#which isn't even the fire fighters job??? he just wants to do that because he had beef with the arsonist

[whatwhywhowherewhen]

Currently rolling around in my bed, shrieking and giggling, reading "#canon jiang cheng" posts

[celaenaeiln]

I literally can't take it anymore. I need to get this out of my system. This is a hate-rant about why almost every single thing Tom Taylor has written is wrong.

First and foremost is the bimbofication of Dick Grayson. Tom Taylor loves to write him like this idiot who doesn't think at all. Being cheerful does not mean being dumb.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #79

"You seem unusually contemplative"? All Dick does is contemplate!

Nightwing (1996) Issue #3

His mind is always running!

Nightwing (2011) Issue #13

Nightwing (2016) Issue #38

I just picked a random issue from all of these comics and in every single one of these, Dick's planning, thinking, and strategising constantly.

Tom Taylor literally treats him like he's stupid or something.

Also the degradation of his abilities

Nightwing (2016) Issue #79

A vigilante for 20 years. Who has faced assassins, hitmen, psychos, surprise attacks, metas, and you're telling me he didn't know that a untrained kid snuck up and stole from him?

He forgot who he was, he didn't forget where he lived! Even when he was Ric Grayson, Dick had procedural memory. His battle instincts stayed with him.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #52

"Then...I didn't even know what I was doing. I took him down--took him apart in seconds."

This man is a vigilante machine when he was amnesic. Why the heck would Dick ever let his guard down?

His robin reference

Nightwing (2016) Issue #92

Even Bruce in Batman: Hush has said it-Dick was the best. His skills were the best of anyone he's witnessed which is one of the reasons why Bruce let him be Robin in the first place.

This scene is so wrong that there's a robin scene that came out before this in direct opposition of this Tom Taylor Shitshow.

Robin & Batman Issue #1

This was actually pre-robin. Bruce had him do a solo-trial run to see his skill before he made him Robin and this was the result. Compare that to Tom Taylor's scene and the result is humiliating. For Taylor.

Tom Taylor's version of trying to show that Dick loves the people comes off as him hating crime-fighting. RIP the whole Robin firing drama and Nightwing birth i guess.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #79

"We could have avoided all of this if we'd just stayed in and eaten kibble."

Nightwing (1996) Issue #3

Dick would rather die than stop crime-fighting. After Blockbuster's first attempt, his life was hanging on by a thread and he still continued crime fighting.

Nightwing (1996) Issue #91

After Blockbuster blew up his apartment, this is the single-minded determination Dick had to continue crime-fighting. This is him at one of the worst lows of his life but he refused to give up but now? He has everything and Dick wants to ignore the murder of a child to stay inside and eat kibble which - what the heck? I know he's seen as a happy character but him finding dog-food desirable is too far!

Also the idiocy of which Tom Taylor had Barbara calling the cops in Bludhaven for a stolen wallet. Newsflash! This isn't her first rodeo here.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #81

vs

Nightwing (2016) Issue #24

Nightwing (2011) Issue #23

Given how Dick's easily defeated enhanced metas and "very good" fighters, him falling down the stairs is a little to absolutely impossible to believe.

Another thing I love about Dick that Tom Taylor deciminates is his grace. Dick is the most graceful person in DC. His balance easily matches Selina's enhanced cat powers.

But yet. You have.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #83

Nightwing (2011) Issue #23

yeah. okay.

Taylor's motorbike scenes of Dick make me so mad. The boy is a pro at crazy. It's one of his best traits because he does the wildest stunts and he pulls it off.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #93

Nightwing (1996) Issue #86

He lands on his feet. He grabbed a villain mid-air, crashed into a window, and was perfectly fine. Actually no, he's not fine because he's worried about his bike's paint job.

Nightwing (2011) Issue #24

He just sailed over a whole crowd of people and started kicking butt like what he just did wasn't extraordinary - which for him is just another tuesday.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #95

yeah, tell 'er Dick.

He doesn't need someone to hold his bike.

One of the worst things in Taylor's run is how Blockbuster went down. It suddenly reminded me of Selina's stupid ideology which is why I think I got so ticked off.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #96

Blockbusters' thugs loyalty to him isn't a make it or break it deal. He's one of strongest criminal organisations and the knowledge that he owns one of the worst prisons that he could easily put his underlings into would've instilled fear into his thugs, not freedom. Furthermore Blockbuster takes good care of his people that don't piss him off. He teamed up with Nightwing in the scarecrow era in Nightwing (2016) because someone was messing with his people. He's extremely intelligent and superstrong, and he's not just going to be brought down by the knowledge that he owns a prison. It's Bludhaven. If he didn't, then there would be something suspicious given that he runs the city. It's the way Taylor dumbs down Bludhaven's villains that gets to me. Imagine him writing Batman (2016). It's like saying, "yeah the Joker was just a little misguided but he found the right way again after a stern talking to by Batman."

Nightwing is a big name.

When Dick first came to Bludhaven, one of the police officers was like we don't want your crazy here or something. Also Bludhaven loves Nightwing. They want him.

So why is everyone pretending like they don't know who he is?

Nightwing (2016) Issue #90

The police, the citizens, the villains-all of them. Dick fought Brutale and beat the crap out of him way back in 1996 comic. He's a Bludhaven regular. Just because Dick forgot who he was doesn't mean anyone else forgot him. Amnesia doesn't work that way.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #54

A whole team of Nightwings were formed during Dick's amnesic period because of how badly he was needed and missed. It's almost like the Tom Taylor run is set in an alternate universe.

I ran out of image space but what the absolute fiddlesticks is up with Dick being scared to jump. It better be a manipulation tactic but at this point I think Tom Taylor doesn't even know that Dick is manipulative.

[sausage-rolll]

The amount of times I said something along the lines of "They would not fucking do/say that!" while watching the live action atla series is insane. It felt so weird to watch because the acting was pretty fantastic and the set design/costumes weren't bad for the most part either, but the writing and direction itself was painfully bad.

I think King Bumi is probably one of the worst offenders of being written completely ass backwards, which is a shame because the guy portraying him did a great job and I think he would have made a fantastic Bumi if the writing was better.

It feels like they missed the entire point of his character. They took his goofy/slightly mad front from the original show and dialled it up to 11 all the while completely ignoring all the nuance behind that front.

Bumi isn't just the mad king they portray him as in the live action, he's a mad genius. Despite his quirks, he's a fucking fantastic fighter and a brilliant ruler. Despite what you may believe from first impressions, it really does feel like he always knows what he's doing.

Even when he's being antagonistic towards the gang in the show, he's never actually putting them in significant danger. The crystals he trapped Katara and Sokka in were ultimately harmless and all the trials he gives Aang were more akin to games than anything. Even when he fights Aang in his episode he's very clearly not giving it his all, as seen when he single handily takes back his city from the fire nation during the eclipse and when he takes back Ba Sing Se with a small group during Sozins comet, when the opposing forces would have been at their most powerful. My point is that if he actually wanted to beat book 1 Aang, he could wipe the floor with him easily. But this version is fucking furious with Aang (wrongfully so this time around because he explicitly did not run away from his duties in the live action) And very much seems like he wants to cause Aang as much pain as possible, but can barely manage to land a hit on him when he's not pulling cheap tricks with the crystals.

-

I'm getting very side tracked but god damn it! This is the man Aang eventually decides to name one of his children after. Their friendship was so sweet and meaningful in the original. Bumi was such an interesting character in the original! And all of that meaning is lost here.

Ironically in an attempt to make Bumi's arc more dramatic and dark, they ended up making it significantly less interesting, along with also missing major parts of his character.

[utilitycaster]

Who has your favorite build in each campaign? I love seeing you talk about those kinds of reasonings bc personally i have a really hard time with leveraging dnd mechanics when I play and I wonder who did it best

Hi anon!

Some thoughts at the end re: build philosophies here, but to answer the question:

Campaign 1 is tough because I usually like to give this to a build that's something thoughtful, mechanically optimized [note: does not need to be optimized for combat], with clear choices made that are informed by and themselves inform the narrative. I respect the hell out of Vax's multiclass into paladin. Narratively, it shakes out great. The mechanics, however, are less than stellar. So my choice here is Percy. It's true that his subclass is broken as hell but that's not what I like. I think Taliesin makes good use of how fighters have a zillion ASIs and not only maxes out Percy's intelligence when that becomes important, but also takes Magic Initiate to hint at Orthax's influence, with thoughtful choices of spells to go with it. Fighter is a strong class and it's worth taking it the whole way through, and he does.

Campaign 2 is, on the other hand, easy, and I've talked about Fjord's build at length before so I don't want to go into it in detail, but suffice it to say: his paladin multiclass was exceptionally well-earned in the narrative while also being, famously, one of the best multiclass builds in D&D (the hexadin). But before that, his invocations (mask of many faces, gift of the depths, sculptor of flesh) tell a story of the kind of person he is: a sailor who almost drowned and won't let it happen again. A person trying to find his true identity amid a sea (pun intended) of expectations and potential models and bullying. Even his racial traits like relentless endurance, and the fact that he came in with more CON than CHA explain how he survived a brutal childhood. I think all of the Mighty Nein's casters did a particularly strong job of choosing the spells they used and flavoring them to their personality and Fjord was no exception, and as someone who remembers the speculation of paladin class, a homebrew one really was the only way to go.

Campaign 3 surprised me, because I have had my frustrations with it, but the more I think about it, it's Fearne. Her base subclass is one of the best out there, it's true, and she leans into the fire motifs adeptly, but I actually, after being somewhat critical of it, have really come around on the choice to multiclass into an arcane trickster. Why wouldn't she be a rogue if she likes to steal? Why wouldn't she, while trying to figure out what her relationship with her parents should be, try on her mother's subclass? Ashley picked some extremely good spells as well; Disguise Self, Identify, and Shield either protect her (she's not terribly squishy, but as someone who doesn't usually wildshape for combat, not a tank either) or fit niches that the party really doesn't have otherwise. And again, why wouldn't someone who loves to collect things perhaps try to learn what those things are? Yes, at times I'm impatient for Transport via Plants (though at this point...two party members could just have Teleport) but Fearne's build is one that surprised me, which is hard to do. Druids are usually so strong it's not worth multiclassing, and I'm a longstanding Rogue Disliker, but the choice makes sense. (I also happen to like that this means Fearne isn't going to live thousands of years - or rather, she might, because fey, but not in the way Keyleth will. I don't think that's her thing!)

So I think these choices reflect different approaches of what I'd put into 2 buckets of Valid Options.

Percy is the "stick with one class and do it very well; customize through feats and existing options." For more examples of this, see pretty much any character who never multiclassed. I think Liam is exceptional at this and to that point, Caleb and Orym are particularly good examples. I'd also like to shout out Keyleth, Jester, and Caduceus; as prepped casters this group didn't have the same degree of customization options other than their spells for the day, but I think they all had really good visions for what their character would likely prepare.

Fjord and Fearne are both narratively and mechanically strong, though in very different ways (and in Fearne's case, with an eye more to party balance than specifically being stronger herself). See also: Vex and Grog, who are mechanically good multiclasses and narratively make sense, even if it's not a huge moment; Veth; Kingsley and Luc are both good builds that allude to a narrative even if we don't see the full narrative; Chetney. Vax is, admittedly, a bit like Fearne; bit messy on an individual level but narratively without issue, good for party comp, and there's some unexpected interplay (vow of enmity + rogue abilities).

It's hard to say who did things best because, for example, building a character like Ayden requires an impressive breadth of knowledge, a strong vision, and to be honest the freedom starting at L20 with 20 stats across the board grants. Some subclasses are particularly good (Fearne, Orym, and Dorian could all just coast on having some of the best subclasses for their respective classes, though they all have made great build choices too). Some classes are particularly good (hard to go wrong with fighter, wizard, paladin, or cleric though. my complaints of the empathy domain remain intact; on the other hand rogues live or die, literally, by what subclass they pick). Some characters have stories that are enhanced by multiclassing and some don't (Imogen, for example, has had a strong and interesting character arc, but there just aren't great build choices to reflect it.) My favorite doesn't necessarily mean mechanically the best (a thing that is difficult to qualify, let alone quantify, in a vacuum), and when it comes to d&d mechanics, a simple thing executed well (eg: Keyleth is a pretty straightforward example of what happens to be a very good subclass) can be better than a complicated build, even one backed by the story.

[demise-seems-dead]

@askingkyborg's main here to being you another emo chip mini fic! Spoilers for 33-36 and SHHH i know it doesnt make sense timeline wise because they go straight to the vampspire from town but shut up no they dont

this will be posted on ao3 when i fix my account btws!!

also also heavilyly implied OCD chip because yes <3

TW: Suicidal actions, ideation, etc. also minor disordered eating talk.

‘Care to spar with me, mon ami?” Chip looks up from the campfire at that point, maybe for the first time all day. His eyes focused up on Mathilde, the bird's eyes glinting softly. Of course, if Chip was honest with himself, that was a flat out no. Chip wasn't in the mood for being tactical, which is normally his thing. The only thing he wanted was for everyone to leave him alone. His brain has been on autopilot for the past two days and all he's done is sleep, eat and walk.

Chip isn't dumb. He knows mathilde is just trying to get him to do something, but what's even the point any more?

“Sure. I’ll spar, but we both know I'll lose.” The forced smile on his face wavers a bit.

Chip stands up, popping his back with a deep crackle. He sighs gingerly, and unlatches his arm blade. He knows I'd be smarter to use his crossbow if mathilde is going to fly, but it's not like he was intending to win. Chip is not a bad fighter, of course. No, he's actually quite good. It's just hard to think about when your mind is static and ocean foam.

Absently he loosens his neck, one of his habits that never ceased to leave him from years of assassin work. He always seems to have a crick in his neck, but it’s not really surprising. Chip had found himself in and out of jails, hostage situations, and attempted murder more times than he could shake a stick at. His body was a wheat maze of scars and old wounds, of torture and strain. But it was all part of the job, or at least that's the half assed excuse he gave himself.

The other part of Chip's fight ritual was coming into his surroundings. He followed mathildes movements in the clearing with lidded eyes, focusing in on the world for the first time since-...

Mathilde was moving cockily, as they almost always do. Slowly and elegant, feathers smoothed and freshly preened, it looks like. Chip raises his heels up off the ground, eyes narrowing in, trying to get lighter on his feet. His own body is different, and he feels less familiar with it. He's lost weight recently- not having eaten in a few days- too sick to his stomach from the previous weeks to even think about it. It wasn't a lot, but his shouldie hung off him in a different way. It made him wish he still had his D.A.G.A.R suit for training. His hand smelt like wild onions, and the rest of him like ash. He's been lighting the campfires with his tiefling abilities lately, instead of using his boy scout training from his childhood. Using that fire always drained him, but he can't help but be glad it helps him pass out at night rather than lie awake. He needed to sleep, to sleep, to dream and fight it off for a while. It's been his only time of peace for quite some time.

A few more seconds till the battle begins, mathilde is counting down, but he doesn't dare let the sound get into his ears. You focus on your target and your target alone when you fight. He’ll read their beaks movements for days instead of breaking his focus if he needs to.

Chip repositions, moving his left side forward. Not only is it the hand he's got his armblade on, but it helps hide his weak spot- the crossbow wounds still healing from the previous night. Barney had given him some healing in between, but in the night he'd gently picked at it. The red stains have always calmed him down, and on himself no different. Red meant alive still, red was the enemy, but red meant weakened and ready to die. To embrace the people they miss… so…so…bad.

Mathilde moves, battle begins. He knows they're saying something snarky but he's too tuned out to regard it. He's watching and commanding from third person, and that's just how he wants it. Bob down, weave right. Mathilde lands a firm noncorporeal blow to his face, and he gasps out a little, breaking part of his concentration. A smooth trickle of blood drips from a now busted lip, and chip can't help but smile.

The chipper killer. That's what people used to call him, back in the day. Always had a smile when he killed, made jokes and jabs. This was basically the same, just less lethal. A laugh busts through chips teeth, and he smiles. Mathilde obviously looks a little shocked by his reaction. 

Chip plants his left foot, pressing all of his weight on his toes and not his heels to keep him flighty. He takes a slash with his arm blade. His eyes shut, but fly back open in seconds. Mathilde has a sting of blood dripping from the cut over his chest, red plumage soaking even redder. Chip laughs, and he sounds wild. A snarky insult comes to his lips but he presses it down.He can't cause hesitation, you hesitate you die. He needs to get his target. 

Chips' eyes are blurry, and he can hardly make out the figure in front of him. He's used to shots in the dark though. The blurriness backs up, and a sneer falls into his face. Kill. His ears flicker down a bit, and he moves forward. The kill drive of his nature was seizing him, hands steady and brain calculated. A stab at the shadows, voice howling in his own skull. “DIE!” 

Blood was splattered onto his hands, and it didn't matter whos it was. There's shouting all around him. He wants his target dead. He wants everything to die. He wants to die-

“CHIIIPPP!” a high pitched squeak breaks his brain, and the haze fades. The dark shadows reform, and suddenly he sees mathilde, blood dripping down their front and hands in front of their face, not in cowardice but in preparation for attack. An attack from him. 

Chips eyes shoot down at ellga, who was the one who snapped him out of it. His arm blade glistened in the draining sun, wet blood still on it. He looks up at mathilde, and the bird gives a sympathetic look at the absolute horror streaked across Chip's face.

“Mathilde i am so-’ “Don't be sorry, we were sparing, you just got a little into it is all. im fine, barney can heal me right up-”

“Already on it” the old man blurts, but looks at Chip with a spike of fear that makes the tiefling want to dry heave. 

“I-I-”

Chip runs a hand through his hair, unable to talk. He knew his killing nature was catching back up to him with carol dying, but now he's going back to how he was. 

Chip stumbles a little, back into ellga. He jumps forward and turns, pulling his hands all the way away. Sweat beads down in a streak off his chin.

‘IM- i- I'm gonna go forage-!” Chip announces with his most normal smile, his fakest smile, and turns on his heel. Mathilde makes a noise like they're going to talk, but just sighs, and it wills Chip into walking even faster in the opposite direction. He stumbles his way down the hill, moving away from the patch of grass they'd been at and into the main town of vania. He bumps into every person there, and several ask him if hes alright from the blood on his hands and his face. They don't know him, they don't know he's a monster. They don't know he's a friend hurter, or that he's the reason his wife is dead. They don't know anything, so Chip doesn't say anything. He just walks.

By the time the sun starts setting, Chip doesn't even know where he is. Vania isn't huge by any stretch of the imagination, but chip is already lost enough in his own mind to know where exactly he is in this unfamiliar place. After a while, he settles, tucked behind a building and hidden, breathing heavily.

He stares at the blood on his hands, and he twitches. Chip has never been a messy killer. Blood makes his hands itch, too wet then too dry. Dirty and disgusting. As much as he hates the smell of bleach, he always uses it for crime scenes. Blood was too dirty. Filthy, nasty, and wrong. He's been nervously rubbing his hands for hours, the blood mainly off, but still feeling like it's on there. He rubs some more at it, and curses under his breath.

He hurt his friend. 

He's a bad omen. An omen of death.

He's killed hundreds.

He's a bad person. An omen of death.

He's the reason his wife is dead.

He's a bad husband. An omen of death.

He's the real problem.

A monster. An omen of death. 

Why does he even bother being ALIVE? 

Chip sighs, running a hand through his hair and then wincing. Now that's contaminated too. Everything about him is dirty and wrong. Tears threaten his eyes, pushing into the corners and making a soft noise as they roll over his cheeks.Days of lapsing suicidal urges and injuries have snapped him into a terrible, terrible place.  Softly he presses his forehead onto his knees, feeling the cool scared up skin over his hot face.

He's not sure how long he rests but his dreams are uncomfortable. Swirling memories of killings past. Bad bad memories. They never bothered him before, but now he knows what it's like to lose somebody. Now he knows how much of a monster he really is. 

He's only ever startled awake by voices. Mushing noises of high and low pitches. He opened his eyes, and they flooded over with brightness. He stifled a groan, headache and ready airdropping into his skull and ears ringing like a kenku scream. His eyes focus, and he sees several balls of gleaming light, and his party in front of them. 

“What is tarnation…?” he grumbles, and the light speckles vanish, the sun's last entrails covered by mathilde spreading their wings. His eyes go up to his team mates who are staring at him with worry in their eyes. He winces distantly, feeling a spike of guilt as he sees mathildes feathers pushed out of place and puffed up. 

‘Oh.. uh… hey guys..” He rubs the back of his now sore neck.

“Chip crétin! Je devrais avoir ton visage pour ça, pourquoi diable m'enfuirais-tu comme ça, Ellga était inquiète, Barney était inquiet, j'étais inquiet d'avoir crié à haute voix ! Ce n'est pas si mal, je vais bien, c'est bien!” mathilde scolds in panicked sounding French, grabbing Chip by the collar of his hoodie and yanking him up.

 Ellga huffs. “Why’d you run off? It's fine! You two were having fun! It was a play fight. It's not real! Mathildes is not dead- well, they are, but it's unrelated!”

“I-” chip sighs heavily, shutting his eyes a bit. “You're right. Sorry. I guess…” chip searches for the words in his head, scrambling to think of what to say. Tiredness flushes over him in a wave, and he lets out a sigh, throwing his hands up. He lets his head embrace the wall behind him, and his horns click on it. 

‘I'm just.. I'm just so..so..tired.” he gives. “I didn't mean to hurtcha’ mathilde, I just got lost in my own head. Guess my…killer ways are catching up with me…” “Well you’d never intentionally hurt any of us. You told me coming into town that you're a good assassin.” Barney tries to encourage, but chips heart falls. “Yeah, well…is there really such a thing?I'm still a murderer” he chokes, and his body tingles with the feeling of blood splats from past kills all surging up and bubbling under his purple skin.

“Nonsense. Words are all made up, mon ami. One isn't worse than another. An assassin is a profession, and a murderer is apparently a death sentence to ‘za living. It dos’ant matt’ar! Those titles don't dictate who you a’hre, the people who love you do. And I say you're perfectly fine. We all do bad t’ings sometimes.” Chip sighs at mathildes word, ever wise in their later later years. “I suppose.” he says, not at all convinced. Ellga frowns, and it makes Chip want to bury his head in the vanian dirt. She turns to the alchemist, who Chip had almost forgotten about.

“Mr alchemist, do you have any cures for sadness?” “Not…quite, ellga, but i have somethings that may help, if chip here is willing.” The room pauses, and all eyes form onto Chip. “Awh, what da heck..?”

“Give me your arm blade.”

“What?” Chip stares at Robert like he's crazy. “Just hand it to me.” Chip sighs, and unties the arm band to it and tosses it over to the alchemist, who catches deftly. He looks at it for a moment, and then tucks it into his bag.

“How's that supposed to help? That's my best stealth weapon.'' Chip finds himself grumbling.

“Exactly. That way if you try to hurt yourself, you don't have anything silent to do it with.”

“Oh.” He momentarily wants to fight off the claim, but the arrow wounds in his foot and his lower neck burn with a shot of pain to remind him. 

“Okay.”

“Besides that-” Robert continues momentarily, digging around in his bag, tophat sliding down his head, “I've got a potion I want you to try. It should help.”

He extends out a vial filled with a shimmering blue liquid. Chip extends a gloved hand, and takes it. He removes the cap with a pop, and tips it back. He drains the liquid in a quick motion, and wipes the corner of his mouth.

“I don't feel any different. I just feel really tired and useless, mainly.” He says, and his head flinches back at his own words. Robert smiles, and taps the vile.

“Truth telling serum. Now you can't hide anything from us.” he pats his shoulder as he chuckles.

Chip goes to scold, but realises everything would get turned on its head when he says it. 

Mathilde snickers. "There isn't any way to heal depression with a potion, but now our too clever rogue cant hide anything from us.”

“You guys are my favourite people.” chip sighs, exasperatedly. Ellga squeezes his hand.

“Come on, let's go to the vampspire. Maybe seeing my home will cheer you up.”

“Yeah… maybe it will.”

[the-ghostclangen]

**EDIT** These cats have all been lost to a computer change! Sad but true! Just. Disregard them all. I dont wanna delete this post though because i still worked hard on it!

main clan reveal! a little info about each cat under the cut :3

this was originally scripted as a video style, so im just copy pasting what i wrote for my script here, its kinda wordy but from here on out itll be moon by moon updates!

Scalestar saw something special in Crowhaven despite her age, choosing Crowhaven to be the new leader of what Scalestar had called “Ghostclan”. 

Crowstar, the first true leader of this new clan, is very young at only 19 moons old. She is childish and was feeling nervous on the first moon after receiving her Gift, along with her nine lives. Crowstar came to GhostClan with Inkpaw. Her experience level is competent, which isn't super high, especially in comparison to her deputy. Crowstar's solo patrol was spent trying to train by herself and then getting too nervous to do anything, being overwhelmed by their emotions. She was given her nine lives by Scalestar, and seemingly, ONLY Scalestar. "Take this gift, to help you find wisdom in desperate times." Like every founder, Crowstar was given a gift by Scalestar. The wings are the most obvious sign of her gift, but she is also capable of flight for short periods of time, and can mimic sounds perfectly. 

Blazeback is 37 moons old, arrogant and clever. She came to GhostClan alone. She clearly thinks she should be the leader, though she does respect Crowstar and holds her tongue about any opinions. She seems to just keep silently thinking to herself that she would make a good leader without any hints of treason, as she was thinking about who might give her nine lives when she becomes leader on moon 0. Good luck with that Blazeback, there isn't even nine cats in starclan. All of Blazeback's relationship stats are really low compared to her clanmates, even her own apprentice, Inkpaw. No negative relationship statuses, no dislikes or jealously, just very low positives. Blazeback went on patrol with their apprentice and tried to show off, but ended up screwing up the whole patrol. Wonderful. Great job, Blazeback. Has the power to conjure fire at will, and has a ridge of harmless fire down her back. 

Skyshine is the healer, at 123 moons old, and he is childish and has a natural intuition. He came to GhostClan along with Whisperstripe and Snowkit. He is incredibly old and chose to be a healer before Scalestar gave out powers, and she gave him the power she did so he could help heal better. He is hopeful for more kits soon, while he thinks he is competent and able to help the clan himself, he is a bit worried about his age and doesn't want to leave the clan without a healer. He has a ton of platonic like for Whisperstripe, our elder, who I'm deciding is his sister. Skyshine's solo patrol took him to get blackberries, which he made sure not to take too many of so there would be more in future seasons. Has the power of mood reading. NOT the same as mind reading, he can tell how you're feeling not exactly what you're thinking. He's crazy good at vibe checks, basically.

Lichenwhisker is our first and eldest warrior, at 91 moons. He came to GhostClan alone. He is troublesome and a good hunter. He is already looking forward to the next gathering, likely excited to see their surrounding clans. Probably excited to show off his and his clans new fancy powers. Lichenwhisker doesnt showcase this well as his first solo patrol he comes home with no prey, but the gift works, i promise. The plants tell him where the prey is, he can speak to them to some extent. Seems he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

Adderspot is 23 moons old, and she is compassionate, a formidable fighter and a good teacher. She came to GhostClan alone. She was looking at a twoleg kit playing with a kittypet moon 0. Adderspot already has a fairly large crush on Crowstar, and already dislikes and is jealous of Inkpaw. Her gift is that of a venomous bite. Adderspot also got taken on his first solo patrol, as she was hunting too close to the twoleg dens nearby and got taken. So bye Adderspot I guess.

Inkpaw is our apprentice, 8 moons old and apprenticed to Blazeback. He is insecure and interested in clan history. He came to GhostClan with Crowstar. Inkpaw was having a hard day moon 0. apprentices are slightly different to clans, they have their ceremony privately with the leader in the starclan designated cave where they are assigned their Gift by Scalestar. Afterwards, they are brought back out to the clan, and their mentor is chosen accordingly to help them hone both their regular skills and their Starclan gift. When he gets an injury, it closes up instantly. His blood is black like ink, but its still blood, just black. Small scratches close up but broken bones and fatal injuries will not be saved. His blood is toxic and shouldnt be touched.

Snowkit is our only kit, at 2 moons old. He was brought to GhostClan by Skyshine and Whisperstripe. He is polite and quick to help. He only has vague memories of his parents, all the cats of GhostClan are his family now. He likes all of the clan pretty well, but is closest to Crowstar, with the most platonic like, trust, and comfort in her out of his other clanmates. Snowkit is grateful to Skyshine for treatment. Doesn't seem to have a visible gift yet. 

Whisperstripe is our elder, 123 moons old, and she is lonesome and has natural intuition and is an omen seeker. She came to GhostClan along with Skyshine and Snowkit. Since they are both gray cats, I want to say that Skyshine and Whisperstripe are siblings. They have similar powers, where Skyshine can sense moods, Whisperstripe is the one who can read minds. Whisperstripe was giving advice to Snowkit moon 0, and thats about it.

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

A Handful Of Games I Played This Year

without major coverage that is

Neophyte

I've long since stopped trying to keep roguelites out of these lists because they are such a large part of the independent game scene and more importantly because no matter how much I stamp my feet and insist They're All The Same, I Do Keep Playing Them. So Neophyte is just that; a vampire survivors-esque roguelite where you're playin a little monk man.

You pick two spells/attacks at the start of the game and over the course of it gain stat bonuses, spell modifiers, defensive skills, ultimate skills, the works. It comes off as something of a combination of a roguelite, where you're building your character over the course of the run, with more of a vampire survivors gameplay loop where enemies spawn and you kill them. Kill all the enemies in a wave, get a set of prizes, repeat. It ends after... I want to say 9 - 12 waves, and if you win you get a prestige modifier that makes the next run harder. Simple. To be honest I think the game distills what a lot of people really liked about roguelites quite well, and it makes for a satisfying gameplay loop, if you're into that sort've thing.

Sorry We're Open

Sorry we're open is what I'm calling a corporate horror RPG where you play a manager of a retail chain. Over the course of a workday you encounter various paranormal entities with a slight retail twist, and using your party members (which are randomly generated and are capable of being replaced via hiring and firing), you beat em up. You use money from your job to use skills, and in the course of exploring the retail store you begin to unravel a bizzare eldritch corporate plot.

It all sounds more jokey then it is, and while I'd struggle to call it scary it kept my attention. In my opinion it ran a little long and the combat is a little loose with the amount of money it gives you so by the end of the game you're just spamming powerful skills and skipping combats and wondering why the combat is even in the game. The secret ending is a bit obnoxious too. That said I do think it tells a neat little story and while you're getting adjusted to the combat system it's quite satisfying. Made by the guy that made No Delivery, Oates, if you are familiar, another game I quite enjoyed.

Thunder Ray

Remember punch out? Super punch out maybe? This game isn't Exactly like that, and I wouldn't go in expecting Super Punch Out Two or anything, but it's a solid modern adaption. First person boxing game, you are Thunder Ray, world champion, who is abruptly abducted by aliens to compete in a galactic fighting tournament.

There's really not much more to say about it. If you're not familiar with punch out it's a first person boxing game where attacks must either be blocked or dodged and you gotta land punches and there's health bars and etc etc. Thunder ray is very similar to that, though it's a bit more heavy on the memorization and repitition of fights. It was apparently made by a mobile development team as a first effort at PC dev and it's quite good for a first timer! The visual style is fantastic and while it's not the longest game in the world I did enjoy working my way through it. More fights to come, evidently, as the story ends on a cliffhanger.

Escape from Terror City

Third person lightgun game. You will need a controller. You're a freedom fighter fighting an invasion force that's attempting to conquer a neutral planet that mines vital minerals for war efforts. While the developer of the game has invested much time into this setting and he has loads of games about it, I'm going to leave it at that. The plot isn't really a home run, and it's very formulaic, but I can't bring myself to bag on a guy that's making his own little personal worldbuilt setting that he made a website for and everything. Let's get to the actual game.

Third person lightgun game, so you're viewing the world from behind the player character. You will need a controller; I repeat myself for good reason, the game is God Awful on keyboard and mouse. You move your targeting reticule to select where you are shooting, hold A to shoot. Make your way through stages on rails, branching paths, five levels. Another simple one, reminsicent of old arcade lightgun games, though unlike beat-em-ups and shoot-em-ups, lightgun games never really got the cult following they did, so this is a bit of a rarity as far as I'm aware. I'm not gonna tell you the game is perfect, there's a bit of polish missing and the dialogue portraits range from passable to almost grotesque. But the majority of the graphical work in the game is solid, and while there's a few Weird Bits, I think it's a fun little romp. Again, not a long game.

The Stinger: Slightly more well covered games that I'm talking about anyway

Void Stranger

If you've been following this blog for any appreciable amount of time you know there was a period of time of about two months where I was religiously playing this game and it made me like chew my nails and bug my eyes out of my skull and everything. It's good! If you're into Sokoban (block pushing/tile replacement puzzles) with a dash of large scale overarching la-mulana esque puzzles. I stress the second part of that is not a massive part of the game; it is largely faithful to the sokoban genre.

Largely for the puzzle game player, I'd reccomend it more for the sokoban then the overarching puzzles (though if you can finish them and get past the puzzles in the main game there's quite an interesting little trail to follow there! I don't want to downplay that!), and if you're shooting for the large scale puzzles there's a few that make you take notes though, so I'd reccomend keeping some basic notes while you progress through the game. The story follows Gray, a lady in waiting for a king. I can't tell you anymore without spoiling anything. I've technically already spoiled you a little bit! The game does have a significant and compelling plot however, and I really enjoyed discovering it. There's not a part of this game that I don't whole heartedly reccomend outside of a few puzzles. I'd keep talking but I think I'd just sort've keep repeating myself and gushing about the game. Strongly Reccomended.

Do you remember why you're here?

Book of Hours

Another game I played a lot. You're an occult librarian maintaining an occult library. There's a lot to be said about the game world but the fun is in the discovery so I'll leave it at that.

It is quite literally a library management game and you do less handing books out then sorting your vast mansion of a library and studying eldrich secrets. Oddly comfortable, and not a game that pushes you very hard. If you're looking for something more along the lines of say, animal crossing, with a bit more of a Wizard flare then you can not go wrong with this. It's a solid bit of experimentation and I reccomend it. I can't even really talk about the mechanics very much because learning how things fit together is also a part of the charm. It's just sort've a charming wizardgame. I dunno.

Done

Get Out

[thatoneguy031]

Okay, DnD fans, can I get a bit of criticism here? I'm reading the 5e handbook, and I'm still a little confused about some things. Here's my character so far(I didn't even want to touch the stats yet, in fear that I have to use the guidebook's stats for his species).

Meet Blackthorn, often known as just Thorn. He's a young, red kobold(He's a kobold's equivalent to about 16 or 17 years old) that is also a sorcerer(For now, anyway. I might make him a fighter or rogue). He's gained his power from his dragon(Who is now unnamed, I'll come up with one later), who acted primarily as his guardian/babysitter, for him as well as many other kobolds in his den. The only two worth mentioning in his backstory are Hydra and Armari.

*Their names are based on the three primary colors: Red, yellow and blue. If you get pricked by a thorn, you're likely to bleed, so that's how Thorn earned his name(Along with the fact that he's a pit of a pain in the neck due to his sense of adventure). Hydra is short for Hydrangea, which is seen as a blue plant on occasion. And Armari sounds a little like amarillo, a translation of the color yellow if I'm not wrong. Yes, they also appear as their respective colors.

Their alignments: -Thorn is Neutral Good(He's pretty willing to break the law if he knows it's for the better, but tends to avoid that option if he can) -Hydra is Lawful Good(He often scolds Thorn for doing stuff like that) -Armari is Chaotic Neutral(She is the most likely to become a full-blown psychopath out of the three of them. She's basically Thorn's devil in most situations, and Hydra is his angel).

They're pretty good friends, and if something does happen to go wrong, you can almost always blame all three of them for it. They do have their own friend groups, but they most often hang out with each other for some chaos.

One day, Armari wanted the three of them to have a competition: Whoever could not join a party and become a proper adventurer, but also complete a total of three missions, would win... something(I'm not too sure on what yet. Let's say they'd win bragging privileges for now).

Of course, Thorn agreed, wanting to go on yet another adventure. Hydra also agreed to it, but he was way more reluctant about it because he didn't want to get put in an early grave.

With that, they headed off, and would meet up with each other every few days to check how they were doing.

After a while, Thorn thought that the adventurer's life was pretty sweet, and continued on his journey, even after the competition was over(He won, by the way, but no one ever learned that, not even him).

Thorn(At least, how he is now), is a pretty solid magic user. He's either gonna specialize in fire or plant magic(Or whatever it's called, I honestly have no clue). His only real downside is that his spells aren't very... good? Like, they're fine, but they're just fine, you feel me? They do their job, but that's it.

If it's possible, I'm basing Thorn's spells on moves you'd find in Pokemon, like Absorb or Fire Spin. His level-up moveset is going to be very similar to the Joe-Schmoe's starter.

I didn't think about it for more than 30 seconds, but I feel like Thorn would have an Outlander background. He's technically a wild dude, not knowing what a true civilization looked like, but he'd still be able to speak Common well enough to be generally understood, although he'd be more fluent in languages like Draconic(Again, he lived with a dragon). He'd probably not understand how human things work, but Arceus dang it if he isn't gonna try.

Again, if there's something wrong, or if I missed anything, I am DESPERATELY accepting revisions.

I'll add more things in future reblogs, as I progress more with his character.

[asphyxiatedredherring]

This is my gift for @fourdollarwords in the Leverage Gift Exchange! ( @leveragegiftexchange )

I decided to make a playlist of songs I felt fit the show in general, the thiefsome, and as well as each character!

It is quite a weird mix of music

I tried to keep it short, and some characters were easier to come up with more songs than others, but everyone got at least one.

Under the cut, I'll list each song and why I chose it. (It's sorted in categories as well as the order they appear on the spotify playlist, which I recommend listening to it in).

I hope you like it!

Nate:

Another Shot of Whiskey by The Gits - it's about drowning your problems in alcohol, I think we can all see the connection.

Behind Blue Eyes by The Who - the villain theme for the rock opera that never happened. The villain doesn't want to be the villain though, he was forced into that role and no one can see the grief that caused. It really lines up with Nate's story line.

Renegade by Styx - This is a song about a criminal who has been caught and is about to be executed. This song makes me think of The Maltese Falcon Job.

Well Respected Man by The Kinks - I think this represents the life Nate wanted for himself, Maggie, and their son where they are all happy and healthy but in reality Nate knows this is not how his life went and he is not this well respected man.

Breaking the Law by Judas Priest - the song seems to be about a man who was fired from his job so he started breaking the law. I'll let you draw those connections.

Alcohol by The Dropkick Murphys- he's an alcoholic from Boston what more can I say?

Sophie:

Who Do You Want to Be? by Oingo Boingo - its the art of the grift. Sophie makes herself into different people, deciding who she wants to be each day, everything is an act, a character maybe even losing herself along the way

What's Behind the Mask by The Cramps - as a grifter Sophie is always wearing a mask, Sophie isn't even her name. Her family wants to know what's behind her mask, let her know that she is safe to be herself.

Hardison:

Maneater by Hall & Oats - we know Hardison loves Hall & Oats. Best if listened to while Parker autism bites him.

Shout by Tears for Fears - I headcanon that Hardison loves synthpop and this song is a perfect example of that

Rebels With a Cause by The Dropkick Murphys - This song reminds me of the line where Nate calls Hardison "a 24 year old genius with a smartphone and problem with authority." He may have been ignored as a kid, but he's making a difference now. "Don't be angry with the kids Be angry with the greed."

Parker:

Runaway Train by Soul Asylum - I feel like this song really represents Parker's childhood

Never Go Hungry by Hole - I think Parker would have started with stealing food and this is like her internal monolog rationalizing it because stealing became a key part of her personality

Been Caught Stealing by Jane's Addition - Stealing, simple as that. She's a thief. If she wants something she simply takes it. I think it's just a fun catchy song she'd like.

Eliot:

The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel - Despite their wishes, Eliot left his family and became a fighter just like the protagonist of the song. No matter how hard he tries to escape, the fighter remains. I could write an entire essay about how the story of this song and Eliot's story line up.

Guilt Within Your Head by The Gits - Eliot has so much guilt built up in his head over his past, being unable to forgive himself he created his own hell but he can escape it through forgiveness and redemption.

Bullet With Butterfly Wings by Smashing Pumpkins - I feel like this song fits Eliot because like the song says Eliot still feels like he can not be saved and is trapped in a cage, despite how angry he is.

Rooster by Alice in Chains - Even though it's a song about the Vietnam War I feel like it can still represent Eliot's life, joining the military and his career as a hitter in which people are constantly coming to kill him, yet he won't die.

Harry:

Ironic by Alanis Morissette - I think Harry would love Alanis Morissette. Hands down. No further notes.

Breanna:

Just a Girl by No Doubt - People frequently underestimate Breanna and I think this feminist anthem conveys her anger with that.

Seasore by The Regrettes - "You're talkin to me like a child Hey I've got news, I'm not a little girl" So much of Breanna's character is wanting to prove herself, that she is capable and not just someone's kid sister and I think this song conveys the anger that comes with being underestimated and judged for your age or gender.

Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row - Breanna isn't interested in conforming to society's idea of what she should be. She has been called a problem child, but she doesn't care because she will stand tall and be herself.

The Thiefsome:

Love in an Elevator by Aerosmith - Hardison would think it's funny but Parker would latch on to it. I'll be citing the first episode for this one.

What I Like About You by The Romantics - I may be stretching this one but the parts of this song can be applied to aspects of the ot3 and them expressing their love for eachother. "Keep on whispering in my ear" fits Hardison talking to Eliot and Parker through the coms, "you really know how to dance" represents Parker's acrobatics and thief skills, and "you keep me warm at night" Eliot is a grounding presence for them at night and they love eachother.

Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls - they are all broken in their own way and it doesn't matter what the world thinks, just that they have eachother.

The Crew in General:

Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails - the people with power have the money and they aren't using it properly. But Leverage won't bow down despite what the mark wants. I just think this song encapsulates the anger they have with each mark and their desire to give the mark what they deserve.

And Justice for All by Metallica - I debated putting this song under Hardison but I think it could fit the whole crew. It's about how money has corrupted the justice system. The truth is gone but the crew is working to bring it to light and reinstall justice (in their own way).

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant - there is no rest for the wicked and no shortness of evil in the world which makes Leverage necessary. "The rich and powerful take what we want. We steal it back for you."

We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister - I think this song does well to represent how Leverage is fighting the system and the people that abuse it.

Take Back The Power by The Interrupters - I could also write an essay about this song and its correlation with Leverage but to boil it down, Leverage is working to fight the corruption of the world and fix what they can. They are taking back the power.

Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog - this is practically the Leverage theme song. "I don't mind stealin bread from the mouths of decadence But I can't feel on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled" It's a song about stealing from the rich, class divides, and how the rich get richer but the narrator refused to join them and would rather starve than be like the rich and feed on the poor.

The Men Who Rule The World by Garbage - a song about corruption, money, and violators, the very thing Leverage aims to destroy.

[louve-garoue]

Alright Earthling Goku and Saiyan ChiChi Au part 2 : the actual Au start, let's go :D !

Fast Forward to the start of the manga (or technically, maybe a week before the start of the manga). Mt. Frypan is devoured by the flames, but Ox-king isn't desperate enough to sent his daughter try to find Master/Muten Roshi by herself just yet. And that is when a boy with the biggest forehead ever and spiky hair in a jeep asking rudely for a "Dragon Ball" without any regard or sign he know about Ox-King reputation. He does know, he just think it doesn't matter for the likes of him. He's wrong of course but since my story wouldn't really be the same without him, he's gonna luck out thanks to plot armor, the same way Mister Satan did, kinda.

OK so I think you guessed by now that the "boy" I'm talking about is Vegeta. And I know it's not very happy news for everyone so let me explain 😅. You see at my previous post when I said that I was done with settling the context, I lied, there's more T^T *cry*. So basically what happened is that it's this drawing that inspired me this drawing :

Thus it's also an Human Vegeta and Saiyan Bulma. We'll get to Bulma when we get to Dbz, for now Vegeta.

The most important change on him is that is absolutely not under any circumstance a fighter. Oh don't get me wrong, he has many other things in common with his canon counterpart : being an egocentric jerk with an ego too big for his own good ? Check. An elitist snob who thinks his statut make him better than everyone else ? Check. A fighter ? Pff no what are you talking about ? On earth that's a job/occupation/hobby for the low-class citizen is it not ?

Seriously this boy would be knocked out by a slap lol. Despite his complete lack of fighting skill, Vegeta still consider himself an elite. Why is that. Well he's a rich spoiled city boy from East City with parents that have very important position in politics and descants from old royalty (which doesn't mean anything since the rise of the First World King).

And yes he fully believed that this statut of his would have protected him against the wrath of the Ox-King for wanting to steal from him. Because Vegeta wouldn't be Vegeta if he wasn't an overconfident cocky loser like that after all. Ox-King and ChiChi are so dumbfounded by his loudmouth that they're like Cell was with Satan : they don't think he's even worth killing. So they explain how even if they were willing to give him any part of his treasure, which they're not, they wouldn't be able to do it anyway. Since you know, the Mountain is on fire. They're all depressed together after that.

After a while they work out that they can mutually help each other. Vegeta has a lot of vehicule, maps and things for traveling comfortably. If he take ChiChi with him in his travels to find the other Dragon Ball, chances are, she'll be able to learn where Muten Roshi lives, then they'll be able to put out the fire. In exchange for taking (and feeding) ChiChi with him, Vegeta would be allowed to take the Dragon Ball in the castle with him. It's a good deal for both of them and Vegeta is somewhat not as rude to ChiChi as he is to everyone else since she's a princess, so he might get out of that adventure alive, maybe.

And thus, after many threat from Ox-King/Gyumao to Vegeta to treat his daughter well, this duo is formed and they're gone on they're own adventure !

And yep time for a pause here, I'll continue this tomorrow. No idea if you're actually enjoying my long long rambling but I'm having a blast :D. I'll just add here that since Vegeta is from East City and not West City, they're going to do the same path Goku and Bulma did but reversed ! Think you can guess what'll the next adventure will be ? Wait till tomorrow to find out :D !

Hello would you like a rant about one of those :

_An AU I have where Goku is an earthling and ChiChi a saiyan (Og DB version and/or DBZ version)

_An AU where Vegeta was sent to Earth instead of Goku, but Goku is still very much the Main Character (beside I hyperfocus a lot on the Son Family so the Au is mainly on how, against all odds, this family still managed to find each other)

_About a song that I think would fit GoChi pretty well :D (the song in question being "Je te Donne" by Jean-Jacques Goldman but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't know it since most of it is in french and it is pretty old :(, I'll do a translation if you do want to hear about it :) )

_About how Goku was a smart kid, it's not his fault confused "stupid" and "was taught very little basic knowledge" :((

_About how, while I like the first telefilm on Bardock and prefer the personality they gave him, I largely prefer DB Minus as the story on how Goku got sent to Earth and my frustration with the telefilm being mostly used as the reference (though I can downplay that last part if you want). As a bonus I can also expand on how and why I also prefer the manga version of DB Minus over what they did in the DB Super Broly movie

?

I just discovered your blog and I love it :DDD. I am also very glad to found another person who like Og Dragon Ball more than Dbz :DD. You're amazing and I hope you're having a good day/night :]

Yes but I’m bad at making choices so any one you want lol

[pigeonwhumps]

Character intros

Out of the frying pan masterlist

In preparation for Whumptober and because I'm bored I'm going to start making masterlists and character intro posts for a couple of new series I'm starting then (please at least pretend to be surprised that I'm starting new stories) (I will still be updating my other ones, to be clear. They all have plans).

So, without further ado, my medieval fantasy whump characters! They've been in my head for so long, I'm glad to finally let them out into the world (and so are they... maybe). Warning: liberal stealing of Arthurian place names for my own purposes.

Note that I think the descriptions may give away part of the plot so maybe don't read them first if you don't want to be spoiled. I'll post just the picrews later so you can get an idea of the characters' appearances even if you don't want to read the descriptions yet.

Picrews here, here, here and here.

Elis

First up is our whumpee, Elis! Former ward of Lord Wulfric and trained pretty much since birth to be his weapon and bodyguard, he was rescued by Col and Sæwin after being abandoned in a village during a fire. He's not used to people being kind to him, not even having a name (well, Wulfric used one in public for appearances, but it was never really his). Cats love him and he has no idea why. Now lives in Sæwin's family townhouse in Sorestan's citadel with Col, Sæwin and Mabel.

Mabel

Elis' cat, Mabel! He raised her from a tiny kitten and now they're nearly inseparable. She hates being apart from him for longer than a day and is even worse when there's no-one there at all. Loves giving Elis, Col and Sæwin presents, and has a very loud meow.

Col

Sir Nicol, or Col for short, is a knight in King Leofric's army and one of Elis' caretakers. He's not a big fan of the king, but takes his oaths of loyalty very seriously. Being a knight is a family tradition, he couldn't break it even if he knew anything else he wanted to do. Noble by birth, hence the townhouse. Hopelessly, irrevocably in love with Sæwin ("The pining!" exclaims Elis, exasperated. "I had to put up with it for years before I knocked their heads together! Not literally, no no no, I don't hurt people anymore, promise.").

Sæwin

Physician under command of the king. As he goes out on patrol with the knights a lot, he had to learn to fight and is a fantastic archer. Although Col adopted Elis immediately upon seeing him ("this man is mine and if anything happens to him I will kill everyone here and then myself"), Sæwin took longer to agree, primarily because he worried that Elis, as a fighter, might hurt them, but now he's just as attached as Col. Hopelessly, irrevocably in love with Col.

Lord Wulfric

Lord Wulfric is Lord of Magance, an estate someway north of Sorestan's citadel. After Elis' mother, a tenant on his estate, died in childbirth and he himself had a close call with an assassin, he took the opportunity to take in Elis and raise him to be his weapon and personal bodyguard. Well – raised is something of an overstatement. Nobody could accuse him of caring about Elis beyond his usefulness. A harsh, paranoid and determined man, he terrifies most of his household and tenants. He has a short temper and no patience for people who can't do their jobs properly, so he's not exactly a popular man to work for. Abandons Elis because he's made one mistake too many, will probably die anyway without a healer (which he isn't paying for), and his other belongings are far more valuable to save from the fire. That's by far the best thing he ever does for Elis.

King Leofric

Strict ruler of Sorestan and childhood friend of Wulfric. Greedy, ruthless and power-hungry, he'll do whatever it takes to gain and keep power – provided his reputation isn't too damaged, of course. A king lives and dies by his reputation, after all. He has a little... not persuasion, exactly, since he's not a vampire (although there's long been suspicions of vampirism somewhere in his family line, but it can't be proven), but a similar form of mind control. It's not that strong though.

Erec

(please pretend his shirt is chainmail, I can't find a picrew with any)

Erec's a young guard under the command of King Leofric. He doesn't really want to be a guard, but due to it being the only job available at a time he was desperate for money he has to be. And you don't quit if you're working for Leofric. That's an even more vital rule now he's been recruited to help with Leofric's latest... project. He's Elis' temporary caretaker when the worst happens, although he can't always do much for fear of being killed. Single father to his young daughter Aldreda.

Aldreda

Erec's daughter. She's fond of Elis after he patched up her knee when she fell playing. Adored by her dad, even if he works a lot and isn't home as much as either of them would like.

Isabel

(again, pretend her shirt is chainmail)

Isabel (Ibb to her friends) is a guard recruited to work on Leofric's latest project. She follows Leofric's orders to the letter because she wants to, and won't do anything to make the prisoners' lives easier. Can be sadistic at times, although mostly she just doesn't care about the prisoners' welfare so long as they stay in whatever condition Leofric wants them in. She doesn't get on with Erec, thinking he's rather pathetic for caring about the prisoners.

[rjalker]

at first i didn't know that you were talking about miraculous and i was like "well superheroes technically don't have the obligation to be superheroes" but then i saw it was about miraculous and i was like "oop nevermind"

i think it's really stupid how they use the argument that Adrien is being abused by his father to justify his actions. like, bitch, I'm also traumatized by my parents but i don't go out of my way to harrass other people, and if i end up harrasing them cuz i was having a breakdown or something like that, it is completely my fault, even tho I'm traumatized I'm still responsible for my own actions.

Superheroes have the obligation to protect people, because they are superheroes, which means they've already accepting the responsibility and they either need to keep upholding that responsibility or stop calling themselves a superhero.

People who just so happen to have superpowers don't have the obligation to be superheroes. they are no more obligated to risk their lives than literally anyone else.

Danny Fenton, for example, has absolutely no obligation to put himself in the line of fire to fight ghosts when his parents, who are ghost fighters, are the reason the ghosts are attacking, and the reason he died in the first place. Danny shouldn't have to fight ghosts just because his parents are neglectful and horrible at all their jobs. But he chooses to anyways because he wants to help people and he has the ability to do so. Danny is a superhero because he chooses to be and he acts like one.

Adrien is not Danny. He didn't wake up one day with super powers he can't control and can't get rid of. He was given the choice to have super powers and protect people, and he accepted. He happily picked up and put on the Ring knowing exactly what it would entail.

And as he has shown in Syren and apparently (haven't seen it yet) in the NY special, he knows it's a choice and he knows and is willing to reject the Ring at ltierally any time, even if it means blackmailing Plagg and leaving people to drown.

No one is forcing Adrien to transform and join in on Akuma fights. No one is forcing him to be Chat Noir. Akuma can't track him down no matter where he goes or how hard he tries to hide. He's not Buffy Summers. He's not the Slayer. He doesn't have a magical destiny.

He was chosen at random to get a magical jewel that would give him super powers, and he accepted that responsibility with glee.

The problem is? He doesn't care about protecting people. He doesn't care about the responsibility that comes along with the Miraculous. He doesn't care about the obligation a superhero has to protect people.

He wants all of the rewards that come with being a Miraculous holder, and none of the responsibility.

And it's even worse than that.

Because if all Adrien did was transform and leave Marinette alone and try to stay as far out of the way as he could? I'd have no fucking problem with it. If he just used the Ring to transform and run around for fun in secret, I would have no problem with it at all. He is literally so worse than useless in combat that not having him there would make things infinitely easier for Marinette.

If I had to choose between Marinette having to deal with Adrien, and Marinette fighting by herself, I would rather she be allowed to fight by herself instead of having to do tripple the work babysitting him and making sure he doesn't get himself or others killed, which isn't even bringing up his constant sexual harassment.

If Adrien just got the ring, and used it only to run around and have fun? As long as Plagg was fine with it, I would have literally no problem at all, not if the alternative is him doing what he does in canon.

Because there's a difference between having superpowers and being a superhero, and there's an insurmountable difference between being a superhero and showing up to fights just so you can sabatogue them and harass the person actually trying to save peoples' lives.

If Adrien does not want to protect people, then he needs to do the responsible thing and give the ring to someone who does give a shit. He's not Peter Parker. He's not Danny Fenton. He's not Buffy Summers. He does have a choice in the matter. And he chooses to abuse his responsibility as a Miraculous holder so that he can abuse his partner and sabatogue her efforts to save people's lives.

People who have superpowers are not any more obligated to put themselves in danger to protect people than anyone else is.

If Buffy could find somewhere where vampires wouldn't find her, I would say good for her! If Danny could run away and not have to fight ghosts anymore, I'd say good for him!

The difference is that they don't get a choice in the matter! Buffy can't just stop being the Slayer. Vampires and demons will find her and they will try to kill her. It doesn't matter where she goes, they will follow. Danny can't just stop being half-ghost. He fucking died and he can't undo that.

Adrien has a choice in the matter. And every single day he chooses to go out to the Akuma fights and not only not help, he chooses to actively sabatogue Marinette's efforts to save people.

and I have just been informed that in season 4 he's now purposefully getting people Akumatized oh my god. oh my fucking god. oh my god.

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (3/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Yep yep yep, I'm liking this season a lot! 😍 Although I hope we'll get into a more frantic situation now, like with more battles and more bonding moments (Nya and Maya hopefully, but with Bentho too 🦈🦈🦈)! We got half a season to go, I'M READY!! 😎😎

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

I do like the season a lot, maybe MoM was a little more cohesive? Idk but it's not a big complain, I still love it so far 😍

Also maybe I would've liked more interactions between Nya and Maya about how they've been apart for so long, they had a chit chat but I would've loved even more. Maybe with Nya saying that it was fine and she grew up only to realize she is still hurt by that, even though it wasn't Maya's fault. I still like how they did it, I wished there was more that's it 🤷��♀️

While I do make sense to Maya's behavior, that while it seems a little different from Hands of Time it had its logic in my opinion, maybe Ray feels a little weird? He seems less courageous than before, and it was established that he is a hothead like his son so that came off as unusual 🤔🤔

But I do love the fact that he's here and he's bonding with his son, for real, I've been waiting for this for so long so I'm happy nonetheless 🤩

Maybe I'm just easy to please and I take all I can get idk 😅

THE STORM AMULET

Oh, are we gonna address the wind element? It feels like we haven't really seen a Morro reference since Hands of Time, that would be cool! 😍 I mean, why even mentioning the wind then 😅😅

Well what do you know, they tracked them, who saw that coming?... me, I saw that coming... we all did probably 🤷‍♀️

Jay took upon himself making a quick recap on how Ninjago will be destroyed this time, thanks Bluebell 👌

Yep nyeheh electricity makes Nya go crazy for sure ❤💙 ... wait it wasn't a Jaya pun?

Jay wear your seatbelt please, you risk you life enough 😅😅 Pff lol "are we there yet" and they are actually there, biggest plot twist I've ever heard of 😂

LEGO HUG 💜💜💜

And with someone who might as well join the League of Jay apparently 💙

I liked The Island yet it was not as exciting as I hoped for, but now understand the meaning of it. The ninja helped the keepers and they are all allies. Without The Island the moment where Mammatus gives Nya the amulet wouldn't be as meaningful

Is it just me or Nya looked even more gorgeous during that moment?... just me huh? Okay then 😂💕

Wait that's a fake? Wait... UNCLE POWERS?!? OMG THAT I ACTUALLY DIDN'T SEE COMING 🤯

Here I thought he was just messing around, he always makes things harder 😅 Or maybe better? I mean, they kinda missed a bullet on this one...

BENTHO IS SO SWEET AND COOL OMG HE IS ALREADY OUR FRIEND 💙🦈💙🦈

Jay somehow had his own TV show in the past and yet he's got that horrible acting skills wth 😂😂😂

Kalmaar is a very cool villain, like, deeply evil. Not only he's calculated and merciless, he stops at nothing to get what he wants. And the people that get in the way? He wants them to suffer because they had dared to confront him 😳

And yes the voice does help a lot, I'm sorry I'll keep saying it until the season is over 😂 (or even beyond? Please cast Giles again LEGO 🥺🥺🥺)

Awww Nya no my poor girl 😢 Jay wanted to hug her to comfort her he is so sweet my SHIP ❤💙❤💙

MOM PEP TALK MOM PEP TALK!!! 🤩🤩🤩 How cool was it?

Like, this isn't even Maya asking Nya to believe in herself, this is her saying that she KNOWS her daughter can do anything when she puts her mind into it. FINALLY SHE SEES HOW AMAZING WATER GODDESS IS 💜💜💜

MORE LEGO TEARS OMG THIS SEASON IS FILLED WITH TEARS 😱 Which... kinda makes sense considering it's a water based season 😂

Nice one, and now? NOW WE GO BACK TO KAI COLE AND RAY YAS!!! ❤🖤❤🖤

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

That is... surprisingly Egypt theme like? It feels like a title coming from the Fire Chapter of season 11... well we got two fire elementals so 😍😍

SPARRING KAI AND RAY

I REPEAT SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! SPARRING KAI AND RAY!!! ❤❤❤ Lol Ray got old, but how can someone blame him? He did touch death while aging in Hands of Time, I'm just happy he is alive 😂

Yep, master prankster Wu, that's what I love 👌👌 I always thought Wu had become a father figure for Kai at the beginning, so seeing Ray and Wu in the same picture feels very wholesome to me 😚

Ah, uncle Powers, I both love you and hate you so freaking much 😌😌 But you make cool slides nonetheless 😂

ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME WITH BEAUTIFUL SMITH INTERACTIONS??

BECAUSE I LIKE IT KEEP GOING 🤩

Oh no you guys are stranded on an island whatever are you going to do?? It's not like you had already before and managed to survive (Skybound) or you got stranded on a rock in a sea of sand filled with giant monsters (Fire Chapter) or you were on a freaking COMET in SPACE (Rebooted). Yeee, this is the worst yet 🙂

I'm starting to think these ninja are just a bunch of drama queens so no matter what happens, it's always hopeless 😂😂 I feel like I'm kinda right on this one honestly 😛

Whoa whoa WHOA WHO IS NYAD THIS SOUNDS VERY COOL???

Aww I like that, while Ray told his kids stories about dragons and how they traveled through the Underworld, Maya told them about Nya the first water master that could summon whales 💙❤💙❤

Pff imagine if it turned out Nya was the master of fire, carrying a very water based name? Lol

Maya: I would know if it was possible!

Nya: Yeah, like she knows that I can control a bit of ice because it's frozen water

Maya:...

Maya: YOU WHAT

I find both interesting and very annoying that this explorers club thinks so highly of themselves, to the point the deny to aid even the FREAKING SAVIORS OF THEIR FREAKING LAND 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Misako got good reflexes after all, Kai was probably ready to melt this guy's face 😅

Oh, so a trial by Sphinx is a challenge? A mental one? A cultural one? A physical one? Idk but Misako is actually taking charge and that is cool I guess 🤷‍♀️

Okay this is kind of weird, how is Ray so afraid? Is it because there's fire?... did he... did he grow afraid of fire for some reason? Because it feels a bit off for now, but if there is a deeper meaning that could be interesting 🤔

Wait is that the riddle from Decoded? That's fire right?

IT IS FIRE 🔥🔥🔥

Lol at least in this one Kai wasn't completely ignored 😂 I know my flame babe isn't the most rational person, but I do like that it was an answer connected to his element where he used his head!

Ah Clutch, you really got no backbone 😅 And apparently you're the only explorer who doesn't, dang look at the others go! I'm having a bit more respect for them now 😚

LOOK AT SENSEI GO FINALLY!!! 😍😍 FIGHTING SCENES HECK YES!!!

Kalmaar: I'm your conquerer

Wu: so after skeletons, the serpentine, nindroids, the Stone Army, Chen's army, ghosts, oni, more snakes but on fire and people from a game, that makes you the tenth. Have a free cookie

Kalmaar:...

Wu: you're not special

Is this a little throwback to Possession too? Nya seems to always control better water when she doesn't actually think about it. When her feelings are free, so are her powers 🌊🌊🌊

Also this opens up more possibilities! Creatures connected with other elements might get summoned too! I would love something like that 😍😍

This was NEAT, or maybe I just missed Kai that much ❤ What's next??

PAPERGIRL

ANTONIAAAAAAAA!!!! MY GIRL IS BACK!!! All my girls are back in this season, I'm so happy 😍😍😍 And if she is here, sweet little Nelson has to be around and I cannot wait! Bring in the purple ninja! 💜

Owww Antonia's last day as a papergirl? Nooo why??

She's got a job at the... DAIRY DRAGON??? OMG OMG OMG IT'S THE ICE CREAM PLACE BRAGI TOLD US ABOUT ON TWITTER!!! 🤩🤩🤩 I remember the post, he was asking about names for the place and ice cream flavors. Now I can't wait to see what did he choose 🍦🍦🍦

UNAGAMI BABY HI HONEY!!! 🙋‍♀️ I hope he's doing great 😘😘

This is so cool honestly, Antonia got her own character arc going on! Living in a chaotic city like Ninjago City must be pretty dang exhausting 😅

Was... was that Dareth in the garbage can? Am I wrong? Poor brown ninja 😅🤎😅

SPINJITZU SWIRL, BANANAKHAN, ORANGE SERPENTINE, I'M DYING 😂😂😂

Their friendship is so wholesome, I'm so happy they are still together no matter what happens 💕

I thought Kalmaar wasn't much of a fighter but DANG he's got skills! Also the fact that he uses tentacles makes the fight very cool to watch! 😚😚

RAY RUNNING IN AFTER KAI GOT HURT HECK YES ❤❤❤

Well at least you tried Ray 😅

Ah, little cameo of the original Weekend Whip, always nice to hear it again... AND DO THE WEEKEND WHIP!!! 🌪🌪🌪

EVEN NELSON GOT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I'M SO PROUD 💜

I don't even know what is cooler, the kids being mad lads on their bikes, Kalmaar driving a TRUCK or Kai going full parkour on the buildings to follow them 🤯

I'm sorry... am I the only one that during the Kai and Kalmaar talk kinda thought of Jestro and Clay? I miss my boys from NK, they're even more at odds now 😭😭

KAI YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE OR EVEN TRY TO DIE GET BACK HERE AT ONCE 😱😱

Kalmaar just loves to make everyone feel inferior, gotta be his hobby 😶

Oh good Kai is back

OH NOT GOOD KAI IS NOT BREATHING?!? FLAME BABE I TOLD YOU YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE 😱😱😱

Antonia, Nelson, you guys are now my heroes. You saved my fave, I'll be forever in dept with you ❤❤❤ Am I being overdramatic? Most likely, but Kai is one of the few that didn't almost die or did die in a dramatic situation and he is also my absolute favorite character so that... kinda keeps my sanity in check in this show 🥴

I wonder... does he still not know how to swim? He saved Lloyd in Possession but I wonder if he was only trying to float on the surface... THAT'S TERRIFYING

This episode was so adorable, I love Antonia and Nelson so much 💜💕💜💕 It's nice to see what the other people of Ninjago do while everything goes mad 🤣

Wait hang on my Ninjajan is a little rusty

"Ninjago City. City that never sleeps" well if that ain't the truth 😂

MASTER OF THE SEA

Like Master of the Mountain? Wait are we going back to Shintaro?? VANYA?? ANOTHER BEST GIRL RETURNS??? 💛

Hey hey hey, we got a full Nyad backstory! I really like when they do these little drawn shots, they feel more like legends! And... the ending sounds terrifying? Like, they wouldn't let Nya sacrifice herself and die... again... right? 😱

Bentho: and the world was in balance, until now because of my brother

Lloyd: and the Overlord before of course

Bentho: the what now?

Lloyd: the evil one my grandpa the first Spinjitzu Master fought?

Bentho: YOUR WHAT NOW

Why do I like this offscreen "hiiiyaaa" that sensei Wu does before actually going into the scene? 😂😂

No matter if they come from the underground or the sea, these are all snake-like creature with the same intellect 😅 Kalmaar and Garmadon would have a lot to talk about, sea king dealing with his minions does remind me of Lord Garmadon in season 2 a lot 😂😂

KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER KAI AND RAY FIGHTING TOGETHER ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

OMG Kalmaar is such a brat and petty villain I love him so much 😂😂😂 Yes I didn't even mention his amazing voice!... AH DANG IT 😳😳

*Misako kicks Kalmaar and is actually useful* 🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️

*Misako gets taken as hostage immediately after* 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

KAI LITERALLY JUST GOT SAVED FROM DROWNING WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO HIM!!!... and Ray and Cole and Wu of course, I care okay 😅

OMG that face 🤣🤣🤣

That some meme material right there

Whoa Vincent that voice just got super up when the Unsinkable showed up, it kinda sounded like Jay's lol

NO NOT BENTHO!!! 😢😢😢

Kai: Nya talks to whales now? (I snorted so hard at this 😂😂)

HECK YES NYA GOT THE AMULET!! 😍😍😍 ... we got, like, four more episodes to go so something needs to happen in between... do I need to be scared? I feel like I need to be scared 😅

Jay starting a fire then blaming Kai?... this is so in character I got chills 😂😂

SHARK BOY IS STAYING TO THE MONASTERY THIS IS SO PRECIOUS!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 I want all the shenanigans and we need to write fanfictions about more shenanigans and AAAAHHHHH 🦈🦈🦈

Bless these two fire idiots

They own my heart ❤🔥❤🔥 Also Vincent, this is supposed to be a fun little gag moment, your amazing voice acting is kinda distracting me 😭😭😭

ANOTHER LEGO HUG

YOU GUYS ARE SPOILING ME OVER HERE HECK YES 💙🌊💙🌊

Maya learned that her daughter is capable of everything, I love that. Nya simply understood that she doesn't have to give up when something gets difficult. She is AMAZING and can do anything she puts her mind into. She simply has to hold on until the end 💪💪💪

Omg Benthomaar playing billiard with the guys I already love this 😍😍

YES IT IS SHINTARO!!! THE UPPLY ARE HERE OMG!!! HI VANYA YOU LOOK AMAZING GIRL MISS YOU I HOPE YOU'RE DOING OKAY!!! 💛💛💛 ... I just really like Master of the Mountain okay 😅

I love how Vanya doesn't even question it. It comes from Cole and he said it needs to be protected? Done and done 👌

Wait what, did something fall?

IS THAT THE FAKE?!?!? WHAT HOW WHEN??? UNCLE POWERS??? OR KALMAAR DID SOMETHING??? SOMEONE??? I'M LEGIT CONFUSED AND EXCITED??? 🤯🤯🤯

Well dang, I didn't see that coming, now what Seabound? What do you have for me?

[iwritethat]

Damian Wayne: Expectations

A/N: I have no idea where this came from but I wrote it anyway.

Warnings: Like 1 swear word

>>>>——————————>

Life in Gotham could be difficult, horrific and down right dangerous - so like any other kid who had been living it rough you turned to crime. Firstly creating an alias for yourself equip with fitted black costume as the colour made it easier to move through Gotham at night, it consisted of a hood and bandana to cover your face and conceal your identity. You took up minor theft, so by the time you reached your teenage years you were now a seasoned professional - you had perfected 'slight of hand', acquired fighting skills as well as being very good with disguising yourself to gain entrance to otherwise unreachable areas/events.

Most of the time it was thievery from those who seemed more wealthy, you considered it better to steal from the wealthier population rather than the poor as they would need their money more - though you were a criminal you did have some values intact. This time however was unusual, Catwoman had asked for your assistance on a job, you had met Catwoman before on numerous occasions and got on quite well but you didn't expect her to ever ask for your help, clearly she thought very highly of your abilities.

As a result, after robbing a museum of a cat sculpture you found yourself standing on a rooftop waiting for the promised payment your partner was currently handing you.

"Catwoman, you're going to have to return that." A deep voice sounded from behind you, sending a string of curse words through your head.

Surprise surprise, you turned to find the Dark Knight accompanied by Robin who had joined you on the building.

"Who are you?" The sidekick asked bluntly taking a step toward you.

"Hm, wouldn't you like to know?" You quickly replied, matching the arrogant tone meanwhile Catwoman looked genuinely amused. Your temporary partner, clearly unwilling to simply hand over the stolen goods, began to flirt with Batman - apparently reoccurring behaviour judging by Robins foul expression.

"They do this often then?" You commented, observing the two adults.

"Too often. You still didn't answer my question thief." Robin replied, getting into a defensive stance mirroring his mentor.

"It's (v/n) - thief is just rude birdboy." You earned a growl before he came at you with his katana.

Though you weren't specifically trained in any martial arts, you picked up a thing or two by watching others or brief involvements with street gangs which allowed you to hold your own somehow. Instinctively, you pulled out your daggers to clash with the oncoming blade before kicking Robin in the abdomen and running for it. Successfully, you made your escape without being followed equip with money from Catwoman and so, you made you way 'home'.

.

Over the next few weeks, you had various encounters with Robin which you found peculiar as there were far more dangerous villains out there that required his attention but here he was again - confronting you about the deal you’d just completed, selling off a rich mans watch for a very good price.

"Why are you doing this?" The vigilante asked, arms crossed as he blocked your path.

"Because it pays well? I'm not quite sure what you expected." You sarcastically remarked, scanning the area for an exit.

"You seem like a good person, from my observations you only rob the wealthy. You should use your skills for something more productive." He commented, noticing your glare.

"Uh huh. You're like the same age as me Robin, you can't tell me what I should be doing. Besides, I didn't have the perfect life, I highly doubt you grew up on the streets - you can't exactly get 'productive' with that, I wouldn't have these skills otherwise. So sorry hero! If this was all part of the ‘turning me to the good side’ plan - you've failed." You defended, venom lacing your tone despite the mockery situated there. It was possible that you were a little harsh but you didn't need this at the moment, you had somewhere urgent to be.

Robin released a frustrated sigh meanwhile you put your plan of escape into action, you hopped onto the dumpster to the left, grabbing the metal ladder that lead to the staircase running up the side of the apartments. You slipped through an open window muttering a string of apologies as you ran through the now startled woman's apartment and out the front door, you made your way out of the building through the fire escape.

Checking your surroundings you discovered you'd lost the Batman's sidekick allowing relief to flood your body, though you were growing more suspicious - it shouldn't be that easy to escape Robin but it was almost like he let you get away in all of the times you'd encountered him after your first meeting. You had seen him fight other villains on the news and take them down with a degree of brutality, yet with you things never escalated to that level. Robin was obviously a better fighter and had beat you many times, brought you the police station handcuffed at least twice but never really hurt you.

Shaking your head out of the trance, you entered the old corner shop you'd made your way to and collected the items you needed. Walking over to the familiar owner of the small shop, you were greeted with a warm smile, you'd expect a form of hostility from anyone else considering your vigilante attire but upon visiting the shop on multiple occasions they soon realised you weren't a threat and never caused any trouble.

"Quite a lot of chocolate today (v/n)." The owner commented politely, knowing exactly what it was for.

"Mhm, everyone deserves a treat now and then - even me." You replied handing over some of the recently attained cash and taking the bag of items. Next you intended to return 'home'.

Unbeknownst to you Robin was tailing you, Damian was undeniably curious about you for some strange reason and had decided to follow you this time. After finding out about part of your childhood he wanted to understand why you did this, he assumed you had a home with an unstable background/parent and provided financial support though soon realised he was somewhat mistaken.

Once you left the store now carrying a bag you made your way to an old apartment building, Damian continued to follow, watching from the building opposite as you entered one of the 4th floor apartments. The area of Gotham was quite run down meaning rent wasn't expensive and you managed to maintain clean, suitable living conditions despite your situation.

"(Y/N) is back!" A young voice yelled, filled with excitement as you strolled through, placing the bag on the table.

Damian was puzzled, a small group of young children raced over to your figure which was soon lost in an array of hugs, one jumped on your back another two hugged your sides while others screamed with enjoyment.

"Yeah yeah, I missed you kids too." You happily greeted, kneeling down causing them to slowly release you.

Robin perched in the darkness now connecting everything together, you pulled down your hood and then removed your bandana, revealing your identity. Damian was stunned, the dim lighting highlighted your features perfectly and the smile you wore made you all the more beautiful.

"What did you bring us this time (y/n)?!" One girl chirped, standing hopefully in front of you.

"Hmm, well I brought some fruit, vegetables, soap, toothpaste..." You playfully listed, though the kids were grateful, they weren't exactly ecstatic to hear about the vegetables.

"And chocolate!" You grinned, excitement lacing your voice - pulling it out of the bag, the children immediately erupted into squeals and cheers taking a bar each.

Robin took this opportunity to slip through the window behind you making his presence known with a cough. You froze for a second, knowing that he probably knew you're identity now and where you lived - still, you recovered and turned around, the kids also taking notice of the unfamiliar company.

"Shit!" A child yelled from behind you, panic evident.

"Jake - language!" You whisper yelled, the children now gathered behind you.

"You're in a lot of trouble (v/n)." Robin sternly stated.

To your surprise a young girl quickly stepped in front of you spreading out her arms as a guard.

"No Robin! You can't take her away, I know she's bad sometimes but she only does it for us. Please don't take her to prison!" The girl pleaded, tears welling in her eyes.

Next was the boy, Jake, who ran to your side (chocolate long forgotten) and grabbed your arm.

"She isn't a hero like you or - or Batman but she's not a bad guy!" He claimed, also jumping to your defence.

"Yes! (V/N) is our hero, (y/n) protects us like you protect other people s-so there!" Another girl argued from behind you.

You and Robin were both shocked at the children's reactions, you found it heartwarming that they were defending you before one of their biggest heroes yet weren’t sure if their testimony’s would’ve be valid enough.

"I'm not taking (y/n) to prison." Robin boredly sighed, though he probably should - but you hadn't committed crimes at the same severity as the Penguin and you had legit reasons, so he took the opportunity to persuade you to take a more legal route.

Upon hearing Robin's assurance, the children calmed themselves dissipating into the apartment, finding suitable places to watch the scene unfold. You crossed your arms leaning on a nearby counter and looked to Robin expectantly - not having anything to say yourself.

"This is why you do it then?" He inquired, but it came off as more of a statement.

You nodded, observing the 3 children sitting on the couch while others scattered through the apartment.

"I try to take care of them when they need me, I'm pretty sure they live on the streets so I provide for them the best I can when they come to stay. But when they do, I need extra cash - with studying and my job I can just afford rent and the basics for myself. I steal so they don't have to, I want them to grow up 'good' I suppose." Robin listened carefully as he too looked at the children.

Silence.

"So... There you have it bird boy, I grew up on the streets but want them to have a better life than I had. The end." You calmly explained, your tone getting more defensive as you went on.

"You're not what I expected." Robin admitted confidently.

"Oh really? And what did you expect?" You countered, smiling with a challenging hint to your voice.

"It doesn't matter. I think you could be of assistance to me, obtain information and getting into secured areas etc. In exchange I can offer my assistance." The sidekick clearly proposed, observing the consideration dashing across your features.

"...Maybe.”

.

Within the next few weeks that's how it happened, you would assist Robin on select cases and in return he'd bring over extra supplies for any kids that decided to visit. Today was one of those days, you came in from work to find the children swarming around Robin who probably had to leave for patrol. Upon seeing you they rushed over with hugs and "Welcome home!"s before returning to their activities.

"What did you bring them this time Robin?" You curiously greeted, he threw the bag over to you which was effortlessly caught, after looking inside you nodded and placed it on the counter.

Out of gratitude, you made way to Robin and gave him a hug to display such thankfulness as you felt words weren’t quite enough this time.

"Thanks for everything bird boy." You added and pulled away from him.

"You're welcome?" Robin replied, still bewildered due to the sudden contact that it sounded as though he was questioning himself.

"So are you boyfriend and girlfriend now?" One of the girls mischievously inquired appearing out of nowhere.

"Uh - n-no. No." You briskly stuttered knowing you were blushing and attempted to conceal it to the best of your ability.

"(Y/N) is very beautiful but we are not dating." Robin answered in a much less embarrassing manner compared to you. You flushed deeper upon hearing the compliment, of course the sidekick quickly noticed your behaviour causing a smirk to appear.

Robin headed toward the window to leave for his previously mentioned patrol, though the young girl followed him and gently tugged on his cape gaining his attention.

She moved her hand to the side of her mouth so only Robin could hear her whisper "I think you should ask her out!"

"TT, I will." He assured her before disappearing into the night, finding that he’d have to learn to expect the unexpected when it came to your mismatched adopted family.

[mobius-prime]

57. Sonic the Hedgehog #39

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Rage Against the Machine

Writer: Mike Gallagher Pencils: Pat Spaziante Colors: Barry Grossman

Surprisingly for being written by Michael, this issue is pretty intense! Sonic is pissed, because he wants to try the same stunt Sally pulled back in StH#29, apparently forgetting how badly that plan failed last time. The other Freedom Fighters unanimously overrule him, and Sonic irritably stalks out. Antoine is suspicious that he may go and try the stunt on his own regardless of orders, but Sally reminds him of Sonic's loyalty to the group. Anyway, Sonic proceeds to head to the weight room and immediately get knocked out by a familiar face!

That's right, Nack the Weasel, who has been apparently lounging around in the Knothole Jailhouse ever since his first appearance in the Sonic Triple Trouble special, has finally made his reappearance! He's decided to finish his old job of hauling a captured Sonic back to Robotnik - better late than never, as he puts it - and is promptly paid back by Robotnik's neverending generosity. Which is to say, he's thrown out of the building with his payment: being allowed to keep his life. Classy, Robotnik! You're just ensuring that no independent parties will ever want to work for you again.

Anyway, this is the part where Sonic wakes up and starts giving some sassback to his arch-enemy, right? This is where Robotnik sits and monologues long enough for a rescue to commence, or for Sonic to pull some trick out of his ass and escape? Robotnik isn't… he isn't just throwing him in the roboticizer without a grand speech, is he? He's actually being smart for once?

Sonic wakes up in time to scream.

It's actually pretty intense. Sonic essentially got whacked on the head in Knothole, and when he woke up he was already halfway through the (presumably painful, judging from his facial expressions) roboticization process. Ouch, man.

Anyway, by now I guess they've remembered that the robotic version of Sonic depicted before is actually supposed to be called Metal Sonic, so now we're seeing the actual Mecha Sonic here in the flesh - or, uh, in the mechanical parts? Robotnik is quite the fan of psychological warfare, and since Mecha Sonic already knows where Knothole is located, he heads out to destroy it on his new master's command. The Freedom Fighters start scrambling to defend themselves as Mecha Sonic begins firing lasers at them, and are quite angry since, by all appearances, Sonic disobeyed direct orders, as none of them know that he was captured and roboticized against his will.

Sonic isn't the spearhead of the resistance for nothing, and turns out to be extremely resilient and hard to even properly battle, let alone defeat. It appears that Sally had a plan in place for exactly this scenario, as she starts calling out code phrases, first creating holographic duplicates to confuse Mecha Sonic, and then calling in Bunnie to fight him, as she's the toughest of the bunch left.

While Bunnie and Mecha Sonic do battle, Sally calls into the Knothole control center, giving Tails coded orders to execute. Tails is quite happy to be of real assistance, but of course, Sally can't let him off without making sure his confidence is dashed!

Like, seriously Sally? In the middle of an emergency, you're gonna give him childish hygiene instructions? That was 100% just a way for her to assert her dominance while he was feeling good about himself. Not cool, Sal Gal.

As a side note, Bunnie makes some… really weird remarks during this issue. Stuff that references the American Civil War, and essentially paints a really uncomfortable picture of her and her "Uncle Beauregard" as supporters of the Confederate side. Like, I really don't know why they decided to include these little "jokes," other than that she has a southern accent. Not only is this series so far removed from the Civil War as to be laughable to make references to it, but like, did Michael forget that the Confederate side was fighting over their right to keep slaves, and Bunnie and the rest of the Freedom Fighters are explicitly fighting against a form of slavery? It's just… really, really uncomfortable and weird.

Anyway, Mecha Sonic's powers, enhanced with the help of a remote power booster on Robotnik's end, prove to be too much for Bunnie, and she finally goes down.

Luckily, turns out one of Sally's coded instructions to Tails was to call in none other than Knuckles, who glides in and starts battling Mecha Sonic midair. While he's able to hold his own for a little while, soon he succumbs to Mecha Sonic's powerful abilities as well, crashing down next to Bunnie.

With no other options, Sally announces that they'll be commencing "Operation Last Resort…" which we will see in action next issue! Dun dun dun!

[chibiarmygeneral]

It is tiring, you're done with this and I understand as part of my, very minor, involvement with discourse is due to finding it tiring to come across these issues all the time. It is honestly such a shame. People harrassing not only you, another human being, but your family is disgraceful because even as hollow threats it's still terrifying to think of. You've done your job, an excellent one at that, and while not perfect, you did the best you could in this fandom but it's completely understandable to want to sepearate yourself from this issue.

Unfortunately there will be many who don't go onto social media/ read this and completely ignore it and may try asking you about ships but most, I'd hope, will be respectful to your wishes and well-being to not bring this topic up. A topic that shouldn't really be THAT big of a deal. It definitely isn't anything worth harrassing others over for.

I hope they can look past these ships and in the long run just enjoy the show for what it is. I have mine that I enjoy, some that I'm so-so and definitely the ones I don't like at all but regardless of any or none becoming canon, it doesn't detract from the things I find enjoyable about Voltron itself.

I never watched the original 80's version or any other iterations. Legendary Defender is the only one I have watched and I love it. I love the animation, the voice work, the music, the growing lore, the unique characters and interactions with each other. The overall story, I love even if I find some things off/ have things in my mind I'd have done/executed differently but those are my opinions and it doesn't detract from the writers' own story of Voltron.

I have no idea what they hope to accomplish by harrassing others. It only causes a divide amongst not only fans but between those that create content and those who enjoy it. We're in an age where we should be able to connect on a deeper level and be able to reach one another in a mere snap (or tap) of a finger. What does sending rude messages and dragging someone's name through the mud accomplish?

Say you did managed to get Josh fired along with every other staff member whom you dodn't agree with. You know what you would get? Not this Voltron. There wouldn't be this story to tell, even if they got new people, it wouldn't matter because everything would change. They'd tell THEIR story which could be vastly different from our current crew's work. Which is okay because that would be their right and their job to tell the story they want.

Believe it or not, there is more than one way to tell this story. If you like how this story is told, then give the staff their credit because it's because of them we got this story. Without them, we wouldn't have 1. A woc space princess whose femininity isn't seen as a weakness nor does it detract any of her strengths, 2. A diverse cast of characters all of whom have dimension to them and are constantly growing 3. A main character who has clear ptsd/prosthetic and been through immense trauma yet is still fighting! Shiro's a fighter and regardless of who you do/don't ship him with, it's clear he has a great team to support him through the war and the lasting repercussions he went through. Even if you don't like Shiro as a character, there is no denying how much he means to the others. (I could go on but I'll cut it to the big notable things)

This specific group of people brought us this story and while others could take over, it would not be THIS story. All the things we know and love would likely be scrapped and thrown away for something else. It wouldn't be the show you love, would it still be good? Potentially but it could have also bombed massively.

This story being told is amazing, everyone is doing their part and you do them, the story, and the fandom no favors by being rude and harrassing people. Why not put that time and energy into making content you want instead of destroying others hard work?

Threatening others isn't going to help you get a job or a house, it's not gonna win you many favors with other people, it's not going to put food in your belly or cure you when your sick. Do you even really feel better or good about doing this? Honestly what gain is there in all of this?

I stand up here because despite my own hesitancy to get myself involved in issues because I honestly want to enjoy the show without this drama, to harrass someone for doing their job to bring YOU entertainment and having an opinion different from yours. AND not only him but his family including young kids? His KIDS, that's just, no. Just no and I don't even have kids so it's not even a parent bias. Teens and adult have the ability to block and report others and can keep themselves a safe distance away, much like he is doing now. He has to retract from all of it, both positive and negative for himself and I get that. Kids draws a line for me. They have done nothing wrong and should not, under any circumstance, be pulled into this mess.

I'm so sorry you have such a significant chunk of this "fandom" doing this to you, Josh. I hope after this, it is able to dwindle down to non-existant but likely there is gonna be new people who don't get the memo and try and start things. You've done your best to be supportive and inclusive and we appreciate that but I get distancing yourself. I promise that after this, if I ever get to see you at a con, in the streets, or talk with on social media, that this topic will not be spoken by me because I do not wish to put you in an uncomfortable place.

Re: Shipping

I’m kind of between a rock and a hard place here. Back when I said what I said, there were no canon ages. And when we were recording those episodes in the two years before this all went down, it had always been “five teenagers.”

Obviously as the story has gone on and things have evolved over production, the ages have been established and I do think that the age gap (minor with a 25 year old) at this point in their lives is problematic in canon. But my train of thought was that it would just be another detail that could be changed like anyone would do in their own headcanon. This somehow got misinterpreted as me condoning predatory ships which I’ve said I do not support.

I don’t know what the right answer is here. Will there be people who specifically focus on the gross aspects of canon age shaladin and make their story/art about that? Unfortunately, yes. But should others be bullied or threatened if they use the characters in their own way and reimagine them in a not gross or illegal way? I don’t believe they should.

I don’t know what the limits or boundaries are or what they should be. I’m not the Canon King. My involvement in shipping has been to come up with bad pun names for stuff that was on Tumblr before the show even started airing. I don’t ship anything, yet somehow I’m the patron saint for some shippers, and literally Hitler to others.

I realize that my “learn the definition” remarks were unnecessarily combative and crass. I regret making them. 100%. No excuses, it was a shit thing to say. I don’t condone problematic age gaps or predatory ships and I apologize for my insensitive remarks, and I’m sorry I even inserted myself into this discourse. I realize that there’s nothing I can say that will satisfy everyone and I really just wish everyone would get along.

I’m removing myself from ship talk completely. Threats have been made to myself, my wife, and my young children by anon Tumblr cowards on burner accounts. I realize that they’re extremes and not representative of that ship but some of y'all are exhausting and I hope you find some positivity in your lives. Those who brought this up respectfully on my insta - thanks for your passionate yet respectful messages. I feel I owed you a proper response.

I’m not leaving the fandom. The overwhelming majority of you have been wonderful and I’ll still do plenty of SpaceDad stuff. But ix-nay on the ipping-shay. I’m old and tired.

Edit: If you harassed me, threatened me, or harass/bully other people because of ships, this is not a “win” for you. My apologies are for any CSA survivors I offended with what I said. Not for you.