#Ah - the superpower/magic I really want

[megamindsupremacy]

So. ive been going through your billy batson tag bc im very normal and super hinged about this kid and you ARE right about Billy growing up the normal way and how that would effect him, but I need us all to consider the opposite: The Magic went "Ah, he's pure of heart bc he is but a lad", and not *letting* him grow up. Billy being immortal but stuck as a kid forever. The realization everyone is going to grow up w/o him. That he is *always* going to be a kid. That could be a very bad time too.

OH MY HEART. you're so right and i'm kissing you on the mouth. okay i need to marinate in this now stand by

so I think it's fairly accepted now that the Wizard chose Billy to be Shazam when he was so young because all of the previous Champions were adults, and that went Badly (see: Black Adam). So obviously, if the adults can do the whole superhero thing, then we should give the role to a kid. But then, to take it a step further: if the adults can't do the superhero thing, then we should make the next Champion stay a kid.

And like, it takes a hot minute for Billy to notice. Say he became CM at 8 - he doesn't know the average rate of growth for a boy. He just thinks he's not getting as tall as quickly as his peers. It's not like there's adult supervision around to go "hello small small child, why are you still small and a child?" I could see him going at least a few years before realizing there might be something wrong. Then it takes him a little bit to figure out what exactly is wrong, and then a little longer to be in denial, before he finally has to come to terms with, yeah, he really is 8 years old for the rest of forever.

I wonder how it affects him, mentally? Because you could go one of two ways: either he stays mentally an 8 year old forever and doesn't mature, although he gains knowledge and experience with time, or he does mentally mature and becomes an adult, just stuck in the body of a child.

For angst reasons, I like the second one, but realistically, the whole reason he's in this mess is because the Wizard wanted someone who was pure of heart to stay pure of heart. Why go through all the trouble to not let him physically age but allow his mind to change? So now we have an eternally "both mentally and physically a child" situation.

I feel like, when you're that young, you can't really... process how devastating that is? He's only a little kid - at that age, you can't even imagine turning 18 yet, much less living out the rest of your life as an adult. He doesn't know what he's lost. So instead of Billy angst, it's outsider POV angst. Everyone is growing old and watching Billy stay the same as always. I imagine he reveals his identity at some point, a while into being Captain Marvel, and they have a Twilight moment of "I'm 8" "....how long have you been 8?" ("no, but actually, we've known you for 12 years, you can't actually be 8. what do you mean 'a wizard did it'."). Everyone is just quietly mourning the person Billy could have become, had he not been chosen to be the Champion of Magic, meanwhile Billy is living out the eternal childhood dream of Superpowers + Adult Body w/o Adult Responsibilities. It's tragic in a way Billy can never comprehend because of what the wizard did to him.

Feel free to add onto this post!

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - lots, just LOTS

I thought I would be pretty lean reporting for Oct 2023 but then (for reasons relayed here) the weeklies got saved by a drunk avenging hacker in a hotel room.

Oct 2023 Wk 1

Except I still can't watch IFYLITA, because I use my other computer for it.

Gotta say though, watching tese mostly all in one day (for travel reasons) is beyond even my BL superpowers. I did my best tho.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 8 of 12 - Sailom, sweetie, Kang is never sleeping alone again. It wasn't really translated, but Kang's way of speaking in that opening stinger was VERY cutsie. Also the gay sheets have made another appearance. I do have to say that "rich kid problems" is not my favorite story arc, but I still think this is a great Thai BL.

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 6 of 8 - I love that they are finally talking to each other but Yi’s whole personality is shifting. Honestly, this pair is great at kissing and casual touches, but the friendships are the best thing about this franchise. Also Mr Chenne remains my fav character. But where did Diao's baby superhero team come from? And why? This show is very confusing... It’s also not very good.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) You Are My Soulmate ep 7 - This was the one of the series I was looking forward to the most, because silly, pretty, and v BL. It is, in fact all those things and nothing more. So I'm enjoying it, of course.

Absolute Zero (Thai Weds iQIYI) ep 2 of 12 - I like it, but it feels like it's gonna be so sad. I'm having Promise and Dew the movie flashbacks. Plus 12 eps seems too long for this narrative thread. I am worried.

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 6 of 10 eps - This show is so slow it's hardly worth the bandwidth, but we attained "baby is a floppy drunk" and thus a finger bite frustration scene, which was nice.

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 9 of 10 (not a BL but I'm watching it anyway) - Ray is so mean to Sand. The not-a-thing with Sand & Nick was cute. I’ve had several experiences like that. All my queer friendship groups tend to be incestuous, but sometimes they're just too much of a sibling and trying to sleep with them is the most unsexy thing in the universe. To be fair, I’ve also been in Ton’s position (this ep). Jojo sure makes queer shizz. But also, Ton must have a magic rod with everyone wanting a repeat. (I'm so glad they put Neo in this role, no one else at GMMTV could play him as complex or sympathetic.)

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

You Are Mine (Taiwan Fri Viki) eps 5 of 10 - now officially known by me as "I'm too sunshine for this seme" where our boss is being hella obvious but our cinnamon roll is just too ooey-gooey to notice. Al.though, baby boy, he takes you home, sleeps on top of you, feeds you cookies (IN HIS BED) and keeps you in his space? Surely even this sunshine is catching a few rays of truth?

Gaga's *unintelligible gay murmuring* is my favorite caption EVER.

Also the name of my new ASMR YT channel.

Bon Appetit (Korea Weds iQIYI) 3-4 of 8 - ah gay panic, also what is Korea's obsession with 7 year separations? Is it only true love if you wait 7 years? Dohoon is SUCH a flirt, it's kinda great! Also, since it's Korea, we got us a bit of a love triangle with 2 hyung romances, so I (of course) am torn. Either way Dohoon is going down. I do love how much time we are spending with the food in this drama, finally one that lives up to its name. On an entirely different note, Korean camping is the most bizare thing to me. It's SO damn civilized. There will be NO DIRT. They pack blow torches. And full dinner sets. Every time I see it in a drama, I'm amused.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - OMG these 2 are so in love with each other, and so ridiculous about it. They're tiny idiots but I love them.

If It’s With You AKA Even If I Fall In Love With You AKA Kimi to nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo’ (Japan Gaga) ep 1 of 5 - from MBS a live action adaptation of Kubota Maru’s manga ‘君となら恋をしてみても. Amane has stopped loving people due to trauma until he meets Ryuji. At first Amane just wants to play with Ryuji but… feelings.

I like the odd Japanese mature-childishness in this one. Plus a broken sunshine who is out in a kind of aggresive way and an instinctive caring seme. What's not to love? Well, it's Japan I'm sure it will surprise me one way or another.

Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 3 of ? - the cray cray step brother quazi incest is a bit much for me. Why does VBL just suddenly get so unhinged like this?

Kiseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 9 of 13(?) - resumes next week

It's Airing But...

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 8 of 12 - I will try to watch 8-12 and do a series review when I get back in November but... not sure I will be able to. Fingers crossed.

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 8fin - I will complete and drop a review in Nov.

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - 4th installment in this series (1st series, 1 special, 1 movie prior) about a lawyer who lives with his boyfriend, a hairdresser, and cooks for him. I find thie series more fun to binge, som I'm waiting until it completes its run.

I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan Tues Netflix-Japan & ????) - in classic JBL fashion, I Cannot Reach You could not be reached. 

Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine? AKA Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasu ka? (Japan cinema release in-country only) - This one is a movie from Japan so in customary fashion who tf knows when (or if) it will get international distribution. Salaryman Ayumu Koiwai just can't tear his eyes away from the strong, muscular man as he checks on the stocks of the vending machine in his office.

In case you missed it?

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) Apparently ended its run I DNFed this at ep 3. So no review from me.

My Beautiful Man: Eternal AKA Utsukushii Kare Eternal (Japan movie Viki & Gaga) - Play it again Sam, only I'm kinda tired of this song. I was v dramatic tho. And it's always nice to be reminded JBL can kiss when it puts its mind to it. 8/10

Next Week Looks Like This

Upcoming October BL

10/31 SHADOW (Thai VIU ????) - this is a horror BL featuring ghosts and other paranormal elements in a high school setting. I'm not wild about Thai horror (or horror at all, but if it must be done in BL let Japan do it). It features Singto (who did paranormal BL He's Coming to Me) opposite Fluke N (who's done a couple horror's before). Also Fiat. Dan suffers from sleep paralysis, and in his dreams he sees a shadow that suffocates him. It gets worse when he transfers schools.

10/? Bump Up Project AKA Bump Up Business (Korea ????) - BL staring OnlyOneOf that released(??) as a movie in July but is now being recut and reissued as a series. Stars NineMill and from Idol Romance bulled as a love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency (based on a webtoon). OnlyOneOf have been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV work in this post. Idol Romance will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You) but I don't think we will get any in this. After that OmegaX Shoulder bullshizz buisness I am very wary of this show.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I've seen this Chinese drama like... no wait... okay it's like EVERY Chinese drama ever.

(both Mr Cinderella 2)

I only got to watch this scene and the bath, but bot were pretty darn good! I Feel You Linger in the Air

There's only one bed but they slept together on the floor anyway. One of BL's oddest tropes.

I do love a finger bite. (both Venus in the Sky)

Good advice

(Naughty Babe)

(Last week) 

[multifandominfj]

A New Beginning: A Supergirl 6x20 Re-Write

Chapter Two: The Big Reveal

With a box of chocolates, wine and flowers, Kara flew home as fast as she could. “Lena?”

“Hey you.” That melodic Irish brogue of her carries through the apartment. “How was your day?”

“Good.” What was before Kara was Lena in her NCU sweatshirt, flannel bottoms and cupcake slipper socks.

“What’s all this for?” Curious of the meaning of the things Kara had in her hand, she first dragged her to the couch, then got back up to get a couple of wine glasses.

“I saw the second half of the text you sent me, and my mind went over everything. So…this is essentially an ‘I’m Sorry.”

“Kara, sweetheart, you have nothing to be sorry for.” A spritely chuckle was Lena’s response. “The gift, albeit very thoughtful, and yummy, that is not what my text was about. Did you even see the first part?”

Pulling out her phone again, she read the first sentence multiple times, before looking back up at Lena, feeling slightly embarrassed. “Ah…”

“Yeah, it was definitely quite the surprise, seeing you on TV. And I gotta say, you looked pretty smoakin’.” Her famous eyebrow arch accompanied with a heart melting smirk was the sure fire way to get Kara to relax.

“You sure flattery isn’t your superpower instead of Magic?” Kara jokingly asked as she opened the box of chocolates, kicking her shoes off before leaning back on the couch and accepting the wine.

“Cross my heart. And…Andrea was watching with me.” She revealed.

“Really? How did she process?” Intrigue was an understatement about how Kara felt about her former boss knowing.

“She looked like a cartoon that had gotten squished by an anvil at first, but then she felt really bad about all of the times she treated you horribly.”

“You know I’m over that now, Lena.” She dismisses.

“I know Kara, but she really did feel bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if she reached out to you. She really does want to make amends.”

“Then I appreciate the thought. Whenever she reaches out, I will gladly accept.” Kara sighs, sipping her drink.

“You really did look great on camera.” Not once had Lena taken her eyes off Kara. “I’m proud of you. Out of all of the years I’ve known you, seeing you on camera and how you handled yourself with grace and poise, you were practically radiating sunshine.”

Kara always did this thing where, whenever she was complimented, she would get the biggest smile while simultaneously biting her lip and bowing her head to hide the cherry red blush on her cheeks. “You always know what to say. And, to be honest, while I was answering, I was worried about stumbling over my words. Yet, with every second that passed by, there you were. In my head, like always. Pushing me through.” It had become second nature for Kara to reach for Lena’s hand whenever they sat on the couch together.

“Kara, there is actually something that has been weighing on my mind.” Sure to not spill a drop, Lena sets her glass on the table before her, and turns her attention back to her Kryptonian Adora.

“What is it?” Kara mimicked her actions, watching her face.

“Ever since your sister’s wedding, and that…..” Lena was now turning a shade of apple red, and with her skin tone, it was as clear as day. “Life changing, time stopping kiss of ours, I…”

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it either.” Kara hadn’t let go of Lena’s hand saying this, in fact half way through Lena’s babbling, she started to gently massage the space between her thumb and index finger. “It was pretty great.” Like the human Golden Retriever she was, she raised both of her eyebrows to get Lena to smile.

“That, and it got me thinking…about us. And how I feel about you.” Taking a deep breath, Lena fiddles with her hands to keep some of her nerves in check. “Kara, you know you’re my best friend, but I don’t think that’s going to cut it anymore. I don’t like hiding the fact that we’re together from our family. I get that you want us to keep things private because we are a new item. Damn those consequences. I want to be able to show you off. I want to be able to declare to the world how lucky I am to be your girlfriend.

“Lena…” Kara had a sense of where this was going. She was listening to Lena’s heartbeat as she spoke, and with every word, it got faster. She knew of three reasons why this would happen: Anxiety, Stress…and she was about to say I love you.

“Please, let me finish?” Lena’s voice squeaked with how nervous she was. “I’ve never felt this was about someone before, in my life actually. And thinking back about all of the times you’ve saved me, and were willing to risk your life…Nobody has ever done that for me. Every time we shared a hug, I never wanted to let go. And when I found out all of the times you defended me to the others. It’s like…you’re my knight in shining armor. Even when I had hurt you, you still trusted me with your life. That day, I vowed to do everything in my power to be worthy of your trust again…”

As Lena was nervously babbling, rather adorably, Kara had slowly begun to scoot closer to Lena on the couch. Yes, she was paying attention to the words, but every other word, she would look at Lena’s lips. The dark red lipstick that was as crimson as a rose practically hypnotized her. But what Kara loved the most…was just listening to Lena talk. Whether it was the inflection in her voice, or the way she talked with her hands. Now was as good a time as ever.

“And, I guess what I’m trying to say is, Kara…I…”

Before Lena could even finish, Kara had gently cupped her face and closed the distance between their lips For Kara, kissing Lena just turned all of her senses up to 11. Her lips fit perfectly together like a puzzle piece with Lena’s. This kiss was just as passionate and fiery as the one at the wedding, but this one was also more intimate and gentle. Kara deliberately let it linger longer than the one at the wedding…because she was just as in love with Lena, as Lena was with her.

“I love you too, Lena.” That delicate whisper. The declaration of love accompanied with a soft forehand touch, it was definitely a moment out of a Hallmark movie. “I realized it when Mxy and I…tried to change the timeline to fix our relationship.” Not once did Kara’s hand leave Lena’s cheek.

“Okay…I’m definitely going to need a full story.” She wasn't surprised. At this point, she knew Kara would risk it all for her, no matter what.

Here’s Chapter 2, everyone. Hope you enjoy!

[llatimeria]

"oc ask memes that are plot-focused somehow" i don't know of any like that but !!! i would love to hear the plot of your story and more about your ocs if you feel like sharing ^w^

AH HI i meant to answer this like 4 times now and kept getting distracted with. Things. so here's the gist:

a supervillain announces he's after a set of magical macguffins, but in truth he doesn't really care and just wants to keep an eye on his little brother, a new superhero around town (unaware his brother's a villain). his partner in crime/literal romantic partner is the one actually after the macguffins and is using his partner's influence to get them so he can Take Over The World!™️. the supervillain, his partner, and their henchmen have to get the macguffins, while the heroes scramble to stop them... until they realize they're all in over their heads and suddenly have to switch sides and work together when aforementioned partner shuns the supervillain and Takes Over The World!™️ himself. will good prevail!? or will evil be evilly evil forever!? find out next time on-

anyways here's the pepesilvia.jpg version:

a supervillain, The Mastermind, discovers the existence of a set of 7 magical macguffins* that, when combined, would give him the power to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️. However, they're scattered in different places all over Earth, so he sics a gaggle of his finest henchmen on a few of the distant macguffins while he and his partner in crime/boyfriend, Rayzre Blayde**, maneuver to capture the ones closer to home. However, the truth is that Rayzre is the one who really wants to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️, he's just clinging to Mastermind's power as a bridge to get there. Mastermind's real motive is just to be close to and protect his little brother, who just moved into town to become the superhero Lammergeier.

(Sidenote: Rayzre, Mastermind, and Lammergeier are all from the same Evil Top Secret Government Genetic Experiment Lab and are human-animal hybrids. These experiments also happened to give some [but not all] of the resulting hybrids superpowers. Mastermind and Lammergeier were smuggled out as little kids and raised as siblings, while Rayzre escaped on his own a decade or so later, it's a whole thing. it's a recurring bit that this lab just has the shittiest security and most of their experiments have just escaped or been freed as a result, lol)

a few weeks after their plan first commences, rayzre unexpectedly gets a visit from his teenage son, Gray. Rayzre genuinely didn't know Gray existed until he just shows up on his doorstep, but they have the same superpowers (shapeshifting into dragons), basically confirming their relationship immediately. From then on, Rayzre purports that his motive is to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️ for his kid. This is a lie that he himself believes - he really does want to provide for Gray but we all know he started this whole thing without Gray even being a factor in his mind. Gray immediately thinks he's the coolest dad EVER, but he is also a child and all of his other father figures have been shitty step-dads, so he doesn't exactly have the highest standards. He's just jazzed that his REAL DAD buys him BEER and shows him R-RATED MOVIES and it's AWESOME

MEANWHILE the henchmen are off doing their own thing for the most part. They know of the ultimate TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️ plot, but don't realize how serious their bosses are about it, or just how dangerous the macguffins they're after really are. they're the ones doing most of the action-adventure heavy lifting, going globetrotting and dungeoncrawling and such. i'm being the least specific here because this group's arc is currently in the most nebulous state of development where like half of them are fleshed out characters and the other half are still two dimensional and don't have agency yet,

The exception to this are the two supervillains-turned-henchmen, Frostbite and Wildfire, which MM recruited personally into his inner circle due to their impressive rap sheet and because he knows the two of them are also from the same lab he was born in (see. it's a whole thing). guess what their powers are. guess. it's not at all obvious. this makes it sound like i have a clever subversion up my sleeve but i don't they're literally just ice and fire respectively

Rayzre was always vaguely shitty (in fact he's Mastermind's high school ex and the rest of MM's family kind of hates him), but he gets more clearly shitty the more powerful he gets. He's a deeply egotistical, arrogant person who thinks he's the protagonist of this story. MM gradually becomes disillusioned with him after befriending Frostbite and Wildfire, who actually treat him with respect, especially once they start pointing out to him what a douche Rayzre can be. (unsurprisingly, fb, wf, and mm end up in a poly situationship.)

MM finally decides that Rayzre's crossed a line when they go to heist a macguffin and Rayzre secretly brings a live firearm to the affair and points it at Lammergeier, who obviously shows up to stop them. When Rayzre puts his finger on the trigger, MM reflexively pushes him, and ends up making him accidentally shoot and ultimately kill a completely innocent bystander. this is traumatic for all involved. mastermind officially disavows him (and dumps him), but this just leads to Rayzre getting all of the macguffins for himself and finally being able to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️

Rayzre tries to get Gray to follow in his footsteps to become another manaical god-king while the entire rest of the cast turns on him - heroes and villains working hand-in-hand to take this motherfucker down. i won't spoil what actually happens here because i think it's cool lmao

(*the working name i have for the macguffins is Anima Crystals, but i'm not completely sold on that yet. a little too chaos emeraldy for my taste)

(**this is a dumb edgy name on purpose. He's had it kicking around as a pseudonym since his myspace days)

[ganymedesclock]

Very good points with the last post, but I was thinking more about when a protagonist who is Hated by society for any reason gains power and influence and absolutely nothing changes about how people treat them to the point where you can feel the hand of the author. And then the protagonist gets Glorious Revenge on the people who hurt them or were disrespectful to them in any measure with their new cool powers without any reflection on how that would affect the character emotionally and morally, much less the world’s perspective on them.

This is more of a problem in fanworks where all the author wants is emotional satisfaction and vindication, but creating a section of people in your story who will forever be unworthy of redemption or change in a way that doesn’t involve groveling at the protagonist’s feet and can be freely hurt and killed without any consequence due to the way people in their group treated your character in the past can circle back around to being discriminatory. Like there was a story(granted it was fanfic) I read that had Special Magic People(Fae)who were outcasts of society because they were really powerful, then had that society discriminate against them, then painted everyone with powers as forever righteous good people and every person without as Ugly Evil Unpeople who could be slaughtered without any implications. There’s a scene where one of the Fae considers getting a ‘human servant’ like all his friends have via enchantment and subsequent kidnapping but doesn’t because it wouldn’t be worth the hassle and humans are annoying. This is not meant to say anything about the character’s morals, rather stating that the character prefers solitude Babe that is slavery. Your magical Fae society is ok with slavery.

Using power or magical-beinghood as a metaphor for queerness or disability is perfectly fine, but the problem comes when you try to make this all realistic instead of basing it on societal perception, because the thing about homophobia and racism and ableism is the fact that they are systems of power that place white, straight, rich, able bodied cis people at the top and everyone else at the bottom. Superpowers in context of sociology is more like: what if someone had a gun that they couldn’t unload, that was pointed at your head at all times. They wouldn’t shoot you with it, you think. But the gun is always there, and while the holder may not see it, you do. Which is a much better metaphor for living under systems that oppress you, with the caveat that superpowers are often inherent and social hierarchies are entirely made up.

Its just interesting how power is portrayed in the media as something that is either A. Born to or bestowed upon the protagonist and good or B. Something to be seeked out by the antagonist and bad. The idea that wanting what you weren’t given but other ‘more deserving’ people were is bad, but the idea that being more powerful than other people makes you inherently more moral rather than giving you more moral responsibility.

Ah, so you are positing the existence of type C, which is, "I want violent retribution on everyone who ever wronged me, but not to be held responsible for what I do with this power"

I think this can tie in with a lot of things. In aforementioned Danny Phantom, consider the bully character Dash. He literally introduces himself to the series by declaring- at max volume in a crowded cafeteria- that he has no future so high school is the best he's going to get.

Which is. needless to say. not something anyone with confidence says about themselves. But Dash does not exist to create problems for Danny, really; his primary function is being a justified target for Danny to punish over and over again.

People who are bullies understand that the concept of a bully is bad. They may have encountered- or fear- bullies themselves. But their solution is to idolize power and taking power. The Problem Is when I get pushed around, the problem isn't people shouldn't have the power to own/dominate others.

As you've pointed out this can run afoul in particular in social justice movements, since bullies exist everywhere and they will continue to co-opt whatever language gives them power and a platform. Some people just really, really want to hurt punish and control others. And broadly, they tend very quick to frame themselves as heroes punishing villains for being evil.

I recall back when I was in the Steven Universe fandom, someone told me their highly detailed system of how they wanted the Diamonds to die- they wanted Steven to murder Blue in front of Yellow, kill her next while she was grieving, and leave White alone and pleading before closing in for the finale.

Whether or not you like the Diamonds, or even whether or not you think the Diamonds should have died, it is obvious the objective is not removing or mitigating any threat here. The objective is sadism. The objective is wanting to punish people for ever having scared or upset you, and when a working fourth wall is at play it illuminates how insecure this mindset is. No matter how bad you think the Diamonds are, they are fictional characters, and not a perpetuation of bigotry or harmful stereotypes; they thus cannot hurt real people. The most they can do is be scary or upsetting, and even that is based on your willingness to go consume the media that has them in it. You could effortlessly turn off the tv and go watch a show where the hero makes the villain graphically explode every time, of which there are many.

But, we don't actually want things to get better! We want a justification to punish all the sinners that make trouble in our world. It's seductive it's reassuring it's a nice piping hot plate of comfort food that says "You're right forever! You actually ARE more special than anyone you don't want to interact with, your bullies or detractors actually ARE inherently lesser people than you. You will never have to face any sort of reality where people hurt your feelings but have some reason to exist or feel the way they do whether or not their actions are justified."

And incidentally, at its worst, this mentality can also utterly fail to address the very abuses it's trying to avenge. As you say, anon, it hinges on that the character remains a Dreadful Outcast forever.

Consider the plight of "Muggles" in Harry Potter. It sure feels like an amazing thing for an emotionally, materially, and physically abused boy to watch some magical giant show up, effortlessly boss his abusers around, and sweep him away from all that to a magical destiny world where he becomes stronger.

Only... at the end of every book they keep bringing him back. There are magical justifications for leaving him with his abusers. His cousin, who is also unambiguously hit and yelled at in the first book alone, does not even get the reprieves of special school even though we watch him become increasingly miserable with and enraged by his parents and their situation to the point that he makes at one point an unambiguous decision to stand by Harry with his parents watching.

This will come to nothing. Because Harry Potter takes the vicarious thrill children want to feel- that they know some secret that makes them special, reassuring when you don't think you're that cool and haven't had the life experience to invest in your identity yet- and basically turns it into, you don't deserve to be bullied because you're actually part of an old-money privileged over-class. With slaves! Why would you want to exist in a world where you reconcile with the foster sibling that pushed you around because he too was terrified of his parents and the dysfunctional house you lived in? He needs to know his place and be inferior to you, so that you can always be safe.

Because you never won't be traumatized and your trauma will never be a thing untouchable even by people who might care for you or be a friend to you, and if you decide the only way you will be safe is if you can rip a pound of flesh out of anyone who ever prods your wounds, then you won't feel safe unless you have someone on the figurative guillotine.

It's a status of victimhood that will never be lifted by any amount of power, because if you break the spell and admit that you have the capacity to hurt others and not the power to constantly be justified and eternally know evil when you see it, then that means you just might be the bad guy.

And you've made a world where nobody can even dip their toe in being the bad guy without deserving hell. So you can't be a sinner! That'd mean everything you feel is completely unjustified!

So, hail to the king, hail to the ultimate victim, whose suffering will never end because it is the throne he sits on to hold him above others.

And maybe I've played too much Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as a child, or maybe I just like monsters too much; but I've just always had the sneaking suspicion my life wouldn't improve if I could just stab everyone who ever hurt my feelings with a pitchfork.

I think using power to torment defenseless people is a bad thing no matter what that person did, and it is an unnecessary intrusion to actual harm reduction.

[imreadingwebcomics]

evilest webcomic u've read?

I'm so sorry fam I don't read as many evil comics as I should... kind of lacking in my evil comics knowledge just in general. But one did instantly pop into my mind... this short one I've read...

ah yeah this bad boy. The Suit. this one is evil because it is scary (usually I don't know if I think that counts but this one also kind of has this feeling that it wants you to be upset that you had to think about it, like it's very much a "wouldnt it be fucked up if—" kind of story.)

///

next The Pestilence. It's about people on Mars fighting people who get superpowers from something called "The Purple". this comic is evil literally only for committing the crime of this costuming choice:

///

Finally, Evil Witch Allie. This comic has some really cool magic in it, some of the visuals go hard af imo. This one is evil because it has the word "evil" in the title.

[angelkitty54]

Does Bunnie exist in the superhero-au?

Ah! Sorry! I meant to answer this forever ago but totally forgot about it!

Yeah Bunnie exist, as do the rest of the Archie crew. Am thinking the Freedom Fighters are like the Justice League or Avengers of this universe. Ironically the original members of this superhero team didn't have any superpowers. Unless you're counting Bunnie's cybernetics that is. Tho later on Rotor gets that power suit he had during the Mecha Sally story arc, and Antoine obtains a magic sword.

They started off as a bunch of vigilante teens, inspired by the heroics of Sonic the Hedgehog, looking to make a difference in their world. Eventually they became more organised, gained more recognition, and grew in numbers to the point of having multiple teams around the world (like the Arctic and Downunda Freedom Fighter groups). Sonic was also a member, tho he was often off doing his own thing.

But it all started with Sally in a homemade costume, aided by her friends Rotor and Antoine, plus a prototype AI invented by father's company. Bunnie joined a little later, having been involved with an evil techno cult/organisation that made her into a cyborg against her will. Sally and the guys wanted to help Bunnie take the organisation down, quickly realising they were in over their heads but also that they were the only ones actually doing anything about them. Fighting these guys was what really kicked off their superhero careers.

Bunnie was also a rock for Sally to lean on after her accident that resulting in gaining her own cybernetics. She helped her through a lot of difficult days then. Now that superheroes have been made illegal, Bunnie settled down with Antoine (always thought that ship was cute) in a quite little town and opened a hair salon. These two were already thinking about retirement right before everything went down anyways, tho they wish it hadn't happened the way it did... The old gang doesn't see a lot of each other, but they all try to stay in touch and get together at least once a year or so to catch up.

[flowergirlmiwa]

I'd love to hear about ur ocs if u wanna talk about them :0

ah ummm... really it's sort of a thing where it goes through 500 reboots and reimaginings and only sort of some of the core elements bleed through so its actually really hard to answer this LOL.. but given this is in response to saying the OCs are from 2003 ill describe that version of the story

basically i imagined a TV-Y8 (yeah they invented TV-Y8 just because this show is That Badass) anime inspired cartoon about a bunch of high schoolers that have magical girl powers. theyre given these powers by the Spirit Guard whom they then work for to fight against the devil or something. lets go into the characters

NOTE I HAVENT WORKED ON ANY OF THIS SINCE LIKE 2007 so if it sounds dumb and not very developed it is

Yamachi - standard protag guy/self insert, he's quiet but fiercely loyal and prone to superpowered freakouts when the tension gets ratcheted up. at the beginning of the series he can transform into a dragon (LITERALLY imagine Guilmon because that's what i did, just bigger Guilmon and he's fuckin pissed) but like a third through the story a major moment happens and after that he can't do it anymore and people just kinda forget about it. if he had real character traits i dont remember them

Manga (this was seriously his name) - Joey Wheeler best friend to the protagonist. much later on he becomes an edgy revengeboy and breaks from the heroes to become an antihero who wants to fucking annihilate the devil for his own reasons. up until that point he's basically Michaelangelo from TMNT. also he dies at the end because fuck you i guess?

Anime (this was seriously her name) - tsundere and Manga's love interest (woah). later in the series she's severely hurt by a big meanieman we'll talk about later and this is what causes Manga to go into his descent into badass revenge. after she's hurt she basically becomes a ripoff of Oracle from Batman

Cicelia - the protagonist's main love interest for the first part of the series but they never get together and it just kinda remains flirty. she seems to be having fun much of the time and has a positive spirit. she likes flirting with men but doesn't really seem to want to hook up with them so i'm retroactively interpreting her to be a lesbian. she actually sticks around even when all of the protag's other friends are gone in the sequel series and she becomes a mix between Tuxedo Mask and a catgirl, mostly watching over the protag until he could use unexpected help before fucking off again after saying something mysterious and flirty. so yeah flirty catgirl lesbian

Paka - a girl with a crush on the protag who dies early in the series (in the same event that causes the protag to lose his Guilmon powers) because idk sympathetic cute young girls deserve to die to make the male protag more angrier. also you may note this is the second time ive described a main character as basically being a woman that exists to be hurt to fuel the anger of the cool male protagonists

Rose - not long after Paka dies Rose is introduced to be the protag's love interest. they start dating pretty soon after she's introduced and from that point forward they spend pretty much the rest of the series fighting side by side. she doesn't have a character besides this besides her magic being mostly about making shields and supporting people and stuff.

Rune - an intimidating demonic bad guy who killed Paka. every time he appears in the series it is guaranteed for the heroes to suffer serious losses, like when he hurts Anime

Aiko - brother of Rune and another demonic bad guy... it seems. Aiko is like that archetype of villain that's clearly going to turn on them, he's very bored being forced to fight the heroes and ends up just screwing with them instead. when Paka dies, this disillusions Aiko to the point where he decides to betray the demon world and becomes the mentor to the heroes. at this point he becomes half mentor half team dad, though he always retains his sarcastic wit and youthful energy (despite being 10000 years old or whatever)

the series itself would be mostly episodic with the team going wherever in the world they need to to stem the flow of demons coming from underground. in the finale everyone converges on Hell (basically), Manga ends up dying somehow and Aiko finishes off his brother Rune then the protag kills the big bad who never got characterization beyond being the evil demonking

EDIT: i forgot that i mentioned "the sequel series" above but failed to talk about that so lets do that now

this would be a series running at the same time as the regular series and it even is weirdly well thought out that way. basically it starts when the first show is still early on and gets cancelled before the first show ends. in the meantime it's a more light hearted and comedic show with more adventuring less fighting demons

in the beginning of the sequel series, Yamachi is pulled out of class one day (we see hide nor hair of any of his friends and the audience is just supposed to kind of assume they all went away for some reason? like i dont even think he would end the first series even as a high schooler but that's just part of how this is a 'odd spinoff/sequel'. like the idea basically is that my OC stories are real world shows following tropes of real world animation production and?? ok lets moveon)

Yamachi is pulled out of class one day by mysterious people and ends up in the back of a van getting injected with something called the Dragon's Kiss. suddenly his dragon form from before is back!!! he's permanently the dragon now and it's a more demure form than before (LITERALLY THINK GUILMON JUST IMAGINE GUILMON HE LOOKS LIKE GUILMON). he sets off on a quest to figure out who kidnapped him, what they injected him with and why, and how to go back to normal. in the meantime he abandons his past life and starts going by Dragno (the name of the sequel series)

Dragno quickly meets and befriends a nine year old named Zak (if anyone remembers that post i made about coming up with the name 'Zak' as a variant of 'Jack' not realizing it was already a real name uhh yeah it was this). Zak's thing is that he's a gunslinger and during every fight is just constantly firing all sorts of guns and jumping around being a menace. so basically Rocket Raccoon. Zak besides this is a fun-loving regular kid and he and Dragno start traveling together. basically this forms the core of the series, Dragno becomes more relaxed because he's hanging out with a goofy kid and the two just kinda have a good time and are friends on Dragno's quest

like mentioned above, Cicelia returns except as a Tuxedo Mask catgirl now going by just "Celia". every single other one of the characters from the original series are nowhere to be found. aaaaand there isn't really a whole lot more to it because i never had any real ideas besides "and then they adventured and had fun together and then Celia would hop in from time to time to give mysterious advice or fend off a powerful foe". at some point they'd discover a village full of dragons just like Dragno and he'd learn more about his origin and why he can turn into a dragon and stuff but i never thought about it that hard

[skyler10fic]

To Have and To Hold: Ch. 5 Registry Reality

By Skyler10

Summary: They need to register for wedding gifts, but Daisy has a headache! Carol helps her feel better.

Read on Ao3

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Carol had pictured registering for wedding gifts in person, delighting in what they saw and playfully exploring the aisles together, but she was dismayed to find most stores didn’t do that anymore. They all offered online registry-building tools, which of course made it easier, but lacked the classic experience. She debated just going around the store with the app open, but then Daisy woke up with a headache. And it didn’t go away with breakfast, a shower, or more rest.

“Ugh, it’s been two hours.” Daisy groaned. She plopped onto the sofa next to Carol and took the pain medication in her hand. She took a drink from her water bottle to swallow it and then rubbed her forehead.

Carol set her laptop on the coffee table and turned toward Daisy. “Is there anything I can do? What do you need?”

“You.” Daisy sent her the most pathetic puppy dog eyes.

“Oh sweetheart, of course.” Carol gathered Daisy close and pulled a blanket off the back of the sofa to cover them. “You always have me.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” Daisy said softly. She nodded toward Carol’s laptop.

“It’s okay. Wanna look at registry stuff online? Looks like they want us to go digital.” She brushed Daisy’s hair back and kissed her temple.

“Okay.” Daisy’s voice was so small, and with her cuddled up close and hurting, it was hard to think about doing anything but comfort her, but Carol reasoned that maybe browsing through registry items would take Daisy’s mind off of her headache.

Sure enough, within the hour, Daisy was starting to feel better, sitting up and teasing Carol and actively involved in the process. She wasn’t 100% better, but for the next store, Carol had an idea. She rubbed Daisy’s shoulder, and just as she suspected, her muscles were tense.

“Sit on the floor between my legs and let me see if I can work out these knots.”

Daisy’s puppy dog eyes were back. “Aw, really?”

“The catch is since my hands will be busy, you have to be the one clicking around.” Carol handed her the laptop and Daisy eagerly accepted her task in exchange for relief. “It’ll be easier with your shirt off, though.”

Daisy narrowed her eyes in teasing skepticism. “I’m on to you, Danvers.”

Carol laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that, I swear. I just want to make you feel better.”

Daisy responded by taking off her shirt, as instructed, then grabbed pillows to sit on and lean against. She settled in between Carol’s knees. Carol set about her task gently at first and then massaged with building intensity and focus. She was no professional, but she had learned a few tricks over the years and it helped that she was already so familiar and in tune with Daisy’s body.

Daisy groaned in relief.

“Is this good?”

“A little higher?” Daisy requested. Carol moved her hand a few inches to the junction of Daisy’s neck and shoulders. Daisy realized she was supposed to be registering them for gifts and reopened the laptop. “Hey, what about a massage gun or massage chair cushion or something.”

“Are you complaining?” Carol teased.

“No!” Daisy quickly refuted. “Just thinking of it like tools. Like other kinds of personal massagers. But for sore muscles instead.”

“Ah, the less sexy kind of vibrating toy,” Carol said.

Daisy clicked through a few until she found a shiatsu-ball cushion that came with a massage gun for muscle targeting. The reviews were good and the price was reasonable, so they added the combo to the registry. Even if no one bought it for them, at least they would have this wish list already compiled for later.

Carol understood Daisy’s point, and her hands were getting tired, but she also enjoyed feeling Daisy’s muscles relax under her touch. Relieving her pain felt like a superpower, one she would never withhold.

“Mmmm,” Daisy hummed as Carol’s fingers worked their magic. “I keep forgetting I’m supposed to be looking at coffeemakers.”

“Almost done,” Carol assured. She gently rubbed over Daisy’s shoulders and danced her fingers down Daisy’s breasts, giving a little squeeze as she kissed Daisy’s temple.

Daisy giggled. “Is that the grand finale?”

“That was my fee,” Carol explained. The warmth in Daisy’s smile as she turned around and the spark back in her eyes told her the remedy had worked.

“Oh, you’ll be compensated fairly,” Daisy purred as she climbed back onto the sofa with Carol. Daisy set the laptop back on the table, and Carol gathered the pillows from the floor. She propped herself up against them and laid down, with Daisy snuggling close, half on top of her.

Carol traced her fingertips up and down Daisy’s bare back. Daisy kissed Carol deeply and then whispered, “Hey. Have I mentioned lately that I am so madly in love with you?”

“Hmm, not lately, no,” Carol teased and pulled her in for another long, passionate kiss.

They did finish making a registry eventually, but first, Carol was rewarded for her services, and then Daisy got to test the theory that orgasms help relieve the last lingering bits of headaches. The pain-relieving medication, massage, physical intimacy, and catnap after turned out to be the most effective combination of treatment Daisy could have found. After lunch, she was headache-free and ready to go check out a store or two in person for items they weren’t sure about and stop by the jewelers to look at wedding bands.

—----

Checking things off their to-do list that night before they went to sleep, Daisy thanked Carol again.

“Wow, we got done more than I was expecting. You and your massage really saved the day.” Daisy set her phone on the bedside table to charge overnight. She turned on her side to face Carol. “My hero.”

“You’d do the same for me.”

“In sickness and in health,” Daisy promised. “I have, I do, and I will.”

“I like that,” Carol agreed sleepily. “I have, I do, and I will.”

[thenixkat]

Watching Fright Krewe Dreamworks made a whole New Oreleans voodoo magic kids fighting the supernatural cartoon and i've seen less than 5 people talk about it

the art is pretty decent. the designs are nice

and it actually talks about the Loa and actual historical mambo (priests/priestesses)

damn imagine giving a presentation on your marginalized religion and yer classmates decide to ruin another classmate's presentation and start a fake blood fight so now you all have detention and have to go clean graves also imagine if you got roped into a magical adventure to save the city from a demon and yer party is yer detention group part of which includes assholes you dont like

yeah no, the grounds keeper is clearly a mambo. Regular snakes can't be trained to hold yer lanterns

how this chick gonna be an alpha bitch bully while being short ass hell?

also alpha bitch bully exchildhood friend of the protag starts shit by daring the protag (girl in green) to fuck with the one cursed grave in the whole grave yard that by legend is trapping a demon

ah I see why no one was talking about the show at all. Our protags are 3 Black kids and two brown Hispanic (?) kids

Girl dont prank people at a cursed grave the protag accidentally pricks her finger on the grave and that unleashes the demon just dont fuck around in cursed graves, most of the kids here should know better between their upbringing and religion oh thats grimly gorey for a kids show. The demon pops out of the grave partly skinless, decayed and juicy the protag's mambo ancestor is trying to get these kids to stop running from her so she can tell them shit

The mambo ghost tells them whats up and gives them superpowers to deal with shit. Superpowers being the blessings of certain Loa

Local alpha bitch said she doesnt give a fuck about a magical destiny she has practice and doesnt like these people litterally only 2 out of the 5 kids want to find out what just happened.

the voodoo practitioner kid makes the point of if they don't do what the Loa want them to do bad shit is gonna happen to them

ok. Hey, I recognized Papa Legba and Ogoun when they showed up.

I thought Ayida-Weddo was another deity with a snake around her shoulders Mami Watti The kid who got blessed by Maman Brigitte can turn invisible and the dead talk to him The kid blessed by Ayizan is an airhead who gained the gift of psychometry while the alpha bitch blessed by Ogoun got super strength and accidentally chucked one of the other cheerleaders and got in trouble chucked the other cheerleader hard enough she had to go to the hospital

local alpha bitch is freaking out about maybe getting kicked off the team b/c she's too strong' also the demon decided to poke the alpha bitch into going after the protag oh even bringing up a proper veve and offerings for Papa Legba to try and ask him for help getting folks in contact with the Loas that blessed them huh, someone at Dreamworks really wanted to make an accurate voodun cartoon

the god of the crossroads taking yer offering and then laughing and saying 'You asked for it' is rather ominous even if Papa Legba is on their side yeah show the children horrible nightmare visions related to their quest instead of giving shit straight i mean yes Legba did show them what they asked for just in the worst way Ayida-Weddo gave the protag control of the elements

yeah Ayida-Weddo is one of the creator deity pair, that was a particularly powerful loa to get a blessing from

and the demon is poking at the angry alpha bitch, only voodoo boy can hear it whispering to her and alpha bitch attacks the protag

with intent to do serious harm due to the demon fanning the flames of her anger at the protag

being attacked by a homicidal superstrong cheerleader

the demon feeds on fear uh that's a werewolf a rugarou came to save the protag? voodoo boy's aunt sent a fucking werewolf to help

local alpha bitch really didn't question shit she just squared the fuck up with a werewolf

also the local rugarou pack runs a pizza shop in their neighborhood the rugarou isnt attacking but trying to hold the alpha bitch till she calms her ass down. Unfortunately due to Ogoun's gift she can match its strength also voodoo boy's power is understanding the languages of different creatures that's a very unbalanced party

the girls can control the elements and are super strong. While the boys have invisibility/talking to spirits, psychometry, and omniglot

show said the girls will be kicking all the ass huh the demon said its eating some fear either way and seems to like teh taste of fuckers fearing for their lives alpha bitch gets fucking crushed by rubble, badly fucking injured and dying in the second ep dark ass kids show quiet boy gets pulled into the shadow realm and sees that alpha bitch is dying as in literally crossing over

local pizza shop owner offers to turn the alpha bitch which can save her but she has to consent to it ok yeah the quiet kids ability to go into the shadow realm and talk to spirits is helpful. He's able to ask alpha bitch's soul for consent ok that's not a bad two parter opening for a show

covered the main points and character conflicts, set up the threat, actually accurate voodoo and Loa stuff not bad. but also damn, I can see why the show has little to no fandom. There's no white main characters, its about accurate voodoo, and the werewolves arent the sexy kind

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #570

Top Ten Couples in Comics

Ah, love is in the air. Sort of. Soon-ish. Yes, it’s not technically anywhere near Valentine’s Day yet, but a confluence of other stuff in my life has made me dedicate this weekend to good old Cupid and his ruddy bloody arrows.

So a couple of years ago, around about now-ish, I was banging on something rotten about superhero romantic couples, but focusing solely on adaptations thereof. It was movie (and TV I guess) versions of superhero romances that flew backwards round my particular world. Now I’m returning to that well with a vengeance, as I discuss actual comic book incarnations of superheroes, and their respective squeezes.

I think it’s obvious what’s going to come highly here, as there’s at least one superhero romantic pairing that’s so iconic it transcends the very medium; there have been at least two live-action TV series with the characters names together in the title. The first “modern” superhero movie literally hung the story around the romance – including the world-spinning finale. And, yeah, quite a few more are fairly obvious I guess. But there are some that might be less iconic, less all-encompassing (although I imagine if we give James Gunn a couple of years these could all be household names); it’s an idiosyncratic list that, once again, reflects my particular tastes and thirty-odd years of reading history.

I’ve gone, here, for couples that I think work well together for one reason or another. And they’re couples that I’ve actually, y’know, read; not just those that exist in the atmosphere. I’ve tried to cast my net as broadly as possible but at the same time, if you’re aiming for superheroes, chances are you’re going to catch a lot of DC and Marvel characters. Which is fine! Those guys are totally iconic.

Anyway, with no further ado, let’s kick off the season of love by celebrating fictional super-people and their significant others.

Superman and Lois Lane: who else? They’re perfect together: a man with all the power in the world who only uses it to protect and inspire others; and a woman dedicated to finding and protecting the truth at all costs. She’s tough, he’s gentle, despite him being the strong one. Whether it’s the initial dynamic of Lois wanting Superman and ignoring Clark, or more modern stories where it’s Clark she falls in love with, or any variation in between, they’ve been doing this dance for eighty years. So strong is their bond, so well do they fit together, so iconic is their pairing, that nowadays it’d be weird if they weren’t presented as a couple; it didn’t take too long after the New 52 reboot undid their marriage for them to wind up not only back together again but with a child, to boot.

Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson: pretty much the whole time I ever read comics, Peter and MJ were a couple, if not married; as such, I find it really, really weird that they got magically un-married. Because they’re so great together, the teenage melodrama of their love playing out in tragi-adventurous fashion. MJ, groovy party girl, wannabe model, shows her strength and compassion when she comforts Peter after Gwen’s death; and, as they become close and fall in love, quiet nerd Peter comes out of his shell. They’re there for each other from their teenage years and you really get the feeling no one knows either of them so well. And the future-set stories, where they’re married with a superpowered daughter, are terrific too.

Batman and Catwoman: whilst nowadays this seems equally as inevitable as Lois and Clark, it’s actually a relationship that’s evolved over time. Catwoman started out as more of a femme fatale; sure, there was an attraction, but Bruce was given “proper” love interests for years, from Silver St. Cloud to Vikki Vale. But there’s just something about Selina. And really it makes sense; Bruce definitely has a dark side, so him being drawn to a Bad Girl, seeing the good inside her, and how he helps bring that to the surface without totally switching her to the straight and narrow… whether they actually end up together or are doomed to forever be apart, they’re perfect. And let’s face it, they’re just both super, super sexy.

Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon: no codenames here because it’s a love that transcends secret identities; Robin and Batgirl? Nightwing and Oracle? Bats and Babs? Like Peter and MJ, they’re a couple of kids, best friends who played out together at night, and then grew up and fell in love. I like that they had lives away from each other – Dick went off with the Titans and had another relationship; Babs pursued a career and overcame disability – but they come back together. There’s something so true and honest about the pair of them, and their relationship together, that makes them a perfect couple, even though part of that knowledge is that they probably can’t really make a go of it, not now, not at the moment.

Cyclops and Jean Grey: so much of their relationship is based around how it ended, but I still like them as a couple. It’s a bit weird, looking back decades later, how quickly some of the Sixties characters accelerated into middle-age, but I always think of Scott and Jean as like the X-Men’s mum and dad. They were a seemingly happy married couple, with just a touch of the usual Marvel angst; until she died, of course, in massively iconic fashion. In fact, it’s partly this tragedy – and how it effected both of them, with Jean’s weird resurrections and Scott’s batshit reactions – that partly defines their relationship.

The Elongated Man and Sue Dibny: I first came across this couple, and their adorable rock-solid relationship, when Sue was horribly murdered in the controversial Identity Crisis (a book which, weirdly, was basically my gateway to the wider DC Universe). Having read more about them, they’ve got serious couple goals: solid, dependable, best friends. I like how Sue totally supports Ralph’s super-heroing, but is more than just a hanger-on, becoming an integral part of the various books the Elongated Man was involved in. Even their deaths didn’t slow them down, as they popped up as ghosts – still together, of course.

Superboy and Wonder Girl: I was never a fan of attempts to match up Superman and Wonder Woman, but their Teen Titans analogues were a different kettle of Thanagarian Snare Beasts. Their slow-burning romance was the stuff of teen drama serials, as they bottle battled personal demons that got in the way of their feelings. They finally consummated things in the series Infinite Crisis, just before Superboy heroically died saving the multiverse; but this added extra wrinkles, as we saw the effect his death had not just on Wonder Girl but also Robin, and how it played into his (inevitable, this is comics) resurrection.

Green Arrow and Black Canary: some couples are soulmates; some are doomed, tragic romances; some are booty calls. And then there’s Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance. For decades now, they’ve bounced off and around one another, an all-time perfect romantic couple, a bickering, back-and-forth Eighties action movie pairing. They’ve fought and argued and – well – done other stuff, and it’s like a Shane Black exploding into When Harry Met Sally. They’re star-crossed lovers who are also often very cross. And, I’ve gotta say, there’s something just really sexy about the pair of them. I blame his beard. And her fishnets.

Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman: some of the characters in this list are married couples, but they’ve also spent a lot of time, well, not married – or even not together at all. Not so Reed and Sue: yes, of course, they weren’t married when they debuted at the very dawn of the MCU in 1962, but for the bulk of their history they’ve been married. And despite the likes of Doom and Namor trying to muscle in, they’ve been happily married for the most part – having a couple of super-powered kids. But they compliment each other so well: he’s an absent-minded genius, she’s phenomenally capable and arguably even more powerful, and there’s no sense that they don’t love and trust each other completely, even though they’re different in many ways. God, I can’t wait to see them on screen. Er, again.

Rocket Raccoon and Lylla Otter: maybe this one is entirely me; and unlike some of the other longer-running couples, really these two were only together in one mini-series forty years ago. But I like them! He’s a dashing adventurer; she’s the heir to a toy-making dynasty. Together, they battle nefarious, corrupt toymakers, try to avoid Lylla getting married, and cure a bunch of humans of insanity, all the while making weird refences to the Beatles’ song Rocky Raccoon. It’s incredibly strange and I adore it. And they do make a cute couple; there’s a bit of Han and Leia about them, and they go for nice picnics and cavort about in streams and suchlike. The Rocket presented here is very different from the one who became famous in the movies – and, indeed, quite a bit different from when the character became a member of the comic book Guardians too. Speaking of which, Lylla makes her big-screen debut this year in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and as a long-time fan, I cannot wait.

Feel a bit bad that I didn’t find room for any of the cool same-sex couples in comics, like Apollo and Midnighter or Hulkling and Wiccan. This is because, basically, I just haven’t really read enough comics about them I guess. But the latter two guys are an incredibly cute couple who very, very nearly made the list!

Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day. Er, a week from now. Yay!

[alvindraperzzz]

The Progression of Cassie Sandsmark’s Character Growth Costumes: An Incomplete Guide

Wonder Girls are known for their myriad costume changes. While most heroes stick to a particular costume for years, Donna and Cassie cycled through many costumes, far more than the average modernization every decade or so called for. Donna’s numerous outfits seem incidental, and are possibly a reflection of her ever changing origin story. Cassie’s, however, were more than just a parade of different looks. In Young Justice they took on a new meaning.

An excerpt from Young Justice’s letter column, back when Cassie was still in the leather jacket and biker pants. 

In Young Justice, the costume changes became visual markers for character growth and important shifts in her personal story. They are a visual depiction of her growth from a reckless, inexperienced child to a savvy, formidable young hero. Teen Titans followed the trend (just not as consciously). 

This isn’t comprehensive; it’s missing a few from alternate timelines, as well as a few one note changes that don’t reflect any character growth. Here’s an incomplete guide to pre-Flashpoint Cassie Sandsmark’s many, many hero costumes.

The Early Days

[Wonder Woman 111]

Cassie’s first costume, from the pages of Wonder Woman. Includes what she was wearing when she decided to run out the door to help Diana, plus the Gauntlet of Atlas and the Sandals of Hermes (which grant her strength and flight respectively, as this is pre-superpowers). The wig is to hide her identity, and also makes her look more like Diana and Donna. 

Cassie is an overeager, earnest kid throwing together a costume out of what she has in her closet. She desperately wants to help her hero, and she’s “borrowing” her powers through the magical artifacts to do it. The costume is a work in progress; even she thinks it’s not that great.

[Wonder Woman 113]

Minor changes; Cassie exchanges the jean shorts for red biker pants, and adds gloves, elbow pads, and knee pads. Still very much a kid putting together a haphazard costume out of her closet, but now she’s had time to think a little. 

The safety gear shows a little caution, now that she’s seen battle and been hurt, but it was not enough to deter her desire to be a superhero or her recklessness.

[Wonder Woman 136]

Her first long-term costume, the iconic leather jacket with red spandex pants. Cassie, as a fan of all things superhero with a celebrity crush on Superboy, probably took inspiration from his jacket. Gone are the Gauntlet and Sandals; audacious Cassie went right up to Zeus and asked him for powers, proving her spunk and mettle. 

This is the costume the letter column was talking about. She literally doesn’t know her own strength at this point, and compared to other kid heroes (like Robin) doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She’s eager, brave, and resourceful, there’s no doubt, but she lacks the experience and training to wield her powers well. She tends to treat superheroing like an adventure, and throws herself into the middle of things, heedless of warnings from all the adults around her. She gets hurt in every major fight, to the point the DEO was thinking about charging Wonder Woman with child endangerment. 

Receiving Donna’s old Wonder Girl costume at the end of WW 136 tempers this a little bit, but she still has a lot of growing to do before she’s ready to wear it.

One and Done

[Wonder Woman 153]

Ah, the miniskirt debacle. Momentary insecurity, or WW writers treating Cassie like shit again — pick your poison. This is one of the few, if only, Cassie costumes I actively dislike, because the story behind it fucking sucks.

It highlights every insecurity she’s ever had, plus several she’s NEVER had. She’s still wearing the wig, but now she’s actively reaching to be something she’s not.

Chronologically, this outfit came before Sins of Youth, but I thought about placing it afterward since it leads directly into her next long term costume. However, Sins of Youth (like so many Cassie costume changes) marks a shift in her character, past the girl who wore this.

[Sins of Youth: Wonder Girls]

The Sins of Youth event, where the kids become grown ups and the grown ups become kids. Diana and Cassie trade costumes. Little Diana points out that Cassie does not fit in the Wonder Woman suit. It’s probably just a throwaway gag, but it’s a fitting remark on a couple of levels. 

Cassie, despite previously acknowledging she has big shoes to fill, has never expressed any interest in becoming Wonder Woman. As a grownup and magically granted the perception of distance from her childhood/teenage struggles, she feels uncomfortable being anyone but herself, but also realizes that being a hero is who she is, what she wants to be for the rest of her life.

Side note, but apparently there is such a thing as “the curse of the wondy suit.” Anyone who isn’t Diana dies soon after or while wearing her costume. Cassie evades this curse.

[Sins of Youth: Wonder Girls]

Sins of Youth, Donna’s costume. Cassie hasn’t been wearing this costume, but it’s been looming over her head ever since she received it in Wonder Woman 136. This is the costume that made Cassie step back and realize there’s more to superheroing than beating up bad guys. It isn’t a game, or an adventure; being Wonder Girl is a legacy to honor and fear, and it gave Cassie a fear of screwing up that she didn’t have when she first started out. Adult SoY Cassie finally feels ready to wear it.

She finally lays to rest her fear of filling the big shoes she’s been given. Cassie is not Wonder Woman, and she is not Donna Troy. She is ready to embrace the legacy she’s been entrusted with and make her own mark on the title.

[Young Justice 20]

Post SoY. Ignore the coat. The outfit is still the same old biker shorts and leather jacket, technically, but note that the wig is gone. 

She’ll never wear it again. 

Rip Cassie’s wig, you won’t be missed. Cassie just did a lot of growing up (literally) and emerged from the other side of the Sins of Youth debacle with a lot more confidence in herself and her place as a hero. She no longer feels like she’s hiding in Diana and Donna’s shadow.

Young Just Us

[Young Justice 20]

Cassie’s next long-term outfit (the one post her “what was I thinking” miniskirt phase, if you ignore the SoY interruption). You can see what she kept from the miniskirt debacle, and what she tossed; Cissie’s influence is present, but Cassie still makes it her own (leather jacket, jeans, Amazon bracelets and armor, goggles). It’s fierce and comfortable, but still a kid with pigtails. Cassie has realized that being a hero and helping people is what she wants to do with her life. She also knows that she wants to hang with her friends and be a kid a while longer. This outfit reflects both.

Cassie has never been the best at hiding her secret identity, but this is the first purposeful step toward removing the lines of separation between Cassie Sandsmark and Wonder Girl so she can truly be herself in both parts of her life. 

I tried to find out who made the changes, but no dice. If I had to bet though I’d say Todd Nauck.

[Young Justice 49] Follow the Leader, aka my personal favorite. Fully evolved Cassandra Sandsmark, ready to wrangle her team of wacky misfits, coordinate large scale missions, and call everyone on their bullshit. She is no longer the inexperienced kid running wild with powers she can barely control. She has the training, experience, and respect needed to lead. 

She’s confident in herself and in her place as Wonder Girl. She has friends she trusts and relies on, ones she’s literally been to hell and back with. She isn’t afraid to be emotionally vulnerable with them, and trusts them to catch her when she falls.

Teen Titans

[Teen Titans, introduced in 1 but this pic is from 3]

Post Graduation Day. Cassie is grumpy, moody, and still reeling after losing her sister and friend. This uniform takes clear inspiration from Donna’s outfit(s), as it should, considering Cassie wears it to honor her. She is no longer the leader, and isn’t sure where she stands with her friends teammates. Her world has been rocked by Donna’s death; she’s lost confidence in her abilities as both a leader and a hero. She’s emotionally vulnerable, a fact that Ares takes advantage of to try and manipulate her.

She spends her time in this outfit navigating unfamiliar waters and rediscovering what (and who) she can trust.

Side note but the logo, belt, and bracelets were really inconsistent. A character reference sheet would have gone a long way for this outfit, as would the artists not sexualizing it.

[Teen Titans 34]

One Year Later. Cassie is grief stricken and lonely. Kon is dead, and she feels abandoned by Tim, Bart, and Diana. She’s angry, and underneath all that anger, she’s hurting. She’s colder, guarded, and more snappish than she’s ever been. There are elements of Superboy’s outfit in this, to honor his memory (yes, Cassie always used to wear jeans, but these are specifically based on his last costume before he died). 

She spends her time in this costume relearning to open up to the people who care about her. She works through her grief, even as the deaths of people she cares about continue to pile up.

[Wonder Girl] From Cassie’s very own miniseries, a gift from her half brother Hercules. This is the story where she supposedly makes peace with herself and her godly roots. She patches things up with her mom and friends after learning about her true godly parentage and her actions during the (garbage) events of Amazons Attack. 

As far as I can tell, she never wears it again.

Side note, but people literally don’t recognize her in an actual uniform/costume, which proves her pulled-from-my-merch-closet look is superior and iconic.

(Also she used her earrings as shuriken at one point, which is Tim’s influence if I’ve ever seen it)

[Teen Titans #65]

New outfit new me, right? For the first time in her superhero career, she’s not using Zeus’s power or Ares’. She finally figured out how to access her own innate power as a demigoddess, and is ready to kick some serious ass. Cassie is in a better place mentally than she’s been for awhile. She’s still got issues, but she’s made progress dealing with her grief for Kon, Bart, and the many others she’s lost along the way. She and Tim have reaffirmed their friendship. She’s been through hell, and come out the other side. There will be more stumbling blocks in her future, but the past no longer weighs her down quite as much as it did. 

At least, that’s what she’s trying to project here. This is one of the few times in her life she is actually hiding her real self. Everyone around her wants her to be fine, needs her to be fine, so she pretends she’s okay. She creates a personal distance between herself and her team, and buries herself in superhero work and her duties as leader. She can totally handle anything (she really really can’t)

[Teen Titans 88]

The end note. Very similar to her OYL outfit; I’m pretty sure that’s the same shirt, just drawn better. Things are looking up: Kon and Bart are alive, she no longer has anyone (except Damian and the writer himself) openly undermining her place as leader. She’s overjoyed to have her friends back, but now she has to figure out where they fit in her life after being forced to live without them for so long. She’s realizing she can’t go on with distancing herself the way she has been. 

Teen Titans and the entire post Crisis/pre Flashpoint universe ends not long after she starts wearing this.

[codes-and-stuffs]

latest fic recs:

(edit as of april 2022, which is literally over half a year after i made this asjdfkgh: okay so this has been in my drafts so long holy shit but i can vouch for most still :)! )

magic school au, tubbo centric, dad sparklez, everyone loves tubbo - very fun and chill, sone conflict but happy ending :)

clingyduo centric, dragon tommy, magic tubbo, oneshot - short and sweet, seemed pretty in character

reincarnation au with beeduo, clingyduo and crimeboys, tubbo centric, oneshot - makes me want to write this au it's so gOOD, author if you see this ily pls write more of it (edit: HOLY SHIT okay so turns out this is super popular now and no longer a oneshot (which i thought it was at the time sadjfvg) so i guess this aged well? the author sure did write more LMAO but yeah i read the rest of the fic and it just gets better and better, amazing quirkyduo characterisation stood out to me)

feral boys + fundy + wilbur, chatfic, romantic ig but plenty of friendships too - so many ships, lots of fun :D (edit: mainly romance stuff so probs not for most of my mutuals, iirc it's actually been massively edited since i last read it so idk how well it aged slkajcdfg)

clingyduo, oneshot - technically i don't agree with how some characters are portrayed, but it's still very sweet and a good read :) (edit: ah shit author sorry i was mean! it seems it was just in the tubbo-centric tag so i analysed it as a tubbling! reread it and it's a lovely little fic :D. are you an inniter btw)

karlnapity, quackity-centric, high school au - this was so goood!!! great build up and i loved it

tubbo-centric, spiderman au, 5+1 - hfkshend tubbo as the guy in the chair has never been better than in this fic, huge recommend to fellow tubbo enjoyers (also it's a series, with other works featuring other people in sbi!) (edit: I REMEMBER THIS FIC SO SO OFTEN IT'S SO GOOD LITERALLY ONE OF THE BEST SUPERHERO AU TUBBOS and also the other characters are done pretty fucking well)

superpowers au, villain tubbo, hero sbi and ranboo, dadschlatt (but not in a /pos way) - yea okay this wasn't too bad i quite liked it, made me feel things. heavy on the beeduo more than other sbi+tubbo relationships but it's done in a balanced way i'd say. hug propaganda /pos (edit: this feels like an unjust finish bc imo i don't really love this as much as i must have when i put it on this list, so i'll give you guys one extra!)

(edit: FINAL FIC REC OF THE POST!

genuninely fucking ADORE this fic, it's a l'manburg members-centric young justice (superhero) au but semi chatfic style. i don't... think it's centric on any specific member tho which is pretty unique i love it a lot!

thanks for reading LMAO

(pls reblog so others can take a look at these fics!!! some of these have nowhere near enough comments and kudos for what they deserve and i can even vouch that this list doesn't include mutual recs i just think these fics are cool slakdfgbh))

[juatacityboi]

MOTIVATION POST

(Lmao I'm watching Dr.Strange this is what brought this on)

something that people who haven't shifted tend to say is "if the universe doesn't let me shift" or "if the universe just let me shift"

no bestie you are the universe

you let yourself shift

Decide that you'll shift

Don't leave it up in the air

Do it

Only when you actually decide "hey I'm going to shift" and trust in your own power is when you'll truly shift

A huge part of Stephen Strange's story is that he's so logical and he struggles to accept that there are things that he doesn't fully understand or grasp.

He is quickly made a believer when he is forcefully thrown into the astral realm. He still struggles with belief as seen by his inability to conjure up a simple portal.

The Ancient One puts him on Mount Everest and abandons him.

Through a life or death experience he is able to conjure a portal to take him back to Kamar-Taj.

He quickly excels after that.

Why? Because he stopped doubting himself and his ability and went for it.

(I am in no way saying that you are not giving your absolute best when it comes to shifting im just making some observations of things ive seen and heard that have come up consistently throughout this shifting journey of mine)

Shifting in a way is your own magical journey

You start bushy tailed and bright eyed ready to dip the hell out of this reality and spend time somewhere of your choosing.

You might have some close calls where “ah my mom interrupted me” or “My cat climbed on me”

You might even be right on the edge with “oh i heard people from my dr and felt them and then i opened my eyes and i was still here”

Your life or death experience or rather your point of excelling lies in believing in yourself and your ability.

It’s not the universe who controls when you shift its you.

You,in all your amazing glory,found shifting and decided that you were going to try it.

You were the one who made countless scripts and brainstormed cute days with the comfort characters you love so dearly

You are the one who laid down and counted in that gods awful starfish position(personal opinion but that crap makes my back hurt sob)

You are the one who in the whole multiverse has joined many others in this journey of zipping around to the places you've always wanted to go, to the places you’ve always dreamed of

You decided that you were gonna go and chase that seemingly impossible dream of hanging out with the Avengers,casting a spell with your 8 1/2 inch willow wand with a unicorn hair core,running with wolves,riding dragons and attending a superpowered school.

Only to find that it is possible.

And you can absolutely do it

Lmao this has gotten really long so lemme just

TLDR:

Go and shift

Don't wait for no universe because you're a bad bitch(affectionately positive) and you and only you can decide when you shift

i love you /pos

[justafewsmallsteps]

A look into LadyNoir for my Reversal AU, The Other Way Around. You don’t really need to read the other parts to get this one :)

Title: The Other Way Around, Part 3 Pairing: Lovesquare (LadyNoir)   Rating: G+ Word Count: 2.5K

The first time Marinette really interacted with a cat was at a friend’s house. She was six years old at her very first sleepover. Nervous and shy, she’d spent the majority of the evening worrying about what would happen once the lights were out. She’d never had to sleep through a night without her parents or family with her. No amount of cartoons or pillow fights could fully ease the fear of impending darkness.

The other three girls seemed totally adjusted and excited, but Marinette could hardly eat dinner even though it was pizza from their favorite spot. Then she nearly burst into tears at the table when they served the cookies her parents had sent with her, overwhelmed with missing them so badly. With her eyes stinging and her voice ready to cry out that they should call home to pick her up, Button the cat suddenly sprung onto her lap. She was a fluffy tan thing with two black dots going down the center of her back, hence her name. In that moment she looked just like a chocolate chip cookie, albeit one that blinked up at Marinette’s face with huge, adorable brown eyes. The cat smooshed her head against the girl’s stomach, sat down, and began to purr. In her surprise and fascination, young Marinette forgot what she was so upset over.

She never had pets growing up—the hair was too much to maintain when her family also lived in a bakery—so she hadn’t any courage to approach Button before, even when the other girls had spent time petting her. She knew cats had claws and their yawns revealed sharp, pointy teeth. The last thing she wanted was to get scratched or bitten when she was already terrified. Cats had been a scary mystery. Button was small and fluffy and warm. The moment she cuddled up to her, Marinette fell in love.

After that day, cats became her favorite animal, and while she still wasn’t allowed to have one (despite the begging and puppy eyes that her mother valiantly fought against with gentle reasoning), Marinette surrounded herself with them as a good luck charm. She had kitty keychains, plush toys, cat-covered folders to take to class, and cat-print bedsheets. The obsessive phase lasted for three years, but the fondness stayed even when her room took on a pink and floral theme to match her changing design aesthetic. Obviously when she found the giant body pillow shaped like a cat, she knew she had to have it anyway. After long days of dealing with Chloe’s yapping and her own special trademark combination of back luck and clumsiness, hugging that massive squishy cat became her ultimate comfort.

That was, until another cat fell into her lap. Well, crashed into her entire body was more what happened.

When she was gifted her miraculous, Marinette thought herself a poor fit for a superhero. She liked leadership positions and really didn’t have a big problem taking charge when needed, but saving lives was a ton of pressure. She’d thrown her yoyo randomly, not sure of a single move she made, and in doing so managed to tangle her partner and herself up despite the superpowers. Chat Noir seemed more natural, and surely he deserved a partner that had the confidence to match his skills instead of her. Marinette was stuck in her head with apprehension. She’d totally screwed up her very first mission by letting the akuma multiply instead of purifying it. She wasn’t excited to be a hero. She was terrified.

Maybe it was the cat bias that made her instantly trust Chat Noir, but it was the way he put his warm hands so squarely on her shoulders and assured her that she could do this, that made her fall in love. It was the second time a cat had saved her from giving in to her fears.

He gave her the courage to stand up to Hawkmoth, and the moment she vowed to take him down was a triumph of bravery. She wouldn’t have been able to do that without him.

Of course she fell for him.

He didn’t make it any easier for her as they got closer. He was just so endearingly sweet, throwing compliments at her all the time for encouragement.

If only she didn’t turn into an absolute pile of goo whenever he did. At least she was always able to pull herself together to get the job done, but it was his fault. What could anyone expect from her when her partner was talented, smart, super handsome, and somehow humble about all of it?

She’d witnessed how he avoided the spotlight in favor of checking up with akuma victims. She’d seen him time after time go out of his way to protect others, especially her, from harm’s way. And after he did all those things he’d throw her the credit as if she was the one saving the day.

They worked together well, reading each other’s moves and adapting to each other’s pace. But he never needed the attention, happy to just get the mission done. It was a side of him that she got to see when the crowds weren’t looking, proud at what they’d accomplished while holding his fist out to hers in solidarity to say, “We did it!” Together. Always together.

But then their miraculouses would beep, and they’d have to go their separate ways with her casting lingering glances towards whichever horizon he’d disappear off to.

At least during some of their mutual patrols they had time to talk. She looked forward to each one, no matter what other responsibilities she had waiting for her once it was over. Getting to know her partner was such a highlight to her identity as Ladybug. There was the triumph of victory, the thrill of the physics defying feats she could accomplish, the heartwarming gratitude of the citizens… and then there was this: sitting at the top of the Eiffel with their feeting dangling in the cool Parisian air, aimlessly talking above a safe city set aglow with evening lights; the warm sense of security yet tingling excitement of hanging out with her one and only crush.

“Favorite hot drink?” she wondered.

Asking non-identifying questions was their way of bonding without compromising themselves.

Chat Noir hummed thoughtfully over a cookie—raspberry macarons, a favorite she had learned fairly early on. “The hot chocolate you brought in the winter was great. Probably the best I’ve ever had, actually.”

She blushed and kicked her feet nervously. She swore that she would’ve tripped if they’d been walking. Somehow his compliments did that to her. “T-thanks.”

He grabbed another macaron and turned it over, studying the ruffled feet as he added, “Otherwise I’m really fond of tea. My mother liked English high tea; always insisted we have a tea break at some point in the day. When I was a kid I was only in it for the cookies and sandwiches, but at this point I like the drink too. It's nostalgic.”

He always got wistful when he spoke about his mother, but Marinette knew that train of thought would lead them to somewhere too personal. It wasn’t that she didn’t yearn to know more about him. Quite the opposite, but they both knew that it wasn’t safe yet. There had been too many close calls. She followed up with another question. “Any tea in particular?”

“Earl grey, usually. I’m a fan of London Fogs over coffee.”

She smiled down, looking at her home’s direction. They had a lovely macaron with that flavor as well, she thought. She could bring him a variety box next time. Maybe one day they could do tea together in some fashion. A picnic, perhaps? High tea during an evening patrol seemed a bit strange, but she could always brew him a decaf in a thermos so he wouldn’t be hopped up on caffeine. Or maybe that was too much if she was already bringing the same flavor in a cookie. Did hot chocolate go well with earl grey? What about the raspberry? Plenty of people ordered a variety of flavors all the time. Maybe she should throw in a few others for balance, like the rose ones. Wait, were rose flavored macarons too romantic? Would it seem like a date if she brought him flower-flavored food? Not that she didn’t want to date him because of course she did but—

“Deep in thought, Ladybug?”

Chat Noir’s twinkling green eyes greeted her, just a few centimeters from her face. He must have been trying to get her attention for a while.

Surprised, she suddenly scooted back and flailed. “Oh!” Thankfully she was securely seated on the beam enough to not begin a sad plummet to the ground. Desserts were well and good, but she’d prefer to avoid becoming a polka dotted pancake. “Yes, sorry! Did you say something?”

He laughed his magical laugh, accustomed to her tendency to get lost in her own head. “No need to apologize. I was just saying that it was my turn to ask a question before we turn in for the night.”

Ah, was it already time to go back? Sheepishly, the heroine smiled. “Did you already ask it?”

A flash of teeth showed off his mirthful grin. “I did.”

“Sorry.” He had already told her not to apologize, but it was embarrassing that she was fantasizing about dating him when he was literally sitting besides her. “What was it again?”

“I asked if you’ve been on a date lately, Little Lady.”

Oh.

Her mind short-circuited. Had she been babbling out loud? How desperate had she sounded? “What? Me! Doing to date you? I mean, going on a date with someyou? Someone!”

If her slip up meant anything, he didn’t acknowledge it. He never did. Did she want him to?

“Yep. Like a romantic one-on-one date. I, uh,” he bashfully scratched the back of his neck, “I’ve been thinking about it lately.”

A rush of blood warmed her cheeks. “Y-you were?” Thinking about dating someone? Her? Them? Romantically!

He avoided her eyes, choosing to look up instead as he laughed nervously. “For a while now. I don’t even think I could, but there’s a girl…”

I’m a girl, her brain supplied with excitement.

“You can’t ask her?”

He clicked his tongue. “There’s a few conflicts. First of all, I don’t know how she really feels about me, and… I don’t know how to say the other part without really giving anything away.”

Ladybug pursed her lips and gave him time, either out of courtesy or because she was freaking out and incapable of speech.

“Um, it’s like… an occupational issue, I guess. I don’t know if I’d be allowed, in a sense. Then there’s the issue that I know nearly nothing about dating,” he explained.

For all his vagueness, she fit his description enough. She’d never outright confessed to being in love with him, so he didn’t know her feelings. Also they weren’t really supposed to date with all their responsibilities, and wasn’t that just part of their job as heroes? So for all intents and purposes, Chat Noir really could have been talking about her. The possibility made her head spin.

Her hope was strung on a tightrope; a precarious position that could go either way. She could ask him directly if he meant someone in his civilian life or if by some miracle he was talking about her—or she could stay on the precipice between disappointment and bliss. But for all her clumsiness, Marinette preferred balance whenever she could manage it. So she stayed her course, eyes far from looking down at the possibilities and instead on the objective: answer him.

“I haven’t been on a real date recently, no.”

She looked for any hint about his feelings in his response, any indication that he was relieved or just pitied her. He simply nodded, leaving her clueless as she continued to walk the tightrope.

“Same,” he let out a whiny sigh. “I guess I can’t really ask for advice then. I’m terrible when it comes to romance.”

She traced one of her spots with a gloved finger, trying to keep a clear mind despite the slight relief that her crush wasn’t out on dates all the time. “I doubt it. You’re so amazing, you’d make any girl really happy and lucky to be with you.” Saying those words aloud had her face feeling as red as her suit.

“Luck is your department, LB,” he grinned. “I imagine admirers are chasing you left and right.”

“Not in any serious manner,” Adrien’s corny and outlandish attempts to get her attention came to mind. He was just a flirt by nature, hardly what someone would consider a real admirer. “I… I’d be happy to go on a date with somebody who really liked me though.”

He gave her a thoughtful look that made her pause.

She stood up suddenly. “I mean, not just anybody! Like… if I knew they actually liked me, then I might give it a chance? Depending on the person.”

Chat Noir smiled again, patiently letting her ramble as usual.

She took a deep breath to collect herself. “It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with dating, at least that’s what I think. If she’s a nice person then she’ll also understand and you’ll both get through it together. You just have to be yourself.”

“You’re right as always, Little Lady,” he sighed. Her stomach did a flip at the soft sound of his voice. “You know, you do give the best advice.”

Balance, she reminded herself. Tightrope.

But he spoke again, “I can always count on you to cheer me up if things go wrong, can’t I?”

The words were kind—like a soft breeze—which was just enough to throw off her careful, barely established balance; just enough information to tip her over to the fact that he must have been talking about some other girl if at the end of the day he could still find comfort in her, his partner.

And so she fell. Or, well, she’d fallen for him a long time ago. What did she expect? Something happier, she’d hoped. Something more similar to catching herself with her yo-yo, lifting back up to soar instead of her hopes tumbling down.

“Ladybug?”

She took a second to glance down at the ground where her heart felt like it had dropped. From their high position on the Eiffel, it was a long way down. For how much she loved him, she wasn’t sure just how her heart would break. Shatter like glass? Crumble to pieces? Or would it plummet and dent the floor because it certainly felt as heavy as lead when she turned to face Chat Noir, an achingly sweet melancholy painted on face as he smiled at her.

“Of course you can count on me. You and me against it all,” she assured, holding out her hand to help him up. It was time to go, after all.

He grinned as he stood, “Everything from akumas to heartbreak.”

She gave a weak laugh in reply. “Good night, Chat.”

“Good night, Little Lady.”

[blockgamepirate]

So we were talking on Discord about a DSMP superpowers AU, specifically Syndicate as an anarchist superhero team who are perceived as villains by pretty much everybody. (There were a bunch of people involved in the brainstorming but I wanna particularly credit @macachee for the idea for Techno’s superpowers, even though I ended up using a slightly different version than theirs.)

Anyway I know I don't really write fanfic anymore and I'm extremely rusty but uh... my hand slipped?

(CW: nothing major but there are repeated mentions of fire and some pretty tame violence)

×××

"Professor Underscore, I presume?"

The distinctive deep voice of an infamous supervillain was really not something anyone wanted to hear after 14 hours of last minute bug-fixing on a prototype superweapon in a secret laboratory. Especially when all your assistants had already called it a day and gone home.

Without even looking around, Tubbo reached for the gun in his desk drawer but before he could pull it out, a blade smashed into the wood right next to his hand.

"Nope", said the voice, "you don't get to have weapons, I get to have weapons. And speaking of weapons..."

Tubbo carefully turned around on his chair to face his attacker. As expected, it was a huge, hulking pigman dressed in flashy red and a golden mask.

"You are Protesilaus, aren't you? From the Syndicate?"

Protesilaus blinked at him. "You're a LOT younger than I expected, professor."

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

"I mean it's very impressive though, good for you."

"Thanks."

"So anyway, I'm here for the weapons."

"The weapons are kinda reserved already. You know, for the military."

"Don't give a shit", said a voice from the door. "Gib."

Protesilaus sighed. "Zephyrus, you're supposed to be the secret back-up."

The man hiding by the door frame laughed. "We already took care of the guards. There's nobody here but him, it's fiiine."

"But what if HE has his own secret back-up? What then? Well, it's too late now so just keep a look-out, alright?"

Zephyrus laughed again. "Sure."

"Alright." Protesilaus pointed his sword at Tubbo. "Show us to the weapons."

×××

There wasn't much he could think of doing to stall except try and tap in the pin codes on the doors as slowly as humanly possible. To be fair he didn't even really know what he was stalling for exactly. Secret back-up would have been nice but if they’d really taken out all the guards then none was likely to come.

Protesilaus was following him, sword in hand, making random small talk on the way as if he didn't know how to deal with the silence. Tubbo had only caught a few glimpses of Zephyrus, the winged man, in the background or in reflections. He seemed to be tampering with the security systems on the way, meaning that Tubbo really might be completely alone on this if the sabotage was successful. Zephyrus was also pulling along a big wheeled container of some sort that was probably intended for the weapons.

The two of them were the known members of the Syndicate, a team of anarchist terrorists who gave nightmares to the local police forces, the national guard and occasionally the military, but it was also widely theorized to have a secret third member with fire powers. Nobody had ever managed to catch them in the act, the only evidence of the secret member's existence was the trail of smoking ruins following the pair, their targets always burned down in a blaze of extremely memorable pink flames.

Tubbo had a theory that there were actually two secret members in the Syndicate, because if you're going to have one secret member you might as well have two, right? Maybe even three! It just made sense.

His assistants hadn't seemed convinced by this logic.

They arrived at the large hall leading up to the main vault where the prototypes were hidden and Tubbo finally had a plan. Somebody (probably him, honestly) had left the remote control of his battle bots lying around on a sidetable. He took advantage of his captors checking the space for surprise guards and inched slowly towards the remote.

"Everything good up there?" Protesilaus called out to Zephyrus who had flown up to the rafters.

"All good."

"Alright, seems safe enough", said Protesilaus. "Now, open the vault."

Tubbo just needed to stall a little bit longer until he could grab the remote undetected. "Actually, maybe I just won't be able to live with the fact that I let you guys get your hands on superweapons? What if I'd rather die than let you have them?"

Protesilaus sighed. "Look, don't worry, it's for a good cause, I promise."

"I mean, you guys are supervillains."

"Oh yeah sure, you're literally making weapons for an imperialist government but we're the villains?"

"What about that orphanage you burned down?" Tubbo kept moving towards the sidetable, trying to make it look like he was just pacing nervously.

"I have NEVER burned down any orphanages, I do NOT have an irrational hatred of small children, in fact I LOVE orphans in particular, you can ask anyone."

"You did, though! That was like two years ago, back when you were part of the Sleepy Bois Inc!"

Tubbo actually knew quite a lot about the Sleepy Bois, the infamous villain team who were particularly known for conning people into taking part in some sort of strange experiments, like that time they somehow transported a hundred people to the moon and told them to terraform a random area. The group had broken up a while back and two of the four had since reformed. Well, more or less reformed anyway. Actually not really reformed, but they were at least sticking to smaller crimes these days.

Anyway Mr. Business was now one of Tubbo's best friends, although nobody was supposed to know that. And Dirty Crime Boy seemed like a surprisingly nice guy. He was out there running what seemed to be some kind of a drug van but Tubbo had chosen not to worry about it too much.

The other two members, however...

"Sleepy Boys? Doesn't ring a bell." Protesilaus' face was suspiciously blank.

"You know, back when you called yourself the Blood God."

"Nah nah nah, I'm Protesilaus, not the Blood God."

"Come on, you're OBVIOUSLY the Blood God."

"I've never even heard of that guy."

"You're LITERALLY a pigman with superhealing powers and a shiny magical sword, you wear a crown AND you're hanging out with a blond guy with wings who looks just like the Angel of Death."

"Wow, wild coincidence", said Protesilaus

“Not gonna lie, the Angel of Death is a really cool name“, said Zephyrus.

Tubbo ignored them. "And you sound exactly like the Blood God."

"I don't hear it", said Protesilaus.

"You said you don't even know who he is!"

"Exactly."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'EXACTLY'??? THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!!!"

"Well I can't hear it if I've never even heard him speak. That's just logic."

Up in the rafters Zephyrus was cackling like a madman.

"You annoy me so much", said Tubbo.

"Aaaanyways, just give us a little peek into the vault, alright? Just out of curiosity, you know."

Tubbo had made it to the remote, he just needed one more distraction to cover for him grabbing it. "Uh..." Then he had an idea: he just took a quick sudden glance at the exit, as if he'd seen something over there and sure enough both of the criminals immediately turned to check. It was just long enough. He got the remote. "Okay fine, you can see the vault."

"Nice, nice." Protesilaus was still glancing around suspiciously but he had no idea what he should have been suspicious of.

Tubbo was more than happy to open the vault now. It might be holding the prototypes but it was also filled with a small army of robots.

All of which came to life with the press of a button.

"Ah", said Protesilaus. "There's his secret back-up."

"Oh Jesus", said Zephyrus. "I think we fucked up."

"You could say that", said Tubbo. "If you just leave peacefully I might let you go", he added in a sudden fit of uncharacteristic levels of confidence.

Protesilaus raised his sword. "Well you see, I really want those weapons, though."

"I guess you'll just have to fight the robots for it then", said Tubbo, configuring the targetting system.

"Mate, they've got guns on them", Zephyrus called out from above.

"Take cover then", said Protesilaus, very much not taking any cover at all himself.

Tubbo, pretty sure the bots knew which people to fight, released them on the criminals.

Protesilaus immediately managed to dodge the first few lazer bolts from the bots, but the third hit him on the arm. He flinched a bit but didn't seem too bothered. "Ouch. Okay so they can actually aim."

Still dancing around the shots, he held his hand to the wound and once he took it off, only the singed hole on his sleeve remained. The Blood God had been known for some kind of healing powers and coincidentally Protesilaus of the Syndicate, who apparently definitely wasn't the Blood God, just happened to also have healing powers. This fight was going to be hard even for thirty robots.

The pigman finally took some cover, hiding behind a pillar. The robots would have to move closer and Tubbo could already tell that if he'd manage to single them out, Protesilaus would easily take them down one by one.

Even worse, Zephyrus had hidden behind a different pillar up near the ceiling and was sniping the bots from above. They were supposed to be bulletproof but the man was absolutely cracked and managed to keep hitting them in the joints and in the eyes.

But at least the bots had given Tubbo some room to work with. He bolted into the vault and headed straight for a very specific section.

"So I just wanna know, professor", Protesilaus called out from the hall, "how are you NOT the evil mastermind here? You have a LITERAL horde of robots in your control that you can just let loose on people!"

"What do you MEAN? They're for fighting people like you! In this exact kind of situation!" Tubbo found what he was looking for and quickly unbuckled the huge harnesses holding it in place. He had to get a stool to reach the highest ones and nearly tripped on it in his hurry.

"Oh and how many of these have you sold to the government? And what if they just decide that they'd be very convenient for taking care of dissenters?"

"Well if the dissenters are literal supervillains, that sounds great." He climbed the ladder on the wall up to the platform by the mech suit and jumped inside.

He couldn't hear what Protesilaus responded after he pulled down the dome of the suit over his body. The sounds of fighting and the bulletproof glass drowned it all out from this distance, and the sound system wasn’t turned on yet. Now the odds should be a lot more even, though. Let’s see how they deal with this, he thought. He settled in and launched the mech--

... and then maneuvered awkwardly through the mess of secret weapons and machines inside his vault. He was pretty sure he didn't break too many things on the way, it was fine. In the corner of his eye he thought he saw a flash of pink and for a second he worried that the pigman had followed him into the vault where it would be almost impossible for him to fight in the suit but luckily he could still hear the sound of sword clanging into metal from outside.

He moved over to the vault door as sneakily as he could while piloting a 12-foot-tall machine in a tight space and looked out into the hall. The floor was littered with broken robots, and there were several blinded ones aimlessly wandering around and getting in the way of the ones that still functioned properly. Protesilaus was towards the back of the hall, stabbing a bot in the armpit and tearing off its arm, Zephyrus on the other hand, still perching on the rafters, had moved around the pillar he had hidden behind, now aiming away from the vault. Neither of them were looking at Tubbo. He took aim and shot at one of the huge grey wings.

"Ah! Fuck!" Zephyrus spun around. "You little shit!"

"Zephyrus, are you okay??" Protesilaus immediately looked over to his ally and took another hit himself.

"I'm FINE, dude!" Zephyrus sounded exasperated but fond. "Look out yourself! Also the kid has a fucking mech."

"A what?"

Tubbo slammed the vault door shut. Good luck getting in there now, Syndicate. Then he tossed aside some robot carcasses to clear out the floor and threw one at Protesilaus who dodged it easily but in the process took another hit from a different robot. He was starting to look tired and he was obviously distracted by Zephyrus getting hurt. That was promising.

Tubbo started climbing the pillar up to the ceiling. Zephyrus cursed again and tried to hop around the pillar to run across to the other side but his hurt wing didn't open properly so he lost his balance, slipped up and fell. "Shit!"

"ZEPHYRUS!"

The man managed to open his wings and soften the fall but the injury made him veer dangerously to the left and crash into a pile of broken robots. Protesilaus leaped over to him, dropping his sword and laying his hands on his friend's wing and back. A faint red glow emitted from the touch points.

Tubbo jumped back down to the ground and stormed at them. He punched the pigman right in the chin, sending him flying across the room. He then tried to grab Zephyrus but the man had already slipped away and had apparently managed to pick up his friend's sword. "You motherfucker", the man said, "I'm going to take that fucking suit apart and then it's your turn."

"Zeph!" Protesilaus called from the side and Zephyrus tossed the sword to him without taking his eyes of off Tubbo. Then the man pulled up his sniper rifle again and Tubbo quickly covered his weak points with his armoured arms and jumped behind a pillar. He needed to disarm Zephyrus ASAP.

Behind them, Protesilaus was taking care of the last few robots. Tubbo didn't have much time, but he couldn't do anything until Zephyrus would have to reload, the guy was just too accurate...

"Oh fuck", said Zephyrus suddenly. "Prot, the door!"

They all turned to look at the exit.

There, at the door, was Ranboo, widened eyes flicking between Tubbo, the broken robots and the Syndicade. He was holding a bowl of biscuits and a cup of tea. "Uh... hello? Hi?"

Ranboo was actually NOT allowed in the vaults but how do you stop someone who can literally teleport anyway? Tubbo was glad to see him sneaking in, though.

"Ranboo! Help! They're trying to steal the weapons!"

"I..." Ranboo seemed frozen in place.

"Ranboo!" Tubbo was starting to get worried. His husband wasn't even taking any shelter. He drove the mech over to him to at least give him some protection.

"I just came to bring you cookies? Coz I thought maybe you were staying late to make the deadline and I thought--"

"Ranboo, I'm being attacked by supervillains right now!"

"Look, what if we just talked this through? I'm sure everybody here would rather not kill each other, right?" Ranboo was tall enough to lay a hand on Tubbo's shoulder even when he was wearing the mech suit which kind of pissed Tubbo off to be quite honest.

"Sure", said Protesilaus, "I love negotiating. Give us the weapons and their blueprints and we're more than happy to go."

"See? That's good, right? Tubbo, we can just let them have the weapons."

"Ranboo, sometimes you're a bit too quirky for my liking. Stop being quirky, help me fight them. You can use your... T-E-L-I-P-O-R-T-A-T-I-O-N powers."

Everybody just stared at him for a second.

"Shouldn't it be T-E-L-E?" said Protesilaus.

"Tubbo, you realise they can spell words too, you know, like most people who graduated elementary school?" said Ranboo.

"I'M SORRY! I'M TIRED, OKAY?"

“You could have just said ‘use your powers’, I mean, I know what my powers are.”

“IT'S BEEN A REALLY LONG DAY!“

"Zephyrus, I think this guy might be too much for us, I've never met such intimidating intellect", said Protesilaus. Zephyrus seemed to already be dying of laughter and his ally's words did not help.

"Now that's just rude," said Tubbo.

He'd barely finished his sentence when a horrible whistling sound hit them all like an invisible cargo train. After a second Tubbo managed to reassemble his braincells long enough to figure it out: "The fire alarm!"

Then he noticed the grin on his enemy's face. "Well, good job, everyone! Let's go home, Zephyrus", said Protesilaus cheerfully.

"Sure, mate."

The secret third member of the Syndicate, Tubbo suddenly remembered. The container they'd brought with them was gone too. Well, fuck. "This whole thing was a diversion??"

"Yep." The Protesilaus was already at the exit and Zephyrus was following right behind him. "See ya, losers!"

Something inside the vault exploded, making a muffled bang through the door, as if just to prove where exactly the fire had been lit.

"Oh man..." Tubbo flopped down on his seat. "I spent SO LONG building all those things!"

"Tubbo, we need to get out." Ranboo took him by the hand of his mech suit and pulled him along.

"No, we could still go in and save the--"

"No, Tubbo. Let's NOT run into the vault full of dangerous chemicals that's literally on fire, actually."

×××

By the time the fire department showed up, pink flames had enveloped the entire lab complex. The terrorists presumably had at least one of the prototypes now and all the remaining ones were a lost cause.

It's not like all the work was gone to waste, they'd made some backups at least, but it would be a pain to find a new lab and order all the extremely volatile chemicals again. So much paperwork. Tubbo was really not good at paperwork.

"Well, there goes my summer holidays I guess", he said.

"Yeah", said Ranboo. "There they go."

×××

"So... Lethe", said Techno at the next Syndicate meeting, "you never happened to mention you were friends with Professor Underscore."

Ranboo shifted nervously in his chair. "I mean... in my defence, you never said you were going to raid his lab?"

"True, true. It didn't seem like relevant information at the time I suppose. You know, because you're kinda more in the group just for the book club and Bake Off Fridays and not so much for the vigilante thing."

"How do you know Professor Underscore, Lethe?" asked Niki gently.

Ranboo looked around the table. He was fairly certain that the others wouldn't kill him for fraternizing with the enemy. He was pretty sure anyway. At least 70% sure.

Also they were all staring at him now.

"Uh... he's my... husband?"

The staring continued.

"Oh!" said Niki.

"Well", said Techno. "This is awkward."

"Uh huh?" Ranboo responded, his entire body tense and slightly wobbly.

"Techno", Phil said softly. Techno brushed him off.

"So uh, are you attached to him, Lethe?"

"Y-yes?" Ranboo straightened his back. "Yes." he said again, more firmly.

"Alright. I guess in the future we should try not to kill him then."