#your last resort

[iamtheleastyoucoulddo]

"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."

[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.

[alkalinefrog]

Oh, it’ll likely kill me / That I must live without you (x)

@twiafom this is ur fault

[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?

[semisolidmind]

*politely eat you are like it's fine dining and a last resort for food*

im imagining you sitting down at a nice restaurant, tucking a napkin into your shirt, picking up your knife and fork,

then throwing them away and shoving food into your mouth with your hands 🤣

[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

[theladyyavilee]

do you ever think about how buck was able to pull and lift eddie to safety, while eddie wasn’t able to either pull or lift buck? like I know the physics were different and eddie would be able to pull and lift buck under the same circumstances that buck did it, it was just impossible to lift him up onto the ladder in contrast to doing the standing lift buck did to get him into the firetruck but still WHAT A FUCKED UP PARALLEL to incorporate both pulling and lifting again *screams into hands* (also to have both of those instances in the shooting be the only times eddie is making noises of pain, which while horrifying to hear were also indicators that eddie is still very much alive to feel it, while buck was just quiet and dead, but that’s another kind of fucked up)

[brown-little-robin]

okay so @quirkle2 sent me an ask about the aftermath of the Teru vs. Mob fight, and I went and wrote out the whole fight in the ask. I'm moving it to this post so that I can answer the Actual Question in the Actual Ask like a normal person. anyway here you go

Teru's Series of Really Bad Decisions

or, How Mob Came Out Of the Teru vs. Mob Fight Completely Unscathed

So here's the thing. Mob's zombie disease colony is pretty invested in keeping its host alive, so even while the fight is happening, he's healing really fast. And despite his top-dog persona, Teru doesn't actually enjoy injuring people. (The sensation of touching another person bothers him—that's why most of his attacks are things like slaps or punches, where he's only in contact with people for a moment before the force of the blow shoves them away. He'll kill or torture people, but he subtly avoids extended contact with them while doing so. It makes him nervous to resort to hands-on violence, because that's how a zombie fights and for his own survival, Teru HAS to act like he's above zombie behavior.)

So it takes Teru a while to work himself up to the point of actually committing to injuring Mob. At first, Teru is just punching him in the chest and stomach, shoving him (he pushes him into the school swimming pool at one point and then has to pull him back out because Mob never learned to swim and is drowning. major L for Teru's pride), taunting him, using blunt force and watching in disbelief while the other boy just takes it and breathes through the pain. He expected Mob to hit back right away, and then Teru would use a bit more strength and intimidate his opponent so much that he'd admit Teru's strength is way beyond him and then they'd be on amicable terms. But that doesn't happen.

Also, Dimple isn't back yet in this AU, so the fight takes place mostly in silence, which weirds Teru out. He's used to fighting with people yelling and screaming around him, and hearing nothing but pained noises and a few confused questions out of his opponent really bothers Teru. He grabs Mob and shakes him, asking why won't you fight back??. He's definitely like Teru! he's got the misty eyes and he's breathing out miasma and he has the healing ability to jerk his arms free of the ropes he was tied with and have the raw rope-scrapes on his arms heal over a minute later, but he won't! fight! back!!

Meanwhile, as Teru is shaking him by the shirt-collars, Mob is having flashbacks to his life wandering as a zombie before the cure. He's remembering Dimple clearer than he ever has before, and he's embracing those memories for once, clinging to his guilt over (he suspects) killing his friend. And, remembering how nice Dimple was to him and Ritsu, how Dimple shared strawberries with them, how he would coax Mob out of the rain, how Dimple reached for Mob's face while Mob's teeth were closing in his arm—he stares at Teru with all the loathing he feels toward himself, for killing Dimple.

Teru says, "What's with that look?"

Mob says, "I was just wondering, why do you feel the need to hurt people who are just trying to live? Do you think you have to, because you're a zombie?"

And Teru, who tries not to think of himself as a zombie, goes, "What?"

"Oh, I was just thinking—there was someone I knew who was a pretty good guy—compared to you. And I hurt him."

That makes Teru drop Mob like a hot potato. He doesn't want to fight like a zombie but he has to get this hypocrite who hurt his own friend and refuses to fight him to DO something—and they happen to be in the home ec room, right by the gas-powered generator for the home ec equipment, so Teru causes a gas explosion on purpose and blocks the door with his body, trying to force Mob to fight his way out to avoid burning alive. That's how Teru ends up losing his perfect hair—he may be special but he's still got zombie disease, his pain receptors don't work right and Mob is coughing too hard in the smoke to warn Teru that the fire ran along the ceiling and got to Teru's hair. The fire is how Mob's clothes get singed. He's not seriously burned, at least not by the time Teru sees him next (Teru rushed to the swimming pool when he realized his hair was on fire), but he's shaken and coughing and smells like smoke.

They both stumble out of the burning school building. Mob has his Moment Of Realization and correctly guesses that Teru's life is completely empty; Teru's acting like this because he's trying to ignore that he's a zombie and has no real friends because everyone is scared of him, and Teru isn't making any effort to live like a person instead of a monster.

That's when Teru just straight-up strangles Mob, throwing away his determination not to fight like a zombie. Mob has already ruined Teru's untouchable appearance and likely condemned Teru to being shot by his own people for causing all this property damage. Teru's life as a human is over already, he thinks. Mob refuses to fight back, passes out, ???% appears, you know how it goes.

And get this: Mob's zombie disease colony has expended a lot of its energy already (consuming its own drones for sheer power) to heal Mob from the blows and the burns, so when ???% puts his body into high gear, the colony registers EMERGENCY CONDITIONS and starts replenishing its energy using anything available—the colony deploys its own disease drones into the entire surrounding area and consumes all of the miasma in the air and water and, STILL not having enough energy for this, dives into Teru's body and eats 90% of Teru's colony. This is the equivalent of ???% absorbing all of the energy in the atmosphere AND Teru's psychic powers, which always makes me hold my breath in canon.

Teru can see this happening, by the way. Like Mob, he can sense the presence of zombie disease in all forms. He senses Kageyama's disease colony suddenly exploding from his body and eating all of the colonies in the area. what a sight to behold.

Anyway, so, yeah, Mob then wakes up with his body fully healed, in front of a burning school building, sensing absolute emptiness all around him.

He can't fix the school building. Not in this au. All he can do is kneel down and cry. He failed to change. He thought he was better now, he thought that he was in control of himself now, but he did it again—he hurt someone on accident again.

And then Teru stumbles over to him with his hip still spasming from where ???% threw him by his leg and goes, "Kageyama, you were right... without our power, we have nothing..."

and Mob looks up to see people stirring around them, and Teru is alive, he didn't kill Teru, he didn't kill anyone, and he goes back to Salt with the Body Improvement Club in a kind of shell-shocked daze.