#uh this kinda got long

[embersofhope-if]

46 with Creon, please? 👀

46: “ Can I kiss you right now? ”

Wordcount: 1.09k

I did write this for a relatively possessive Mc but other than that there aren't any trigger warnings

Escaping to the balcony does almost nothing to relieve the mounting headache that I can already tell is going to leave me sick for the rest of the night. It’s too much. The music, the shouting, the expensive perfumes that mix with the smell of the food; it’s all so nauseating.  

I want to leave. I just want to go back to my room and curl up under the covers and forget where I am. I’d pretend I’m back home; warm and safe in my own bed with Hope lying next to me. I’d pretend that I have no worries, and tomorrow would be full of nothing but school and stopping by the bakery to grab some bread. I’d pretend that people back home like me more than anyone here does. It’s not true, but if I’m going to play pretend, I might as well make the daydream as nice as it can get.  

I’m half tempted to just stay out here till the night is over. There are only two people in this entire city that would notice I’m gone, and I haven’t seen either of them since the night began. Uncle Keyon is probably off playing nice with some important person that I’ll never get the chance to meet, and Creon is off becoming the new politician that everyone is desperate to have a conversation with. I got a quick hello with them early in the night, but I haven’t had the chance to track them down again.  

They’re constantly moving; making sure that everyone is chasing them instead of them being the one forced to chase. It seems so exhausting, but they somehow manage to make it look easy. I should be proud of them; they’re making their dreams come true, but every time I watch them smile and laugh, I feel like I’m going to choke on my jealousy.  

Maybe that’s why I hate these parties so much. Every minute I’m forced to socialize with these people, I am constantly reminded that Creon Levesque will always belong to the Capitol and not me.  

I hate it. I hate everything here. The only thing about the Capitol that I don’t hate is Creon and they will forever be just out of my reach. There is no world where we could ever really be with each other despite what they try to tell me, and I’m forced to be okay with that.  

The fact that I can so easily be worked up over this might be what I hate the most. How am I supposed to prove to these people that I’m worth their time if I’m on the brink of tears whenever I think about Creon and me too long. Honestly, it’s incredibly embarrassing.  

I have to pull myself together.  

I take several breaths and lean onto the balcony trying to think about anything that isn’t the Capitol.  

Ash. Hope. Calliope. Home. Creon. 

Surprisingly it works. I’m able to take a deep breath without feeling like I’m drowning. The air is crisper than it is back home but it's close enough for me to pretend. I keep my eyes shut and lean farther onto the balcony as I continue to breathe; completely missing the fact that somebody has joined me. 

“It’s honestly impressive just how easily you manage to vanish.” 

 I open my eyes abruptly, startled by the familiar voice that breaks through my thoughts. Creon stands beside me, their gaze fixated on the city lights. A weak smile tugs at my lips. “I wasn’t trying to vanish; I just needed a moment.” 

Creon chuckles softly. “Well, I’m glad I found you. It’s overwhelming in there, isn’t it?” 

I nod in agreement, grateful for their understanding. “Yeah, it’s a bit much.” 

They lean on the railing beside me, their presence comforting. “You know, sometimes I feel the same way. All of this, it can get suffocating.” 

I meet their eyes, surprised by their admission. “Really?” 

Creon gives me a genuine smile. “Yeah, really. I mean I enjoy it but sometimes I get tired of everyone watching me; waiting for me to mess up.” 

Their vulnerability surprises me. Creon, of all people being tired of attention really isn’t something I expected. They’ve always seemed to thrive in the spotlight. Like they were made to be looked at and listened to, but that’s what they want everyone to see isn’t it? It’s so easy to believe it even when I know that’s not who Creon truly is. 

Their gaze shifts from the city lights to meet my eyes, and a fleeting emotion passes between us. “It’s all fake everybody knows it, yet we still do it anyways. I still do it anyways.” 

“Why do you do all of this if you know its fake?” I ask, only realizing how rude it sounded after I said it out loud. 

“Because it’s what I was made to do. It's who I am,” They respond contemplatively. They’re still staring at me and I feel like I can almost see the gears turning in their head. They want to say something else I can tell, but after a moment they shake their head apparently deciding that it wasn’t important.  

We both just stand there staring at each other. Their gaze so intense I think they might be trying to memorize every feature on my face, then they take another step closer, their hand grazing mine on the railing. “Can I ask you something?” 

I hold their gaze, my heart racing at the anticipation in the air. “Of course.” 

A soft smile graces Creon’s lips, their voice dropping to a gentle whisper. “Can I kiss you right now?” 

My heart skips a beat, and for a moment, the world seems to hold its breath. This is a distraction I can tell. Whatever they decided not to say is still racking their brain and half of me wants to stop and force them to tell me. But the other half of me is trapped in their eyes making it impossible to resist. With a mixture of nerves and excitement, I give a hesitant but eager nod. 

As Creon’s lips meet mine, the world around us fades into the background. It's as if all the doubts and worries melt away in that single, electrifying moment. The touch of their lips against mine feels like the culmination of all those unspoken words. For one heavenly moment Creon Levesque is here and they are completely and totally mine. 

[ukuslip]

i will get her out of that godforsaken show i swear

[starry-bi-sky]

Clone^2 danny headcanons and/or facts that i wanted to expand on but didn't have the motivation or inspiration to write a ficlet about. Ultimately most of these are ideas that already exist in canon clone^2 but are only now being expanded on/explored/stated specifically.

Because I'm procrasinating cfau and passively thinking about clone danny and damian again.

1 - As he's liminal, Danny generates his own ectoplasm. He generates it at a slower rate than the casual ghost but faster than the average liminal. It's what gives him an ecto-signature and results in him triggering his parents' weapons and ecto-sensors.

The ectoplasm he generates actually has a use, and he tends to burn through his supply while he's fighting because of all the physical energy he spends + the use of his scary eyes requires (albeit really minor amounts of) ectoplasm to use. It also has health benefits, as using his ectoplasm keeps his heartbeat steady and lessens the risk of his arrhythmia flaring up due to all of his physical activity and adrenaline.

It does happen occasionally that he uses up more ectoplasm than he can replace, and this has the expected negative effects on his health as all that adrenaline and stress catches up to his heart without a buffer to mitigate it. He carries a canteen full of diluted ectoplasm with him in order to give his system the boost it needs in order to stabilize itself, which he can usually tell when he needs due to excessive fatigue/chest pains/dizziness/other arrhythmia symptoms he gets that means he's low on ectoplasm.

2 - Danny's arrhythmia is a form of bradycardia (which is a slower heartbeat) -- what type? Unspecified / Unknown thanks to it being ectoplasmic in nature.

3 - In that same breath, Danny also has to burn that ectoplasm off in some form or another because if he doesn't it builds up and causes him the same issues as if he was too low. It also causes him to become more emotionally volatile, restless, irritable, overstimulated, etc, which the stress of that then makes his heart condition worsen. If too much ectoplasm builds up, it'll cause a physical electrical shock/shortage. This is rare however, and usually is the equivalent of giving someone a painful static shock. At best it makes the lights flicker or technology fritz out for a few seconds.

While it doesn't have much effect on the physical world, it does expend a good chunk of ectoplasm. Think like dumping out a heavy bucket of water that you've been carrying for a while, or getting into a hot shower after being outside in the cold for hours. It's emotionally draining but very relieving.

4 - Danny can replenish ectoplasm or generate ectoplasm faster by resting, eating, consuming other ectoplasm (fastest), fulfilling his interests / doing things that makes him happy, or by being exposed to high amounts of ectoplasm in the area. He can also rapidly generate it by being in a volatile emotional state, but that drains ectoplasm almost as quickly, and runs the risk of causing flare ups in his arrhythmia.

5 - this is actually canon to the au but I figured it wouldn't hurt to expand more on it / clarify / confirm, but Danny post-Damian has chronic pain in his hands from the nerve damage he sustained. He has daily physical therapy exercises he's supposed to do that he does in the mornings/evenings and whenever his hands hurt/feel stiff. He wears compression gloves in his day-to-day life and gets Sam and Tucker's help to brainstorm ideas about how to make compression gloves for Phantom that can include his knuckledusters. His grip and hand strength is weakened.

He has bad hand days where his hands hurt more than usual. This can happen at random, but is more common after he's overused/strained his hands either the day before or earlier in the day. His fingers stiffen up for similar reasons, and he gets tremors. It's happened before where (for example) he's braiding his hair and unbraiding it, only to need someone else to finish the braid because his fingers stiffened up and don't want to work like he wants them to.

Massages, heat, pressure, etc. helps soothe the pain, and since Danny's a fidgety person his friends and family can usually tell when he has a flare up because any hand movements he was doing prior ceased/slowed suddenly, or he starts massaging his hands / stretching out his fingers.

Damian very stubbornly insists on massaging his hands for him when this happens, he has a lot of intense guilt for being the reason for Danny's chronic pain so he wants to alleviate it in anyway he can.

6 - Danny has what I like to call "Bruce-isms", a word I came up with just now that means he has Bruce Wayne mannerisms that come from the fact that he's still Bruce's clone. A Nature vs. Nurture thing. His Bruce-isms include the Bruce Grunts Of Ambiguous Tonal Meaning ("hm", "hrm", "hn"), his workaholism, his paranoia (on a milder scale), etc. They're small, relatively non-defining things that are quirks but don't make up his personality.

He's got what Sam and Tucker like to call "Bruce Wayne Moments" which are essentially Bruce-isms but only ones that Danny and his friends are aware of considering they only know Bruce as Brucie Wayne and not Batman. "Bruce Wayne Moments" include Danny being clumsy, doing something air-headed, being oblivious, etc. It's not a common joke among the three of them since Tucker and Sam know that Danny's still pr sensitive to the whole clone thing. So they only bring it up when he's done something stupid but hilarious.

7 - while clone^2 focuses more on Danny and Damian's relationship and Danny helping Damian develop his identity beyond just "Damian Wayne's Clone", Danny still suffers from his own identity crises. He sometimes gets jealous of Ellie and Damian for being "lucky" that they always knew they were clones, rather than finding out later in life.

He's aware that this is not fair to think and that Damian and Ellie both have their own struggles as clones, but he can't help it sometimes.

He tries not to think about it too much, but when things get too quiet or when he's not busy, Danny can't help but wonder how much of himself is things he's learned on his own and come from him, and how much of it comes from being Bruce Wayne's clone. He has to stop and count how many things are unique about him specifically when he starts to emotionally spiral. It's not rational, but it's not supposed to be.

As a result Danny kinda, hm, clings to his identity as the Phantom, just a little bit? He thinks it's one of the few things that he has autonomous control over as "Danny Fenton", rather than it being a result of him being Bruce Wayne's clone. Because Bruce Wayne isn't a vigilante! Right? Right?

Consequently this becomes one of the reasons that Damian keeps mum about Bruce Wayne's identity. The original reasons were because Danny asked not to know much about the LoA beyond what Damian already told him, and Batman was technically "apart" of the LoA, and secondly because he just didn't want Danny to get involved with Batman and co and Danny knowing about Bruce Wayne's identity could potentially cause that.

But as time goes on Damian kinda notices like, just how being a clone is affecting Danny even if he hides it from Damian pretty well. He can't really comprehend what it was like for Danny to grow up thinking he was normal like everyone else only to find out he was a clone, but he does see the hurt it's causing his brother. And he does notice that Danny was holding onto being Phantom quite a bit, and figured that if he found out Bruce Wayne was also a vigilante, it would hurt him beyond belief.

8 - So Danny's creation has been kept relatively,,, mmm,,, vague? considering I've been struggling for a time how I could plausibly have his creation happen without Bruce finding out about it immediately. And my conclusion is that around the time Danny was created, Bruce met up with the Fenton parents again for some reason or another -- checking out their tech under the guise of wanting to catch up with them.

And I can imagine that, due to being close friends in college, the Fentons literally just outright told him, "Hey we wanna 'nother kid but don't want to go through the risk of pregnancy again, so we're gonna make a clone of one of us instead"

and in true Bruce fashion, he mentally went "wow i should learn Everything And Anything About This Thing Specifically. Just In Case." and outwardly went "woah cool! ahaha how does it work"

and since the Fentons consider Bruce a close friend and are also incapable of Not Talking About Science, turned and went "OH WE CAN SHOW YOU" and showed Bruce their entire cloning process up to and including how they (safely) extracted the DNA they were gonna use. of which they already had. they were gonna just extract Jack's DNA a second time as an example, but it was Bruce who said "hey you should try me instead" in order to gauge how exactly safe this was and if there were any symptoms he would need to recognize in cloning.

so with his consent they did, and then showed him how they were going to use the DNA to make a clone without actually going through the process. Without prompting from Bruce, the Fentons went "we're gonna throw your DNA away though since we don't want this lying around and because we have no use for it" and visibly showed him that they were disposing it.

Bruce came to the conclusion that the Fentons weren't planning anything nefarious, they just really wanted another kid, and (reluctantly) left afterwards. The mixup comes when Maddie, surprisingly, misplaces the cartridge with Jack's DNA in it and while they could have always gotten another sample, it was better and safer to just try and find the original before that.

Jack finds Bruce's in their disposable. In his excitement, he forgets that it was Bruce's DNA, and manages to get it out safely. Maddie wasn't looking when he found it, and in her excitement also forgot to ask where Jack found it. They used that cartridge instead.

When they found out they used the wrong DNA, Danny was already about year old and while Jack and Maddie are morally dubious, they're only morally dubious towards ghosts. Danny was their beloved human baby, they would never do anything to him.

That being said, they were still horrified when they found out, and really, they genuinely did consider reaching out to Bruce to tell him. They thought it was something he deserved to know since it was his DNA that got used instead, and they felt awfully guilty after he trusted them enough to let them draw DNA from him. The only reason they hadn't is because, at the time, Bruce had been really busy with something in his public life and they didn't want to bother him during such a stressful time.

So they were going to wait, and in Fenton-like fashion, forgot to tell him. When the subject came up again sometime later, they assumed they already told Bruce and went about their day.

[distort-opia]

This... is the most quintessentially Bruce as well as Superbat fucking interaction ever and it's just SO FUNNY.

"There will be secrets actually, we're just gonna be better at pretending we don't have any. But do not fear, Clark. It shall all be under control because you see... I have a plan."

[ants-personal]

tbh i just love the trope so imagine a scenario where in order to stop the boys from defeating them a villain turns one against the other effectively possessing them whether literally or by a spell and they choose charles whos got all this pent up rage and fear of it

So they have charles turn into his worse fear someone who brings nothing but pain eyes whited over as edwin and crystal try to approach him to ask if hes okay only for charles to quickly turn trying to get a hit with his bat at one of them edwin pulling crystal barely out of the way both looking shocked every step they take back charles takes forward the need to get to whoever to break the spell or totem or whatever so edwin whispers a plan to crystal hell take charles on if anything charles cannot cause real harm to him as he can crystal so crystal runs one way charles turns to follow before edwin calls his name snapping charle back to him and as much as it will pain them both in the end edwin straightens and laces his voice with as much condensation and acids he can making remarks and calling charles names

till charles is chasing after him through halls and walls missing swings as edwin dodges or turns a corner faster and breaking whatever his bat lands on but its charles a part of him knows edwin and soon its turn against him hes able to cut edwin of and hit him with a blow so hard its like getting struck by lighting all consuming bright light and sesring pain as edwin is flung back through three walls

this goes on for a bit edwin taking quit the beating at the hands of charles who in some ways seems like hes enjoying it edwin whos hair has become ruffled and clothes a bit torn is glad for his high pain tolerance which someone lets him still spit cruel words to keep charles on him hes not even sure if crystal is close to winning

its only when hes thrown over another table landing on his back even if they literally cant he still feels the pain of broken ribs shards travel through his veins like shards of glass it doesnt help when charles stomps on foor down hard on it pinning him to the ground anxiety creeps up and edwins aware of the feeling prey whos been caught and the torture that follows he doesnt know to beg for charles to come to or play his role if he doesnt what happens to crystal charles would never forgive himself of he did anything to her but edwin cant help but feel fear hes been here before if not charles then some other demon ghoul or witch all leading to worse terrors so all he can do is whimper out a plea for what hes not sure

As charles flourishes his bat having the blunt end land just above edwins throat edwin cant help but grip into charles leg holding him hes not even trying to push him off pathetically trying to seek comfort from his friend in any way he can shaking hands and fingers digging in so tight if they were alive he sure charles would bleed hes not sure what will happen if charles does decapitated him he won't die but there are worse things like experiencing the pain of a blunt object being the thing use it wont be a clean cut to if hell be able to put his head back on carrying it around is not ideal all thoughts running through his head as charles raises the bat as high as he can breathing heavily bringing his weapon down fast and all edwin can think to yelp is charles name eyes squeezed shut

but no pain comes charles is still above him the pressure on his chest never letting up so edwin slowly opens his eyes charles bat resting centimeters his neck frozen in place following the length of it he finally meets charles eyes and they are still whited out but they are different something is they are flickering like hes looking for something and then suddenly tears are welling and spilling over and edwin cant stop himself from realsing his grip on charles leg to reach up an to grab charles sleeves still gripping the handle letting him know its okay its alright hes here he cant help but jump at the gasp charles lets out as he seems to come back to himself stumbling back from edwin he cant get a full sentence dropping his bat like it burns breaking down stuck between pulling edwin closer or bolting and edwin decides for both of them pulling charles down and wrapping himself around charles tight and soon they are both gripping eachother with tearful apologizes

[tommygotwrittenoff]

i just think if roles were reversed and buck was the one saying those gay ass lines to eddie, eddie wouldve proposed like four seasons ago

[reds-skull]

Back with a sketch of this idiot (+how he looks in Rev AU's Limbo)

[luck-of-the-drawings]

!!! FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING!!! [IM NOT FUCKIN AROUND!!]

REACHED THE CUSP OF 'THIS MAY NEVER BE ABSOLUTELY FINISHED N IF I DONT SHOW IT NOW, IT WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.' SO HERE, A PROJECT IVE BEEN ORBITING AROUND UHH SINCE 2021 OR SO.

[motherforthefamicom]

[seventh-district]

Sam: "Look at me. Hey- look at me a second. I know. I know you're tough. I know how strong you are. You have every right to be proud of that. But being able to handle somethin' doesn't mean you should have to. Least of all when I'm right here trying to help. Please let me help. If not for you then for me, because I don't like knowin' you're hurtin', especially when there's somethin' I can do about it."

Me, shaking my head, fighting back literal tears: "B-but it's gonna give you another headache!"

[astrolotte]

Genuinely intrigued by the potential of Peri and Irep's dynamic but only in a platonic way so I end up not vibing with the fandom's portrayal of it 😔😔😔

(No but listen LISTEN they were kinda-almost-friends when we last saw them in FOP, yeah? Now they're enemies, with both actively fighting each other, and Irep going so far as to try and kill Peri's parents. What happened? When? What influenced it? Did they ever become friends, or did it nosedive the moment the cameras turned off? What about Sammy? How do Irep's parents factor into this? Could it ever be fixed? There's just so much we haven't seen, and romance just feels like too easy a solution to me. Let their friendship be easy to break, fragile. Let them have to work to keep the connection. Fairies and Anti-Fairies are literally made to be opposites, so what happens when two genuinely and truly become friends?)

((and yeah I guess a lot of this could factor into a romantic angle but ALAS the fandom seems to be leaning heavily into the funny toxic yaoi angle 😔 I don't mind it! By all means, please have your very harmless fun! But it ain't my jam :P Perhaps I'll have to write a oneshot myself...))

(((see tags for more rambles i guess. whoops a bitch spoke too much in there as he always does)))

[seafoamsol]

Process gif for the [ last piece ]! It was a bit of a rough ride.

[shepards-folly]

Hi! I'm here to be a bad influence on you again, do you still like The Mason? I certainly like how you draw him so...

(consider this a free pass to doodle a little guy)

OH HO HO HO!!! Thank you for the ask :]! I will always take any excuse to draw characters i like

here’s a bunch of quick masons for the price of one aka i took this as motivation to compile some doodles and semi-finished things of them i had lying around!

i’ll probably post some close ups or ramblings in a rb later too! idk man yall might see alone on a friday night as its own post cause i think abt it all the time….

[infinitevacancy]

Was looking through some tags and I saw you reblogged a picture of Jill Valentine and you basically gave some meta about the catsuit and why Wesker did it, and I just wanted to let you know that your observation/meta was spot on and I like the way you think. Hope you’re having a very good week.

ty! idk how long ago this was but for anyone reading this after the fact:

i hate jill's design in resident evil 5 because it's so anathema to her character - the devs of the time pretty blatantly said that they wanted to make her look sexy, which is also why the P30 control device is on her chest - and it's generally, from a doylist perspective, the worst thing that can ever happen to a person's favourite character.

however.

however.

if you take Jill's change of hair, outfit, and general presentation as a direct result of Wesker now having complete control over her... it all makes a lot more sense.

Wesker is an egomaniac with a god complex who sees everyone else as inferior to him - so to have two regular people - jill valentine and chris redfield - continually pop up to ruin his plans and by extension contradict his worldview must be maddening.

then Lost in Nightmares happens, and despite once again failing to kill chris thanks to jill, wesker now has her in his clutches. the in-game documents shed some light on what happens next, so i'll just focus on the fact that now the bad guy with a god complex now has one half of the biggest obstacle to his supremacy over the human race under his control.

Wesker is arrogant. you could consider it his fatal flaw - he has a lot of those, but his arrogance proves to be his downfall by the end of the game... because he doesn't just kill Jill. he wants to break her and Chris, psychologically and emotionally, and let's face it he might not even want to kill them then. i think it'd be perfectly in character for Wesker's projected endgame plan to involve having both Chris and Jill as unwilling thralls, unable to resist and screaming silently the whole time as he forces them to help him destroy the planet and watch.

so what Wesker does is he puts Jill in a torturous situation - it's not expanded upon much but he forces her to infect civilians with bioweapons; which is absolutely going to fuck up someone who has dedicated their life to preventing such a thing, and also gives some insight to how Wesker views said civilians - as tools to further his own twiated ends. he even further assaults her mental state with the aforementioned catsuit and blonde hair, the superficial changes that act to remind Jill that her life and body are no longer her own to control - that's Wesker's territory now. you could extrapolate a deeper meaning from this about how patriarchal society views women's bodies, but RE5's dev team already proved me right.

so Wesker dehumanises and degrades Jill for three years, files off every sign of autonomy he can find and forces her to commit atrocities in his name. and then he pits her against Chris in a fight to the death, knowing that the only way it's going to end is with at least one of them dead - if not both - and the survivor wracked with guilt and misery.

but he doesn't count on Sheva. Wesker practically ignores her at every turn in dialogue, and i think he only refers to her once ("don't you two ever tire of failing your mission?") and i think it's another case of accidental brilliance by capcom where they want to make the game a big Chris vs Wesker showdown, but have to reckon with the fact it's a 2-player co-op game. Sheva helps Chris in disarming and freeing Jill, and then they work in tandem to exploit a weakness (that they only know about because of Jill! because they were able to save her because Wesker didn't just kill her!) and then finally they kill Wesker together, as partners and equals.

i don't really have a conclusion to this post, it was a lot of rambling, but my read of RE5 is that Wesker is very much aggrieved by Jill having the audacity to interfere with his plans and then putting her down in every way possible as punishment - and does this in big ways (P30 mind control shenanigans) and small ways (putting her in sexualised outfits) in order to cause her as much trauma as possible.

[taxinealkaloids]

my take on the agnes/gertrude/elias situationship is that gertrude seems like the most normal one to outsiders (she's less prone to arson/creepy mind reading at inopportune moments), but she is still the archivist and therefore kind of eldritch. everyone in the institute has just sort of accepted that yes, the archivist does sleep with her eyes open/is muttering incantations, and it's the least weird thing she's done this week

ok the funny thing is, technically, if by "most normal" we're going off of who is the most human, Gertrude is the normal one. but I don't believe for a second that that's how she's perceived among the rest of the archive staff lmao. like...all her assistants wind up dead, she actively works to make sure her filing system is the least effective one possible, she takes random mysterious vacations and comes back looking like she's just gone ten rounds with a tornado...I absolutely think that Gertrude has the reputation of being the eccentric on staff. I've prepared this diagram to illustrate my point:

[b4kuch1n]

the legends speak of it as a kind of enthrallment: the life ended by the tiger is tied to the tiger. in this way there is a line of souls following the beast, for no reason except to show that they were killed. that they could be saved - if only the beast would die [...] in the dark of the wood you see it walk, shadow to shadow, followed by loss after loss after loss, a tail trailing seemingly into the deep death of night [...]