sicklyseraphnsuch

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not a request just here to say your art is GORGEOUS!! your use of soft colors along with your lineart and compositions are AMAZING!! im staring at your art forever its super comforting :D

🧡

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Please let no one forget that Ra's al Ghul canonically met Talia's mother at Woodstock

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During the Epic Breakup

Dick: God why didn't I fucking see it earlier? No self respecting, grown man uses a newly orphaned circus child as an emotional crutch! You dont even realize how fucking exhausting it was - being a kid and having to drag back his maybe brother? maybe dad? off the fucking ledge every single time he spirals!! Maybe I shouldve called myself the Babysitter!

Dick: You know, Brucie. Your parents should count themselves soooo fucking lucky that they died. They really *dodged a fucking bullet* by not having to live with you as a *son*.

Bruce: (decides to give Robin away as soon as possible)

Damian AU where after Bruce's passionate love affair with Talia al Ghul (retro comics style), Talia comes clean about that she didn't miscarry. It's a boy. Talia asks Bruce to pick him up.

This was during Dick's time as Robin, already with the Titans but not yet at the point where he and Bruce conflict over his growing independence

Bruce brings home baby dami. The rest of canon plays out with dick getting fired. and talia getting tortured by nyssa. you can guess what happens next. In the interim between dick and jason, talia kidnaps damian (age 5).

the ensuing search is enough to get batman in proximity with still-robin-dick. but the shared grief could either be more cleaving or more healing. coin toss.

heads. bruce shows vulnerability at the loss of his son.

tails. bruce and dick drive each other mad so when bruce inevitably gives jason robin - dick never ever ever forgives him. straight up ghosts him. he leaves for sunny cali and never looks back.

WHOOPS. its tails. they dont find damian. now instead of becoming nightwing, dick holds onto robin out of pure spite. he and batman never reconcile. jason is known as robin by the gotham community but hes routinely overshadowed by dick on a global scale who will not yield an inch

jason doesnt like dick very much but also he thinks maybe he can compromise? if dick could pull himself out of his own asshole, maybe they can talk? *incorrect buzzer noise* jason does not endear himself to dick - faced with a decision of, in his POV, letting dick bully him out of Robin or carving out a name of his own... well jason is a petty bitch and he can get Messy

jason does get a pretty handy cautionary tale. not all moms are great. some moms will kidnap u for nefarious purposes.

heads or tails, does the cautionary tale help jason? heads: yes. tails: no.

Annnnd its a yes! Robin survives!!! jason recovers from joker's fastidious care. batman doesnt realize that his kid couldve died. so he just goes on with it. jason stays robin for a good long while.

even tho dick has a chokehold on the superhero community who are slowly but inevitably getting drawn into the brucedick conflict. jason finds himself making friends with newer heroes. including a weird kid who keeps stalking him to take photos

this. does not end well. tim is at the wrong place at the wrong time. he goes missing for a bit. we can give him the joker junior ending, shall we? for a bit, he becomes the unwilling accomplice of joker and harley. when the ruin of that becomes known, the drakes lose custody over tim and bruce adopts him. jason gets a little brother.

a very traumatized, slightly jokerized brother. also tim very much shoots joker. ala the cartoon plotline. but only after babs gets shot by the joker first

around that time steph and cass happen. jason is a good touchbase with steph whose first boyfriend was a Freak and with her whole spoiler shtick, jason offers to give her formal training and saves her from that Teen Pregnancy issue.

cass... brings word of damian. to dick. she was, for a short time, used as dami's bodyguard/warden then eventually his instructor. dami learns jason's painful lesson "batman is never coming". after cain makes her kill, cass escapes as per canon. but it was a strategic retreat. she knows damian is about to go through the same thing. shes going back to rescue him. but first, she needs reinforcements

dick has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.

so dick does successfully manage to grab dami and go because he actually doesnt mind having heroes with powers helping him (bruce has very few allies among the superhero community bc he would lose Badly in a popularity contest with dick, which is what happened when dick built a wall between him and batman).

dick yoinks dami, gives Him robin so he can finally become Nightwing. as a complete "fuck you" to batman. dami is his kid now. also so is cass?

cass gets dragged into that petty little conflict. she dubs herself swiss and joins babs in the metaphorical alps.

at some point that bad blood between him and batman has to end right??

wrong. batman dies.

everything falls apart.

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Damian AU where after Bruce's passionate love affair with Talia al Ghul (retro comics style), Talia comes clean about that she didn't miscarry. It's a boy. Talia asks Bruce to pick him up.

This was during Dick's time as Robin, already with the Titans but not yet at the point where he and Bruce conflict over his growing independence

Bruce brings home baby dami. The rest of canon plays out with dick getting fired. and talia getting tortured by nyssa. you can guess what happens next. In the interim between dick and jason, talia kidnaps damian (age 5).

the ensuing search is enough to get batman in proximity with still-robin-dick. but the shared grief could either be more cleaving or more healing. coin toss.

heads. bruce shows vulnerability at the loss of his son.

tails. bruce and dick drive each other mad so when bruce inevitably gives jason robin - dick never ever ever forgives him. straight up ghosts him. he leaves for sunny cali and never looks back.

WHOOPS. its tails. they dont find damian. now instead of becoming nightwing, dick holds onto robin out of pure spite. he and batman never reconcile. jason is known as robin by the gotham community but hes routinely overshadowed by dick on a global scale who will not yield an inch

jason doesnt like dick very much but also he thinks maybe he can compromise? if dick could pull himself out of his own asshole, maybe they can talk? *incorrect buzzer noise* jason does not endear himself to dick - faced with a decision of, in his POV, letting dick bully him out of Robin or carving out a name of his own... well jason is a petty bitch and he can get Messy

jason does get a pretty handy cautionary tale. not all moms are great. some moms will kidnap u for nefarious purposes.

heads or tails, does the cautionary tale help jason? heads: yes. tails: no.

Annnnd its a yes! Robin survives!!! jason recovers from joker's fastidious care. batman doesnt realize that his kid couldve died. so he just goes on with it. jason stays robin for a good long while.

even tho dick has a chokehold on the superhero community who are slowly but inevitably getting drawn into the brucedick conflict. jason finds himself making friends with newer heroes. including a weird kid who keeps stalking him to take photos

this. does not end well. tim is at the wrong place at the wrong time. he goes missing for a bit. we can give him the joker junior ending, shall we? for a bit, he becomes the unwilling accomplice of joker and harley. when the ruin of that becomes known, the drakes lose custody over tim and bruce adopts him. jason gets a little brother.

a very traumatized, slightly jokerized brother. also tim very much shoots joker. ala the cartoon plotline. but only after babs gets shot by the joker first

around that time steph and cass happen. jason is a good touchbase with steph whose first boyfriend was a Freak and with her whole spoiler shtick, jason offers to give her formal training and saves her from that Teen Pregnancy issue.

cass... brings word of damian. to dick. she was, for a short time, used as dami's bodyguard/warden then eventually his instructor. dami learns jason's painful lesson "batman is never coming". after cain makes her kill, cass escapes as per canon. but it was a strategic retreat. she knows damian is about to go through the same thing. shes going back to rescue him. but first, she needs reinforcements

dick has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.

so dick does successfully manage to grab dami and go because he actually doesnt mind having heroes with powers helping him (bruce has very few allies among the superhero community bc he would lose Badly in a popularity contest with dick, which is what happened when dick built a wall between him and batman).

dick yoinks dami, gives Him robin so he can finally become Nightwing. as a complete "fuck you" to batman. dami is his kid now. also so is cass?

cass gets dragged into that petty little conflict. she dubs herself swiss and joins babs in the metaphorical alps.

at some point that bad blood between him and batman has to end right??

wrong. batman dies.

everything falls apart.

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Percolating the way John Egbert maps to Dick Grayson AND Harley Quinn. Dick who has the jackpot name for "masculinity" and how the Nightwing of the era that Hussie would have been contemporary to gives a similar vibe to John's whole arc. Likewise, Harley Quinn is a relatively new addition since she only debuts in the TV

I think there's a connection with just the names too John and Dick. Hmmmrncjisahdjalabjsmd

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Successors!Tim: Yeah... I'm gay... Did-Did you not know that? (points to Tim) Oh wait, what? How? Is our family like... more queer friendly? (looks to Damian) Or something?

Successors!Damian: (shrugs) The League had no interest in who you took to bed. As such, we did have members who were... of the... El-Jee-Bee-Tee-Cue

Successors!Tim: Oh my god, just call them faggots. It would literally be less painful for everyone involved.

Successors!Damian: But I do not have the pass.

Successors!Tim: What the hell were you doing with Jon if not "earning the pass"??

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I never wrote this anywhere but back in 2018, I went to Comic Con in sunny SD where I got the privilege to sit at a panel with Gleason

The deets were basically re: Robin (Damian Wayne) and his run with Batman and Robin. In that panel, Gleason talks about how he approached ressurecting Damian and his convos with Grant Morrison - the guy who you know created the character in the first place

All the sass re Morrison aside, Im of the opinion that he set up a damn good template for a character. Which a loooot of people hated. Thats a skill issue, sucks for them. Lelelele

But what is known re Morrison and Damian Wayne - Damian was never meant to survive. He was a character created to die - his big sacrifice via Talia's hand was more or less planned from the onset of Damian's inception. And honestly, the set up was good. Like i said, Damian Wayne had a really good template with Potential to do Great things. And to cut off that potential by his tragic too soon death, like yeah i can see that punchline coming from a mile away. because yeah that just hits ya where it hurts

So that was like common-ish knowledge re Morrison and Damian Wayne. It also like explains Duke Thomas to an extent because Duke was supposed to take over and become the more or less permanent Robin. (More on that later)

But here's the thing: Damian doesnt stay dead. Again, Gleason would eventually run the Batman and Robin arc where they revive Damian then the solo spinoff with Robin Son of Batman. So there was talks in the writers room, exec board, etc.

Anyways Gleason was like "Yeah Morrison was pretty bummed that Damian couldnt stay dead" or at least not bring him back for at least a decade

Back to Duke Thomas, I think that Damian's talent for messy entrances is so fucking unrivalled on a meta level. He made a messy splash on his intro and he made a messy splash on his re-intro by effectively cutting off Duke's time with Batman at the knees.

(And that's what I wanted to replicate vibe-wise in my AU. Like Duke and Bruce couldve been a dynamic duo to rival Bruce and Dick as the first. But in comes the Damian Wrecking Ball Wayne.)

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mmmmmrhghghgh okay. OKAY. i am holding your hand, i am gently holding your hand

listen. my credentials as a damian wayne liker are unimpeachable. i have written ~85k words of fic about how interesting and endearing damian wayne is. if you don’t know shit about dc and followed me because of a homestuck post in 2011, i could quiz you on my own dc opinions and based solely on what i put on your dash you would agree i enjoy content about some kid named damian wayne.

it is good and interesting to treat damian as though his actions have consequences.

Keep reading

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Concerned parents asking the right questions

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Codenames for Reverse Successors AU

Signal = Duke Thomas

Shadow/Nightwing = Damian Wayne

Batgirl/Red Hood/Spoiler = Stephanie Brown

Batboy/Full Metal/Oracle = Tim Drake

Batgirl/The Bat/Knight = Cassandra Cain

Batrouge/Rouge/Rook = Jason Todd

Robin = Dick Grayson

Jason comes up with his name with some assistance from Tim, who tries to several times to get Jason into DnD. The Rogue class comes up and there's a joke about Jason failing his stealth check when boosting the Batmobile. The name Batrouge was born (although initially it was just Rouge, however in deference to the "family tradition" of thematic paired names, Jason concedes adding "Bat" to his codename).

The paired names (and likewise Batman's paired sidekicks) are as follows:

Signal and Shadow (the OG, never replicated)

Batgirl/Spoiler and Batboy/Oracle (troubled middle children)

Batgirl/Knight and Batrouge/Rook (Bruce's uncontested favorites, also the babies of the family)

And yes, after a long time in PT, Tim absolutely overkits his prosthetics. On the field (and during his brief stint with his little superhero group known as Young Justice), he went by Full Metal. (The mangaka at the time was kind enough not to sue for copyright on the condition that no other hero use the name.) He also haaaaated Batboy as a codename because it was sooooo uninspired. But Stephanie called the shots. Jokingly, he asks everyone not to dead name him. It's Full Metal now, or Oracle.

This time, in deference to Tim's chosen name, Stephanie takes up the mantle of Spoiler (after Bruce returns from the dead). "It's thematic - oracles predict the future, and I would herald your prophecies as a spoiler alert." "You're so corny, how did you survive as a crime lord?"

After Damian kills Cluemaster, part of his penance was to give up Nightwing entirely. He also gave up all caped crusading in the gap between going back to Shadow. He led a very successful life as a surgeon during that time. Duke (who is equally as guilty for enabling and condoning Cluemaster's execution - he firmly remains as Signal because "bite me Bruce") Thomas thought that this was just overly dramatic and Damian could've gone back to Shadow after forfeiting Nightwing. "I'm sure it's not because you miss me, Thomas." "Like a toothache."

After Bruce died, there was almost a battle Over the cowl as it got passed around like a hot potato. Upon consideration, Tim left the chat, Jason left the manor, Damian left the city, and Stephanie left the country. It came down to Cass and Duke with Duke threatening to "wear whiteface" if they give him the stupid cowl. ("I will look like a Joker wannabe, do not test me") In the end, Cass takes the cowl with significant adjustments (going simply as the Bat - very demure, very mindful).

Signal and Robin will never pass hands until both current holders pass onto death. Inverse of that, everyone (even Duke) tried to wear Shadow's name at least once. But everyone agrees that no one can wear the name except for Damian. After all, for a family like this one, only Shadow can give them a safe place to land.

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is it weird that my actual writing goal is to make wild swings with my character as if the character is based on vastly disparate interpretations via numerous writers yet currently being written by a fanfic writer who is reconciling all those disparate interpretations?

like comic book characters are a hot mess bc theyre the modern mythology which is communal which means theres gonna be fifty different types of that character

which i Truly find fascinating and i think it actually brings something a spicy to consider the full breadth of a character as a single entity

4D characters are only possible via communal writing and yet i, hubrissy as I am

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in my head, they're bffs

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Reverse Successors AU

All generations barring the OG (ie Batman, Alfred, Superman, etc.) are born in reverse order

Duke Thomas caught Batman's peripheral attention as a particularly precocious child. They first met during Batman's earliest years (months lbr) when the Thomas family sheltered Batman during Enigma's take over of the city. Batman kept in touch with the clever boy, often taking the time to chat (on rooftops ofc).

Duke (unlike Dick) is a known entity long before he ever enters the Manor. When a vicious Joker attack results in Duke's parents going MIA, Duke is shunted in the foster system. In his efforts to find them, he finds So Much more and brings him more firmly into Batman's realm. But he also does find his parents, permanently disabled by Joker's chemicals. Bruce naturally offers to build a facility just for their care on the manor and step in as Duke's foster parent as Duke fully apprentices under him.

Duke is about 15-16 (about a year after he entered the foster system, about 4-5 years since he met Batman, about six months since moving into the manor) when someone new rocks the Wayne household.

Enter Damian al Ghul-Wayne. It's been abooout a decade (maybe less) since Bruce left the League of Assassins. Talia had lied about the miscarriage. Damian was raised by the LOA until his Grandfather got Other Ideas. So little assassin baby shows up with a Bruce whose parenting experience is about six months or more (if we count time duringthe foster experience)

Damian gains the nickname Shadow after shadowing Batman during patrol. (A younger, hapless Bruce is decidedly much more inequipped to handle Damian, much less put his foot down). Duke gains the nickname Signal after trying way too many names and decides Signal sounds nice paired with Shadow.

Damian and Duke have a great balancing act when it comes to Bruce. Duke is so determined to be independent - as effectively the caretaker of two permanent dependents. Damian is so determined to prove himself a worthy warrior - to convince Batman that he could use help. Bruce, in turn, has the problem of proving himself worthy of helping these kids - already so headstrong and ready for the world, letting them know that he could be depended upon as a parent.

Duke still primarily handles the opening shift, and takes gen ed classes at night (as well as some college courses). He is determined to speed run this adulthood thing, because he thinks like a parent (regarding his parents). Bruce is more than happy to keep footing the bill of care for the Thomas family but it chafes Duke to depend on charity. Duke, as the first, would be introduced into a vastly different manor without the implied "family takes care of each other". Especially because Bruce does not want to overstep (and be rejected) so Bruce never quite voices that the Thomas family is his family too.

So Duke speedruns high school and the first two years of college before leaving for about two years to actually go to college. He also has a hell of a time figuring out his Meta powers and his biodad sitch. But he comes out whole and healthy more or less. He keeps his squad (the We are Robins in canon) and when he starts operating in Bludhaven, he's the official leader.

As Duke goes to college, Damian goes from bratty kid to reforming teenager. Also, he comes with his squad (Lian, Colin, Jon, etc.). They started as playdates to socialize the child assassin. At which point, around the age of 17, just as Duke graduates college (and officially moves out), Damian deals with his al Ghul mess. He goes globe trotting with his new stalker (Maya Ducard), goes through atonement, etc.

And for the first time since having kids, Bruce Wayne has an empty house. Enter Stephanie Brown - brave and brilliant enough to narc on her wannabe villain dad. She chooses the name Batgirl, to represent her resistance against her Dad. She starts off by helping Batman independently, in her Batgirl capacity. She briefly does Shadow him but such a dour, boring role never fit her. She quickly springs back to Batgirl.

Then comes Tim, who full on sneaks into the manor from next door. He thought that Batman could use a more full time partner. He also makes an attempt to Shadow Batman. He is also not a good fit for the role - too chatty, too enthusiastic. He takes on the tentative name of Batboy because Batman's sidekicks apparently like a theme.

Things go downhill. Freshly reliving his childhood trauma, Damian comes home to find his father has brought two young children (13-14) into the fight. Damian opposes their involvement. There's a nasty fight between him and Bruce, in the usual "filled with unspoken grievances" between Bats.

Duke... stays out of the mess. He understands where Damian is coming from. But he also understands that while Steph and Tim are young, they are growing with growing minds that they have begun to learn and form. He understands their need for Batman in a way that he thought Damian would clock (but blinded by grief, Damian didn't). So he is the happy compromise between outright condoning and outright rejecting. He gives Tim and Steph a direct line, in case of anything. He treats them like a member of his Circuit (his group).

At which point, Jon swoops in and convinces Damian to take a partnership role with him as Flamebird and Nightwing. They leave for Chicago and make a base out there.

Things go bad. Cluemaster, Steph's Dad, gets more villain development. He puts a hit out on his daughter. Joker takes the job. Etc. This ends with Stephanie's brutal death. The whole family reels.

Duke and Damian have their first (and only real fight). Damian argues that she couldve been safe if she stayed out of the business. Duke argues that Damian, of all people, should know that a villainous parent is a hard influence to shake. And maybe if Damian spent more time helping Steph and Tim, instead of standing around on his moral high ground, Steph could have escaped - called for help - something.

Duke and Damian don't end the fight on speaking terms, carrying the weight of each other's accusations and a guilty conscience. Bruce benches Tim. Both are beyond devastated.

The mourning period goes until change rocks the family again. Cass enters in the periphery. Signal clocks her first, then takes her in. And in a peace offering, he calls in Damian. Cass turns out to be a product of a splinter sect in the League. This engenders a sense of responsibility for her in Damian. He leaves his partnership with Jon and returns as Shadow.

Cass gets introduced to Bruce. She is gifted the name Batgirl, in honor of (to quote Damian) "the bravest person that he ever knew". The family sees Cass fighting against the influence of her villainous father and they see the ghost of a girl that they could've saved. Tim is torn between being heartbroken and furious over this, or heartbroken and resigned to accept this.

Stephanie, back from the dead and training with the al Guls, she's just straight up furious. She recruits Tim on her side, and for a bit, he goes along with her plans, hoping he could talk her off the edge. He doesn't. He gets hurt in his subsequent "betrayal" when he tells the Bats about her. The result is a catastrophic fight and Tim loses an arm and a leg - the price, he jokes, of Stephanie's trust.

He eventually goes Full Metal (prosthetic limb and leg). He Very Nearly takes that name (Full Metal) as his new hero name (because he is an unrepentant nerd). But through his recovery, he figures out the whole tech wizard thing (Tech Wizard or Software Wizard was also considered) and finally settles on Oracle. It's a name that becomes his in truth.

Damian kills Cluemaster and gifts his heart (and the blade by which the deed is done) to Stephanie. Duke, in true brother fashion, covers for him. Stephanie, in true Stephanie fashion, is crossed between weirded out by the gift heart and also bizarrely and exceedingly touched.

Stephanie would eventually take on the moniker of Red Hood, but she only really works with Tim and his growing group (Bart, Cassie, Kon, etc.) For the rest of the family, Cass and she eventually connect. Cass is wary but the beef was always one-sided, with Stephanie trying to start smoke on the flame-retardant material that is Cass. So eventually, Cass wins her over. Stephanie has an understanding with the Brothers D (as she calls the tried and true duo of Duke and Damian).

Cass's heart broke over the Brothers D's mutual decision to take out Cluemaster. But this was a secret she keeps from Bruce. (Of course, Bruce knows. Damian was traceless as any League's Assassin. Bruce clocked the signs immediately). This puts Duke and Damian on Bruce's shit list for awhile. And for awhile, everyone except Cass was welcome in the manor.

By this time, Tim has settled in the Clocktower, Stephanie in Crime Alley, Duke in Bludhaven, and Damian returned to Chicago, remaining as Shadow. (He and Jon have a long talk because Jon also covered for Damian and Damian forfeits his Nightwing mantle as the price for Stephanie's peace if mind) Things settle into a new normal.

Jon ends up as Superman briefly, taking over whenever his dad leaves the planet. Damian is a fully established surgeon (practicing medicine in line with his grandfathers - both). Cass is Batgirl, easing into the good graces of Oracle and Red Hood and her team of Outlaws (they call themselves). Signal remains in Bludhaven with his Circuit of crimefighters. And Bruce once again has an empty manor.

Enter Jason Todd. He tries to boost the tires off the Batman's car. He fails. He gets adopted. Shadow drops by, loudly calls out his father, before planning an exhaustive training regimen for his new little brother. Jason gets a very warm family welcome as Batfam's first true orphan (Tim's parents are alive - for now, Red Hood still has her mother, Duke has both parents - however insensate, Cass has unfortunately both parents who circle her like sharks and same unironically with Damian.)

The Bad Things happen. Tim's parents are targeted. He loses his mother. But his Dad manages to survive. Cass has her brush with the League of Assasins, including a very brief time as its leader (It was Weird and Awful). Duke has to deal with someone nuking Bludhaven and all the bullshit that happens in relation to that (the nuke briefly blinds him and one of the Circuit takes over as Signal for bit). Damian tangoed with the al Ghuls on multiple occassions. And surprisingly, Jason gets away scott free through most of it. He never goes to Ethiopia because life in Gotham goes from shitty to hellish, and it became all hands on deck.

There's an earthquake, a deadly virus, and then Batman dies with his final act as Bruce Wayne being to bring the whole family to the circus for a fun little outing. It does not end happily. The Batfam takes in their second actual orphan.

In the aftermath of Batman's death, Cass becomes the Bat with Signal at her side, Jason leaves to locate their missing dad (forming an odd group with Bizzaro and Artemis), Tim stays as Oracle, Red Hood vanishes to complete mysterious and villainous tasks, and Damian as Shadow takes over custody of a young and brilliant Dick Grayson who flies under the name Robin.

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What Do Ghost Stories Look Like in the Lands Between

The closest we have is Midra, which is the incomprehensible, eldritch character that most people can't explain against

But is that all? Like what else could send shivers down the spine of a denizen in the Lands Between

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Hi, I'm still alive (((^_^;)

I drew this a while ago, basically "What would happen if Ford accidentally summoned someone else" and this came out.

And the same with Simon hahaha

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If Homestuck got isekaied into Naruto, John Egbert is learning the sexy no jutsu and nothing else

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something percolating in my head about john, his dad, and how it maps to both peter pan/jumanji plus how that all gets mixed with gender

because van pelt/hook - the villains of those "protag trapped as boy" were meant to represent their fathers - the boyhood bildungsroman of defeating your father to become a man

and what it means for john and his arc. that he did figuratively defeat his dad by taking on that quest for his denizen (stand in for dad). or maybe that he didnt defeat his dad bc the denizen lives? but he completed his planet's quest which signifies a made up sign post on the road to maturity -

running theory: john completed his quest and so cut off his transition at the knees? hmmmm hmmm i mean it would work to how beyond canon has him stuck as Him

but it also doesnt quite fit the scene of pipeorgankind hmmmmmmm