#your last resort

[sikayda]

"I’m still in detoxification, and after all that I’ve been through, Quitting booze was the easiest part. The hardest thing was detoxing from you."

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 17 - "I never said it would be easy."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: T

Warnings: -

A/N: I saw a post with a comment that Dan chronological wise is ten years old according to a wiki, I haven't seen it myself but I decided to run with it for this anyway.

It was supposed to be a normal morning but that got quickly interrupted by a long drawn out shout of 'Bruce' and a white and black blur suddenly flying though their ceiling right at Bruce. Two out of four present bat-kids instantly sprang up from their chairs into defense positions and with drawn weapons. The other two only arched an eyebrow before turning their attention back to their breakfast with a suppressed laugh, they had seen that black and white blur often enough during their times as Robin.

Damian glared at his older brothers as he stood with drawn throwing knives while Tim after a second of realization sighed, righten his chair from the ground and sat only slightly embarrassed at how Dick and Jason laughed.

Hovering above their breakfast table with his hands on Bruce's shoulder was now Phantom also known as Danny Nightingale, looking completely frazzled. The source of the yell as well as white and black blur from seconds ago.

"Bruce! I need your help! Please! I can't ask Jazz because she is busy and I sure as hell won't ask Trenchcoat. I don't think Supes can handle them and you're like the only one else I could think of to ask! Bruce, please!"

None of the bat kids really knew how long exactly Bruce had known Phantom. The man had only recently admitted to personally knowing the Ghost Hero when Nightwing had caught Phantom collapsing onto Batman and de-transforming and Batman handling it like that hadn't been the first time. They only knew that he had been an unofficial member of Justice League Dark and was the one that helped Jason with his Pit Madness as well as came to visit every now and then as Danny. What they had learned additionally from Alfred was that Phantom was the adopted son of Alfred's old friend and that when Bruce had been younger, he often came to visit or to hang out with them to escape his own family drama.

The bat-kids had figured out that way that Bruce and Danny were probably something akin to childhood friends that both also worked in the hero buisness.

Either way no one was in danger and so they watched on with curiosity as to what Phantom wanted. So far the Ghost Hero was still rambling on and on about something he couldn't entrust to anyone other than Bruce, while their father was leisurely taking a sip from his coffee completely pokerfaced like he was used to the other man rambling at him like that.

"Danny." Bruce finally cut in as the other was about to restart his entire plea for help. "World ending or personal."

The white haired man blinked as he finally floated to the side and let his reformed feet touch the ground. "Both? Sort of?"

Bruce grunted, the universal sigh for the other man to elaborate and the children payed attention interested on what was going on.

"I have a diplomatic meeting with the Tempest Dimension. One of their Demon Lords discovered that interdimensional travel is actually possible by having created a portal when he tried to teleport somewhere in their Dimension. I can't take Dani and Dan with me for this, the last time I allowed them to accompany me they nearly caused a dimensional war. Clockwork doesn't want to watch them, Jazz is to busy trying her newest psychological tortur- I mean therapy on Joker and I can't make the fruitloop watch them since both Dan and Dani swore they would wreck havoc if I leave them with him during football season."

Bruce arched an eyebrow and Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yea I know, but last time Trenchcoat watched them he nearly sold his soul again to never ever babysit them again. And Clark is too nice to watch them, they will use it against him."

Bruce hummed. "How old are they now?"

"Five and ten body wise since the assimilation process with their bodies finished a couple years ago. They should start normal aging soon."

The bat-kids exchanged confused, disturbed and partially horrified looks at what the two men were talking about. There were so many questions they had. They were wondering if they could make Bruce talk about his childhood and get some information about Phantom that way. Tim had attempted researching him once and barely found anything besides some disturbing information about a haunted tourist town called Amity Park that was Phantom's territory.

"Bruce! Please! They have a dragon with a human body in that dimension! I just know that Dan or Dani will attempt to fight him!" Suddenly an idea popped in Dicks head and exchanged a glance with his siblings, checking if they had similar thoughts.

"We could watch them!" Dick then piped up, this was their chance to find out more about Phantom and his relationship with their dad.

Wide green eyes blinked at Dick and for a moment he felt like he had made a grave mistake, especially as he noticed Jason was sneaking away now like he decided he did not want to be part of any of this. Which is fair but come on, this was their chance.

"Are you sure?" Phantom questioned him carefully, side eyeing Bruce who was still calmly sipping his coffee and gave phantom a slight nod.

"You said five and ten, right? How bad can it be watching kids their age! They can even hang out with me and Dami!"

"Do not involve me-" Damian's complaint was shushed by Tim stuffing a pancake in the others mouth, earning him a death glare from their youngest but it was good to know that at least one of them was on his side with this plan.

This time Danny exchanged a full on look with their father, it appeared like they were silently talking. Something Dick doesn't really remember Bruce doing with anyone in the way he saw it right now.

"Well if you say so…" Phantom slowly agreed before reaching with his hand into a green portal pulling out a heavy looking bag. "This is the medicine box. If either of them look the slightest bit melty use the syringes in here. That's ecto-dejecto and basically ghost medicine for them. Though for emergencies there is a portal amulet that leads right to Frostbite."

The bat-kids looked stunned at what Danny was holding up before putting it back into the medical box and pulling out a silver green thermos front he bag. "If Dan misbehaves in any way or form use this to put him in time out. Just point the open Thermos in his direction and press the button down here. Pressing the button again will release him, but if he misbehaves to the point of having to use the thermos you can leave him in there until I pick them up again."

They knew that Phantom wasn't completely human but was that normal parenting? Hadn't they seen him use that thermos on enemies of the JLD before? And he was using it to discipline his kids?

"They know better than to overshadow anyone to get their will but in case one of them does, these bracelets should keep you safe from it. Otherwise call Bruce, he is one of the four and a half adults they listen to too."

"Is all of that really necessary? I am just babysitting them right?" Dick asked, still a bit stunned as Phantom handed him the bag.

"Yes. I never said it would be easy." The man only answered before opening another portal and sticking his head through for a brief moment.

A little girl of five hopped out of it a second later looking like a perfect copy of Danny Nightingale's human form, though what was more shocking was the hulk of a man with flaming hair coming through the portal growling and snarling at them as the grown man stood behind the girl with crossed arms. From the corner of his eyes Dick saw Phantom pinching the bridge of his nose. Before he floated over to the tall man and quite frankly pinched and pulled on that man's ear.

"Dan. Human-form now."

The man continued to growl and snarl for a moment with blazing red eyes before two white circles formed around his middle. A transformation they had seen a couple of times before from Phantom after Bruce had admitted to knowing him personally and introduced him as Danny.

Instead of the hulking beast of a man there was now a ten years old boy that looked surprisingly similar to Damian just lighter skinned and blue eyed. The boy still growled at them with his arms crossed while the little girl giggled. Damian was looking at the two with narrowed eyes before he turned his stare on Bruce.

"This is Dani and Dan." Danny introduced the two kids and Dick heard Tim mutter something about unoriginality when it came to naming. But before anyone else could comment on anything or even greet the kids an eyeball appeared out of thin air. The ghost hero and his kids looked at it for a moment before the man sighed dismissing it with a wave of his hand.

"I have to go now! Dani, Dan behave and play nice. If anything goes wrong Bruce has my emergency summoning pendant!" A second later Phantom disappeared through the portal the kids had come in, the little girl, Dani, gleefully shouting a quick "Bye mom!" Before the portal closed.

There was a moment of silence before Damian decided to break it. "Father, I believe there is something you have failed to inform us about."

"And that would be?"

"The existence of blood related siblings you have sired with Phantom."

[gamergirl929]

Man, Ashlyn Harris sees Ali Krieger moving on with her life, and has to SOMEHOW make it about her.

[natjennie]

i think mostly we as a culture need to stop pretending media is for us and instead recognize that it's for the people making it. "the show didn't do the thing I wanted it to" is so not the point. did it do what the people making it wanted it to do? did it tell the story they were trying to tell? than it was successful. if that doesn't align with what you wanted to happen, don't get up in arms about it. don't badmouth the creators and throw a tantrum. that's what fan works are for. the text is the text, and it told the story it was telling. you wouldn't be like "ugh shakespeare is insane for act v btw like there was no reason for juliet to kill herself she should've just waited and then her and romeo could have been together wtf this ruined the whole play" like no!!! the themes were there the set-up was there the foreshadowing was there shakespeare did what he intended to. just because it wasn't a happy ending and just because you thought it should've went differently doesn't mean it was bad. read a fic where juliet lives and move on.

[ceruleanterrapin]

Tmnt 2012 au: everything is the same except Leo gets REALLY injured during the Shredder fight and needs to have his knee amputated

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Kept thinking about the decline in popularity of Christmas caroling from the 1800s to now and came to the following conclusions:

Would not go caroling in any time period:

Hickey

Gibson

Golding

Wall

Des Voeux

Fairholme

Crispe

Collins (would like to, but is too shy)

Would go caroling in the 1800s but not in a modern AU:

Goodsir

Hartnell Bros

Diggle

Morfin

Weekes

Hoar

Tozer

Dundy

Crozier (coerced into it by Fitzjames)

Jopson (moral support for Crozier)

Would go caroling no matter the time period:

The Franklins

Gore

Magnus

Lane

Fitzjames

MacDonald

Irving

Hodgson

Little (coerced into it by the former two)

(List not meant to be exhaustive. I left out anyone I was undecided on. Additions and edits welcome!)

[diadoescomics]

An announcement

I will no longer be offering any of my old works for purchase on itchio as a recent case with a client who had some issues accessing a file has resulted in an unncessesary paypal dispute that has resulted in money being erroneously taken from my account.

As a small independent artist I cannot stress how upsetting this whole situation is. Going forward the only places you will be able to purchase old comics such as my verdant wind collection or any xiv collections if I end up making those will be via kofi or patreon subscriptions.

To clarify the fe3h comic collection is not currently available on kofi but if that's something people are interested in I will consider uploading it there.

[michyeosseo]

I want to become stronger sooner to help Master wipe out the miasma from the Immortal Realm to free the people from oppression.

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

I’m always a little bit baffled by the pearl-clutching about Mace attempting to assassinate (nvrmind that he went there for an arrest and Palpatine attacked first) the head of state because *gasp* how terrible

but like, considering what Palpatine did afterward, (and it’s not like it was actually in response, it was the plan either way) (and also nevermind that he was already a dictator at this point, not the democratically elected head of state) and “I sense a plot to destroy the jedi,” a line said by Mace beforehand, it’s really. . Imagine you’re at the head of a small religious order, charged with the protection of not only the democratic state that guy just usurped but also, crucially, the protection of every single child in your monastery and every single knight or student in your order, and the head of state wants to destroy your people, and even belongs to a secret cult committed to the cause of killing your people, and has access to the full might of the state to do so, unopposed by anyone except you- well, what would you do, i guess? What is a reasonable course of action, there?

[two-dolla-bills]

This feels like when the angry cat that doesn't let anyone touch it finally lets you get some good scritches in oh my god

[seeker-ophelia]

The King's Gambit

You guys I just had a thought and I am disturbed.

NO DATV SPOILERS.

(*hands you tin foil hat)

Please just.... just put it on please.

In DA:I ;

If you side with the Chargers, and you carry Bull and Solas in your party, they will begin to ‘mental chess’ with each other (Solas says he is trying to help bull get over the loss of the Qun, helps him realize hes not tal-vashoth).

See this “fan-made” (seems pretty professional to me…) video

I also recommend you read this blog post:

(But only after you’re done with mine.)

In chess you have many pieces that all serve their own function. There's the King and Queen, the pawns, bishops, knights, etc.

In the video (and in DA:I), we learn that Solas calls chess pieces by a different name then what The Iron Bull does; a tribute to the pairs wildly different upbringing.

IT IS THE SAME GAME, THE SAME PIECES, BUT THEY CALL THEM SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

But because they know how the game is played, and the way each piece works, this minor infraction does not stop them from their mental battle.

Solas opened (started) their chess game with the name of a Netflix limited series that most will find familiar; The Kings Gambit.

From a Chess Website:

King's Gambit is an aggressive Chess opening that falls under the category of open games. It is characterized by White sacrificing a pawn on the second move to facilitate rapid development and initiate an attack against the opponent's king, specifically targeting the f7 square. 

Ok I still don’t really understand what this means. Lets use Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia:

The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 King's Gambit is an aggressive Chess opening, that falls under the category of open games. It is characterized by White sacrificing a pawn on the second move to facilitate rapid development and initiate an attack against the opponent's king, specifically targeting the f7 square.  White offers a pawn to divert the black e-pawn. If Black accepts the GAMBIT, White may play d4 and Bxf4, regaining the gambit pawn with central domination, or direct their forces against the weak square f7 with moves such as Nf3, Bc4, 0-0, and g3. A downside to the King's Gambit is that it weakens White's king's position, exposing it to the latent threat of ...Qh4+ (or ...Be7–h4+),  which may force White to give up castling rights.

Sorry, lets read that again, from the lens of a not-chess player (which I am, so a millions apologies to the people smarter than me reading this who were like, girl ur dumb for just figuring this out).

White begins a game of chess. White offers up a pawn as a sacrifice to black. If black accepts this sacrifice, white’s central control of the board is vulnerable, BUT, they can aggressively attack black’s king.

SO what are the downsides of this move, then? Sounds like a winner for anyone who knows how to play chess (I do not).

Remember when I said:

In the video (and in DA:I), we learn that Solas calls pieces by a different name then what The Iron Bull does; a tribute to the pairs wildly different upbringing.

Bull and Solas call bishops weird things. They call knights weird things, but one of the pieces they agree on, is the tower (or as I call it, the Castle).  

Which is weird. I mean, when I was a kid learning chess I called it the castle. It looks like a castle, (or a tower) why not call it a castle?

My cousin, who “taught” me chess, also made me call the pieces their correct names, even though I thought bishop was stupid, and knight even stupid-er. And he made me call my castle by its proper name;

ROOK.

What the fuck is a Kings Gambit again?

You sacrifice a pawn, to gain control of the board. You’re vulnerable, but you have high attack strength.

So WHAT is the downside of Kings Gambit?

From Wikipedia Again:

A downside to the King's Gambit is that it weakens White's king's position, exposing it to the latent threat of ...(mastermind chess moves),  which may force White to give up castling* rights.

Castle?

You mean Rook?

*Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same rank and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over.  Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved; the squares between the king and the rook are vacant; and the king does not leave, cross over, or finish on a square attacked by an enemy piece. Castling is the only move in chess in which two pieces are moved at once.

Lets Re-cap:

Kings Gambit is an aggressive chess opening where white (the starting player) sacrifices a pawn (Solas after Inky: check).

Black accepts Whites sacrifice and takes pawn.

White can aggressively attack black, but they are vulnerable.

*Happy Solas Noises*

Rook is their ultimate safety blanket, their last minute escape route.

Rook is White's last resort.

Solas set up a Thedas version of the kings gambit.

But are we playing WITH him? Or AGAINST him?

Oh, and by the way…

THE  KINGS  GAMBIT  IS  ALSO  CALLED  THE  IMMORTAL  GAME

Can someone drink the cool-aid with me pleeeease.

[toasts-httyd-hyperfixation]

Consider...... Alvin vs Kevin McCalister

[zebrafiz]

first episode of the season and jayce has already irreparably fucked viktors life up. Get that man away from him…

[gin-juice-tonic]

i took a shower and now that my hair has been de-greased i have hatched several plans for how to feel less terrible at my job

go team shower, we love shower

[noritheidiot]

This man.

THIS MOTHERFUCKING MAN.

Can we scrap him from the books already, he's annoying

[apollos-boyfriend]

I hate matpat because he admitted to not playing the games he makes theories on. like?? that’s his job and he can’t even do it right??? he lacks reading comprehension skills, like I swear he does

oh you don't have to swear, he does. fully. i'm not into hollow knight personally, but last time a post of mine critiquing his theories blew up, i got a lot of notes saying that his hollow theory (or at least one of them? idk if he's done more) is wildly despised within the community because it's apparently debunked in like. literally the first cutscene or something.

i've said this before, but it's kind of a weird line between "he does not have media comprehension skills" and "he DOES realize these things, he just doesn't give a shit and will say anything to make his theory make sense". for example, something i do know well: fnaf. in his like, "final timeline" or whatever the fuck, he creates an entire narrative about elizabeth and the funtimes being LATE in the timeline, taking place after the crying child's death. however, in that very video, he points out the OVERWHELMING amount of evidence that the crying child witnessed elizabeth's death, from the nightmares having stomachs on their mouths (elizabeth was scooped through baby's stomach) to the fact that the game constantly tells the crying child to "remember what he saw" or something loosely along those lines. he is AWARE of the fact that these things exist within the text, however, he has this fucking superiority complex that it doesn't matter, because HIS theory is CLEARLY right, these very important lore texts must've just been bullshit.