#and activism without education is dead

[evelynswiftie8]

And I’ll add!!! If governments and major corporations took more responsibility for the climate crisis instead of perpetuating the myth that it’s all YOUR fault, the environment would be in a way better shape than we can even right now imagine AND disabled people would be able access the disposable supplies they literally need to survive without coming under fire.

The idea that disabled people aren’t worth their carbon footprint is eugenics disguised as activism, but I don’t think those just getting into environmentalism/activism have any protection from this line of thinking until disabled voices are centred in the climate conversation.

This is why I will always scream the importance of both nuance and intersectionality in activism. You don’t know what you don’t know, and think this is a really good example of a perspective people just don’t even think to think from, and that lack of perspective leads to very dangerous rhetoric of whether disabled people deserve to survive.

Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.

[literallymechanical]

GOd okay I went to my neighbor’s housewarming, and don’t get me wrong, I love parties (if everybody doesn’t give me  all of their attention all the time and tell me that i’m smart and funny and pretty I’ll DIE), but I forget how stressful it is to introduce yourself to new people when you work in a politically charged field.  The whole evening was this:

Party Guest:  So, have you lived in the area long?

[Okay, let’s think. White male, thirties, tall, muscle tee, sandals, wedding ring, but here without a partner.  I just overheard him complaining about tariffs, so he’s either left-leaning or a disillusioned republican.  Good sign, definitely not MAGA.  Ah, that’s right, he brought his daughters – ages 5 and 7, well-behaved in a crowd – and they’re wearing princess dresses… doting father with an active role in raising his kids, lets them choose their own outfits… my gut is telling me heterosexual male feminist.  That could be good or bad – statistically speaking, he believes in climate change… but that means 50/50 odds of anti-nuclear sentiment.  I need more information, but I must answer carefully.  We’re rapidly approaching the Question.]

Me: Not long!  I just moved down from Boston a few months ago –

[Ball is in his court.  Boston has been in the news lately for being an immigrant sanctuary city, but that’s mostly local news – I’ll get information based on body language.  Oh, I may have made a tactical error.  This is an opportunity for sports rivalry to come up, and I am ill-educated on the subject.  Quick, I need a counter maneuver.] 

Me: – but I actually grew up in the area.

[Good save, and a decent delaying action.  If he takes the bait, I can redirect the conversation to local childhood reminiscence.  He’s had two margaritas, and they’re starting to affect him – talking a bit too loud, and his expansive hand gestures bespeak more than typical New Jerseyan gregariousness.  That could be to my advantage… unless it makes him too bold].

Party Guest:  Coming back home for family, or is it a work thing?

[Shit, okay, he asked about work.  This could be the endgame… but he’s foolishly thrown me a lifeline.  I can’t lie, the hosts already know the real answer, but I can dissemble by playing to his fatherly conversational weak spots.]

Me:  I moved for work, but my family does live nearby, so that’s a nice perk as well.  I get to see my nephews a lot more often!  The eldest just turned five.

[That should do it.  My nephews are about the same age as his kids, which will build a rapport and redirect the conversation back to himself.  It should be easy to get him talking about his daughters.  Unless… oh no.  He’s two drinks in on a Sunday night and working on a third in front of his children, while his wife stays home.  She wakes up earlier than him, potentially much earlier.  He’s been talking about the economy a lot.  Damn, recently laid off?  He’s going to focus on work.]

Party Guest: That’s awesome.  What sort of job?

[The brilliant bastard.  He’s good, he’s very good.  Truly a worthy opponent.  Pierced right through every single gambit and went straight to the Question. Have I met my match? Will I finally be humbled?  It’s do or die.]

Me:  I’m an engineer at an energy company.

[Alea iacta est.]

Party Guest:  Energy?

[Last chance.  He's intelligent and fiendishly clever, but hope against hope that he’s more well-read in Aristotle than Rutherford.  This should dead-end him]

Me:  Nuclear, kind of. Fusion, not fission.

Party Guest:  Oh, that sounds cool.

Me:  Mhm.  So, how do you know Bill and Stephanie?

Party Guest:  I was in film school with Bill.  Have you seen his documentary?

[Ha. Another victory, all the sweeter for having been hard-fought. Time for a celebratory cornichon, maybe some crackers]

[cosmic-dust-poltergeist]

Pt. 4 of the clone/reincarnation au. The bats find out Danny can be scary.

[Pt 3 here] [Pt 5 here]

Tim is pissed and terrified. He's frantically trying to find a way out of the current situation without Danny regressing on all his progress.

Danny had been with their family for almost 2 years and had come such a long way from the scared kid he was in the beginning. He's going to therapy and can handle interacting with people in general without help. He still tends to cling to familiar people in new situations, but it doesn't have to be Tim or Cass. He goes to school now as Damian's "under socialized and traumatized twin". The official story is that he was separated from Damian, then abused and denied a proper education because he was the second born as well as a meta. It's a believable story between the batfam and Danny's own behavior. But Danny has gotten so much better!

Sure, Danny still has some major issues and won't admit to having someone else's memories, but he's actively working on the former and the batfam is figuring out how to bring up the later without spooking the kid. Tim's not sure if Danny thinks they believe his flimsy excuses over weird comments or the constellations in his room that don't exist or not, but no one wants to push him. It's obvious he had a family that is all now dead, and he was experimented on until he died in the 90s or early 2000s, before he was somehow reincarnated or something into a clone's body. The running theory is that Lazarus waters were used to prolong his original life before he was tortured to death, and his soul or something got connected to the pit somehow during that time, so when that same pit water was then put in a soulless husk, Danny's essence started changing it to reflect that. It took a year and a half to get a blood sample from Danny without him panicking, but the result? Danny's blood's "plasma" is concentrated Lazarus waters, it's "purer" and thicker than the normal stuff. They had to keep their questions and tests light because the moment they commented on his weird blood, Danny had the largest meltdown he had in months, so currently, most of their theories are theoretical. Kid has a LOT of medical trauma.

But Tim is getting off topic. The reason he's freaking out is because the family got caught as civilians. It was supposed to be a nice day out. Tim, Bruce, Damian, Dick, and Danny were out at the mall. Jason was supposed to meet up with them for lunch since it was just a bonding trip. But they can't have nice things.

The only plus side of this situation is Jason hadn't arrived. And this is a plus, because the kidnappers? Joker and his goons.

It was an awful coincidence, even Joker looked surprised to see he had the Waynes. Dick, Damian, and Bruce do their best to keep the mad man's attention away from Tim and Danny. Danny's trembling form is pressed to Tim's back.

"Why does it have to be clowns? Why does it have to be clowns?" Danny is mumbling hysterically. Tim doesn't think Danny has interacted with any sort of clown while with them. Clowns are hard to come by in Gotham for obvious reasons. Meaning this is a Before trauma.

"Tell a different jok-" Dick is cut off by being hit in the face. He yelps as his nose breaks with an audible crunch and starts cursing up a storm.

Tim blocks out his family's shouting and the Joker's taunting to focus on Danny. The kid completely frozen when Dick yelped.

"Danny?" Tim whispers, only to have a gun pulled on him.

"Got something to say, brat?"

"N-no." Tim is panicking, Danny is no longer pressed into his back.

"Good. Now- What the fuck???" The goon clown's stupid face is drawn into a look of horror as he looks over Tim's shoulder.

Tim chances a look over his shoulder to find a terrifying and massive creature where his sweet little brother is supposed to be. And as Tim studies it's starry void figure, all long limbs, eerie glowing, low hissing, what looks like a crown of ice, and face of beautiful pulsing stars that move with it's expression, he KNOWS this IS his baby brother. He briefly wonders if this is how he looked Before, before remembering the gunmen.

"Shit! Don't shoo-!" Tim isn't fast enough and watches in horror as the clowns fire at Danny. His terror is for nothing though as Danny turns them both intangible til the gunfire stops. Then, his feral void creature of a brother attacks. Mauling every single clown in his sight. And Tim can respect that.

He does desperately need to get out of his binds though. Danny is going to have such a massive relapse in his ability to trust them not to hurt him because of this, and Tim takes his job as Danny's "security person" seriously. He NEEDS to be there when Danny is done taking care of the clowns.

"Re-replacement?" Tim has never been so happy to hear Jason's Red Hood mechanical voice.

"Get me untied NOW" Tim spins and demands. "He's terrified, Jay!"

"What?" Jason is totally bewildered, but complying. "Where's Danny?"

"Mauling clowns." Tim grimaces, really hoping no one dies. Danny would be devastated if he accidentally killed someone in his panic.

"THAT'S Danny???"

"Yes. Now shut up. Untie the others and help them check on everyone. I'm going to make sure our little brother doesn't have a complete breakdown that puts us back to square one." Tim tells him and starts booking it after Danny, following the trail of decimated goons. When he catches up, Danny is slamming Joker into the ground and freezing him there. Tim grabs an abandoned gun and shoots the remaining goons in the kneecaps while edging closer.

Danny says something in a language Tim has only heard when Danny is deliriously tired. Tim chucks the gun as far away from them as he can before stepping closer with his hands raised. He projects as much of his concern and thankfulness and love for Danny into his body as physically capable.

"Danny, we're safe now. You kept us safe, kiddo."

There's another gargle of his unknown language before his form shrinks then with great big flash Danny is back to his tiny fae-like form. Tim shoots forward when Danny begins to sway and wraps his little brother in a hug.

"T'm.." Danny slurs.

"I got you. I got you." Tim mutters. It's a little awkward since Danny is only just shorter than him, but Tim picks Danny up in a princess carry, tucking the kid's face in his shoulder and booking it back to their family.

"Tim?? Danny??" Dick shouts, and Danny flinches, sending Tim into his own feral spiral. He literally bares his teeth when the others get too close, making them all pause. They luckily recognize his tales. He's had a lot of feral episodes in front of them since Danny. "Okay. Okay. We'll stay right here, Timmy."

"I'm taking him home."

"Okay... I'll have Alfred pick us up." Bruce easily accepts.

"We'll deal with the cops, Drake." Damian is eyeing Danny with a heartwarming amount of concern. Too bad Tim is too keyed up to appreciate how cute the little demon is being.

Tim takes off again without a word, bundling Danny into the passenger seat of the car they took to get here. Once he's all buckled in, Tim jumps in the drivers seat and peals out of there. He's glad this car isn't a manual because it means Tim can gently reach over and take Danny's trembling hand. He rubs soothing circles with his thumb.

"You're okay, kiddo, I'll keep you safe." Tim mutters to him. "Even if I have to fight the world. I will keep you safe."

Danny starts crying softly somewhere along the way back to the manor. Tim REALLY wishes Cass wasn't in Hong Kong right now.

"Movie, music, or quiet?" Tim asks, starting the breakdown protocol they set up together. It's basically just give Danny comfort options to focus on and tapping or holding up fingers to indicate his choices. Danny taps Tim's hand twice.

"Snacks or no snacks?" 2 taps

"Water, juice, or tea?" 3 taps

"Alfred's choice or do you have something in mind?" 1 tap

"Am I or you showering first? I want to get the clown cooties off me." This time there's a tiny giggle with the tap.

"Should I stay in the room talking or such I wait outside?" The hand in Tim's grips his hand so hard he's sure he heard his bones creek, but he keeps all signs of pain off his face. A single tap.

They pull into the driveway and find Alfred standing in the doorway. Tim quietly greets him as they climb out of the car.

"I hate to ask, but could you make us some tea before you leave? We'll be in Danny's room once we're both cleaned up."

"Of course, young master. Your father and siblings will be otherwise engaged for a while. I do not have to leave for another 20 minutes at the very least and I shall have it ready in 10."

"You're a lifesaver!" Tim cheers before picking Danny up in another princess carry. Danny simply clings to him and let's him. "Do you want one of my hoodies for tonight?"

There's a nod pressed to his shoulder. While Danny is nearly as tall as Tim, he's significantly thinner and lighter, so he still drowns in Tim's hoody. The kid doesn't want to be a vigilante the way the rest of them are. He rather be the guy in the chair or upgrading the bat tech. He doesn't find the appeal in punching criminals and his bouts of being nonverbal being his excuses when asked about it. Which is valid, but Tim knew there was more to it.

Bruce actually shed happy tears over one of his kids not wanting to fight crime and being safe.

Tim walks them through their routine. It makes Danny relax bit by bit. He's nearly completely calm by the time they're comfortably shut in the small space of Danny's bed, tea sitting on the small shelf that was part of the bunk bed's original frame, Tim's phone is playing soft music from than same shelf, and fairy lights casting the whole inclosed space in a soft light. Tim cuddles this poor kid close, but is careful to not get in the way of his iPad.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Tim whispers.

[I guess I have to now..]

"You don't. Sure, I'd appreciate if you told me, but I love you more than my need for answers." They fall back into silence as Danny thinks about it. Tim refuses to rush him and it rewarded for it.

[You knew there was more going on than a mutation, didn't you?]

"Yes.. You're not always as subtle as you think you are."

[My sister, Jazz, said the same.]

"Older siblings, so long as they're doing their job, are bound to realize something is up." Tim smiles. Committing the new name to memory.

[Yeah...] Danny sniffles a little. [I have memories from a life before I was a clone.]

"I know." Danny whips his head around to stare at Tim with wide eyes. "You let little things slip, and I am nothing if not diligent in knowing my precious people and keeping them safe."

[Stalker] Danny gives him a teasing smile, and Tim playfully pretends to be wounded, before Danny looks serious again and Tim matches the energy. [I lived for about 15 years before the 2 I've been here. I am actually Damian's age, despite how I behave.]

"Trauma does funny things to people. I don't see any reason we couldn't indulge you and make you happy."

[I have several theories about why I regress. One is good ol' trauma, but the other is because my core is only 3 years old.]

"Core?"

[All infinite realm beings and some liminals have a core. It's basically your entire being and all your organs in one. It's the most intimate thing to expose your core to someone. And if you crack a core, that's attempted murder/murder depending on how bad it is.] Danny pauses before adding [The core is your everything and will use ectoplasum to create a physical representation and use powers. The buzzing Jon and Kon heard was my core, it's what gave me powers, and I'm positive it's why I no longer look like Damian.]

"Huh...I thought your soul got tied to the Lazarus Pit or something."

[Not far off. Lazarus Pit is corrupted ectoplasum. But my core was implanted into this body by my mentor.]

"Who?"

[Clockwork. He keeps the time safe. He tried to help me, but he's very busy and the observers mess with him to keep him from noticing something is wrong.] Danny fiddles with his stylus. [He was devastated when he found what was left of me in that lab. They did so many experiments before cutting my human body to shreds til I was just my core. But I'm not a normal ecto entity who can heal from losing their body. Their bodies are just ectoplasum, they can regenerate what they need and reform.]

Tim runs a soothing hand over Danny's arm.

[But I'm an abomination even to ecto entities.]

"How so?"

[The way my core formed was unusual. I was a mostly normal human until I was 14. I was just a stupid kid showing his friends his insane parents' lab. My parents were walking OSHA violations on a good day, and I was just a kid growing in a delicate situation.]

Tim had a sick feeling, knowing this wasn't a good memory.

[One second I was just the town weirdos' completely human kid, the next I had most of the city's power grid electrocuting me to death while a portal to the infinite realm opened on top of me, flooding me with ectoplasum, that revived me. Over and over and over and over again til suddenly I was able to escape, but the damage was done. I was suddenly something called a Halfa. Not truly a human, nor truly an ecto entity. Both and neither.]

"Damn, I'm guessing neither party accepted you."

[Not at first. When "ghosts" started escaping and hurting humans, not always realizing that's what they're doing, I was the only one that could do anything. So I did. I became a vigilante. It didn't go smoothly at first, but eventually I understood them and property damage decreased drastically. Only the script flipped and suddenly there was a government agency and my ghost hating parents hunting all ghosts. Nothing and no one was safe and I had to step up again to keep people who hated me safe.]

"They caught you." It wasn't a question, but Danny nods all the same.

[I got caught. I had less rights than a lab rat. I don't want to think about all that happened there, but they eventually slowly started cutting away my human body. But I'm a halfa. I need a human body and my core was a mere infant. That's when Clockwork finally found me. He apologized over and over to my core while trying to find me a new body that was soulless. He told me he'd find somewhere I'd be safe. And next thing I know I was in this body, in an entirely new dimension, and being told to KILL my template?? I was really relating to Dani (my clone sent to kill me) on the way to that roof. I knew I couldn't kill Damian, I never want to kill anyone, but I was still curious enough to go looking. And you know the rest.]

"I'm sorry about how hard your life has been. You didn't deserve any of that. It's okay to be absolutely wrecked after everything that happened."

[Thanks]

"One last question. What was that form earlier?"

[It's new. I guess I have 3 forms now? There's this one obviously, but I also have one that looks like how I used to look. It has all my scars, but is more powerful. I don't like looking at it. Too much hurt. And now I have the one you saw. It felt like a physical manifestation of my obsession of space and my need to protect. Obsessions can influence how an ecto entity looks. A ghost's obsession is everything to them and can get depressed or violent when denied fulfilling it. Indulging in it heals, sooths, and powers them.]

"Not hard to guess yours." Tim teases before pushing the iPad away and putting Danny's cup of tea in his hands. "Thank you for telling me. I know it was hard for you."

Danny shrugs. They drink their tea is silence for a while before Danny yawns, making Tim yawn.

"Guess this means naptime." Tim puts the cups up before burying them both in Danny's fluffy space themed blankets. They're out in moments.

The next day, and with Danny's permission, Tim explains to the rest of the batfam what Danny told him. They fret over and reassure Danny they aren't scared of him, they're not sending him away, he's staying with them as long as he wants. The whole situation is a big step back in their progress in making Danny feel safe, but they all work through it. And Danny starts to willingly share more of his past and "ghost"ness.

They do have to explain to the police that, yes, Danny has a second scary form, and yes, Tim knows how to shoot a gun, but it was self-defense. There's a security video of it all, so it's all indisputable. Everyone is pissed when the video is leaked despite the Waynes best efforts, so the family gets even more protective of Danny.

Damian goes full guard dog when they return to school. Growling and snapping at anyone who so much as looks at Danny funny.

Tim is just relieved he can honestly tell Danny no one died during the mall incident. Sure, more than a few of the goons are crippled in some way, and the Joker is paralyzed from the neck down, but no one died. Danny still feels bad about it, but that's because he's a genuinely nice person who didn't have to be domesticated into not using excessive force.

[cathkaesque]

The local population in countries that export bananas typically eat different varieties grown primarily by small farmers. The ones for the Americans and the Europeans, Cavendish variety bananas, are grown in huge, monoculture plantations that are susceptible to disease. The banana industry consumes more agrichemicals than any other in the world, asides from cotton. Most plantations will spend more on pesticides than on wages. Pesticides are sprayed by plane, 85% of which does not land on the bananas and instead lands on the homes of workers in the surrounding area and seeps into the groundwater. The results are cancers, stillbirths, and dead rivers.

The supermarkets dominate the banana trade and force the price of bananas down. Plantations resolve this issue by intensifying and degrading working conditions. Banana workers will work for up to 14 hours a day in tropical heat, without overtime pay, for 6 days a week. Their wages will not cover their cost of housing, food, and education for their children. On most plantations independent trade unions are, of course, suppressed. Contracts are insecure, or workers are hired through intermediaries, and troublemakers are not invited back.

Who benefits most from this arrangement? The export value of bananas is worth $8bn - the retail value of these bananas is worth $25bn. Here's a breakdown of who gets what from the sale of banana in the EU.

On average, the banana workers get between 5 and 9% of the total value, while the retailers capture between 36 to 43% of the value. So if you got a bunch of bananas at Tesco (the majority of UK bananas come from Costa Rica) for 95p, 6.65p would go to the banana workers, and 38p would go to Tesco.

Furthermore, when it comes to calculating a country's GDP (the total sum of the value of economic activity going on in a country, which is used to measure how rich or poor a country is, how fast its economy is 'growing' and therefore how valuable their currency is on the world market, how valuable its government bonds, its claim on resources internationally…etc), the worker wages, production, export numbers count towards the country producing the banana, while retail, ripening, tariffs, and shipping & import will count towards the importing country. A country like Costa Rica will participate has to participate in this arrangement as it needs ‘hard’ (i.e. Western) currencies in order to import essential commodities on the world market.

So for the example above of a bunch of Costa Rican bananas sold in a UK supermarket, 20.7p will be added to Costa Rica’s GDP while 74.3p will be added to the UK’s GDP. Therefore, the consumption of a banana in the UK will add more to the UK’s wealth than growing it will to Costa Rica’s. The same holds for Bangladeshi t-shirts, iPhones assembled in China, chocolate made with cocoa from Ghana…it’s the heart of how the capitalism of the ‘developed’ economy functions. Never ending consumption to fuel the appearance of wealth, fuelled by the exploitation of both land and people in the global south.

[caffeinatedvigilantewriter]

This is a mashup of various tropes. Don’t like don’t read. May include

- deaged danny

- Damian x Dani (serious chaos)

- dead Jazz

- dead Sam

- dead Tucker

- not-shit parent Vlad (kinda)

- the Waynes have a strength kink

So when Danny is 18 and have safely moved out, has financial security and can go no contact with his parents he decides to tell him that he’s Phantom.

It doesn’t go well.

By the time Jazz Sam and Tucker find him he is deaged to around 6. The fentonworks lab explodes.

Dani, who is 16 and was on her way to visit, came just in time to sift through the rubble and find Danny, who has only had enough memory to recognize her as his sister. She also finds three dead bodies. Jack and Maddie survived.

Scared and mourning, she takes Danny and runs to Vlad, who realizes how terrible and obsessed Jack and Maddie were and gives Dani lots of money to hide somewhere where the Jack and Maddie wouldn’t dare to look- at least not for a little while.

Gotham.

So she takes Danny and changes their names.

Elliot ‘Elle’ Jasmine Nightingale and Daniel James Nightingale, brothers and sister duo.

Dani- now Elle- still holds a grudge on Vlad, coupled with the Fenton stubbornness, she insists that she can pay rent/bills/groceries/etc. she gets an apartment in crime alley.

Because Elle doesn’t want to leave a paper trail, she does a less-than-legal job.

She joins a fight rink under the name of Phantasm.

And she’s great at it.

Shes spend the money on education for Danny, ignoring her education for the moment until Danny is old enough to join school.

Damian and Bruce were having major arguments, mostly about his violence and Damian quits being Robin and becomes Nocturne. (Bc I love that name)

He undercover a fight rink and thinks if he busts the rink Bruce will trust him enough.

He does recon and quickly realizes that one of the fighters was incredible, winning fight after fight without causing major injures to her opponents. Her name was Phantasm.

He decides that in order to find out more about her, he has to join undercover. It was only to take down the fight rink and learn more about the beautiful fighter that could bend him in half and nothing more.

Damian joins under the name of Ghoul and swipes some DNA from Elle, learns her (fake) name her (fake) backstory (family died in an heated lab explosion) but doesn’t understand why a chunk of her DNA was unreadable (ghost part of her DNA)

After a bit of digging, realized she didn’t attend school and the next morning Elle waked up to a letter starting that her full-ride scholarship to Gotham Academy has be approved (GA offers a afterschool care for students with younger siblings)

Elle never applied and is confused but accepts after Vlad, Ember, and Kitty convinced her.

She coincidentally is put in the most of the same classes as Damian, who she eventually crushes on befriends because he’s hot she’s suspicious of his faint and funky ecto signature.

So shenanigans include (not in this order and are optional)

- GALA where Vald announces her as Vlad Co heiress and the are invited to the gala and get a bit sus of Elle bc Vlad is sus

- JASON AS ELLE’S NEIGHBOR is actively trying to set up/prevent Damian and Elle getting together (either one works, as long as the plans fail comically)

- PRINCESS ELLE OF YHE INFINITE RELAMS + SUMMONING

- TALIA ATTEMPTING TO KIDNAP DANNY because he looked like Bruce/she wants another son and Elle absolutely beating her 7 different ways to Sunday and Talia telling Damian that she approves of her

- ELLE DESTABILIZING/GETTING REALLY SICK and Danny calls Damian in a panic because he knows Elle trusts him even if she won’t admit it

- ELLE GETS SAVED BY NOCTURNE and Elle instantly clocks him as Damian bc of his ecto signature and rips him a new one because look how vigilantism turned out for Danny

- THE BATFAM THINKING DANNY IS THE CLONE OF ELLE and investigating Cadmus, who could have ties to the GIW somehow

- ELLE BECOMING A SORT OF SERIAL KILLER to protect Danny (check the comments @emerald-fox-93 linked it :)))

- DASH BECOMING A GCPD COP AND HAVING TO ARREST ELLE because she killed someone who tried to kidnap Danny. Damian picks her up from the station after she calls him.

- PAULINA BECAME A LAYWER FOR WE bc I saw a post like that and it was fire. She eventually fights for the removal of the AEA (anti ecto acts)

- THE OTHER BATS GENUINELY BECOMING CONCERNED and began to think that Elle is mind-controlling Damian because he keeps brushing them off to hang out with her

- DAN JOINING THE JLA and calling up Elle when he needs her help and Damian being there and being like ‘wtf??’

Jack and Maddie eventually find Danny and Elle and Elle vanishes. Danny- who Elle hid when the Fentons stormed the apartment- calls Damian sobbing and pleading for him to find Elle because the bad people are going to hurt her.

Damian, knowing little to nothing about her situation, basically goes ballistic trying to find her. The family, titans, and the League gets involved because one 15 year old doesn’t realize he has a massive crush on his classmate. He calls up that every favors he is owed (and some that is not) so now basically almost the entire LOA is after a 15 year old girl who was kidnapped by the two mad scientists who are committing around 16 wars crimes.

They find her after the ghosts she’s Still in contact with realize she hasn’t texted in a while and they’ll help Damian on his manhunt

And because Elle is the high princess, the entire ghost zone is ready to help Damian get their princess/queen/regent back

Jack and Maddie never stood a chance.

Any more ideas?? Please tag me and comment 🙏 :))

[kazucee]

! WITH GENTLE HANDS TO HOLD.

(the gentle scholar who's completely smitten for you: soft/fluffy Veritas Ratio relationship HCs)

AN: the brainrot is hard with this one boys. Think of this as a pre-hc post before I post the Reca fic that I have yet to write the ending for. Also possibly ooc TT? IDC JUST GIVE ME SOFT DOWN BAD MEN.

The gentle scholar to your dismay has always been an early riser. Making it a habit to wake up before you and running through his morning routine like clockwork. You're not even surprised when you awake to the other side of the bed completely empty but the aroma of the breakfast he makes for you instantly draws your attention away from the lack of body heat (or lack of a body in general). Despite you constantly waking up cold you're always greeted by a warm delicious breakfast, a cup of coffee brewed just the way you like it, and him freshly showered and smelling of cedarwood and mint. He always makes it a point to eat breakfast with you (if he's not busy that is). Occasionally you'd try to wake up early with him, setting an alarm beforehand with the most obnoxious sounds to get you to wake up. Usually it doesn't work, waking up almost everyone in the entire galaxy except you. Unless you requested for him to specifically wake you up at this time, he'll always let you sleep in and let you wake up on your own accord. He finds your resting state oddly endearing and would often spend the first five minutes of his morning routine just admiring you.

He has found out that the most effective way to wake you up is through the simple act of kissing your forehead, something he does everyday without fail. It doesn't matter if you're sick or mad at him, he'll still do it. It starts with a small peck, then a press of his own forehead against your own, then a small murmur of ‘good morning’ before one last chaste kiss to the skin between your eyes.

Coffee in the morning was a sacred time for you both. He has your preferences mastered and takes his time to make it according to your taste. He brews the coffee first before going to wake you up so that they'd have time to cool down and so that you'd wake up to the scent of freshly grounded coffee beans (which he knows you love)

He ironically likes matcha (though he still prefers coffee more) and gets offended whenever you label it as 'sweet grass water', that leads to you both getting into a 20 minute debate over whether or not it is worth the hype. He's dead serious. So are you.

He will never leave the apartment without saying goodbye to you. It's either verbally or through the form of a sticky note saying 'see you tonight my love'.

He is genuinely interested and often invested in your interests. Being with a man who values knowledge has its ups, whenever you find a new thing to obsess about you immediately have a person by your corner who's willing to listen to all your rambles. He'd definitely educate himself on the matter as well and help you do deep dives and research about it (it's both of your past times). He likes it because it makes you happy and because it's technically something new to learn about. He loves finding new topics to talk to you about and he always wants to make sure he's intellectual enough to actively engage in a proper conversation with you.

PLANS. OUT. YOUR. DATES. (IDC WHAT Y'ALL SAY) he will be the type to have memorized all your favorite places, where to take you when you're craving something savory, where to take you when you're feeling depressed. He does the work and probably has a physical copy of all the fun places he could take you on depending on your mood. Now he can easily figure out what places you'd want to try out and which ones to actively avoid.

He is the epitome of self-care (BRO HAS A LITERAL LIGHTCONE WHERE HES IN A BUBBLE BATH) you both have days where you just soak in a bubble bath with him reading a book and you relaxing against him, occasionally he'd read to you. Face masks? Yes. Nail care? Sure why not? He loves doing self care things with you (or just spending time with you in general, the soft skin is a bonus)

Would often gift you novels or books that he knows you'll enjoy. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see his handwriting on the margin because he had annotated it beforehand, and to your dismay he will quiz for fun on the book from time to time to test if you actually read it (you always do.)

He's not big on matching clothing but would get matching jewelery, he doesn't wanna hide that he's obsessed with you but he doesn't want to flex or show you off like you are some kind of object. He would get you both matching rings, matching bracelets, matching necklaces, and will always wear them without fail. He's usually subtle about it but whenever anyone asks him about them he'd answer you.

He ironically likes calling you pet names darling, love, idiot (endearingly), but he loves your name, he's probably the type to know the meaning behind your name as well.

Dating him is not spoiler free unfortunately, he will accidentally spoil the end of a movie or book because he's already read the reviews of it online, and has watched the analysis of it before watching it with you.

Also will commentate on the movie: "that's dumb why didn't she just-"

LOVES TO ARGUE WITH YOU, he doesn't care if you're degrading him in the most foul way. He will relish you getting angry and starting fights.

HE WILL. NEVER. RAISE HIS VOICE AT YOU. it'll always be that stupidly calm yet smug one, he is a firm believer in the 'loudest voice doesn't mean you win the argument' idea and he goes by that a lot. He can be condescending however, the type that makes you want to punch his stupid face.

"such unfortunate language. only those who cannot express themselves intelligently would resort to such crude substitutions in vocabulary" — Ratio at some point (he was losing the argument)

Begrudgingly allowed you to paint on his white alabaster sculpture that he sometimes wears, there's a trace of you everywhere on him, the design changes from time to time. He probably made you one as well.

He keeps all the gifts and letters you give him in a special box and has a picture of you on his person every time.

He probably has tabs on everything, the date of your first kiss, the date of your first date, your favorite color. It's all inside a little notebook.

Doesn't even need to say I love you because his eyes say it all, he looks at you as if you had placed all the stars in the sky. it's a subtle look but over the time you were able to identify it.

[shmowder]

Their concept of immortality is built upon the belief that you are not you, but your memories. Every person is not their body, is not their mind, is not even their DNA.

What you are, is a collection of memories, of life experiences, of ideas, beliefs, and observations.

You are, especially, other people's memories of you. That's the stuff your soul is made out of.

You know the saying, even if someone dies, at least they'll always live on in your memories. The Kains took that literally

Imagine with me that we took all of these things about you, and suspended them in air.

In modern terms: copied them on a hard disk and stored them for safe keeping. Then when you eventually drop dead, we simply take that hard disk and slot it into an appropriate device—a biological human body. Just like a virus, you'll begin taking over that person and overwriting their being.

"The Focus" is the storage place. The hard disk itself. It's called that because you *focus* memories inside of it. The Polyhedron and Crucible are just oversized SD cards.

You focus on your own memories of who you are, your own experiences, and they etch themselves into the wall. Likewise, other people can focus on their memories of you to help shape the stored version of you better. Since we're all different people depending on who's perceiving us, we need many perspectives; you're a different you with your mother than you are with your dog, etc.

And just like Yulia said, the Focus is not a physical place you can go to, at least the inside of it. It's just math, at its core, through and through. Much like a hard disk is just code, mere numbers and commands. You can save enough books in it to fill a building, but you could never reach in there physically and pull a book, nor replace a mass of books with an equal mass of a human. Which is why no one could enter Simon's Focus without Simon's explicit invitation.

But can any random human body do?

No. It heavily depends on the type of memories you stored, and the way in which you stored them. Much like your phone is unable to read a floppy disk.

Georgiy Kain is the father of this method, the architect of this ideology.

A doctrine in which he describes a soul not as a phantom manifestation of the person, but more akin to music. Each soul is a melody. Some are a piano solo, others are a whole orchestra. The more complex and deceivingly subtle the melody is—the more life experiences and memories—the harder it will be to replicate and play.

Because they have no feasible way to access the music sheets of the melody that is your soul, they can only hope to reverse engineer it through repeated listening, studies, and educated guesses.

Orchestras require various specific musical instruments to work. To replicate a person's soul—which we have established is their memories—successfully, you'll need an appropriate instrument of a physical body.

So no, not just any human body would do. Much like a Clair de Lune is horrendous on a ukulele.

The Focus places don't just suspend the memories—the soul—in time, but play them as well. At all times. That melody must be actively played. The orchestra requirements of a specific instruments extends to the Focus as well, not just the hosting human body. The SD card must have its own RAM, CPU, cooling, and Motherboard. While a Graphics card hasn't been implemented in a Focus yet.

Artemy talking to a visible Isidor in P2 is actually just the abattoir acting as an accidental Focus with an implemented GPU; meaning the kin succeed in building what the Stamatins failed, In this essay I WILL

Ignore that forget it back to topic :)

Which is why not just any place can be a Focus. Why Simon was "outgrowing" the crucible's focus and needed to be moved to the Polyhedron urgently; his memory was fading from the people.

Much like an overloaded SD card begins corrupting the data inside. This detail enables the Kains to talk to their "dead" relatives whose souls are in purgatory.

What's clear is that they need mortal minds with great intellect and will in order to "move" these said souls around. Tenacious humans to act as the adapter cable that allows you to transfer files from one hard disk to another.

In some instances, the process could spell the death of the human. The magentitude of the soul seems correlated with the years the soul has seen, the amount of memories it accumulated. So while moving the a soul older than two centuries is lethal.

Dealing with the 50ish years old soul seems fully survivable.

Well... except for the receiving end. Nina's soul (focus of memories) is being incubated inside Maria's physical mind (body?) temporarily. Akin to a non-running executable, a compressed pile of files. For it's Victor who is meant to be ereased and die in order for Nina's memories to elbow his own soul out of his body.

Their immortality is not physical; your body will decay inevitably, it is a continuous emulation of memories and past experiences. A ship of Theseus immortality.

To grasp the very basic essence of this form of immortality, think of it this way:

There is a far away kingdom where apples are forbidden by issue of the king and queen. Maybe the prince is deathly allergic to it, maybe it's a religion thing, or maybe they just really really dislike apple pies.

But the people really love apples, in fact they believe life isn't worth living without apples.

So they pool their money and hire a bunch of scientists to find a solution around the issue. The scientists can't bring apples into the kingdom, so they look at another round fruit instead, oranges.

They take an orange, selectively breed it and chemically treat it until it tastes just like an apple!

But the people aren't satisfied, sure it tastes like an apple but it doesn't smell like an apple. It doesn't look like an apple, and its texture is not that of an apple.

So the scientists go back to the lab, they try again, with a pear this time around.

They selectively breed it into a round apple-like shape, they inject apple flavouring into it, and they dye its skin the most shiny red.

In fact, it looks so much like an apple post-treatment, that their test groups could never differentiate between it and the real thing. The people are rejoiced! Their apples are back!

And the king and queen can't find a fault in this loophole, and these new apples don't trigger the allergy reaction in their son, so they allow it!

An apple, is whatever other people's memories of an apple is.

This pear acts, looks, tastes, and smells exactly like how other people expect an apple to, then It might as well be an apple.

If a person walks, talks, behaves, and looks exactly like how other people expect Simon to, then it might as well be Simon Kain.

And that's how you fool death and achieve Immortality

You make a copy of yourself which will live, a version of you suspended in time that you'll update every single day by going into your own Focus. And when the time comes, you take a pear, and alter it into an apple. But it must be a pear, the closest relative to apples, otherwise you'll get an orange, that while tastes like an apple, makes the nastiest texture in apple pies.

At the end of the day, it's a matter of perspective.

You can go full purist and claim the ship isn't the original one the second you replaced a single loose screw.... and while true in the literal sense, it's redundant and pointless to point it out. There is nothing to revert back into; the original ship doesn't exist anymore. It wasn't murdered or destroyed, it just vanished! Ceased to exist the second a part of it changed, no matter how small. Better to have the next best thing than pool the money for a new ship registery and sailing permit.

Because being the "original" version of anything is a concept. No man steps into the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.

Your cells die and get replaced all day, are you not the same you? How about every seven years, the maximum time frame it takes for your whole body cells to fully die and get replaced. Should you get a new ID and enroll back into elementary school?

No, you'd say, because you already know all the information. You remember elementary school and everything you were taught in there!

Well... this new "Simon" remembers being Simon and everything Simon went through. Simon is dead, just like the previous you who has died, except your corpse was tactically scattered around into dust particles and slowly replaced by its murderer one by one throughout the years until nothing of your original body remained.

-

Now there are a lot of loose ends left unaddressed, but it's better to have questions you can't answer than answers you can't questions, and maybe an answer will rear its head eventually.

If Georgiy, the inventor of this method, is merely 77 years old how could Simon possibly be 200?

I'm working under the assumption no Focus has ever existed before Georgiy Kain orchestrated the whole ordeal, and yet Victor mentions the names of presumably distance relatives wondering if they should pull them out of the Focus instead.

-

Why Maria can talk to Nina and Simon through sleep, why Victor can hear Nina at all times, why Georgiy can consult Simon.

I'm not sure why their abilities to contact the souls encased in the Focus varies in conditions—why can Nina speak through Victor to the Changeling very early on while Dankovsky could only communicate with her during late game? And why does Maria have to sleep or journal to talk to her rather than speak through Victor as a medium?

It could have something to do with who's the biggest contributor to the memory of the person; Victor knew Nina longer and better than Maira, Georgiy knew Simon longer and better than both of them.

As to why Simon was immune to all diseases and sickness?

I think it's correlated to how your very own immune system has its own memory; if it learns how to defend against a sickness once, it will always be able to overcome it. It saves the instructions in its own database and makes copies of the white blood cells that previously worked the last time the sickness came knocking on its door. So by virtue of having a varied immune system database, Simon seems immune to all colds and sick throats.

Simon isn't actually immortal, he just appears immortal... but then, what difference does it make?

[thatawkwardmoth]

I'm sorry but if you think Logan would be a bad dad or just straight up not care about his children, read the comics or watch X-Men evolution.

Yes, Logan is a brute and he's 'not nice' a lot of the time. But if you think that this man wouldn't raise Laura, Gabby, Jubilee and all his other little shitheads out in a cabin in Canada, far away from people (but close enough for cell service, he gets it Jubilee, please stop yelling in his ear about Instagram), you're dead wrong.

Gabby's room would have built in bookshelves and she'd have a killer treehouse outside, her bedframe would be hand carved wood with pieces meant to withstand her claw for a while. She'd have plushies and posters and whatever she wanted. Logan could go without food for a while just for her to get the things she liked. She could not go without food and neither could the rest of the shitheads. Yes, Laura is her main adult but Logan won't let Gabby have a lackluster childhood.

Laura's room would be covered. With whatever she wanted. Even if she changed her mind and redecorated a thousand times, it's her room. It's not a cell or some blank white room. She's not X-23. She's his girl, the Wolverine. She can have a small gym set up to train and keep her active, 100%. But she'll come to eat when called and won't overdo it, healing factor or not. Or Logan will lock the door and ground her. He keeps the porch light on for her every night, knowing sometimes she just wants to run, to stretch her legs and feel the freedom she has. He'll wait on the porch, beer in hand and offer her some food when she's back. Tell her Gabby's asleep and she's fine, like Laura can't hear her snoring. She's got his attitude and they butt head but he'll always be the first to remind her she's not an experiment. She can put up a hundred dumb posters and read a hundred dumb books that aren't educational, he doesn't care. He'll even listen with minimal grumbling.

Jubilee's room is more adult than her old one is. It's got a jack and jill bathroom that leads to Shogo's little nursery. It's not used very often, but it's got all the updated supplies, for her and the baby. She's got the whole lawn to use her powers and not deal with complaints (unless it's the people inside the house), a hand made playhouse for Shogo when he gets older. She's got it all, whenever she wants to just run away. Whenever she needs a vacation or just to come see him.

Kitty's got one too, it's not changed. She can be the Red Queen to Krakoa, the fearsome Shadowcat to others but she's still got a room at his cabin with pictures upon pictures lining the walls, plush X-Men toys bought with Jubilee to annoy them, little notes from Rachel and Illyana. It's like a piece of the old Shadowcat Logan refuses to let Kitty Kate get rid of. She's got her own bathroom so she stops phasing through the doors and walls of the other ones without knocking and she's got a little balcony for her plants to die on because she never remembers to water them and Logan also forgets even though he tries to remember.

Logan's got a room that he hardly ever uses. He finds the girls in it (and his sons sometimes) in it more than he is. His bed is the communal 'i had a nightmare but we're not talking about it' place. It's the only reason he's got a TV in there. To turn on whatever dumb thing they want to watch, even if he hates it, he'll sit through nine seasons. There are stickers on his dresser (on most things actually, Gabby's personal signature), a giant plush dog bed for Jonathan the Wolverine, multiple pillows he doesn't use but they do. He even made sure to buy a comfortable blanket set even though he doesn't care at all when it comes to himself. He's survived worse but if it brings them comfort, he's going that extra mile.

He's stunted emotionally and sometimes messes up but this cabin, the one he's fixed up and added onto, he knows he did right by them with this. But he refuses to fix the creaky steps or the painted light switches, the chipped tiles or the old decorations that he shoves in the attic. Those are the character the house has, memories he doesn't want to lose like he's lost so many before.

[dicentsalve]

Hmm.. I'm very interested in your ideas / headcanons for La squadra, if you don't mind sharing

Ooooh, you woke up the wrong beast, bb

● Sorbet and Gelato.

Sorbet, being a priest at the prison, meets Gelato, who later goes to his church as a "correction".

This is not a story about how a bad boy spoiled a nice one, they are both crazy bitches, just in different conditions.

This is all until the moment when they are both thrown out of civilized society.

Gelato often tells some strange, disgusting or funny stories from missions or prison (He especially likes to tell them to Pesci).

Sorbet finds a common language with people quite easily, not conflicting (at least outwardly).

Sorbet's Stand - The Informers.

It's a multitude of bright blue dragonflies that penetrate into electrical and Internet networks, searching for the desired information

If the information isn't complete, then the stand collects all the pieces that resemble the answer to the request.

Gelato's Stand - Disturbed

A stand that signals the owner in the event of an impending danger and from which side it is approaching

If the threat is not eliminated, then the signal will continue to come with increasing frequency, increasing depending on the threat to life.

● Formaggio

Has a terrarium with spiders.

Every member of the team knows when a football match is taking place (not by choice).

Often watches matches with Prosciutto and Sorbet.

Sometimes plays with an ordered target (like children tearing off spiders' legs or drowning butterflies)

Secretly uses Illuso shampoos.

● Illuso

He is more sarcastic in Risotto's presence, much less in his absence due to the desire to present himself as better than others in his eyes.

It is quite possible that Risotto himself unintentionally contributed to this.

He knows that Formaggio uses his shampoos (he will strangle him on New Year's Eve)

● Prosciutto

He likes older women, especially if they have money, status and connections (hence the very expensive clothes).

He is a Neapolitan, which is both audible and visible.

He often clashes and picks on Ghiaccio because the White Album cancels the ability of Grateful Dead.

He often keeps Risotto company on lonely sleepless nights over a glass of martini and whiskey. Mostly, these are just silent get-togethers, so that he doesn't get lonely.

He is often the one who gets it from Risotto for the mistakes and failures of other team members, especially the younger ones.

He gets angry when Gelato scares Pesci with stories, but doesn't have the balls to say anything back to him.

● Pesci

He's a Tuscan and often uses the Tuscan dialect, especially in stressful situations, and also starts to mumble and stutter, which irritates Prosciutto, who doesn't always understand him exactly or at all.

He runs in the mornings to the embankment, sometimes together with Ghiaccio.

● Melone

Have known Ghiaccio since childhood.

He is quite calm without external triggers, just like Ghiaccio, so they easily found a common language.

Melone passed Polpo's test without waking up Black Sabbat, has had a Stand since birth, which partly helped him.

Unhealthy frequent contact with women in childhood instilled a more consumerist and insignificant attitude towards them in adulthood, which was additionally influenced by the Stand, the capabilities of which he actively explored without moral and physical restrictions.

Passion for neat, well-groomed legs, especially with heels, is due to the perception of innocence, inaccessibility and defenselessness, which is especially attractive for creating a junior.

Sleeps naked, because it is more cozy and comfortable.

Blindness in one eye was a big problem at first because of the blind spot it opened up, but he learned to pay more attention to it (He sometimes crashes into someone/something on sharp turns). He was able to get a higher education thanks to his brother's connections (or rather, the opportunity to get)

● Ghiaccio

After receiving the stand, he was a huge pain in the ass for everyone when he was just learning it.

Has a low body temperature.

Only Risotto and, a little less often, Melone can shut him up.

Sometimes he sleeps poorly, so he comes either to Melone (he regrets his life choices) or to Risotto.

Makes everyone who dared not only to drive it, but to touch anything in it, dry clean his sweet Miata.

● Risotto

He hates tea and mineral water.

Sometimes he makes fun of Formaggio (like stealing a fork while he's turned away or tripping him up a bit).

Melone and Ghiaccio - his right and left hands.

He knows many grannys well, whom he met at the cemetery and who always look forward to his return to Sicily.

His father was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.

[rey-129-fan]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted any fanfic... Let's change that.

Good news! I'm not dead! My brain did try to get me to do things that could unalive myself for a bit, and then I lost nearly an entire side of my family over the span of 3 years, but I'm still here and still kicking! And I have two new puppies who are adorable and so loving.

Now for this story, this is inspired by a few posts I saw on @theglamorousferal, mostly the one about Amity Parkers going to college in Gotham and buying a hotel (I'm making it a co-op student house, but I've never lived in one, so if something's unacceptably wrong, tell me, if not, artistic license), but also the one where our main Trio buy a building to set up shop there, and wind up adopted my Jason (I swear, I saw that post after I wrote the first chapter, but it just fit so well).

***

Honestly, Amity Park was weird long before the Fentons moved there- the original settlers named the nearby lake Eerie, and it wasn’t after the Great Lake.  It’s just that before the Fentons’ machine punched a hole through reality and created a permanent doorway to the land of spirits and ghosts, the weirdness was not as blatant.

Prior to that, Amity Parkers were some of the few that could move to Gotham without suffering a breakdown that was common for new arrivals.  Now there was a slight dip in newcomers for about a decade or two after the Bat made his debut and then the crazies that followed him, but then Amity Parkers got used to the spirits of the dead wandering around following the aforementioned punching through reality.

All this to say that Gotham Universities were a rather common destination for young Amity Park adults seeking higher education.

Now because of this, there were always apartments advertising themselves for people from the small town.  They, after all, tended to not have a breakdown after their fifth rogue attack and just pack up and leave halfway through their lease.  But it got very annoying having to sift through all the advertisements when looking for a place to stay- something Danny Fenton saw his older sister go through when she got in to Gotham City University.  The boy then shared what he was witnessing with his two best friends- Tucker Foley and Sam Manson.  Tucker offered to help filter out the spam, which Danny’s sister Jazz thanked him for but turned down.  Sam… Sam instead got thinking.

Sam had been to Gotham a few times in her life.  She had an idea of the areas closest to the schools and how much those should cost.  And looking at the letters Jazz was getting, the offers were a little too high for a regular college student to afford.  Sam was also familiar with how many hotels were not being used in Gotham- people building them in hopes tourists would come to stay while visiting the East Coast, tourists that could not be convinced to visit due to the high crime rate and the lack of activities or places of interest in the city itself.

She quickly went to work, looking in to these empty hotels.  She was rather upset by their numbers and put together a spreadsheet of them, with details like number of rooms, any amenities they may have, and nearby landmarks.  She then grabbed her two dorks and marched to Casper High’s Community Outreach director.

Now Sam’s presentation raised a few eyebrows, mostly because it was in a completely different state, but Sam shot back that because of the efforts to incorporate the town’s new ghostly residents and provide them with helpful ways to feed their obsessions- efforts led by the Fenton family- Amity Park had very few homeless, and those that were had a huge community safety net to help them get back on their feet.  Additionally, with how many people moved between the city and the town, helping the city could be argued to also be helping the town.

The Outreach Director just sighed and gave Same the green light to at least draft and send out a proposal to the powers that be in Gotham, saying that there wasn’t much that could be done before they got backing and approval.  Sam thanked them before leaving, Danny and Tucker trailing behind.

She was back the next day with a draft of her proposal and a list of who to send it to.

***

Since returning from the dead in the eyes of the public, Jason Todd was often contacted by groups trying to use the Wayne fortune to fund their own personal projects.  They thought Jason would be the easiest to con- sorry, persuade- since he was a former street kid unlike the rest of his family.  Thus surely he would know just how much this new building with low income housing would help the people of Gotham- it even came with a pool and gym!

Yeah, he did know how much the people of Gotham needed housing, but $2K a month was not affordable when you’re barely making $30K a year!  Oh and the pool and gym were only available for those who could shell out an additional $2K a month.  Jason knows, he read the whole document carefully.

God, sometimes it was hard to tell who was worse, the psychos in Blackgate or real estate investors.  And sadly, he couldn’t just pop a bullet in their heads and be done with it because 1) it would raise too many questions and 2) it would make Bruce get all sad and mopey- again.  Jason just did not have the mental energy to put up with that on top of the rest of his life as a crimelord/vigilante/long-lost adoptive second son of a billionaire.

All this to say, he was not impressed when he first glanced over a proposal to convert the unused hotels around the city into housing units- especially since it was from someone that did not live in Gotham.

Manson?  Wasn’t there a family with that name that would attend some of Brucie’s galas?  Oh yeah, their family made its fortune off patenting the machine that wrapped toothpicks in plastic, as well as a couple others.  And they had a daughter around Repla- Tim’s age.  Hopefully this wasn’t her trying to be a kiss-ass like her parents.

Jason finished reading and sat back.  The proposal wasn’t too bad.  Converting hotels into apartment buildings would be easier than office buildings, and the suggestion to use ex-convicts that wanted to turn over a new leaf as building managers certainly wasn’t the worst.  Also creating a fund for those that couldn’t afford rent, as well as community kitchens and gardens were certain plusses, though would need to have the right people in charge to make sure they actually worked as planned, and to keep the Court of Owls from messing with it.

Overall, it was something Jason would consider, after some research and maybe talking with the rest of the Bats and Birds.  And if this was from the Manson kid, maybe get Dickie or one of the others to talk to her next time there was a gala in town.  Or talk to her himself, if the Pit wasn’t too loud.

…Dick was probably the better option to talk with her if it came down to it.

***

There's the first chapter. I'm going to go write the next one. When I have a good log of them, I'll then go and edit them and put them on AO3.

This has no title yet because I suck at naming. Feel free to comment with suggestions for a name, both for the fic/au and for the eventual hotel/co op. As well as any shinanegans and majors/colleges/universities for our liminal young adults.

Part 1/? Next >

[rom-e-o]

NSFW Alphabet Headcanons (Emmrich/F!Rook)

Well, after waiting 10 years for Veilguard to come out, I’ve been enjoying it! So much so that I’ve gotten very carried away with my F!Rook OC, Belisma Ingvellar. And completely fell in love with her relationship with Emmrich.

@quill-pen had the amazing idea to do this exercise for them, sooo … away we go~ Thank you, and I hope it's a fun read!

Some background: Belisma is a 35-year-old Mourn Watch mage. Bookish and a bit awkward (she’d rather read tomes and dance ballet than lead troops against ancient gods), but she has a kind heart and can’t say no, especially when nobody else deserves the stress of saving the world.

18+ only OC content below cut.

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Although she’s usually completely tuckered out after every tryst with Emmrich, Belisma always offers to assist with aftercare and clean-up. However, being the strict gentleman he is, Emmrich will not let her lift a finger.

Does she need a washcloth? He will fetch it, and make sure it’s soft and warm. Does she want water? He’ll get a pitcher. He’s even offered to carry her to the tub (Belisma is a fairly slender woman, about 110 lbs, but even then, she doesn’t love the idea of him carrying her in such an exhausted state.) He’ll do it though, and run her bath too.

Emmrich is a giving and sensual man, before, during and after any and all activities.

"Emmrich, this is too much! You don’t need to …" "Nothing is too much for you, my dearest. And I assure you, when we’re here, like this, I enjoy every moment."

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Emmrich: His favorite body part of hers is her collarbone. Just watching how the cords of her neck lead into those symmetrical, flared clavicles captivates him. He loves to run his lips along the bone, all the way to the acromion bump on the outer edge of the scapula. The delicate but complex bone structure is always something he’d admired during educational dissections, but that fascination takes on new meaning when he feels her skin flutter and flush beneath his lips during kisses. She feels alive. It’s exhilarating.

If asked what his favorite part of his body is, at first, he’d say his hands. But if you really pressed him to be honest, his arms. You don’t hold your limbs aloft and spend hours conjuring the dead with the grace of a musical conductor without getting some nice definition.

These are also the parts of him that he most adorns in jewelry and grave gold via rings and bracelets.

Belisma: She loves his back muscles and spine. Emmrich will say he’s too slender or thin, and that his ribs are too noticeable, but she disagrees. Watching the muscles of his back move and flex, even when he does something as simple as shift in his sleep, hypnotizes her. Those amazing shoulder blades, the contour of his spine … she kisses each point often. Sometimes Emmrich rolls over to return her kisses. Other times, gods forgive him, he feigns sleep so he can lay there and let her do it. Because it feels amazing, and he still can’t believe he’s not dreaming.

She loves her hair. It’s long and braided, and strong as a dang rope from how she tends to it. Also, from her years dancing ballet, she does think her calves are nice (and they are – she EARNED those muscles).

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Emmrich is a fastidious and tidy man. That being said, bodily fluids don’t disgust him. They’re natural, after all, especially when specific activities and positions are involved.

After eating her out, the scent and taste of her arousal lingering on his lips and moustache delights him. As does the aroused look on her face when he licks it off.

Belisma, also being a member of the Mourn Watch and also having clinical experience, views bodily fluids somewhat neutrally. They don’t turn her on specifically, but she knows her own wickedness and uses them to her advantage. If he drips or cums on her early or too soon, she won’t clean herself up. Instead, she’ll slide her fingers through it, bring it to her lips, or use it as lube on his cock.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

They could never do it, but they share fantasies of it – having sex at his work desk in the Lighthouse. And not quickies – full, bold, sensual, fully-undressed sex. With the doors open. The idea delights, but no. Even if their companions knew to stay away, Manfred would not. And Hezenkoss would be HIGHLY displeased.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Emmrich is quite experienced. He’s been with ladies and gentlemen, and knows his charms (as well as his likes and dislikes in the bedroom). He’s dated and easily found companionship, but each eventually fell through. He always wanted love, commitment and marriage. He's in it for the long-run.

Belisma dated some, but her only serious relationship was with another mage named Cyril. They separated because, surprise, he didn’t want commitment. And for Belisma, he wasn’t worth the effort.

Neither are virgins, but Belisma definitely isn’t as experienced as he is. He did have a head start, though, haha, to be fair. He groans when she playfully brings that up.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Belisma loves to ride him. She gets to feel him proudly jutting up into her, and he gets to lean back and focus solely on grinding up into her. Win-win. After she comes, she switches to more of a bouncing motion, which quickly brings him to whimpering ruin beneath her.

Emmrich gets to admire her face, feel her bum smacking his thighs, and watch her small tits bounce with each thrust. So, it gets a thumbs-up from him too. Doggy-style is also favorite because of how deep it allows him to go.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Emmrich takes romance and sex very seriously. After all, like we established, he is a man who wants love. True love. Marriage. He wants a lifelong commitment and partnership. As such, he takes lovemaking very seriously. He’s not a silent statue during it, of course, but he’s not cracking jokes, haha. He wants to make sure she feels good, is enjoying herself, and is as ‘in the moment’ as he is. He’s attentive.

He might smile and laugh afterward, when they’re laying together in the afterglow of it all, but in the moment? He is very serious and focused.

Belisma is also quite serious when it comes to their time in bed together. She’s a little awkward and bookish, and she knows that. If she tries to joke or force levity, it would ruin the mood and come across as less than genuine, and she values him too much for that.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

We know Emmrich is meticulous about grooming, bathing and shaving.

He’s got some salt-and-pepper chest hair that matches the thatch between his legs, but he’s not overly hairy otherwise. Pretty sparse, to match his in-game model. He bathes daily (and after any workout/battle) and always takes care to present himself perfectly with the poise and grace expected of him.

Belisma will get so engrossed in work that she’ll accidentally go days without bathing, but she wouldn’t sleep with Emmrich in those moments. She’d bathe before any intimacy. For her hair, she washed and makes sure to condition, oil, brush and smooth it properly. Her hair, ideally, is braided. If it’s braided and up, she needs to wash it. If she’s donned a hood, it’s … been a rough/busy week. She does shave her legs and under her arms. Between her legs, she keeps hair trimmed.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Emmrich and Belisma are slow, sensual lovers. Nothing is fast, frantic, or quick. They always take their time with foreplay and undressing. LOTS of slow kissing, sighs and words of affirmation. The romance of every encounter is very important and non-negotiable for them. Both are very likely to set up their rooms or even decorate.

For example, if Emmrich plans to bring Belisma to his chamber, the bed is made and cleaned, a fire is roaring with cinnamon-scenter timber. There will be wine, music and a gradual build-up to their coupling.

Belisma will do the same. If he comes to her quarters, she makes sure to clean the entire room beforehand, and make sure everything is perfumed. She also makes dinner for him frequently (rarebit is a favorite), and always makes hazelnut torte for dessert. She even has sleep clothes and a dressing gown for him (in lilac, his favorite color) at the ready.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

One they’re a couple, they do experiment with watching each other masturbate and seeing who gives in first and crosses the room to the other. (They keep a playful tally – a straight tie, right down the middle. The ‘loser’ from the previous time owes the other a drink for next time.)

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Emmrich: Very light bondage, wax play (all those candles come in handy, and the dripping wax is exhilarating) and praise. This man yearns for sweet, sweet words.

Belisma: Praise. Praise, praise, PRAISE KINK all day long. She’ll try anything once (the candle wax is fun, she’ll admit).

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Their bedrooms, mostly because they know they won’t be interrupted. By people, or by Manfred. Thankfully, even with gloves, his skeletal hands aren’t dexterous enough to turn a key in a locked door. Obviously, their first time was in the coffin in the Necropolis, which was also nice and private (but a bit cold).

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

At the dinner date with Rook, he admits that it’s been a while since he’s enjoyed anyone’s company. Handling semesters of students, keeping matters at bay in the Necropolis, and teaching Manfred takes time, after all.

Emmrich really doesn’t need a ton of motivation, honestly. He’s been waiting for this forever – finding someone to love and cherish. Someone to read with in bed, or dance with at the end of a long night when gentle music enters through a cracked window.

As for what turns him on, he will admit that he loves to watch her dance. Belisma was a ballet dancer for many years after all. She’s graceful, and the art shows off her skeletal and muscular forms quite perfectly. Seeing her jump and twirl so effortlessly, hair spinning behind her, her cheeks flushed and a light sheen of sweat forming across her chest and face? Color him very interested.

Belisma gets turned on, honestly, by seeing him happy. He’s so reserved usually that seeing him get giddy or ramble about a new discovery or relic just makes her want to take his face between her hands and smooch him silly. Also, when he’s focused at his work desk, that also makes for quite a lovely picture. She’ll bring him tea and find him looking at thesis submission from student, glasses perched on his nose, head down, gaze focused. It’s a dreamy picture. Then, when he notices her, and his entire demeanor shifts to one of excitement (“Isma, darling! Hello!”) her entire body blushes every time.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Anything non-con or sadistic is a no for both. Also, they are not interested in any third parties. Spectators or participants.

When she is in ANY kid of pain, it causes him immense distress.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Emmrich prefers to give oral. Not that he’ll say no to Belisma on her knees, taking him into his mouth (not at all) but it’s just not his preferred method of intimacy. He can’t see her face as well when she blows him, and honestly, he wants to be able to look at her. To admire the subtle changes in her expression during intercourse. Oral complicates that. Yet, he does LOVE to give oral. The entire time, his eyes stare up at her, watching her blissed out expression. He uses on hand to furiously pump his own cock while he moans and licks into her. The sounds alone are enough to bring him to ruin.

Belisma loves both. She’s a little shy about receiving it the first time, especially since Cyril never liked doing it) so he puts it off. What if she tastes/smells bad? What if she looks weird down there? Emmrich catches on eventually, and asks her:

“Isma, I can’t help but notice … when I’m pleasuring you, my hands and fingers are welcome, but when I lean down, you always stop me. I can only use my hands, if that’s why you want, but I want to be certain.” “Oh. I’m sorry. Um, yes, hands are fine. I’m used to that. I guess I’m just a little…” “Self-conscious?” “Yes. I’m sorry, that’s immature of me.” “Hardly. It’s a matter of immense vulnerability. Darling, we’ll move at your pace. If you’d like to try it, just say the word. I’ll just add this, if it happens to help; I know there are foolish schoolboys who think women should taste like sugar cubes and smell like roses between their legs. I am a man with no such expectations.”

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Slow and sensual, all the way. The only time things get ‘rough’ is when they’re about to climax. Emmrich will grab her hips and pick up the pace to something a little more punishing. Belisma will tug his hair and bit his shoulder as her body clenches around him.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Nope. If there is not enough time for the full wooing process, there is no sex. I really can’t stress how important intimacy and romance is for these two, haha.

Emmrich especially. He’s a man, and his anatomy doesn’t require as much … preparation. Belisma? Without foreplay, things can be painful for her, and that thought sickens him.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

They are way more game for experimenting than risk-taking. ‘Experimenting’ implies genuine interest and carnal fascination. ‘Risk-taking’ feels … unnecessary, haha. Like, would they risk having sex in their private theatre box next time they go see the Nevarran Ballet perform ‘Faustina’? No, not during the show. Buuut after the show ends, and they lock the door and pull the curtains? That’s an experiment in semi-public sex. Way more comfortable and controlled for them.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

So, Emmrich is 52-55. Belisma is 35. They’re not mating like bunnies, but they have impressive stamina. Both are quick and spry on the battlefield. His refractory period is definitely existent, but that’s fine. They mostly talk between rounds, because frankly, that’s what they love most.

“My, that lilac lingerie was a delightful surprise. Where did you come across it?” “Oh, Neve recommended my to this fabulous boutique! A little pricey, but—” “Definitely worth it, if I may say so.”

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Both of them do, haha. You’re not single for decades without investing in some good tools to tide you over. They’re also both adults. I imagine Emmrich (who seems to have been quite the rambunctious/flirtatious youth) frequented them quite a bit as he found companionship with other ladies and gentlemen.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

They both loooove to tease the other. Flirtatious looks, winks, holding hands under the dinner table. It's fun, and for them, it's getting to enjoy that teenage-esque delight of being cute and in-love for a bit.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

They can be loud, but it’s harder for them. Stealing moments with each other and keeping things slow can sometimes mean their engagements are on the quieter side.

They sometimes need reminders that it’s okay to make noise. It’s okay to sigh, and moan, and cry out the other’s name. Belisma loves when Emmrich grunts or gasps against her. She’s so used to him appearing composed, it’s exciting being the one that makes such a gentleman comes beautifully undone.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Emmrich: After he starts seeing Belisma, his morning workouts and exercises become a little more intense. He wants to be able to keep up with her, you know. She’s around 20 years younger, after all.

As for Belisma: She had a stuffed nug from when her parents left her as an infant. It was bundled in her swaddling cloth. She still has it, and even sleeps with it sometimes. She does NOT want Emmrich to know (how embarrassing, she’s 35!) but Manfred finds it one day and brings it to her while she and Emmrich are talking.

“Pet!” “Where did you … Manfred, did you use your allowance to buy a toy? Hm … it looks well-loved.” Then Manfred gives it to Belisma. “Rook! Pet!” “Oh. Is that yours?” Emmrich asks, blinking.

Oh, she could have died on the spot. He just laughs and says it’s sweet. Then lightly chastises Manfred for going through people’s belongings.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

We’ve discussed body hair already. As for anatomy, Emmrich looks … decently endowed, honestly. There’s some noticeable cargo down there, even when he’s completely casual.

He’s quite thin and slender, especially with his height. His muscles are decently toned, but there is a softness to him. Nothing is cleanly cut or defined but he is trim. Even a little gaunt, especially around his ribs and hips.

Belisma is also very slender and thin. Even bony in some places. She has s smaller chest (B-cups) and noticeable hip dips.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

SO HIGH. They may not have the energy to mate like bunnies, but they go for hours. And they can jump in and out as needed. For example, they’ll make love, stop to make dinner, eat, then have sex again, then bathe (doing another round in the tub) then finish up with one last round in bed.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Belisma always falls asleep first. And she is out like a light, snoozing away. She also talks in her sleep, haha.

Emmrich takes time to fall asleep. It’s just harder for him, but watching her sleep and breathe beside him is an immense help for soothing his own worries. She calms him better than tea and lavender, and he’s at his most relaxed when they’re sharing a bed together, wrapped in each other’s embrace.

[vegan-peppermint]

Tim "Masky" x doctor!reader

Wc: 1.5k

Genre: plot? Tension? A lot of back story in the beginning if you want to skip it go to this post (same fic without the context).

No gender mentioned and not relevant.

Tw: references of a rough childhood

You should be grateful to your brother, truly. Without him, you'd likely still be stuck in your hometown, working a dead-end job and living in that nightmare of a house. When he turned 18 and ran away, he promised to come back for you as soon as he could. He vowed to take you so far away that the terrible memories of your parents couldn't reach you anymore. You were only 13 at the time and didn't fully grasp the situation—you just felt abandoned.

Thankfully, your brother kept his word. He completed his studies at the police academy, climbed the chain of command, and became a detective—and when the clock struck the first hour of your 18th birthday, he showed up as promised. It was hard, of course; you barely recognized the man who now seemed so distant from the teen you last saw in that same cold living room.

You are grateful.

He covered all your needs and wants, including your education—and medical school is goddamn expensive. Everything you are today is thanks to him.

Recently, he became a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit—a remarkable accomplishment, especially at such a young age. His promotion helped you to secure an internship within the agency. You were still exploring various medical specialties, uncertain about which path to choose. Psychiatry sounded intriguing, but you also considered something more hands-on, like emergency medicine. Truth be told, you felt completely lost, with no clear direction. So, you were thrilled to learn that the internship program would expose you to multiple fields: working directly with deranged individuals brought in by agents, assisting in interrogations alongside psychiatrists, treating life-threatening injuries on agents or criminals alike, and even assessing the capabilities of new recruits. It was the perfect fit for someone at your stage in life and career.

A couple of weeks ago, he brought in two men, suspects in crimes spanning multiple states, with no clear means or motives for their actions. The higher-ups didn't approve of the arrests, arguing that the crimes' circumstances were too unusual and lacked continuity; it was evident that more than two painfully average individuals were involved. But Kevin, your brother truly believed he had a sixth sense about these things. He was convinced they were the culprits.

When he brought them in, he was instructed to keep the operation low-profile. With minimal resources allocated, he had to choose his personnel wisely. That's how you found yourself in the midst of this circus. A third-year med student playing doctor in the underground of a semi-secret government facility. That's how you met them.

Brian and Tim.

Tim is the first one you met, seeing to his severe wounds was urgent. His whole torso was covered in bruises, some older- a deep shade of purple—but mostly bright red. His forearms and knees bore scratches and were actively bleeding. You’d never seen someone in such a dire state, raising immediate concerns about potential internal bleeding.

Despite his alarming condition, Tim exuded an unsettling confidence. He responded to each of your questions with a broad, almost defiant grin and a voice dripping with cloying charm.

His teasing demeanor only got worse with each (more frequent) visit to your office.

“Does this hurt?” you asked, applying gentle pressure to one of his ribs.

“It’d hurt so much more if you’d decided not to touch me, dove,” he said with a low voice.

“It’s important for you to talk with me, Tim,” you rolled your eyes, moving away from his side, his jokes and comments not bothering you in the slightest. He wasn’t a difficult person to work with, just awfully vague and badly hurt. “The sooner we treat you, the sooner you get out of this boring, sterile white office,” you encourage, and Tim hums in response.

An uneasy silence lingered after.

“Get out of here just so Agent Shit-Face can send me right back?” he said.

You didn’t react to his comment. You didn’t want to actually. If you did, you would have to acknowledge what, or rather who, had inflicted all those wounds on him. It’s not easy, but you have to remind yourself he is a murderer. This is a high-security interrogation center.

“I don’t think you broke anything,” you stated. “As far as I can tell, the wounds are superficial, nothing to worry about. I’ll give you some painkillers, nothing too exciting, just some ibuprofen.”

Tim’s eyes followed you as you walked over to one of your cabinets to grab the meds. Back turned to him so you could escape his piercing gaze.

“Who’s he to you?” he asked bluntly.

Perhaps he saw directly through your pretense of indifference towards his previous statement. You wouldn’t be surprised; you always had a very expressive face. Before turning around to face him, you had to repeat to yourself. He was not just a patient; he was a psychopath responsible for countless deaths. He is not vulnerable or a victim- someone you can bond with. He is dangerous.

“If you start coughing blood or have trouble breathing, come straight back here, you hear me?

“Every time you walk by, his eyes linger longer than anyone else’s,” he continued, an almost playful tone lacing his words. “I might have lingered a bit myself, watching you leave the room longer than I shuld've.” His gaze was warm, the corners of his lips turning a shade pinker from an instinctive bite. Nothing about him is threatening, not even the steps he had taken without you noticing, for now he was standing right in front of you.

He maintains some distance between the two of you, giving you a sense of control. He is not genuine; every step is calculated to trick you. The way he pauses, giving you space to react. You should say something, but you can’t find the words as your mind is overburdened with the task of holding a stoic face.

“I need to know,” he whispered as he inched closer, closing the distance.

In the depth of his green eyes, you catch a fleeting reflection of your uncertainty, prompting you to avert your gaze. He lowers his head slowly, following your movement with composure. Only for the soft thud his palms made against the wall did a realization hit you:

He had cornered you.

“I need to know,” he repeats, his voice laced with honey.

You closed your eyes, the mere presence of him overwhelming you. God, was this a mistake, as you now became acutely aware of his breath brushing against your face. You swear you felt his familiar sliding smirk forming in response to your distress.

“Am I flirting with another man’s woman?” he breathes with a teasing challenge.

Before you could even comprehend the weight of the accusation, a loud knock jolted you from your thoughts. Instinctively, you stiffened, frozen in place as if your body had abandoned agency. Only when the door creaked open did you allow yourself to breathe again.

Tim sat casually on the medical bed, his demeanor cheerful and utterly unfazed, as though nothing was amiss. Your brother, Kevin, towered in the doorway, his presence dense with authority.

“What’s taking so long?” Kevin said, his gaze bouncing between you and Tim.

“Sorry,” you replied, releasing a shaky breath. “He’s ready to go.” You let a deliberate pause hang in the air, then added, “Brother.”

No need to look at him to know Tim’s face lit up with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. You don’t know why you did that, what compelled you to let him know Kevin is your brother. No, rather, why were you so desperate to let Tim know you were single?

This is ridiculous; you were so stupid. The warning bells rang loud and clear, yet you completely ignored them. You fell for his charm and traps. Coming clean to Kevin is the right thing to do, surely. Tell him what happened and how you want to be taken off the case. Yes, that would be the safest, most righteous thing to do.

But as Kevin secured Tim’s hands behind his back and guided him by the shoulder, doubt crept in. What would happen if you left? They don’t have the budget or any interest in getting another doctor on base. Tim’s disheveled hair bounced with every movement, revealing red stains splattered on his forehead and neck. You cannot leave; you have to do your job as a doctor!

You tightened your resolve. This time, you’d do better. No more falling for his traps. You were done playing games.

You know better now, for sure.

[vertekel]

Some Miraak headcanons because I woke up too damn early

Also some Hermaeus Mora because those two are like a package that always comes together.

Miraak's skin is almost entirely see through and actively sliding off the muscle around his hands and feet, the same way it is on the Hushed and deep sea fish. You can see his veins quite clearly all over his body

Miraak has no gills, but he is able to breathe underwater through his skin. His skin is slimy to the touch. Like a big newt.

He has a swimmer's body, long proportions that are lean. He has an enlarged chest cavity due to constant use of the Thu'um expanding his lungs so much, and holding his breath underwater before his skin changed.

His exposed open flesh from his skin sliding off is not as prone to infection as one might think, its rather resistant to infection but still rather bloody and slimy...so his gloves stay on.

His clothes are made of thread fashioned from Hermaeus Mora's sinew, allowing for their strange ability to turn into tentacles and the robe's dried blood color.

Miraak has a severe light sensitivity in his eyes that he did not adjust to well when actually returning to Nirn when he does.. eventually.

He struggles to sleep or rest without the sound of water nearby, even in the times after he has been allowed to leave Apocrypha.

Miraak was killed by Hermaeus Mora in my AU, but just because he is dead does not mean he is free. Hermaeus kept his remains and his soul and Miraak or Hermaeus eventually rebound his soul to his body the way Alduin does to the other dragons.

If TLD suggested saving Miraak he would be insulted and spit in our face. That he wants nothing to do with our help and if TLD tried to save him when he was impaled he'd also be mad about us getting in the way of him being impaled by his husband and his husband's monologuing. It's not the first time he's been flat-lined by that fish and probably won't be the last.

Miraak is a very loyal and very dedicated person that takes great offense to betrayal. A trait among dragons is their dedications to their oaths and pledges and debts. He does not view his actions in Skyrim as betrayal or disloyalty, even if Hermaeus thinks otherwise.

His body temperature is higher on average than a normal mortal and the dragonborns after him. It makes him uncomfortable in high heat environments.

He was not originally created to slay Alduin or to slay dragons at all. He was originally created by Akatosh to mimic something similar to Herma-Mora's own being. A divine essence with a body of flesh that grows and rots. Miraak was intended to accompany Hermaeus Mora from the very beginning, and that is why no other Dragonborn was created in the merethic era to slay dragons.

Miraak genuinely owes a lot of what he knows to Hermaeus Mora. The dragons were brutal tyrants that limited the education that was available to the Atmorans, destroying any of their histories and studies to replace with propaganda. Miraak was born into this, and Hermaeus Mora liberated him through information. Teaching him to read, to write, and teaching him the secret within his blood and soul.

Miraak can drink a terrifying amount of alcohol and be perfectly sober. Sanguine himself could challenge him to a drinking contest and he'd have to tap out. Hermaeus has gotten him drunk and drugged so many times in their studies together that even the strongest alcohols are like drinking water.

The first dragon Miraak ever killed was one he killed when the dragon was unaware of his intentions and presence. Hermaeus suggested him to slay the beast that shackled him while they rested, to learn the secret within his blood and soul. To draw their blood in his name. To forsake and kill his old gods for him.

Hermaeus Mora tailored the scales, shoulders, and his new mask from the hide of that very same dragon. Miraak watched in both awe and unfathomable horror as his new master devoured his old god.

Miraak's throat is often burning and raw due to the use of the Thu'um. He has fits of coughing up blood due to this.

When Vahlok said Miraak was seduced by Hermaeus Mora he means SEDUCED.

Miraak primarily eats seafood even after he is allowed to leave Apocrypha. He enjoys the taste more than anything else and after he was in service to Hermaeus for a while, Herma-Mora would offer him pieces of his own body to eat. He made some absolutely delicious meals out of it.

Miraak is kinda like a mermaid but without the tail, he is an excellent swimmer and often hid in the murky pools of Apocrypha. Intentionally out of sight of many ciphers and daedra. His intentional obscurity to him made him feel closer to his master, the Lord of the Unknown. By being obscure and unknown himself. This is partially why all historical records of him fail to stand the test of time, and why people struggle to remember him. Even after he is out of Apocrypha he has a habit of lurking just out of sight.

That's all for now I may add onto this in the future or I may not

[melocherie]

I remember encountering iaptbap a few years ago and thinking it was an interesting concept, but then dropping it after not really liking the writing style. I mean, I’m also a leftist who likes writing social justice ideas into my fics, but the way she went about it in her story felt so preachy and boring. The themes didn’t feel naturally woven into the narrative. Love interests felt flat and it seemed like they only existed to make the mc look better.

But I was like “different strokes different folks, not like she’s hurting anyone, as long as people are happy, there are way cringier fics out there” only to find out a few days ago while scrolling through tumblr that she had groomed a minor?? Which goes against so much of the character she’s made herself out to be? Especially since she was strict about keeping minors from reading her smut.

Sorry you had to deal with her plagiarism accusations and her ego. Hope you’re doing well

exactly!  see,  my  issues  with  noor  incorporating  social  commentary  into  her  work  isn't  the  politics  themselves  or  their  inclusion——again,  i  find  stories,  even  bad  ones,  are  better  when  they're  about  something——but  rather  her  execution  always  falls  flat. 

 it  reminds  me  of  greta  gerwig's  barbie——the  film  presents  a  very  shallow  and  lite  discussion  of  gender  and  feminism,  and  while  i  admire  it  for  that  alone,  among  its  other  good  qualities,  i  disagree  with  critics  who  hail  it  as  the  pinnacle  of  feminist  media.  similarly,  while  i  admire  iaptbap's  attempts  to  address  many  of  society's  faults,  it  does  so  with  such an  immature,  condescending  hand that i don’t think is deserving of praise.

 i,  as  a  queer  blasian  girl,  already  know  of  queerphobia  and  racism  simply  by  living  in  a  society  that  wants  me  dead.  and  if  i  wanted  to  further  my  education,  i  could  simply  pick  up  a  nonfiction  book  or  essay  and  conduct  my  own  research.  so,  when  it  comes  to  media,  literature,  and  storytelling,  i  don't  want  robotic  perfect  monologues  to  clap  for;  i  want  to  feel  something.  i  want  emotion,  passion,  intellect.  i  want  the  author  to  use  their  art  to  connect  with  me,  the  audience.  i  don't  want  the  author  to  have  their  main  character  turn  directly  to  the  audience  and  deliver  the  moral  lesson,  as  if  it's  a  kids'  show.

i  recently  watched  this  video  by  withcindy  about  the  faults  with  “reading  for  empathy”  and  performative  activism,  and  one  quote  particularly  caught  my  eye: 

 “[…]  characters  must  exist  for  positive  representation  so  that  you  can  empathize  for  whatever  group  they  represent,  but  ironically  by  having  those  characters  be  instruments  or  tools  for  good  politics,  and  having  them  only  exist  for  good  politics,  that  also  makes  them  not  represented  in  their  humanity.”

 and  it  immediately  reminded  me  of  winter  white.  noor  ended  up  quietly  deleting  this  section  later,  but  in  her  9k  raffle  one-shot  chapter,  she  revealed  that  winter  was  half  chinese.  based  on  how  it  was  handled,  she  solely  did  this  as  an  excuse  to  comment  on  bigotry  against  east  asians.  miriam  asked  it  was  like  dating  winter,  and  mc  noted  how  she  received  some  gross  questions  about  "what  it  was  like  dating  jungkook,"  and  noor’s  only  other  depiction  of  his  ethnicity  was  that  he  used  chinese  skincare  products. 

it  doesn’t  feel  like  representation  for  the  purpose  of  making  chinese/mixed  race  readers  to feel  seen  and  loved  within  a  popular  character,  but  rather  as  a  pretext  to  educate  a  white,  ignorant  audience  about  the  evils  of  racism.  it’s  a  depiction  of  asian  trauma  without  ever  depicting  asian  joy.  and  while  it's  good  that  she  decided  (presumably)  on  her  own  to  remove  this,  this  type  of  shoddy  writing  can  be  found  everywhere  in  iaptbap.  i  don’t  recall  a  single  conversation  in  iaptbap  which  actually  felt  real,  only  exchanges  meant  to  constantly  educate  me,  which  is  doubly  infuriating  when  i  know  about  this  stuff  already. 

and  noor  has  the  audacity  to  do  all  of  this,  then  sidestep  criticism  by  saying,  "well,  it's  just  a  silly  disney  fanfiction  in  the  end."  you  can't  make  me  suffer  through  mc  explaining  sexual  abuse  terms  like  she's  a  living  dictionary  and  clapping  back  against  strawmen,  then  switch  from  iaptbap  being  an  extension  of  your  activism  or  a  dark  romance  depending  on  which  one  gives  the  least  amount  of  criticism.  that’s  not  how  that  works.  how  no  one  called  her  out  on  her  bullshit  sooner  genuinely  boggles  my  mind

[dcdreamblog]

Possibly on a Freedom Fighters kick, but how about talking about the various men who have called themselves Black Condor? I was reading that the original was a Congressman?

The Black Condor legacy is one of those heroic legacies, like many that have sustained themselves since the Golden Age. That has never been truly prominent but also have never gone fully dormant either. It's been held by three men. Who I will speak about in turn.

(An image of Richard Grey Jr as the Black Condor)

The first to hold the title was Richard Grey Jr. The only son of Archeologist Richard Grey who was with his wife on a expedition to Outer Mongolia just after WWI attempting to document the area's history. That part of the world was unfortunately very dangerous during that era, the beginning of China's Warlord period were roving bandits were the norm. The elder Greys were killed soon after stumbling upon a strange meteorite that Junior was exposed to when left for dead by the bandits.

Grey was then discovered by a flock of highly intelligent birds (Condors aren't native to Mongolia but some species of mutant vulture is the widely held theory) that took Grey in as their own. The meteorite seems to have activated a nascent metagene within Grey who, mimicking his avian parents discovered the ability to fly without any visible wings. Living with the birds for several years and receiving a human education via a local hermit. Said hermit was killed by the same bandits who took the lives of Grey's birth parents and so Grey made his first debut as the Black Condor to disband the violent thieves den. Grey eventually became curious about his distant homeland and made his way to America.

It was in America that he stumbled upon the assassination of senator Thomas Wright (R-California) who was a dead wringer for Grey himself. Grey then simply...assumed Wright's position while no one was the wiser. Wright had no family to speak of and while its fraudulent in basically every sense of the word the deception was only discovered DECADES later after Grey's death which created a general sense of fait accompli, namely, what the hell was anyone supposed to do about it now?

As the Black Condor, Grey eventually answered the call of the All Star Squadron where he became a close member of Uncle Sam's Freedom Fighters. Close enough that he was one of that team's core members in their travels to Earth X to root out that dimension's victorious Nazi empire where he remained for several decades. Upon his return Grey simply...faded away. Telling his teammates he wished to return to his true family "at the top of the world" and never being seen since. What revelation he might have gained about the inexplicably intelligent birds that raised him we will probably never know.

(Ryan Kendall's Black Condor alongside Hawkman during his early career)

The second Black Condor was a man named Ryan Kendall. Born to the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape people of New Jersey, Kendall was born the grandson to mad scientist and general crank Creighton Kendall a member of a mad scientist "collective" called the Society of the Golden Wing.

The Society of the Golden Wing is what's usually termed a "Metahuman Cult", a group, sometimes spiritual sometimes not based in the idea of either creating, harnessing or exploiting metahumans in general or some certain class of metahuman. In their case, the Society of the Golden Wing hoped to mutate humanity into a flighted form for some kind of grand utopian purpose with Ryan being one of their most intensive subjects. Experimented upon from fertilization until the age of 21, Ryan finally escaped from his grandfather and the Society into New Jersey's famous Pine Barrens which offered him the first sanctuary he had ever known while also showing him that the Society's experimentation had been successful.

Kendall is notable for his original insistence that he was NOT a superhero, feeling a spiritual calling to protect and defend the Pine Barrens that had sheltered him. Clashing with evil doers and criminals primarily on ecological grounds rather than grounds of justice at least so he would repeatedly insist.

Eventually though Kendall found the heroic ideal calling to him more and more, telling his Freedom Fighters cohorts that his ultimate epiphany came from a heart to heart what the spirit of Richard Grey. He eventually moved to Opal City, Maryland and fought alongside the Jack Knight Starman as well as joining with the then modern version of the Freedom Fighters.

It was there that Kendall would eventually make his final stand against the Secret Society of Supervillains, losing his life in combat with the alien warlord Sinestro. He is laid to rest at Valhalla Cemetery in New York alongside many other Golden Age heroes and their descendants.

(An image of the 3rd Black Condor)

The current man to hold the mantle is the one we know the least about, for the obvious reason that his secret identity is still in use. He first appeared alongside the most modern version of the Freedom Fighters in the aftermath of that team assembling to oppose shady government activity in the aftermath of Bludhaven's near destruction by the same Secret Society that claimed the life of his predecessor.

What is known about the man currently calling himself the Black Condor is that he is also of Native descent, though he's Navajo by birth and his powers come from the Navajo spirit known as the Spider Woman or Spider Grandmother. There is some debate whether the arcane nature of his powers is literally true or only true in his own spiritual perspective. I take the opinion that it truly doesn't matter and its not my business to pick at someone else's religious convictions.

He has said his two predecessors have been great inspirations to him and has also made himself available to the people of Opal City after Ryan Kendall became a fixture in the city's superheroic identity.

The unifying "theme" of the men who have called themselves the Black Condor seems to be some spiritual attachment to the wind and open sky. Whether it be the steppes of Mongolia, the rustling Pine Barrens or the Great Plain of the America interior all 3 men have found themselves called to defend those who live under that blue and open sky. And we can only hope that far into our future the Black Condor will continue to soar wherever his shadow might need to fall.

[lacunammmm]

Dabi Was The Most Disastrous Thing To EVER Happen To The League Of Villains And Is The MVP For The Hero Team

Hiring Dabi was like Tomura being handed a knife. Trusting this guy and giving him leadership of ANYTHING was Tomura cutting his own throat. Dabi is a complete and utter fraud. The guy can't kill his way out of a paper bag. If he's up against characters who don't have a name, always bet on Dabi.

But if he has to fight someone who has a name and isn't just a background character who was invented just to die (like Snatch) then this guy is cooked.

Dabi is also a bum because he actively harmed the League at every step of the way.

He's the reason their hideout was rumbled. Someone saw Dabi leave the League's bar to go squat in the nearby abandoned building and called the cops. The cops investigated and later found the LOV base. He's the reason Momo and Awase are alive right now. Because he didn't have the Chainsaw Nomu finish the job and take them out. He's also the reason the Nomu lab got found out. Because he was the leader of the mission but he couldn't be bothered to check his nomu for damages and see the obvious tracking device that was planted on him. Momo was knocked out and had to wake up to tell the heroes what she did to help. At anytime Dabi could have destroyed the device, but he couldn't be bothered to look. He caused All For One to get arrested and undermined the League's victory in the forest camp arc. The heroes got a big win and All Might ended his career in a blaze of glory.

He's the one who puts his agenda ahead of the League's. The guy was absent for most of the Overhaul arc bbqing nameless characters.

He's the one who sent Hood to die against Endeavor, removing a powerful ally from the League's arsenal. That High End Nomu could have made mince meat out of other pro heroes who are NOT Endeavor, but Dabi decides to send him against the worst possible target. Oh, and of course this boosts Endeavor's popularity and gets people believing in him, right when public sentiment about Endeavor was low. The loser just gave his dad a public trial by fire that he won with a flourish!

And he's the one who brought Hawks into the League and failed to do any sort of checks on the guy. The disastrous first war was 100% Dabi's fault. He didn't bother to check if Best Jeanist was dead. He didn't keep a watch on Hawk. He didn't kidnap a hero or two and demand Hawks kill them in front of him, with the implication being that he'd burn Hawks to death if he failed to comply. This is standard stuff to sus out an undercover cop. The guy's lack of any sort of education really shows here. In a world where Hawks doesn't enter the League, they 100% win, effortlessly. They had the MLA join them, they had the doctor creating an army of Nomu, and All For One would have fully taken over Tomura's body. The only reason the MHA universe isn't ruled by the demon king right now? Dabi's incompetence. He's also a bum because he wasn't shown to be doing anything at all until he saw Stain's broadcast. What was he gonna do without the League? Sit and wait forever and achieve nothing?

He's also the reason All For One, Tomura, Toga, and Kurogiri died.

See, he had the chance to kill both Endeavor and Shoto but he decided not to. He said he wanted Endeavor to be awake to see his masterpiece burn, and since Endeavor passed out, he didn't finish the job. Oh, and guess what? He didn't kill Hawks, either. He couldn't even be bothered to avenge his homie, Twice. Had he taken out Hawks and Tokoyami, the heroes would have suffered IMMENSE LOSSES in this war and the entire war arc part 2 looks different.

Well, congrats, Dabi. You're the reason the first war arc happened, and you're directly the reason why the second one was a failure. You wanna know another reason why Dabi is the reason his friends are dead?

If he'd killed Aoyama during the forest camp arc, where we have ZERO REASON to believe he knew Aoyama was a spy for their side (as Aoyama was AFO's servant, not Tomura's) then Aoyama wouldn't have been alive to get outed as a spy, and then be used by the heroes to lead the League into an ambush.

Heck, he fucked up multiple times in the forest arc. He's the one who had a gameplan that left Mustard entirely on his own instead of keeping some boys at his side because his quirk is a one hit kill if someone inhales the gas.

His clone yapped and ran its mouth to Aizawa about how they were after a student, which is what got the guy to give the students permission to fight back.

He's the one who demanded Compress unmarble the students, resulting in them not abducting Tokoyami, just Bakugo.

He's got fire hotter than lava but couldn't be bothered to BBQ some kids to ensure they do more damage to hero society and aren't gonna be a problem in the future.

The guy can turn human bodies into charcoal in an instant, but his flames never manage to burn anyone the author cares about.

We call Dabi 007.

Zero 1 vs 1 fight victories.

Zero kills on plot relevant characters.

7 victims who walked off his flames barely worse for wear. The League would have objectively been better off if this guy never joined.