#<- i haven’t edited this one yet b it just in case

[animeredhead101]

DP x DC Long Fics (100,000 Above)

Complete

Secrets Lost by ArtemisMoore :

(Currently being edited) Danny knew that someday, somehow that something like this would happen. That his parents would discover his secret and react in one of two ways; a) they would be confused but accept him like they had in all of the other temporary cases they’d experienced, or b) they would stick to their guns (literally) and decide that their son was the enemy. Now, of course, he and his friends had been preparing for this day since the first Ghost Attack on Amity Park. They had bags packed, emergency supplies stashed around Amity Park and surrounding cities, emergency funds, and safe houses. They had plans, preparations, and procedures that all of “Team Phantom” had memorized. Even Valery, who had only been a part of “Team Phantom” for a week and still didn’t know his identity! But none of them could have imagined that “Operation Friend or Foe” would happen like this. When all of their preparations were hundreds of miles away, supplies were out of reach, and where all of his friends and allies couldn't help him. They had no idea… that everything would go this wrong. Word Count: 103,445 Completed

Batman, Meet Team Phantom by Sivan5733 :

Jason leaves Amity Park for Gotham, but an emergency call changes everything. The Fentons have discovered Danny's secret, and things are going horribly wrong. While Jazz, Sam, and Tucker save Danny from Jack and Maddie, the group is now on the run. Jason and his family pull all of their resources together to make things right.

An "Anger Management" Relationship Fic

Word Count: 118,359 Completed

Nothing But The Dead And Dying (back in my little town) by Umei_no_Mai :

Dan has just been rescued and is feeling a bit shorter than usual. Jason Todd has just been petitioned like he's a feudal warlord, which has never happened before but he could maybe get used to. They can probably make this work so long as Batman doesn't stick his nose in. Yeah, like that'll happen. Word Count: 123,925 Completed

Bitter, had the Heart by CastrianAmore :

Tim is the only one consistently watching. Thus he’s the first and only one to notice one more body following the streets like the bats do. A kid with all black hair and white motifs and an attitude problem that reminds him a tad too much of Jason. It was a shame Jason was adamant that he “didn’t know anything”, what a liar right?

But the streets of Gotham listened and the name on everyone’s lips playing like a discordant harmony was one word: Distortion. Not that Tim knew what it meant yet, but Danny would make sure he would. If Danny lived long enough for Tim to find out.

Word Count: 182,548 Completed

Wanted: Dead and Alive by Astereae :

“Hey, I do I... Do I know you?” Danny asks, a hand coming up to brush something off Tim’s cheek. “No,” Tim says. “We haven’t met.” “Oh, no, I do.” Danny says, and he smiles, teeth white and sharp. “You’re that guy who rearranged my guts!” Rearranged his- Tim glances at the knotted scars on the boy’s abdomen. He can see the shine and shadow of haphazard stitches that weren’t meant to hold forever, that tore and healed over. His- This- “WHAT!?” Nightwing shouts, equal parts confused and delighted. Tim’s fucked. OR Danny Fenton's been in GIW captivity for 4 months. Tim Drake gets kidnapped by the GIW one Tuesday evening in May. Considering how many of the Bats and the Birds have died and come back to life, it was only a matter of time for some people interested in the afterlife to come poking around. The detectives can't seem to uncover any information about the mysterious white vans, however. And they keep losing the mysterious boy who seems to be the one person in Gotham to know anything at all. Word Count: 121,281 Completed

Finding Valhalla by Phantom_Theif_1412 for Cielle_Noire :

When the local breakfast cereal invites Bruce Wayne and his family to Amity, Phantom and Valkyrie are suspicious and try to play it safe. But they have no idea what he's planning, and misguided plans can cause unintended consequences. Posting this cause I wrote it, and really hope everyone likes it. Please enjoy at your leisure. Word Count: 195,295 Completed

Anaktaomai: regain for oneself, recover by blobghost (handovertheblorbofics) :

Jason is trying to live his second chance at life to the fullest: protecting Gotham's streets as the Red Hood, going to college to get a degree, participating in Gotham's Renaissance Faire, getting a boyfriend, all of it. Sure, he's been daydreaming a lot more and it might be becoming a major problem and his boyfriend is apparently a meta who saved his kid brother after a mission gone wrong, but as far as he was concerned those were nothing to worry about. What he does need to worry about is homework and rogues attempting to kill him... right? Title is Greek transliteration of ἀνακτάομαι. (Fic fully written and chapters will be posted once a week) Word Count: 117,717 Completed

A Second Life by Die_Erlkonigin6083 :

He wakes up with no memories. He knows things, but he doesn’t know why. Who is he? And how did he get here? Word Count: 159,219 Completed

Ongoing

Kite Flies Over The Nightingale Nest by Th3Sp4rrow :

My prompt list is from ailesswhumptober on Tumblr :) Tw's are at the start of each chapter! When Jason Todd learns that Catherine Todd wasn't his biological mother- that his bio mom as well as his twin brother were still out there somewhere in the world- he'd almost left the matter alone. He already had Dick; he didn't need another brother. Although, he did miss his mom... He'd decided to try and find Sheila Haywood, the woman who had relinquished him to his father and had dropped his twin off somewhere along the way. Meanwhile, Daniel Fenton had been protecting his town of Amity Park for months. Now, with the Ghost Investigation Ward closing in, the stakes are higher than ever. After a night out gone horribly wrong, the Fentons' know his secret. He's Phantom, and he's half ghost. They chase him cross-country, meets some interesting characters, and sees the GIW attempting to kidnap a boy about his age. He takes action. He swoops in to save the boy and... fails. Instead of saving him, they both get shoved into the back of some shitty van. That was when they realized they knew the face staring back at them. Word Count: 139,347 On-going

lex luthor's ascent from supervillainy to fatherhood by halfgone(milkywxy) :

Based on this Tumblr prompt.

Lex Luthor has recently acquired a son. Weapon? Parole officer? ...Lex now has a teenaged god and he'll be damned if someone tries to take the kid away from him.

Word Count: 519,936 On-going

close enough to be whole again by hailsatancab :

“If you ever find yourself in danger, go to Bruce Wayne. He will help you.” His mother had loved him, in her own way. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have helped him escape. If she hadn’t, she would have dragged him back to the League of Assassins, to Grandfather. If she hadn’t, he’d be dead. She loved him, but she loved the League more. Jack and Maddie Fenton loved him too, they did, but they loved their work more. They loved their work more. -- After his parents react poorly to his reveal, Danny escapes to the only person he thinks can help him - Bruce Wayne. He doesn't know what to expect when he gets there, but it has to be better than where he is, surely? He certainly doesn't expect to be reunited with his long lost twin brother Damian. It's funny how things work out that way. Danny is 16 years old, not Phantom Planet compliant Word Count: 117,934 On-going

Imprint by Hashtag_DriveBy :

He screwed his eyes shut, held his breath, desperately wished that he was back in his safehouse, alone and blissfully unaware. But the weight in his hands remained, and when he opened his eyes, it was to the bean-shaped 'fuck you' the Lazarus Pit had kindly bestowed upon him, arms and legs folded up against his front beneath off-white muslin while tiny lips smacked softly.

What the fuck.

What the hell was Jason supposed to do now?

Word Count: 119,791 On-going

Phantoms and Foes by Zyleev :

Krypton was dying long before it exploded. After a lab accident at 14 gave Danny ice powers, he used them for good to try and stop crime as the first hero of Krypton. But when thousands of years of mining the core of Krypton finally caught up to the planet, General Zod evacuated Krypton to the Phantom Zone before it exploded. Little did Zod know he led the Kryptonians to a slaughter. Years later, Danny is the only Kryptonian left alive when Kal-El finds the Phantom Projector and brings him to Earth. Danny must now adjust to having new powers and life on a planet that is completely different than Krypton and the Phantom Zone. Word Count: 121,723 On-going

Press Heart to Subscribe by Die_Erlkonigin6083 :

Brown shows Damian a viral video of a twitch streamer, named UndeadNebula, passionately defending the current Robin from his critics. Intrigued, he begins watching the streamer.

UndeadNebula is smart, kind, funny, and Damian could listen to him talk for eternity.

The streamer might have wormed his way into Damian’s heart.

Word Count: 101,086 On-going

Danny Fenton: Dead and Loving It by HyperKid :

Danny and Jason meet by chance in a graveyard on Christmas Eve over a certain someone’s grave. Neither expect to ever see the other again, until they run into each other at a coffee shop less than a week later.And once they’re both thinking clearly, there’s obviously something wrong. Between working out what to tell their families, what’s actually going on, and just… well, being happy pains in the ass and proud of it, it turns out Team Batfam and Team Phantom all over are a match made in Heaven. Now all they have to do is persuade Bruce that Jason having new friends hasn’t hailed the apocalypse. Word Count: 275,002 On-going

Bus to Nowhere by foldingfacets :

Is it running from your problems if your problems consider you to be a dead imprint of consciousness that killed their son? Yes, but Danny tries not to think about how his nightmares of his parents trying to kill him came true when they found out he was Phantom. After being on the run from his parents and the government for a couple of months, moving from town to town, Danny ends up in Gotham City and decides to risk staying in Batman's territory. He'd take the wrath of Batman over live vivisection via beloved parents or being studied and torn apart by the government. Besides, he's not a meta. Being dead is a medical condition. Word Count: 108,870 On-going

Some Kind of Miraculous Bind by Saitrised :

Damian Wayne is the heir to the Bat, the Blood Son. Except, he wasn't always the only blood son. There was another, younger heir once, before Damian had left the league and his brother hadn't had the chance to join him. There was one alive heir to the Bat, and a second one, secret to all but him, that was gone. Danny Fenton is already tired of being the Ghost King. Not even six months into his reign, and he's having to deal with ectoplasmic leaking past Amity's borders and new, unknown threats against his people. And the fact that Gotham, the one city that he had mentally marked as off limits, seems to be where most of the problems are isn't helping. ---This is an upload of a heavily edited version of the previously posted chapter 14--- Word Count: 126,392 On-going

schrodinger's cat by Meetalotaku :

My extrapolated story from I'm building off flamingpuddings post on Tumblr. What if Selina Kyle was Danny bio mom. That she had with Batman. And she put him up for adoption to her distance relatives the fentons. I've also taken the liberty to set the phantom time line up a few years earlier. Danny had his accident in Jr high. At 11 in 6th grade. He meets Selina at not yet 14 teen. A ton of DC characters will make appearances eventually. But it's going to focus heavily on Gotham based characters first. And slowly sprinkle in more phantom characters and other dc characters from all media forms messed together. Word Count: 145,780 On-going

Wayne's Haunted Mansion by Tathartiel :

Something is wrong. Bruce notices it when he's not alone, but he feels like he is being watched. The bad part? He feels it both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. Who is watching him? He's determined to find out. He regrets it when finds out that there is another child in his home, but one who is in desperate need of help. Word Count: 121,923 On-going

The Adventures of Big Talon and Little Talon. by Ispotteddumuss :

“Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowy perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your health, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head.” Jason would like a one Talon please. No, not the Other Talon. He wants the Little Talon. The one with yellow green eyes. The short one. You know the one that chirps. No, he's not turning into his Father, he swears. Little Talon doesn't know what he wants but he knows this new Big Talon is good. (It takes a bit to get to Big Talon and Little Talon part. It starts mostly just Little Talon. Like a while. We got there though but takes a bit.) Word Count: 167,257 On-going

Artificial Wingman by TheSleepyKitsune :

Prompt fill for im-totally-not-an-alien-2 on TumblrAfter finding a spell book in his aunt's attic, half ghost Danny Fenton decides to become a Disney Princess for a day in another dimension by using a love potion on the local wildlife. Fate has different plans, however, in the form of a Gotham Vigilante landing directly in said love potion.Now, with a love-struck Damian Wayne and no immediate way home, Danny must try to make a cure while dodging the cities best detectives.Meanwhile, a very concerned Batfam are trying to track down their missing member. Word Count: 106,859 On-going

If you Give a Bat a Burger by Cielle_Noire :

Strange things are going on in Gotham: A series of crimes linked only by a sentence uttered. A drug that no one seems to be selling, but lots of people are taking. An old enemy reborn, or someone pretending to be him. Graffiti that can't be photographed by normal means. Bartenders disappearing without a trace. John Constantine is also there. Danny wants nothing to do with any of it. He just wants to sell burgers and survive. Actually, he'd like to go home again, but since that isn't possible, he'll stick with burgers. Gotham's vigilante's have other plans. This is why Danny doesn't do favors. Word Count: 248,148 On-going

regular boy: daniel wayne by diamond_rozie :

“Reporting live from Gotham City, here at the scene of the crime. Dr. Collin Kilye, renowned geneticist, has shot himself and has been declared dead by the paramedics. Dr. Kilye is suspected to be responsible for the purposeful switching of newborns between families under his care, where an known over 500 babies have been swapped in the last 20 years of his employment here. Based on the information provided to the Gotham PD by Nightwing and Batman, we are led to believe that Nightwing has been investigating this case after an anonymous tipoff. After a month and a half of investigating, Nightwing-” Dick had learned that people never know a situation as well as they assume they did. Dick had always assumed that he wouldn’t be one of those people. He was a detective, a Bat, the first Robin.The case file in front of him glared tauntingly. He should've known better to assume anything.Danny Fenton; Birth Parents: Bruce Wayne (father) and Clarissa King (mother). Status: Alive Word Count: 100,571 On-going

Like and Survive-Phantom's Guide to Young Hero Survival by robinasnyder :

When the world becomes aware of teenaged superheroes there is an immediate and fierce wave of backlash and controversy. That's where Phantom comes in. Phantom saved the world from a meteor fifteen years back; an impressive feat back in the day but now that meteors threatening all life on earth is such a common event that hardly anyone thinks about it. Phantom is considered an old timer who deals with a small city and nowhere else. When he begins uploading videos with advice for young heroes, he hopes a few new heroes might avoid some of the pain he went through. He's shocked at just how popular his advice suddenly becomes. Word Count: 306,940 On-going

If you find a vigilante in the dumpster by lunamugetsu :

The plan was simple, Jazz and her now de aged brother would go lay low in Gotham, act as a mother-son duo. Wait as Danny heals up by absorbing the ambient ectoplasm leaking from the city and Vlad gives the green light that he has a safe place they could stay. Plus with the blessing from the Ghost of Gotham and knowing that even the GIW wouldn't dare to encroach on Batman's territory, it was a pretty safe plan. That was until a certain vigilante just keeps on finding himself in their dumpster. / / It was a normal night of patrol for Jason. Beating up a bunch of criminals. Shooting them with bullets (they're rubber bullets Bruce! Calm down!) Get stabbed by them. Pass out from blood loss in the place he was taking refuge in Wake up in an apartment, his wounds bandaged and all. And to a black haired blue eyed kid staring at him. "I found you in the garbage!" Word Count: 120,002 On-going

Shoot Suspected Ghosts First, Ask Questions Never by yasstaghr :

Danny is in over his head and he knows it. He's feeling overwhelmed with trying to stop a war between the Realms and Earth, and he doesn't have a lot of good options. He makes a desperate attempt to keep as many people alive as he can, and it goes both horribly right and horribly wrong.

Word Count: 169,508 On-going

Robin's Egg by Calix :

While out on nightly patrol, Robin finds a very injured Danny Phantom who is about to be forced back into his core. Now that the ghost boy is entirely defenseless, how is Damien going to protect the core from others? And even harder… how is going to keep Phantom's existence unknown to his family? Word Count: 162,633 On-going

Friendly neighborhood vigilante by Elizabehta_Beilschmidt for Imp_y :

Meet Jasmine Fenton: Smart, resourceful, kind and the very proud sister of Amity Park's own undead superhero Danny Phantom. Therapist at your service. Intern at Arkham Asylum. Can kick your ass. Likes tea and long walks at the beach. Meet Jason Todd: Smart, resourceful, not-that-kind (if you say he's soft you may get knifed) and the very proud vigilante and protector of Crime Alley. Died for a while but got better. Holds grudges. Likes reading a nice book and the sound of the rain against the window. They are neighbors now. Word Count: 112,001 On-going

Broken Bonds by SleepingDead (PolarBearSeals) :

Severely injured, Danny escapes the GIW and latches onto the first ghost that called to him who offered protection and rest. Danny regrets it when he learns he's in the city of the brother who'd killed him. And it appears he can't leave. Word Count: 123,699 On-going

I Am A Retired Hero And My Love Interest Is A Former Crime Lored!? by ShyCrow :

Danny Fenton did the whole hero thing, all right? He fought bad guys, saved the world a couple of times, became enemies with a secret government faction. And it was fun. Really, he had no regrets! But now it's time for him to buckle down and focus on getting that degree. It's a good thing Gotham University gave him a full ride. But things are just now starting to get more and more complicated... It started as an accident that evolved into the Red Hood paying attention to Danny. And now ghosts are starting to lose objects that, if fallen into the wrong hands, can cause a lot of trouble for both Danny and the Ghost Zone. With the bats starting to take notice of him and the Zone's refusal to leave him alone, can he truly lead a normal life? And, more importantly, does he really want to? Word Count: 138,759 On-going

[purple-petrichor]

MarriageToxin Profiles Vol.1

Haven’t seen these in English yet, so I’m posting them! Taken from the Japanese manga releases. Translated by myself. Sorry for the image quality;;

Gero Hikaru

DOB:  November 24th Blood Type:  A

Heir to the "poison user" Gero family. The type to have many copies of the same clothes. Keeps a large number of work tools under his coat. If the room he lives in isn’t constantly clean, he feels unsettled. On nights after something rough happened, he cleans public toilets and other places until they’re better than new. Due to that, rumors of an urban legend “the Midnight Cleaner” have begun to spread throughout one portion of the city.

Amount of money spent on DIY candy kits per month:  approx. 200,000 yen *(approx. $1,500 USD )

–

＊TL Notes:  Here’s Gero! Starting off strong with the main character.

Blood types are included in almost every profile in this series. In Japan, blood types are actually considered pretty important for determining one’s personality and romantic compatibility. It’s similar to Western astrology with star signs. For more detailed information, search google or read here. In Gero’s case, Blood Type A is actually the most statistically common in Japan (40% of the population) so that makes him a relatively normal guy. According to one article, “people with blood type A are known to be highly-organized, particularly precise, and pay much attention to details. They are diplomatic and friendly in nature, so you won’t have a hard time approaching them. They seek harmony among other people, but they sometimes prefer to be alone because of their sensitive nature.” Checks out overall. 

The DIY candy kits money is…far too much. Gero please what are you doing. Upon searching, a single package is like, $3.90 USD. So, $1500/$4 = 375 kits per month. That’s 93 per week. That’s 13 per day. Gero is the personification of that one dril “spend less on candles. no.” tweet. --

Kinosaki Mei

DOB:  May 18th Blood Type:  AB

A marriage swindler. Capable of winning-over any partner within 30 seconds. The possessor of an outstanding "mix-and-match" fashion coordination technique. On days off, ends up lounging around inside the house all day. After a long life in abject poverty, will eat anything. Once survived for 3 weeks based only off of gorging food on dates. Living space is small, and strewn with clutter. Is hiding a big secret. –

＊TL Notes:  The original text actually manages to avoid using any pronouns for Kinosaki. Given how Japanese is structured, it’s possible to sometimes drop a subject/object/pronoun entirely, without compromising the sentence. Unfortunately in English that’s much harder to manage, and often ends up sounding like you’re suspiciously trying to avoid the words. I tried to compromise here by arranging the text around. Just know that in the official text, they avoid giving any specific he/she gender markers for Kinosaki as of current.

For Blood Type: “This blood type is the combination of the precise qualities of A types and the free-spiritedness of B types. Given that it’s a rare blood type, people with this type are often perceived as geniuses or [eccentric]. They can be unpredictable and curious. People who belong to the AB type usually jump around from one activity to another, depending on their mood and situation. They chase ideal dreams and pursue learning and knowledge in a wide range of fields. They are calm and rational but have a complicated personality.”  Again, checks out for a swindler known for changing to handle any situation.

…Yes the final line does say “a big secret”. Uh. EDIT: Chapter 54 sheds new light on this line! Perhaps it’s not a dirty joke after all, but something far more tragic. 👀

More coming soon!

[swiftyangx12]

🕷️The Adventures of Agent Arachnis!🕸️

[Ep. 3: Briefing & Chill out]

[Valorant x Marvel]

[Synopsis]: Arachnis has more to tell about Earth 2020-6-2 (Valorant Universe) and it’s mostly a chilled out day.

[Gender Neutral Reader]

[(A/N)]: Yeah, I’m still working on the OC. Just need some time working on their traits and backstory.

[Earth-928, Spider Society H.Q.]

[Spider-Man 2099’s lair]

Arachnis: So, you’re still questioning about my world and line of work?

Miguel: It’s unlikely we recruited a Spider-based hero who has no variations of Spider-Man’s enemies.

Arachnis: That should be a good thing since we’re already dealing with doppelgängers stealing our power source. *Hooks up their tablet to the computer*

Peter B. Parker: What are you about to show us?

Arachnis: Video feeds of the agents doing their duties. Lyla, is everything ready?

Lyla: Yep! *Plays the video*

Peter B. Parker: What’s with the music?

Arachnis: Sorry. My colleague, Cypher edited these videos and he likes to add dramatization to everything.

Miguel: This is where we caught the Goblin variant.

Arachnis: Yeah, back on Omega Earth where I freaked out because we were on their territory.

Peter B. Parker: Huh. Sounds like you two had fun on your “date”.

Miguel & Arachnis: We’re not dating.

Lyla: Wow. You have so many video feeds. *Plays another one*

Peter B. Parker: *Growing concern* Are you sure this alright to watch this?

Arachnis: Peter, everything is heavily edited in case newly recruited agents are too squeamish when reviewing these feeds.

Peter B. Parker: What if the kids see these videos?

Arachnis: I added a passcode to the feeds for security reasons and only agents can access them. *Points to themselves*

Lyla: *Plays another feed* These look fun.

Arachnis: Oh yeah. For odd reasons, he likes to add titles and thumbnails like if they’re cinematic episodes or something.

Peter B. Parker: You have a training bot?

Arachnis: We had one, but everyone destroyed the thing. Originally, it was a cleaner bot and some agents decided to rebuild it as a killing machine for petty games, and it was completely demolished because it tried to eliminate us all.

Peter B. Parker: Oh. At least you’re okay.

Miguel: [Y/N], why aren’t you in any of these feeds?

Arachnis: I wasn’t recruited yet until later and had stealth missions during those times. I have some clips with me in them. *Shows some exclusive feeds to Miguel from their phone*

Miguel: *Watching intently* *Secretly impressed by their performance and gets surprised by the killing spree*

Arachnis: Ah fuck. Sorry. I forgot those parts. Some guards spotted me and I had to fight back.

《🕷️》

Arachnis: Wait. Say that again? You called everything about multiple universes with their variants of Spider-people, the “Arachnohumanoid Polymultiverse”?

Miguel: It’s an accurate description.

Arachnis: It sounds stupid. Cute, but stupid.

Miguel: How would you rename it?

Arachnis: The Spiderverse sounds like a better fit.

《🕷️》

Peter B. Parker: Has anyone seen Mayday?

Miles: *Nods* We haven’t seen her.

Gwen: Oh god. Let’s go find her.

[The Spider gang search everywhere in the building. Through the food court, to every sector, to the Go-Home area and even the darkest corners of the society.]

Hobie: *Spots a bundle of webbing by Sector 2* Found ‘em.

[Peter lifts off the flap that is attached to the funnel web and he finds a surprise inside.]

Arachnis: *Quietly napping with Mayday on their chest in the funnel-shaped web hammock*

Peter B. Parker: Awww. *Pulls out his phone and snaps some images*

Arachnis: *Wakes up drowsy and yawns* Huh? Peter?

Mayday: *Also wakes up and yawns* *Adorably rubs her eyes*

Peter B. Parker: Morning, sleepyheads.

Arachnis: *Takes out their mouth guards* Bleh.

Peter B. Parker: Huh. I didn’t know you wear retainers.

Arachnis: No, these are mouth guards. I can’t retract my fangs and don’t want to hurt Mayday.

Miles: When did you have time to make this?

Arachnis: Just an hour ago. It’s pretty easy when your role is Sentinel on missions.

《🕷️》

Arachnis: *Babysitting Mayday again* “Spider-Mayday! Spider-Mayday! Does whatever a spider can do! She can swing, from her web!”

Mayday: *Giggling while Arachnis lifts her around the air*

Miguel: *Watches the two playing around through his monitors*

Lyla: *Over his shoulder* Stalker, much?

Miguel: What? No. They’re still a possibility that they can be dangerous.

Arachnis: Look, Mayday. Check this out, *Creates a Web Barrier* Can you do that?

Mayday: *Manage to trap Arachnis in her webs* *Cheers happily*

Arachnis: *Wrapped up like a burrito* Somebody help me.

Lyla: Uh-huh, yeah. They seem dangerous.

《🕷️》

[Earth 2020-6-2, Valorant H.Q.]

Arachnis: *Contacting with the others through their watch* Sorry, Miguel. Things are tense at the VP now and I’m not sure how long it will take for the mess to settle down. There are major updates about Kingdom and something triggered my friend’s buddies from the revelations.

Gekko: *In the background trying to calm Thrash down with Wingman*

Miguel: Understandable. You do what you need to do. Just…

Arachnis: What?

Miguel: Just don’t get in trouble and do not fail your duties.

Arachnis: I know, you grump. You don’t have to remind me. Maybe when things get better, I’ll be back in the Society. Don’t miss me too much, big guy.

Miguel: I won’t miss you.

Arachnis: I know you will. Tell the others I’ll be gone for some time and be back soon. *Ends call*

[Back on Earth 928]

Lyla: You’re worried about them.

Miguel: No, I don’t.

Lyla: C’mon, admit it. I read the vitals and they don’t lie. You’re more than worried for their safety.

Miguel: Lyla, just stop. I understand they need to do their job. Just like everyone else.

Lyla: Not everyone faces their own double everyday to prevent a worldly disaster while avoiding hundreds of bullets.

Miguel: *Sighs* “Shock. I do worry for them.”

🕷️[Reblogs helps creators and creates for more content]🕸️

[Tagged]: @hhurric4ne @radianights @l0serloki @theladyheroine @mrssabinecallas

[aparticularbandit]

Loaded God Complex (V)

Summary: The problem with designing a Game that ends in your death during your most desperate hour is that sometimes things can get better.

…and then you still have to play a Game that ends in your death.

Or: The woman we know as Tsumugi has probably the best birthday of her life at what is probably the worst time to have it.

NOTE: Because this is pre-game, Tsumugi’s name is different. In this, she is primarily referred to as Tsukasa Yuki instead of Shirogane Tsumugi. Despite names you might recognize, every other character in this is an OC. Think of it as a reverse reference; Yuki seeded her scripts and games with references to people she knew and loved. We’re just seeing that in reverse.

Chapter Rating: M for brief nudity. Fic Rating: M for brief nudity.

AO3

previous chapter | next chapter

For the first time in months, Yuki doesn’t wake alone.

(She also wakes in a bed and not on the not-so-comfy couch in her office, but that’s less important.)

Even before she truly wakes, before she opens her eyes, Yuki feels Ryoko’s arm tight around her waist, Ryoko’s head burrowed between her shoulder blades, Ryoko’s legs tangled with her own.  She barely shifts, and Ryoko murmurs something unintelligible before tightening her grip on her, drawing her closer to her.

Yuki opens her eyes just enough to settle more comfortably in Ryoko’s gentle hold, relaxes with a comfortable sigh, and then closes them to slip off into another dream.

~

The second time Yuki wakes, it’s less pleasant.

Her phone buzzes on the bedside table – Yuki had not necessarily been consciously thinking when she placed it there; it was nothing more than an old, ingrained habit from the years she lived here with Ryoko before…before – and she groans, eyes cracking open, as she reads the caller ID.  Then she carefully disentangles herself from Ryoko’s grasp, sits up with a little groan, and answers the phone.

“Tsukasa Yuki,” she grumbles out.  “What do you need, Usa-chan?”

“Well, I was going through the script—”

Yuki groans again and kneads her forehead.  “I thought you said you didn’t read the script—”

“I don’t, but I needed to copy and paste stuff over for the flashback lights, you know, and Shuichi still doesn’t have a last name?  It says something about editing it in later?”

“Yes.  I haven’t thought of a good last name yet.  Nothing seems to fit.”  (This is a lie.  Yuki knows exactly what name she’s going to give him.  She just can’t put it in the script because they will catch her out.  It’s going to have to be something that goes live with the show.  Just like so many other of her changes.)  “I’ll have something before the first light drops.”  She taps her fingers on the bedside table.  “You did add that—”

“Yes, yes!  I added it!”

Yuki reaches for her glasses and pushes them on – anime villain style, because she feels like one right now.  “And the other thing,” she says, voice even more hushed, not wanting to wake Ryoko, yes, but also not wanting her to even possibly hear this, “the one I wanted you to add for the final trial?”

Usagi never pauses.  She jumps straight in.  “The screens for the audience, mmhm, I’ve got those added, and the place for the chat interactions, but Tsukasa-sama,” she says, hesitating, pausing, “what do you need all that for?”

“I thought it would be a fun gimmick.  Goes well with the robot.”  Yuki sighs and shoves a hand through her frazzled blue hair.  “Usa-chan?”

“Hm?”

“I’m taking the day off.”  Yuki taps her fingers on the table again, then pulls her hand into her lap.  “If anything comes up, I trust you’ll be able to take care of it for me.”

“B-b-but Tsukasa-sama—”

Yuki waits to hear what Usagi will say, but for a while, there’s nothing.  Maybe Usagi thought that Yuki would cut her off and stopped abruptly as a result of that, but that isn’t the case.  So she waits, expectant.

Finally, Usagi says, “Is this because of Mitsuki?”  She hesitates again, and Yuki can imagine her brow furrowing.  “Are you afraid, Tsukasa-sama?”

Yuki smiles, caught out, even though she knows Usagi can’t see that confirmation.  “I plainly want some time off before the Game starts, Usa-chan.  That’s all.”  She runs her finger in circles against her skin.  “Maybe a couple of days.  Everything you need should be plain to you.”

Again, that gentle quiet before Usagi says, “Okay.  I’ll protect your time.  However much you need before the Game, Tsukasa-sama.”

“Thank you, Usa-chan.”

Then Yuki hangs up, turns her phone on silent, and hides it in the back of the nearest drawer.  She starts to remove her glasses just as she feels Ryoko snake her arm around her waist again, as Ryoko kisses up the curve of her spine.  “I’m sorry,” she murmurs.  “I plainly didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Quit using that word,” Ryoko groans.  She nuzzles against Yuki’s neck.  “You’re…taking the day off?”  Her voice tightens.  “Now?”

At first, Yuki doesn’t turn to her.  Her gaze flits to the drawer where she shoved her phone.  “I sent in the finalized scripts yesterday,” she says quiet, trying not to realize (and yet still realizing all the same).  “They won’t need me again until the Game starts.  To make sure that everything.”  Her voice catches, and she pushes past it.  “Runs smoothly.”

She can’t breathe.

“I—”

She pushes that feeling away, pushes it down, pushes it into that drawer with her phone where it’s hidden and she can’t see it and she doesn’t have to acknowledge it and she doesn’t have to touch it, not now, not until she’s ready, not until—

“It seemed plain to me,” Yuki says, ignoring the shadow looming above her and turning in Ryoko’s grasp to meet her curious (annoyed) gaze, cupping her chin with one hand, and nuzzling against her, “that my time would be better spent with you.”

Ryoko kisses her, and Ryoko kisses her – wanting and greedy and needing, because they’re both such desperate things – and she smiles against her lips.  “Hungry, are you?”

“Starved.”  Yuki tugs Ryoko’s lower lip between her teeth, and then her stomach rumbles loud into the silence between them.  She scoots back and covers her mouth with one hand, eyes growing wide, as the grumbling returns.

That sparkle in Ryoko’s eyes returns, and she laughs – loud, boisterous, head tilting back until her white teeth shine.  She slaps her leg.  “You said starved, and then…and then—”  She laughs again, louder this time, and gasps in furtive fits.

Yuki crosses her arms and looks away.  (If she were an anime or visual novel character, there would be a shadow across her face, likely in an unappealing shade of blue.)  “I don’t think it’s very funny.”

“I do.”

“That’s plain to see.”

Ryoko crawls over to Yuki and kisses the tip of her nose.  “So we eat first.  There’s leftover birthday cake.  I can smear icing all over—”

“There was a cake?”  Yuki’s eyes widen.  “I never saw any cake.  Did I miss the candles, too?”

“After last time?  Fuck, no.  I’m not about to let you burn down the house again.”  Ryoko kisses Yuki’s cheek, then draws away from her with a sigh.  “Ruru-chan made the most amazing cake.  I can’t believe you didn’t have any!”  She pushes herself out of the bed and starts scrounging around for their clothes.  “It’s like you stuck yourself behind that bar and wouldn’t leave for nothing.”

Yuki glances down at her fingers and slowly taps them together.  She doesn’t say anything.  The only truthful answer she could give is her own avoidance: she hadn’t wanted to see what else around their house had changed in her absence.  She slowly tucks the sheet around her as she moves to the edge of the bed before something Ryoko flings at her lands in her face.  “Ow!”

“Put that on!” Ryoko says as she kneels down and takes Yuki’s sweater dress off the floor.  “Kitchen nudity is how your fucking tits get burned!”  She looks mournfully at her left breast, cups it in her hand, and runs her thumb along a white patch on her nipple.  “RIP Mi-chan.  You deserved better.”

As her girlfriend stares mournfully at her own scarred nipple, Yuki pulls Ryoko’s large sleep shirt over her head.  Then she slips from the bed to stretch the front of the shirt out, staring at its upside down image.  The Danganronpa 50th Anniversary Cast stare back up at her with differing expressions.  She can almost – almost – pick out Mitsuki in the background.  The Ultimate Mortician.  It set her perfectly in line to examine the bodies (and to modify things as needed to match with the script).  She and Mitsuki ran the shows back then, and they’d been so good at covering the other’s flaws.  They’d both been insistent that Ryoko – the character, not her girlfriend – not be placed anywhere near the middle of the promotional art, although she often is in any of the fanart, and Mitsuki—

“I can’t believe you still wear this thing.”  Ryoko holds Yuki’s sweater dress aloft as she stands.  “You stole this from me years ago—”

“It was a gift!” Yuki exclaims, letting the front of Ryoko’s sleep shirt drop, its edge brushing against her thighs.  “It was the first gift you ever gave me!”

“Yeah, because you stole it and wouldn’t give it back.”  Ryoko sticks her tongue out at Yuki.  “Well, I’m gonna wear it now.  It’s mine after all!”  She pulls it over her head and then shoves the sleeves up before twirling on her heel.  “See?  It fits me so much better!”

Yuki rolls her eyes.  “Yeah, but you hate that thing.  Besides, I used it as a basis for one of my most popular character outfits, so you can’t just—”  She cuts herself off as Ryoko shoves her hands into her pockets, as Ryoko’s eyes widen, as Ryoko pulls the small box out of her pocket.�� Oh.  Then she bites her lower lip and looks away before Ryoko can say anything.

For a moment, Ryoko just stares at the box.  “Yu-chan,” she says, hesitant, gaze not leaving the box, “what is this?”

“Nothing,” Yuki lies.

“So it’ll be okay if I open it, right?”

“No!”  Yuki moves towards her to try and grab the box away, but Ryoko holds it aloft, out of her reach.  As a result, Yuki wraps her arms around Ryoko’s waist and collapses on the floor, hiding her face in the edge of the sweater dress.  “Just…just put it back!  And forget about it!”

Instead, Ryoko gently unclasps Yuki’s hands and returns to the bed, sitting just on its edge.  She holds the box in the palm of her hand for a few seconds – enough time for Yuki to make another swipe for it, if she wanted, but she doesn’t.  It won’t do any good, not the way Ryoko is staring at it.  If only she hadn’t forgotten—

Ryoko flips the lid on the box and lifts the ring from inside it – a single diamond set in white gold, smaller alternating rubies and sapphires trailing from it down either side of a rose gold band.  She holds it up to the light, and every gem sparkles.  (Her eyes do, too, their light reflecting within.)  “Yu-chan,” she says again, quieter, a near hush, “what is this?”

“I should think it’s plain to you what it is.”  Yuki doesn’t move from where she stays collapsed on the floor, hands clasped together in her lap.  “I…I got it about a month before….”  She can’t complete that part of the sentence – won’t complete it – and so continues as though she has, “But I never found the right time to….”  That sentence, too, falls incomplete from her lips.

“And you….”  Ryoko’s gaze finally moves from the ring to Yuki.  “You brought this to…to your birthday party?”

Yuki can’t meet her eyes.  “I thought it was your engagement party.  I thought….”  She swallows.  “I didn’t think I would change your mind, but I plainly thought that I shouldn’t keep it.  But I…I couldn’t sell it, and I couldn’t get rid of it, so I plainly thought—”

“You thought you would give it to me as an…an engagement present?”  Ryoko raises a brow.  “Yu-chan, that’s plainly pretty fucked.”

“I know.”  Yuki glances up just in time to see Ryoko slip it on her finger.  “Don’t—”

“Why not?  It’s mine, isn’t it?”  Ryoko sets the ring on the finger where it belongs – where it just fits – and then holds her hand up to the light, her fingers outstretched.  She stares at it for another few minutes, saying nothing.  “Hey, hey,” she says, finally.  “Yuki, do you…want to marry me?”

This isn’t fair.

“Yes.”

This isn’t fair.

Yuki slowly sits next to Ryoko on the bed again.  She takes Ryoko’s free hand in hers, but her gaze doesn’t leave her fiancée.  “I think it’s quite plain to see that.”

This isn’t fair.

Ryoko finally looks away from the ring on her finger and turns to Yuki.  She takes Yuki’s face in both of her hands – the ring cold against her cheek – and draws her into another kiss.

THIS ISN’T FAIR.

Yuki knows that she’s crying before Ryoko lifts her fingers with a smile, before she brushes her thumb along her cheekbone to wipe them away.  She must think they’re tears of joy, and Yuki has no intention of telling her otherwise.  It wouldn’t do any good.  What would she say?  Instead, she murmurs, “We can…we can figure everything out after…after the Game, okay?  We only just…we’re plainly not even—”

But Ryoko kisses her again, and Yuki can’t stop crying.

[hullomoon]

hullomoon's 2023 works: part one

it’s the end of the year, which means it’s time for a work round-up! i had a pretty busy year so i didn't post as much, but i also know i did more longer works. so it probably balances out in the end. if you haven’t yet, check out my 2019 roundup, 2020 roundup, 2021 roundup, and 2022 roundup! all works are ordered in chronological posting order.

part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six

[podfic] don't blow those pipes | Schitt's Creek | David/Patrick | 03:25

Patrick picks up another new instrument. David is not thrilled.

[podfic] your love is a secret i'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep | Heartstopper | Nick & Nellie, Nick/Charlie | 0:10:06

“You know, you’re technically the first person I’ve come out to. Or first… creature.” Nellie licked his face. Or, five times Nick could only talk to Nellie about his feelings for and about Charlie, and one time he found the courage to talk to a human.

[Podfic] Haus Bylaws that Need Added to the Wall: No Hanging Chads | Check, Please! | Gen | multivoice | 0:10:37

If a Chad approaches Lardo, allow her to set up fucking ruining him before pouncing. [sub a) In all cases of Chad, Shitty is wingman because Bitty punched that one Chad.] (sub b) He deserved it.) {sub c) He totally did.}

[Podfic] winter's upon us, so won't you stay? | A League of Their Own (TV) | Jo/Maybelle | multivoice | 0:23:15

“I was just so worried about you when you left,” Maybelle says, eyes wide and full of softness. “I wish I coulda been there to take care of you, honey. You deserved that. You shouldn’t have had to leave alone.” No one has wanted to take care of Jo in so long. or: jo goes to maybelle's for the holidays, and finally figures out what she wants.

snowed in with you | Schitt's Creek | Rachel/Alexis | 4,079

Rachel just wanted to get away and destress. Then she learned that someone else was already at the cabin. And then they got snowed in.

99 Podfics | Podfic Fandom | multivoice | 0:16:01

Voiceteam Mystery Box 2022 presents their project for the "It's a Trap!" challenge. The challenge was: "Create an audio fanwork with contributions from at least 90% of this round's Voiceteam Mystery Box players. If at least 90% of players contribute, every Voiceteam player gets 90 points outside of their point cap. If less than 90% of players contribute, nobody gets any points. Either way, this challenge is completely meaningless pointswise." We didn't quite get to 90%, but we did make some beautiful chaos!

you came in like a wave when i was feeling alright | Stranger Things | Steve/Eddie | 840

Eddie likes to watch the rugby team practice

[Podfic] Sherlock Sands and the Mystery of the Pie Thief | Schitt's Creek | Alexis/Twyla | multivoice | 06:19

When Twyla Sands' pumpkin pie disappears from the table, she goes on a quest to discover the thief.

[podfic] a boy, a tender age | Stranger Things | Joyce & Steve | 01:08:53

Joyce Byers loves her boys. So when she's walking down the hospital hall in the late afternoon and she looks into a room, empty save for a lone boy on the bed, she thinks, well what's one more? my 101st podfic

[podfic] Haunted Doll Watch: Magic Earring Ken Doll Edition | Supernatural & My Brother, My Brother and Me | multivoice | 0:11:10

The listing: Haunted Ken Doll Seeks Gay Owner (Lesbian or bi okay too)

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #413

Brain Curds are barely-edited fiction, poetry, or just about anything else - drafted in a day or less. Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

Part 55 of an experiment in progress. Refer to case logs.

Seven PM, the phone rang. It was Dad.

This wasn’t unusual, of course. Ever since the divorce, he made a habit of calling me every night to check in. But it was getting harder lately to reply to his softball questions. “How was your day?’ and “What did you learn at school?” used to be easy to answer, but now that my memory was so spotty, I couldn’t even guess. I usually replied with “fine” and “nothing.” Which felt as close to right as anyone would want to hear.

Today, though, he had a different question: “Trevor, do you still want to live with me?”

I knew the answer he was looking for: “Yes.”

“Then why haven’t you been bothering your mother about it like we talked about?”

It was true. I’d given up on changing my circumstances. I found myself a niche of comfortable depression and day after day found little motivation to crawl out from it. On weekdays I went to school, on weekends I stayed in my room. That was fine. At least, it could be worse. I was pale and the world outside was sunburnt, so why set foot into it?

“I haven’t,” I replied. “She just won’t listen to me.”

“Well, you’re the only one she will listen to. So step it up. If badgering isn’t enough, go on strike.”

“Strike?”

“Stop doing your chores until you get what you want.”

“I don’t do any chores.”

“Then… stop doing your homework.”

“I do all my homework at school.”

“It’s not about where you do it, Trevor. Come on. Tell her you’re going on a homework strike and there’s nothing she can do about it except let you come live with me.”

“Then what will I do when I finish my classwork?”

“Talk to the other kids, I don’t know? Jeez, learn to socialize. Don’t you have any friends?”

“Not in most of my classes.”

“Tell her that, too, then. All your friends are over here. Where you belong.”

I meant to tell her I was going on strike, I really did. But I hadn’t figured out exactly how to implement these new policies, so I figured I’d try it out before I said anything.

It felt silly not to do my English homework, since it only took me like ten minutes to fill out worksheets on a book I wanted to keep reading anyway. And science homework was so simple that I usually finished it before the teacher was done explaining it to everyone else. The only class that ever gave me any trouble was algebra.

So, on a particularly hot day, when I was already sick of life, I put down my pencil and didn’t do it. There were too many problems and I was sick of solving them. And I gotta say, going on strike was a pretty great move.

Unfortunately, at the end of the quarter, Mom noticed my grade in the class had dropped to a B+. And I hadn’t explained my protest just yet…

She rubbed her forehead. “Trevor… I don’t have time to micromanage you. Okay? So can you please just do your homework again?”

I looked down in shame. “No…”

“What was that?”

I didn’t answer. I slumped back to my room with a rock in my gut. Every time I talked to her, I wondered if she even remembered the moments she crushed my spirit, or if they were too routine of interactions to bother holding on to.

An hour later, she knocked and entered my room with a sigh. The cordless phone was in her hand, the other cupped over the mouthpiece.

“Do you still want to live with your father?”

Penned 2025.05.21

Please reblog, like, and follow if you enjoyed, and leave a reply even if you didn’t! See you again soon!

[mashithamel]

A Warm Heart in Winter: JR Ward, Black Dagger Brotherhood

* We’ve had this prologue before. Like, exactly this, right? (Edit: yes, but I haven’t read this book before, it’s just for dramatic effect)

* Therese? It’s spelled exactly the same way! Come on! This book doesn’t spell anything normally and then you reuse a name? Throw some crazy spelling thing in there! Teresita or something??

* “Plus you blush a lot. Why do you blush like that? Is it something he does?” Bitty calling Blay out is adorable.

* They need some chairs outside the OR. People are always sitting on the floor while they wait.

* I also need more Manny in these books. His bedside manner is just the best.

* Omg, Qhuinn! You were just stabbed and operated on. Cudos for a healthy libido, but time and place!

* I don’t think the mind-erasing powers are as good as the vampires seem to think they are.

* Wrath has completely banned fish from the house? Like, totally? Zero tuna or salmon or bass? I mean, he’s a king so I guess he can do whatever he wants, but he was “democratically” elected, so maybe he should chill a little on the menu dictates? I feel like Fritz would really be thrown a loop. What do you mean, no fish course? Ever??

* “But I think you’re going to have to keep Rhage away from the damn thing. I mean, he loves a good bouncy castle.” I am not surprised by this at all.

* It’s coffins again, BUT THIS TIME I KNOW WHAT THEY ARE FOR.

* Why didn’t they put the shutters down before the storm, if it was going to be a bad wind?

* “The heart outline he drew was yellow, the color of a lined legal pad. In the center, he wrote: “Q+B = 4EVA” Ok, Qhuinn is acting like a super horny teenager, but this is cute teenager stuff at least.

* “I guess I thought the work was over.” “It’s never over. If we want to be conscious in our lives, in ourselves, the work is always necessary.” Seriously, Z being the most successful therapy case was never on my bingo card for this series. And yet here we are. I love Mary.

* I’d get a melt down like this over, like, a kid missing, but Luchas is a full grown adult who is somewhere on the property. I mean, recruit some people to find him, cause it’s a huge place. But a total meltdown and a five alarm alert seems like a *little bit* of overkill.

* Oh. Oops. Nevermind the above.

* “I’m just trying to figure out how to honor a choice that has broken my heart.” I did not see this ending this way?

* Is it horrible that I think suicide is a better agent of drama here than the parental rights/Layla-Xcor thing it was the last time Blay and Qhuinn were featured? Cause that was painful. But yeah, I think this does make me terrible.

* They really don’t eat lunch? Two meals a day? Or is lunch assumed to be on the fly?

* “He was with them, and he made them quit the beating. Otherwise, I would have died in the middle of that road.” I mean, yes, but you did totally die too, you just got resuscitated.

* “I was supposed to be paired with Payne.” Wait one hot minute! (I didn’t comment earlier when she was in a scene and had a whole line, because it was not important) Payne is out patrolling??? Potentially seeing action??? Finally!!! (Spoiler alert: I’m going to write my own fanfic here about Payne having a fantastic patrol night and then some very spicy time with Manny, because nothing happens here.)

* No one in this house deserves Lassiter. He is simply the best.

* Luchas finally gets an interesting story arc, but only after he dies.

Bottom line: family tragedy solidifies Qhuinn/Blay and they (finally) are formally mated. Not a bad story! But not terribly spicy either.

Rating: three out of five unnecessarily painful rituals

[falloutbradreviews]

The Home Team - Slow Bloom

I talked about this recently in my piece about Issues, and the legacy that they’ve left in the wake of their breakup, but a lot of other bands have come to claim the throne and possibly take their place as the most ambitious alternative band, as a lot of bands are combining pop, R&B, funk, and other outside styles with metalcore, hard rock, and alternative. Issues, despite what happened, was a powerhouse of a band that took ideas and sounds that you think wouldn’t work, but they weirdly do. Their last LP, 2019’s Beautiful Oblivion, is not only one of my favorite albums of that year, it’s one of the best of the decade. I can’t stress enough how good this record is, especially if you want something new out of metalcore. These guys really were ambitious, and they broke the ground for how bands can approach their sound, at least in the metalcore scene. I’ve often found myself wondering what bands are going to take Issues’ place, and I can immediately name one — The Home Team.

These guys aren’t a household name, at least not yet, but they’ve got the potential to be huge. Armed with one of the best vocalists in the scene, and a sound that combines really slick and catchy pop with some heavy and progressive-leaning metalcore. Throw in some pop-punk, and you got this band’s sound down pat. I’ve heard of these guys for the last couple of years, but I haven’t spent much time with them, especially their sophomore album, 2021’s Slow Bloom. The band put out a deluxe edition with two new songs, so I’m going to be talking about that version of the album, especially where the album is only 39 minutes with the two bonus tracks. I got the idea, though, thanks to my buddy Jake recommending the album to me (we also talked about this album, as well as the metalcore scene, in more depth, and I plan on posting this when we get that up, so you should be able to see that, along with this). He said I’d like this album, and sure enough, I love this, but I didn’t spend a lot of time with it.

Sort of like with the latest Bring Me The Horizon album, 2020’s Post Human: Survival Horror, I remembered this album quite well, and that’s a testament to how catchy and memorable this record is. Slow Bloom is one of the most fun and energetic albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to in a long time. That’s due to a couple of key things — vocalist Brian Butcher, and the musicianship. Butcher has such a fantastic voice, he uses it quite well throughout this album, and a lot of the hooks here are impeccable. He has the perfect voice for a pop and R&B, and it shows throughout this album, but the musicianship is great, too. The rest of the band gets to shine throughout the album, and the way they can combine different genres and sounds seamlessly is so great. This record has its fair share of pop-punk, pop, R&B, and even metalcore / alt-metal cuts. Some of the riffs on this thing are heavier than I ever would expected, but I love it.

This band is going places, that’s for sure. They’ve got loads of talent and potential to be huge in the alternative scene. They may be gearing up to release a new album this year, and if that’s the case, I can’t wait. It’s surely going to be one of the best of the year, especially if it sounds anythjng like their newest single, “Loud.” That song has such a great groove to it, and it really showcases the best qualities of the band. I can’t get enough of Slow Bloom, and I gotta shoutout my buddy Jake for recommending this to me, so I could finally sink my teeth into it. Like I said, he and I wrote about this album in more detail, as well as talking about the state of metalcore and alternative music, so give that a read, but I wanted to write this as a companion piece, per se, basically just as another way to say, “Hey, check this out, it rules.” I won’t say I didn’t tell you so.

[cynicalmusings]

i agree the ask game is pretty fun. so more questions for you: 2, 15, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 43!

i want to ask 11, but i feel you don't jump scenes. so i am curious how you handle it when a scene is just not working out. -- @milkstore

(link to the ask game is here)

2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

my brain, usually when i’m about to fall asleep, just waking up, or staring blankly out of a window.

more seriously, fairly often from real life experiences or things i see/hear, or simply just going ‘hey, wouldn’t it be interesting if…?’

…

11. Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?

generally, i write in order, unless a particular scene is what has inspired the whole thing, in which case i write that first. i do actually jump around a little if i’m stuck on a part: e.g. if i’m writing part A and get to B, but get stuck on B, i go onto C and come back to B later. i try not to leave missing scenes in for too long, though.

…

15. What’s your favorite time to write?

the time my writing brain is most active is generally around midnight, so i’d probably pick that, just because my thoughts flow the easiest and it’s satisfying to not get stuck on sentences and things like that.

…

20. Do you prefer writing AUs or canon fics?

i lean towards aus on this one, just because i feel like i can explore different aspects of the character more by placing them in situations or settings they’d never encounter in canon. it’s also interesting to me to see how characters may change slightly depending on au: for example, because xiao is probably less traumatised in a modern au than in canon, i write him as a slightly softer, less harsh version of his canon character. canon can be fun too, though, especially because of familiarity with the setting and stuff.

…

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

i don’t worldbuild that often for my fics, but when i do, that’s definitely my favourite part. beyond that, i’d say the actual writing is my favourite.

…

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

having to go back and write the beginning or end of a scene when the interesting part has already been written. it’s so tedious and i often struggle to come up with how to open/ close the scene.

…

27. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

probably my descriptive writing of locations and appearances. sometimes i cook up decent similes and metaphors as well, and i’m pretty happy with my narrative voice.

…

28. What area of writing do you want to improve in?

this is quite specific, but i think i need to get better at describing characters’ movements/ actions: sometimes, i’ve noticed i get caught up in having this specific image in my brain of how a character gestures or moves, but describing it would be very long-winded or sound out of place. basically, i need to improve on leaning to zoom out on some actions and not feel that i have to describe each detail of them.

…

30. How much do you edit your fics?  Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

i do a little of both: when i’m writing, i kind of edit as i go and search up synonyms to words that don’t sound right, tweak earlier lines, etc. once the main body of the fic has been written, i go over the whole thing and repeat the process but in one go—sometimes i repeat do this a few times, but the point is that i read the whole thing over while editing rather than select parts, which happens more during the actual writing.

…

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

regarding ideas, many: that’s what most of my wips comprise of. regarding tropes, less so, or at least nothing jumps to mind immediately, but i feel like doing some sort of spin on hanahaki could be fun at some point: for example, a character deliberately acquires it for research purposes, or a character who is in a relationship with another and believes them both to be in love starts developing it, or even following the healing process of somebody who has had them. maybe someone who has it as a chronic illness which can’t be cured, or some messed-up experiments on hanahaki patients, e.g. seeing if flowers from hanahaki can be planted in the ground, if they can pollinate each other, things like that.

[cloudwolfbane]

Some helpful info for trans folks. If you are thinking about or getting hrt, this is the most up to date guidelines for gender affirming care with the starting dose and max dose for hormones and other info: https://transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines

For those in the US that are looking for a doc, I would highly recommend checking out your local family medicine or internal medicine residency clinics. A residency clinic is staffed by resident doctors who completed medical school but need to have 3 years additional training under a board certified doctor called an attending before they can practice independently. Residents tend to be young millennials and gen Z’s with a great will to learn. Now to be fair they probably have never prescribed HRT and are learning how to do it on you, but most are friendly and eager and they have an attending keeping an eye on them to make sure they don’t do anything stupid. I tell my patient’s it’s like getting two doctors for the price of one. The visits tend to be longer and sometimes the hours get wildly out of hand, but we are still learning and we also take the sickest patients in the community (homeless, no insurance, fired from other clinics, etc) so sometimes the visit before yours can go an hour long because they are trying to save someone’s necrotic foot or once in my case, run across the street to deliver a baby.

I currently only have one trans patient that I started on HRT, but am eager for more. I feel kind of bad for how enthusiastically I responded to their end of the appointment request. I told them flat out that I didn’t know what I was doing, and I wanted them to come back in a week so I could do some research. I started slow and cautious because I didn’t know what I was doing, but I explained my plan and reasoning to the patient and asked if they wanted to do things faster and they seemed happy with the slow approach. I started with spironolactone because it helps decrease testosterone. I didn’t start estrogen at the same time, even though you can, because I hate prescribing two new things at once, because it’s difficult to figure out what could be causing side effects. You don’t really need base labs, but I wanted a basic metabolic panel and a testosterone level. The bmp is mostly to check potassium because spironolactone can cause it to increase which can cause deadly cardiac arrhythmias. Most people with healthy kidneys handle it fine, but I have seen it spike and in hrt you use way more than you usually use for like cirrhosis. The testosterone baseline is just nice for seeing where you are starting from. Then I added estrogen 2mg at a time with a max of 8mg a day. After that it’s just checking testosterone and estrogen levels to shoot for goals of afab people but it changes depending on person. Some people still want erections so you don’t want testosterone levels under 100 some don’t, everyone is different and happy in different levels, and of course this is all mtf specific, I haven’t actually prescribed ftm yet.

But anyways for people thinking about hrt, give your local residency clinic a try. I bet they will be more eager and understanding and explain things more than a lot of older docs.

[fagtainsparklez]

just saw a clip where f1nn5ter was saying how at this point, he can’t be cis, but at the same time, he doesn’t feel like he’s trans—he’s just neither. and someone in chat was like “you can’t be neither cis nor trans that’s not how it works” i love finn but why is his chat so fucking bad 😭 stop recreating binaries for the love of god, identity does not have to fall into these neat little boxes for you to police

[jayz4dayz]

Team RWBY will become the next generation of Maidens

(Disclaimer, none of the edited images above are mine! I just found them on google lol. Also, SPOILERS FOR VOLUME 9!!!)

So this is kind of just a random theory of mine that I’ve been brewing for a while and I’m sure someone has mentioned it before, but I’m simply gonna explain why this would be the logical and plausible ending for the entire show. 

We know the identity of the current three maidens. Cinder Fall is the Fall Maiden, Winter Schnee is the Winter Maiden, Raven Branwen is the Spring Maiden, but we have interestingly never had a confirmation on the identity of the Summer Maiden. Some fans (including myself) speculate one of two things: the Summer Maiden is someone completely random/character we haven’t been introduced to yet, or... Summer Rose is the Summer Maiden. Now if this were the case, then that means Summer Rose isn’t actually dead. 

The very first scene in the final episode of Volume 9, we see a private conversation take place between Summer and Raven about a secret mission Summer embarks on alone. We aren’t sure about the details of the secret mission except for the fact she had lied to her friends and family about it. To me, that sounds an awful lot like she either faked her own death or nobody found a body when she dissapeared and assumed she was dead. I think Mama Rose is still alive somewhere (possibly lurking around in the Ever After which I’ll circle back on)

As for the transference of the Maiden Powers to Team RWBY, I must address the elephant in the room. A few of our beloved side characters must die. 

I’ll start with the obvious. Raven and Yang.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Raven takes a fatal blow in a battle either from Salam’s forces or possibly even a Cinder battle 2.0 or Salem herself. I know damn well the final person in her thoughts would be her daughter. Go ahead and tell me I’m wrong. She knows out of everyone, Yang is the most trust-worthy and deserving of such power. Even Ozpin himself had once told her “Your mother must trust you a great deal” when Raven told Yang about how Ozpin turned her and Qrow into birds. In this case, it will be Raven’s final act of protection for her daughter to assure she’ll have a better chance of survival. Not only this, the transference of powers scene between her and Yang would be the most memorable and meaningful moment between them in the entire series. (And gods, Yang out of all of Team RWBY would make the most sense to become a maiden. Her hair ignites on fire for crying out loud!)

Next we have Winter and Weiss.

This one will be considerably more painful to witness considering how strong their relationship is and everything they’ve been through growing up together. My best guess is Winter will die battling Salem or possibly alongside Weiss in battle against a different antagonist, but I’m confident it will happen the soonest. And I mean like Volume 10 or 11 kind of soon. Winter and Weiss will likely be reunited in Volume 10 and near the end Winter will meet her fate, giving the Maiden Powers to her sister who will benefit the most from them. With Weiss gaining these powers, imagine her dust glyphs on steroids. She’d be a fucking unit against Salem’s forces (as I’m sure Winter would be too.)

Then, Blake and Cinder.

I actually have quite a bit of evidence to back this one up. Cinder really doesn’t have anybody close to her that she would even consider giving up her powers for. She’s a greedy bitch and would probably think nobody would receive her powers if she just didn’t think of anyone when she died, only come to find out the final person to look into her eyes before her final breath is the one to take the powers from her. Ironwood once mentioned that it’s not uncommon for the powers to be transferred to an enemy who the Maiden faced in her final moments. Blake absolutely deserves the right to send Cinder to meet her makers and snatch up her Maiden powers. It would be so satisfying to see Cinder and Blake meet up in the holding space between life and death, but Cinder becomes furious when she realizes Blake will be the one to take HER precious power. It’s the ultimate justice and the best revenge Blake could ever obtain. (Also, Blake would become the first Faunus Maiden that we know of and she'd be such a girlboss for it ;p)

And finally, Summer and Ruby.

In the end, I think it would be a wonderful way to wrap up the entire series by making all of Team RWBY into Maidens and would be the most logical way they could defeat Salem. Of course, this is also assuming they somehow are able to get all of the relics and use that to assist them in defeating Salem once and for all. Also, for shipping purposes, it pretty much sums up the soulmate parallels for the four of them to become maidens. Blake (Fall Maiden) + Yang (Spring Maiden); Weiss (Winter Maiden) + Ruby (Summer Maiden). I think it just fits all of them so well!

As I previously mentioned, Summer being alive and the current Summer Maiden would open the door for Ruby to receive Maiden powers. I’m not entirely sure how it would look and I could theorize for hours to try and explain it, so I’ll keep this short. My current belief is that Summer is in the Ever After which would mean at some point Team RWBY would have to return to deal with Neo’s bullshit and at some point come across Summer. In a heated battle, Summer knows her time to ascend has come. If we take a look at Ruby’s ascension, she technically didn’t even ascend at all. She chose herself which means she didn’t become a new person with no memories of her past or who she is. However, I’m fully confident that Summer will choose to become a different person. She knows she would lose all her memories of her family, her Team, and everything that makes her Summer Rose. This includes her Maiden Powers. It would make the most logical sense that she’d transfer them to her daughter Ruby as her final act of a mother’s love. It would be poetic and the perfect character development for both Summer and Ruby. Plus, imagine how much more powerful Ruby’s silver eyes will become. With Maiden Powers, her petrifying glow from her eyes might be powerful enough to trap anything that’s Grim, including Salem. She wouldn’t be dead, but she’d be imprisoned in stone and petrify for the rest of time.

[Another minor theory in relation to this: Summer is actually dead and passed on her Maiden Powers to Ruby when she was still an infant which means Ruby's powers would be dormant until the time is right]

[m2ok]

Hey, I absolutely love your writing!! 💕 I was wondering if you would ever consider writing for Alex from cod?

Honestly I haven’t thought much about it, but I’ve since done some research (I looked at tik Tok edits of him) and gotta say I’m a big fan! I’m not entirely sure what his personality is, so I made him sorta of a Soap/ Price mixture :) feel free to request something for him if you’d like :D for now have some headcannons!

Alex Keller Headcannons

Alex Keller X M!Reader

A/N: let me know if this is super ooc for him or what his personality really is :)

This guy I think you could’ve met at a civilian. Honestly I’m picturing a meet cute, he gives hallmark vibes. Maybe you worked at the new coffee shop he frequented, or your dog ran away from you in the park and he happened to run into the little guy. Whatever meet cute trope you’d like I think would honestly work.

I think he’s one of those people where you think he’s an open book because he’ll tell you his entire life story, but you find you don’t know much about him afterwards. He doesn’t say how he feels, just what happened to him. It would take you a little bit to figure out that he hasn’t opened up as much as you thought he had.

I’m getting golden retriever energy from him honestly. He just seems like he’d follow you around throughout the day just to be around you.

maybe a mountain dog, because I think he’d be fiercely protective on the battlefield. Of course he knows you can take care of yourself, but if he’s your boyfriend he’s naturally going to worry about you.

If you do happen to get hurt you can guarantee that whoever did it is going to die a slow painful death as long as time allows. Alex doesn’t forgive that kind of thing easily if at all.

Just a little bit dumb I think. Not in the field, of course, but when it comes to everyday basic things I think he’s little dense. Like he’d put plastic in the microwave and pull out a melted container with a little pout.

He can cook breakfast foods, but nothing else. Pancakes? Absolute king. Soup? No way. He’d somehow burn the broth.

Very much adhd vibes. He will pull you into a bunch of shenanigans that get you in trouble just because he had the idea last night at 3 am.

Very gentle and soft, he likes to be the little spoon and he has no issues admitting it. He’ll just yank you down on the bed and wrap your arms around him yourself.

Definitely the type to brag about you any chance he could “everyone, this is my b o y f r i e n d y/n”. He would also start calling you his husband before you guys were married.

He’d also always ask you to marry him just because he can’t help himself. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you could be helping him trim his beard or just cooking something for him and he’d just “marry me” with the softest little smile on your face.

You’d just laugh and go “give me a ring next time and maybe I’ll say yes”

Little did you know he already had a ring tucked away in his pocket. He didn’t plan on proposing just yet, but he kept it away just in case he found the perfect moment and couldn’t pass it up.

I think he’d only have a bit of the proposal planned out, he knew what he wanted to say but he didn’t know where. It would probably be in the same place you first met because it had sentimental value to you both.

As a husband I think he’d want to settle down pretty quickly. He’d retire from the military and live in a nice little house from you in a cute little town. It would be one of those towns where you could walk everywhere you needed to go and everyone knew everyone.

I cant get the imagine of him and blue jeans on with a carhartt jacket and beanie on. I just think he’d look so fine.

He likes hiking absolutely. I imagine you living somewhere that has a really close by hiking area. He just loves nature so much and loves to be in it.

Mediocre at putting things together. Furniture with instructions is no issue and simple things like a birdhouse or a shelf he can do, but nothing extravagant (nothing can beat Price I’m so sorry I love him so much he’s so perfect)

Another imagine I can’t get out of my mind is plaid. Specifically as your bed sheets. It would be like a thick, comfy sort of sheet. Nice and soft and great for cuddling.

His love language when it comes to showing it I think is gift giving. It doesn’t have to be extravagant either like he’ll just find a cool rock and give it to you. Or a little paper crane he’s made

On top of that he’s a fantastic gift giver around the holidays or your birthday. He just loves seeing how happy you get when you open something and find it was the exact thing you mentioned months ago.

Definitely buys presents all year around that way the tree is absolutely packed when Christmas comes around.

If you don’t celebrate Christmas he does his absolute best to follow your traditions and be respectful of how you celebrate if at all. To him the holidays are all about spending time with those you love, no matter how it’s done.

Overall I think he’s a very kind, open, loving partner. He loves you with his whole heart and doesn’t have a lot of issues showing that.

[columboscreens]

Hey I love your blog and I’m a huge Columbo fan! Haven’t gotten too much into the series yet I’m only on season 3 and I wanted to know if you have a definitive ranking of the seasons in your opinion?

thank you! my personal ranking of the individual seasons is as follows:

S TIER - APEX LITTLE GUY

season 3 - absolute all-star season. peter falk was in his prime and columbo's personality was fully developed. he's serious but in good humor, highly competent but still human (as opposed to the omniscience he gains in later seasons). the murderers are fantastic, the plots are interesting, the humor hit its stride, the writing and pacing is artful. even the filler is subtly whimiscal and entertaining. peak, peak columbo.

season favorite: any old port in a storm

A TIER - UPPER ECHELON

season 2 - all of the above, just a very close second in my eyes as i find the episodes overall slightly duller and character of columbo in the process of developing, rather than fully solidified.

season favorite: a stitch in crime

season 1 - a close third. the mysteries are tight and fresh from the minds of levinson and link, and it shows. the photography/editing is very experimental, very cutting edge. the only caveat is that early columbo is, in retrospect, just a bit too flat/stodgy. the characterization that can only cultivate with time just wasn't there yet.

season favorite: suitable for framing

season 4 - still superb columbo but trails behind season one just a little bit more. i find it not quite as genius, not as tight. i always firmly suspend my disbelief with columbo, but some of the plots start getting a little wavery. what this season really has going for it is that columbo steps out of his comfort zone more often and hits a pitch perfect balance of whimsical and serious. thus, even when the plot suffers, the character still shines. a delightful season to watch.

season favorite: by dawn's early light

(continued under the cut)

B TIER - QUITE GOOD

season 5 - solid columbo, but the discerning viewer finds the show begins to miss more often and is perhaps past its prime. i respect the risk-taking, but by the very nature of taking risk, things don't always quite pan out. that said, this season had some very important bits that pushed the character and, coupled with patrick mcgoohan's influence, had really some of the most fantastic and unique outings of the series. however, nbc's frustration with falk at this point is palpable--season five is the final full installment of the original series.

season favorite: now you see him

C TIER - MERELY GOOD

season 6 - with only three episodes, not much of a season to begin with. some parts are fantastic, some of the best in the series, and some parts start getting hard to watch. the episodes feel mishandled because they were. between logistical conflicts involving writing, directing, producing, and falk trying new ways of playing columbo, this season is a little bit all over the place. overall merely just good in the grand scheme of things.

season favorite: the iq murder case. no, you are not getting me to say the whole thing.

season 7 - still good, but even more mishandled than season 6 and boy is the flanderization in full swing. columbo starts to feel like a different character, and combined with overhauls in showrunning, it begins to feel at some points like a different show. people responded well to columbo's subtle comedic facets, so instead of simply iterating upon them, they immediately blew them out of proportion. columbo was no longer a mystery show with comedic elements, it was a comedy with mystery elements, which mucks up the whole tone of the show. it's handled with less care and comes off as less organic and more hammy than previous seasons. i kind of want to love most of season 7 more than i actually do.

season favorite: the conspirators

season 9 - believe it or not, a more distant third here lies this stretch of 90s era columbos. aside from the abominations that are murder in malibu and murder: a self portrait, i think they actually sort of hit a stride here. stronger outings like columbo cries wolf, agenda for murder, rip mrs. columbo, and even uneasy lies the crown feature prominently. no glory days by any means but still nearly as watchable as the aforementioned seasons.

season favorite: columbo cries wolf

D TIER - HOLDING MY NOSE

season 8 - i no longer consider these episodes "good" in the way columbo is magically good. any good moments are good in spite of what they are, not because of it.

the first reboot season had no idea what it wanted to be. aside from sex and the married detective and occasionally a scene or two from the other episodes, i almost never revisit these. these episodes commit common but fatal columbo sins: columbo goes to the guillotine is so hackneyed it hurts, murder smoke and shadows goes on for entirely too long AND has a villain who is utterly obnoxious to the viewer, and grand deceptions isn't bad per se but an absolute snoozefest. married detective DOES have the awful tuba scene, but it's something you can fast-forward through, rather than fast-forwarding through the entire episode.

season favorite: sex and the married detective

season 10 - these are on their way to the garbage bag. i lump these in with most of the specials and such. when people talk shit about latter-day columbo, they mean a lot of the stinkers in this pile. aside from columbo goes to college (the best reboot outing) and columbo likes the nightlife (the final columbo outing which happened to be weirdly really good), i very seldom revisit these episodes. again, aside from isolated scenes, performances, or moments, you can safely walk away from these or just watch them in passing. they are watchable tv, but rarely have any of the columbo sparkle.

season favorite: columbo goes to college

F TIER, GARBAGE BAG

murder in malibu can suck an egg

[gensuta]

GAMES WITH TRANS/NONBINARY REP!!

Happy pride month!! I love playing video games so I thought it'd be neat to share the many many games I've played with nonbinary and trans characters >:3

Sorry in advanced I’m copying and pasting stuff from twitter ;v; Also know that many of these games ARE on consoles, but if you buy them on pc/mac use itch.io if it exists. It gives devs more money!!

VALIDATE!!  There's a demo on Steam and Itch.io that you can play RIGHT NOW and also a patreon you can support and I highly suggest it ^o^ It's a lovely VN with several playable characters and rlly good writing

Extreme Meatpunks forever is so SO good omg. It's a VN/mech brawler where u be gay and fight fascists!!! Trans and nonbiney ppl are out here being badass af. The game has cws/tws built into the game ( which i love sm ) Also there's a ttrpg on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW!! 

Another game with nonbinary characters is an rpg called Ikenfell! It was one of my favorite games to play last year and the music and just everything? Honestly so good I'm def replaying it this year. It also has tons of good accessibility features!

ok but i wanna geek abt ikenfell just a smidge more  U DON'T UNDERSTAND 3 OF THE PLAYABLE CHARACTERS ARE NONBINARY <333 The strongest playable character also uses ze/zir pronouns and I think that's pretty epic

Ok so like literally every game I've played by @analgesicprod I've loved 100% And Anodyne 2? Everyone should go play it and I will keep saying it until everyone does. And yes there's a trans character in it <3 Drem my beloved <3  Go check it out!!

Another game studio I love is @pillowfightio !!! They worked on Later Alligator, We Know the Devil, and Heaven Will Be Mine. I highly recc all of them but esp. Later Alligator cuz like just look at Joanie. They're so cool.  

In the game Everhood gender doesn't exist <3 Literally multiple characters are referred to with they/them pronouns and the gameplay is very enjoyable 

 CW LOTS of flashing lights and I feel like there should maybe be more cws but I'm not sure what else to add :l I guess a warning is that Everhood gets into more serious stuff and I'll be honest when the game first came out I had to put it down for several days b/c I just wasn't ready for a lot of that stuff, but I honestly liked the game a lot!

I was debating on adding this bc while I love this game there's some issues. So Gnosia is like werewolf ( or among us if you will ) but more narrative focused with time loops etc. There's two wonderful nonbinary characters and you can be nonbinary HOWEVER ( minor gnosia spoilers. skip past if you want to avoid it) . . . For some reason finding out the AGAB of one of the characters is mandatory and I fucking hate that. It's so unnecessary esp for the world building that's been done. Also tws for the game: sexual abuse / assault, gore ( in only one scene ) (spoilers end) but yeah I still added it because the characters are so neat and strong for the type of game it is and without that bit I wouldn’t feel so :/ abt recommending it. It’s pretty fun ngl

Wandersong!!! The main character is nonbiney and I love them <33 It's such a lovely little musical adventure with such a nice narrative and!! Some of the devs just released Chicory ( which I haven't gotten to play yet ;v; ) but check that out too!!

Bravery Network Online is super fun!! It's a turn based rpg that feels really good and has two characters that use they/them pronouns ( Fel and Reed ) the character designs are sooo good and the game is currently in early access!

I never thought I'd see a claymation point and click musical featuring a nonbinary detective but Dominique Pamplemousse is just that Need I say more?

A personal fav I think about every now and then is Dad fighter 30XX!! Like who doesn't wanna beat up their friend's shitty dad in the parking lot of a dennys?? Also the win music is my FAV

SPIRIT SWAP!!! By @SoftNotWeak !!!! Super chill and pretty game by lovely people with a demo you can play right NOW!! This game makes me want to become a strong magical thembo

More games I’ve played, but am too lazy to ramble about

ROM:2064 ( game is amazing but i got mixed feelings tho bc the og devs aren't getting paid for it I think :/ )

A Year of Springs

Secret Little Haven 

A normal lost phone

Calico 

Celeste

Hollow Knight

Undertale

Deltarune

Monster Prom / Monster Camp

Hades ( all of supergiants games slap btw )

If Found

Here’s games I haven’t played but have heard about

Bugsnax

Diaries of a spaceport janitor

Hustle Cat

Tell Me Why

Our Life

Last Minute Love

Black Tarot

Apex Legends

World of Warcraft has trans npcs :0

Dragon Age Inquisition

Sky, Children of the Light

TemTem

Battletech

Death and Taxes :0

Flicker :0 ( roblox games do count! It’s always cool to see what ppl make in it )

Assassins Creed Syndicate has a trans npc

Verdant Skies

Wandering Wolf Trick ( I love nomnomnami’s games sm but haven’t played this one. Highly reccommend her stuff )

If you have any games you wanna add to this PLEASE please do and I'll add them!! And while you're here please support the Queer Games Bundle going on itch rn to support tons LGBTQ+ game devs financially (including me ) <3 Last little edit for now: I’d def suggest trying to find cws/tws for these games just in case I haven’t covered everything for the ones I did talk about <3

[tracybirds]

Where Parallel Lines Meet (5/?)

Wow these past two weeks have flown by! I’m about to go back to work full time so although I hope to keep to my loose fortnightly updates, I can’t guarantee that :( Lots to do in the year ahead!!

Big thanks to @gumnut-logic as always for being my sounding board and very patient with my slightly obsessive focus as I wrote :D And thanks also to the various people who gave me encouragement along the way and how you did so without hesitation bc that do be a confidence boost :D

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!!

Title is adapted from a line in Sarah Howes’ poem ‘Relativity’ (scroll to the bottom of the article)

A fight between John and Alan is followed by an interstellar storm with unexpected consequences.

[Part 1] | [Part 2] | [Part 3] | [Part 4] | [Part 5] | [Part 6] | [Part 7]

---

“You know, I haven’t spent much time down here,” said John, staring around them.

“I thought Scott showed you the hangar already,” replied Alan.

“Pointed at the door, more like. He hauled me away pretty quick and told me not to bother Brains.”

Alan thought if his brother rolled his eyes any harder they were liable to roll right out of their sockets.

“So you haven’t seen the ‘birds up close yet?”

“Well,” said John, hesitating over the word. “I wouldn’t say that exactly. I’ve seen them.”

Alan caught his meaning at once and groaned.

“Please tell me you didn’t sneak into the hangar in the middle of the night.”

“Okay,” said John, deadpan. “I didn’t sneak into the hangar in the middle of the night.”

He grinned.

“It’s not sneaking if the door’s left unlocked and I turned on all the lights. Besides he said I could have a closer look later. But when he’s here he’s always busy, so I helped myself.”

“Scott’s gonna kill me,” muttered Alan. “He’s actually going to kill me.”

“What’s his deal anyway?” said John. “I don’t remember him being so… you know.”

He waved his hand vaguely. “Like a giant pain in the ass.”

Alan stopped short and scowled at him.

“Scott’s not a pain in the ass.”

“Okay fine. Stick in the mud, whatever.”

“Scott’s given up everything for us.”

“Doesn’t seem that way to me. He’s just bossing all of us around, making up dumb rules that don’t make any sense.”

“That’s not what he’s doing, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yeah? You don’t even remember, he used to sneak out and stuff all the time.”

“You’re the one that doesn’t remember anything,” snapped Alan. “You’re the one who can’t do anything and I don’t care if you think you’re smart, you’ve got to be stupider than a pair of rocks if you think your say-so is worth more than Scott’s.”

John stopped short, glaring at Alan with the fury and focus of a high energy laser.

He wrenched his mouth open and despite himself Alan flinched, remembering the sharply barbed words that could fall so easily from his brother’s tongue when he was in the right mood.

Or the wrong mood as the case may be.

It seemed that John was always in the wrong mood nowadays.

“B-boys?”

The commotion died down in an instant, both brothers turning towards Brains who stood staring at them with an expression of mild alarm. The door that led deeper into the volcanic cavern, towards his workshop wing, stood ajar behind him and he still held a tablet in his hand, the holo-blueprint he had been editing swinging wildly in time with the arm that hung loose by his side.

“Hey Brains,” said Alan. “Uh… sorry. We didn’t…”

He searched for the best word to describe the argument.

“…interrupt, did we?”

Brains pushed his glasses up his nose and gave them a small smile.

“I f-fancied a walk,” he said, tactfully ignoring the tension in the air that was slowly dissipating. “I assume you’re coming to see m..me?”

“Yeah. If you’re not too busy.”

“Come along then. I’ve b-been working on a new locking mm..mechanism for the space pods that you m-might like to look at. You as well, John.”

“We actually need…” began Alan, but John cut him off.

“Yes,” he said loudly. “Yes, please. I want to see that. How’d you solve the pressure differential issues? Being equipped for so many different environments must have been a challenge.”

He rushed forward and Brains followed him, chatting lightly together as they began to walk towards the workshop.

Alan let them go ahead for a moment and tried to collect his thoughts. He was starting to get used to the sharp whiplash that came with John’s moods but they seemed to race through him like a storm rising out of a blue sky. It disturbed him more than any other change, being totally foreign in comparison to John’s normal even temper and cool head.

He'd heard stories of John as a teenager, mostly through Gordon’s good-natured teasing, stories of a slightly awkward and gawky boy who froze when Fiona Carr asked him out and who spent more time in the computer lab than at social events.

None of those stories featured a moody kid with a temper that shifted as easily as the wind and tossed and turned and shoved and left Alan sprawling as he tripped over on the backfoot once more.

It wasn’t that his John didn’t get angry –Alan remembered their final conversation in excruciating detail after all– but he never seemed to let himself grow out of control. Always his fury was released with the same careful deliberation as every other part of his life, and tidily packed away once it was no longer required.

This John was a wild card and Alan couldn’t figure out how to deal with him.

“Alan,” called Brains, pausing in the doorway. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah… yeah, sorry Brains.”

He hurried to catch up and quickly fell into step beside him. John was nowhere to be seen.

“I let him g-go on ahead,” said Brains quietly. “He knows the way and he can’t do any harm.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” muttered Alan ungraciously, but he knew the likelihood of John deliberately damaging anything was next to none. He might have been a pain, and exhausting to keep an eye on, but Alan knew his brother was more bored and frustrated than vindictive.

The workshop would probably do him good.

“Did you want to discuss your argument?”

“No,” said Alan, unable to prevent a slight frown from falling over his expression.

Brains nodded, seeming unsurprised. They walked in silence for a few minutes, long enough for the air to lose its cavernous chill as they entered the cramped cave network that housed Brains’ engineering experiments and prototypes.

“How are you coping anyway?” he asked suddenly.

Alan snorted.

“I’m fine. It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it.”

“And that m-makes you f-fine?”

“It means I have to be fine. Scott’s got enough to worry about – him and the others are swamped as it is. Gordon hasn’t used the pool in weeks and I can’t remember the last time Virgil played his piano.”

“Yes,” said Brains sadly. “I’d noticed that too.”

“And Kayo doesn’t have time to talk anymore, she’s too busy on Five and Grandma’s off trying to figure out what’s going on with John and…”

The words spilled out of him, all his worries and fears, all the petty resentment he’d stored up over the last few weeks, all his failures that he’d tallied up and all the frustrations with John, with having to stay on the island, feeling helpless and useless and wishing he could take it all back, the arguments, the ionisation storm, skipping the stupid assignments, everything.

He just wanted to rewind the clock and tell his younger self to not be such a short-sighted idiot.

He didn’t know when they stopped walking, but Brains made no motion to continue their path and so Alan ranted and paced in front of his friend. All the while he said nothing, only stood quiet and listened.

The words slowed to short bursts as they petered out and Alan huffed.

“B-better?” asked Brains with one of his small smiles.

Alan found he couldn’t answer, didn’t know for sure if he did feel better. He might even feel worse, the cool embarrassment of being caught out and unable to work through his own feelings creeping over him.

He settled for a half-shrug and looked away as the expression on Brains’ face morphed into a distinct look of sympathy.

“Talking about it doesn’t make you weak.”

“It’s not that,” snapped Alan. “I shouldn’t need it, I should be able to figure it out myself. I’m not a child anymore.”

Brains looked at him and suddenly Alan realised they were the same height, shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye.

“Don’t be f-foolish, Alan. We all need our f-family and friends to talk things through, you know that.”

And he did. Alan knew that his brothers didn’t leave things festering, knew that they talked things out with one another.

But not with him.

For a long time, he knew they’d have never let him see their own anxieties and he’d always been too absorbed in his own problem to notice anyway. But things were beginning to change, or possibly slipping into a new and untested rhythm where he could reach out and check on them just as they’d always done for him.

And maybe that meant it would be okay if things weren’t wholly fine.

“It’s been hard,” he admitted. “But mostly because I’ve been worrying about everyone else.”

“Well, you can worry with me whenever you like,” said Brains. “Shall we go see your brother? I imagine by now he’s f-found a thousand questions to ask and will be wondering where we are.”

“He’ll be having too good a time for that,” said Alan with a smile. “He won’t have even noticed we were gone.”

They were both right.

John had hoisted himself up onto the workbench, and was scrolling through old plans on a tablet he’d hacked into, talking a mile a minute as he leapt through the schematics of Thunderbird Three.

Spinning around him, chattering just as quickly with her high voice was EOS, delighted by the opportunity to reconnect with her best friend.

“I see you’ve m-met EOS,” said Brains smiling. “Has she scared off MAX again?”

“I would never,” came EOS’s indignant voice, swivelling the camera array around. “He’s just rude, always running away when all I do is say ‘hello’. Not like John. I’ve missed speaking with you, you know.”

“Why didn’t you speak to me before?” asked John.

She tilted her camera upwards, reminiscent of a pout.

“Scott wouldn’t let me. He said you ‘needed space’.” She looked over at him. “You’ve told me about needing space before, you know. Scott said he’d tell you when the time was right and you’d come find me when you were ready. And I’m so glad the time’s right now.”

John laughed.

“Well, I’m glad to meet you too,” he said sincerely, looking lighter than he had done in weeks.

“But Scott didn’t say the time was right,” blurted Alan.

John rolled his eyes and Brains lay a gentle hand on Alan’s shoulder.

“I doubt he’s had the time to let John know EOS existed. I’ll take responsibility if he’s upset, but given how open we’ve b-been about International Rescue, this won’t be an issue.”

He smiled at EOS.

“And she’s done a great job assisting m-me with work in the mm..meantime.”

“I only came down today because I was bored,” said EOS, lights flashing a deep, moody blue. “Kayo’s better than Gordon, but she gets all sharp and snaps when I try to help.”

“Try to help or try to ‘help’?” asked Alan, grinning a little as he remembered how EOS ‘helped’ last time he and Gordon had taken a turn upstairs.

“Real help,” said EOS indignantly. “John told me I needed a better baseline than Gordon and I wasn’t to equate help with annoyance.”

“I can’t believe I made a real AI,” said John, still watching her in frank admiration. “I remember reading about how they were meant to be impossible only a few years ago.”

“You didn’t make me,” said EOS, playing an audio clip that sounded suspiciously like the old John hmphing. “You only wrote my code; I made myself from there and finished the job off.”

“Team effort then?”

EOS beamed, the ring of green glowing ever bright.

“Always, John. You and I are always a team.”

He beamed back at her then turned to the others.

“So, training? I saw that room with the giant mats, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

“We’re here to get you stuff for lessons,” said Alan, and John pounced on him at once.

“Yeah, but ‘lessons’ includes training. Scott said so, I have to do both side by side.”

“What curriculum did you f-follow at high school, John?” asked Brains, speaking over Alan’s response and gently steering the conversation away from another argument.

John shrugged.

“Whatever they gave me mostly. I’ve done all my science, math and language credits but I was doing extras. I got to leave to attend the community college in the next town over in the afternoons, nothing complicated. In the mornings I had English, history and whatever arts elective was available.”

“You were doing college stuff already?” asked Alan, looking startled.

John shrugged again and looked down at hands. It didn’t seem he wanted to talk about it.

“Yeah, Scott would drive me over. They let us take a math class together.”

“Wow,” said Alan enviously. “I wish I had that kind of flexibility; it was hard enough convincing the distance learning committee to let me skip a year.”

“Yeah, well,” said John, swinging his legs. “The school didn’t really have a lot of choice, it’s not like they knew what to do with me. Or any of us really. Dad said we might move to New York or something soon, get to a better school and stuff. I guess he’s doing alright.”

He paused.

“Or was. Did.”

His legs stopped swinging and he drew one knee into his chest.

“Whatever.”

The air condensed around them, a sudden prickly tension emanating from John that seemed to cut through any words that Alan might have otherwise said.

He looked over at Brains in a panic, wanting to rush forward but held back by the memory of Scott hovering helpless over him all those weeks ago on that first awful morning.

It struck Alan that he’d not once heard John mention their father in all that time.

“John,” Brains began, but John only gripped his knee tighter, refusing to look up at him.

Brains stopped, bewildered and unsure in a way Alan had never seen him before. He was used to Brains having the answer to every problem, or at least always knowing how to proceed.

“John,” said EOS, bolder than Brains and less reverent of emotion. “You know your father is dead. You can’t avoid mentioning him forever.”

“Says you,” snapped John. “What would you know anyway, you’re only a machine.”

EOS’s lights flashed a dangerous red.

“You are being illogical, John, you know I am not a machine.”

“You’re a machine,” snarled John. “And you can’t help me. Go away.”

“Go, EOS,” said Alan, hollowly. “I know John taught you about giving people space, I think it would be best if you…”

He trailed off as both EOS and John turned their glares towards him.

“Fine,” said EOS loftily. “If you need space, I’ll just go then. The POD computers need to be recalibrated to respond to gravitational strength anomalies anyway.”

“I’ll join you,” said Brains, quickly.

Alan shot a panicked glance in his direction, having no desire to be left alone with a volatile John who didn’t want anyone’s help or platitudes. Brains only gave him a pointed look and shut the door.

If there had been a gap between them before, there was now a chasm whose vast width and depth threatened to engulf Alan, standing on its edge. He still couldn’t think of anything to say, the years of comfort sought from his own brothers ringing hollow in his ears.

John didn’t need to hear recycled reassurances that had comforted Alan ever since he was eight.

But Alan didn’t know what else to offer.

Slowly he crossed the room, hoisting himself up onto the workbench, and sat cross-legged facing his brother.

“If you’re going to tell me some trite crap about how it’s okay to be upset, I promise I will hit you.”

Alan shrugged.

“Fine. Then you’re being a big baby and you should have gotten over it by now. Is that better?”

There was a short silence.

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.”

He didn’t reply and Alan hardly expected him to. He was content to wait while the net of thorns around John began to loosen.

The minutes ticked by, the only sounds their breathing and the odd friendly beeps of machinery scattered around the room.

The health and safety posters and math jokes pinned to the wall behind them suddenly became very interesting when dark patches suddenly appeared on John’s trousers, stained by salted tears.

“I hate him.”

Alan nodded.

“I did too for a while. Hated him for leaving, hated him for going, hated him because he should have known.”

“Not Dad. Me. The other me.”

John swiped at his face angrily.

“He stole my time. I should have gotten more time, that was mine but he messed up and now I’m stuck here and it’s just not fair.”

Alan hummed softly in agreement, wondering what his brothers would say.

Wondering what John would say to himself if he could.

“No, it’s not,” he said at last.

John’s fingers twitched, the tension in his body ramping up yet again and Alan resisted the temptation to rest an arm across his shoulders and pull him close.

“What do you remember about him?” he asked instead, hearing the echoes of his brothers’ gentle encouragement in his voice.

John glanced at him.

“Dad?”

“Yeah,” said Alan. “I mean, you still have six more years on me.”

There was an appraising look in John’s eyes, suspicious of the distraction.

“Don’t you want to talk about him?”

“I think I need to talk about him,” said John hollowly. “But not yet. And not to you.”

He turned away.

The sting of rejection was sharper than any barb he’d traded with John before yet Alan couldn’t bring himself to be hurt. His own precious memories were few and it had taken a long time before he’d been able to wrangle more from his family. He knew too well how silent grief could be, how easily it could isolate.

Be patient, his instincts whispered to him, sounding a lot like the John he was missing. Stay with him.

Alan stayed, inching closer and closer until he sat side by side, shoulder to shoulder with his brother.

Quickly, before he could second-guess himself, he wrapped an arm around his brother and pulled him close. It was no different to when he was small, John’s startled body soon relaxing into his touch. He smiled wearily, soft and familiar as though nothing had changed as he reached up to hold Alan’s arms tighter around him.

“Time will carry us forward,” Alan whispered, the echo of John’s own voice speaking alongside him in his memory.

John huffed a wet sounding laugh.

“That’s what I always said to you. You know, when you were little.”

“I know. I remember. You don’t stop saying it by the way.”

John’s face fell and he pulled away.

Alan dropped his arms and moved back.

“It’s not just time with Dad he stole,” said John. “It was you too. I hate that he got to know you and that he gets to be your hero. I’ll never get that chance. You just keep humouring me because you think one day, I’ll disappear and he’ll come back.”

He scowled a split second too slow to cover his dejection.

Alan winced.

“I do hope that he’ll come back. But not because I want to get rid of you. Because I know he is you. And you’re still him. You can’t know, but you really are just like each other.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

“You are,” insisted Alan. “You both like computers. And space.”

“Lots of people like computers and space.”

Alan laughed.

“That might be true, but trust me no-one likes them the same way you do. Except well… you.”

“But it’s not just that, you’re both stubborn and have the same single-mindedness when it comes to solving problems. You both work hard, both never stop trying to understand things just that little bit more. He hated having to explain himself twice or ask for the same information more than once.”

“And believe me, Scott and Virgil didn’t have a choice, they had to tell you about iR because if they hadn’t, you’d have figured it out in about eight seconds flat – there was no chance they’d escape you; you’re too good at observing people and putting together missing pieces. And just like him you’d never have been able to let that go once you knew about it. You aren’t able to let that go.”

“And that’s because you – both of you – would do anything to help someone who needs it. There’s no way he wouldn’t have done everything he could to help once he’d found out he could do something to help. That’s the kind of person John is. That’s the kind of person you are.”

“Huh,” said John, narrowing his eyes as he thought it over. “When you put it like that it doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Yeah,” said Alan. “Not so bad at all.”

He reached out to ruffle John’s hair, nearly crowing in delight when he succeeded before his brother retaliated with a hard shove and a reluctant smile.

Alan grinned.

“I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“You’re a jerk,” said John, sighing in an overly dramatic fashion. “I suppose this is my lot in life as the youngest now.”

“Unless you grow up, yes,” teased Alan.

He nudged John lightly.

“Now, I think there was something we needed to do down here? Something about lessons.”

John rolled his eyes but he couldn’t hide his eagerness.

“Those simulators. Scott showed me the room but I barely got a proper peek at them.”

“Same single-mindedness,” Alan said again, but he laughed as he jumped down from the counter. “Let’s go see them.”

[Part 6]