#we used go to [TOWN (OR MAYBE ITS A REALLY RUN DOWN CITY

[goddamnitmahtin]

The Fenton Effect

(Or that one time a few Waynes joined a polycule)

(This got really long)

Danny sighed as he looked out at the rest of the city from Tuckers office. His boyfriend had secured himself a spot at Wayne Enterprises for something something technology and his office was on like the bajillionth floor of the building. It had an amazing view though. If only there wasn’t so much smog in the air it might have been beautiful at night.

“Danny I thought you were picking up the kids today,” Tucker said with surprise as he walked in.

Danny shook his head smiling, “Sam said that she wanted Dante and Ellie to bond with her new girlfriend after school today so she will be picking them up.” He made his way over to Tucker, giving him a kiss on the cheek, “I heard that you had some free time today so I could tell you away for a bit. It’s been a while since the two of us have had some time to ourselves without children running around.”

Tucker eyed him suspiciously, “Did you call my boss and ask to take me out for a bit?”

Danny chuckled, “Maybe…” He sat down in a chair, “Well actually I was going to steal you anyways but I just happened to bump into Mr. Drake. He recognized me and told me that if I were to steal you for a bit he didn’t see anything.”

Tucker sighed, “Danny, you and Sam are always stealing me from work for dates, eventually I’m going to get written up!”

Danny pouted in response, “We only do it when you insist on double shifts for week. It’s almost like we miss our boyfriend. Besides if Me CEO agrees with me that you work too much, that’s saying something hun!”

Tucker thought for a moment and then looked back to Danny, “Okay. Let’s go out for a couple hours.”

Danny hopped out of the chair again, “Yay! There’s this new restaurant I found that is supposed to have amazing steak.” He took Tucker’s hand and led him out of the office.

“Mm you know how to treat a man don’t you?” Tucker said in response, letting Danny pull him along.

“I try,” Danny said back wiggling his eyebrows as they went to the elevator.

…

Jason sat on his bike. He wasn’t in his Red Hood gear at the moment since he was just doing some recon. According to Tim, there was a newer family in town that he needed to look into. Apparently one of his employees had a boyfriend that appeared to be an un registered meta of some kind. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem but there was also the detail that when Tim did a background check on the family, it came up that they had two children neither of which had birth certificates or adoption papers or anything. Like they had appeared out of nowhere. Though Tim doubted it, he had still sent Jason to check it out in the off chance trafficking or some other fishy shit was going on.

He looked at the photos Oracle had provided of the targets he was looking for. Two of the 3 were supposed to be arriving at this restaurant soon. An African American man, the one working for WE, named Tucker Foley. The other… well this was interesting. When Jason went to look at the photo of the other man he was looking for named Daniel Fenton, he noticed the photo was grainy and distorted.

“Babs why does this Fenton guy’s photo look like a horror movie filter?” he said into his comms.

“That’s the best I can provide you with Jason, I’m sorry. All photos anyone takes of him are like that. I tried to clean it up the best I could. The last known photo of this guy without distortion I can find on public domain is from a yearbook photo when he was 14,” she responded.

Well fuck okay. Something was definitely up.

“Could you send that yearbook photo my way? As long as the guy hasn’t made any drastic changes to his appearance like dyed his hair or some sort of Botox I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out,” he said softly as he didn’t want the car that pulled in next to his bike to hear him.

“On its way,” he heard from Babs before he started to pretend to be scrolling through his phone while the occupants of the car got out and entered the restaurant.

While on his phone he noticed a new message from Cass. She had met up with the woman of the family he was tracking. They had gone to the primary school to pick up the children and was on their way to get ice cream.

The message was followed by a selfie of herself holding hands with a goth woman with purple eyes and black hair. Jason recognized her as Samantha Manson from the third profile Babs had given him. On Samantha’s shoulders was a little girl with dark hair and blue eyes, laughing and reaching for the camera and at the woman’s side holding her hand was a small boy who looked the same age as the little girl who looked almost like a carbon copy of her. Probably twins. He was waving to the camera.

Jason immediatly noticed slight distortion around the children in the photo. Similar to the distortion from the Daniel Fenton file but not nearly as extreme as he could still identify the children in the photo if he were to see them out and about.

He sent Cass a thumbs up in response.

“I’m assuming you got the message too?” He spoke into his comms.

“I did. Looks like the kiddos might be whatever kind of meta this Daniel Fenton is. They do both carry his last name,” she responded.

“And his face…” Jason said as he pulled up the yearbook photo Babs sent him, “Are we sure these aren’t just his kids? Who cares if they weren’t properly documented, that kind of stuff happens all the time in small towns. Have you ever seen Clark’s papers? A fucking mess.”

He heard Oracle sigh, “I have unfortunately. I would be inclined to believe your theory except for the fact that based on their ages, they would have been born when Fenton was 15 but according to my records and from what I can get from Tim, Fenton is more inclined towards men.”

Jason scoffed, “Is that it? That’s not much of a reason at all. People experiment. I’m into guys too but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a few girlfriends before figuring that out.”

“AND,” Babs continued (Jason had apparently interrupted her), “There’s also the bit where based on the DNA samples Cass has picked up from the kids and Tim has picked up from Fenton, all three of them have 100 percent identical DNA.”

Jason paused. If the DNA was all identical, how is it that two of them are male and the third is female? That wouldn’t be possible without some external fuckery. Not to mention two identical children who only have the DNA of one parent and not the other? This was definitely not right.

“Are you convinced we should look into it now?” He heard Oracle’s voice say into his comms.

“Yeah yeah I’m gonna poke around,” he said while hopping off his bike, “Let me know if anything else comes up.”

Jason ruffled a hand through his hair, took a fucking breath, and walked into the restaurant.

…

Sam wasn’t nervous…. no not at all. She was just taking her kids to get ice cream after school. With a really pretty lady….

Sam had met Cass a few weeks ago at a small cafe when she was stopping by to get Danny a coffee since he was holing himself up in his workshop for two days at that point and she was hoping the smell would tempt him out of his hole. The two of them got to talking, well signing, while waiting in line and they had hung out a few times since then. Danny and Tucker made fun of her crush but who wouldn’t crush on such a beautiful lady?

Now they were standing in line for the ice cream cart in the park. Not many people went to Ivy’s park but that just made it better for Sam because the line was never long. Besides, None of the plants ate you if you respected them and the ice cream was guaranteed to be Ivy Approved which meant it was ethically sourced.

Currently, Dante was signing to Cass (Cass had told Sam that they didn’t need to sign back if they didn’t want to but Sam had told her that signing was an important thing she wanted the kids and herself to get better at) about his new favorite star that Daddy taught him about and Ellie was playing with one of Ivy’s safer sentient plants. Sam kept an eye on her.

��Now what did I say about the plants at Miss Ivy’s park Ellie?” she called.

“I can look but no touch unless Miss Ivy’s says so,” Ellie called back, smiling. She seemed to have made a friend with a rather large flower.

Sam nodded and smiled when the child remembered.

She then felt a tap on her arm and looked to see Cass signing, “Not many people come to this park, you seem to not be afraid of the rogue who has claimed it?”

Sam shrugged and signed back while she spoke, “Poison Ivy may be an extremist but I respect her want to preserve natural flora and fawna. My boyfriends and I have already decided that we want to teach the children to respect those things as well since they are important for the health of the people and the Earth. So we come here since Ivy does not have anything against innocent children but if one of them were to misbehave with a sentient plant, they would have an easier time understanding why it is wrong because Dante and Ellie have higher empathy than most.”

Which was true. But also the reason it worked so well is because since the plants were kind of sentient, Ellie and Dante could tell if they accidentally killed one and it made them sad enough to not want to hurt them. They found that out on accident once and since then the children have been strangely fond of the park. But she wasn’t going to tell Cass that.

Sam was nervous that Cass didn’t like that but honestly they were her children and Cass didn’t seem opposed to the park in the first place when the kids suggested it.

After a few moments Cass nodded in response and signed, “Boyfriends? As in plural?”

That was not what Sam was expecting her to ask and it made her blush in embarrassment that she hadn’t explained it sooner. “I am polyamorous. I have two boyfriends. The three of us raise the children together,” she signed although he had a hard time remembering the sign for polyamorous so she ended up spelling it out.

“You all date each other?” Cass signed, curious.

Sam smiled, she didn’t seem to be judging her lifestyle which was something she didn’t find very often. It was part of the reason they had to leave Amity Park in the first place. It was helpful when Tucker got the Timothy Drake scholarship which was a full ride for Computer Science and Engineering at Gotham University.

When they moved into Gotham after that, they weren’t allowed to live on campus with him so Sam and Danny had to start out in a small apartment near Ivy’s Park so they always kept some plants in the window for protection since they had children of course. Since then, Sam had gotten a job as a personal assistant for some rich woman her family was friends with and Danny was working part time at as a bartender during the night shift and was a stay at home Daddy during the day until the kids were old enough for school.

When Tucker graduated he was immediately hired on at WE and not long after that, they bought their much nicer house in a much nicer neighborhood close to Wayne Manor. Was it mostly Tucker’s salary? Admittedly yes, WE pays very well to ensure the employees live in good neighborhoods. But Sam made quite a bit as well and since Danny got the space to tinker with his gadgets and quit bartending as often (he still did it occasionally when his old boss would ask), he had started making a good amount selling his one of a kind clocks mostly. Sam just knew Clockwork was so proud.

Sam signed as she spoke again, “Yes, Tucker is bisexual and Danny and I prefer the term pansexual. We are all together because we are poly (spells it out), and we are open to any of the three of us dating others as well as long as we all discuss and we are honest. Because we have kids we want to make sure our bond and trust is always strong. We want to be together for a long time. See the littles grow up and all that fun stuff.”

Sam was excited to talk about it with someone other than her boyfriends or Jazzy on the phone. No one ever actually wanted to listen about that stuff because people didn’t like things they didn’t understand right away.

They were at the head of the line now though it was going to have to wait until after they got their sweets. Sam corralled the kiddos and asked them what they wanted. Dante and Ellie decided they wanted to share a sundae and Sam ordered herself the Ivy recommended option of the week. She also offered to pay for whatever Cass ordered but before she could, the woman was already paying for everyone.

Sam lead the kids to a park bench where they all sat down. Ellie and Dante immediately started to rock paper scissors for the cherry on top and it wasn’t long until Dante tried to cheat and Sam confiscated the cherry so they wouldn’t start fighting. She didn’t need them to accidentally use their powers in public.

“You didn’t have to pay,” she said, “But thank you.”

Cass smiled and very softly said, “It’s okay. I like you.”

Sam’s cheeks burned. Cass had told her that she did speak sometimes and that her mutism was selective but she didn’t expect her voice to sound so… pretty.

…

Jason immediately found the targets in a corner table. Most notably a corner table that Fenton had a view of every exit from. Only people who are used to either defending or fleeing at a moment’s notice did that. It wasn’t helping the theory that something was going on.

Fenton hadn’t changed much from the highschool yearbook photo. He looked slightly taller and he had slightly broader shoulders than before but overall the guy was still lanky and thin. His hair was still dark and he still styled it in a similar way. His eyes were still huge and round on his face. The most noticeable difference to the photo though? Danny was much MUCH paler. Almost like a walking corpse. And the eyebags were hard to miss.

Jason sat himself at a table within earshot of the two, ordering himself a beer and some appetizer he didn’t actually read. He was much too focused on listening.

For the most part, it seemed pretty normal stuff. Work, flirting with one another, commenting on the food. But then it got interesting when Foley brought up their supposed children.

“Dante told me you taught him about the dog constellation the other day. He told me Sirius was his new favorite star,” Foley mused.

A chuckle from Fenton, “Yes, he has been super into animals recently so I showed him some constellations like the dog, serpent, eagle, bull. That sort of thing. We used your old PDA to look up where they were in the sky and even pulled up pictures of some of the stars. He was floating with excitement when I showed him the Sirius star. He lost control though and Sam had to help me get him off the ceiling.”

Floating?

“I never thought I would say that I am glad that they don’t have all their tricks yet. Imagine if either of them went intangible when they were infants. I would have had a heart attack,” Foley responded.

Intangibility?

“Tell me about it! Highschool would have been a hell of a time if either of their eyes started glowing. We wouldn’t have had babysitters while we were in class,” Fenton remarked.

Glowing eyes?

“We already hardly had babysitters. I remember taking Ellie to math class,” Foley seemed to chuckle at the memory.

Jason noted all of the strange things the two seemed to be expecting of the children at some point. It was definitely not non meta human type stuff. One thing he did note though was that they seemed to have had the kids since infancy which at least boosts the chances of the children being their own and not trafficked or stolen.

Fenton got up apparently to use the restroom and Foley got up from his seat to sit in Fenton’s while he was gone. More suspicious behavior. But from what Jason could tell, out of the two of them Fenton was the one who would be the first to react. He sat with the view first and only after his leaving did Foley feel the need to take up the same position.

Jason considered leaving right then but he knew that he wasn’t going to get answers that way. The other reason he didn’t leave right away was a message from Cass.

Cass: They are polyamorous.

Jason didn’t know what that meant. He sent back a question mark.

Cass: They are polyamorous. Fenton, Foley, and Manson are all dating each other. They raise the kids together in one household with 3 parents.

Jason thought about it. That would make sense as to why they all shared one address. There was one thing though that it did open up. If Fenton was indeed dating both of the other two, that would mean that he was attracted to women. The kids biologically very well could have been his and he was simply a teen dad.

Jason: Has Manson mentioned carrying them or any mention of a mother?

Cass: No. She treats them as her own but she shows no sign of previous pregnancy. Plus neither of them look like Sam at all.

Jason: Noted. Keep me updated.

If Manson wasn’t the biological mother, it didn’t mean someone else couldn’t have been one. Jason didn’t really know how any of this polyamory stuff worked but from the way Foley was describing it, the relationship had already been established when the children entered their lives. Unless Fenton was unfaithful in some way? Jason sighed, biting his knuckles as he felt the pressure in his chest. The pits were acting up.

Jason looked up from his phone once he felt it calm down just to see blue eyes glaring at him. Fenton was standing a few feet from his table, his eyes staring directly into Jason’s soul. The man looked offended as if Jason had done something to him.

Suddenly he felt the Lazarus pits acting up again. It felt like he was shot through the chest with a spear of ice. Like… he was getting told off for saying something bad. And it felt like… it came from Fenton? Somehow?

Jason tried to make sense of it, looking at the man in front of him but he seemed to be satisfied with whatever the fuck that was and went back to his table, giving Foley a kiss on the cheek.

“You alright Danny? You glitched for a second there,” Foley said.

Fenton scoffed, “Some dead guy’s core let out a signal that pissed me off. Tried to insinuate that I cheated on you and Sam. Fucking prick.”

Jason panicked. How did this fucker know he died? Things were getting weirder and weirder and now this guy knew things about him that he shouldn’t have… he had to keep following these guys.

…

Okay so Jason didn’t get much after that. He followed Fenton and Foley back to WE from a distance. Or at least at a distance that was far enough for the pits to not act up. Ever since Fenton got close to him at the restaurant, the pits were going crazy. It was like the man made it feel different. There was no anger or violent urge. It was like he wanted to do something but he didnt really know what it was. But he knew it wasn’t hitting people like usual.

Nothing much happened and once he and Cass were recalled to the Batcave, he retreated and went to go meet B and the others. Even Tim had taken a lunch break for once to meet up.

“So what are your reports,” Bruce asked.

Before Jason could get a word out, Cass started signing excitedly and very fast. He didn’t catch hardly any of it.

“Cass, slow down a bit,” Bruce said trying his best to sign back what he knew.

Jason paid closer attention this time as Cass signed at a pace everyone could understand.

“I think Sam is really nice and a good mom. We went to the school together to pick up the twins and they were very happy children. Ellie was very bubbly and and Dante was much calmer. Sam took us to the park to get ice cream after and we talked a lot. She, Danny, and Tucker are in a polyamorous relationship and are raising the kids together. They said that they were open as well if any of them wanted to date others. They trust each other a lot and love the kids a lot. Sam had good values and was teaching the kids the same. I think they are unconventional but very happy as a family. Like us.”

Jason watched as the others nodded, some seeming to understand it more than others. Someone was definitely going to have to sit Bruce down and explain it. He was also going to ask for more of a crash course later. Probably from Cass directly. Or maybe Babs if she knew.

After a few moments of processing what he did understand Bruce turned to Jason, “And what did you find out.”

“Shit’s weird with Fenton. I’m going to go back and get more intel,” Jason stated, “But from what I got on the kids? They’ve been taking care of them since infancy. Mentioned parenting them as babies in high school. And they seem to think that they are going to develop powers. Glowing eyes and intangibility. Fenton mentioned the boy Dante being able to float already. Definitely metas.”

“Maybe we are being over paranoid. It sounds like a teen pregnancy situation in a small town where paperwork isn’t always filed properly,” said Steph, putting her hands in her hips.

Jason shook his head, “Nah that Fenton guy is fucking weird. Did shit that Bruce taught us. Made sure the table was seated in a corner where he had a view of every exit. Civilians don’t do that shit.”

“Only people who are expecting a fight do,” Tim agreed.

The entire room knew that was one of the first things Bruce taught them when it came to safety in public. In their line of work they always had to be vigilant for every possibility.

Bruce conceded, “Jason, keep following Fenton. I have some things I need to look up I think.”

…

Danny was fucking PISSED. How fucking dare that guy have the nerve to not only think that but then broadcast the insinuation from his weak ass core? He would never EVER cheat on Sam and Tucker! He would NEVER betray their trust like that!

He fiddled with his newest clock commission angrily, his core feeling personally attacked. There was a fear that wasn’t really working right and he was probably going to have to remake it but honestly he didn’t really care at the moment.

“Danny…” he heard Sam call. Her voice made his core feeling personally the slightest bit better.

Danny leaned up from his clock and looked to see his beautiful girlfriend in the doorway, “Hi Sam.” He sighed, trying to let the anger fall away. How could he ever betray his loves?

Sam must have read his face like a book because she walked over and slid her arms around him from behind.

“You’re brooding baby,” she cooed, leaving a kiss on his cheek.

“I just can’t believe that guy! The fucking nerve,” Danny growled. Though his growl didn’t have any sort of malice behind it at the moment. Sam knew how to calm him down. Physical touch was one of his love languages.

“Danny it’s been a week since you saw him on your date. And you put him in his place. I know you would never do that. Tuck knows. That’s all that matters,” she said softly.

She was right of course. But Danny’s ghost instincts were super protective and he couldn’t help it sometimes. But again, she was right. He let himself take a deep breath mostly for her benefit to show he was trying to get over it.

“Good. Keep taking deep breaths. It’s okay to feel protective and it’s okay to let the feeling subside when the danger is gone,” Sam continued to talk softly, knowing she could talk sweetly to him until he felt better.

It was working. Danny focused on letting his core relax, the danger was gone. The only entities in his haunt were himself, his partners, and his children. No threat.

Next thing Danny heard was whooshing sounds as his kiddos flew into the room, both in their ghost forms. Their hair was white and their eyes glowed. Ellie’s glowed green and Dante’s glowed red.

When Dante first transformed, Danny, Tuck and Sam were unsure if they were going to be red or green since they were red back when he was Dan. When they did glow red, Danny guessed that it was most likely because it was what was familiar to him.

“Dante found a cool rock,” Ellie said excitedly.

Dante then presented the cool rock for Danny and Sam to look at. It was purple and looked like one of the crystals Sam liked to collect.

“Where did you find it,” he asked, just to make sure they didn’t just steal it from the collection Sam kept in her room.

“It was on the floor in Papa’s office,” Dante said proudly. Ah. It must have fallen out of one of Sam’s pockets at some point.

Danny smiled, looking at his son’s pride in finding it, “Good find buddy!” He turned his head to look at Sam, “What kind of rock is it Momma?”

Sam ceremoniously took the rock from Dante and used Danny’s bright work table lamp to get a look at it, “This seems to be a purple amethyst. Good work Dante.” She smiled brightly, encouraging the excitement of the kiddos for the find.

“Purple amythest,” Ellie repeated excitedly.

“It’s really pretty Momma,” Dante said, looking at the small polished stone. Danny could feel his son’s core buzzing happily about it.

“Why don’t you keep it in your room Dante? Then you can look at it whenever you want to,” Sam said smiling and giving it back to the floating red eyed child.

“Really?” Dante asked.

“Of course kiddo,” Danny added. He felt Dante’s core give off a burst of happiness. It made him smile.

“I’ll go put it in my room!” the boy said happily and flew through the wall out of the room.

Ellie then began to pout, “How come I don’t get a pretty rock?”

“When you find one, you’ll get to keep it too,” Sam smiled, “Now I believe your Papa mentioned a Bluey marathon scheduled for tonight. Why don’t you go get your brother and maybe together you can convince Papa to make you some popcorn?”

Danny felt Ellie’s core start to buzz with excitement and determination as she nodded and flew out of the room fast.

Once Ellie was out of the room, Sam gave Danny a kiss on the cheek, “Since Tuck is watching the kids tonight, how about we go get you some more relaxed?”

Danny chuckled, feeling his core buzz. He closed up the clock he had been working on and came to a stand, facing Sam.

“More like wear me out,” he said, giving her a kiss.

“Well of course,” Sam smirked as she took his hand and led him to her bedroom.

…

Jason watched Fenton for like a week. A whole ass week and he got absolutely nothing on the guy. The only times he ever left his house was for dates with either Foley or Manson or to pick up his kids. At this point Jason was positive they were his in some capacity. The DNA proved that much and he seemed like a pretty standard stay home dad. There was one time that week where after school he took Dante and Ellie to an observatory but as long as Jason wasn’t close enough for the pits to react to him he seemed like just some guy.

Jason slumped onto the couch in the first floor living room of the manor. He didn’t like being here but everyone was out busy today and apparantly someone in the family needed to be there to sign off on some sort of delivery. He didn’t understand why Alfred couldn’t just sign it but the butler had refused, insisting that Jason be the one to do it. It was so annoying.

It wasn’t like he had anything to do that day anyways. Periodically he had all his guys in his organization take a day off and he had promised them today. Not to mention he was “on rest” from patrolling after his fucking helmet broke after falling down a fire escape. Embarrassing as fuck. But he still had to wait for a new one because that was his last spare.

He just didn’t understand. On the surface level, Fenton seemed like a normal ass dude. But he knew what he felt. And knew what he heard. The fucker could tell Jason was kind of dead. And he did.. something to him at that restaurant. The pits kept pulling him toward the guy like he was some sort of fucking magnet.

“Master Jason, the delivery is at the front door sir,” Alfred said appearing out of fucking nowhere.

“Thank you Alfred,” he said as he got up to go do the stupid signing thing. Once it was done, he could jet outta there and start following Fenton around again.

Jason made his way to the front door and opened it only to find it was none other than the creepy fucker himself. The pits sparked in his chest making him squeeze the door a little too hard.

“You,” said the pale man, his eyes burning with disgust. The pits didn’t like that. Suddenly, Jason had an urge to make sure the anger on the man’s face went away. At first Jason thought that was fucking stupid but honestly… being nice might be a good plan.

Now that they were face to face in proper lighting, Jason was able to really get a good look at Daniel Fenton. Of course he knew what the guy looked like. Obviously. He had been stalking him. But this was the first time he had been able to really register it.

Like he had noted before, his hair was dark and he was pale as fuck. But what he hadn’t seen before was the way his hair was blacker than anything he had ever seen before, shining in places that the locks caught the light almost like little stars in a night sky. His eyes were big and bold, an icy hue that that sent shivers down the spine. He was pale of course but not in the way that made one think he had never seen sun before, more in the way that dead bodies look during funerals. All the blood drained from the body. His cheekbones were sharp giving his face a sunken in look like he was malnourished even though Jason fucking knew he wasn’t. His stature was lean and lanky but clearly he was hiding some muscle because he was carrying a big ass clock that no doubt weighed a shit ton like it was nothing.

Jason hated to admit it. He really did. However. Daniel Fenton was attractive.

…

Danny couldn’t fucking believe it. That dead motherfucker was a Wayne. His core buzzed with anger and he had to take a breath to calm it.

“Yeah it’s me,” said the asshole.

Danny sighed and maneuvered the clock into one arm and gave paper to the guy, “Just sign it.”

Now after doing this he realized that casually holding a heavy ass clock like a football was not the normal thing to do since the man obviously took note of it as he stared a little too long before taking the sign form. However, he already made the decision and he was gonna have to stick to the bit.

Once this guy signed the paper and took the clock he could just leave. Just fucking go. And he could make a note to never take a commission from this address again so he wouldn’t have to see him again. He could do that.

“Hey, I’m sorry about what happened,” the really fucking large man said as he signed the paper. Danny checked the guy’s core. He was being genuine. And it was also giving off confused vibes. Ancients, why- This guy didn’t even know what he did. Fucking of course. Ughhhh and now because Danny was a good person he was gonna have to explain it to him. Fucking great.

Danny sighed, “It’s… fine. Where do you want me to install the clock?” He wasn’t going to talk about this shit openly. He could do it once they were inside.

The man seemed confused but let him in anyways, “I don’t really know where B wants it. For now I guess you could put it on this table over here.”

Danny noted the small table in the entrance hall and put it down where he was told to. Once his hands were free, he collected the sign form from the man and folded it, storing it away in his back pocket.

“Now, I assume you have a shit ton of questions,” he said.

The tall man nodded, “So fucking many.”

A butler escorted them to a sitting room of sorts and disappeared again without a sound.

“Are you okay with him possibly overhearing any information I give you….” Danny realized he didn’t actually know this guy’s name.

“Yeah that’s fine,” said the man, sitting in a chair. Danny decided to sit across from him on a couch. It was off putting how docile this guy was acting with just how fucked up his core seemed to be.

“My name is Daniel Fenton. You can call me Danny. It seems you were never really explained to about this whole being dead thing,” Danny started. He didn’t really know how to go about this. With Dante and Ellie it had always been free knowledge for them to ask about whenever they needed but there was no sit down conversation where he had to like, reveal their identities or anything.

“No. I wasn’t aware there were rules,” the man said, a smile tugging at his lips at his own joke. Now normally, Danny would laugh at that. Because let’s be honest, he would. But he was a bit caught up in realizing that this guy he spent that last week hating was fucking huge. Tall as fuck. At least 6 foot. And his wingspan had be just fucking outrageous. His shoulders were wider than Danny’s front door at home.

Once he noticed that, Danny took an actual good look at the guy. His hair was black mostly, with a signature white streak in the front, no doubt a side effect of dying. It seemed to be a permanent feature rather than something brought on by transformation like for Danny and his kiddos. His eyes were blue, a solemn almost sad blue but they were still very beautiful. He had eyebags for days, probably didn’t get the proper nutrition very often only eating human food with no ecto in his diet. Sleep was probably not a thing either. He was nothing but muscle all over, no doubt an effect of him dying and then getting better. He was covered in scars as well that looked as though they healed a little too quickly to be proper. All in all, everything pointed to gaining the very sliver of his ghost powers without any of them making it to the finish line. Even so, he was the type of guy anyone with eyeballs would swoon over.

“Mr…… Wayne?” Danny guessed. He immediately felt the man’s core recoil in disgust. Okay so not Wayne.

“Todd. My name is Jason Todd. My dad is Wayne. Not me. Just- just call me Jason,” the man said quickly.

Danny nodded and redirected, “Jason, before I start explaining all this stuff, when did you die and how come that’s not the case anymore?”

He again felt Jason’s core want to pull back but none the less he still answered, “I was… I don’t know? 15-16? I don’t fucking remember it was a while ago. Anyways, apparently I got revived by the Lazarus Pits so I was only dead for like 6 months or something.”

Danny nodded solemnly. He knew what it was like to die young. And of course Jason’s core and ghost powers were all fucked up. Those pits were nothing but a shit ton of toxic, contaminated ecto. He wasn’t surprised that when given the chance to create a halfa they would do it in the shittiest way possible.

“Okay so basically, you’re gonna want to buckle in cuz this is about to be a lot,” Danny said, making himself comfortable. They were gonna be here a while.

…

Tim paced his office. Back and forth back and forth back and forth back and forth back and forth. This was a bad idea. Yes, the Fentons had been cleared but it was still a bad idea. To be honest, he didn’t really want to think about the fact that his favorite employee had been searched by his family for suspicious behavior a month ago.

Yes. His favorite employee. Tucker Foley. Not just his favorite employee but the best one who had never turned in a report late or found a problem he couldn’t fix. Technically his name was Tucker Fenton but the name change wasn’t official yet. Polyamorous marriage was illegal so the family had to send in papers to change their names legally so they would share a last name with their children.

Tim had been eyeing Tucker since he met him which was honestly far too long after he had joined the company. He had been so busy that he had never actually seen the guy face to face until he happened to pass his office and saw the man dutifully typing away at his computer.

He remembered just how immediately he noticed the attractiveness of the man and at first was sad to hear he was in a relationship. He thought he was with a woman named Sam at first. And then a few weeks later he started seeing Danny in the office too. Tucker was poly. Had two partners. And two children with them. A family man.

Then his family started tracking them all and it gave him an excuse to hang around Tucker at the office as much as possible. Of course he only ever got normal vibes from the guy until he noticed some background tabs running on the PDA he used alongside the desktop the company provided.

Of course Tim found time during a date Danny and Tucker went on for lunch to snoop through it. The tabs were all mostly data except one that was in the process of breaking down a government firewall with a prewritten program. Some organization called the GIW. Tim looked through the rest of the computer. There were files on Tim and the rest of his family. Files on WE. Files on the company’s funding and where it all went. He had done his homework before taking the job clearly.

Of course it all looked suspicious at the time. But things had changed since then. Danny Fenton had sat Jason down and explained a lot of things. Who they were, why they were in Gotham. Who they used to be. It made alot of sense.

And it made sense why Danny readily shared the information so freely. After Tim found the files on the PDA, of course he hacked it and sent it over to Babs. After Jason made a fool of himself at the restaurant, the PDA started having files added to it. Of the Bats and the birds. And a very well written and polite file stating that Tucker knew his PDA was fucked with. The vigilante files were his way of telling everyone he knew who they were.

So the Tucker guy was fucking smart and didn’t really give two shits about computer privacy. Now any normal sane person would have found this very concerning but for Tim it only fueled the highly inappropriate crush he had begun to develop on the guy. How hot is it that the guy was cordial enough to write a file detailing that he knew they were watching him and that he was honored to have been hacked?

So… there Tim was in his office. Pacing. He was about to do the craziest shit. He was about to ask out the hot guy from the tech department. Was it a good idea? No. Absolutely not. This guy was about as crazy as he was. Oh but he liked that. He really fucking liked that. He also loved the tracker he found in his shirt after stopping into the guys office to give him some paperwork. It had taken him about a week and a half to find it and since Tim only had 3 shirts he wore to the office, he wore it around alot in that time.

After that, Tim left his own tracker in Tucker’s PDA only for Babs to find a new file on it that simply stated, “Found it.”

How fucking hot was that? He found it in no time even after Tim had taken the time to make sure it was inside the thing. Since then they had been placing trackers on one another whenever they passed, taking turns and making sure the other knew when they had found it. Tucker was always faster. He had yet to take longer than 24 hours to find it no matter where Tim hid it. It was like the hottest kind of flirting Tim could fucking imagine.

So… now that Tucker was cleared of any suspicion, he was free game. When Cass told everyone in the Batcave that the relationship was open to other partners, he nearly had to turn around in order to hide the excitement from his face. He kept his cool though, obviously, he was a professional.

He didn’t mind Tucker Fenton having other partners. He didn’t mind that he had kids. He wasn’t the only one either. He could tell that Cass was crushing hard on Sam and sure enough a week ago, the two of them were official. Now he just had to make his move and ask Tucker out. That was all.

Tim heard a ding on his phone. He looked to see who it was. Barbara.

Babs: New file just got saved to the Fenton PDA.

Tim’s heart raced. Tucker had probably found the tracker he had slid under his collar during their meeting that morning.

Babs: You two really need to bone, this is getting ridiculous.

Tim: WHAT DID THE FILE SAY BABS

Babs: I didn’t open it. The file is literally titled “For Tim Drake (if anyone else opens this I’ll make sure a virus melts your software)”

Hot.

Tim: Pull it up on my desktop.

Babs: On its way you sicko.

Tim rushed to his computer to see a file open on the screen. It was a google doc that Tim was given permission to edit. At first, the doc seemed blank but he knew Tucker well enough now that he knew that there was more to it.

He used his mouse and clicked Select All and sure enough, white writing appeared on the screen. He changed it to black so he could read it properly and he found a series of dashes and dots. Morse code.

Tim felt his heart rate rise at the little game. He had told Tucker in passing that he couldn’t read Morse code but he knew how to sit down and translate it if he wanted to. And the man was so perfect he had remembered.

Tim got out a piece of paper and started decoding the message that looked to be like a poem of sorts. It didn’t take long at all. It turned out to be a series of quotes from media and literature that Tim had at one point brought up enjoying in passing.

“All we can know is that we know nothing. And that is the height of human wisdom.”

“She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent.”

“Knowledge is power.”

“Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror.”

“Elementary, my dear Watson.”

“O Captain! My Captain!”

“Unless I be relieved by prayer, which pierces so, that it assaults mercy itself, and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardon'd be, let your indulgence set me free.”

“To die would be an awfully great adventure.”

Tim stared at the quotes knowing that there was more meaning to them. Knowing Tucker, there was probably a certain letter or word from each phrase he needed. He wasn’t provided with a key to solve it so it must have been pretty simple. Then he got it. And his heart raced.

He responded by calling his secretary to tell one Tucker Fenton (Foley) that he needed to send in in his schedule for the next week.

Not 20 minutes later did he see new writing on the google doc, “I’m free Friday night.” Who cared if it was a bad idea.

Tim smiled wide, texting Babs excitedly.

Tim: TELL B I CANT PATROL ON FRIDAY

Babs: Why?

Tim: IM GOING ON A DATE

Little did Tim know that the moment Barbara saw the message, she breathed a sigh of relief, “Fucking finally.”

…

Okay so here was the deal. After Danny had explained everything (including the pits actually being a core and the fact that Danny’s children were the de-aged results of cloning and timeline fuckery), he had started helping Jason stabilize his core. And Jason was thankful for that but at the same time… as more and more time went on spending his off moments with the guy, his core was acting all kinds of weird. He didn’t really know how to tell Danny about it because the last time he had tried to explain the weird pull and very odd pleased hum his core had whenever he was around Danny, the guy had waved it off as because he was the Ghost King and all that. Jason was trying to believe that was the case but now that he was in the Fenton household sitting across from Danny in his workshop… it was hard to ignore.

“Well Jason, you definitely look a lot better than a week ago,” Danny said while staring into Jason’s chest. He knew that it was because his core was supposedly around that area but with the fact that he was wearing a t shirt that had shrunk in the shutter dryer in his apartment, he was feeling a little exposed.

“That’s good,” he said clenching his fist to try and ignore the almost purring sensation his core made at the compliment.

“Just a few months and you’ve been reconstructing it really well,” Danny said continuing to stare.

Jason nodded, he had been trying to do the things Danny told him to, added pure ecto to his diet and tried being more open to listen to his core. Although most of the work had been done by Danny, placing his hands on Jason’s chest, shuffling his shattered core pieces around and trying to fit them back together. It had been a joke for a long time that he “came back wrong” but according to the literal Ghost King, it was actually fucking true.

Jason noticed Danny was still staring. His core buzzed, liking the attention. He had to try and distract himself.

“So I noticed when I came in it was awfully quiet. Normally Dante and Ellie meet me at the door,” he said, clenching his fist tighter. He had to change the subject.

Danny looked up from his chest, “Oh uh yeah. Sam and Cass are on a date and Tucker took the kids out to an escape room with Tim. So it’s uh… just us at home at the moment.”

Jason wasn’t as good at reading body language as Cass but he knew enough to know that Danny was acting stiff around him which he wasn’t used to since before they started his core reconstruction therapy.

“I get you all to myself then,” he said chuckling trying to be lighthearted. Was Jason normally this civil around other people? Fuck no. But with Danny… he really couldn’t help it. It honestly felt more like the old him before he died. Before he went all… murder psycho because he literally came back wrong.

He watched as the shorter man in front of him began to actually gain some color in his cheeks. Holy hell he didn’t know Danny was capable of that. He thought the dead guy look was a permanent thing. Jason kind of liked it though.

“I guess you do,” Danny said allowing a small smirk onto his face.

Oh. OH. Jason’s core really liked that. And it must have done one of those things where it told all the other dead people around because Danny’s smile grew wider. What Jason didn’t expect was feeling a mutual positive energy from Danny’s core in response.

Jason felt his own cheeks start to burn the slightest bit, not really knowing why.

“Actually Jason… I didn’t ask you here today just to check on your core. Or because I’m technically your king and I can,” Danny said.

Ah yeah that. Jason knew that because he was dead Danny was technically like, royalty to him. But it had never really clicked since he never acted all high and mighty like that whenever they were together. Which was a lot. But now that Danny mentioned it… he technically could have have power over Jason that he could use whenever he wanted.

His cheeks burned a bit more at that, his core reacting the same way it did before. He really needed to get more control over the sending out core vibes thing because Danny reacted to it again.

The Ghost King’s cheeks grew pink, “I didn’t know you were into that,” he said, leaning back in his chair, the motion causing light to reflect off of his hair like stars, “I wanted to talk to you because your core has been flirting with me non stop since we started your reconstruction therapy.”

Ah fuck. Jason knew Danny was hot but his core was really betraying him by telling him that.

He looked away, embarrassed. Admittedly, it wasn’t like the thought to flirt hadn’t ever crossed his mind. After Babs, with come help from Cass, really explained what polyamory was to him, he had entertained the idea once just to see what would happen but Jason very honestly didn’t know if he liked the idea himself or if it was just his core longing to be close to its king. Or at least that what he was telling himself

“Listen I’m not mad Jason,” Danny said. Jason felt cold fingers brush his cheek to turn his head to face the man. His body reacted the same way if always did when Danny touched his chest for reconstruction. Like a very pleasant bolt of lightning had stuck him, the buzz spreading throughout his body.

Jason knew Danny was a touchy kind of person and he had accepted that but god fucking damn it was still a lot of physical feeling from one touch that he wasn’t used to.

Jason had dated other guys before. He had been more than close and personal with a few. But touch was always a dull feeling when it came to anybody. Danny was the only person he could really… feel. Like back when he was alive. Every touch felt real and not disconnected. He could actually feel the pressure of a hand on his skin and the tingle of when skin brushed his own. It was… electrifying for the lack of a better term.

“I just want to talk about it,” Danny said.

Jason didn’t know how to talk. He didn’t even really know how he felt. He was running on pure instinct and LOTS of willpower to fight said instinct.

“Danny, I- don’t know how-,” Jason started, not really knowing how to communicate into words about it. Clearly he didn’t have to as he could tell his core had betrayed him again.

“It’s okay. I can talk. And if I say anything you don’t like or agree with, you can let me know. How’s that?” Danny asked. It was right about now Jason noticed that Danny hadn’t let go of his face and he was really close. His core liked that. And honestly, so did he. Jason didn’t mind staring into those big blue eyes for a bit. He nodded.

“I like you Jason,” Danny started. Jason’s core? Loved that. But Jason’s brain and probably his heart was waiting for the “but.”

“And so does my core. I think you are good for me,” Danny continued. There was no “but.” It made Jason’s innards do a fucking somersault into the splits.

“Wait you do?” Jason asked, studying Danny’s face. He was still blushing which was a good sign but sometimes you just need to be sure and double check you know?

Danny nodded, making Jason’s core buzz excitedly. Now up until this moment, Jason was very much repressing his own thoughts when it came to Danny. He was slow to catch up when it came to, well, feelings. Well let’s just say Jason was all caught up now. And his cheeks were burning as his lips curled into a smirk.

Jason felt a very strong core response from his king, full of flustered and dare he say lustful emotion that made his core and his chest burn with a desire to pull towards him.

Jason was no good with words. Terrible infact. And Danny knew that about him. So if he had any chance of communicating effectively, he had to take his foot off the brake and let his instinct do what it wanted.

“I’m about to do something stupid,” Jason warned. And then he pulled Danny closer into a kiss.

He felt Danny’s core purr in response as Jason’s lips felt like they were dancing on lightning. Everything felt right. He let his core say whatever the hell it wanted because it knew what to do. He just focused on how right right everything felt.

After they broke apart from the kiss, mostly because Jason needed air in a way Danny really didn’t, he locked eyes with the gorgeous man in front of him. Now that he wasn’t restraining himself, he was letting himself take in Danny’s beauty.

“Be my boyfriend,” Danny breathed, an icy sensation tickled Jason’s ear as Danny’s breath left the slightest bit of an icy fog in the air.

“Deal,” Jason responded, his breath catching up.

Jason’s body burned with sensation and he wondered if this was what being alive felt like and Danny pulled him into another deep kiss and hurriedly dragged him to a bedroom.

…

Extra:

Bruce at some point after all this: Where are all of my children?

Alfred: Well sir, almost half of them are at the Fenton household at the moment and the others…

Bruce didn’t even listen to the rest, he just sighed. He should have known. Fentons had that effect. He still remembered Jack from college.

[morallygreychaoticneutral]

Astarion was not a "corrupt" magistrate.

Hello again. Just more opinion about my favorite battle buddy. Warning, trigger words in use. Game spoilers.

It's not quite set in stone that Astarion really was a magistrate, but we are going to go with the idea he was for this thought pocket. Also this is just game as it is now info use.

I don't believe he was corrupt magistrate. There were a few things in the game that called that out, but one in particular really set it in stone for me.

His response to the Ansur lair puzzle regarding justice.

Astarion: “Mercy?! Please. Justice should be a harsh lesson. All the better to deter the next vagabond.”

This makes me think he was a bit of a hard ass as a magistrate, but not corrupt. Had he been dealing dirty in the background I really feel like this answer would have been more dismissive or flippant. But he is pretty intent that this is his stance. Very, iv said this a thousand times, type feel.

I think, he was more of a by the book, law is law type. You murder and rape you swing from the gallows. You steal from a shop keeper, you do time. Period.

My theory is, he got beat up because he wasn't lenient with a member of the Gur that was on trial.

"Leniency?! You have been found guilty of negligence resulting in the death of a innocent! You are owed nothing!"

Could you hear it?

"But he talks about being hedonistic and indulgent all the time. "

Yes, but most patriar level citizens were spoiled entitled brats that did what they desired. Have you talked to some of them in the upper city? Yeeesh.

Was he arrogant? Most likely. Prejudice? Obviously (insert gnomes here). But being a haughty jerk does not make one evil.

Sex, nudity, orgies, parties, over indulging etc are not taboo in Faerun. If everybody is consenting to be being naked in a fountain, hopefully in a private villa garden, its not a crime. He talks about that like its a memory, but I like to think his wine drunk giggly ass was actually in that fountain.

If you want to have a little rabbit hole fun, break down the name. Faerun = Fae Run = Run by the Fae. And last I checked, fairies were always down for some naked in the water time. I mean, come on, you can go to pound town with a bear. (No offence, Halsin.) You think they are going to draw the line at how may wieners you can have in the same pot? I think not.

I think the criminal behavior came after he was turned. Cazador may have been targeting him, but not because they were involved. But maybe due to him looking like his old master Vellioth? And he took advantage of a situation. Who knows, lots of ideas there.

"But he's always getting onto Tav for doing the "right" thing."

Yup, Tav is being too trusting and getting too involved with other peoples problems. Why is this an issue for Astarion? Kindness was what got him entombed for a year. He cared about that sweet mans life and was severally punished for it. Its akin to being mauled by a dog and then watching people just reach out a pet every one they see. The anxiety of that attack is still there and it paints every encounter with its opinion. Danger.

"He's not smart enough."

Oh I bet he is. You can be whip smart at a subject and socially akward at the same time. I'm very good at my job. I know it inside and out and can give you any detail, rule, configuration at the drop of a hat in the most professional and proficient way possible. But ask me to be eloquent in a social situation? HA! You are better off asking a rock to fart. Unrelated.

"But he wants to ascend, and that's evil."

That is more about who is is after years of torment and abuse. Not before.

I think the rogue role was adopted to stay alive while hunting. And what a gods awful fate to be turned into the thing you hated the most. A criminal.

I'm sure Caz was real tickled by that. Expletive Adjective.

[togglesbloggle]

Voltaire's Prayer

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." -Volaire’s letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, 16 May 1767

I’m inordinately fond of sex, in the political sense.  It’s saved us so often from the worst parts of ourselves.

As far as anti-authoritarian elements of the human experience go, sex is right up there with curiosity and the search for truth- maybe even more so.  When a new tyrant comes to town, shutting down the universities and the libraries is only the second thing they try.  The first thing is to regulate human sexuality to within an inch of its life.  Rules for marriage, rules for courtship, rules for which genitals may touch and where they may touch and when they may touch.  Rules for who and rules for whom.  Rules for which kinds of sex must doom characters in literature, rules for which things may be described as sexy, rules for which things may be described in a sexy way.

Of course they do!  If you’re trying to bind a large polity together under a common ideological narrative, to render people predictable enough to quash dissent and legible enough to exert power through them, the last thing you need is a bunch of folks running around being horny about stuff without permission.  Nature gifted us with a great capacity for reason and community; we have the innate opportunity to learn about ourselves and our neighbors, and to form complex societies based on that understanding.  It was Aristotle who first called us the political animal, and the fruits of that extraordinary capacity will always be within our reach, if only we can come together within a shared understanding.  The invention of the city is the great triumph of our species, and with it we conquer the universe.

But also this extraordinary, reasoning mind has been sculpted from the raw clay of a biology that’s anchored in sexual reproduction, and this ends up being very, very funny.

The problem isn’t so much that the sex instinct exists, per se.  It’s how it’s implemented.  Like most biological forms, the full complement of 86 billion(!) neurons in your brain aren’t encoded in a particular configuration; the brain is much too complex to be described so precisely in the only ~725 megabytes or so of human DNA.  The particular shape of your brain is in there somewhere- the lobes and subregions responsible for vision, memory, cognition, all that- but only up to a point.  The genius and fundamental limitation of genetics is that, below a certain level, the genes instead describe a process for the production and reproduction of specialized cells, and simply constructs them in such a way that they can be relied upon to order themselves as they go.

This is all well and good when we’re talking about kidneys and livers, but the fact that you can encode any kind of specific behavioral instinct in a brain this way is nothing short of a minor miracle.  Think about it!  Spiders don’t have a ‘spider web’ gene, the gene is for ‘proteins that come together in self-assembling electrochemically sensitive gelatin tissue which, when complete, encodes patterns that operate organ systems such as legs and spinnerets in such a way as to reliably create silk webs.’  This is absurdly impressive, and also completely insane.

What I’m getting at is, powerful behavioral instincts in a complex animal aren’t precise instruction manuals by which we pursue evolutionarily advantageous behaviors.  Sex and eros are prior to logic or language, let alone strategy.  Sex is a double-thick electrical wire discharging lightning bolts right through the middle of our cognitive centers, installed in the brain by a surgeon wearing mittens.  It’s an untethered firehose whipping chaotically through the cathedral, unpredictably spraying golden reliquaries with substances unmentionable.  It’s the first and greatest anarchist.

I really can’t overstate my gratitude for this.

Obviously this results in any number of deeply goofy outcomes by way of kinks and odd sexual practices- it gets tangled with pain centers, with random bits of anatomy and proprioception, with our taboos and aversions, with our greatest terrors or our greatest yearnings or just arbitrary stimuli from adolescence, and of course it gets enmeshed so often with our notions of power and submission.  It imbues these things with a fascination and potency out of all proportion with their mundane meanings.  And ultimately, you end up with human pleasures and human values that diverge so far from banal evolutionary imperatives as to be all but unrecognizable.

Even when this process somehow manages to propagate through the brain in such a way as to drive behaviors that are legibly aligned towards some adaptive constraint- e.g. heterosexual mating practices resulting in biological reproduction and careful childrearing- it’s still madness.  Love and sex penetrate deeply across tribal and national and racial boundaries, across economic interests, across battle-lines and enmities.  We become traitors, apostates, emigrants, and artists.  Declare a law, and in short order some hot-headed young people come along to break it in the name of sexual passions you could not possibly have seen coming.  Divide your neighborhood into us and them, and by the time the ink is dry on your proclamation there will be a forbidden relationship across the fence.  There is no social order, no ethical system, no theory of human nature that can entirely withstand contact with the full spectrum of human sexuality, because sex and eros are always going to be exactly as bonkers as the complexity of the human mind and culture will allow, plus a little extra just to be sure.

This isn’t always a delight, of course.  Many prohibitions exist for a very good reason, and the chaos of human sexuality makes no exemptions for true evil.  Some of us end up really, truly victims of this process.  But for all the dangers, the chaos at the root of all this isn’t oriented towards evil.  Chaos just means chaos, essentially arbitrary and hence absurd in character.

And in the grand analysis, we are so lucky to have this thing moving through our communities, this ridiculous madness that guarantees that there will be cracks in every wall and slips exploding cigars in the pockets of the powerful few.  Not in everybody as individuals, of course, and not everybody the same amount; asexuality is certainly one of the outcomes that all this mad gallivanting through our brains can produce.  Sexuality would never be so predictable as to guarantee its own existence, after all.  That’s part of what makes the joke so funny.

But all of us, regardless of sexuality, get to live in a world where the grand anarchy of sex is constantly driving home this lesson that no category is inviolate and no law is perfect.  That we should not and cannot take ourselves too seriously, or forget that we’re animals.  That we don’t exist only for the sake of others, or within their understanding.  That cities are made of cooperation, grace, and forbearance- not conformity or mere compliance.

People sometimes worry about immortality.  In the political sense, I mean.  They worry about eternal dictatorships and unconquerable gerontocracies.  This fear isn’t entirely unjustified; death has often played a role in progress and liberation.  But as long as enough of us are still getting horny without permission, still falling in love in stupid ways, I think we’ll be okay.  Romeo and Juliet don’t have to die at the end to make a difference in the world, as long as they’re brave enough to get weird with it.

[loveandmurders]

Hello🖤

If you're accepting requests i may have a fun idea. I've had this scenario in my head for a while but dont have the writing skills for it.

So basically billy, stu and reader (all three were ghostface) escaped from the police and while on the run (let's ignore geography for this) they come across a kind (but a bit strange) man who carries roadkill on the back of his truck and he kindly gives them a ride to the nearest town - Ambrose. Slasher shenanigans ensue

The reader can be gn, the gender doesnt really matter. You can choose if you want to write a blurb, headcannon and stuff

Im sorry if this too much to ask and you can tottaly ignore this

Hello, love sorry it took me so long to get to your request, but here you are! Hope you'll enjoy <3

SOME INTERESTING HOLIDAYS (Ghostface x GN!reader)

Warnings: no proof reading, mentions of sexual activities, of blood and violence

-You hadn’t thought things would go so out of hand. But now the more you thought about it, the more obvious it was that your plan wasn’t a flawless one… you actually forgot the essential (like in most horror movies): a good ending - especially for the killers.

-You killed everyone - no final girl for once.

-And your two lovers would have enjoyed playing with you in the blood of their victims and glory of the victory, but you quickly realised you had to leave before the cops could find you.

-So here you were, with your two lovers - Billy and Stu - running away as far as possible and as quick as possible from Woodsboro.

-Billy was a little bit annoyed he was forced to leave the city. He hadn’t really thought of the consequences of all of this, and maybe it was also why he was feeling so upset. He was supposed to be a mastermind.

-Stu was laughing, he was so proud of what happened and adrenaline was still pumping into his veins. His hands were happily roaming your body as Billy was driving.

-As long as your boys were safe, you were happy too. You kissed Stu with fierce passion until you heard Billy groan.

-You sent him a little look, quite curious about why he was so grumpy now. “Don’t distract me” Billy finally said and both Stu and yourself started to laugh and to tease him.

-Your life was a dangerous one and you didn’t even know what you were going to do with yourself now, but as long as you were all together, you didn’t really care.

-The three of you drove for days and weeks; you were starting to get bored actually, and there was no plan on when to stop or even where. Until you saw some advertisements for a “House of Wax”.

-Billy didn’t want to stop for this but you whined so much - and Stu supported you - so he finally gave in. He rolled his eyes and reminded the two of you you were children.

-It was then you met a truck on the other side of the road. The driver stopped at your level and lowered down his window “All good?” he asked you in a very heavy southern accent. You peered into the truck and could see roadkills, but the man looked sweet.

-You knew you all looked innocent as well though; so you knew better than to judge a book by its cover.

-Billy explained to the man that you were on holiday and you wanted to visit the House of Wax since you saw the advertisements. He also asked if there was a motel nearby. 

-The man - Lester - said there was no motel near the House of Wax, that you would need to go into another town for that. However, the museum was a really interesting place. It appeared that his late mother and brother were taking care of it.

-You all politely thanked Lester and agreed to follow behind his truck to not get lost on the roads. The man was nice but you all felt something was… amiss.

-When you arrived in Ambrose, you all exchanged a look.

-“If that’s not a killer on the run dream…” Billy muttered as he looked around “No one could find us here” he continued.

-“But there is no motel around either.” you hummed “And it really looks… deserted. I didn’t even see Ambrose on the plans when we looked at the last gas station.” you added “How could people still live here?”

-“Well you'll quickly know it, because we’ll try to stay here, at least for a little while. No one can find us.” Billy replied and you pouted.

-“We’ll get bored here” you whined but the boys gave you a look full of promise; how could you get bored when they were around?

-You all got out of the car and thanked Lester again. He also introduced you to his big brother, Bo.

-Bo instantly watched you all with great interest. You were young, you were hot and he was certain you would all look amazing in the House of Wax.

-No need to say that the twins were very surprised about how good you were when they tried to kill you, and that you were now the ones trying to kill them. With Lester, you were clearly on equal strength.

-You had discovered that the town was empty apart from the Sinclairs and the wax statues and you started to understand that it was like a massive deadly trap. But you were good with your knives and you actually were crazy enough to enjoy it. It was like a workout for the three of you.

-At some point, you managed to jump on Vincent and to put a knife under his chin. Bo aimed at you, Billy aimed at Bo with a gun he found and Stu blocked Lester from coming closer.

-“Alright, alright, how ‘bout we talk ‘bout this?” Bo finally offered. He noticed that Vincent didn’t try to get away from you, so it meant his twin could tell you would slice his throat open if he tried anything.

-“You’re the ones who attacked us” Billy argued back.

-“Is it like a playground for killers?” you hummed and Stu smirked.

-“Who the fuck are ya?” Lester frowned.

-“Who we are doesn’t matter, what matters is that we are killers. Just like you. But right now, Y/N is the best of us and they are going to kill your brother if you don’t let us go” Billy replied and you looked up at Bo with a dark smile, drawing a little bit of blood from Vincent.

-Bo instantly lowered his gun, put it on the ground and Lester moved away a little as well. They both put their hands up. You exchanged a look with Billy and Stu before moving from Vincent. You were all facing each other now, wondering what to do next.

-The Sinclairs had never met people like them, especially not people so brutal, so smart and so dangerous than you all. They felt curiosity, even more when Billy wrapped an arm around your waist and you moved your head on Stu’s shoulder. You looked like the lovers of Death. So young and so good looking, and yet so deadly.

-“Ya’re on the run” Bo hummed “And ya were lookin’ for somewhere to stay” he guessed. Vincent signed something to his brothers. Lester didn’t seem too happy about it and Bo thought his twin was losing it.

-“What did he say?” you asked with an arched eyebrow. No one answered you and it annoyed the boys “They asked you a question” Billy growled.

-“Vincent’s invitin’ ya over… he’s really interested in ya’ll” Bo finally replied.

-You were always the one enjoying playing with fire the more so you quickly moved closer and shook hands with Vincent.

-“I’d like that. I’m Y/N, nice to meet you, I guess” you smirked.

-Vincent and you got along pretty instantly, even though you didn’t know ASL. He wrote to you so you could communicate. Your shared love for knives helped a lot as a discussion starter. And then, your love to sneak around and kill people. And then, your love for every kind of art. You wanted to hide in Ambrose now and Vincent was more than eager to welcome you here. It would be nice to have people around who were understanding his way of life. And there were so many houses that could be your new home, at least for as long as you needed to hide away.

-Bo and Billy weren’t too happy about it, because it wasn’t part of the plan, because they couldn’t trust anyone, because they would need to be even more careful than usual so their favourite people wouldn’t get hurt.

-Stu was happy if you were happy, even if he was a little bit jealous of the attention you were giving to Vincent, at first. So he joined the two of you in your conversation, and he actually started to have fun as well. Lester noticed how Vincent seemed to be relaxed and it warmed his heart. It never happened before that his brother was so at ease around strangers.

-You all ate together in Sinclair's house. Bo stayed quite silent, observing you all, just like Billy. At some point, he asked: “So what, ya ain’t surprised my brother’s wearin’ a mask?” he asked. He just wanted for you to say something that would upset Vincent so they would kill you all in your sleep.

-But the three of you just shrugged “You’re kidding, masks are super cool. We’ll show you ours tomorrow” you smiled and the boys nodded “What’s a killer without a mask anyway?” Billy agreed “It’s classic horror” he added “Yeah so lame of you, Bo, to not wear any mask, by the way. You could have been the masked twins, ugh such a missed opportunity” Stu continued.

-Lester started to laugh and he thought he quite liked you all. You were some fresh air in Ambrose, fun and crazy. He knew it was the beginning of a new era for his family.

-Bo was bewildered but he guessed you weren’t so bad then. You had been polite with Lester and you weren’t judging his twin, so you could stay. Maybe he would even learn to love you.

-Vincent was eager to keep you all in Ambrose, forever. Maybe you could even help the Sinclairs build the future. You were going to be part of the family, he could feel it because you were different from usual people.

-You were monsters, too.

[jd07201990]

“Oh, come on Chuck! This’ll be my second time! You can’t keep forcing me to work another 40 years, just to make it to retirement and do it all again! It’s not yours or my fault that there aren’t enough young folk to take over our jobs! Hell, maybe if we paid a bit more, the few of them out there would apply!”

“It’s Lieutenant Roth, Billy. Now go change out of that equipment and take a shower. Whatever this remote does to strip away all those years, it sure does leave a young man ripe!”

“Don’t call me Billy! I haven’t been Billy in 30 years! Its Bill Damn it! And how am I supposed to explain this, again! to David?! You know he’s not into, well… this!”

“Put your shirt down Billy and quit your complaining. We’re doing something different this time, changing things up, trying something new. See, we couldn’t afford to pay higher wages all these years, because we’ve been stashing extra money away, for a new program. This remote can do a lot more than just wipe away years, Billy. The company has a whole app-store full of features, but they cost a hell of a lot. We only had enough for 2 new features, and we think it’ll really help solve this town’s aging population issue.”

“Wha… what the hell are you saying? What do you mean, something new?! Chuck, dude… you’re seriously starting to crack! What the fuck does any of this have to do with David?! And who is, “We”?!”

“I’m only going to tell you this once, son. It’s Lieutenant Roth. Now, I guess there’s no beating around the bush with you young-bloods. So I’ll get right to it. “We” is me, the Governor, and the Town Board. We investigated every possible fix, and it comes down to this. All the youth are moving out in droves, going to college, or fleeing to the city for excitement, leaving us aging folk to do the hard work around town. With the remote able to take years off a person, we’ve decided that all our current retirees, in every department, will be regressed, and the new feature we purchased will ensure you all follow your new, youthful instincts, providing us with a full generational bump in population.

You will be the hot-blooded virile stud you were way back in the day; you remember? Except this time, just as David isn’t attracted to this prime of your life look, YOU won’t be attracted to David, or any man for that matter. You see, we need all the help we can get, so with this little app, you’ll be chasing pretty women, and will certainly end up settling down, once one of them catches. Ah, by the look on your face, you know exactly what I mean.

Good, because you and the rest of the retirees are going to have your hands full, working these jobs getting paid just enough for a double-wide and a truck, leaving a trail of gals before you settle in with one, and have a whole mess of kids. "

“Ch… Lieutenant, sir… Wha… you’re insane dude! Fuckin’ totally cracked! You hear yourself! You can’t do this! I can’t be… I can’t chase… I don’t… don’t like…. Fuck… fuck dude… what the fuck are you doing?! Quit pointin’ that shit at me bro! My.. my head!”

“Don’t worry son, I’ll let you off the hook for all that mouthing off. It’s got to be rough having your brain completely flipped inside out, dumped out and filled with everything you need to be a, productive, member of society. Isn’t that right Billy?”

“Wha.. Oh, hey Lieutenant! So uh, is it ok if I head off to the showers and hit the road? Kind of a slow night huh sir? If it’d be alright, I want to go down to the Strip and hit the bar. The dudes and I figured we’d start the weekend early, ya know? Gotta get get some tail on lock before the storms hit. Thinkin’ I might run into Becka too, you know, from Thornton Stables? God she’d look real pretty, all knocked up good n’ proper!”

“Oh alright son. Go ahead, take the night off. But you’re on call. Got it! One or two beers, maybe a shot, take some cash and buy the lass one of those fruity drinks, and you treat her like a lady, young man. Got it?”

“Got it Dude! I mean Lieutenant! I’ll make a lady outa her yet! Thanks for the money too! Ya know how rough it is on the town’s wages! Although you and the Board seem to be doin’ alright. I hope I can get to where you are, Sir!”

“Don’t worry Billy, you’ve got a good 40 years or so to work your way up! Go have fun tonight!”

[pinkiemachine]

How would you do Batman, I'm just wondering because Batman's my favorite character

OH HO HO!! I HAVE WRITTEN SO MUCH ABOUT BATMAN!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

*ahem*

His show is called BATMAN: GOTHAM FILES, and I have the basic outline for each and every one of the seasons! There’s 9 total, plus a movie finale. Here we go!

SEASON ONE:

Most of us should know basically what Bruce’s backstory is, so I’ll keep this part brief. Bruce Wayne was eight years old when his millionaire mother and father were gunned down in front of him in an alleyway in Gotham City. They never found the killer. The family’s loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth, took care of Bruce from that point onward. Bruce started taking self-defence classes in-between going to the schwanky Gotham Academy and learning how to run his father’s business, Wayne Enterprises (a massive conglomerate that was famous throughout all of America, but especially the East Coast.) The young man had hardly healed from his traumatic experience, though, and after graduating college (something he was practically forced to do by Alfred), he decided not to stay in Gotham. He hated the city. Instead, he took off in a plane… and secretly never intended to come back…

EIGHT YEARS LATER…

It was a welcome surprise when Bruce Wayne turned up in Gotham, seemingly in a much happier headspace and eager to finally, finally take his father’s business seriously. The Prince of Gotham had returned. Months after that, there was a new legend lurking in the streets of the city. Something called “the batman” or “the bat.” Criminals were getting caught and arrested left and right, and half of them were scared out of their minds about this spectre. The police force didn’t know what to make of it… except for one Captain Jim Gordon. He knew that the legend was true… and occasionally, he would sneak into his office and scare the living daylights out of him. He and Batman had been working together for a little while now, (we get an episode later that explores how they first met), but Gordon doesn’t know who he really is under the mask, and no one else in the force thinks that Batman is even real. But Gordon is eager to help him because the police force is falling apart. They’re completely unable to do their job and keep the streets safe, so Gordon agrees to help Batman stop crime in its tracks. He wants to make Gotham safer for his wife and daughter.

Shocking literally no one, the audience discovers that Bruce Wayne is Batman, working out of a massive secret base underneath Wayne Manor—his ancestral home. But, he must balance the life of a vigilante with the life of billionaire Bruce Wayne, which can be difficult at times. We get several episodes just laying the ground work. Who runs the company when Bruce isn’t around? Lucious Fox. Who manages Bruce’s affairs and schedule? Alfred. Who makes all the gadgets and gear that Batman uses? He does. Using plenty of materials and goods he can buy since he’s a billionaire. When did he learn how to make all this stuff? Hmmmmmm….

We meet our first few villains—Penguin, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Riddler, etc—Batman is still trying to track down who murdered his parents, and we’re having a generally good time until THE MID SEASON FINALE. You see, there’s a circus coming to town.

Haley’s Traveling Circus was famous on the East Coast, being one of the oldest circuses in the country, as well as boasting the Fabulous Flying Graysons! A family trapeze act! However, this smiling troop of clowns was actually hiding some pretty dark secrets. When they arrived in Gotham City, they were asked to help out known mob-boss Tony Zucco with some… not-so-nice things. John Grayson, head of the Flying Graysons, had been feeling conflicted about how much behind-the-scenes shady dealings the circus had been involved with over the years. So, he thought that maybe if he just let the tiniest bit of evidence leak to the police, maybe they could handle everything and the Graysons wouldn’t be caught in the cross fire. This is what brings Batman to the scene. He investigates the circus, meets the Graysons, including their son, Richard, aka Dick, and eventually goes on to solve the mysterious crime, pinning it on Tony Zucco and getting certain members of Haley’s Circus arrested. (The ones actually involved in the crime.) However, Zucco manages to avoid jail time. Not only that, but he discovers who snitched on him. That night, after the case has been solved and Bruce shows up to catch the Flying Graysons perform, everything is going great until the unthinkable happens: the lines on the trapeze snap and Mr. and Mrs. Grayson go falling to their deaths.

Dick Grayson is an orphan… and he’s angry. He’s about 11 years old, but he’s smart enough to know what’s going on. He knows why Batman was coming around asking questions, he knows who Tony Zucco is, and he knows that his father made him very unhappy. After the police have arrived, but before social services do, Dick sneaks out and climbs to the top of the building with the Bat-Signal on it (yes, by this point in the story, that’s a thing). He flashes it on and off, rain pelting down, until the caped crusader arrives. He demands to know if this was Zucco’s fault. Batman refuses to say anything, but Dick doesn’t care. He says he’s going to make Zucco pay, whether Batman helps or not, and he tries his hardest to remain true to his word. After that night, Dick runs off through Gotham several times, trying to get in touch with Zucco and attempting to enact revenge, meanwhile Batman has to keep swooping in to keep the kid from getting himself killed. He recognises the pain he’s in—he completely understands his anger—and realises that he needs a teacher—a mentor—a father figure who can lead him through all of this and keep him out of trouble. So, as Bruce Wayne, he decides to adopt Dick. At first, Dick doesn’t want anything to do with this stranger—he’d rather stay with his circus family if he’s going to stay with anyone—but then, in court one day, Bruce says something—something only Batman said to him once—and all of a sudden, it clicks in Dick’s mind. He instantly asks to be placed in Bruce’s care and not a few hours after arriving at Wayne Manor, Dick manages to discover where the Batcave entrance is. Sneaking down there, he plans to become his own kind of vigilante, just like Batman, and get revenge… until Bruce catches him and tries to knock some sense into him.

It’s here that Bruce has to confront his own past. His sense and reason are saying, “Don’t let the kid try to enact revenge!” But then, he has to ask himself, “why am I still hunting down the man who killed my parents?” He has to tell himself, “it can’t be about revenge. Only what is just and fair.” When/if he finds the killer, he will turn him over to the authorities and let him face proper punishment. Zucco… he’s too powerful. There needs to be a lot of incriminating evidence against him before the police can take action, and even then, that’s not what Dick wants. Dick wants Zucco gone. Permanently. THAT is what needs to be dealt with inside of Dick. Bruce refuses to let this boy make himself a killer. Instead, he decides to channel that anger and drive into training him. You see, when Bruce vanished for eight years, it was during that time that he met many teachers and learned many new skills. Through bettering himself and learning these skills, he felt he had grown as a person and had worked through some of his emotions. It was therapeutic. He hopes it will be the same for Dick. He also teaches him about the justice system and detective work so that they can bring down Tony Zucco WITHOUT killing him. Little by little, over the course of the next year, Dick starts to turn into the infamous side-kick Robin, following Batman on small cases and learning about fighting crime… from a distance. (Mostly.) Dick does have a knack for getting into trouble.

On the personal side of things, Dick still needs to adjust to living in Wayne Manor, going to a new school (Gotham Academy) navigating being a wealthy, famous person’s adopted son, etc etc. And then… Ra’s Al Ghul shows up. Now it’s time for Bruce’s past to be revealed. He had traveled the world, and he did have many teachers, but none quite as legendary as the Demon’s Head, leader of the League of Shadows. A secret organisation (cult, really, Bruce later realised) that had mastered martial arts, ninjutsu, and so much more. Each member was a peak specimen of the human race, with no genetic weaknesses or flaws, especially their leader, Ra’s. Bruce had been one of his top students, but then he had revealed his grande scheme for the world. Ra’s wanted to wipe out the rest of humanity (which he deemed as impure and flawed) and then the only people who would be left to inherit the Earth would be his perfect family and his perfect followers! All he was missing was a male heir to his throne. His daughter, Talia, most perfect of his children, had fallen in love with Bruce during his time in the Shadows, but before anything serious could come of it, Bruce had snuck out and left the League, meaning never to come back. Now, though, Ra’s had found him and wanted him to marry his daughter. Bruce refuses. Ra’s tries to take him by force, Robin helps save the day, it’s a big exciting grand finale to the season, and it ends with Ra’s and Talia retreating… because while Bruce was captured, they managed to steal some… “DNA”… and test tube baby Damian would be thus conceived, unbeknownst to Batman and Robin.

(Like, he’s a test tube baby from conception. Talia was never physically pregnant with him.)

Anyway, things are looking up for our main characters. They saved the city, they saved each other, they’re working on their personal growth, and everyone is excited to see Season 2 because—

JOKER TEASE!!!! DUN DUN DUN!!!!

I’mma make more posts, this is a long one, strap in…

I also have a sketch of Talia…

Part 2 👇

[teecupangel]

Okay, okay, my brain did the thinking. I just skimmed over the ATLA ask and it got me thinking, how about like an actual ATLA AU?

Like in, ofc following Desmond (precious boy) and him bending water (and ice (and maaaayybee later blood?))

He grows up in the northern Water tribe, learns grows up etc. is still fed up with William, but can't really leave this godforsaken huge piece of ice swimming in the ocean, until at least the raid with the fire nation (and aang). Maybe he can convince him to just take Desmond with him (he doesn't really want to journey with them, he just wants to go somewhere else).

One way or another, he either finds himself in the earth kingdom, and meeting Connor(earth) and/or Ezio (dunno what kind of element he would be) or through some unlucky coincidence finds himself on fire nation territory. Here he could stumble upon Hama and maybe somehow convinces her to teach him some blood bending. Some time later he would stumble upon Altaïr, literally, because he runs from guards for stealing something and Altaïr just pulls him into the next best alcove so the guards won't catch Desmond.

Somewhere down the line they befriend each other, while Desmond is trying to find a way out of the fire nations territory (could be the reason for him to steal something and then the guards running after him) because being a waterbender there is kind of a death wish.

Long story short, Desmond finds a way, Altaïr sticks along and they meet Connor and/or Ezio again, at least Desmond meets them again and is ofc happy. I can absolutely see the rivalry between Ezio and Altaïr.

They all travel a bit and somehow meet the Aang-gang again. Desmond being like, what's up, while the others are like wtf, you know the Avatar? Yeah like, he helped me get out of this shithole called home.

Meeting Iroh for good measure.

Like all is fun and games, until they stumble upon a town or city who completely suffers under its ruler and commanders and they take it upon themselves to get rid of them (heh, there is no murder weapon if the ice melts).

And that kind of becomes their thing? Like, while the 'canon' plot from ATLA moves forward, they unintentionally help them and destabilize corrupt power (mostly inside the earth kingdom). Along the line they could also meet others like Clay, Lucy, Malik etc. who won't travel with them, but still join their cause (or some could join, I imagine Malik, who already wishes to slam his head against a wall after only one day with them)

And bam, brotherhood in ATLA, or something

If we stretch it towards Korras time, we could use the assassins from the newer generations like Basim, Eivor, Kassandra, Arno etc. who are the successors.

Okay, this got quite long, but I still have some thoughts:

- William could be like the head of the guard for the mother's Water tribe and as such pushes Desmond further and further (but Desmond knows he won't be happy just staring at Ice for the rest of his life)

- Some of the others out of the modern era could grow up alongside Desmond, maybe Lucy or Clay

- I would have really loved to give Ezio Air, but like... That won't be really possible. I can absolutely see him using his bending to let his hair be moved by a breeze, whenever he tries to flirt

- so Ezio would come from a kind of rich family (I don't really have more, I'm sorry)

- With Connor I actually don't really know, like he could live with his mother or tribe in the woods (kind of like Jet's crew?)

- Altaïr would probably be that kind of braindead genius, who saw Azulas Lightning bending one time (his grandfather, Rashid, dragged him to one of these highly important events, when the princess visited) and decided to learn it on his own (Malik is just kind of horrified, bc this Idiot simultaneously thinks and doesn't think enough)

- Rashid would definitely stand completely behind Fire lord Ozais visions

- and ofc AltDes, bc I'm a sucker and shameless :P

Anyway, it's good to hear you are doing well, many hugs and kisses

Have a great one and take care!

I’m unsure which ATLA idea you mean but here’s the Avatar AU ask that has both “what if Desmond and his ancestors were the next line of Avatars?” and “Okay, but what if, they were like… Pro-bending pros?” and the Pro-Bending AU idea expanded.

If you want to fuck with Desmond, you can make it seem like he’s a non-Bender. To be more exact, no matter how grueling the training becomes, Desmond could never bend water even to make ripples in a tea cup.

But Bill still persisted and kept on training Desmond until Aang came along and, in the confusion, Desmond manages to escape.

The truth is Bill was trying to force Desmond to learn how to waterbend because Desmond instinctively uses Blood Bending.

To be more exact, he doesn’t realize that people become weaker or slower when they fight him because Desmond is actually instinctively blood bending.

Bill realized this when Desmond was a child and had killed a beast that attacked him with blood bending. Desmond has no memories of such a thing, remembering it as his father actually using spear made of condensed water to pierce the beast.

But the beast exploded, not because of the water spear, but because Desmond had boiled the blood inside to the point that an internal explosion occurred.

So Desmond starts traveling, thinking that he’s a non-bender and he met Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton along the way, just, you know, helping out people and doing jobs here and there to have enough money for their travel expenses.

Ratonhnhaké:ton left his village to understand the world outside as part of his training to be the next chief of their village. Her mother is the current chief and they’re hidden from the rest of the kingdom. This travel is meant to give him an idea of how to protect their village and to ‘survey’ the outside world and the danger it possesses.

Ezio is actually looking for his family and he’s a member of the Southern Water Tribe. During an attack from the Fire Nation, he was separated from his family and he’s traveling to find them. He tries his best to believe that they’re safe and sound but, sometimes, he does worry…

Altaïr though…

Altaïr is on the run because he defied orders and got into Azula’s bad side. He was meant to be just a rank and file soldier under Azula (with Rashid ordering him to climb up the ranks) but his arrogance brought unnecessary conflict between him and Azula.

Azula tried to put him in his place by dueling with him, only to learn that he copied her lightning bending after only seeing it once.

The worst part is that he showed that he copied it after Azula tried to hit him with her lightning bending during the duel itself.

In her rage, she tried to attack him hard enough to cripple him (and if she wasn’t careful, kill him). Altaïr answered in kind and he was arrested for the ‘attempted assassination’ of Azula.

He escaped his confinement with a little help from another rank and file soldier, Malik, who suggested that he hides in the Earth Kingdom.

He meets Desmond and the others while they were hunting down a band of bandits who had terrorizing the road and they actually fought because they thought Altaïr was a bandit and not… the dude who took out the bandits because they tried to rob him.

He joins them because he had nothing else to do. (Ezio absolutely noticed that Altaïr was attracted to Desmond but doesn’t seem to realize it and he plans to enjoy the ‘romance’ between these two dense idiots. Ratonhnhaké:ton will not be enjoying any show but he will also not help because he believes romantic relationship should only be nurtured by the people involved and “no, Ezio, we are not involved in this”)

And then we have the great misunderstanding where Desmond and Altaïr look similar enough that wanted posters distributed by the Fire Nation included a drawing that can look like either of them.

So Desmond assumed he’s being hunted because he did kill a few Fire Nation soldiers when he ran away during all the confusion and he was pretty sure one of them was a high ranking official.

Altaïr knows this is Azula hunting him down because he tried to ‘assassinate’ her.

And they would talk about it in ways that made everyone believe that they’re the target (aka: Desmond believes Altaïr knows that Desmond is a wanted man, Altaïr believes Desmond knows that Altaïr is a wanted man, Ratonhnhaké:ton and Ezio both think that it could be either of them and assumed both Altaïr and Desmond are on the same page)

(It would absolutely be funny if the twist is that the wanted man is actually Elijah, Desmond’s younger half-brother, who did (1) destroy multiple Fire Nation ships and (2) killed enough high ranking Fire Nation officials to be counted as a dangerous ‘terrorist’. Desmond would be like “Elijah? No. He’s a sweet boy. He’d never hurt a fly.”. Cue Elijah using water bending to waterboard a Fire Nation official. Elijah shares the same mother with Desmond who is actually a blood bender. Elijah himself doesn’t bloodbend but he, their mother and Bill are the only ones who know that Desmond instinctively bloodbends. Shaun and Rebecca are his ‘handlers’ which doesn’t really say much because they can’t stop Elijah at all. They’re actually looking for Desmond because Desmond is the only person who can stop Elijah without even realizing how bloodthirsty his younger brother is.)

thank you! things had been a bit hectic at work and I'm really hoping that I'd be compensated for it hahahaha

[mackeydoodledoo]

She Wears Short Skirts, I Wear T-Shirts: Chapter 6

Pairing: Bridget (Cheerleader AU) x (Fem!)Reader

Chapter Summary: You finally reach the end of your high school years... However, instead of running away with your band right on the last day of classes for seniors, you decide to give a big reveal to your class, and a farewell to Bridget... At Prom.

Chapter Warnings: Swearing, Angtsy Ending

Chapter Key: Italics = Thoughts, +*+ = Time Skip, F/n = Friend's name, B/n = Band Name, Bold/Italic = Flashback

Chapter Theme: Good Luck, Babe! - Chappell Roan

A/n: This isn't going to be the last chapter btw :)

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

*Y/n's POV* You roll up your sleeves as you look at yourself in the mirror.

Prom...

You were going to flunk it and practically run away on tour with your bandmates. However, were personally hired by the school...

"Y/n honey your friends are here!" Your mom calls you from down stairs

Your dad helps you load your set into the back of your van.

"You're always welcome home," Your mom gives you the tightest hug, "Even if the town holds bad memories."

"Thanks mom, I'll be in touch," You say

You give your dad a hug as well before hopping into one of the single seats in the van. You wave off to your parents as your bassist drives down the street.

"We're probably coming back here once we're done with the tour," F/n says, "So we ca relax before hitting the studio."

Since 'ghosting' Bridget, your band got a record deal in the city, and you're one of two openers for a headlining band: finally reaching that goal.

"Hey you, haven't seen you since homecoming," You finally notice F/n's girlfriend sitting with her

"Told you I'd be wanting to tour with a band," She smiles, "A shame about Bridget though... How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," You answer bluntly, "But, hopefully I'll feel better after hitting some drums..."

You didn't show up to your graduation: knowing you're the laughing stock for fumbling Bridget. However, everyone who knows you well enough knows she's the one who fumbled you.

"How could one fumble Bridget so hard?!" You overhear someone's conversation

You enter the band hall. Luckily, your last period was band, you could get away from anyone who wasn't a band person.

You had your diploma mailed to your house. You didn't have a big graduation party. Only another gig.

"Before we end the night, we want to give our biggest congratulations to our Drummer and Lead Singer for their high school graduation," The bassist speaks through their microphone

The patrons cheer as you hit the kick drum.

"All right one last one up the shit hole!" The guitarist screams

That was F/n and your 'graduation party' if you will.

"Maybe some woman from another town would catch your eye!" F/n suggests

"I doubt it," You say, "Romance may have worked out for some, but not for me... Apparently..."

"You're young," The guitarist says, "You'll be able to figure it out."

"Or Pinky Pie might come back around," The bassist says

"Yeah, after a stunt like that, it's really hard to gain forgiveness," F/n says, "Forget about Bridget. She was using you as a 'lesbian experiment' or whatever..."

As you arrive to the venue you see the principal waiting at the door.

"Ahh! Y/n, congratulations," He says, checking off your band's name, "You can start setting up in the main hall."

Your guitarist brings the van up to the entrance and the six of you begin unloading the equipment.

+*+

F/n's girlfriend help you attaching your drums to their attachments. You nearly fumble attaching the higher tom onto its attachment on the kick drum.

"Are you sure you want to do this Y/n?" F/n asks, "We can always bail."

"Yeah, you still look like you're hurt," F/n's girlfriend notes

"Not going to give that damn hothead Hook the satisfaction of winning," You sigh, "But, Bridget always wanted our band to be known to the school... So she's getting that wish."

You set up the last of your drumset.

"We'll do the gig," You answer, "But, we're only playing for one hour. Then we have to leave for our tour."

"Deal," The head of prom agrees, shaking your hand

"What a bold way to do it," They tell you, "I get that you're still upset and everything-"

"I'm not," You reassure your friend

You were in full honesty... But, you feel relieved all the same.

"I'm saying goodbye," You say

"A very Y/n thing to do," The guitarist says

This gig was also the highest paying one... Wanted to make sure it was enough to get through the tour... Including tips and whomever buys merch...

"I can't believe you waited this long to reveal the band to the school," The bassist says

"I love the fact you're pinpointing me like I'm the leader," You sigh

"Well, you are the one who keeps us in time," F/n says

"That's because I'm the drummer," You say, "Well, I also thought we agreed that we wouldn't reveal our 'cool band' personas to the school since we... Hate this place F/n."

"She does have a point there..." She says, "Alright, let's get this shit show over with so we can get to the much cooler shows."

You couldn't wait to be honest.... You were going to a new state.... You never could really afford to travel. Even with a job, it wasn't enough. But, at least you weren't spoiled to death like the popular girls. You, and the people you share the stage with worked hard to earn your shit.

+*+

You see the prom-goers beginning to gather at the venue. Bridget showing up with her boyfriend... You turn away at the sight of her, beginning to feel your heartbeat thrum in your ears.

"Y/n, breathe.." F/n puts their hand on your shoulder, "We're on in Sixty."

You nod as you walk to your drum set.

"Good evening Merlin Academy High seniors!" Principal Merlin announces through the microphone

Cheers erupted from the other side of the curtain.

"Before we get to our amazing DJ of the night, we have a special opening act for all of you tonight," He continues

You grab your drumsticks...

"This band features two of Merlin Academy High's seniors," He continues, "Please give a warm welcome to... B/n!!!"

The curtain drops as you throw down a rhythm and your bandmates follow.

You look out to the audience and see Bridget's shocked face. Your brain goes back into 'performer' mode.

"Hey Seniors," F/n greets as the three of you play similar rhythms together, "Didn't expect Y/n and I huh? Well, do we have a surprise for you!"

+*+

As the set went on, countless seniors were practically in front of the stage, cheering. You see Bridget and Hunter sitting at a table in the far back... You knew she wanted to be the one at the front of the stage. Hell, even on stage with you. But, Hunter.... He seems to have said otherwise.

You could give Bridget some credit, that seeing all the people that bullied you throughout high school screaming, and cheering for the two of you.... It was gratifying..

+*+

"Thanks Merlin High Academy!" F/n says, "It's been a ride! So long, and goodnight!"

The curtain goes back up as the five of you walk backstage and take a second to breathe.

"HAHAH! Tell me the didn't feel so GOOD Y/n!" F/n smiles as they hook their arm over your shoulder

For once.... You felt... Happy.

"You should have seen all of their faces when they saw us on stage!" She continues

"Priceless!" You laugh, "They're gonna regret calling us nerds and treating us like shit in the next few years! Oh, you should have seen how all of them were practically at the front of the stage!"

As the house music began, you all begin breaking down equipment: F/n's girlfriend helping you break it down.

+*+

You carry the attachments in an elongated bag, as f/n's girlfriend carries the smaller drums, and anyone else who has an extra hand to carry the bigger drums. As the guitarist opens the back and begins meticulously organizing all the equipment, you pass some of the smaller stuff to them.

"Y/n," Bridget's voice calls out to you

You stop moving and turn to face her. Instantly your heart thrums against your ears. Her boyfriend practically clinging to her.

"Couldn't face me alone so you had to bring your little dog around?" You ask

"You little bitch!" Her boyfriend begins walking after you

"Hook, no," She presses her arms against his chest, "That's not it."

"Oh, right..." You chuckle sarcastically, "He's practically surgically attached to you and doesn't trust seeing you with the likes of me."

"Y/n that isn't fair-"

"You know what isn't fair?" You walk up to her

Hook was about to right hook your jaw, however, didn't want to in front of her.

"Letting me believe you actually cared about me," You start, "Hang out with me so many times, you invite me to your house, cheer competitions and get me to talk about all this shit after we graduate. Turns out it was all fake. To 'tell' me that we are nothing. but you know the truth... That's what's not fair... So I'm getting the fuck out of here."

You finish loading the last few pieces of your drums.

"Will I ever see you again?" Bridget asks, attempting to hold her tears back

You pause...

That little spark of hope in you wants to... The dark parts say 'fuck no'. The other... Is unsure...

"I doubt it," You answer, "Goodbye... Bridget..."

You continue walking to your van. That little spark of hope in you hoped that she'd last second change her mind and want to go with you....

*Bridget's POV* You wanted to leave your boyfriend behind and just go with Y/n... But, he was right there... Next to you... He'd never let you go...

"Finally Y/n, let's get this show on the road and forget this shit graduating class!" Y/n's friend says, which you could hear through the muffled glass

*Y/n's POV* You shut the back doors of the van, trying to keep yourself composed. Bridget's eyes glued to your back. You wanted to look back... To take in her pink hair, and her soft facial features before you may never see it again....

But, it was time to move on...

You hop into an open seat in the van, shutting the door behind you. Leaving your hometown behind...

Leaving... Bridget behind.

Chapter 7

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

ok so im tallying up my choices rn, theres one thats sort of near me but id have to get my mum to let us go to a shopping centre she probably doesnt want to go to, theres a handful nearby that are almost definitely a no and theres one that mum would probably actually like BUT we always forget to go whenever we plan to

i really cant wait for the day i find shth in my local cex it looks so fun and goofy omggg

[cleolinda]

I am so fucking pissed. We’re hearing forecasts that we might get FIVE FUCKING INCHES OF SNOW overnight from Monday to Tuesday. In ALABAMA, where we have no snow removal equipment. Like I think we got one bag of sand for the whole town. No snow tires, I don’t even know what those are. This isn’t cute “Haha it’s just barely below freezing! Snowball fight!!!” snow. This is 14° Fuck (-11° Come the Fuck On) snow. FIVE INCHES? We get flurries and the city descends into madness.

What if we lose POWER. Everything runs off USB cord stuck in the outlet charging nowadays. This is why everyone used to run out and buy Milk Bread Batteries. Listen. I have this memory of the power going out during this wild snowstorm when I was a kid--I want to say it was Winter Storm '93. Ask anyone who lived in Alabama at the time. Like we had Desert Storm '92 the military operation one year and Winter Storm '93 the next. It was that serious in our minds, and I'm not sure you can blame us:

The storm dumped several inches of snow each hour on Birmingham, which ended up with officially 13 inches of snow.

Due to the high winds some parts of Birmingham reported drifts 5 to 6 feet deep. One state trooper reported that the roads were in the worst shape he had ever seen. "People can't tell what's road and what's not."

Low temperatures during the storm were in the 5-to-10 degree range on that Sunday.

IN A TOWN WHERE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT A SNOW PLOW IS. I think we had one for the entire county. Like I'm only kind of joking here.

And our power went out.

The snow was so heavy that it pulled down power lines either by its own weight, or by the tree branches its weight broke off. Meanwhile, the power at my house already went off every time a squirrel sneezed. I don't how many days this lasted; it was probably like, 2-3 days, but in my head, I was 14 years old boxed up with my family with no heat and it lasted two weeks. Maybe three years. The four of us slept in sleeping bags layered with quilts, huddled on the floor around a wood burning fire. (In the haunted house, no less.) The carpet was really nice, at least. We had a--do people still call them boomboxes? A big portable cassette player--battery-powered--with AM/FM radio. We listened to whatever TV shows were broadcast from the ABC station at night. We did have hot water; I took a lot of hot baths. We cooked food over the outdoor grill (which we moved to the comfortably large area under the deck, to hold off the falling snow), sometimes using aluminum foil as a kind of thin impromptu frying pan, and kept perishables like milk and meat in a cooler. Oh, did we have a bag of ice for the cooler? No, we used snow. God knows there was enough of it. Of course, I'm sure the refrigerator was perfectly serviceable even without power, because it was TEN DEGREES FUCK ALL.

I remember going outside a good bit and playing, as much as a teenager plays, in the snow with my seven-year-old sister. I remember that all the neighborhood kids got big rubber trashcan lids and used them as toboggans, going up to the top of the hill on our street and pretty successfully sledding down. Maybe it was "lmao snowball fight!!" snow when I was 14. I'm 45 now, and the cold makes me hurt. It makes me hurt all over. Maybe Winter Storm '24 will be a fun core memory for my nephew. I am pissed. And also charging all my electronics.

(ETA: It’s ‘24 now, isn’t it. My brain hasn’t clicked the date over yet. What is time.)

[theresthesnitch]

If the face fits

Jily meet cute! ....well, this might be a meet ugly, but it's all I can think of. Based on a video I saw a while back, and I'll try to post it if I find it again. NSFW below the cut.

Lily hates the first day at a new gym. 

Trying out a new gym is always a bit uncomfortable. There are rules and expectations that are common across every gym, of course, but each one has its own culture that you really can’t know until you walk in the door. What is the flow around the equipment? What is the acceptable time on a machine? Where is the best vantage point to check out the gym hotties?

Lily despises walking in without knowing what to expect, but she and Mary moved to this city a month ago, and running outside is only going to get her by for so long. She needs some actual gym equipment. So, she’s braving gym visits. 

This one, Marauders Fitness (“We solemnly swear to get you swole!”) caught her eye. It’s run by four guys, each of whom are sexy in that sweaty-abs-on-display sort of way, if you’re someone who is into that sort of thing. (Lily… Lily was into that sort of thing). They offered a three-day visit pass, and this is Lily’s first day. 

She is already feeling the distinct exhaustion in her underused muscle, knowing that she’ll be deliciously sore tomorrow. All she needs is to lift some weights, and she’ll be done. 

She pulls out her phone to text Mary, who is stuck at work, as she sits down on the weight bench. Only, she doesn’t actually sit on the bench. 

Lily turns to look and jumps up again, just in time to see a guy with messy hair sit up from where he had laid down on the bench. “Oh, oh my god. I’m so–” 

She turns and runs. There’s really no other solution now, right? As much as she liked this gym, she can never, ever return. She honestly debates leaving her bag in the locker room, until she realizes her keys are in there, and she doubles back for it. 

“Hey, wait a minute!” 

She turns to see Mr. Messy Hair coming after her, jogging to catch up. “Nope, sorry. I have, um, an urgent appointment somewhere else. Across town. I have to go.” 

“You can’t go yet,” he says, walking beside her as she continues toward the locker room. 

“Yes, I can. Can’t be helped, must go.” She tries to walk a little faster, but this guy is tall and his long legs take big strides. 

“Well, before you run out, at least give me your name and number.” He looks down at her with a smirk, and she pretends it doesn’t make her stomach swoop. “You wouldn’t just sit on my face and run, would you?”

Lily groans. “You did not just use that line.” 

He laughs, and it’s such a full, happy sound. “It’s terrible, I know, but you can’t blame me. It’s like a once in a lifetime kind of a line.” 

“Listen, about that, I’m really sorry–” 

“NOPE!” He smiles as he cuts her off. “You don’t get to apologize for that. I think we were both a little at fault for that one, so if you apologize, I’m going to have to apologize, then you’ll think you have to apologize, and we’ll be stuck in a playback loop.” 

Lily scoffs. “Maybe, but only one of us sat on the other’s face.” 

“You’re really going to make me say it, aren’t you?” He crosses his arms over his chest, a playful tug to his lips. 

“Say what?”

He leans in, like he’s sharing a secret. “I really didn’t mind it that much.” 

Lily feels herself flush. “I really have to go.” 

“No, come on. You didn’t even finish your workout!” He gestures back at the gym. “Why don’t you finish? I can help if you want.”

She narrows her eyes at him. “Was that another double entendre?” 

His eyes go wide. “No. I mean, not intentionally. I just meant–” He sighs. “At least tell me you’ll come back?” 

Lily laughs, and there’s a hysterical note to it. “No, absolutely not.” 

“What if I throw in free personal trainer services?” 

She glares at him. “Do these services involve you laying on my weight bench?”

“No, I promise.” He waves over her shoulder. “I’ll even set it up with Sirius so you don’t have to deal with me.” 

She looks over her shoulder at three guys who are still standing by The Weight Bench (an incident like that deserves a Proper Title), grinning like they enjoy watching this train wreck. One of them–Sirius, presumably–waves back.

It’s only then that the realization lands hard in her stomach. She’s seen this guy before. All of them. “Oh my god. You’re the owner?” She walks past him, a bit in a daze. “I just sat on the gym owner’s face.” 

“It was a new experience for me, too.” He follows her as she walks back toward the locker room. “I’m James, by the way.” 

“Lily,” she says, but she’s hardly paying attention. 

“Are you still going to leave, Lily?”

A hysterical bubble of laughter pops out. “I should. I should move all the way back to my parents’ house and climb under my Barbie blanket and just give up.” 

“You could,” James says. “Or there’s another option and–I might be a bit biased, but I think it’s a better option.” 

“What’s that?” she asks, turning to face him. 

“Go on a date with me?” He’s really very cute when he smiles, glasses a little lopsided (that might be her fault) and a crooked grin. He holds his hands up in surrender. “Face sitting optional.” 

Lily laughs. She can’t help it; it’s just the most ridiculous thing to ever happen in her life. She holds up a finger. “One condition.” 

“Anything,” he says. 

“Please stop mentioning face sitting.” 

[gamertales]

Gotham, July 30th, 2024.

Hey, over here. Youre that blogger lady, right? Looking for info on the supposed ring of collectors of objects belonging to the Bat clan? We talked...well texted a bunch recently about the market.

Hah. Well i cant speak to this supposed ring, but i can show you my own personal collection. Sure its secured, i get a lot of people sniffing around so i try to keep it locked up, but im not stupid. No point tryin to hide from the Bats or what have you, this is just for the schmucks and their bosses. Hah.

Alright, if you follow me into my van.

Oh, yeah, i get that a lot. But look, im 52, i havent got the energy to flirt with 40 year old tired house moms. Kidnapping sounds like a lot of work.

Bit of a shocker compared to the outside, huh? Yeah, I had the interior and body upgraded a few years ago, added comfort and protection,still kept the rough looking exterior tho, keeps attention down.

Yep. Glass repair, window replacement, skylights. Heh. Youd be surprised to know how many small contractors making a living cleaning up qfter the Bat clan. Lotta companies downtown cant get insurance for windows, doors, ventilation systems. Gives us smaller guys a little more space to play.

After that throw down between Nightwing and Riddlers goons across from the Bank of Gotham last week, i managed to get in quick, and lock down the window contract.

This parts important, first crew on the scene gets to move in after the cops move out. Now Gothams finest do their best, but the number of small things they miss...

Take this for example, its a section of Nightwings glove with those fancy little spike things on them. Found it in the rubble under the skylight. Along with some mooks hand. Turned the hand in of course.

What? Oh its an informal alliance, but we keep each other in the loop, and let each other know when shits going down near em. If I cant make it across town, i'll send a text to the crews closest.

The goggles? Harley quinn dropped them a couple years ago, found them in the bushes outside the Exchange. Thats not the prize piece.

This. Two Batarangs from the Bat himself. To be fair i didnt really have to go far to find them. Summer of '19 the big guy landed on my roof. Hard. Dropped, rolled, and started running down the alleyway. Now i was dozing at the time, and that startled the literal shit out me. Cue the clown goons jumping on my truck to give chase. Big threw four of these beauties, making them scatter, and doing more damage to the van.

Four batarangs tho? I sold 2 of them to my buyer in the city. A collector of this stuff. He calls it "pretentious peacocking for poorly adjusted prats." Yeah, Mr Wayne is different enough. Only met him the one time, but he was very affable, even hired me to do the new windows for his guest house.

Made enough to upgrade ole Greaser here to their current condition. And a little.

Other than Mr Wayne? Im afraid i only deal with Mr Wayne; he pays fair, promptly, and usually sends a gift basket. No, i go thru his Butler now.

Right? A Butler. In 2024. Still, he seems harmless enough, spends all his time at charities i hear.

The Ring again? Look, im serious i have nothing to do with that side of the market.

...if you are really determined tho, contact Marc Belvedere, if anyone i know knows about this, itll be Marc.

Listen, i have toinstall some skylights at the City Hall in an hour, so i gotta get moving. Yeah, tell your friends Karl Aleksev is The Window guy when in a pinch.

By the way, what was your name again? Barbara Gordon? Like the Gordon Gordon? Your his daughter? Well, good luck, and be careful, theres a lot of money in this business, and money gets people killed.

Yeah. I guess you didnt really need that advice, huh.

Maybe we will cross paths again.

[threerattsinatrenchcoat]

"What did you expect, calling yourself the Goblin Menace?" Mizora said.

Wyll's cheeks went warm. He expected people to think he was a menace to goblins, not that he was a goblin who was also a menace! He took another step through the snow, pausing to listen for the sound of his quarry.

"Really, you shouldn't limit yourself. You could simply be: the Menace," Mizora said.

"Don't you have better things to do?"

Read more on AO3 or below the cut

"No. I cleared my schedule strictly so we could have this little one-on-one. Frankly, Wyll, you're not meeting your key performance indicators. Lucky you, I've put together a performance improvement plan to help you–"

Something moved behind the brush. Wyll ducked behind a trunk, carefully scaled the tree, and got a better view of his target. A steaming, lumpy pile of human pieces, so pained it could barely be called sentient. Snow sizzled when the flakes hit its flesh, the ice around it slowly melting as it struggled towards the town.

"There you go. Kill that and we'll be back in the net positive," Mizora yawned.

Wyll drew his blade and did so.

~*~

"I could have told you Handler of the Flesh was also a bad choice," Mizora said. "Accurate, though. I've seen what you do in the evenings."

"I told you, I'm rubbing my muscles. They're sore," Wyll snapped. Appalling, that she would imply otherwise.

"Sneaking off to rub your muscles in the bath? Under blankets?"

Because he had no privacy with her around! He kept his stone eye under a patch, terrified she would use it to peek at him and mock him. He bathed and used the bathroom with one hand clamped over it, ready to cover himself should she appear. Bad enough that he was newly covered in pimples, hair and stretch marks. The idea that she could see him undressed made his skin crawl.

Don't engage her. Engaging her only encourages her.

Hard though. Nigh impossible. Just the sound of Mizora's voice made rage boil up. She'd taken everything from him: his life, his father, the respect of a city. Private baths. Being alone. Silence. He dreamed about drawing his blade and running her through. About being dragged to the hells after, leaving only a greasy pile of waste to mark his life. When she spoke, the anger took over and he found himself quipping back at her. Or, worse, setting himself up for her to make fun of him.

"Perhaps if you spent less time rubbing muscles and more time on your tasks, we would be done with this review. Your target is in that cave."

Cave. A generous description. More a hole in the side of a glacier, the ice barely packed and dripping. Wyll was going to melt it just by being in it. Melt it and it would cave in on him. In his last moments, he would summon Mizora and spit on her. Maybe, maybe even call her… a shitbag.

Yes. Yes, he would.

No he wouldn't. Oh, he could never say that.

He clomped down the tunnel, following the low gibbering of his prey. Curled at the end of the tunnel he found the bloated, bald things, squirming and shaking against each other as they tried to stay warm. A few blasts and they were back in the heat of the hells.

~*~

"Gangblaster. Gang. Blast. Er." Mizora sighed. "Wyll. We really need to talk about this–"

"Can't!" he shouted, dodging a swooping imp. Imp! He hated imps. They were easy enough alone, but they were never alone.

Imps had more friends than he had.

"What will you call this one? Imp Slapper?"

"Mizora–"

"Wyll 'Swoop Me' Ravengard?"

"Mi–"

"Wyll, Who is Below the Imps?"

"As you say," he said, finally giving up. The anger flared and then faded a little. Wyll was simply too tired to fuel it.

"The One Who Imps Come Down Upon?"

"Sure."

"Oh! Wyll: Bottom for Imps!" she laughed. "Get it? Because Wyll sounds like 'will'. Will bottom for Imps."

"Right."

"Poo, you're not making this very fun." She snapped her fingers and the imps burned away.

"You—you could have… you could have killed them all along?"

"Of course! They don't count towards your work, though."

"Then why—!" His voice echoed. He took a deep breath.

"Watch your tone with me, pup," she smirked.

He another deep breath, then another, trying to get it under control, but this, this…this shi—

No. No, he wasn't going to let her win. He turned on his heel and marched away, her laugh following him into the night.

~*~

Mizora only had one quip on the next assignment—that Wyll should return to Gangbuster, or perhaps Babykiller—to which he said, "Certainly," and that was all. The heat of his anger was still there, but combined with how he needed to stay frosty towards Mizora, it cooled to a low simmer. Strange, how out here being aggressive, being a fighter, kept him alive, but Mizora was more like being back in the courts. Listening to barbed silver tongues dribble insults and wait for a moment to throw them off their game.

Wyll had despised courtly intrigue, so he did the same here that he had there: he pretended he was a sculpture of smooth, gray stone, and let it roll off of him. Instead of an unstoppable force, he was an immovable object, powerful in how little she could affect him.

Falling into the rhythm of battle helped too, Wyll placing his feet as sure as he did while dancing, fiendish magic flowing through him, ducking a weaving and leaping around the gnolls. He couldn't beat them too quickly, after all, so he staggered them, keeping them up and alive until one unwittingly opened a portal.

Out tumbled dozens of maw demons, little more than hungry mouths on whatever limbs they hadn't eaten. The creatures squealed as they ran towards Wyll, who dispatched them slowly, their twitching bodies only stacking in the spell that was summoning them. A dozen, two, no, a hundred later and he blasted the remaining gnolls, closing off the spell and completing his task.

He wiped his blade off and returned to camp, oiling and caring for it. His family crest sparkled on the hilt.

One day. One day he would prove to father that he had done well. One day his father would forgive him. All he had to do was enough good to outweigh his foolishness. Enough good that the name "Wyll Ravengard" didn't fill him with shame.

And until that day he would be…

The Rapier of the Roads.

No! No, he could always hear Mizora saying something.

~*~

Years of being a mildly pleasant statue to Mizora meant she slowly lost interest in him. Far slower than a mortal might, but they say patience comes with age and she was ancient. She still stroked him and licked him but her touch was as inconsequential and stupid as a fly banging against the stained glass windows of his father's office. You could not hurt rock, not without breaking it, and he was worth too much whole. Thus he settled into a half life, never too happy—because Mizora would know what to take from him—and never too sad—because that would give her pleasure. A twilight, as cool and dim as he tried to be.

Perhaps that's why her requests turned cruel.

Wyll stared at the woman in front of him. Fiendish, certainly, with her horns and the glow of hellfire in her chest, the oily smoke that poured out of her shoulders. And huge, too. In a fair fight she would probably crush him. Definitely crush him. He'd lost a lot of skill thanks to the tadpole. Looking at her he saw Mizora, the empty smiles, the constant invasion.

But that wasn't reality. In reality she was like him: a plaything for devils. A weapon wielded to further their plans. Except she hadn't had a choice.

Mizora was going to kill him, he knew it. She was going to ruin him. Perhaps she would scream into his thoughts all night or pass her end of the sending stone around, filling his head with the mindless suffering of the lemures. Maybe twist him, turn him into a monster, stamp on his face that he was a sellout, scum.

Too late. He wouldn't kill an innocent. Let her ruin him. He would not ruin himself, not anymore.

The feeling of doing right filled him with a warmth as bold and bright as Karlach's smile.

[scarisd3ad]

To the end and back | Daryl Dixon x f!reader

Chapter Eighteen - safe and sound

Masterlist

Taglist

Previous >> next

Warnings - normal twd warnings

Summary - after the world ended you were sure you’d never find love again but a certain archer catches your eyes and changes the entire trajectory of your life.

A/n - the last chapter of season 2! Yay! I am going to post a chapter that takes place between season 2 and 3 that will introduce a new oc!

'Beside the dying fire'

S2 ep 13

"What was that?" I ask as I quickly jump up and walk over to where the others are sat in the living room. "Gun shots my guess" Andrea replies. "You think they found him?" I ask with my brows furrowed as I take a seat on the couch. "I don't know, but I'm going after them" Andrea says as she gets up from her place on the couch. "don't they could be anywhere, and if Randall comes back, were gonna need you here" Lori says as the front door opens. in comes both Daryl and Glenn. that pit in my stomach just dissolves as I see both of them. "Rick and Shane aint back?" Daryl asks as he and Glenn walk into the room. "no." Lori replies. "We heard a shot" Daryl says, as I cross my arms over my chest and relax into the couch "maybe they found Randall." Daryl shakes his head as he says, "we found him." quietly like he was starting to think "is he back in the shed?" Maggie asks. if they found Randall then why was there a shot? did Shane and rick run into a walker? there aren't many walkers to run into out here but maybe the city walkers are making their way into the country? 

"he's a walker" with that information now we know more of them are making their way into the country. the walkers in the city were starting to make their way out of the city when we were at the quarry so I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they were here now. there are walkers here but not as many as in Atlanta. small town meant a small amount of people which meant a small number of walkers. by now most of the people who were killed and turned to walkers here had been killed, but if the walker from the city starts making their way here that means we'll see a lot more of them soon.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asks with his hands stuffed into his pockets " no, weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn replies and Daryl adds "his neck was broke." from the start we assumed if you get bit you turn into a walker, that's the only way you can turn but maybe just dying makes you turn. "So, he fought back." Patricia states, Maggie's eyebrows stay furrowed up as Glenn and Daryl continue to speak. everything we thought we knew is just total bullshit, everything we've done to survive has really meant nothing if you just turn by dying. is there really a reason to survive if you're just going to turn if you don't get shot in the head. "The thing is Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. and Shane aint no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. they were together." Shane lied, why would he lie about something like that? I know shanes been known to lie but that's such a stupid thing to lie about just say you killed him it's not like anybody in this group was going to do anything to Shane anyways. 

"Would you please get back out there and find rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?" Lori says as she walks up to Daryl. Daryl nods and says "you got it" as he begins to walk towards the door. Lori loosely grabs ahold of Daryl's bicep mumbling "thank you" as she did so.

Daryl, Andrea and Glenn go outside but Andrea quickly runs back inside saying there is a herd of walkers coming our way. almost all of us run outside to take a look, and its big. I think it's bigger than the herd from the highway. it would just knock this house down. Hershel turns to Patricia and whispers "Patricia, kill the lights" Patricia turn around and begins to walk back to the house as Andrea says, "I'll get the guns" and follows after her. "May-maybe they're just passing through like the herd on the highway. should we just go inside?" Glenn suggests, maybe if this was the size of the herd out on the highway but this house won't survive this. "Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't think so. a herd that size would rip the house down" Daryl replies. I wrap my arms around my body mostly to warm myself up because it's freezing out here. 

"Carls gone" Lori says as she runs out onto the porch. we all turn around towards her "what?" that kid loved to run off, but I didn't expect him to run off in the middle of the night while there was a potentially dangerous person on the loose. "He-he wasn't upstairs. I can't find him anymore" Lori stutters out with tears in her eyes. "Maybe he's hiding" Glenn suggests. from what though? unless he saw the herd before us, he has no reason to hide. "he's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy!" Lori cries, we're not going to leave without carl we can't just let another child die because of our negligence. "we're not, we're gonna look again. we're gonna find him" carol says as she takes Lori's hand and takes her back into the house. I can tell by the look in carols eyes that she doesn't want another mother to go through the same pain she went through with Sophia, she can't watch another child go the same way Sophia did.

Glenn runs his hands through his hair muttering something under his breath I can't really hear. Andrea comes back out with ricks gun bag and Hershel and Maggie hand out guns. I pull out mine from my bag and make sure I have enough rounds to at least make sure I'm able to get out of here alive. "Maggie." Glenn mumbles as Maggie hands him a gun. "You grow up country you pick up a thing or two" Maggie replies with a gun in her hand, and I can't help but agree half of the things I learned growing up on my grandparent's farm are what I'm using now to survive. "I've got the number- it's no use." Daryl mutters "you can go if you want." Hershel says as he cocks the gun in his hand. Daryl's brows furrow together "you're gonna take'em all on?" Hershel looks up at Daryl before saying "we've got guns, we've got cars." 

"Kill as many as we can, and we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off of the farm." Andrea explains. Daryl looks to Hershel one more time asking, "are you serious?" Hershel replies with "this is my farm. I'll die here." 

"Alright. it's as good a night as any" Daryl says before turning to me "stay with Glenn" was he really serious, if he goes by himself and I stay with Glenn I might never be able to find him again we don't know what going to happen when we go out there. "But dar-" he quickly cuts me of grabbing my hand and saying "this ain't the time to be fuckin' stubborn stay with Glenn" before hopping over the porch railing. we watch as he runs off towards his motorcycle. I don't mean to be stubborn I just don't want to not know if something happened to him. anything could happen and I don't want to live the rest of my life waiting for a dead man to come back.

I let out a frustrated sigh as I tuck my gun into my back pocket and turn walking back into the house. "Where are you going?" Glenn asks as he grabs my wrist stopping me from moving any further. "I'm going to see if Lori's found carl yet." I mumble as I pull my wrist out of his grip and continue to walk into the house. I hate this, I hate not being able to stay in one area comfortably we have to flee every single time because of walkers. I walk into the house and up the stairs to where Lori and carol are looking for carl. "Have you found him yet?" I ask Lori's eyes are full of tears as she shakes her head. "May-maybe he's with rick" carol says but Lori just shakes her head "he's supposed to be up here, I told him to stay up here" she cries. carl really wasn't good at listening to his parents especially when they told him to stay inside. 

"y/n! we're about to leave!" I hear Glenn shout from downstairs. I'm about to go downstairs when I hear Maggie say "we've gotta go. if she's with Lori she'll be fine" and then the sound the door closing. I figure if I'm at least with other people in our group I'll be fine, so I decide to stay with Lori and carol to look around the house one last time for carl. we look in every room, under every bed, and even in every cupboard but he's nowhere to be found. he has to be with his father that's the only place I think he would've gone. we have to leave now if we don't, we'll get stuck up in the herd and definitely die. 

I'm peering out the window with Beth as I watch the barn light up in flames. that had to be Shane or ricks handy work they must have gotten stuck up in the barn. if Shane and rick are there, I'm certain carl is too. Beth turns to Patricia and whispers "the barns on fire" I scoot over and let her look. she peers through the boarded-up window and says "they're headed for it, maybe rick set it to draw'em in" a door upstairs slams before Lori comes rushing down the stairs "I can't find him anywhere" she says as carol comes following Lori as she walks into the living room "so maybe he snuck outside." carol says but I think she's just proposing the idea to try and get Lori out of the house. even though I believe he probably snuck out too I don't think Lori will leave until she's fully sure her son is outside and not in this house. "What do I do!" Lori shouts as she quickly turns back towards carol "he was here. he must've run off, maybe looking for rick or just went after Randall himself" carol says still trying to convince Lori that carl is not in this house. "Maybe he set the fire" Patricia proposes, now thinking about it that does seem like a very carl thing to do. Lori's head turns towards the window.

Lori decides she's going to check the shed one last time leaving Beth, Patricia, and I in the house. I don't know if we are going to be able to make it out of this house, the walkers are getting closer and closer even with Hershel outside shooting as many as he can. carol rushes back into the house saying "Beth, y/n, Patricia come on. we gotta go now." we follow after her onto the porch "Lori" carol says as she closes the door behind us. Lori stops shooting and bends down quickly grabbing the gun bag off of the ground. "Hershel! Hershel" Lori shouts as she leans over the porches railing. "Hershel! it's time to go! come on! now!" Lori shouts, he either can't hear her over the loud gun shots or just doesn't care because he doesn't respond. Lori calls his name a few more times before giving up and running over towards us. we begin to just run as fast we can once we get off of the porch. I hear the screams of two people behind me, but I just keep running because if I stop, I know I'll die too. I briefly turn my head back to see that carol, and Lori stopped to help. I can't stop now I keep running until I reach the shed. I turn around to see that a group of walkers have separated off from the herd and have started following me. 

my eyes widen as my back hits the shed. there's nowhere for me to run so I pull my gun out of my back pocket and shakily point my gun towards the walkers. my hands are shaky as I try shooting some walkers most shots failing just because of how unsteady my hands are. I'm gonna die, its finally setting in that I'm probably going to die. "Shit! shit!" I cry out as I try to shoot a few more walkers. this time I shoot two in the head but there is at least 20 coming at me. I watch as the truck comes barreling through a few walkers back where Lori is. I keep shooting at the walkers only making a few of the shots. 

Andrea comes running towards me shooting any walkers in her way. there are two walkers that are the closest to me about 4 or five feet away. I'm sure I'll be able to make these, so I lift my gun up getting ready to shoot when both of them get shot and fall over revealing Andrea behind them. I'm about to thank her when I see a walker behind her so close that if I didn't scream now, she'd die. "Look out!" I scream. she quickly turns around and shoots it, but it falls over on top of her. I don't even think twice before running the other way. maybe I can make it to the barn before Daryl leaves. I'm not that fast though, I never have been. I turn around shooting as many walkers as I can occasionally, but I mostly focus on running. the only thing pushing me towards that barn is adrenaline. my heart is beating against my chest as run, my legs start to ache, but I know I can't stop, not now at least. 

I turn to shoot a few more and it clicks informing me that it's out of ammo. I try again. click. click. "noo!" I cry out as I abruptly stop running to pull out a knife, I had stuffed into my pocket earlier. the walkers are slowly coming close. shit. the barn is close enough that I can see it and the flames roaring around it. I'm fumbling around in my pocket when I finally feel the cold metal blade in my pocket. I pull it out and point it at the walker closest to me. I wait until it comes a little close to raise it up a little and... I yelp as it grabs ahold of my wrist. its grip is tight as I try pulling away. I scream as loud as I can maybe if someone is still at the barn, they'll hear me and come help. "noo! noo let go" I cry out as I continue to pull away. I don't even know how something dead could have that strong of a grip. 

I hear the sound of an engine revving up as I finally break free from the walker's grip and stab it in the eye over and over again till it falls to the ground. I run to the street just as Daryl drives up. I don't think he expected it to be me because of the look on his face when he shouts, "I thought I told ya to stay with Glenn!" I get onto the motorcycle and wrap my arms around his torso before he starts driving again. "I know- I know I'm sorry please don't be mad" I cry. we drive through the night, but it feels like days go by I don't even know where he's taking us. we pass by groups of walkers occasionally, but it doesn't seem to bother Daryl and I'm not in the right state of mind to really care either we always loose them so why should I. 

my mind is racing. I could have died if I wasn't able to pull away from that walker it could've bit me. it could've bit me, and I would've died, I would've died, and no one would know what happened to me. I would've turned into one of those things and just spent the rest of eternity stumbling around looking for my next meal. god I left everything there my picture's my books. all the pictures of my parents, of matt. the only picture I have left is the one in my bag. I have nothing to remember them by what if I forget what they looked like and sounded like. I can't breathe, God we need to stop, I can't breathe.

"Da-Daryl can we stop! please stop!" I cry out loud enough for him to hear me over the engine. seeing that there's no walkers in sight he stops. I let go of Daryl and get off the bike. "Are ya alrigh'?" he asks as I stumble around for a few seconds trying to breathe as I dig through my bag until I find the small family picture I kept in my bag. I stare at it, it's from maybe when I was 8 matt is like 4 in the picture. mom, dad, matt, and me it was taken before dad left. a few months before the big fight that broke my family. it was my fault; I'll always say it was. I was being stubborn like I normally am not listening to my father when he told me to get ready for bed. my parents' relationship was already practically gone by that point but when my father grabbed my wrist tightly trying to pull me up the stairs to my room my mom had to step it. that's when the shouting and the screaming started when I woke up the next morning dad was gone.

 "Did ya get bit? fuck answer me!" he shouts, I quickly turn to him before hugging him. I have one arm wrapped around his neck and my face smushed into his shoulder. he stands there a little confused before wrapping his arms around my waist. "yo-you saved me I would've died out there without you. I l-love you so much" I cry into his shoulder. I can tell he doesn't really know what to say, he just stands there holding me. "Im-Im sorry for being so stubborn I-I should've just gone with Glenn and Maggie. b-but I wanted to help Lori and I-I lost track of time a-and they left me I-I'm sorry" I rant before raising my head up to look at him. I look into his blue eyes before pressing my lips to him he's a little taken aback at first but eventually kisses back. when I pull away, he wipes a tear off of my cheek before muttering "yer alright you don't gotta be sorry."

-

we go back to the highway, that's the best choice to choose if anyone was thinking of meeting up anywhere it would probably be the highway. I guess everyone else had the same idea because as Daryl pulls up onto the highway, I hear the sound of cars behind us. Daryl drives the motorcycle over to where they had left the sign for Sophia which felt like months ago when it was actually just a few weeks ago. when we pull up that's when I see rick, carl, and Hershel. the cars behind us park and I hop off of the motorcycle and to Shane's car. Glenn is standing with the driver's side door open. "Glenn!" I cry out as I almost knock him down in a hug. his arms tighten around my torso as he buries his head into my shoulder. "Holy shit" he mutters before he pulls away "I thought you died" he whispers. I grin as he pulls me back into a hug "I missed you so much." 

we walk over to where the others are gathered. Lori, Rick, Carl, Hershel, Beth, Maggie, carol, t-dog, Glenn, Daryl and I are all here. the only people we're missing are Shane, Andrea, Jimmy, and Patricia. "where'd you find everyone?" rick asks as he stands up from the group hug he was just having with his family. "Well, those guys' taillights zigzagging all over the road figured he had to be Asian, driving like that." Daryl says with his hands placed on his hips and a smirk on his lips. Glenn chuckles "good one." as he nods. Daryl looks around probably making a mental note of everyone who is here before asking rick "where's the rest of us?" rick sighs before turning to Daryl "we're the only ones who made it so far." Lori stands up and asks "Shane?" rick shakes his head. this is probably selfish, but it felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders knowing that Shane is dead. I don't have to worry about Shane trying to do anything to me or anyone else in this group anymore.

"Andrea?" Glenn asks, "sh-she saved me, then I lost her" I whisper terrified that the others would be angry that I left her behind she was a strong member of our group and losing her is definitely going to threaten our chances of surviving. "We saw her go down" t-dog says. "Patricia?" Hershel asks. "They got her too, took her right in front of me. I was-" Beth lets out a broken sob as both her father and sister wrap their arms around her. "I was holdin' onto her, daddy. she just-" she cries as she buries her head into her father's chest. "What about jimmy? did you jimmy?" Beth asks. "He was in the rv. it got overrun." rick replies. in total we lost 4 people to the walkers and most of them were vital assets to our group. "You definitely saw Andrea?" I ask, Lori turns her head towards me and says, "there were walkers everywhere." my brows furrow together "did you see her" I ask as i cross my arms over my chest. the last time I saw Andrea was when she fell, they definitely had to see her if she got up.

Daryl walks over to his bike saying "I'm gonna go back." rick shakes his head saying "no" and Daryl stops his brows furrowing together "We can't just leave her." Daryl protests. We don't even know if she's even alive, and it's been hours since anyone has seen her if she survived, she probably ran far away from that farm. "We don't even know if she's there" Lori says shaking her head "she isn't there, she isn't she's somewhere else or she's dead" rick states. that walker that fell on top of her was definitely dead, but I don't even know if she got out from underneath that walker, there is a chance that all those walkers behind her killed her after I ran. "there's no way to find her" Daryl is a tracker but there were so many walkers in that farm that it would be impossible for him to figure out if any of those footprints are hers. Glenns brows furrow up in confusion as he says, "so we're not even gonna look for her?" he asks, "we gotta keep moving. there are walker crawling all over here" rick replies as a walker in an Argyl sweater begins to stumble its way towards us. there are way too many walkers around her we have to keep moving there's no way we can even try to look for her without losing a few more people.

"I say head east" t-dog suggests as Daryl walks over to where his crossbow is sat on his bike as he says, "stay off the main roads, the bigger the roads, the more walkers, more assholes like this one...I got it." he picks up his crossbow and points it towards the walker and shoots it right in the head. 

we all get back into our cars except for t-dog and the other that were in the truck. we decided to leave that one on the road and move them into the other vehicles to save gas.

-

I have my arms wrapped tightly wrapped around Daryl's torso as we ride down a small road with trees lining either side when I hear a car honk behind us. the rule we made before we left the Atlanta camp honk once if you need assistance. Daryl's bike slows to a stop, I get off of the bike as everyone else is getting out of the cars. "You out?" Daryl asks as he turns his head towards rick who is walking towards him. "Running on fumes." rick replies. "We can't stay here" Maggie says as everyone makes their way towards Daryl and his bike. I stuff my hands in my pockets trying to warm them up, I didn't realize how much the temperature could drop in just a few days.

"We can't all fit in one car" Glenn says "we'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning" rick replies as he turns towards Glenn. "Spend the night here?" carol asks her brows furrowed together. there's no way we can spend the night here it's way too cold to start with and we don't even know who and what is in these woods. we could get raided or even killed if we stayed here. "I'm freezing" carl complains, his mother has her arm wrapped around his and his hands are stuffed in his pocket. "we'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori suggests as she rubs her hand quickly across her son's chest trying to warm him up. rick walks over to his son taking off his jacket before handing it to Lori, Lori takes that jacket and wraps it around carl.

 "You go out looking for firewood, stay close. Only got so many arrows. how are you doing on ammo?" Daryl asks. "Not enough" rick replies as he walks up just a little bit past Daryl's bike. "We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out" Maggie curses which prompts Hershel to reply with "watch your mouth everyone stop panicking and listen to rick" I don't understand how were supposed to stop panicking what started as a trip to find answers at the CDC ended with us having no answers no supplies and homeless. 

"Alright, we'll set up a perimeter. in the morning we'll find gas and some supplies. we'll keep pushing on." rick states, I don't know how we're supposed to just 'keep pushing on' when we've got nothing to eat, the temperatures are dropping, and have no roof over our heads to keep us just a little bit warm. "Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas" Maggie suggests. rick shakes his head in protest as he says "no, we stay together. gods forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car." rick says as we turn around. everyone has this look on their face like there not trusting everything rick is saying, like we're starting to pull away and not believe were going to be alright like rick is trying to tell us. "Rick, we're stranded now" Glenn says is a quiet voice. "I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other" what was finding each other worth in were just going to freeze or starve to death. 

"I wasn't sure-" rick cuts himself off as he shakes his head "I really wasn't but we did. we're together. we keep it that way" we all look at each other almost as if were a bit skeptical of if what he is saying is true. was it really for the best that we found each other? "we'll find shelter somewhere. there's gotta be a place." rick says as he turns his back to us and walks forward a bit. "Rick, look around. okay? there's walkers everywhere. t-they're migrating or something." I watch as carl shivers in his mother's arms struggling to get himself warm. "there's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other." is there really a way to do that though this group has a record of not being able to stay in one place for a long time. the Atlanta camp, the CDC, the farm they're all abandoned now. 

"I know it's out there. we just have to find it." rick hisses, "even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure for how long. look what happened with the farm. we fooled ourselves into thinking that was safe" Maggie speaks up. Hershel looks to his daughter before whispering "we won't make that mistake again. "Rick it wasn't only the farm we made that mistake with and-and you know that" I whisper, his brows furrow up in anger before it quickly disappears, and he says "we'll make camp tonight over there" he says pointing to something i think used to be some garden or memorial. it's got walls but no roof, but someone could sit onto of the walls to patrol. "Get on the road break of day. "Does this feel right to you?" carol asks Daryl as she walks up to him "what if walkers come through, or another group like Randalls?" Beth asks as she walks up to rick. 

"You know I found Randall, right? he turned, but he wasn't bit." Daryl whispers, rick nods like this weren't a surprise to him "how's that possible?" Beth asks with her brows furrowed together. "Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asks. I lean myself against Daryl who is beside me trying to maybe transfer heat between the two of us. "Shane killed Randall. just like he always wanted to." Daryl states, loris brows furrow together as she asks, "and then the herd got him?" rick is quiet as we all look to him for answers.

"we're all infected" rick mutters, were all infected which means no matter how hard we try we'll all turn one day unless were shot in the head. "What?" Daryl asks "at the CDC Jenner told me. whatever it is, we all carry it. I don't understand why rick would keep something like that from us. that's an important thing for us to know and he kept it for weeks before telling us. I pull myself off of Daryl before he starts pacing a bit. carols words are laced with anger as she steps forwards and says, "and you didn't say anything?" 

"Would it have made a difference?" were all angry at rick, this is something I think we should've all know about it could've changed so many of the decision we decided to make. "You knew this whole time?" Glenn asks his face filled with the look of betrayal. how could he not have even told his own wife who has the same betrayed look on her face that Glenn has. "How could I have known for sure? you saw how crazy that mo-" Jenner seemed crazy but maybe everything that Jenner was saying was true and we could've made a better more informed decision back at the CDC if we knew we were all infected, if we knew we basically had no chance of having a better life than this. "That isn't your call. 'kay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone!" Glenn whisper shouts cutting rick off as he leans forward a bit.

I cross my arms over my chest trying to warm myself up as a particularly cold gust of wind blows through. "Well, I thought it best that people didn't know." rick says, no matter how hard he's trying to defend his actions and make us understand why he didn't tell us it doesn't change our opinion that it was fucked up of him not to tell us it seemed more like something Shane would do.

it's quiet for a few seconds as rick looks at each one of us maybe just looking for one of us to speak up and say that we agree with him but none of us do not even his wife. he lets out a disappointed sigh before turning around and walking away. Lori lets go of carl pushing him towards Hershel who pats his head before resting his hand on carl shoulder. Lori follows after her husband leaving us all just watching as she runs after him. 

I run my hands through my hair as I let out a frustrated sigh. that promise rick made yesterday that we were going to fix this group for dale was a lie we were break more, and more and I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up splitting up soon.

-

its late and we're all gathered around the fire trying to keep warm as the night brings in colder and colder temperatures. Daryl is throwing more and more pieces of wood into the fire to keep it a blaze. Lori walks over to carl who is staring into the fire with his hands clasped together and sit down behind him. carol who is sitting beside me whispers "we're not safe with him" to Daryl. Daryl turns his head down towards carol with his brows furrowed together. "keepin' something like that from us." I think it was wrong of rick to not tell us, but I don't think we're not safe with him. "Why do you need him? he's just gonna pull you down" Daryl shakes his head "nah. ricks done all right by me" carols brows furrow together as she says "you're his henchman, and I'm a burden. you deserve better" I think we're fine with rick for right now, he's not like Shane and I don't think we should start anything that could possibly leave us all dead.

Daryl stares at carol for a few seconds before asking "what do you want?" she lifts her head back up to look up at Daryl as she whispers, "a man of honor." I look over to carl who's got his head down looking at the ground, I think it's wrong of carol to be talking so vulgar about his father right in front of him. I can tell carl feels awkward listening to her talk about rick like that. "Rick has honor" Daryl replies. I stuff my hands into my pocket as I mutter "let's not start anything." 

there's a sound out in the woods of something shuffling around out there maybe "what was that?" Beth asks. Daryl stands up and says "could be anything. could be a raccoon, could be a possum." almost all of us stand up, "a walker" Glenn mutters. were all on guard just waiting for a walker to pop out. "We need to leave. what are we waiting for?" carol squeaks as she glances nervously around. "Which way?" Glenn asks and Maggie replies with " it came from over there" as she points to where she suspects the noise came from. "Back from where we came" Beth adds.

"Last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark" like last night the main reason why we lost so many was because of how we were panicking and running around like fools. "We don't have the vehicles. no one's traveling on foot." it wouldn't be safe for us to just run off in the dark there's too many walkers in this area already and there wouldn't be a way for us to find everyone. "don't panic" Hershel advises "I'm not, I'm not sitting here, waiting for another herd to blow through we need to move now!" Maggie demands. rick turns around towards us "no one is going anywhere" he growls as he lunges towards us a bit. he's angry, maybe he heard what we said or maybe he just senses that were questioning him. Maggie's brows furrow up as she takes a step back "do something!" carol begs. "I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doin' that all along no matter what!"

"I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ sake!" he killed Shane it wasn't a bite or a self-inflicted death. I'm not mad at him, I'm actually pretty proud of him for finally showing Shane who's boss. carl is staring at his father with tears pooling in his eyes, he's staring at him like he doesn't know who that man is. we all silently stare at rick most of us in shock from his random outburst. rick scoffs "you saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us." he looks down to Lori who won't even make eye contact with him "he staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. he gave me no choice!" I saw the way Shane looked at rick ever since he appeared at the quarry, he looked like he just wanted to strangle him every time he'd kiss Lori or be fatherly with carl. it was like Shane thought rick was stealing it all right from underneath him. "He was my friend, but he came after me." Lori wraps her arms around carl as he begins to sob uncontrollably. even while hearing his son's sobs rick continues on "my hands are clean." he looks to each one of us and we all try not to make eye contact in fear that he'll come after us. "Maybe you people are better off without me. go ahead. I say there's a place for us but may-maybe it's just another pipe dream."

carols got this dear in headlights look now knowing rick heard what she said. "May-maybe I'm just fooling myself again! why don't you- why don't you go and find out yourself?! send me a postcard! go on! there's the door! you can do better? let's see how far you get." no one speaks or tries to leave it's like we're frozen. I knew it was a horrible thing to about rick when he was just a few feet away. we shouldn't have started anything. "No takers? fine. but get one thing straight you're stayin', this isn't a democracy anymore." rick looks at each one of us one more time before turning around and walking off angrily. I just know that dale wouldn't be happy with where our group is at right now, it's still broken, and I don't think there's anything we can do to fix it.

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[fleet-admiral-hiba]

Andd I got another one,

Alrighty so I’m just gonna get straight to the point.

The reader goes out to mondstadt with one of the higher up (ish) harbingers because one, the harbinger had some business to attend to and two, the reader just wanted to tag along as they don’t really leave the palace often.

They wander off for a minute and bump into, one of the knights of favonious? The knight is confused and asks us where our parents are, we glance around now realizing the harbinger isn’t in our sight.

The knight is trying to calm us down n stuff until said harbinger finds us and tells the knight they are our legal guardian,

The knight doesn’t believe them because yk, the fatui.

Though the knight is proven wrong when we go up and hide into the coat of the harbinger, as we are more at ease now.

wow that was a long one, have fun with this.

-Simon

Dude I swear,every time I see you in my askbox my heart does a funny thing. Your request are gold✨

DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

The Harbingers were having a meeting, and this time, given that Pierro was going to Mondstadt for diplomatic reasons, they petitioned to have you go with him.

True, last time you tried to do that they grounded you for a month, and they felt incredibly guilty. You usually never left the premise of the Cathedral, and although you tried not to, they could see how sad you were.

Also, after the scolding they gave you, their heart broke when they saw what that had done to you. You took that too seriously, and they couldn't imagine to see their little ball of sunshine so beaten down.

He mused about the request: he wasn't going to do anything dangerous, and it would cheer you up to visit another land.

He agreed, and he personally made his way to your room to tell you. He found you looking out of the window, admiring the snow gently floating down.

Kneeling down in front of you, he took a moment to admire you, their beautiful and bright little fox.

"Dearheart, I know we've been harsh with your punishment and that you've been feeling under the weather for the past few months. I'm going to Mondstadt soon, and I was wondering if you would like to come with me?" he hoped you would forgive them for their error, but in the meantime the crushing hugs he received was enough confirmation.

" Alright then, pack your bags. We leave tomorrow morning" and with a forehead kiss he left.

.

.

.

Mondstadt was vibrant with its colours, the people were friendly and everything was wonderful.

For the first time ever you saw your uncle without a heavy winter coat and it made for a dashing sight. Of course you took a picture.

And it was while taking pictures that you lost sight again of him.

Looking around, you started to look around, scared. It happened once and it wasn't going to happen again.

Even though you were scared you made your way to that tall building you saw: maybe you could find someone to ask about your missing uncle.

Meanwhile, a wandering knight was doing his round around town when he saw you, looking a little lost.

"Need any help?" you nodded, finally an adult who could help you.

You described what your uncle was looking like, and together you made your way through the city. Reaching the hotel, you recognized that white hair. " Uncle P!" you shouted while trying to bolt towards him. He turned around, recognizing your voice.

He was less than pleased to see you being yanked back by the knight. What could have being doing a kid like you with the Fatui?

It took less than a minute for you to pinch a nerve in his hand, and you immediately run to Pierro, hiding in his lighter coat.

The knight was surprised: it couldn't be. " I suggest you stop judging people by what they appear to be. I am but a diplomat here, and my little one is here to keep me company, isn't that right love?" You poked your head out and nodded.

"So if you would excuse us" he said while taking you in his arm and making his way inside the hotel. He was much more reserved than that usually, but he needed to prove his point.

The knight stood there dumbfounded, but left the scene. Later, when he reported it to his superior, he too told him not to mess with the kid.

The Fatui never have forgiven them for disturbing their little angel.

And they were diplomats. Relations were more important than any kind of mission against them.

.

.

.

The Kraft book Grampa Papanella gave you was coming along nicely, and with the new photos of Pierro inside it was even better.

He was proud of you, and he showed it with his hugs.

His little one, deadly in your cuteness

[redbirdandbluebird23]

So.... I signed up just to talk to you about your UK visit recs hahaha. Don't know if I'm even messaging you properly. This is Winterine from ao3, but annoyingly someone took that name here and I cbb going for variants when I am pretty sure I was the original Winterine lol. But yes, realistically, I'm planning to head to the UK for a big solo walk/cycle tour or historical/interesting/spooky/beautiful/natural places maybe 2025 or 2026 after I finish uni, I'm thinking around April-May ish. Keen to hear what you think I should see/do, or if I should go at a different time of year etc.

I honestly think April/May is the best time to visit because it's out of the main tourist season and the weather is starting to get better. Don't get me wrong, it will rain, but it won't be as cold and miserable, or as hot and miserable 😂.

I definitely got carried away listing places, but I figured if I listed everything and why, you'd be able to pick and choose what sounds best to you

Scotland:

- Inverness and Loch Ness: I was obsessed with the Loch Ness monster as a kid which is one of the main reasons I visited, but Inverness is also a really beautiful town and there's a lot of walks/hikes nearby 

- Glen Coe, Fort William, Ben Nevis, and Glenfinnan viaduct: we did all these in the same day, but we were driving and didnt actually walk up Ben Nevis. Glen Coe is a place that looks as close to lord of the rings as you can get outside of New Zealand, there's plenty of hikes/bike routes through it. Fort William is a little town directly at the bottom of Ben Nevis, so it's a good place to see/climb the mountain, and there's also hikes/bike routes. The Glenfinnan viaduct is most famous from Harry Potter, but it's also a really pretty place full stop.

- Oban and the Isle of Mull: Oban is a historic seaside town that's famous for it's whiskey distillery (which I recommend the tasting at) and seafood. There's a ferry that runs several times a day to the Isle of Mull, which has plenty of great places to visit, lots of hikes/bike routes.

- Edinburgh: it's honestly one of my favourite cities and looks exactly like it does in pictures. There's a lot of history and literary influence, and I highly recommend Armchair Books, which is a little second hand book shop. The castle is also worth visiting.

Wales:

-Snowdonia and Mount Snowdon: absolutely loads of hikes/bike routes, but if you don't want to walk up Snowdon, there's a little railway that I highly recommend. Because Snowdon used to be under the sea, it's also possible to find marine invertebrate fossils at the top.

- Llandudno: most famous as where Alice in Wonderland was written/inspired. But also a great little seaside town

- New Quay: lovely little coastal town with loads of walks/bike routes around it

-St David's: the UK's smallest city, very pretty and lots of hikes/bike rides around

-Portmeirion: this is, hands down, one of the strangest places I've ever been. It's basically a fake town that was used as a set for the TV show The Prisoner, but it's now a tourist attraction. I can't really describe what it's like, just very fantastical and strange, it even has a pet cemetery

England:

(The Peak District and London I've done as separate lists at the bottom due to all of the places I recommend in them)

-The Lake District: absolutely loads of walks/hikes/bike routes. Very picturesque and there's a lot to do and see. It's also where Beatrix Potter wrote all of her books so there's a lot of Peter Rabbit related stuff around.

-Bamburgh Castle and Lindisfarne: there's lots of hikes/bike routes through Northumberland, but I think Bamburgh Castle is worth a visit, it's been used in a lot of films. Lindisfarne is an island that used to be home to monks, they brew their own mead and its the first place the vikings landed in Britain.

-Scarborough, Whitby, and Robin Hoods Bay: these places encompass my childhood because we used to go on caravan holidays with my granddad every year. This whole stretch of coast is very good for walks/bike routes. Scarborough is a very stereotypical English seaside town with amusements and 2p machines, but Anne Brontë is buried there and it actually has a lot of history. Whitby is one of my favourite places on earth, not only because of its ties to Bram Stoker, Dracula and goths, but it's also very historic and the abbey is incredible. The kippers and fish and chips at the Magpie Cafe are a must. Robin Hoods Bay is a tiny little village that it really picturesque and has a history of smugglers.

-York: very historic, very old English. There's loads of tea rooms, interesting shops, second hand book shops and there's even a shop where you can buy your own little York ghost friend.

- Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield: lumping these three together, and no one can get mad as me for it because I'm originally from one of them 😂. All of these cities have changed a lot from when I was a kid and all now have thriving food and drink scenes. But they're also all historic centres of industry. Manchester used to be a textile capital of the world, Leeds is known for it's engineering and canals, and Sheffield was vital to the war effort due to it's steel production. Depending on what interests you, they're all worth a look.

-Birmingham: not just for peaky blinders! Birmingham actually has more canals than Venice and a lot of industrial history. It's also got a thriving food and drink scenes and a lot of shopping locations.

-Cambridge: I've only been once, when I toured the uni when I was applying at 17, but it's very picturesque and has a lot of history. Ngl, some of the people can be quite snobbish and very stereotypical posh English.

-Winchester: old historic town, famous for it's Cathedral but also as where Jane Austen lived and died. There's a lot of literary influence and a lot of amazing book shops.

-Weston-super-Mare, Wells and Glastonbury: Weston-super-Mare is another old, typical English seaside town like Scarborough, but it has an absolutely massive beach so people flock to it in summer. Wells is a little town, most well known for the cathedral and the location Hot Fuzz was set and shot in. It's definitely worth a visit. Glastonbury outside of the festival season is a lovely place with lots of hikes/bike routes and a lot of history. 

-Plymouth and Cornwall: again, only been once due to how far it is from home, but I'm actually going again this week for my mum's birthday. Plymouth has a lot of naval history and I'm planning on going to the National Marine Aquarium Thursday which is supposed to be amazing. The only place in Cornwall I've been is Looe, but I highly recommend it as it's so pretty.

-Jurassic Coast: including Weymouth, Lulworth and Durdle Door in this. All very picturesque and where the bulk of UK fossils are found. There's absolutely loads of hikes/bike paths along this coast

-Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch: Bournemouth is mainly known for it's huge beach, Poole is where the RLNI headquarters are and where Lush was founded, and Christchurch is just very picturesque. 

-Portsmouth: where the UK navy is based. Very historic and very flat for walking/biking. Where D-Day was launched from and the D-Day museum is worth a visit. Was also home to Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. Has a good independent book shop called pigeon books.

The Peak District:

(Growing up so close to it, I have a lot of recommendations, hence the separate category 😂)

(There are hikes/bike trails between most of these places, with apps/guides online for the most popular routes)

-Bakewell: very picturesque, old English town. But obviously you have to try the tart! I recommend trying both the tart and the pudding

-Castleton: another picturesque little town, but it's also full of caves you can go down, one of which was used for the gringotts scenes in Harry Potter. Lots of good pubs for a pint as well.

-Cavedale: very lord of the rings looking picturesque walk, but it's personally one of my favourites because it's where Wesley rolls down the hill while yelling "as you wish!" in the Princess Bride

-Hathersage: lots of great pubs, cafes and restaurants

-Scrivener's books and bookbinding: multi-leveled second hand bookshop in Buxton.

-Chatsworth House: old manor house with huge grounds. The house and gardens are worth visiting to walk around. JFK's sister is buried across the road in the little village of Edensor. But I honestly love visiting because it's used as Pemberly in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.

-Lady Bower Reservoir: on the route of a lot of hikes, it's where the Dambusters practiced dropping the bouncing bombs during the war

-Eyam: the first place to social distance and lockdown during the Black Death, lots of history there.

-Padley Gorge: also looks like something out of lord of the rings

London:

Museums: most museums in London are free, but you can book tickets online and not have to queue. 

-The natural history museum (my all time favourite museum, especially as a biologist)

-The science museum (right next to NHM)

 -V&A (across the road from NHM and SM, mainly art and design.

-The British museum (great if you were an ancient Greek or Egypt nerd as a kid (or if you still are)) 

-The Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum (in Greenwich and where the second Thor was filmed)

-The Tower of London (where the crown jewels are held, they are wonky, it pissed me off 😂)

Bookshops: 

-Hatchards (oldest bookshop in the UK, five floors of books).

-Waterstones Piccadilly (just down the street from Hatchards, absolutely massive)

-Gays the Word (oldest LGBT bookshop in the UK, setting of the film Pride)

-Daunts Books (technically a travel bookstore, but it has other stuff as well. One of the prettiest book shops I've ever been to)

-Lutyens and Rubinstein (very pretty, had a bit of everything(

-Books for cooks (is only a cookbook shop, but it's honestly worth going for the experience because it's also a cafe that cooks from a different cookbook each month)

-The Nottinghill Bookshop (a bit of everything)

-Word on the Water (bookshop on a barge)

Markets:

-Borough Market (one of my absolute favourite places on earth, great for lunch or to pick up snacks)

-Camden Market (alternative fashion, art, music and good food)

-Eatly (near Liverpool Street station, it's an Italian market hall, also good for lunch/snacks)

-Spitlefields (food as well as shops, near eatly)

-Portobello Market (Nottinghill, only on certain days so make sure to check before going)

-Covent Garden (more high end shops, but it's nice to walk around)

Shops:

-Harrods (just worth going to look at the price tags and laugh 😂)

-Fortnum and Mason (just down from Hatchards, expensive food shop, but it's nice to look around in)

-Hamleys (huge toy shop, I haven't been in a while, but it used to be amazing as a kid)

Places that I just think are worth visiting:

-Russel square and Cafe Tropea, and Bloomsbury

-Hyde Park

-Walk down Knightsbridge just to see all the fancy cars

-The Wellcome Collective (cosmetic museum, but it has a reading room where it's free to sit and read)

-The Paddington statue in Paddington station

-You can walk up to Camden Market from London St Pancreas/Kings Cross Station via the regent's canal

I've sadly never been to Ireland, but I hope these are useful and you have a really good trip!!!