kpiuniverse

[kpiuniverse]

Sunk cost fallacy theory saved my current WIP

Just finished editing over 30 pages - the results of my last two inspiration bursts - kicking and screaming through the entire process...

Have seriously considered throwing in the towel on the whole fic just because I'm still three action scenes and one emotional conversation away from the end...

Realized that while sunk cost fallacy is probably the only reason I haven't given up on Mute Point yet...

... but still am one good prompt away from switching to something else.

(but my beautiful 114 pages T_____T)

[kpiuniverse]

it’s so funny to me that in a lot of fics after Tim’s parents die and he’s adopted and moved into Wayne manor, he still just… owns the mansion next door. like Drake manor is just right there, fully furnished and empty, fully inherited by Tim. and he just kinda leaves it there. probably forgets he owns it. how much do you wanna bet the others absolutely do NOT forget that next door is also owned by the family?

how much do you wanna bet that at least twice a month Bruce freaks the fuck out because Damian’s been missing for two days and eventually they track him down to find that he’d just walked over to Drake manor to avoid being told to help Alfred dust and then… couldn’t be bothered to walk back. figured that technically Drake manor could also be ‘home’ and made himself comfortable. is napping in Tim’s childhood bedroom when they find him and is completely unapologetic about eating the food in his kitchen.

how much do you wanna bet that Tim gets a call from the weekly cleaner that he totally forgot was being paid from his bank account to maintain Drake manor, only to be told by a slightly terrified cleaner that she tried to go in to mop the kitchen and found a fucking crime lord in nothing but sweatpants and his helmet, ranting to an ‘oracle’ about some kind of ‘drug drop off’ that he ‘needed off Batman’s radar’, because Jason was too tired to motorcycle all the way back to Crime Alley after a debrief but didn’t want to have to be around Bruce so he just kinda broke into Tim’s old house and has been casually chilling there for the past week while he worked on a case.

how much do you wanna bet that one time Bruce grounded Tim for two weeks and Tim was so annoyed about it that to be petty he snuck out and went back to Drake manor. Bruce was so fucking mad because Tim directly ignored his orders and he couldn’t even do anything about it because every time he brought it up he got loud claims of ‘yOU TOLD ME TO GO TO MY ROOM SO I WENT TO MY FUCKING ROOM, B, I DON’T WANNA HEAR SHIT FROM YOU-!’

how much do you wanna bet when eventually Tim can’t be bothered to deal with the insurance forms and he sells Drake manor, he mentions having to hand over his keys and instantly every single batkid starts digging around in their pockets and producing two or three keys to Drake manor because over the years they’ve all just kinda. been using it. whenever. Tim had no fucking clue they’d made keys. he’s so confused. it gets so much funnier when the next day Tim shows up to the estate agents to drop off his plastic tub of keys for the new owner and he fucking finds Jason Todd there ready to receive them.

“I make a lot of money in my line of work,” he says. “figured it was time for a summer house.”

“you hate being close to Bruce.”

“not as much as Bruce hates shoddy neighbours. i’m going to make his life hell.”

“you made me carry this box of keys for nothing.”

“yeah you can hand those back out actually, i really don’t care who goes in there.”

“I hate you.”

“Don’t be rude to your new neighbour.”

[kpiuniverse]

Oh. My. God. @thejakeformerlyknownasprince did it again...

It's just plain wonderful!!!

In universe, how long d'you think does it take for someone to write Jake Berenson: The Musical? And what's everyone's reactions once it premiers?

I feel like everyone would go into the musical with no small amount of trepidation, because a) musical, and b) actual war. That said...

Act I, Scene 1: Our protagonist, Jake, comes onstage alone. He sings a song about the aching loneliness of leadership. Not only does he have to decide how to lead his friends, not only does he have no one to confide in, but now his entire family are controllers. He's worried for his parents, but feels he cannot confide that worry in anyone.

Out in the audience, Cassie reaches for Jake's hand, tears sparkling in her eyes. As soon as her hand rests on top of his, he jerks awake with a mumbled apology about how slow ballads aren't his thing. He asks Cassie what he missed. This pattern will continue for the entire rest of the show.

Act I, Scene 2: We meet our narrator, who for some reason is one of the Trekkin' Trekkies from the battle for the hork-bajir valley. His name is Angelo and he's a fictional character, but he introduces four other Trekkies, meant to be the Carpenter family, as the Geek Chorus. The play apparently considers this deeply clever.

In the audience, Tobias glances over at Ax, who holds up an ASL 84: their time left in morph. Next to them, in a not-quiet-enough whisper, Cassie is reminding Jake who the Carpenters were. Yes, she's aware they met the Carpenters before his parents were infested. No, she doesn't think the writers care. This seems to be an artistic interpretation of — Would he just watch the show?

Act I, Scene 3: The actor playing Jake calls his five friends onstage. They're all currently humans, so the Geek Chorus introduces them so that everyone will know who is who. Together, they sing a song about the hopelessness of the war, the power of friendship, and how all they have is each other.

Marco leans over to nudge Tobias. "Love the hair," he whispers, referring to show-Tobias's elaborate dark-brown coif. Tobias gives him a real smile in return, not because he likes fictional-him's hair but because he's secretly pleased that the show so clearly put effort into casting himself and Ax to look alike. Doesn't matter that they don't actually share any DNA; family is family.

Act I, Scene 4: The morphing. Oh lord, the morphing. The idea to make it a dance number—cum—costume change is kinda cool. The use of very saggy-looking cloth puppets is... less so. The fact that the Angelo and his Geek Chorus introduces The God of Tigers, The God of Gorillas, and so on is... inexplicable. Especially because The God of Andalites is just a human guy who has been painted blue. Presumably this is all to distract from the puppet show, which ranges dramatically in quality. By far the best effect is Tobias: they have the human actor fly a bird-puppet across the stage on long posts overhead, all the while staring wistfully up at it as if simultaneously inhabiting the bird and being a human watching the bird longingly from the ground. By far the worst is Rachel: she's just an elephant head that clearly has no body attached to it, poking out from behind various pieces of scenery.

In the audience, Marco is laughing so hard that he's threatening to fall out of his seat, doubled over with his fingers stuffed in his mouth. Cassie nudges Jake awake again, but in a you've got to see this kind of way. "Damn," Tobias mutters, "guess the Ellimist really really hated that production of The Lion King, huh?" Ax misses all of this, too busy staring at The God of Andalites with his mouth half-open in confusion, several mini-marshmallows falling onto his lap in the process.

Act I, Scene 5: Visser Three steals the show. In order to convey the battle for the hork-bajir valley, the cast starts to go into the big company number — the Trekkies singing about how they're going to defend their planet, the Animorphs singing about their morphs, the single hork-bajir actor singing about forging a new home, the controller chorus singing about wanting more bodies — only to have the whole thing blown out of the water by the actors playing Visser Three singing overtop everyone else and drowning them out. That's right, actors: he's in his eight-headed fire-shooting morph, and each of the heads is played by a different actor as they belt out his song in unison overtop everyone else.

"Am I... cheering for Visser Three right now?" Marco whispers to Cassie, who shrugs. Jake jerks awake at the mention of Visser Three, mumbles something about how Hamilton was better, and goes back to sleep. But Marco's not the only one.

Act I, Scene 6: There's supposed to be a battle or something, and if we're supposed to be very sad when Richard Carpenter is heroically killed protecting his kids... but Visser Three is so damn awesome that the whole audience cheers every time he bites someone's head off or throws another Animorph off-stage. Eventually the battle ends just like it did in reality, with the hork-bajir flooding the valley to sweep Visser Three away, at which point everyone boos and even briefly breaks into a chant demanding Visser Three get an encore.

Tobias momentarily questions his entire existence as he enthusiastically joins in with Marco and most of the rest of the audience in chanting "Vis-ser Three! Vis-ser Three!". They're still going strong a good two minutes after the curtain fell, and there's no sign of anyone being able to go into the next scene. Jake mutters something about his having been Visser One at this point in the war, lost under the sound of Cassie joining in with the chant.

Act I, Scene 7: The curtain opens to a set piece that's clearly meant to be a giant tree, and all the Animorphs are sitting in said tree. The stage is covered in smoke from dry ice, meant to convey foam from the flood. Behind them, in a smaller tree, the surviving Trekkies huddle and drip on the floor. Tobias's human actor now cradles the hawk-puppet in his arms, preening its feathers, while everyone else perches on "branches" in poses that range from natural-looking (Marco in a gorilla costume) to extremely awkward (Ax is meant to be out of morph and... standing on a branch?). Worst of all is Rachel; the elephant head is now sitting directly on the stage, which is meant to convey that the rest of her body is underwater but instead just gives head-in-a-jar vibes. The six of them sing an uplifting rock number about the future of humanity, and the curtain falls on Act I.

After ducking into the bathroom to demorph and remorph, Tobias and Ax head for the concession stand. Marco tries and fails to get a themed cocktail for himself, but does succeed in buying a tiger brownie for Jake. Meanwhile, Cassie is attempting to summarize the entire show to Jake as he wipes drool off the side of his face.

Act II, Scene 1: One of the better songs in the show, honestly. It begins when the surviving Geek Chorus come on stage in front of the curtain, lay out sleeping bags, and apparently — though it can't be real because the auditorium doesn't fill with smoke — light a fire on stage. They huddle around it and sing a sad little melody about Richard Carpenter. Jake walks past them, and as he goes, first one side of the curtain then the other opens to reveal five more campfires dotted around the stage. Tobias sits at one with a blond woman who must be Loren, human for now and petting a stuffed dog. Cassie is at the next fire back with both her parents, and Marco is at far stage left with his. Rachel is sitting with Sara in her lap as Jordan and Naomi talk to her across the fire. An actor who must be playing Jara leads on a smaller costar also dressed as a hork-bajir, presumably Toby, and they set up a final fire upstage. One by one, each group around the fire joins in the song of mourning. Finally Jake stands alone downstage right, surrounded by warm glowing lights but himself alone in a circle of cold white light, as the last notes fade out.

Tobias mutters something about fire codes. Cassie wipes a tear from her eye, and then kicks Jake in the shins for whispering about how if Eva is right there on the stage, then how could that other guy be Visser Three?

Act II, Scene 2: Jake stands alone in the spotlight as the fires die behind him, and Ax comes in from stage left to join him. Together they go into a number called "The Only Child," about losing a sibling and being one's parents' only hope. During the coda, Elfangor's ghost comes onstage and sings about fatherhood and legacy... to Jake. To add insult to injury, the actor has to walk around Tobias and stand with his back to Tobias and Loren's fire in order to get to his blocking. At least Elfangor takes the time to put a hand on Ax's arm and give him a meaningful look before he exits stage right, but he has to walk around Tobias a second time to do so.

Cassie and Marco exchange a glance and a wince, before both of them glance toward Tobias. Luckily he's rolling his eyes, not appearing offended. It's Ax who gets halfway to standing up before Jake puts a hand on his arm and shakes his head. In undertones, they start plotting an angry letter to the director.

Act II, Scene 3: Luckily, this is when Visser Three comes back, to uproarious approval. Now the eight actors are each playing four arms of a Lerdethak vine-beast, and in unison sing a campy rock number called "Kids These Days," about Visser Three's hatred for teenagers. In the background, the controller chorus is working to build a new yeerk pool as the Trekkies narrate about the Yeerk Empire expanding its reach on Earth.

All the Animorphs join in on the audience's cheers, and this time they do get an encore: the Visser Three actors sing a whole bunch more riffs on the final note of the song, and even do the coda again from the top, to universal approval.

Act II, Scene 4: The various gods of the animal spirits do a number about how the Animorphs aren't just fighting for humanity; they're fighting for Earth.

This one goes up like a lead balloon. Jake picks brownie crumbs out of his shirt, regretting that the chocolate is now keeping him from sleeping. Marco reads his program and groans loudly to learn that Visser Three doesn't have any solo numbers left. A kid is kicking the back of Tobias's seat, and he debates kicking back.

Act II, Scene 5: The Animorphs morph again, which is just as awful as the first time, and they all attack Visser Three (to general audience disapproval). In this version of events, Ax simply announces to Visser Three that they partnered with some rebel yeerks and taxxons at some point, and then throws a switch that turns off every ship in the Yeerk Empire at once. Since the Animorphs are all in the Pool ship at the time, this seems ill-advised; projections on the back wall convey everyone onboard falling to Earth.

"Why do they even have that lever?" Marco asks plaintively. No one answers him.

Act II, Scene 6: Everyone, including Elfangor's ghost and Richard Carpenter for some reason, comes back on stage for a big dance number. The Animorphs remain in morph for this scene, with Tobias's actor once again killing it as he swoops his puppet kite-like over the audience and Rachel's actor once again DOA as she half-heartedly waves one ear.

Everyone claps politely through the chorus's bow, then Elfangor's bow, then the parents' bow, then the hork-bajir's bow... and then Visser Three comes out to bow. The crowd is instantly on its feet, screaming and stomping and applauding with their hands in the air. Then people start trickling out and having side conversations during the Animorphs' bows. Tobias gets in line to have the Tobias actor autograph his playbill. "I told you we should've gone to see Assassins," Marco complains, and Cassie laughingly agrees. Jake buys another tiger brownie for the road, and gets one for Ax as well.

[kpiuniverse]

Wouah... Make SO much sense...

I wonder... did Tobias actually choose the form the Ellimist's reward would take here?

IT IS DONE. <What's done? Nothing is done, you lunatic! I'm still a bird!> OF COURSE. <Help me!> The racoon was literally looking down at me like you might look at a steak. He was deciding where to bite first. THE ANDALITE GAVE YOU POWER. USE IT.

The power is obviously the power to morph, but at this point I think it could have taken two paths:

A) Tobias interprets this as having been given his power to demorph from hawk to human and becomes human. It's enough to scare the racoon away.

or

B) Tobias interprets this as he does in canon, deciding that the power has been restored to his hawk body, allowing him to acquire and morph the racoon to avoid becoming lunch.

The Ellimist's wording is vague enough that I think Tobias himself decided to make hawk his new base form by choosing to acquire the racoon as a hawk rather than trying to demorph because he didn't even think it was possible.

Once the form of the reward is chosen by Tobias that's the form it sticks to.

[kpiuniverse]

Rachel and Tobias (medieval AU 🤔) for a friend I owe my life to 🙏💕 this turned out so cute 🥰

[kpiuniverse]

Rebloging for posterity

memeception

[kpiuniverse]

Beautiful reincarnation AU, check it out

Wayne Manor is quiet when he gets home.

Alfred says something in passing, a reminder about the meeting with Lucius, a comment about patrol routes, but Bruce barely registers it. He climbs the stairs without answering, shedding the suit jacket as he goes, loosens the cuffs and washes his hands.

He looks in the mirror, his own face stares back. Calm and controlled.

But the storm is underneath.

That man. Clark Kent. He shouldn't matter, but Bruce can't stop hearing his voice, the quiet, cracked way he said "Its' surreal"

The way his eyes followed Bruce like they'd done it a thousand times before.

Bruce goes to bed without turning the lights on, he tells himself it's exhaustion, nothing more.

But when he closes his eyes, he falls too quickly.

-----

He dreams of fire.

Not Gotham, not anything familiar. The sky is wrong, vast and bruised with crimson clouds, the earth is cracked, smoking. Ash drifting like snow.

And there's a man lying in his arms.

Heavy. Dying.

Not Clark, but...Clark. Different. Golden armor cracked, a cape torn, eyes desperate with something deeper than pain.

"Please..." the man whispers "Please don’t leave me"

Bruce is kneeling in the dirt, his hands are covered in blood that isn't his. He wants to speak but no sound comes, his throat aches, his chest burns like he's been ripped open.

"You promised" the dying man says "You said: every life. You'd find me"

And Bruce finally speaks.

"Who are you?" he breathes "I don't—I don't know your name.”

The man smiles, not sad, Just tired.

"You will"

-----

Bruce wakes with a sharp inhale.

The ceiling is dark, his sheets are tangled, his body is damp with sweat and cold with something worse, something he doesn't have a name for.

He sits up slowly, his heart pounding and hands trembling.

And without thinking, he whispers it aloud:

"Clark"

He doesn't know why he says the name, he doesn't know why it hurts.

But something inside him is screaming, a part of him that's older than he understands.

And downstairs, somewhere in the silence of the manor, the grandfather clock ticks like a countdown.

(This took me more time than what I expected 😭)

[kpiuniverse]

As villain origin story goes, I've read worse. Do you find in a couple of decades, it will be a thing? Like, AI made me do it?

My villain origin story is people watching a video that's so so so obviously fake, like SO BADLY made by AI that even I the least observant person ever clocked it in two seconds, and they gulp it down like it's their favourite food and they haven't eaten in three days

[kpiuniverse]

you think the story forgets you when you’re gone. it doesn’t. it waits. patiently. then bites your ankle the second you log back in.

[kpiuniverse]

Write one sentence. Let it lead to another. It comes in waves. 

[kpiuniverse]

Hi guys! Thanks for your patience while I've been writing that monster story of mine!

Here's a sneak peek of my next JayRoy fic, a No Capes AU with a twist (spoilers).

Hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned for more!

Roy always hated Gotham.

The despicable East Coast weather, for starters, is so different from the bright sun under which Roy grew up - rain and fog battling for dibs every other day. The gloom of the city adds to it, as a constant witness of the deeply seated pollution and corruption that run through the town. Ever since Roy was a child following his foster father at Gotham-hosted events, he always hated it with fervor.

Really, the only good thing that ever came from this godforsaken city is Dick Grayson. The young ward of Gotham’s wealthiest man is only a couple of years younger than Roy and was similarly bored out his mind every time they met at these events. The trials and tribulations of the rich and famous held little interest in their young minds and adventurous nature.

Their shared suffering is the only reason Roy accepts a coffee offer when he stumbles upon his old pal during his job.

[kpiuniverse]

So, it's officially not: I have a twelve-page (written and edited, ready for alpha read) proof.

It's probably more than I produced in the last two months.

And it's way better than the last couple of chapters!

Sooooo... is it really procrastinating if, instead of writing that couple of scenes you need to conclude your chapter, you re-edit your entire storyline?

But. Like, making it more detailed, changing the point of view, and filling plot holes? Like, it could be alpha read at this point, that's the level of readiness to be actually written it is right now!

Asking for a friend...

[kpiuniverse]

What the actual fuck?

For real? I'm having all the vibes about Jason being an angel sent to look over Oliver, and finding himself adopted into the Arrow family until one day Dick visits his old friend and gets a heart attack.

It's always so fucking funny to me that Ollie meets Jaybin in heaven, and the literal next time they meet it's because Jason, newly resurrected, blew up Mia's school

Wild ass jumpcut and it's never talked about enough lmfao

[kpiuniverse]

But he should have known better than to take at face value Jason’s righteous posturing while high on adrenaline and shock from the attack.

Oh so ur a writer?? Prove it. Drop the last sentence of ur wip in the tags

[kpiuniverse]

And now we know how K.A. Applegate had the idea of the Animorphs series.

stop asking “is this good?” and start asking “did it cause emotional damage?” that’s how you know.

[kpiuniverse]

being a writer is like babysitting 15 feral children you gave birth to in your mind and they all have knives and secrets

[kpiuniverse]

I hear you

writing is 10% storytelling and 90% rearranging three sentences for an hour like you're trying to solve an ancient curse