later and jumped away, running away and climbing in his black car. He drove away as Jason reached your, his eyes trailed on the retreating black cadillac. Then, he turned to you, the glossing red of his helmet staring back at you.

“You okay?”

You shook your head no.

[shadowsnlace]

Sure! Let’s take a trip with the Captains and their families to Disney World. With everyone having to stay home, a little jaunt into the wonders of Disney would be fun. Hope you all enjoy! <3

I’m going to treat this as an all week vacation because there is so much to see and do at Disney World, a weekend just doesn’t really give anyone a chance to experience it all. I left out the water park and some of the other attractions just because this post began to get really long and was taking on a life of its own. ;)

And, because it got so long, I’m going to put it all under a cut so that it doesn’t eat up so much of the feed.

Shunsui - Spends a lot of time laughing. Every time he and his daughter get on a ride that makes her squeal, he starts laughing. He loves how she hangs on his arm and burrows into his side while screaming and laughing.

Once he gets to Epcot, he hits the brakes -- they sell booze at the restaurants! He makes sure to sample the drink of choice from all the countries represented at the World Showcase. He tries not to linger too long despite how much he’d like to just spend all day there.

The animal attractions aren’t of much interest to him and he fights the urge to power-nap on a bench while his daughter is watching the animals. The aquarium is even worse, it’s darker in there and it’s cool. He drew quite a few snickers with his snoring.

The live shows are fun for his daughter, but not for him. He’ll doze a bit then a loud explosion of music or sound effect will jolt him awake. It’s sleep deprivation mingled with a little torture. He wishes he’d thought to bring earplugs.

Whenever one of Disney princesses interacts with his daughter he just can’t help but flirt. He’s so handsome that they seem to like it until he overdoes it and then they shut him down. Shameless, Shunsui, utterly shameless.

Soi Fon - So many people! So few places to hide! Her ninja instincts are kinda overloaded at first, but she settles down pretty fast.

Seeing her daughter go crazy over all her favorite Disney characters makes Soi Fon smile. She knows the feeling of fangirling very well. (*cough* Yoruichi.)

She is all about the pictures and making sure she gets lots of shots of her daughter visiting with the characters. She also makes sure to get lots of shots of the family all together too.

The rides are definitely a main attraction for her and her little one. She is so proud that her daughter is laughing it up while all the other kids are screaming in fear.

The live shows are nice, but both of them prefer to be out and doing things rather than sitting in seat for a long period of time.

Soi Fon nearly layed a smackdown on Mickey Mouse -- first he came out of nowhere and startled her, then the freaky-big rodent had the audacity to tickle her while posing for a photo!

Secretly watches The Aristocats every night before bed.

Rose - Really wants to spend the whole vacation going from one show to the next. But, this trip is mostly about his little love and her love of all things Disney. Although, he manages to get to evening shows since Disney has counselors that will watch his daughter while he enjoys some more adult-friendly activities.

Loves going through Epcot and enjoys watching his daughter’s mind open up to other cultures as well as ideas about the future. More than once he gets in on some of the street shows in the World Showcase.

Likes the animal attractions but doesn’t care for the smell. Ends up getting medieval with an aroma blocking herb baggie to pin to their clothes. The aquarium inspires him to softly sing every sea shanty he knows, which is a total of three that he picked up in a pub somewhere in the world of the living.

Goes to the live musical shows that are his daughter’s favorite. Always sings louder than anyone else, including the stage actors. Gets applause more often than not.

Retsu - Will ride most of the rides with her daughter, although there are some that she prefers to just stand and watch with a smile on her face.

The World Showcase at Epcot is a big favorite for her. There is so much to sample and experience! Especially the teas!

Really enjoys the animals and teaching her daughter about what they are. They end up spending the most of that time at Conservation Station. The animal encounters are a thrill for both of them.

They only got to a few live shows, only the ones that are must-see favorites. She and her daughter like doing more interactive things like the science things at Future World.

Makes sure that their activities are a balance of fun and education. Retsu makes sure to end off the day with some low-energy things so that her daughter can start to wind down before bedtime can roll around.

For some reason, the staff at the parks and the resort seem to be very unsettled by Retsu’s smile.

Shinji - Absolutely loves the rides, especially anything that spins or goes upside-down. His daughter, a chip off the ol’ block, loves them too. There’s no way to know who is squealing and laughing louder, him or her.

Epcot is interesting, but doesn’t hold the same thrills as the rides so they hit only the things they want to see and go back to re-ride their favorite rides.

Was totally enjoying the animal attractions until one of the monkeys flung poo and hit him. After that, he stayed well out of the firing zone. The aquarium was so much more peaceful...and no chance of getting hit with poo.

Tells every princesses he meets that she is his first love. (It’s gets old fast) Daughter totally busts him every time: “But you said Mommy was your first love!” *Cue Shinji’s smile* “Of course she is! Oh, look! Isn’t that Princess Jasmine?!”

At the live shows, he dances in the aisle with his daughter during her favorite songs because life is all about seizing moments and making awesome memories.

Is really thrilled that there is a jazz club where he can indulge his love of music after dinner.

Byakuya - Determined to still behave with dignity as befitting his station...which lasts about 10 minutes. His daughter is having none of that stuffy-Daddy business, this is Disney World!

Despite his reluctance to go on the rides, he goes on one just to please his daughter. And that’s when Byakuya decides that letting lose and having some fun won’t do a thing to diminish his pride. While he won’t make any noise on the rides, he loves to hear his daughter giggle and scream with glee. He’ll smile. He’ll laugh too, but it’s easily lost in the rush of the wind.

Epcot is where he could happily spend the entire vacation. The Gallery of Arts and History could keep him coming back every day, but he has to settle for a leisurely one time through. He buys quite a few art history books for reading later before bedtime.

The two Frozen attractions are torture for him, but he endures for his daughter’s sake. Earplugs are helpful, but still don’t completely drown out the singing. Poor Byakuya, “Let It Go” began and he cringed so hard he got a cramp.

Doesn’t smile in any pictures. That’s not to say he doesn’t smile, because he does quite often. After all, he’s enjoying himself. He just seems to have a supernatural ability to know when his picture is about to be taken -- and no smile, all formal. (Strike a pose much, Byakuya?)

Sajin - His daughter gets so excited by seeing the Disney characters and being able to interact with them. He takes lots of pictures.

The rides are lot of fun. However, he spends half his energy worrying that his daughter is safely secured in the ride. To remedy that, he keeps a hand on her or an arm around her when he can.

Poor Sajin, came off the spinning cups staggering around like a drunk. He really didn’t care for that one bit. Managed to keep his lunch down, but just barely. His daughter thought is was rather funny.

Epcot is both fascinating and fun for both of them, especially all the Future World stuff. He fears he may just be raising a budding scientist.

The shows are great, but he has to sit in the aisle because he won’t fit in a seat. One of the staff asked him to take a seat -- until he stood up. She squeaked that it would be just fine for him to sit on the step next to his daughter’s seat.

The animal attractions and aquarium are where Sajin and his daughter have the most fun. They both love animals and have a special kind of being “in tune” with them so they react differently to them than to those that are 100% human.

Lisa - She got pretty hyper when she saw all the amazing amenities that were in the luxury suite they were in at the resort. She all but vowed to never leave it.

The rides were loads of fun. She rode everything, some of them two or three times when her daughter would ask to go again, “Please! Please! Please!”

Epcot was a surprisingly fun place for her daughter. The little one’s interest in history and then in science reminded her quite a bit of little Nanao. So, she bought books that she could read to her daughter on things that sparked her curiosity.

The character interactions didn’t go over too well. The princesses were very nice, but her daughter hid shyly behind her legs. When the large costumed characters approached, her little girl took one look at Mickey Mouse and started screaming and crying. Lisa just scooped her up and marched off to soothe her with ice cream.

After the Mickey Mouse incident, Lisa was reluctant to try the animal attractions. However, they proved to be much better and her daughter had a wonderful time. Poor thing was spit on by a llama, but she didn’t freak out, she scolded it. Finger wagging, a hand on hip, and a meanie face “Bad mahlahmala!” Lisa was so glad to have a video of that.

Kensei - He spends his first morning at the resort unwinding in the gym. He even goes for a swim. The suite was impressive, but the exercise choices really surprised him. He plans to eventually try them all before breakfast everyday.

The rides get a scoff. He’s too old for all that. But, he goes anyway when wife and daughter declare him out-voted. It takes a couple of rides before he gets into the spirit of it all and begins to enjoy himself. How can he not like something that makes his daughter smile and laugh so much?

Epcot World Showcase sends Kensei into foodie heaven. He samples as much as he can and will do his best to try to identify how something was cooked and what spices were used. He makes notes on napkins to try to duplicate his favorites at home. Future World holds more wonder for his daughter than him...he’s still mentally going over recipes.

The character interactions go great until Goofy arrived and his daughter got scared. Much to his dismay, it took Kensei accepting a hug from Goofy before his little girl would stop crying and come over for a hug too. The pictures are carefully guarded so Kensei can’t get rid of them.

His daughter is a little skittish around the animals at the attractions, but once he shows no fear, she’s quick to follow. If Daddy can do it, so can she. The aquarium fascinates her. The novelty wears off quickly for him and he tries not to doze in muted light and cool temperatures.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Kensei has a thing for ink pens and secretly buys all sorts of glittery, goth, unusual, or weird pens that he comes across in the gift shops. They’re his souvenirs and will be tucked away in his office for his private enjoyment. He bought two with a skull theme so he could give one to Hisagi.

Toshiro - Really didn’t want to go to Disney World at all. Way too hot! He is physically uncomfortable the whole time he has to walk around in the hot sun.

The rides are fun and provide some breezy relief from the heat. He loves hearing his daughter scream and laugh. It’s worth melting in the sun just to hear her joy.

Epcot is a bit better experience since a lot of that is indoors. He loves all the educational value that comes in a fun package.

The animal attractions aren’t really that interesting to either of them so they opt for some character interactions and live shows. He even poses and smiles with the Elsa character actress. He does for the others too, but only one of those smiles was genuine ;)

The two Frozen attractions are hands-down their favorite. Toshiro is so tempted to add a little chilly extras to the show but knows it will freak out the humans. He enjoys the wonder and happiness on his daughter’s face as she watches the stage performers and sings along not missing a word.

Believe it or not, Toshiro’s favorite part was sitting on the balcony of their suite with his wife and daughter tucked up to him, relaxing as they watched the fireworks.

Kenpachi - Gets lost about 50 yards from the front gate. Spends the rest of the day accepting that he hasn’t got a damn clue where the hell they are. But, his daughter seems to know exactly where to go and tugs him from one ride to the next.

Nearly took down Donald Duck during the character interactions. “What the hell is a giant duck doing here?”

Kenny thought the Jedi Training: Trial of the Temple was the best thing he’d ever seen in the world of living. He challenged Darth Vader to a one on one. Had his daughter not pulled him away, he probably would have been “escorted” from the premises.  

Epcot was blah for him but at least there was alcohol to be had. He really enjoyed the World Showcase - Germany -- he liked the beer and the rowdy nature of the people. The science themed attractions held no pull for him or his daughter so they both decided to go back to Jedi Training.

The animal attractions were fun for his little girl, but he found it a bit boring. Once in a while he’d grunt, “I killed a Hollow once, looked just like that thing.”

The best picture ever: Kenny and his daughter wearing Mickey Mouse ears, holding light sabers and battle snarling at the camera.

Mayuri - He really didn’t want to go at all. “A week?! I can’t be away from my experiments that long!”

The first day there everyone thinks that he’s a character because of all the black and white makeup and the elaborate head/hair accessory. “Hey! What movie are you from?” Mayuri gets aggravated really fast. There is a lot of grumbling about “simpletons” and “idiots.”

Goes on all the rides for the experience, not for fun. His daughter is happy as can be, but he’s sitting next to her with a blank face. It’s a strange thing to see.

The animal attractions are rather boring, he’s had those specimens before. His daughter is still interested so he tells her about the animals and what he’s learned from his experiments with them.

The aquarium is where Mayuri’s eyes go wide. There are so many specimens he’s never seen in person before! He’s seen these on a computer, but in person... He begins making plans to procure some to take home. His daughter is wise beyond her years and hustles him out with a stern, “No, Daddy, they stay here!”

Epcot Future World is where Mayuri has the most fun. He comments on the simplicity of some of the science, but he’s mostly happy to see his daughter take an interest in his first true love: science.

Jushiro - When he walks in, you can bet that more than one person nearly gets whiplash from turning to stare at this beautiful man that just entered the park. Some think he’s a star from a movie. One thing is certain, his beautiful hair and handsome features are undeniably magnetic.

The Disney princesses have a hard time staying in character around him. The glassy eyes and titters are just precursors to longing looks and nearly swooning at his feet. Add in that sweet nature and the husky timber of his voice -- panties will be melting. However, Jushiro only has eyes for his daughter and wife.

He really has to pace himself. He can only spend a limited amount of time outside in the heat. Low stress rides are always a “yes” for him so he can have fun with his little girl and laugh. The more strenuous rides are left for Mommy to go on while he watches from a shady bench.

Epcot is wonderful and holds many attractions that appeal to Jushiro. He likes being able to sample food, drink, and some activities of other cultures. He stocked up on quite a few different teas from around the world to take home. The science offerings are interesting too, but end up a bit boring for his daughter.

The animal attraction, especially the interactive ones are a big hit. The aquarium is also great since it gives him a chance to be out of the heat. The same goes for live shows. These give his daughter a chance to see her favorites and it gives him a chance to sit down and recover from walking around the park. When the day has more indoor activities, he can spend more time out of bed.

The fireworks show was one of his favorite experiences because he got to have private time with his family and still enjoy something fun.

All of them - Everyone loves the Star Wars attractions, each for different reasons. It’s definitely a huge hit with parents and kids alike.

Every single one of them gets Mickey Mouse ears -- and wears them, except Byakuya, Toshiro, and Mayuri. Byakuya and Toshiro give in when their daughters give them that Daddy-melting look and say, “Pleeeeeease?” Mayuri poses for one picture with the ears on, then shreds them to pieces when his daughter isn’t looking.

All the parents take advantage of the child-minding services offered so that they can get some romantic time. There are lots of nighttime activities like clubs and shows to enjoy. And, of course, there’s just having a few hours to get in some sexy time without the munchkin to worry about.

Always end up carrying their daughter when they get worn out. During the day it’s rides on Daddy’s/Mommy’s shoulders, but always by dinner time it’s curled on Daddy’s/Mommy’s shoulder and completely zonked out as they leave the park. (Let that picture sink in and just sigh :) )

[jennhoney]

I feel uneasy. Just in general. Things are relatively fine but I can’t shake it today. I guess I will go do stupid exercise.

[chickenfreeblog]

Chicken, have you ever done any kind of regular strength training? I think I want to try it but I don’t want to go to a gym or get really meathead about it. I just want to be a little stronger and have more functional fitness and it’s got zero to do with losing weight or looking a certain way. It’s so intimidating to learn about though.

yeah definitely! i will say i kind of cheated on the knowledge part because my methods for learning are either 

1) get accosted by a coach and told that i am not jacked enough for an eight year old 

2) stay self conscious about that comment for like twenty years and parlay it into a vibe known as Any Jock Is Welcome To Invite Me To The Gym At Any Time, I Will Go (I Don’t Ask Questions)

3) follow random jock friends around demanding that they teach me stuff even if it has nothing to do with the sports i’m doing

buT!!!!! i have been trying to like read stuff so i can figure out if these people are all bullshitting me or not, so here’s some resources that i think are good:

Ask A Swole Woman: casey’s jacked as hell but her answers are always good and thoughtful and i love her. doesn’t really talk specific exercises, more perspective

The Exercist: breaks down harmful ideas around body image; some discussion might be triggering? i really like the perspective though, and they post a good number of basic exercise ideas that are mostly bodyweight

Runner’s World strength training, Outside mag, other running and triathlon magazines: kind of a weird source, but i tend to rely on sport-specific magazines for functional exercises? it might take a little bit of fiddling to find info that matches what you want, but they’re generally more holistic and focused on just building capacity for x activity rather than what it looks like

Self’s workouts: i haven’t tested these plans or anything, but they got a shoutout in some newsletter a while ago & i’ve been pretty impressed with their editorial perspective? they seem like they’d be really good for starter kit plans

some random general thoughts too: 

it’s your body? i think sometimes people get sucked into wanting The Definitive Strength Plan before they can start training anything, but like, you know your strengths and weaknesses, you know what feels good & fun and what doesn’t

don’t be afraid to fuck around? don’t do big weights without supervision, and be mindful about technique, but also – the human body is just capable of a lot of weird shit, and just going out and trying random new exercises until you figure out what you want to do is totally valid. the big reason i follow friends around is just to find out what weird shit they’re doing? most of the time they’re like “try this” and i’m like “kevin what are you fucking TALKING about!!!!!” and then it turns out that kevin was right the whole time, it is fun to make your leg do the freaky thing

community!!!! exclamation!!!! i know this is weird right now, but genuinely, roping your friends into this shit is the best part. jocks love talking about jock stuff and if you have a jock friend you should hit them up and be like what are you doing!! why!! is it fun?? can we do it together?? can we talk about doing completely different things? do you do sports? can i do the sports also? do you want to enter a figure skating pairs competition and become the world’s best adult amateurs with me? can we be best friends? they’ll love it, you’ll love it, i promise. 

i hope this in any way helped

[randomfandomfamily]

One-shot idea. Gary has a nightmare about his father and refuses to talk to anyone at all, meanwhile the rest of the team squad is worried and scared shitless about him.

Gonna kinda combine these three ideas because I want to and they go great together, but first I gotta say something real quick because SOMEBODY BROKE THE RULE.

I said No criticizing your own asks. This request is not “sludge” and I will have NONE of that in this house. Now stop it. Stop it right this instant.

Now back to your regularly scheduled fic.

Sheryl wasn’t sure what was going on with Gary, but he seemed off.

Not that she knew much about her son’s behavior–or anything about him, really. But in the short amount of time that she had known him, he had been a pretty expressive, outgoing, happy person.

There was something different about him today. He was too quiet, too withdrawn. It was making everyone uncomfortable. “Hey, kid.” She nudged Little Cato. “You’ve known my kid for a while. What’s going on with him?”

Little Cato shrugged. “I dunno. He just gets like this sometimes.”

“Quiet?”

“Sad.” Little Cato said. “He might just be thinkin’ about some stuff, I don’t know. I just know he’s sad.”

Sheryl frowned. She didn’t know why it bothered her so much to know that Gary was upset. Is this what it was like to be a mother? To be worried? She wasn’t so sure she was equipped for that yet.

“You know,” Little Cato interrupted her thought, “You could always just go ask him.”

“Well, why don’t you?” Sheryl asked.

Little Cato deflated. “I already tried. So did Quinn. And Dad.”

Sheryl crossed her arms. “So what makes you think he’ll talk to me?”

“I don’t think it matters if he does or doesn’t talk to you,” Little Cato mused, “But when he comes out of whatever slump he’s in, he’s gonna remember that you tried.” He tilted his head. “And that’s what you’re going for here, right? Trying?”

The kid, frustratingly, was making sense. “Alright, you’ve made your point.” She started heading in the direction Gary went. The closer she got to Gary’s room, the more she doubted herself. What did she know about sympathy? What did she know about Gary? What did she know about anything?

Gary didn’t answer when she knocked, but she kind of figured that would happen. “Gary, your friends are worried about ya. ‘Cause you haven’t been talkin’ to anyone and… you’re not answering the door, so…” She was the most notorious criminal in the universe and she couldn’t form a complete sentence? God, this was pathetic. “I’m uh- I’m exercising my right as your parent to… ah, screw it.”

Sheryl opened the door without waiting for an answer. Her son was simply sitting in the floor, knees pulled up to his chest. His eyes were closed, not asleep, but he didn’t seem to have heard her come in.

“Gary?” She knelt in front of him and waved a hand in front of his face. “Sweetheart, can you hear me?” She grabbed his arm. “Gary!”

He still didn’t answer, or give any indication that he could even hear her. Sheryl didn’t exactly know what was happening. She didn’t know how to fix it, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving him like this either. So she took a seat next to him and leaned against the metal bed frame.

“Alright, fine,” Sheryl said to her unresponsive son, “Guess I’ll just… wait here, then.”

And wait she did, for five whole minutes, which is when Gary suddenly gasped and jolted so hard that he ended up bumping into her. “”What the- Mom! What are you doing in here?”

Sheryl rubbed her arm where Gary had elbowed it. “I was about to ask ya the same thing. Been cooped up in here for a while now.”

Gary narrowed his eyes. “You’re… checking on me?”

“Yes. I know it’s thirty-two years late, but I’m checking on my son.” She ran a hand through her messy hair. “Look, I’m new to this, alright?”

“No, that’s… that’s great.” Gary managed a sarcastic, “I’m so proud of you.”

Sheryl rolled her eyes. “Oh, hush, you.” Now came the harder part. “Now, do you wanna talk about what that was, or…?”

The smile immediately fell from Gary’s face. “If I’m being real here, this is all over some freaky dream I had a couple of nights ago. It’s dumb. Honestly, I’m pleasantly surprised you came to check on me at all, you don’t have to sit here and talk to me.”

“But I want to.” She wasn’t sure what she was more shocked about: the fact that she said it, or the fact that she kinda meant it. “So are ya gonna tell me what’s goin’ on in that head of yours or not?”

Gary hesitated. “Do you know… where we are? Like, what’s outside?”

“Final Space,” Sheryl said, “And for some reason, there’s a lot of corpses of you out there.”

“Right, well, there is a reason for that.” Gary fidgeted. “You remember Nightfall?”

Sheryl nodded. “The older version of your girlfriend.”

Gary shrugged. “Yes, but also no. She was from a different timeline. Actually, she went through a bunch of different timelines trying to save me.” He gaze darted to the window. “Because uh… my timeline’s the only one where Quinn set off the anti-bomb. Every other time it was…”

Realization struck. “You?” Her stomach twisted at the thought of Gary setting off a bomb, knowing the end result was right outside the window. “Why? How?”

“I don’t know. Not all the timelines are the same.” He chuckled under his breath. “I mean, in Nightfall’s timeline, I was actually part of the Infinity Guard. Wild, huh?”

Sheryl remembered the images HUE had shown her, specifically the one where she had watched him graduate. “Maybe not so wild.”

“Well, in any case, I never made it. Obviously.” He frowned at yet another rotting corpse. “But Quinn and I weren’t the only ones who set off an anti-matter bomb.”

Oh. This was about… “John.”

“Dad, yeah.” Gary took an unsteady breath. “I mean, I know he’s dead. I was there, I saw it happen, I watched him set off the bomb.” Before Sheryl could question it, Gary waved her off. “Bolo shot me back in time, I was literally there. And then there was the time I almost- well, I guess I did die.” Again, Sheryl was tempted to question, but refrained. “But I saw him there. And we were definitely dead, him and me both.

“But I can’t help but wonder, like… did he die immediately or did he survive for a while after? Was he just… floating around in here like Quinn? Did he see the Titans? Did he see Invictus? Did he see…” He gestured vaguely. “Those?” He let his arm rest on his knees. “And that’s basically what the nightmare was, I guess.

“I just pictured him in here, alone. Surrounded by corpses of me. The guy he knows is his son because I had just come to him from the future to help close the breach in space.” He looked at her. “You don’t think he was stuck in here, do you?”

Sheryl shook her head, completely mystified. “I… I hope not,” she said finally, “That’d be… Christ.”

“Awful,” Gary finished. “And I can’t stop thinking about it.” He tugged at his hair anxiously. “I know I shouldn’t think about it, but I can’t… it’s not going away and I can’t-”

“Gary,” Sheryl reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not gonna slip off again are ya?”

“I uh… I mean I-I don’t want to,” Gary answered shakily, “But um…”

Sheryl tried to think of something to keep Gary talking. She didn’t want him going back inside his head. “Tell me about your father. Tell me how you remember him.”

Gary looked like he was struggling to focus. “H-how I…” He shook his head. “Um… he was a really good cook? Especially-”

“Baking!” Sheryl exclaimed. “That man loved baking more than anything in the world! John was the kindest person I ever knew, but I swear the man would kill for-”

“Chocolate chip cookies?” Gary asked hesitantly.

Sheryl laughed. “Always chocolate chip. He looked at me like I was crazy because I suggested butterwheat crunch once.”

Gary’s face scrunched up. “Well duh, that’s not a cookie.”

“It is so!” Sheryl protested. “Don’t tell me he’s passed that along to you now.”

“He did,” Gary said, “And he’s right! It’s not a cookie!”

“Is so!”

“Is not!”

“Is so!”

“Is not!”

They stared each other down for a few seconds before dissolving into laughter. It was a desperate kind of laugh, the kind people could only share in the wake of a lost loved one.

Maybe this was why Gary wouldn’t talk to his friends. Maybe he needed somebody who knew John. Like, really knew John. Not the hero, just the kind, caring person that he was.

And then Sheryl thought… maybe Gary didn’t need just somebody.

Maybe he just needed her.

[readingwritingcrying]

I would love to read a fic where Klaus is super unwell but his siblings kind of shrug it off until he collapses and gets really disoriented/delirious - that is when everyone kind of gets super concerned and stuff. Thank u!!

This got super fluffy toward the end and it was so cute to write! Thank you so much for requesting this anon, I hope you like it! Please enjoy!

“Luther… can’t we slow down a teensy bit? Not all of us havehuge furry muscles,” whined Klaus. He felt awful – his head was stuffed and throbbing,his body was wracked with feverish chills, and all of his muscles ached. Buttoday was the day for a Very Important Bonding Exercise!

Klaus had wanted to stay home and sleep, but the look on Vanya’sface… He went with them anyway, despite feeling like complete horseshit. Itwas almost funny how they planned things. They were going on a little hike as afamily, trying to spend more time together and all that jazz. But even without theirfather looking over their shoulder, they still planned out things like it wassome sort of mission. Hell, they had meetings to plan these things! Diego hadeven scouted out the location for their hike beforehand.

It was endearing, but Klaus just wished it was any other daythey had planned this hike.

“And no one else does, Klaus! We’re just walking, we canrest when we get up to the top,” instructed Luther, his voice bordering ondefensive, probably about the furry part of Klaus’ comment. Klaus groaned andfell behind a bit to walk next to five.  Being in nature sure seemed to make him just atad less sassy – it must have been very different than the apocalypse. At themoment, the fresh air did little for him other than aggravate his sneeze.

“Ugh, I feel awful,” said Klaus. They were going up a slopeand his head was pounding with each step. His lungs were so tight, he didn’tthink he was getting much air in at all.

“Do you ever stop trying to get sympathy?” Okay, so Five’ssassiness? Not diluted as much as he thought.

He felt a little stung by his siblings’ lack of attention tohis clear suffering, but Klaus tried to brush it off. “Why can’t anyone showany love for their poor sick brother?” Klaus threw himself into dramatics,voice wavering as if he were about to cry. He saw Diego shaking his head. Helooked to Vanya who gave him a half-hearted smile and shrug.

“Klaus, just stop and tell them how you’re feeling,”insisted Ben, ever the voice of reason.

“Oh, because that’s gone so well? Klaus looked to his deadbrother. Lucky bastard. At least if you were a ghost you didn’t have to feelthis shitty.

“If you’re a ghost you have to be stuck with your brother whoconsistently makes poor life decisions.” Klaus glared at Ben.

“Hey!” It always freaked him out how well he could readKlaus’ expressions, it gave him the sneaky impression that he was some freaky telepath.Well, that would be less freaky than eldritch tentacle monster in your chest,but still. He noticed Allison giving him a weird look. He stuck his tongue outat her.

Klaus let himself fall into a steady silence after that, managingto mostly follow the conversation of his siblings. They were chatting, laughing– acting more like a family then he thinks they ever really had before.

He just couldn’t keep up with the details enough tocontribute to anything. Vaguely, he noticed that Ben’s comments to him startedgetting less reprimanding and more concerned, fading into worried looks.

God, he felt horrible. His head was spinning. If he thoughtit was difficult to breath earlier, well that was easy-peasy compared to now! Heknew that it was warm out, but his skin felt freezing, and all his shiveringjust made his muscles ache even more. When they came to a few steps of stairs,Klaus’ vision got spotty.

“H-hey guys? Can we stop for a second? I’m not feeling toogreat…” said Klaus, his voice quiet, in stark contrast of his usual dramaticlilt.

Luther glanced back at him, and then to the trail in front ofthem. “We only have a minute or two to the top, we should just go. Drink somewater or something, maybe stop smoking,” said Luther. Ouch.

His sibling knew he was sober from everything at the moment,but he couldn’t bring the energy to argue with Luther’s callous statement. Ben lookedready to throw down.

…why? Klaus stared at Ben’s angry face. He thinks that hislips were moving, but he couldn’t see what he was saying. He couldn’t rememberif that was important or not. His vision was narrowing, so he stopped, leaningagainst a tree.

His siblings kept walking. Were they going to leave himalone? Klaus felt a flicker of panic in his chest. He wanted to go home, wantedto be in bed, but he didn’t want to be alone. He tried to step forward to goafter them, but his knees buckled, and he found himself on the dirt trail.

His head swam, the dizziness not subsiding even though hewas no longer standing. It took all of his focus just to keep from throwing upas his stomach flipped uncomfortably.  

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by concerned voices.“Klaus? Klaus, can you hear me?”

“Klaus, are you alright?”

“Dammit, Klaus!”

He whimpered. There were too many voices, they were loud andsounded angry. He tried to scoot back, but he was backed up against a tree.Trapped.

His mind flickered to somewhere else, dark, damp, cold. Hewas huddled in the corner, cold stone the only thing that ground him at thatmoment, but it was the same thing that trapped him there. The voices were callinghis name over and over, louder each time. A hand reached out to him, and heturned away.

He wanted to close his eyes but he was terrified just asmuch of not seeing the ghosts as he was of seeing them. Klaus was frozen.

A hand touched his shoulder, gentle. No, that wasn’t right,was it? The dead couldn’t touch him. And they certainly wouldn’t be so gentle aboutit even if they could.

“Klaus? Hey, it’s me, it’s going to be alright,” said the voice.Was he having some sort of nightmare?

“D-dave?” Klaus called out blindly. He wasn’t sure what wasgoing on, he could barely tell what was going on around him. Just that he feltawful like he was dying or something. “Dave, please!”

“Shit, he’s completely out of it – that fever can’t be safeat all.”

“I had no idea it was that bad…”

“We need to get him out of here, to a hospital asap!”

“I agree, we can’t risk it.”

Klaus focused in on one word, causing him to shake even more.He was trembling like a leaf. “No! No hospital, please, no hospital,” beggedKlaus. There were so many dead there, all sick or gruesome and angry. The wallswere filled with memories of overdoses and forced stays; no matter how awful hefelt, he didn’t want to be there, not while he had any sort of say in it.

He felt two pairs of hands hoist him up. He blacked out briefly,head rushing with blood as his stomach twisted uncomfortably. Klaus groaned.

“Hey, it okay,” comforted one of his siblings. He thought itwas Vanya, with such a gentle tone.

“We just need to get you back to the car, can you walk downwith help?” That must have been Diego? Klaus shook his head. It was all hecould do just not to pass out as it was.

He heard a sigh, and then a large pair of arms scooped him up bridal style. He nestled hisface into the crook of his brother’s muscles. It was oddly comforting. “I’vegotcha,” said Luther. He may be awkward at the comforting thing, but his voicewas nonetheless comforting to Klaus in his current state.

Klaus faded in and out as they returned to the van. He onlyremembered the trip in flashes – the top of the trees and the sun in theleaves, someone – Allison? – holding his hand and squeezing.

“No hospital,” he asserted as the car came into the view.Luther sighed.

“It alright Klaus, no hospital. Mom can take care of you. We’rejust going home.” Was that Five? Klaus quieted.

They got him into the car, and he quickly fell asleep onVanya’s shoulder. Five sat next to him, letting Diego drive without complaint(for once).

He had seen his family killed once, he didn’t want Klaushurt again.

When Klaus woke up, he still felt like shit. But hissiblings – all of them, not just Ben – were there for him. Five thought he wassneaky, coming in when he thought Klaus was sleeping to watch over him. When Klausgot bored of his bedrest, Vanya came in, playing songs that captivated him (oroccasionally, brought him to a peaceful sleep, which didn’t seem to offend herat all). Diego chatted with him, Luther brought him soup and tea, and Allisoneven read to him.

For once, Klaus didn’t feel like he was fucking everythingup. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect hiking trip, but it seemed like family bondingwas happening regardless.

[tastycitrus]

The Powerpuff Girls (SRW) get their souls trapped in dolls and then stranded on Dr. Quandary’s Secret Island

Or, Meme Dwellers play The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary (except not really, I never wrote anything more for this). A joke story I wrote for some reason like two years ago that I’m now putting on here for some reason? It’s just a shitpost, lol.

Who thought it was a good idea to force the Steel Dragons to attend a carnival? The only culprit that came to mind was Excellen, but as crafty as she was there was no way she could’ve convinced the higher-ups to turn a carnival trip into a “mandatory team-building exercise” for the Steel Dragons and their associates.

Now, normally being forced to attend a carnival wasn’t the worst thing ever. But this carnival was really something else. I mean…really something else.

It was clear at first glance that the people behind this horrible place pretending to be a fun carnival didn’t care a single bit for their patrons’ safety. They also probably cared even less about making it actually fun.

The Ferris wheel was stopped for what had to be the fifteenth time that day, leaving the unfortunate victims who were dumb enough to get on trapped inside until the maintenance workers could get it moving again. The bathrooms smelled like rotten ass and probably had seventeen different STDs infesting the seats. The food was tasteless at best and looked like they had failed every bit of health inspection out there. All the games looked uninteresting and were probably rigged anyway.

To top it all off, even the atmosphere itself seemed to be as bleak and gloomy as this parody of a carnival. How the hell did this place manage to stay in business?

Katia, Melua, and Tenia thought long and hard about that question as they wandered around this travesty that called itself a carnival.

“Where’s Touya, Calvina, and the bland twins?” Tenia asked. “How’d we lose them in this place? I mean—I can understand losing Akimi and Akemi, but Touya and Calvina are pretty distinct, you know?”

Melua glanced around. “Yeah, usually Calvina’s the one who loses us, not the other way around.”

“You’d think we’d be able to keep track of the four people we were supposed to be exploring this ‘carnival’ with.” Katia scanned the premises for a familiar face. “Also, where the heck is anybody else? This place can’t be that big.”

She sighed, pulling out her phone. “You know what, why don’t we just try calling Calvina instead of wandering around like lost kids—”

Suddenly, a carny shouted very loudly in their direction, “Step right up! Have a try at this game! It’s free!”

Katia coughed after a moment. “Well, I’ll call—”

“Come on, don’t be shy! Try your hand at Troggle Shoot! You win a prize every time!”

“…I’ll call—”

“And yes, I am talking to you, trio of girls who look like lost children and whose color schemes are blatantly ripping off the Powerpuff Girls. Come here and play Troggle Shoot!”

The three girls sighed and turned to look at the carny shouting at them. He was a man dressed in purple robes and a funny hat manning a stand that no one seemed to be paying much attention to. His stand was evidently his game of Troggle Shoot, judging by his earlier shouting and also the flashing neon pink sign that said “Troggle Shoot” on top of the stand.

The three exchanged glances.

“What if it’s a kidnapping attempt?” Katia asked.

“Surprisingly, we haven’t run into that in this carnival yet,” Melua replied. “I don’t see any of the others, but if we shout loud enough someone should come running…”

“He doesn’t look so tough.” Tenia glanced at the carny. “He looks old and scrawny. I bet even we could beat him up. And he did go through all the trouble of calling us out.”

Katia sighed. “I swear, you two are going to land us in a shallow grave out on the side of a road one day.”

They reluctantly headed over to the carny’s stand, because he was a creepy old man being incredibly insistent on having three girls play his probably terrible game. He gave them what was likely supposed to be a disarming smile as they approached. Unfortunately, it just made him look creepier.

“Welcome, girls! I am the ingenious Dr. Quandary, the quintessential quizmaster! But you may call me Doctor Q.”

Oh great, alliteration. How wonderful—I absolutely adore the amazing appeal of alliteration. It’s immensely impressive to implement.

“You must be so happy,” Katia whispered to Melua. “You’ve finally found kin.”

“Shut up, Katia.”

Doctor Q continued on. “It’s your lucky day! I am offering you three a free game of Troggle Shoot! If you win, you can have these three dolls.”

He gestured to three dolls sitting atop a shelf in the stand. One was of a babyish blond child dressed in blue overalls. Another was a pink-skinned…person dressed in blinding yellow clothes. The last was aptly described as a horrific pumpkin-headed mutant wearing a popped-collar shirt and Hawaiian shorts.

“Excuse me, did I say dolls? I meant to say…Lifelike Action Figures!”

“…Just call them dolls, dude.” Tenia gave him her best impression of Calvina’s “what the fuck is this shit” face. “We’re not even boys—trying to play to that stereotype doesn’t make any sense!”

“Also these dolls are the ugliest things I’ve ever seen,” Katia added.

Melua grimaced. “Trying to offer them as prizes just makes me want to play this game even less!”

Doctor Q waved his hands. “Hey, hey, don’t be like that. Who knows? Maybe you’ll grow to like these precious faces!”

“I doubt that,” the three girls said in unison.

“…Look, it’s a free game and you get free stuff. Didn’t your parents teach you not to look a gift horse in the mouth?”

“Our parents are dead.”

“…Well, why not distract yourself from the grief and sadness with a little game of Troggle Shoot! It’s free! See that Troggle in the box marked TARGET?”

“We don’t want to—”

He pointed insistently at an LCD screen built into the side of the stand that showed an image that was probably supposed to be that Troggle thing he was talking about.

“Shoot as many of them as you can.” He set three BB guns on the table. “You each have 20 bullets. You can start firing whenever you’re ready.”

The three girls sighed. What a pushy guy. Seeing as he probably wasn’t going to leave them alone until they played his crappy game, they took the guns he offered them. Doctor Q’s smile widened as he stepped aside to activate the game. In the back of the stand, Troggles of all shapes and sizes began to roll across the shooting gallery’s three rows, but the girls were aiming for only one type.

One such Troggle came out first from the right on the middle row. Katia aimed and fired first. However, she aimed where it was instead of where it was going to be, so the Troggle rolled onward unharmed while her bullet looked stupid as it hit nothing.

“Oops. Well, at least Calvina isn’t here to complain about how much I suck at shooting.”

At least her mistake taught Tenia and Melua that they should aim slightly ahead of the Troggles to hit them. With that lesson learned, the girls began to shoot down Troggle after Troggle with relative ease. The game was surprisingly simple with no bullshit rigging involved, and they each had some experience in shooting because during their little venture in space Calvina decided to give them lessons since they had nothing else to do most of the time.

Once they used up their 20 bullets, their total Troggles shot came up to 53. Doctor Q shut off the machine and applauded them.

“Bravo, girls! Nice shooting! You’ve won your prizes.” He paused. “Though I must warn you; the prize you choose may have a dramatic effect on your future. These are not your ordinary Lifelike Action Figures. In fact, you might even swear they were alive sometimes!” He let out a deep laugh.

“Are you seriously still calling them Lifelike Action Figures?” asked Tenia. “And why does this sound incredibly foreboding?”

Doctor Q ignored her. “Let me tell you about them.”

He first gestured to the babyish one on the far left. “This is B. Ginner. It’s harmless, mostly.”

He moved on to the pink one on the far right. “This is O. D. Nary. A nice, middle of the road fellow.”

Finally, he motioned to the tan one with the pumpkin head. “And this is D. Fee Cult. It can be a real pain in the posterior. Which one will you take?”

“What’s with the punny names?” Katia asked. “And also the foreboding descriptions? Everything about this whole setup is incredibly suspicious and I don’t think we should accept these dolls.”

“Even if this whole thing didn’t scream danger, I still wouldn’t want these things,” Melua muttered. “They’re all so freaky.”

Doctor Q slammed his fist on the stand, making the girls jump. “You’ll accept these Lifelike Action Figures and you’ll like it!”

“Okay, fine! We’ll take the stupid dolls!” Melua turned to the others. “I’m…going with B. Ginner. It’s the least freaky of the bunch.”

Katia shrugged. “Alright, I’ll go with O. D. Nary then.”

“Wait, but that leaves me with D. Fee Cult!” Tenia whined. “It’s so freaky with that swollen pumpkin head!”

“Too late, Tenia. At least it looks like the ultimate dudebro with that outfit.”

She groaned. “Fine. Maybe I can freak Touya out by sticking it in his room…”

The three girls reluctantly accepted their prizes. God, they were so freaky and ugly.

As they studied their freaky prizes, the dolls decided to make themselves more horrifying by suddenly opening their eyes.

“AHH! WHAT THE FU—”

The dolls began to glow, blotting out their view with bright technicolor light. The girls heard Doctor Q laugh maniacally before they blacked out.

__________________

Katia awoke with a splitting headache. She rolled onto her side and pushed herself off the sand, rubbing her head with a groan. Thankfully, her ears didn’t get any sand in them—they were however filled with the sound of the ocean’s grey waves, destined to seek life beyond the shore just out of reach. Er, wait—I mean she heard the ocean lapping against the shore.

…Wait, when the hell did she get to the beach?

Katia looked up and nearly fell over when the first thing she saw were two of those freaky dolls she, Tenia, and Melua had been given moving around like they were alive. Also, they had somehow become as big as she was.

“AHH, HOLY SHIT!”

Her outburst drew the attention of the dolls, who also startled back and screamed. Their voices sounded an awful lot like—

…Wait.

“Tenia? Melua?” Katia asked tentatively as she looked down at herself. The clothes she was wearing certainly weren’t those she had on at the carnival. And her skin was definitely not pink before.

The only thing she knew that had this ungodly pallor and disgustingly bright set of clothes was…that doll…

Looking back up, she saw that the other two seemed to have drawn the same conclusion as her. Their expressions slowly shifted into that of surprise and growing horror. Faced with this terrible realization, the girls reacted the only way they knew how:

By screaming about it.

“NOOOOO! THE LAST THING I WANTED WAS TO BECOME THIS FREAKY PUMPKIN-HEAD DOLL!”

“Dammit, I knew we were going to wind up in some crazy situation one day!”

“This is the last time I play crappy carnival games or accept ugly dolls from strangers!”

Their freak-out session was interrupted by a bottle washing up on the shore. Inside was a rolled-up paper. The three girls looked at it and then at each other.

Tenia walked over to the bottle, uncorking it and pulling out the paper inside. She unfurled it as the other two came over to read the message written on it.

Dear suckers:

Ha! You have fallen into my trap! I have implanted your minds into these DOLLS and transported you to my Secret Island! Unless you can solve all my puzzles and meet all my challenges, you’ll never see your bodies again! You’ll be real nobodies! Get it? NO BODIES! Ha ha ha ha ha

Yours Q-ly,

Doctor Quandary

“…Well, that explains how we got in this situation,” Tenia muttered.

“What the heck is wrong with this guy? Who the hell thinks ‘I’m going to go trap random kids into ugly dolls for shits and giggles’? Literally what does he stand to gain from doing any of this?”

“…Katia, I think we should be more concerned about possibly losing our bodies forever at the moment,” Melua said.

“Yeah, but how are we supposed to get our bodies back? What, is he going to make us make some fixer elixir by completing his stupid challenges?”

As Katia spoke, Tenia walked over to the recycling bin that was conveniently placed nearby and dropped the message inside. Recycling was a habit she gained after Calvina got really angry at her for littering. Surprisingly, Calvina cared a lot about the environment.

Much to her surprise, a receipt popped out after she recycled the message.

“Wait, what? I got a receipt for recycling?” She picked it up and read the big words printed on the top. “…Doctor Q’s Fixer Elixir?”

Katia stared at her. “Are you kidding me.”

She and Melua went over to read the list with Tenia. They went through the entire list in silence.

“…What kind of an ingredient list is this?” Tenia asked. “What do you mean, ‘under-the-table decoration’? Who writes a recipe in riddles?”

Melua pointed at the directions. “The directions aren’t better. ‘Heat it up until it’s too hot to drink’? ‘Drink it’? Screw you too, Doctor Q.”

Tenia groaned. “This is gonna suck. We’re gonna need some major help with this one.”

She pulled out her phone from…somewhere and dialed a number. Katia stared at her pocketless shorts.

“…Where did you get your phone from?”

__________________

The Ferris wheel had been stopped for a whole ten minutes with no signs of moving yet. Heck, the maintenance workers hadn’t even shown up. Trapped in one of the compartments at the top were Calvina, Touya, and the Akatsuki twins. Calvina glared at everyone else as they all sat in awkward silence.

“I told you this thing would break down.”

Touya looked at the floor while Akimi and Akemi stared out of opposite windows.

“…Worth it.”

“Was it? Was it really?”

“…A little.”

Calvina sighed. “This is almost as bad as that time we were stuck in that escape shuttle meant for only two people at best.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s that bad,” Touya replied. “At least this time we have breathing room and you don’t have to steer with Akimi’s ass in your face.”

Akimi coughed. “Yeah, this…is a lot better than that.”

“And we also don’t have any space malaria to worry about.” Akemi frowned. “How did we even get into that situation to begin with?”

Akimi shrugged. “Beats me. We just kinda…woke up like that. Anyway, I hope the ride starts again soon. Don’t freak out yet, but I kinda have to pee.”

The others stared at him.

“…I hope they get the ride fixed soon,” Touya muttered.

“I’ll beat the shit out of you if you piss yourself,” Calvina said flatly.

Akimi lowered his head. “Uh…got it…”

Akemi patted him on the shoulder. “If it comes down to it, you can probably pop open the compartment door and pee out there.”

“Ew, I’m not going to do that.”

Suddenly, Calvina’s phone rang.

“…Really, Calvina? Your ringtone is Megalovania?”

“Shut up, Touya.” She took out her phone and checked the caller ID before taking it. “What is it, Tenia?”

“Calvina, we need your help. Some old fart named Dr. Quandary forced us to play his crappy game and then stuffed our souls into these ugly ass dolls. Now we’re stranded on his secret island and he’s making us solve a bunch of puzzles to gather ingredients to make what sounds like a very unappetizing drink to cure our dollness. We gotta do it, because otherwise we’ll be stuck like this forever and I don’t want to be an ugly ass pumpkin-head dudebro forever, this doll is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. So can you please help us solve these puzzles when we get to them?”

“…What?”

“What did Tenia get into?” Touya asked.

“Apparently she, Katia, and Melua played a suspicious carnival game in the ten minutes we were separated and then the guy running the stand stuffed their souls into some dolls. Or something.”

“…What?” the other three said at the same time.

“Yeah…” Calvina frowned. “Wait, if you three are stuck in dolls without your bodies how do you still have your phone?”

In the background, she heard Katia shout, “That’s what I asked!” Tenia on the other hand was silent.

“…I don’t know, but it’s convenient, shut up. Are you going to help us or not?”

Calvina rubbed her forehead. “I mean, I guess…it’s not like the four of us are going anywhere, since these idiots wanted to ride the Ferris wheel so damn badly.” She glared at the others once again.

“What? But that thing was obviously going to break down!”

“Yeah, that’s what I said! But nooo, we just had to ride it. Look, I’m putting you on speaker now so everyone can hear what you’re saying.”

She did exactly that before setting her phone on her leg. “Okay, what are we dealing with? Where are you right now?”

“Uh, we’re on a beach. I got a message in a bottle and recycled it to get a recipe for this ‘Fixer Elixir’ which is probably the thing that’s supposed to turn us back to normal. The recipe is weird as shit though. Here, I’ll send Touya a pic.”

Touya’s phone buzzed and he pulled it out. A moment later he held out his phone to show Tenia’s pic. Everyone leaned in to read.

“…What the hell is ‘under-the-table decoration’ supposed to mean?” Akimi asked.

“That’s what I want to know!”

“Well…this seems like the start of a whole bunch of ‘what the hell is this shit’ shenanigans,” Akemi muttered as she went over the list. “Maybe we’ll get a better idea what the heck any of this is supposed to be once you start getting things.”

“I guess…I see a forest nearby so we’re going to head there first. Come on guys, let’s go.”

Calvina sighed. “This is going to be a long day…”

[countessofbiscuit]

At Ease

For @celebrate-the-clone-wars‘s “Revisiting Old Themes” Writing Wednesday Prompt: A Teaching Moment Rating: T Words: 1422

Ahsoka teaches Rex about Tog hygiene and they learn a thing or two about each other in the process. 

“Do you need to see Kix? Your scratching is making me itchy.”

“Sorry,” Ahsoka replied, listing back towards her captain as the battalion fell out of formation. “None of his creams can fix this.”

“What is it?” Rex craned forward to examine her montrals, his chin slightly upturned in case the answer was disgusting.

Ahsoka bent her head, obligingly, content not to see his reaction.

“You’re … peeling.”

“Yeah, it’s gross, I know. They’re growing faster now.” A little bounce of her shoulders to emphasize her lekku left a flaky residue all over her top. The right one now had a good half-inch on the left, and Ahsoka wondered if they’d ever be visibly even again.

“So you’re not sick?” Rex peered a little closer as they walked, now that he wasn’t looking at something she’d picked up in the Mimban mud.

“Nah, they just do this. Molt. Shed. Itch like a banthaf—” She broke off to give a section under her beads some violent treatment with the hydrospanner she’d been carrying around all morning.

Rex had noticed that. But he hadn’t picked up on her dandruff days before, and it bothered him. He was supposed to be aware of physiological tempos like this. It was part of his unusual Jedi attaché job spec—part of his own specs. Having two to mind was not, in his exacting opinion, a good enough excuse.

“Is this the first time?” he asked, trying not to betray his ignorance and uncomfortable with the idea of apologizing for it.

“No, I just haven’t had time to get it sorted.” There was a war on, after all.

Rex frowned. “Haven’t had time? But you’re miserable.”

“It’s … a really involved process—takes forever.”

“Will this at least help the itch?” Rex plucked a tube from his belt box. It had worked for crotch rot, and he’d have sawed himself in half if he’d taken up with a hydrospanner during that nightmare.

“Not for long. And I can’t just lather up here, Rex,” Ahsoka replied. The corridor was empty now, but anyone might walk by and get the wrong idea. “It’d be obscene.”

The commander had spent four hours rasping herself with a metal stick and shedding all over the ship while muttering words that sounded like Hutt genitals looked, but there was apparently a firm line at public moisturizing. Rex had to respect that.

“Then let’s get it sorted,” he said. “Now.”

“Orders, captain?” Ahsoka crossed her arms archly.

“Volunteering. I know it’s the sort of thing only sergeants get stiff over, but as my commanding officer you can pretend to be impressed?”

“If you’re willing to help—and you do it half as well as Padmé—I might be more than just impressed.”

Ahsoka winked, Rex flushed in spite of himself, and just like that, it seemed they were in for some textbook fraternization. Neither was too sure, but both produced reasons to justify pushing jetpack shakedown and duty rostering until the morning so they could find out.

It still wasn’t clear when Rex rocked up to Ahsoka’s cabin later. She’d removed her akul teeth and felt kind of naked, making her distractedly self-conscious, and he was suddenly uneasy about fitting his hand into a gritty nanowave mitt and taking a rotary device to his CO’s head. But Rex had never known a gentle learning curve for new gear, and nothing here looked explosive.

Except the aforementioned CO.

She’d traded in her spanner for a steel brush, and at times could hardly hear herself as she walked Rex through the program:

Frst came a scrub with the exfoliating mitt—gentler on the horns, firmer on the tails, like skinning a womprat—but he wasn’t supposed to go past these lines—it’d get dusty, so he should put the sheet over his legs—then he needed to wipe everything down with the damp chamize cloth—no, he couldn’t have one for drying unmentionables in the field, they cost like 300 credits a pop and were made from the lethris of flying Alderaani goats or something—the chamize was followed by a deep moisturizing session using this jar of jellied blubber—why did it smell like a longneck’s armpit? she didn’t know, she’d never gotten that close to a Kaminoan, but probably because it was made with beldon fat—sustainably sourced, of course, the whole kit was a gift from Padmé—if he kicked off his boots off, she’d put some on his calluses and his feet would feel as smooth as a senator’s backside in the morning—again, these lines marked where he should stop—since he’d kindly pointed out her freaky forehead, once she was oiled up, he could be the one to go pop open that wonky panel down the corridor and grab the wet towel she’d draped over the pipe—she’d heat treat her head for a couple hours while they watched limmie or something—if he took back the forehead comment, maybe she could stream the Galactic All-Stars game and save him some funny money, caf patches and one grovelling call to CLINT for the HoloNet access—

“Scouring the dead layer off is the final step, and the hardest. The jelly does most of the work, but you’ll need to take breaks,” Ahsoka said, holding up the rotary device that could’ve passed for a Nubian blaster if not for the bushy metal attachment, one of its many interchangeable heads. “But I’ll come to that.”

“Sounds painful,” said Rex. It sounded dangerous to somebody who still had nightmares about taking a fastcutter to a bucket when one newly brevetted and stupidly curious commander got her head stuck and no amount of bantha butter was gonna get her out again.

“It’s all dead, I can’t feel it until you hit the new stuff. I trust your trigger finger.” She made finger guns at Rex’s heart, which was level with hers from where he was sitting on her cabin table.

“These lines,” said Rex, pointing at where her white headtails gave way to blue at the tips—or were they blue with white stripes? “You keep pointing them out. Why?”

“Are you my betrothed? Or my mother? Or a shaman?”

Rex blanched. Absolutely not—he could never live up to the first; he had no experience with the second; and although known to commune with the caf machine, he was no spiritualist. He shook his head.

“Then don’t go past them,” Ahsoka replied. “Shilian custom says I can’t be held responsible for my actions if you do. Didn’t they cover anything about social grooming on Kamino?”

“No. Guess they thought we’d never get close enough to civvies to need it.”

“Not even between yourselves?”

There were a lot of social other things, but Rex wouldn’t have called Kamino communal. It was too competitive for that. He thought about it for a while, until her hands on his knees reminded him of something.

“We used to keep each other up at night, moaning about the pain in our legs. Couldn’t really hear it in the pods, they had sound dampeners. But during an exercise or out in the field? It drove everyone crazy—especially if you were the unlucky sod run down a motthole with someone whose shins decided to grow two sizes that day. We learned fast that no one was really watching us out there. Yeah, they were using live ordnance, it was easy to get popped, or see half your squad dropped … but we could at least touch each other, make the pain go away for a while, and not get voltage up our asses and out our ears.”

While Rex was recalling the screams of shells, Ahsoka blinked back tears, trying not to imagine what the cries of a youngling Rex or Fives or Scooter or Patch or any of the boys sounded like. Once the Force heard it, she’d have an earworm that burrowed in her tips and echoed through time.

“Does that count?” Rex asked innocently, when the silence had started to make a third in the room.

Ahsoka nodded without looking up. “Yeah. It counts.”

She almost dismissed him, then—officially and proper-like, with an apology for tasking him with something so frivolous. Most of her head was within reach, and maybe if she retrofitted a droid or just asked Skyguy to swipe her out and beg a visit from Master Ti—

But then Rex gently placed his gloved hand on hers, conscious that some shells could be defused before they went off.

“So, when can I become the first captain to earn his grooming quals?”

[cyanpeacock]

considering My Functionality again? 

i can’t, uh, explain how i actually work any other way than... well, i’m... there is... we’re (pronouns???!) a system, but a reasonably well hidden one, one that can function and broadly pass as One Person? 

as in, i don’t require a diagnosis of DID to navigate the world, so i’m not talking about DID itself here. but yeah, it’s not infrequent that my body is walking somewhere having a whole conversation, that i’m not consciously creating every part of. 

used to feel like the whole, Voices In My Head, Uncontrollable Speech And Actions thing made me, you know... Dangerous, Insane, the whole stereotypical shebang. and, yeah, ngl, i was more than unpleasant to be around for a while, before i done went and learned Emotional Regulation Skills, and stuff like that. appreciative that those are increasingly accessible to whatever the hell the rest of my brain is doing. still work to do, but that’s okay, there always is.

so now i’m like... damn, who is it hurting? this way of understanding the functioning of my brain has been very helpful to me, actually. it’s interesting, now i’m increasingly comfortable with the undeniable (in terms of Human Averages) weirdness of it.

there are just, entities in here that i don’t consciously control? some are even friends! they just... Speak And Act Through This Body. i didn’t consciously make them. they just sort of, show up, and grow and change with time, go dormant, wake up again, sometimes respond to being prodded. 

the characters i consciously make? turn out weird, and flat. they’re just Designs, pretty pictures, shells really. the people that just Show Up? i’m like, oh, man, if i think hard enough i see sort of how you got unconsciously made, but... i didn’t choose to do that. it just fucking, Happened. ok. alright. 

it’s... perhaps frightening, to some people, who happen to see my body apparently Crazy(tm) in the street, or gesticulating wildly to thin air through my apartment window? but then, that’s societal prejudice against obvious neurodivergence and/or mental illness talking, and i know i’m not going to physically harm them, my body is just... Doing That Thing Again. they might be frightened, but they’re gonna walk past physically unharmed, and emotionally uninjured except for a bit of a scare, which, many things can scare you. 

i don’t mean to frighten anyone! but i’m aware it’s gonna happen regardless, even if the only cause was my appearance and not my Odd Behaviour - e.g., some people are going to experience fear of my body alone, even Acting Normally(tm), because i’m a white man in a tracksuit, who is inevitably going to cross paths with women and folks of colour when i take walks at night. 

i don’t know, part of me wonders, should i even be using the word system if i’m not, like, Professionally Diagnosed With DID? i’m aware lots of systems hide, i’m aware of iatrogenic systems with no evident history of trauma, i’m aware that some people contest the existence of DID at all and place it as a phenomenon created by psychiatry, i’m aware that some people with DID contest the existence of iatrogenic systems... it’s all very complicated.

if you ask this (iteration of?) me, self-determination is just as important as any external determination. people only self-determine, self-identify, self-label, self-categorize, because it helps them in some way. maybe not always a “healthy” kind of helping! but there are many stages of unhealth on the way to health, and health is extremely variable in presentation, so, who am i to speak against anyone’s identity and feelings of health, including my own? 

oh, boy, yeah, it’s confusing. 

my hypothesis (a bad one, because it’s untestable) is that this brain/body was already predisposed to strong emotions, “vivid imagination,” and a propensity for gathering information and making connections. it then went through a duration of traumatic experiences, and had to Really Use those functions in order to make sense of the experiences in order to survive (and ideally, Live). these factors in combination result in a brain that unconsciously went about creating compartments and structures that would eventually help the entire bodily unit understand some things about itself and Other People(tm)?

for the purposes of this post, one of those things being, of course there can be multiple, long-standing, truly discrete Selves within one body. and, of course there can be One Self in a body. and of course, there are many states in between.

uh, back to the concept of an engine, that’s useful for this thought exercise again, very imperfect, but useful to me.

so, lots of people are going to understand an engine as An Engine. it’s one functional unit. they don’t even know the names of the parts inside it, it’s just, An Engine.

me? baffled by engines. there are so many parts, and i’m always like, well, how does that bit work? isn’t that a separate machine? aren’t these loads of separate machines, with separate functions, that exist and perform independently, but also together? not exactly missing the point of the engine, but tending to look on a smaller scale...? so, yes, like, i understand, you put them together and it’s An Engine, it drives the car. but... that’s (also) a system. every engine can be regarded as a system. 

so, by my logic, what really matters is... well, whose engine is it, and how/on what level do they best understand it, how can you get it to drive the car as smoothly as possible? meaning, every brain is an engine (one Unit), or a system (many Parts). it depends how hard you look at it, and what helps you or the other person understand how best to make it function in harmony with the body it’s sat in. 

i mean... well. shy and tentative as ever, but i can talk about some of the other people in here. but it’s my blog. it has to stay that way. but i’m coming to realize i kind of need these guys for Happy Independent Functioning, even if i can’t talk about them everywhere.

mark has been around for YEARS. it has not always been a good relationship. he is a troublesome bastard. he says shit that absolutely embarrasses the hell out of me. he is RUDE. freaky bastard. he’s kind of a capitalist. Fake Posh (he is insecure about his scumminess). i hate him but i live with him and he’s not awful, even he thinks jeff bezos is a hoarding twat. and yeah, he doesn’t yell abuse at me any more, and i don’t yell back, because i Did That and Went Out There and Got Emotional Skills Up In The Brain. he was slower to pick them up than me, but it’s pretty good now. 

amy has also been around for years! less years than mark, but yeah, years now. amy is very bright, she doesn’t really give a shit about School the way i do, she just likes fun things like sunshine and flower crowns and (the idea of) being a Party Girl. she’s never even been a douche to me like That Other Bastard, Mark Fuckdick Mcgee. i hate him, lovingly, hatefully, etc etc. oh bastard fuck, fine, i’m in love with him now, gayly, and it’s embarrassing. disgusting man.

BUT YEAH back to amy. i’m aware i’ve found that in practice, parties like That are bodily sensory overload. so, yes, the nightclub Exists In The Mind. but yh... when amy showed up, she was Miles better than me at like, emotional support, comforting stuff? took me to an ATM i was like, beyond terrified of going to, lmao. i... suppose she trusted and integrated some experiences of positive, healthy interaction that i was still Super Suspicious of at that point?

like... yeah. in practice, shit, i run this operation, i’m realizing i’m kind of a control freak about understanding my brain/body, communicating things about it (and in general) effectively, and Getting It To Work BETTER (i.e. happier, more independently). it requires lots of thinking and lots of feeling and lots of practice, particularly in the art of When To Just Let Shit Go, which... well. these two help me with that, when i’m not able to help myself, usually because i got myself stuck in a thought loop.

there are others! dormant, or predominantly living in the world(s) within. also... well, it’s like, Younger Mes, that still exist, that can be triggered out in dire circumstances, but it’s best to let them rest. 

yes. well. i think very hard. maybe too hard, in some opinions, but exactly as hard as i need to think to reach a place of improved understanding and contentment. 

neurodivergence Wack.

[karltface]

A brief rant about old toys.

It's 3 in the morning, I'm tired as hell, and all this just popped into my head while I was taking more photos and writing up more posts about toys in advance. For some reason, I feel compelled to type it out and post it.

A lot of people look at toys from the 80s and 90s and see something goofy. It's all so perfectly odd, and hard to take seriously on the surface. And yeah, a lot of it is pretty shallow or underdeveloped. Full of throwaway story elements, strange creatures that only show up in one episode, and action figures with no fictional representation and vague bio information.

But this isn't a limitation, it's a jumping-off point. It's a framework upon which a great deal of speculative storytelling and expanded history can be built. Connect a few dots the original storytellers didn't get around to for whatever reason, and there's a whole universe out there, with so much world-building fun to be had.

For example, here's Skull, from Tonka's Supernaturals. Lacking a cartoon or comic, the toys were expected to sell mostly by virtue of their hologram stickers, and not given enough thought to qualify for any particularly detailed storyline.

This is about all we got. 2 factions wielding some sort of magic, battling for the leadership of a kingdom. One of the leaders has apparently found a source of great power, and must be stopped if good is to triumph. Not terribly well fleshed out.

But the implications are where it's at. The heroes are a Viking, Native American and European knight, all with totemic powers linked to animals or nature. How did they come together? Who are the reptilian sorcerer and animated suit of armor (full of flames, no less) who fight alongside the degenerated zombie that was once the knight's half-brother? Why did they ride griffons, but also have a monster truck? What was the mysterious pocket dimension within the Tomb of Doom, and what power lay within?

This doesn't even touch the Ghostlings, legless phantoms with entire half-sized characters just standing in the blackness of their open robes. That's some freaky shit if you try to explain it in story terms.

And that's just one obscure toyline, with a lot of room for interpretation. Even something as famous and competently written as He-man or Transformers would be limited by the standards of the time, leaving a lot of gaps to fill. Sure, Tri-klops has his various eye-beams and whatnot, but is it magic or cyberware? And how did he end up working for Skeletor when he can fight He-man almost to a standstill through sheer swordsmanship skill?

From the often-overlooked ecosystems of alien worlds to the rich but generally unexplored backstories of particularly odd characters, it's just fun as hell to sit down and brainstorm in-universe explanations for stuff like an entire desert made of rust flakes, or a bunch of sentient snakes in a man suit. This is the lens I view these things through. It keeps me occupied, and seems like a fun exercise for anyone who enjoys writing fiction. Go on, Google a vintage toyline, learn what you can, and just go nuts filling in any blanks you find.