#a parasite needs a host (damian)

[castoffyourcrown]

((Tag dump~))

[in1-nutshell]

I know I just made a request that is similar but Can I request a scenerio where the batfamily have the buddy with the symbiote living at Wayne manor basically becoming adopted by Bruce? They do their best to protect the innocent and somehow become well acquainted with some of the roughs like harley quinn, poison ivy, and even killer croc.

More Venom Buddy!

Hope you enjoy!

Bat Buddy with Symbiote with Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Killer Croc

SFW, Platonic, Slight Familial, Human reader

BATFAMILY

Buddy was adopted by Bruce before they bonded with Venom.

They had been training to be a hero with Batman before a certain field trip left them with a friend for life.

Well, it didn’t start that way with the side effect of the bond showing first.

It took the combined efforts of Dick, Barabra, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, Duke and Damian for Bruce to realize something was wrong with Buddy.

When Bruce got out a needle to take a blood sample, Venom mistook this as an act of violence and ‘defended’ his host.

After a lot of screaming and yelling later, Buddy is explaining how they got bonded with Venom.

The symbiote perched on their shoulder giving Bruce the stink eye.

It took time for the Batfamily to get used to the new normal with Buddy, yet they knew that they would still be a bit of an outlier amongst them.

Thankfully they found friends in unlikely places.

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy

The three of them had a pretty good relationship before they had bonded with the symbiote.

Buddy liked hanging out with the pair after patrol if they promised not to create big disturbances.

The pair was probably one of the first to notice Buddy’s body changes when they were first bonded with Venom.

Harley cupping Buddy’s face: “Geez hun, you look sick.” Buddy gently pushing her hands off their face: “Its fine Harley.” Harley: “Maybe take some meds, get some sun and eat a bit more.” Harley looks at Buddy worriedly: “You’re growing a bit too thin Bud, your still growing!” Ivy handing Buddy a couple of fruits: “Eat these now. Then we talk about your diet, I can smell the tater tots and chocolate from your jacket.” Buddy stuffing their face with an orange: “Not my fault they taste so good…”

It was a little while later that Buddy decided to trust the antihero duo with Venom’s secret and new alias.

Yes, they were freaked out a bit.

Yes, Harley threatens Venom if he ever hurts their favorite Bat.

Ivy wanted to find out a safe way to get Venom and Buddy separated without killing the other.

A week later the four of them are having a movie night, face masks, popcorn bowls, face masks (yes, they somehow managed to get one on Venom), LOADS of chocolate, and fluffy blankets and matching PJ’s.

Buddy sandwich between Harley and Ivy while Venom’s head was happily getting fed chocolate by Harley

He denies any purring.

If Venom heard that the pair was in trouble, he would immediately take over and come to their rescue, not that Buddy would have much to say about it.

Killer Croc

Waylon was a special case.

Buddy had a ‘bad habit’ as their siblings would say, of visiting some of the asylum patients by themselves.

Venom would later agree with them once he found out about this habit.

They had made it their mission to make sure that the villains were getting proper treatment and the help they needed.

Croc was one of the harder patients to crack.

But they made sure to always visit him whenever they had the chance to go into the asylum.

Croc soon began to look forward to their little meetings.

Knew right off the bat that something was wrong with Buddy when they first came to him after bonded with Venom.

Killer croc looking at a pale and exhausted Buddy. Killer croc: “You okay kid? You look dead.” Buddy nervously laughing: “I’ve been worse Waylon. I’m fine.” Killer croc: “You look anything but fine. You sure that you don’t have a parasite--” Venom coming from Buddy’s shoulder: “PARASITE!?” Killer croc jumping a few feet back: “GEEZ!” Buddy rubbing their head: “Here we go again…”

After a lot of talking, persuasion and promises of another 2 boxes of chocolate, Venom calmed down enough to explain with Buddy their new relationship.

Croc was worried about Buddy even more now.

What if their family found out?

What if some scientist did?

Or the government?

Or worse… Amanda Waller finding out.

He lets them know right off the bat that if they ever needed a place to lay low that to come to him no matter what was after them.

While also threatening Venom and making him promise to keep them safe.

There was a lot of hostility between Croc and Venom for a while, until the two started talking.

They could agree on two things.

Humans and heroes sucked sometimes.

And they needed to protect Buddy.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Two Sides of the Coin (You Can't Have One Without the Other)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZBbqwgH by Nation_Ustria Nightwing has to bite back a laugh. “Gotham is a no-fly zone for more than just the JL, Supes. But, from what Blud knows, chances are that whatever you’ve heard is probably true.” Superman pales, which is anything but unexpected. Pretty much all of Gotham tends to be horrifying to Outsiders, as Nightwing is well aware. The question here is which rumors Superman decided were concerning enough to actually look into, the answer to which could be literally anything from the pollution levels to the regularity of the city-wide Fear Toxin gas attacks. Or something entirely outside of the usual spectrum of Things That Outsiders Need To Stop Freaking Out About, Nightwing discovers when Superman blurts, “But the Waynes aren’t actually possessed, right?” …Ah. Well, crap.   Or, in Gotham, it’s been common knowledge since the very beginning that the Waynes are playing host to the parasitic Bats, who protect Gotham and its people from threats both internal and external in turn. There’s nothing anyone can do about it now, even if they wanted to. (That’s... not actually what’s happening, but nobody needs to know that. The Batfam is too committed to the bit to pull out now.) Words: 2701, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Clark Kent, Jim Gordon, Other Character Tags to Be Added Relationships: Batfamily Members & Justice League, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Batfamily Members & Barbara Gordon, There are too many people to put everything, Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Dick Grayson & Teen Titans, The Outlaws & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Clark Kent Additional Tags: Cryptid Batfamily (DCU), POV Outsider, Not entirely though, Isolated Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Meets the Justice League (DCU), Meet the Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Shenanigans (DCU), Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Alternative names for like half of everyone else, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Tim Drake, Good Sibling Stephanie Brown, Good Sibling Cassandra Cain, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, I might add Duke, we'll see, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd is a Batfamily Member, Stephanie Brown is a Batfamily Member, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Gothamites be Like That, Protective Bruce Wayne, #onlyingotham, Bruce "task failed successfully"s his secret ID, Everybody assumed he was possessed and he just went with it, Wingfic, Sort Of, the Robins get mechanical wings, Scary Batfamily (DCU), the Bats don't kill, but sometimes they do disappear people, Dick Jason and Tim all have outside superhero IDs, no one else does, The Waynes aren't actually magic, or are they, either way they're absolutely nuts, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Batfamily Fluff (DCU), depending on your definition of fluff, Crack Treated Seriously read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZBbqwgH

[remakethestars]

Being Batman’s Daughter Would Include:

Headcanons.

❝Listen, Robin. At their core, people are cowardly and self-serving. Trust no one until you know them. And even then, never completely.❞

— Bruce Wayne, “The Lesson Plan”

TRIGGER WARNING: Plant murder. Mentions of drugs/tranqs (stopping dealers), violence/physical harm, broken bones (knee cap), limb dislocation (shoulder), (Jason’s) death, smoke, waterboarding/drowning?

Headcanon masterlist.

You know how every teenager has that paradigm shift because as much as they love the people around them, they’ll never know the inner workings of your psyche? And they realize they’ll never truly be known? And it makes them feel really lonely?

Yeah, you never come to feel like that because you know Bruce digs so far into everyone around him he probably knows you better than you do.

Honestly, he probably reads your diary. At least, he reads the fake one you hide under your mattress. And the second decoy in the A.C. vent above your dresser.

If you’re as paranoid as Bruce, you probably don’t have a diary, and the aforementioned “decoys” are just to mess with him.

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was practically your Bible growing up.

You’re torn between giving yourself the tactical advantage of being underestimated & being non-reactive, which — besides giving you the lioness role in the lion–gazelle dynamic — gives you the advantage of having time to think carefully on the repercussions before speaking.

Because, as Sun Tzu said in chapter seven, verse twenty-one, “Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.”

Seeing as Bruce and Damian both have eidetic memories, I’m guessing you do too. 

Which means you totally read the dictionary when you were young and whip our big words nobody’s heard of.

Bruce always assured you it’s okay to be scared. As a matter of fact, like he told Dick (seen in flashbacks in “The Lesson Plan”), he taught you to “Let terror embrace you. The better you know fear, the better you can use it against others.”

And we all know Bruce is the paragon of using fear against people.

Take that, Scarecrow!

(See, I chose that gif because earlier in that move, he displays a fear of bats, & in that scene, he summons them to use as a distraction and walks through them completely unperturbed. No? Okay, I’ll see myself out.)

You started into the vigilante business young, a little bulge under the back of Batman’s cape that made the rest of the Justice League in the meeting think Bruce was host to an alien parasite until your little mask-covered eyes poked up over his shoulder.

The League’s known you since you were young, so they kind of all see you as their niece. That just quadruples the amount of people who are overprotective of you.

Eventually, in your tweens, you think enough’s enough and start out on your own — being underestimated may be an advantage, but it’s getting ridiculous — and you tackle unsolved cases.

You set up various safe houses around the world for your own disposal (using the zeta tubes) and anyone who sees the inside of one in an emergency is always surprised. You don’t really understand why; what serious vigilante doesn’t have secure, state-of-the-art safe locations scattered across the planet?

Sometimes, it gets you into danger, but you always get yourself out of it. If there ever comes a time you can’t, well, you’ve got a direct link to Batman, and if communications fail, you can always yell for your Uncle Clark at the top of your lungs.

If the latter ever comes to fruition, you ask Bruce if he’s disappointed you had to call for back-up or that you called Superman instead of Batman, and he says, “It takes a strong person to admit when they’re weak, [Y/N]; if anything, I’m proud of you. Besides … you’re not the only one who yells for Uncle Clark when they get in over their head.”

Your training entailed hacking and mechanics, so you like to fix computers and sell them on the internet Hugh Jeffreys style. It started out with Macs from the dumpster behind Gotham Academy and turned into a surprising side hustle. Large portions of your profits go into either savings or funding your extracurricular activities. 

You’re using a MacBook that’s running Linux and an iPhone 4 that’s running your own program. 

At some point, your phone falls into the wrong hands, and someone asks why it has such high security. You deadpan and say, “I have three older brothers.” No further explanation required.

One such solo case led you to a ring of drug dealers working in a small town outside of Gotham. You made some tranquillizers and heavy-duty smoke bombs and busted out your shinobi-iri training.

After sliding on a mask covering the bottom half of your face that filtered out smoke, you set all of the bombs off at once in the ventilation system, filling the building and using the infrared in your domino mask to sedate everyone before the cops arrived so no one got hurt (because there would inevitably be a firefight if the cops got involved).

You never go into a situation expecting to go hand-to-hand with someone; you always have a plan to take our your targets quickly an efficiently.

One night, when you’re working on a cold case in Gotham, you stumble across some intel that Poison Ivy’s been stockpiling chemicals and is going to wipe out all human life on Earth.

Luckily for you, Bruce’s paranoia is hereditary; you just happen to carry some white kryptonite in your belt, so you won’t have to go all the way back to the cave to obtain some.

You type out a quick debrief on your wrist computer in case you end up needing to send out an S.O.S., pop on your bottom mask to filter out spores or pheromones she might send in your direction, and bust out your shinobi-iri training again.

Of course, you try the peaceful approach, explaining to Ivy that you agree with her on the tree-hugger front to build rapport (T.B.F., who doesn’t?), but it comes to physical confrontation. You kill every vine that comes your way with a quick punch from your kryptonite ring, toss an expanding polyurethane foam bomb (see Batgirl #38) at her feet, and manage to get an inhibitor collar on her.

Gordon takes her away, and by the next morning, it’s on the news.

“You took down Ivy by yourself?” Bruce asks when you come down for breakfast.

“… Yeah,” you say after a moment, expecting a tongue-lashing.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. She didn’t get a hit in. And before you ask, I had a contingency set up in case things went sideways.”

“… Good job.”

Your dad has the article framed in the batcave, which is the bat-equivalent of having your drawing on the fridge or getting a sticker back on a test.

You’re fighting a grin for the rest of the day.

It bugs you you can’t tell anyone why you’re so happy, so you visit Dick in Blüdhaven while he’s on patrol and give him a play-by-play. You even get a hair-ruffle!

Deathstroke targets you at some point. One of Batman and Nightwing’s worst villains, and he targets you because he knows they love you. You’re the smallest bat at the time, the weakest; he thinks you’ll be the easiest to take.

Boy, was he wrong.

He was trained by the League of Assassins, so you know dropping a smoke bomb’s not going to give you cover (and his mask probably has infrared). His brain processes faster than yours, so tricking him is improbable. He’s probably done enough research on you to know you favor foam bombs and has fast enough reflexes to dodge before they go off.

And he’s jammed your comms so you can’t call for backup. You’re worried he’s got kryptonite on him and will hurt Superman if you call for help.

It’s just you and him.

He has enhanced stamina, so he tries to wear you out. You maintain distance to avoid taking damage and wearing faster.

You always admired Tim for his ability to plan ahead (see, like, the entirety of the Red Robin comics). He doesn’t know how he does it; he just does. He can’t really teach you, so you just watch and learn.

You realize your fight with Slade is just a matter of managing the distance and immobilizing him, so you strike. You duck behind a pillar or grab onto a railing or something and shoot him through the thigh with your grappling gun, reeling him in. He, of course, draws his sword or a knife to cut the line, but you’re already throwing high-density expanding polyurethane bombs.

And, just like that, you’ve single-handedly taken Deathstroke.

It sends a clear message to the rest of the Gotham villains, Blüdhaven’s villains, the League of Assassins — don’t mess with the bat’s little girl. She can hold her own.

Now it’s time for you to come up with another plan to take him down; you doubt the same method will work twice, and you’ve just made a very powerful enemy.

As Wonder Woman’s said, “Do not mistake a desire to avoid violence for an inability to deal with it.” You might go into most situations with a plan to take down your opponent already in motion, but when it comes to an all-out brawl, you’re perfectly capable and don’t pull your punches.

You’re working on an unsolved case in Blüdhaven (Dick’s got enough on his plate) when you get an S.O.S. from the aforementioned along with the feed and recording from his mask. You listen to the mission briefing while you ride back to the cave and then the audio from the Young Justice mission. They got jumped by the League of Shadows in an abandoned factory, and Talia’s trying to coerce Damian into joining the League or whatever.

The usual dropping some smoke bombs and tranqing everyone isn’t going to work on thirty armed League assassins who were trained to fight blind, so you load up on polyurethane foam bombs and call Jason and Cassandra.

The three of you take out the guards outside before splitting up and taking either end of the building (Cass stays with you). You meet in the middle, in the room the team’s being held in.

You highjacked the speakers, so they’re blasting AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” upon Jason’s insistence. You wanted Zayde Wølf or Alice Cooper’s “Hey, Stoopid,” but big brothers will be big brothers.

Jason pops them with rubber bullets from above to slow them down for you while Cass demolishes them and you drop foam bombs, slinging your signature custom shuriken, bonk them over the head with Tim’s staff you picked up along the way, dislocate their arms, or shatter their kneecaps. 

You and Jason get a couple slices from swords that got a little too close, but it’s nothing compared to what you’ve had before. 

When the fighting’s done and the building’s quiet, the team’s, like, “Who the heck are you guys?” 

And Dick’s, like, 😏 “They’re our siblings.” 

Speaking of siblings, you’re older than Damian, and as such, you take upon yourself the honor of teaching him all things pop-culture.

“I have a lot of amazing older siblings. I want to be a good big sister.”

First things first, you give him one of your refurbished e-waste phones and take him to Target to pick out an OtterBox or a LifeProof case or something that’ll keep it safe in the pocket of a vigilante.

Vigilantes are always coming to you when their phone’s broken anyway; you’ve got a stack of spares you’ve repaired.

Then you help him set up a Spotify account (follow me at @remakethestars 😉) and try to help him find his rhythm.

Poor child’s never had Oreos before, so you drag a pack of Double Stuffs out of the cabinet and a glass of milk and show him the best milk-dunking method you know.

You think about handing him a cookie and telling him to waterboard it until the bubbles stop coming up, but cookie-dunking is something every kid does; it’s sacred, and you don’t want him to associate it with violence.

You show him how you and Alfred feed the bats in the batcave.

And you show him Vine compilations and your favorite shows and movies and as many classics as you can, and you put up with him pointing out the inaccuracies and calling them stupid.

Every time he doesn’t get a reference, you write it down so you know what to show him later.

If anything ever happens to you, Damian finds your list and makes it his personal mission to watch/read everything on it. It makes him feel close to you.

You build a relationship with him that’s similar to his and Dick’s, and he comes to you with things he might not be able to come to anyone else with.

Plus, since you live in the manor still and he doesn’t want Bruce to think less of him, it’s you he comes to after a nightmare.

If you know Alfred has pictures of him curled up in your side, you ask him to send them to you. Not for blackmail purposes; just to have.

You’d never use the need of comfort or the sharing of emotions against him because (A) it’s perpetuating toxic masculinity and (B) you don’t want him to think it’s wrong or confirm any of the stupid “strength” things the League of Shadows taught him.

You gave him a stuffed cat that looks like Alfred (the cat, not the butler) with some of your perfume spritzed on it. He verbalized his revulsion when you gave it to him, but on nights he has a bad dream and you’re not home, it brings him comfort.

Titus comes to get you when Damian’s upset. 

Even when he’s not with Damian, he seems to know. Pets are like that.

You’ve learned to trust Titus’s instincts. Damian thinks it’s suspicious when he’s feeling down and you just happen to call.

You never realized it until a long time later, but Ace was acting weird the day Jason came back from the dead.

And he was acting weird the day Jason came back to Gotham too. He ran to the door and began barking. Alfred swept security, but nothing seemed to be off. The whole family was on edge that day.

You were the reason Jason knew he wasn’t completely forgotten; he spotted you through a café window, and you were wearing his jacket.

Visit my headcanon masterlist.

[perfectirishgifts]

Napster Conditioned Us To Expect Free Content And Now We’re Paying The Price

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/napster-conditioned-us-to-expect-free-content-and-now-were-paying-the-price/

Napster Conditioned Us To Expect Free Content And Now We’re Paying The Price

Promotional Napster stickers at the Napster studio in 2006. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Napster conditioned us to expect free content from the internet, and now we’re subjected to the privacy violations of online advertising because of it. Napster, a music-streaming service founded in 1999, allowed a whole generation to discover music on the internet when it didn’t require a credit card. That blissful experience, compounded with the reluctance of other industries (especially print) to subsequently acknowledge (let alone dignify) the threat of the internet in a timely manner, led to the prominence of the ad-based revenue model that we tolerate today. 

That famous scene in The Social Network—the 2010 drama about Facebook’s founding—when Sean Parker, one of the co-founders of Napster, woos Mark Zuckerberg with sushi and advises him to remove the “The” from Facebook’s name was a collision of two figures who would come to determine our experience of the modern internet. Immortalized on screen, one of the Napster co-founders who informed consumer behavior through piracy intersects with a social media prodigy, who then builds on that legacy of illegality with the most prominent ad-based platform in human history.

Facebook succeeded in simulating the experience of free content…and poof went our privacy.

Paywalls and subscriptions are reasonable solutions, but they have to provide exceptional value in this current media environment to be competitive. It’s disturbing to consider how costly these ad-based platforms are; while it’s more difficult to attribute election interference and online harassment to an ad-based model, it’s well-established that the lackluster quality of online content is a direct result of dirt-cheap ad rates.

The larger point is how predetermined this ad-based internet was. As previously established, the foundation of the modern internet had been set by apps like Napster before Facebook or Twitter ever came along. And as a result, the house of consumer behavior faces only one direction now because the concrete was poured by pirates.

Not to be cynical, but no matter how many podcasts Jack Dorsey mopes on or how many times Mark Zuckerberg coddles Holocaust deniers, their actions and their policies are predetermined by their business models. Again, like concrete, the framework that informs our experience of the internet is set. We have to reckon with the fact that we, the users, are now products; we are exchanged as data for dollars. We can clutch pearls all we want about the NSA pinging cell phone towers to track our metadata, but unless you’re a conspiracy nut, you should recognize that they do this to protect us.

Private companies that buy and sell our data are parasitic leeches that thrive on the host of our indifference. They are the cockroaches in the basement of the house that piracy built. And while the immediate drawbacks can be anecdotally problematic, the intensity of our concern is disproportionate to how easy it is to cancel a compromised credit card. There’s no immediate equivalent to “buckle up so you don’t fly through the windshield,” but there are scenarios that get pretty grim in the short-term, especially when you factor in facial recognition and physical tracking.

We may be in a strange transitional period where we don’t have an immediate “fly through the windshield” scenario to prompt the mainstream into taking action (Cambridge Analytica only had overtones of that), but things are bound to take a more drastic turn in the future. For now, most privacy concerns are hard to mistake for anything other than vanity. Shake them up with a narcissism that is both youthful and American, and you have yourself a toxic cocktail. One sip and you get Twitter, two sips and you get Tik Tok. Swap out Millennials for Gen Z and you get Cancel Culture.

What people really want and need right now is a sense of agency when it comes to who has their data and what they can do with it. Easier said than done. Due to the faulty foundation of these homes that piracy built, the byzantine privacy settings in these apps are designed to maximize revenue. While I’m sure that there have been iterations that have addressed the public outcries, they’re the UI equivalent of crocodile tears; they gesture toward a need for transparency while still making it easy to collect the data that they need to be profitable.

No one wants to read through dense legalese, and no one should have to—not even paralegals. In time, a new generation of entrepreneurs will have to reset what we’ve been conditioned to accept. For now, all we can do is take a deep breath, but we can’t even do that because asbestos particles are floating down from the ceiling in this house that piracy built.

This death trap is a teardown. It’s time for us to move.

Theo is the co-host of Techlash. This week’s guest, Pierre Valade from Jumbo Privacy, speaks to this exact issue. Techlash is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

From Social Media in Perfectirishgifts

[blookmallow]

hey wow look what i found buried in my drafts from 300 years ago

this started as Bits Of Story Notes but then i kinda ran with it and let it become more drawn out prose so now its like. a lil writing blurb 

specifically, about antis and their formations. its kind of a nonspecific narrative voice i didnt want to try to work into particular characters bc then id be limited by which characters know what/who would be willing to tell who what/etc so its not anyone in particular (theres also some names missing bc i havent figured out all the details)

--

“But what IS an Anti? How could something so... sinister come from someone so kind?”

“Well... that’s the trouble of it, you’re looking at it all backwards.”

“Backwards?”

“Well, to start, they come from nothing. It’s no fault of the Origin’s, after all. ...and you speak as if humans are inherently something kind, Antis inherently something cruel. I can promise you that simply isn’t the case.” 

Antis are not literal pieces of their origins - it isn’t so much “my dark side, embodied,” no proper Hyde to one’s Jekyll, as it were. An Anti comes not from within, but without; like a formless, nonsentient parasite locking itself to an unwary host. This occurs at random, of course- anyone could have an Anti. 

Any human, that is. 

Though they’re said to be particularly drawn to those with high propensity for magic.

The nebulous spirit matter from which they come is all around us- no, don’t look, you can’t see it. Not even the Soul Collectors can. But something invisible, no matter how transient and slight, is none the less real. They have no self yet; no mind to think or to consider, no consciousness at all. Only the instinctive drive to become. Antis long to exist before the conception of “longing” exists within them. They form themselves as a sentient, corporeal being through the unconsenting assistance of the Origin. That person becomes a sort of mold, a self and a form from which the Anti creates a kind of reversed mirror image to inhabit itself. 

The very moment of formation is still quite mysterious even to Antis themselves; how exactly it occurs, or why this moment and not that, and each Anti is quite different just as humans are from one another. It is not impossible for two Antis to form in the same way, but the variation is infinite. 

However, it is as of now believed that an Anti comes to fruition upon achieving some kind of inciting incident which serves to shove the dormant spirit into physical reality, such as a moment of intense emotion, contact with magic, a traumatic event - something to release the spirit that has been quietly building itself up. 

“But-...what if it doesn’t? What if there is no incident, the spirit never released-? What would that... do to a person?”

Well... Nobody knows. Possibly it might kill the both of them. Possibly something more sinister may occur, an amalgamate form never meant to be. But we need not worry about that. One could hardly imagine a person who never has a moment of intensity in their entire life. It is most likely the case that the spirit, upon having built itself up long enough, eventually will release on its own, anyhow.

Now, some Antis have an immediate fixation on their origin, some are an immediate destructive force, some are scared and confused by their own sudden existence, and... some just want to get as far away from them as quickly as possible. It’s not entirely fair to compare them to parasites - their formation is not harmful to the Origin, after all. But it is said that they are never quite the same afterward. 

Damian Nightfall - yes, that one -  formed from shadows one night when young Skye Blue had a particularly violent nightmare; he was suddenly awoken in the middle of the night and overwhelmed with dread in the darkness of his room. He had never been afraid of the dark before. He had sensed a growing anxiety every time the lights went out for weeks beforehand, but never told anyone; it felt silly and irrational to him- why would I be scared now? Why, I’ll be turning thirteen soon! I ought not to be afraid of dark rooms. 

But he was, anyway. 

He watched in confused horror as his own shadow turned into a dripping, crawling darkness that slowly gained mass and moved sluggishly across the floor on its own terms.

the thing on the floor immediately fixated on him, and while it was only half-formed and still an amorphous shambling mass of shadow, it lunged out of the darkness to attempt to strangle the boy the moment it had anything resembling hands

Miss Shuri immediately felt the intense distress - and the threat to Skye’s life, as it most definitely was - and appeared at once to cast the Anti out. But she refrained from killing him, though she could have, because a soul collector never kills if it can be avoided - and Damian was really only a child then. 

He slithered off somewhere into the woods, and continues to terrorize Skye to this day - though he’s no longer interested in actually killing him. An Anti without an Origin becomes mortal and powerless, as he’s learned all too well. 

And so that was Skye’s first encounter with Damian. He still suffers from frequent nightmares, and cannot sleep in the dark anymore. His shadow, even in bright sunlight, is oddly faded and light - not terribly noticeable, but almost as if there’s less of it somehow.

Miss Iris appeared as a sudden face in the mist of toxic fumes that erupted when Christina had fallen into a patch of mushrooms in the woods

there was a brief moment of grotesque entanglement as Iris’s body formed against her; both confused and trapped against each other, but both struggling to get away, each in disgust of the other 

the moment they became untangled, there was a brief instant of hatred between them, and Iris vanished in smoke. These days, the two are content just to live their lives completely away from each other - neither acknowledges the other’s existence, and both are better off because of it. 

Laelia Thorne’s Origin’s hand was cut off in an accident - and moments later, the severed, still-bleeding hand suddenly began spasming and mutating, growing itself out hideously, red blood pouring out in a bright rush as if it were being purged out - until Laelia was formed.

The poor girl was so horrified, she passed out from the shock. When she finally came to, Laelia was gone. No one believes her, supposing her to have been in a state of hysteria from the traumatic event - but the hand was never found. 

She never saw Laelia again. 

Lex Calamity’s Origin was looking into a mirror one day; feeling a crisis of identity, stressed and alone and feeling lost, when she realized suddenly that her reflection looked somehow wrong.

It wasn’t following her movements anymore, as if it were frozen in wide-eyed horror. She stared back into the mirror, feeling as if she were looking into a stranger’s eyes. A wild impulse to smash the glass to pieces came over her, but she could not bring herself to move.

Tears slowly slipped from the reflection’s eyes - which were rapidly changing color - but not from her own. In a sudden movement, she reached to touch her own face, but the tear was not there. The reflection did not move. 

Inky black spread over the reflection’s blonde hair, consuming it as if a bucket of paint had been dropped over its head, as she could only watch in horror. 

She slowly, slowly reached for the mirror. This time, the reflection moved in sync - but when their hands touched, she felt cold skin instead of glass, and the fingers twisted into hers. 

She screamed and pulled back, inadvertently pulling the reflection out with her, and they both tumbled to the floor.

The reflection scrambled to its feet like a frightened cat and ran.  

They found her, hours later, sobbing on the bathroom floor, shattered glass everywhere. After they heard her story, the sisters took her away to be exorcised of the evil she professed immediately. There was no trace of the demon reflection, and it was never seen again. 

She is to this day desperately afraid of mirrors - and if ever she dares to look, her reflection is distorted and blurry- like some part of it has left. 

Sage Blackburn’s Origin nearly drowned in the sea; She was desperately tangled up in seaweed that suddenly became arms - she saw bright yellow eyes glowing in the dark of the water, and felt someone holding her, pulling her up toward the surface. 

Those eyes were the last thing she was conscious of before she passed out - the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, she says. 

She awoke on the beach, alone, but alive. 

She believes a mermaid came and saved her. She calls her her Muse; she paints pictures of her all the time, trying to remember, and dreams of one day finding her again. She has overcome her fear of the ocean after this event, determined to return to the sea that she loves, and find her Muse again. 

Sage knows nothing of this, and left the girl on the beach, hurrying away to discover her own life. She has told no one of this story; and so no one knows if she saved her Origin out of compassion, or just so that she herself would survive - and Sage wouldn’t tell you if you asked her. 

[-unfinished-]

[roach: origin was very, very sick for a long time - and suddenly coughed up a huge bug that skittered away into the dark (and later, unseen, became Roach). they coughed up a few small, repugnant mushrooms, and immediately felt better. They recovered rapidly and seemed completely unphased by the whole ordeal.]

[gasket keskar: formed in a spark of lightning that destroyed a tree, but did not harm anyone. Origin (Kavi Narang) knows he exists, but has never seen him again - though he is actually interested to meet him again.]

[malkin erebus: formed in an explosion which destroyed Origin (Cyril Flintwitch)’s home and killed their mother. malkin did not intend to do this, and feels terrible for it, having never intended harm. cyril has permanent mental scars and has never been well since, though their paranoia and anxiety has improved recently - as well as their relationship with malkin. malkin is at times infatuated with cyril - and has had a very tumultuous history with them - but is learning to respect boundaries, and is accepting the responsibility for the things he has done.]

[crow hackett: unknown] 

[crank: unknown]

[zyx: formed from the dust under Origin (Cody Jemson)’s bed. lives there still. unsettling, but not actually harmful. yet.]

[siren hemlock: unknown]

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Two Sides of the Coin (You Can't Have One Without the Other)

by Nation_Ustria Nightwing has to bite back a laugh. “Gotham is a no-fly zone for more than just the JL, Supes. But, from what Blud knows, chances are that whatever you’ve heard is probably true.” Superman pales, which is anything but unexpected. Pretty much all of Gotham tends to be horrifying to Outsiders, as Nightwing is well aware. The question here is which rumors Superman decided were concerning enough to actually look into, the answer to which could be literally anything from the pollution levels to the regularity of the city-wide Fear Toxin gas attacks. Or something entirely outside of the usual spectrum of Things That Outsiders Need To Stop Freaking Out About, Nightwing discovers when Superman blurts, “But the Waynes aren’t actually possessed, right?” …Ah. Well, crap.   Or, in Gotham, it’s been common knowledge since the very beginning that the Waynes are playing host to the parasitic Bats, who protect Gotham and its people from threats both internal and external in turn. There’s nothing anyone can do about it now, even if they wanted to. (That’s... not actually what’s happening, but nobody needs to know that. The Batfam is too committed to the bit to pull out now.) Words: 2701, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Clark Kent, Jim Gordon, Other Character Tags to Be Added Relationships: Batfamily Members & Justice League, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Batfamily Members & Barbara Gordon, There are too many people to put everything, Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Dick Grayson & Teen Titans, The Outlaws & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Clark Kent Additional Tags: Cryptid Batfamily (DCU), POV Outsider, Not entirely though, Isolated Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Meets the Justice League (DCU), Meet the Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Shenanigans (DCU), Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Alternative names for like half of everyone else, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Tim Drake, Good Sibling Stephanie Brown, Good Sibling Cassandra Cain, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, I might add Duke, we'll see, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd is a Batfamily Member, Stephanie Brown is a Batfamily Member, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Gothamites be Like That, Protective Bruce Wayne, #onlyingotham, Bruce "task failed successfully"s his secret ID, Everybody assumed he was possessed and he just went with it, Wingfic, Sort Of, the Robins get mechanical wings, Scary Batfamily (DCU), the Bats don't kill, but sometimes they do disappear people, Dick Jason and Tim all have outside superhero IDs, no one else does, The Waynes aren't actually magic, or are they, either way they're absolutely nuts, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Batfamily Fluff (DCU), depending on your definition of fluff, Crack Treated Seriously via https://ift.tt/ZBbqwgH

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

I Carrion (Peter's version)

by cryptid_chimaera The Parker curse was real. It struck when you least expected and it had no mercy. It was slow, like a parasite, slowly consuming its host. It took everything. Everyone. After a fight with a crazy scientist goes wrong, Peter ends up in Gotham, is appalled by the state of escape rates of the rouges, gets the batfamily stalking him in and out of costume, all while dealing with the insane trauma that comes with everyone you care about dying. (no because seriously Andrew's Spidey goes through so much trauma like parents, uncle, your dead dad's friend whom you treat like a mentor, AND then your girlfriend AND your best friend?? Insane.) Words: 1402, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Dick Grayson, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Jim Gordon Relationships: Dick Grayson & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Peter Parker, Batfamily Members & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Peter Parker Additional Tags: Peter Parker has PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Hurt Peter Parker, Protective Bruce Wayne, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson is a Ray of Sunshine, Tags May Change, Past Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man), Post-Movie: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Not Canon Compliant With Movie: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), I'm making this up as I go tbh, Dimension Travel, another peter parker in gotham fic, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Adult Peter Parker, Mentioned Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man), Mentioned Harry Osborn, Mentioned Uncle Ben Parker (Marvel), Mentioned Aunt May Parker (Marvel), no beta we die like everyone is Peter's life, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, Trauma, Survivor Guilt, barely tho he's like 18 via https://ift.tt/JuwdVjb

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

I Carrion (Peter's version)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/JuwdVjb by cryptid_chimaera The Parker curse was real. It struck when you least expected and it had no mercy. It was slow, like a parasite, slowly consuming its host. It took everything. Everyone. After a fight with a crazy scientist goes wrong, Peter ends up in Gotham, is appalled by the state of escape rates of the rouges, gets the batfamily stalking him in and out of costume, all while dealing with the insane trauma that comes with everyone you care about dying. (no because seriously Andrew's Spidey goes through so much trauma like parents, uncle, your dead dad's friend whom you treat like a mentor, AND then your girlfriend AND your best friend?? Insane.) Words: 1402, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Dick Grayson, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Jim Gordon Relationships: Dick Grayson & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Peter Parker, Batfamily Members & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Peter Parker Additional Tags: Peter Parker has PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Hurt Peter Parker, Protective Bruce Wayne, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson is a Ray of Sunshine, Tags May Change, Past Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man), Post-Movie: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Not Canon Compliant With Movie: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), I'm making this up as I go tbh, Dimension Travel, another peter parker in gotham fic, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Adult Peter Parker, Mentioned Gwen Stacy (The Amazing Spider-Man), Mentioned Harry Osborn, Mentioned Uncle Ben Parker (Marvel), Mentioned Aunt May Parker (Marvel), no beta we die like everyone is Peter's life, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, Trauma, Survivor Guilt, barely tho he's like 18 read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/JuwdVjb