#when they get to the ‘safe haven’

[outer-andromeda]

Pretty generic question but does your player and the toys accompanying them ever have any moments where there’s nothing crazy going on in the factory and they have a moment to relax? Do they try to talk things out with the others during this time? Or is it just a moment of silence and taking in the peace of the quiet factory?

Oof, it's AU ramble time again. Also another question mix!! Hope you don't mind @an-eggs-quest & @tallahatchet (sorry for the tag sjkdfhskfhd).

Back in Safe Haven, they had tons of quiet moments, compared to what Raph would've have while descending deeper and deeper in the factory, which was... pretty much equal to zero.

The guy took to heart what Doey told him about "catching his breath". He would want to sit around the kids, maybe manage to cheer them up a bit and get them to laugh somehow. He'd also get curious about the drawings on the wall and would want to add his little contribution. Poor guy needs to feed his artistic brain a bit lmao. I like to think the critters would be intrigued and watch, maybe some of them would even join him. And maybe they'd make a drawing all together. It distracts everyone for a little while.

Raph tried taking things easy. As much as feasibly possible in their situation. It brought him a sense of normalcy he realized he terribly needed. And for a little while, he felt like genuinely smiling again.

After the Safe Haven incident, breaks are less frequent. The whole gang is tense from 1. everything that's already happened 2. the loss of their friends and 3. knowing they're being tracked down by Huggy and (presumably) the Prototype.

But when they find a remotely quiet and well-hidden spot, they let themselves relax. Catch some sleep. Even if just for a bit. They need the energy after all.

... Catnap usually keeps a sleepy eye on everyone. As for Raph...

... Let's... not talk about sleep. For reasons. (Bonus rambles in the tags !)

(Pattern banners by @cafekitsune ! Thought they'd add a nice aesthetic look to the post. Might use more for future rambles.)

[itsteddydarling]

“I tried to be better, to be who they needed! Not smart enough! Not good enough! I’m sorry! I’m…sorry.”

Me:

[dragonanon]

We did not deserve Doey the Doughman 😭

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

the real difference between suguru and oliver is suguru would like it if you were codependent and unable to function without him (said lovingly) but oliver gets the high of a lifetime just seeing you grow comfortable enough to stand on your own two feet. obviously he wants you to depend on him but if suguru is a caretaker oliver really is more of a coach

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

... Did RT ever explain why half of the main characters left their home kingdom to go to Beacon?

[starculler]

strap in for this week's fic flavor: the failsafe episode of season one of the young justice cartoon except the simulation just won't. fuckin. end.

(fics that inspired this at the end)

If I ever did sit down to make my own fic, I'd split it in 3 parts:

The Simulation: bits and pieces of the 40 years Dick lives after most everyone he knows has died

The Return: the immediate aftermath and healing from the trauma of having not-quite-actually lived a whole life only to wake up and find out it was all fake. nothing traumatizing about that whatsoever.

The Unintended Consequence: aka the twist I'd love to add and would hint to in the second part - finding out the simulation, through martian mind fuckery, pulled from the real world (and in many cases, from real minds). Dick meets a bunch of people he didn't think were real outside the confines of his simulated life. A bunch of rowdy, heroism-inclined teens across the years get to meet the sibling/friend/mentor figure they all dreamed up one night.

(actual idea snippets under the cut)

.

Dick Grayson is 14 and most of the world's heroes have died. He planned a suicide mission that left him the sole survivor of a doomed team he helped found. The invasion may have been stopped, but is this really the price he wanted to pay?

The first face he sees in the infirmary is Roy's, and he has to close his eyes and just breathe for a few minutes because for one painful moment he'd thought it was Wally. But this isn't the world where his best friend miraculously survived alongside him. This is the one where he got his best friend killed and didn't even give him the courtesy of following behind him. Behind them.

.

Dick Grayson is 27 and has lived longer without Bruce than with him. The invasion's anniversary is always a tough day for him, but that morning seems especially harrowing. He'll get shit for it later, but can't resist stepping out onto the balcony of the manor's master bedroom (Bruce's old bedroom) for a smoke -- his first since he'd promised to quit if Jason, just 15 then, did too.

"Bad habits tend to pile up," he'd said, a rueful quirk to his tired grin. He'd tapped the cigarette twice on the railing and added, lower, "and this one's especially nasty, huh."

He inhales, watches the sun creep across the horizon, and lets acrid smoke burn through his lungs for a long moment before blowing it out in a small cloud. His eyes water, but he doesn't cough. It tastes just as bad as it did the first time he smoked one, not even a year after the invasion and treading water as Robin proved insufficient.

There hadn't been enough heroes to go around then, and Dick had been trained by one of the best. It hadn't been fair, but it had been his plan that had ultimately stopped the invasion. His shoulders everyone's expectations fell on.

He takes another drag, then smudges the lit end against the rail he's leaned on when he hears a boot scuff purposefully against the roofing above him.

"Todd and Pennyworth will be upset with you."

He doesn't turn around. Damian doesn't jump down to join him.

.

Dick Grayson is 54 and wakes up in a room full of ghosts. He hears his long-dead father-figure tell his long-dead team about a simulation they weren't meant to win. A training exercise gone wrong and only half a day spent under their mentors' careful, if slightly panicked, supervision.

He looks at his hands, watching the way his gloves crease when he flexes them in and out of tight fists. He looks at his team, their eyes a little haunted but shoulders slumped with relief even as they grumble. Batman's heavy, gloved hand settles on his shoulder and the weight of it is a nauseating mix of foreign-familiar.

He opens his mouth. Closes it.

Tears prick his eyes behind his domino mask, and he tells himself the suffocating, acidic void building in his chest is just some leftover side effect of the ordeal and not the grief-guilt of outliving yet another family (no matter that they hadn't been real in the end).

.

Dick Grayson is 16-going-on-56 and well used to the coincidences piling up between his simulated life and the real thing. Some of it -- missions and villains he remembers cropping up -- he's marked for Bruce to review and sort as he pleases. Some -- security for the cave, team building anecdotes, and training regimens -- he's shared with the team. And some he keeps only for himself.

Tim is one of those. He knows it's not fair to the kid (so much smaller now than he ever was when Dick lived his simulated life), but he can't help being selfish just for this. Tim is the one kid he's sure he didn't make up, and if Dick's taken to babysitting the kid just to be near at least one member of the family he built for himself in the wake of the worst days of his life .... Well, anyone who says shit about it can happily stand in line to have their teeth kicked in.

Despite this, it still catches him off-guard when he sees a familiar face pop up in one of Bruce's reports.

Jason Todd, caught boosting tires off the batmobile, is nearly the same age now as he was when Dick met him. He stares at the words, but none of them really sink in beyond the kid's name and address. He's moving before he's even made the decision.

He's used to the world kicking him when he's down - lived it for 40 frustrating years. But he has Bruce again. And things with Tim have been so good. And he's always been selfish when it comes to family. If he could just see Jason. If he could just meet him. If he could talk to him.

If if if if if--

.

Inspirations:

Circles in Shattered Mirrors by InfinityIllusion

Fine (But Not Okay) by CharlotteDaBookworm

Verisimilitude by mutemelody

[punkrogue]

some fucking idiot: when we say "magneto was right" we're saying he's right about society and shit not supporting his terrorist actions

me: don't lump in with your cowardly ass i'm in full throated support of his terrorism. sentinels, purifiers, the mardies etc are all real and exist and want mutants dead and literally no one gives a single shit. they'd rather pass the mutant registration act and make "scaly lives matter" jokes on twitter then help stop the genocide of mutants. it's a good thing actually he's blowing shit up and he should do more of it actually.

[watchthekittycatcher]

i want to keep being catholic so badly but honestly I don't know if it's actually good for me. like I think a lot of the stuff that is part of being catholic is actually bad for my brain

[eywaseclipse]

If anyone wants to get allegorical with me I wouldn’t hate that. Because right now all I can think about are the parallels between Neytiri and Lucifer becoming fallen angels….

Defeat, acceptance, then rage. (My favorite song!) lol (also read the tags too)

[tmae3114]

So I originally wrote this back in August when this release was fresh and then!!! APPARENTLY!!! just COMPLETELY forgot to post it!! so you get it now, three months late.

-

Some of the dialogue from the Guardian Tower has been living rent free in my head and now I want to yell about it because it’s SO GOOD for background lore

Okay, so, on the first floor, Mindi tells us this:

I really like this because it helps illustrate one of the logistical problems of the Rose. Like, even if you took away everything else that makes them bad (which, admittedly, is most of the organisation and its purpose), the fact that they tend to, by default, present themselves as the only option and drive out competition is bad. On paper, a force of people trained in combat against magical threats, with reasonably easy access to that training, which has garrisons stationed across the land, is actually a pretty good solution to the whole Recurring Evil Magical Threats thing. We know this because the guardians and the paladins and the dragonslayers exist! They do this! The Rose seems to make membership easier to access but, frankly, I suspect that is in part because their training is less thorough.

And when the Rose show up and drive those other groups out (like they’ve done with the Guardians), they don’t actually improve anything. Best case scenario, everything is exactly the way it was before. More likely, things would get worse, because the people with active experience defending a particular area have been driven away and now the Rose members have to play catch-up

(A good example of how on paper a group like the Rose could help an area is Book 3 Amityvale. The local Guardians were long gone, so the Rose were able to help without doing that extra damage and made Amityvale a safer place to live....... but that’s specifically for the human inhabitants. Plus, we know they’re affecting the magic of the area - Amaris’s moon has started having phases - and that’s! probably not good! Also see: Raven having to flee for her own safety after getting bitten by a werewolf. Even where they are ostensibly doing the most good, the Rose are still an active danger to many, even their own in the wrong circumstances)

And, meanwhile, on the ground floor...

......further proof that the Rose actively try to drive competition out of the area. Falconreach has repeatedly made it clear that they want nothing to do with the Rose and they keep picking fights with the patrols.

[yeonban]

Can at least ONE of Chris' muses have a normal upbringing? Ermmm... no,

[swannieluv]

If you're reading this, just know you're a really nice person and matter a lot!! Remember to stay hydrated and that it's okay to rest when you need it!! <33

Even though I'm weird and probably say the most random things ever...I really like interacting with my moots and other people here, even if I'm a bit shy to send asks and stuff.

You guys are so nice you deserve the world!! :') ❤️‍🩹

[kth1]

Royal Guard Jimin Inspired by Safe Haven written by @kth1fics

[cannibal-nightmares]

"madness" but it's just me violently kicking my prompt list around a room like a box of clattering dishware. there's 112+ ideas now. every day i add handfuls more. what do you mean the brake line has been cut?

[downtherabbitholewithlucy]

Me when someone finds my blog and spam likes/reblogs posts:

[lohstandfound]

thinking about my graphic novel series again. i have way too many thoughts about it