#but I sometimes wish end of new didn’t set up “our protag is going to have a mental health spiral mask it and then get sent to the void”

[no1ryomafan]

Due to circumstances irl me and my friends still won’t be able to finish new getter watch which fuck knows when it’ll be resume now and one of the factors wasn’t even because not everyone could come-like one person was sick but that was it-but because we had a bunch of irl shit happened and I’m just reminded the part of the show we landed on is super fucking angsty and doesn’t get any better and that has probably encapsulated so of my iffy feelings with new despite it being arguably the most best written ova- but I don’t know if I wanna get into a whole rant about it in a post because some people might think I’m reaching even though I’m safer here compared to twit so might keep vague thoughts in the tags below.

[prompt-master]

THIS BITCH FUCKING DYING XD XD X'D

This is a lighthearted comedy fic, but I’m going to give a warning for mention/talks of suicide and death.

Now this may be a shocking sentiment to share; but being in a killing game fucking sucked, even if you were Momota Kaito. As ludicrous as that statement appears, heroes had a tough time in tragedy too. Kaito found himself feeling disappointed more often than he would like at the sight of his companions distrusting each other. How were they supposed to work together and escape if people were “scared” that they would be “murdered”?! Kaito believed in trust to the bitter end and he would see that philosophy through. To point the finger at others and accuse them of murder is simply what the mastermind wanted him to do, and if Kaito was anything he was not a loser.

But that’s part of what made his sidekick so incredible! No hero was complete without his supporting role! Of course, Shuichi was much more than a supporting role. In many ways he was the protagonist of his own world (Kaito is still the hero of this story, make no mistake). Even though Shuichi relied on the motivation of others to see himself through, he was probably one of the most capable men he’d ever met. His intinution and detective skills were essential to each trial when his thoughts weren’t fogged up by mental recoil. And despite his reclusive demeanor, he was a good friend to have that everyone wanted the best for. Shuichi was Kaito’s sidekick and it showed! For his sidekick had to stand on his own as one of the best!

...Well, maybe sometimes Shuichi didn’t have a leg to stand on because he didn’t look so dependable laying face-down on the ground. 

“Shuichi! Are you- what are you doing?” 

Shuichi was down on the ground in front of his Ultimate Lab with his foot stuck propping the door open. He didn’t lift his head up when Kaito called out his name, instead opting for a string of gibberish and raising one hand off the ground. 

“No, seriously. What are you doing?” Kaito propped the dizzy detective up against the wall, catching him as he nearly swayed back down to the floor in response. Kaito took note of his flushed face and unfocused demeanor. There wasn’t...booze in this killing game right? That would suck. A killing game and booze wouldn’t mix well. Although some may disagree and say a pint is just the pick me up after watching one of your friends be slaughtered.

“M-Momota-kun…” it seemed Shuichi was gathering his bearings again. He braced himself against Kaito by gripping his sleeves. 

“Alright, c’mon Shuichi. Let’s get you to the others. I’m sure they can help us out somehow!”

“Ah but...first things first…” Shuichi looked up at Kaito with a determined resolve in his eyes typically reserved for class trials. 

“If I die, it’s a suicide.”

Huh?

Huh?

HUH?!

WHAT?!

“Shuichi?!” Kaito shook Shuichi by the shoulders until he looked ready to pass out and keel over for good, “Why would you do that?! You have so much to live for!”

And Shuichi had the damn nerve to look exasperated by the panic, “Ack- Momota-kun please calm down it was an accident!”

“How do you accidentally kill yourself?!”

“Well it happens all the time really but-”

“That’s not reassuring coming from you! Just-” Kaito took a deep breath to steady his frustrations, “why the hell are you dying?”

“It’s- haha, well uhm, it’s a bit of a funny story you see-” Shuichi stopped his ramblings at Kaito’s unimpressed glare, Shuichi sighed and slumped over with a sense of shame and embarrassment, “I was in my lab familiarizing myself with the various poisons in case anyone tried to use one, but ended up dropping a bottle of powder on the floor and inhaling quite a bit.”

“T-that sounds pretty serious…” Kaito mumbled. “How do you treat a toxic inhalant?...How do I help you..? Just say the word and I’ll be there, sidekick!”

Shuichi closed his eyes and rested against the door. After a moment he said “At this rate, people will assume you killed me since you were with me all this time. So, to prove that it was a suicide-”

“Shuichi I asked how to save you not how to solve your murder.”

Shuichi tilted his head with a fog of puzzlement in his eyes, “...but solving murders is what I do?”

“Well don’t do it right now! I’m trying to prevent your death!”

“Hm.” Shuichi seemed to have to rethink his evaluation, but the situation hadn’t changed. “This is a killing game, Momota-kun. I don’t think surviving or saving is on par with the course of action the mastermind planned out.”

“W-well if there’s a poison, there’s an antidote right?”

Shuichi shook his head, “No, there’s probably enough materials to make one, but... I’m not a chemist.”

“Let’s ask Iruma to make one then!”

“She’s not a chemist either.” Not to mention Shuichi didn’t trust any sort of edible concoction Miu put together. He wasn’t sure what she would create, but he did know it would make him want to die even faster.

“Ok then, let’s ask Harumaki!”

“Wh- Momota-kun, Harukawa-san kills people!”

“Yeah, so maybe she knows how to unkill people too! I’m pretty sure she can do basically anything.”

Shuichi, with his head now in his hands, decided that it would be easier to simply go along with Kaito’s antics. His body felt weak and gross and his head was splitting, which was a shame because in all honesty that powder had smelt nice. If only it didn’t leave his lab in need of a quarantine. It could’ve been a good candle scent. Or perhaps Shuichi was just veering into delirium. Dying will do that to you. 

He was definitely veering into delirium because one moment he was staring down at his hands and the next he was being carried by Kaito. The worst part of it all was that it didn’t match his daydreams of being romantically carried bridal style by his crush. Instead he was a heavy sack of dead weight plopped against Kaito’s back trying to keep his nausea down as Kaito descended a set of stairs.

“Wh-what’re you doing?” Shuichi mumbled upon realizing that he couldn’t remember Kaito’s plan. If he had one.

“We’re going to get you help!” Shuichi thought it was a pretty bad idea. It would just make the trial even more confusing and he wouldn’t be able to clarify since corpses don’t make for good witnesses. Even if he wanted to voice that though, he ended up in a nasty coughing fit that left him gasping for air.

“Dammit!” Kaito hissed out, “If only Tojo was still here!”

That Shuichi agreed with. If Kirumi was here she would somehow manage to create a cure even though that was absolutely not in the job description of a maid. Her backstory concerned Shuichi quite a bit.

“There he is!” Kaito yelled out, picking up his pace from a light jog to a full run.

“We’re...w-w’re going to ask him for help...?” Shuichi mumbled, before letting out a loud groan, “no, that’s okay...j-just let me die then.”

“Oi Monokuma!” If it weren’t for the imminent danger that would result from it, Kaito would be throttling Monokuma until something broke. “You have to help Shuichi, dammit! Give him a cure or some shit!”

Monokuma tilted his head, looking up at Kaito with pseudo-innocence, “are you stupid or something?”

“Wh-” Kaito nearly lost his anger in confusion, only for it to come back tenfold, “you have to help him!”

“No I don’t, lol.” Monokuma shrugged, “I think the bastard dropping dead would be great! Honestly any of you mistakes would do, he’s not special or anything.”

“He’s our detective!”

“Yeah, you lot are screwed without him, huh?” Monokuma let out a cackle, curled in on his stomach like Shuichi dying was the highlight of his day. “Sounds so beary hopeless to be without a protag, huh! Man we’ve lost two protags in one show, that’s a new record! Someone write that down, I want a medal!”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about…” Kaito shifted Shuichi higher up on his back, ignoring the mumbles in his ear of what evidence to use in the trial, “but don’t start planning yet! Shuichi isn’t dying on my watch!”

Monokuma nodded, “yeah, you are stupid.”

“Fine then I’m going to Harumaki! She was my first plan anyway since you’re so useless!”

“Useless?” Monokuma’s voice wobbled, his head tilted down like a child being told to apologize for wrong doing, “and after all I’ve done for you too...I don’t have to provide you lot with food and shelter, you know.”

“Ahh shut up! We don’t have time for your weird feelings!” 

The world became another dizzying blur as Kaito ran off yet again. “Don’t worry Shuichi! I’m taking you to Harumaki! She’ll have everything figured out!”

---

“You inhaled a toxic powder from your lab?”

Shuichi nodded.

“And you’ve gotten no treatment this entire time?”

Shuichi nodded.

“How are you not dead already?”

Shuichi shrugged.

Maki sighed and pinched her nose, wondering how the hell these two idiots got themselves into such a mess, “Saihara, I always thought if you were going to die it would be from murder and not from some bullshit like this.”

Which was a fair assumption really. Being the detective among them, the group learned to rely on Shuichi’s deductions to solve the murders. Without him, there would be a lot of chaos that the killer could use to trick everyone. Wait. Why has no one tried to kill Shuichi again? Shuchi couldn’t tell if he was a lucky man or not, but considering he was currently dying on his crush’s back it’s safe to say he leaned towards unlucky.

Maki turned to Kaito, glaring at him in a way that said she wanted to help but the situation sucked to do anything, “what exactly do you want me to do about this?”

“Save him, of course!” “I’m not a doctor. I’m the opposite. I kill people.” 

Shuichi wished desperately that he could say “I told you so”

“Look Harumaki, we can’t just let him die like this! We’re his friends so we have to do whatever we can to help him! Not just for us, but for Akamatsu too! She wanted him to live!”

Harukawa’s steel glare seemed to melt a little at that.

“So we need a plan!” Kaito said, “and the plan is to save Shuichi!”

“That’s not a plan, that’s a goal. And it’s a stupidly impossible goal too.”

“Nothing is impossible!”

Shuichi wondered if he could just close his eyes and die to avoid all the yelling he’s had to endure today. 

Another voice joined the conversation with a loud cry of “what’s impossible!?” It was none other than Iruma Miu, confidently placing herself into the scene when no one asked her to. Kiibo was with her, following at a much slower pace with an expression that screamed second-hand embarrassment. With her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face, she ensured all parties had their eyes on her before speaking again.

“Because this hard-headed freak is right! Nothing is impossible with my beautiful plump brain around! What is it you’re looking for? A new way to pull off a fictional r18 move? I knew you three were depraved, but don’t worry Mama Miu has got it covered-”

“No, you idiot.” Maki cut her off without a drop of sympathy. Shuichi didn’t have any sympathy either though, so really it was just relatable. “Saihara is dying.”

“Eh? What?” Miu’s voice fell into a submissive whimper. She curled in on herself and fiddled her hands together. “That doesn’t sound good…”

“Yes dying is usually not good.”

Kiibo worriedly hovered near Kaito, trying to get a good look at Shuichi, “is he ok?”

“No. Because he is dying.”

Miu seemed to have panic in her eyes, “he can’t die! Not yet anyway! Who killed him huh?! Who’s trying to escape?!”

“Iruma!” Kaito ignored her questions, “you can save him, right?! He was poisoned, and you always say that you can do anything!”

“I-I mean yeah I can but… but I don’t know anything about biocompatibility... I honestly just put things in the body and hope it works…I would need more time...”

“Then what about you Kiibo?! Maybe you can...I don’t know- analyze the poison and come up with a cure!”

“My algorithm doesn’t do that...I could do a Google search if we were given WIFI access though...”

“Dammit does anyone have an idea to save Shuichi?!”

“Oh! Oh!” Miu raised her hand, “I’ve seen people induce vomiting in movies to stop poison! That’ll work, yeah?!”

Maki, realizing that this conversation was going to draw out far longer than to her liking, pulled out a chair and sat in it, “first of all: do not do that. Second of all it was an inhalant. I don’t think that will stop his lungs from shutting down any time soon.”

“I know!” Kiibo turned to Miu with a determined look, “Iruma-san! Repurpose my wiring so that my hands function as a defibrillator!”

“Did you not hear what I just said?” Maki asked.

“Well it might stop Saihara-kun from dying if his heart stopped!”

“There’s nothing we can do.” Maki stressed, “we just have to lay him down, monitor him,, and hope he lives” 

“Harumaki that’s the same as giving up!”

“Hey hey!” No. God dammit. Sure, let’s keep complicating the dialogue. Shuichi was having a very bad day. Could this poison just finish him off already instead of leaving him on death’s doorstep? Fucking rude. Ouma Kokichi, hearing the glorious sounds of frantic arguing, skipped over to the group with a peachy look on his face.

 “What’s wrong with you all? You’re acting like somebody died.” Kokichi did a dramatic gasp, covering his mouth with his hands, “did someone die?! Did someone finally kill Keeboy?!” 

Kiibo stopped debating with Miu to give Kokichi an unimpressed look, “seriously?”

“Nishishi- yeah, I guess that would be too lucky.”

“Can you take something seriously for once in your life?” Maki glared, “because somebody will die if we can’t figure this out. Saihara inhaled a toxic powder and we aren’t sure how much time we have left to save him.”

“Ehh?” Kokichi’s face turned from confusion to worry. He’d clearly thought Maki was messing with him until he saw Shuichi’s half conscious body draped over Kaito looking very much like a victim of poison. Just as quickly as his expression changed it turned into an over exaggerated ploy they’d all seen a million times. His eyes filled with tears, his lip quivered, his nose started to sniffle. With a hiccup in his voice he began to whimper, “one of you guys is trying to kill my Saihara-chan?! I thought you all were preaching about friendship and trust and ending the killing game!”

Kokichi tilted his head back as he fell into a full on sob. A loud childish ear-breaking wail resounded as tears poured from his eyes with practiced ease. “You guys are so awful!” he yelled in between his sobs, “how could you do this?! Saihara-chan can’t die!”

“Would you shut the fuck up, flat ass!’ Miu yelled. 

And just like that Kokichi’s sobs had turned off. A complete 180 from his previous demeanor. It was like he hadn’t cried at all. His eyes weren’t red and puffy, his nose was dry, and his body was relaxed and poised. He stared camly down at his fingernails, examining them as though this situation was nothing more than a slight inconvenience to his day. “I’m serious, you know. I would never joke or lie. Saihara-chan can’t die, this game wouldn’t be the same without him.”

Kaito nearly asked Kokichi what he meant. Did he care about Shuichi? Did he care about their survival? Was he finally coming around? 

“Oi Monokuma!” Kokichi yelled. Monokuma bounced into the scene as though he was on Kokichi’s beck and call. “Hey did you know that Saihara-chan is dying? Like right now? And we’re all just watching that?”

Okay. Maybe he wasn’t starting his redemption arc then. Maybe he’s still the same piece of shit Kokichi.

“Ouma, what are-”

“Of course I know! It’s pretty funny, huh Ouma-kun?”

Kokichi laughed along with Monokuma, as though they were cut from the same tree. But then suddenly he was back to that semi-disappointed demeanor. “Yeah. Saihara-chan is dying. And doesn’t that really suck? This game is going to sooo be terrible without him. In his trial I bet we’re all going to die because these morons can’t think without him. You know that too, don’t you, Monokuma? WIthout Saihara-chan your show is going to be cut off in this most annoying and unentertaining way. Ahhh I can’t believe this is how the game ends. After all that build up too. I don’t think I even want to be a part of this any more honestly. I’d much rather pig breath die.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

 Monokuma seemed taken aback by Kokichi’s analysis. He pondered it for a moment, nervously looking around and imagining all the lovely executions that would go to waste if Shuichi died right now. With a sigh he pulled out a very suspicious bottle from-...actually where did he pull that bottle from? Not important. What was important was that there was finally a cure in front of them, the one they’d been asking for all this time.

“Give him this and the brat should be good as new!” and with that Monokuma popped away.

Kokichi, holding the vial, smiled brightly at the others, “Here you go! Don’t let Saihara-chan die again okay! I don’t care if any of you others do but Saihara-chan is very special m’kay?”

…

…

...

“So you mean…I really could have asked Monokuma for a cure?! The bastard was just lying to me!?”

[duketectivecomics]

You might've answered this already and I just didn't find it, but one thing that always perplexed me about Duke was how old he was in comparison to the other Batkids. It's obvious he's younger than Dick and Babs, and I pretty sure he's younger than Jason and Cass, and older than Damian, but I cannot tell if he's meant to be Tim and Steph's ages, younger, or older. Could you help me?

You’re all kinds of good here, anon!!! I answered a similar ask abt the Order of Adoption but didn’t dive into specific ages on that post BECAUSE well they didn’t ask lmaooo but ALSO:

Comic ages are very fluid usually! While Years™️ might pass in the canon proper, or while time seems to slow to a crawl, having a character’s age outright stated is something that occurs very rarely for most characters, if at all!

Because it’s always much easier to have a floating age range to work and play around in! It’s easier to keep a character Perpetually 12 or 16 or 25 or mid-40s or- you get the idea. SO, with that in mind. Let’s do our Best to Break Down What Age Duke Might Be Currently A N D how it might interact with the Other Batkids!

(Warning for a Very Long Post, lots of issue citations, and a LOT of comics terminology regarding specific runs/events/continunity. I’m gonna try to keep it as clear/concise as possible ofc but plz keep these things in mind! If you’re not at least marginally familiar with Bat-Comics, you might find yourself feeling a little lost here!)

So from the Zero Year arc we see a common Trend that plays out pretty consistently with Batfam comics: a Life-Changing Event Occuring while the protag is Young™️.

(Batman (2011) #30)

With how Duke is drawn in these particular issues, and given the trends of the past, I’d place him in the 8-12 range. The historic precedent being ofc that that is the same range that canon usually places both Bruce and Dick at for their Tragedies™; the more benign reason being that he... just very much Looks to be drawn in that Range. He’s very clearly an Older/Prepubescent child here.

Fast Forward to his Next Appearance in the Endgame arc and-

(Batman (2011) #37)

He’s definitely older! He’s wiser! And he’s giving Batman a fistbump lmao. Again, no strict age given here BUT, since they condensed each Robin to a Year or Two tops with Bruce (its n52 and its fucked up is what it is), we can assume it’s been at least 4-5 since Zero Year (which would mean if we go off the age range I proposed for that year, then theoretically he could be anywhere from 12-16 here, and I think that tracks pretty well. Not Perfectly and Certainly Not so well with Pre52 continuity ofc, but I’ll talk about that later!)

In We Are Robin, while its not stated Directly In The Text, it IS given as an Informational Tidbit that Duke is 16 (specifically this can be found at the end of issue #4)! (Sweet sweet canon confirmation FINALLY)

We know that WAR takes place Fairly Soon after Endgame (almost immediately, give or take a month or two given that Duke’s been placed in a few foster homes at this point and has racked up Quite A File) now, again id like to remind y’all that while this is a NICE starting point to have, keep in mind that comics are fluid and this may be retconned slightly/ignored in later stories bc Keeping Duke 16-ish is in DC’s Best Interest at the moment. (Having Relatable Teen Characters afterall is a Good Marketing strategy™️. And the longer they can Keep them Young, the Better)

With that in mind let’s take a moment to Highlight the fact that Duke and Damian have crossed paths at this point AND the storylines that have occurred during this year that were meant to be in conjunction with one another!

Because Prior to Endgame, Damian had Died! And just a year (in real, meat-space time) before We Are Robin, he was resurrected and had begun his “Year of Atonement” in the Robin: Son of Batman maxiseries. Midway through both this series and WAR (and, we can assume, midway thru this “Year” for Damian) the Robin War begins/ends and we see at least one major Moment between these two boys who will soon call one another brothers:

(Robin War #2)

Given that R:SoB is followed up VERY quickly by Teen Titans Rebirth (in which Damian celebrates his 13th birthday), we can conclude that Damian would be 12 during this time (well, 12 and 1/2 to play it safe lmao). That being said, this Confirms about a 4yr gap between Duke and Damian! (One Batkid down at least! but he’s the key to the others so put a pin in him!)

As We Are Robin draws to its conclusion, DC was releasing another arc that would eventually flow into the Rebirth Era, by the end of which, Bruce would approach Duke with an Idea (which involves Bruce becoming Dukes temporary guardian & as he states Many Times “Trying Something New” with Duke).

And thus the Rebirth Era begins, and Duke began his Year of training (most directly encapsulated by the Cursed Wheel arc in the All-Star Batman run:

(All-Star Batman #1 (back-up story))

Bruce introduces Duke to a training regimen that Alfred has named “the Cursed Wheel”. It encompasses all the training Bruce and the other bats have undergone and condenses it down into color-coordinated segments that will take Duke a Year to Complete.

It can be assumed that by the End of this Year Duke will somehow miraculously still be 16, despite, again, an entire ass year passing.

There’s one story that takes place mid-year in All-Star Batman, and the Cursed Wheel is meant to be capped off by Duke’s first Official Day as the Signal (in the titular Batman & the Signal ofc) BUT, near as I can tell after this story, Dukes age is not brought up again. So until they DO bring it up either in Batman & the Outsiders or whatever future run Duke becomes involved in, we can assume DC will be working with the idea that he’s meant to be in that 16-18 range from here on out (ie still a minor).

But, dear anon, you might be saying “okay, that’s cool, but how does that relate to my question abt how he falls in with the other Bats?” You’ll have to be a little patient with me here, but I think I may have cracked the code!

Keep in mind I’m gonna be addressing both the Post-Crisis to Flashpoint Continuity (ie mid-80s to 2010 in comics history) and the N52-slash-Rebirth Era (2010-Today). Its generally agreed by fandom and DC alike that these points of rebooting &/or Major Events constitute the era of “Modern” comics, and that everything from the 80s-on might more or less be canon on some level, even if not All of it is.

(Plus, most of fandom usually likes to borrow elements from both eras and much more rarely from stories before it, SO-)

Lets do a quick rundown of how everyone who’s Closer to Duke’s Age, Relates to each other first, age-wise:

Given that Jason was 15 when he died, in A Lonely Place of Dying its established that Bruce had become increasingly reckless since his death, and by the end of the story, Tim has stepped in to fill Robin’s shoes (he states that he’s 13 during this story btw). Pretty soon after, Stephanie Brown is introduced & established to be about a year older than Tim (wish I could pin-point a specific issue BUT, i unfortunately haven’t read any Tim OR Steph-involved comics that predate No Man’s Land... Besides the aforementioned Lonely Place and Young Justice technically, but im working on remedying that soon!)

NOW, during the No Man’s Land event, Cassandra is introduced, and pretty soon into her Batgirl run, its revealed that she’s around the same age as Jason (or at least how old he Would Have Been, had he not died.) Now, given that Jay has an August bday and Cass has a January one, fandom sometimes likes to play around with the idea of one being older than the other (OR even speculating/placing them in an AU as twins/siblings, given that Lady Shiva (Cass’ mom) was a Possible Candidate to be Jason’s biological mother but that’s a Whole Other Thing i wont get into here.)

The point being, Cass, in this era of comics, IS slightly older than Tim and Steph. At Tim’s start as Robin, their ages could either line up like: Tim-13, Steph-14, Cass-15 (being a few months ‘behind’ Jay), then Jason at 15/16 (depending on how soon Tim filled the role after Jay died in April) OR Jason-15/16, Cass-16/17 (in this case she’d be a few months ‘ahead’ now instead)

So brief detour to talk New 52, however! Because Tim, Steph & Cass all got switched around from where DC originally left them prior to the reboot! Now I haven’t read much of them in this era, other than Batman & Robin: Eternal, so my Understanding of their current ages is Spotty at Best. The general consensus seems to be that while before N52, Stephanie had been attending her first year of College (& doing VERY WELL i might add), with the reboot she was set back a few years alongside Tim to a vague Late-Teen state (so 16-18-ish, instead of a Very Clearly Established 18/19). Cass is probably the worst off for this reboot, given that B&R:E basically constitutes her new origin for the new continuity, and does nothing to confirm her age (all I really know is that she’s a Vague Late-Teen too... Probably? Maybe?), given how much they infantilize her, and subsequently how fandom in turn has taken to infantilizing her too, theres a semi-popular fanon that places her Younger that Tim and Steph. And I, for one, propose that we ignore that bc its Weak Sauce my dudes.

Some fans chose to ignore N52 continuity due to this vagueness, and will stick to the ages established before the N52/Rebirth reboots. But its something to keep in mind regardless bc we’re all obviously going to pull from what’s most familiar to us!

But WHERE could we place Duke with regards to them, then? Because them being “Late Teens” is certainly much too vague to work with!

This is Where Damian is the key!

Because Damian is one of those rare exceptions to the Reboot Rule. His story flowed almost seamlessly over from before to after. While he was made a Robin at the age of 10, he continued to grow and learn even after the universe was being rewritten to suit the whims of DC editorial. 

If we choose to ignore how everyone else’s ages and origins were swapped around, and stick with the growth that was presented before the reboot, then we can draw some interesting conclusions!

Firstly, though Stephanie also had Died and subsequently Returned, she hadn’t lost much, if any time, from the Ordeal. At the start of her Batgirl run, she is enrolled at a Gotham university and making headway with a more firm foot in the Batfamily (even to the point that she and Damian spend a few issues bonding. At this point in time, Damian is definitely 11, and again, Steph can be assumed to be 18/19 during the course of her run. We’ll assume 18 for clarity’s sake.)

So, then when Damian is 11, now our line up is as Follows:

Dami - 11, Steph - 18, Tim - 17, Cass 19-21 (the range depending again, if you subscribe to Cass being either older/younger than Jason).

WHICH MEANS, If during Robin War Damian is 12 (and a half) THEN We’ve got an age line-up that Potentially looks Like This:

Dami -12(and 1/2), Duke - 16, Tim - 18, Steph - 19, Cass - 20-22 (And Obvsly Jason, Babs & Dick at their varying Older Ages than everyone here)

and im just now realizing i Didnt include Harper in this line-up, but thats bc she’d also throw a big wrench in all this.  I’d personally throw her in with being Steph’s age, but I’m pretty sure she was supposed to be either that, or between Steph and Cass (again, since its N52, i believe Cass was/is assumed to be Younger than Steph, but that contradicts the assumed following of pre52 canon that we have for the above line-up, obvsly, and so we ignore that lmao) 

All this to say, however, that canon and fandom is what you make of it, and if you want to wiggle these ages around a little, you’re more than allowed! God Knows i usually like to skew the Tim-Steph-Cass age group to be a tad older than this in my own fic writing, and I like to have Duke start as a Robin at 14/15 instead of 16, but that’s just bc I like the dynamic potential it could bring with them being Definitively Older that him, and thus in a more secure place to be Mentoring him right alongside Bruce & the others.

But you might see these age ranges and want to do something Different (say, making Tim, Steph, Cass, & Duke all the Same Age at 17 instead! And that very well tracks with how current comics kinda looks right now!) and you’re absolutely valid to do so! Because again, comic character’s ages are meant to be fluid, not fixed!

And at the end of the day, its all about wanting to see these teen heroes kick serious ass haha

[shadowphoenixrider]

(A self-indulgent little self-insert fic I wrote up so I could maybe stop thirsting over Kabu for five minutes. Hopefully this doesn’t awaken anything in me. Protag is 26.)

“Not on your way to Hammerlocke, Gym Challenger?”

Katla jumped at the sudden voice behind her, her eyes widening when the young woman saw who it was.

“Kabu!” Heat rushed into her face for reasons she didn’t really want to consider as she turned to address Motostoke’s gym leader. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t expect to see you out here.” She grinned weakly, inwardly cursing how she fumbled over her words. He’s just a man, calm down.

If Kabu was offended, he didn’t show it, his silver eyes seeming to twinkle.

“Likewise...Katla, was it?” He nodded as she did. “I expected you would be well on your way to your next challenge. Your friend seemed very eager to be away.”

She chuckled weakly, shoving her hands in her black trouser pockets.

“Yeah, that’s Hop for you. Running through everywhere at break-neck speed.” She looked over her shoulder at the place she’d set up camp, and the Pokemon that frolicked around it. “I prefer to take my time training and catching new Pokemon. We’ll get to the next gym in time, no matter how many times Hop calls me a Slowpoke.”

“Understandable.” Kabu replied. “It was clear from our battle that you spent as much time as possible training before it.”

A smile pulled at Katla’s lips.

“Figured it was only polite, seeing that you were doing the same in Galar’s Number 2 mine.”

The older man chuckled, a soft, warm sound that made her heart skip a beat.

“That’s very considerate of you,” he said.

There was a loud thrill from their feet, revealed to be a Sizzlipede, peering inquisitively up at the two trainers. Forgetting her company, Katla immediately crouched down to greet the creature.

“Hello sweetheart!” She cooed, stroking the little bug under her ‘chin’. “How’s the baby doing?”

The Sizzlipede replied in a very happy thrill, closing her eyes and starting to curl herself warmly around her trainer’s hand.

“I see you chose to catch a Sizzlipede during the Gym Mission.” Kabu commented, and despite his calm voice, she could hear a smile in it.

“Yeah, and a Litwick too.” Katla glanced briefly over her shoulder at him, still petting the Pokemon snuggling against her hand. “I’ve been trying to catch a Sizzlipede for ages, actually. I spent so much time on Route 3 hunting for one, but I never got even a glimpse. Eventually I decided I best keep moving, and one day I’d come back or find one somewhere in the Wild Area.”

“So when I saw I could catch one for your Gym Mission, well...Almost a dream come true.” She smiled as the Bug Pokemon glanced at her curiously. “Now I have this lovely little one to join me on my adventure.” Katla tenderly stroked Sizzlipede’s ‘cheek’ with her thumb. “A living memento of our battle.”

There was a pause, just a little bit longer than would be normal, and Katla looked back up at the Gym Leader, brows arched with confusion. Kabu wasn’t really looking at her, yet he wasn’t really looking at the Sizzlipede around her hand either, not really. His gaze was far-away and none of his thoughts reflected on his face.

He seemed to notice her looking, however, and he smiled properly. Damn, he looks handsome.

“It was an invigorating battle, for certain.” He lifted his gaze up and away, towards the body of water Katla’s Gyarados was swimming in. “Whilst I may not have anything physical to remember it by, I will treasure the memory.”

Katla felt her face heat up again, and she tried to ignore it, especially when Sizzlipede seemed to become curious about her blush, reaching up with trembling whiskers.

“You’re welcome. Glad I could provide a challenge,” she said.

“You certainly did.” Another pause. “When are you going to tell Hop your secret?”

The trainer’s heart froze in her chest. He’s bluffing, he can’t know. Keep talking.

“What secret would that be?”

Kabu’s gaze bored into her.

“You’ve had prior experience of other Leagues, Katla. I could tell from our battle that you’ve fought competitively before. Perhaps not in the form it takes in Galar, but the other more...’traditional’ Leagues.” Kabu said. “Can I assume that you’ve not told your friend about this?”

Katla looked away, pressing her lips together into a thin line. She tried to ignore the concerned noise Sizzlipede made as she sensed her trainer’s change of mood. Guess he’s rumbled me.

“You’re right on both accounts.” She admitted, soothing the Bug Pokemon. “I’ve done this sort of thing before. Couple of times, actually.” She sighed. “I didn’t want to tell Hop ‘cos...He can be annoying sometimes, especially with all that bloody ‘Champion’ talk, but he’s a sweet kid. Don’t think he’s got a mean bone in him. Just seemed a bit cruel to tell him ‘yeah no I’ve been doing this for years, kiddo’ - just seemed better to make him think we’re both on equal ground, you know?”

“He will find out eventually.”

“If he or I don’t get knocked out towards the end of the Challenge, then yeah. Probably.” Katla lowered her hand to the ground, letting Sizzlipede scuttle off.

“The longer you leave it, the worse a reaction he will have when you finally tell him.” Kabu warned, and Katla bristled.

“Yeah, I know! But I’m in too deep now and there’s never gonna be a good time to dump it on him.” She sighed, forcing her shoulders to relax to release some of her tension. “Knowing my luck, it’s gonna be when he’s boasting about when he’s gonna be the champion and I finally snap at him.”

“All the more reason to do it soon.” There was another brief pause, where Katla expected him to continue pestering her. But when he spoke again, his tack had changed.

“Which League did you start with?”

“League? Uhh, Hoenn. I came of age to get my first Pokemon there, despite growing up here, mostly.“ She rose up from crouching as he knees began to complain. “My first Pokemon was a Torchic. She became the closest companion I ever had. Still is, I think, despite all the other regions I've been to. Wish I could bring her to Galar, but I think that’d be a bit unfair on the other trainers!”

“Ah, Hoenn!” Kabu smiled properly for the first time. “That is where I’m originally from.”

“Really?” Katla’s eyebrow rose. “Dang, you’re originally from Hoenn, come to lead a Galar gym, and I’m originally from Galar, and I started off in Hoenn.” She chuckled, lifting a shoulder. “Weird how these things turn out.”

“Indeed. Torchic is a very good choice.” He titled his head to the side, eyeing the Drizzile about to pelt Gyarados with a water bomb. “But you chose a Sobble to begin your journey in Galar?”

“I’ve always wobbled between Fire and Water starter Pokemon.” Katla said. “I tend to gravitate to Fire and Flying types, but I like to keep a broad team. That and Scorbunny just...we didn’t jive. But Sobble did. She’s a pretty tough girl too.”

“She is. You have trained her well.” Kabu nodded.

“I know it’s par for the course, with you being a Gym Leader and all, but yours are really well trained too.” Katla said. “Definitely gave me and my team a tough challenge.” She started to smile weakly as she realized she was starting to babble. Shut up shut up shut up.

A brief moment of silence settled between them, watching Katla’s Pokemon amuse themselves. Gyarados and Drizzile played together, whilst a Corvisquire preened himself, throwing wary glances at the Boltund play-bowing at Sizzlipede. Despite their obvious size difference, the little bug Pokemon seemed eager to accept the bigger canine’s offer. The only other Pokemon keeping to itself was Farfetch’d, absorbed with cleaning his leek.

“I notice your Carkol isn’t among your team.” Kabu commented.

“No. I keep a big team, I have to keep rotating them.” A smile pulled at the side of Katla’s lips. “After winning your gym battle, I think she earned a bit of a rest. Need to give the others time to shine.”

“Of course. Training them all to the same high standard takes effort, and a lot of time.”

“Yeah. I dunno who runs the Pokemon storage systems, but I think I’m not much liked by them. I tend to catch a lot of Pokemon I caught before in other regions for other Leagues. I have two Roselias now, for instance - one from Sinnoh and one from here.” She chuckled weakly. “One day I’ll have to go through them and see who I can keep and who would be better off elsewhere.”

Katla winced, and she looked away, face heating up in embarrassment. “Sorry, I don’t mean to talk your ear off. You’re, you probably don’t want to hear about that boring stuff.”

“I don’t mind.” Kabu said, which she assumed was out of politeness. “But I have taken up enough of your time.” He turned to her, a small smile on his features. “I wish you the best of luck in your Gym Challenge, Katla. I will be watching your matches with interest.”

Now she was sure she was blushing, with her face boiling up as it was.

“Oh, well, thanks!” She managed to splutter out. “I’ll, I’ll try to live up to your expectations.”

“I’m sure you will.” Kabu replied. “So long as you are true to yourself, and unleash the potential I witnessed during our battle.” He gave a quick nod, before turning away. “Travel safe, Katla.”

“You too, Kabu. Bye!” He lifted a hand in response, before he jogged away, leaving the trainer alone with her Pokemon and her thoughts.

“Si?” Sizzlipede was at her feet again, peering up at her curiously.

“Hey little girl.” Katla smiled, crouching down to the bug again. Seeing its expression, she gave a lopsided smile. “Ah, it’s nothing. I just...I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

Sizzlipede trilled, reaching up to clamber onto Katla’s leg so she could receive some more pettings. Her trainer smiled, watching the Pokemon relax into her hand.

Kabu’s gonna be watching my next matches? Bloody hell, no pressure.

[fictionstuff]

Fate Series

Plot: https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/6605

Fate/stay night (2006) + Fate/Stay Night UBW Episodes: 24 + 26

Main Characters: Shirou Emiya Saber Rin Tohsaka Archer Lancer Gilgamesh

The Fate series is one of my favourites, it features about everything I could wish for. I never played the actual game, so I can't say much about that or compare, but I don't think that's entirely necessary, if you tend to read more about what you've seen, because no way can an anime convey everything a game can. It simply doesn't have the time and while 24 or 26 episodes aren't short, i'd love to have seen more.

The story is almost always the complete same in every fate anime. It's about the Holy Grail War, about an artifact that can grant you any wish. Participants in this war are called „masters“ while they each have a „servant“ a holy spirit summoned from the past. It's about life & death, a game of survival, survival of the fittest, but there are many many twists and people with different motives and wishes. It actually never gets boring.

While the original Deen animation from 2006 and UBW from way later aren't the same anime, I'm still going to be talking about both, because they're from the same universe, with the same main characters, but different routes from the original game. I definitely recommend to start with the older animation, because it provides the ground work. UBW just neglects what everyone should already know, because Deen already provided countless information with their version in 2006.

It's about legends, mystical beings and magic... and we follow Emiya's footsteps in this war and really, he's not even halfway a good main character. Something like common sense is only aqcuired very late in the Deen version and while he's a much better character in UBW, he's still quite foolish and his motivation to save everything and everyone gets tiresome, because he's not as strong as many other characters in here, but it's nothing that would make me stop watching. Emiya only gets dragged into the war by accident (or maybe fate?), having accidentally watched a fight between servants and of course, he's been spotted by Lancer, one of the best servants in the goddamn universe (I just can't unlike him... :c)

With this kind of set up, the end can easily be predicted. Emiya has to win, but the actual journey is much more exciting than I would have thought. Every character gets a decent amount of screen time and while there are three main routes, every route tells you more about all the characters in here. I still have to watch the last route, cause I will wait for all three films to be out, before I even intend to get myself involved. Otherwise the waiting will get the best of me and I hate that. I am about as impatient as I can be.

Unlike Emiya, who's a little nut, we have many other great characters!!! There's Rin, a very strong and kind of „tsundere“ girl, who knows magic and whose servant is from the archer class. Archer is about the... biggest twist in the whole anime. He's so unlike Emiya, that it's rather ironic. I don't want to spoil the fun though, I just loved the twist to bits. We do have other great servants, Lancer, as mentioned, who sadly doesn't have the biggest role but it was enough time to watch him grow and make his own decisions. Another pretty servant is Gilgamesh, but I never truly knew what to think about, other than that he's just incredibly hot and cool, but also one of the strongest servants, a very dangerous one, a god.

While the Deen version has a decent kind of design, animation, UBW will knock you right off your socks. Best animation ever from ufotable, no doubt. This goes for Zero as well. UBW features a different route from the Deen version and honestly, to watch the story develop differently just because of one or two different choices is just so amazing to watch. Fate remains one of the best series up to date.

Points: 9.5/10

Fate/Zero Episodes: 25

Main Characters: Kiritsugu Emiya (Saber) Irisviel von Einzbern Kirei Kotomine (Assassin) Tokiomi Tohsaka (Archer) Waver Velvet (Rider)

Zero is the prequel of f/sn. It's 1st in chronoligical order and yet I wouldn't want anyone to watch this first. It makes much more sense to watch Deen and UBW firstly, while Deen definitely has be watched before Zero. It gives you a much better view of everything in the past and things in f/sn start to make much more sense once you watch Zero, it's just much more fun to follow the events in the past to know how everything happened, because you know what happened, but you don't know how it all came to be.

Zero features a wide range of characters again and believe me, this Emiya is a much better protagonist. He's the adoptive father of Shirou Emiya, the main protag of f/sn. He's a ruthless assassin and he's got strong beliefs and follows them through without hesitation. Sometimes I didn't know whether to think of him as good or bad, neither did Saber, but I know that I loved watching his story and that he's damn badass character.

Zero seems overall much more mature than f/sn, it features less teenagers. Most masters are adults, but they still want the grail nonetheless, maybe even more than the people in f/sn. Zero is the answer to all your problems in the sequel, believe me. Each of the masters here also learn from their servants, they're actually everything the masters want to be or always wanted to be. Waver and Rider are the best examples for that.

If you did watch the sequel, then you know what the end of Zero will be, but everything leading up to that point, of the chaos, will have you excited, ready to just keep watching until it's over. Saber is still the very strong Artoria Pendragon, as in f/sn, but the archer class is taken over by Gilgamesh, a the servant of Rin's father. Just watching everything find its way to the sequel was so very enjoyable, that I'd love to watch it again some time.

The thing about fate is that even the Antagonists are important factors and get their time to shine or make you shudder in despair. Zero also fetures great designs and beautiful, splendid animations by ufotable, so even if you're not into the story, it's still way too beautiful to not give it some of your attention.

Points: 9.5/10

Fate/Apocrypha Episodes: 25

Now onto a part of the series that I am not that fond of, for various reasons. It differs from the original fate series. In here we have two main fractions fighting each other and once one has won, these allies will be fighting one another for the grail. We have a new class here, Ruler, our dear Saber look-a-like, but Saber is of course once again part of the story. I feel like it's a vital part of every show by now. Anyhow, Ruler watches over the war (it feels like a game honestly) and only steps in when she deems it to be necessary.

We have a whole lot of information dumping at the beginning, because Apocrypha acts like f/sn never happened, like it's not part of the same universe. There are waaaay too many characters in here and half of them don't even get one second of the screen time. They die waaaaay too quickly, there's barely a chance to get to know them or why they're even fighting. Instead the focus is one our main protagonist Sieg, a homunculus that should've been a tool in the war for the grail. While I did want to like Sieg, the anime didn't give me much of an opportunity, because Sieg goes through something akin to a development, but changes way too quickly and goes out to save the world with Ruler. The romance in here just didn't sit right with me, it felt forced countless of times.

The big twists in the anime happen within the second half, which can be considered the better half. It gets much more interesting from there on and finally they shed some light on the antagonist, who's a pretty fleshed out cool guy. Sadly they rushed the ending and while the fight was fun to watch, it left too many questions unanswered and that's not something I like. At all.

Points: 6.7/10

Fate/extra

Plot: A technological hell masquerading as paradise, Tsukimihara Academy is an artificial high school that serves as the setting for the next Holy Grail War. Created by the Moon Cell computer, the school is inhabited by Earth-projected souls who have even the slightest aptitude for being a "Master." Of these 256 souls, 128 will be chosen for the main tournament and granted a Servant. With all of the Masters selected, the Academy activates a purge, targeting the remaining lifeforms for elimination. Awakening in a pool of his own blood, Hakuno Kishinami refuses to die. Fueled by unknown feelings of hatred, he vows to fight for survival. As he struggles to escape from a relentless pursuer, he finds a crimson blade plunged into the ground; and by pulling it out, Hakuno summons his own Servant, Saber, who instantly destroys his pursuer in a flurry of rose petals. With his newfound power, Hakuno must now begin his journey to Moon Cell's core, the Angelica Cage. There, he will unveil the reason for this artificial world and the secrets of his own blood-soaked past. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 10+3

Points: 5.75/10

I've always been a fan of the Fate universe, especially the main line (FSN/FZ) but the recent additions to the universe (apocrypha and extra) are not at all exciting for someone who has no prior knowledge to the source material. I do have the game for the switch, but I haven't touched it until now. Once I have the time I shall play it through and then get to experience the whole story. Extra takes place in an alternate timeline, it's a war like setup by a computer and the characters are partakers in the war inside of what seems to be an endless tower with many different floors. The setting is regrettably not explained in detail, which makes it hard to grasp, because I was confused for at least 13 episodes, before I read up on the terms they used, but that still left me mostly in the dust about the entire plot.

Our main character is Hakuno, who is sadly not much of an exciting protagonist. His servant is Saber, who is perhaps more interesting, but there's no further development to both of them. Hakuno is much of an oddball, more like an anti-hero. He has no clear cutting motivation for taking part in the war except for wanting to survive. The chemistry and the philosophical conversations between them is interesting and sometimes even funny, but that's until episode 3 or 4 where it starts getting kind of boring.

We have no real supporting cast either. There are masters and servants on every floor, but they're vanishing as quickly as they appeared, because the whole plot is mostly about fighting, surviving and ascending to end the computer. Most characters are only used to bring the story along honestly, they serve no further purpose and there's hardly any feelings you can develop for characters that barely have 10 minutes of screen time before dying.

The story line is completely confusing to me, honestly. It's not that I am completely new to the universe, but maybe playing the game is essential to understanding the setting and the characters, because the fighting scenes are well done, although I am not a big fan of shaft.

Fate/extra has been a complete disappointment for me, hence I can only give it 6 points.

[sawthefaeriequeen]

Top Ten Books Read In 2018

1) The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

I picked this up at a book fair, read the summary, and figured I'd surprise myself with this author I'd never heard of before. It's about the friendship between DQ, a guy with terminal cancer dealing with his complicated feelings for his estranged-but-conciliatory family, and Pancho, a guy who's biding his time until he can get revenge on the person who's killed one of his family members. I like that both boys are raw and real and people—Pancho obviously has messed up emotions, but DQ can be plenty bitter and angry too: he's not an Inspirational Cancer Patient stereotype.

2) The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Girl moves into her uncle's old ancestral house sometime during the 18th century and gets immersed into the past lives and loves of the ghosts that thrived there during the days of the Revolutionary War, their paths often crossing each other's. I swear I have never seen more delightful ghost characters in my entire life.

3) The Unbound by V.E. Schwab

So by the time I'd picked this up, I was having mixed feelings about V.E. Schwab – on one hand, she'd always written worlds that engage me almost instantly with their creativity. On the other hand, I'd just recently been horribly disappointed by the ending to what's been her most popular series so far: I thought her final Shades of Magic book did a most spectacular job on dropping the balls on everything good about it. Up to reading it, I'd thought the author's hype was deserved. But after, well…

So when I picked this up, it was with much trepidation. I'd loved the previous book, The Archived: the big old house setting, the grim closed-off girl/sweet sunny boy dynamic the lonesome warrior setup, all were like catnip to my id. I didn't want it ruined by a bad sequel. Fortunately, this book took everything I loved about the book and turned it up to eleven. It upped the stakes, it intensified the relationships, and it also added a mental illness angle that I personally found very meaningful.

The author is still kiiinda on notice so I'm not sure I want a third book. If there is one, dear God, please be good. *crosses fingers*

4) Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

I remember thinking, as I was reading this: this is really, really working for me but will it work for someone neurotypical? 2018 was hell and I was just so desperate for the people in my life to get it, and so I kept hopping on trains of thought like this.

Anyway, this book was spot on in what goes on in the wirings of my anxious brain. Green's usual turns of phrase took an incredibly frenetic turn at times, which, I know, is exactly what it's like to have a mental illness. This is not a book about "this is what to do" it's about how it IS or how it can GET.

I'm still really grateful for that quote about the spiral – how it tightens, but also how it eternally widens. When I first saw the cover, I thought it was kind of blah; now I look at that spiral and see something different. I see the hope of creating a new 'normal'.

5) The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

This was so readable it surprised me. I thought I'd go slow on it because: war story where it's a foregone conclusion that it ends tragically for the leads? Yeah, I'm not in a rush to reach the end of that. But I blazed right through this book. There's something really addictive about Madeline Miller's storytelling and how she brings her characters together and follows their blossomings and downfalls through the years. And then, the course of the Iliad and the inevitable sadness for Achilles, Patroclus, and Briseis was more like the slow turning of the tide rather than getting hit with a tidal wave. Anyway, not only was it readable but I'm finding myself eager to re-read it.

6 ) The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Part of my Read Everything Robin McKinley Writes mission that began last year. I'd liked the sheer escapism and the desert setting in The Blue Sword, but that whole white savior thing kinda put me off from enjoying Harry and the book more fully than I would've liked.

It was not so for this book, thankfully! Who knew that reading about the nitty-gritty of slaying big scaly beasts could be so satisfying? That's classic Robin McKinley, as I'm learning – you love what the protag loves. And then I really dug how the dead dragon's ghost haunting Aerin acts as a metaphor for mental illness.

(As I continue to wrestle with my diagnosis, I continually appreciate all the depression/anxiety metaphors I encounter in media. Maybe one day I'll make a post about it) AND ALSO: a love triangle that's actually well done and that serves our heroine's identity and character rather than taking away from it? Yes. Yes, thank you.

7) A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Yeah so, this book killed me. It's about two twenty-something ghosts with unfinished business who find themselves in the bodies of two teenagers whose souls appear to have completely vacated theirs. They find themselves falling for each other and trying to find out what happened to their 'hosts' and what went on in their past lives. They also find themselves battling to survive the hostile home lives that their 'hosts' left behind. It's all very beautiful and kind of twisted and also a love letter to words and probably my most unexpected book of the year. And I have NO idea to rec it to people. "Read this, it's kind of fucked up but gorgeous but also can get triggery so step warily?" Uh.

8) Deerskin by Robin McKinley

See warnings above. Oh God. But really, I totally respect Robin McKinley for going full-out faithful to how utterly fucked up fairy tales can be while still creating a survival story. I'm not just talking about Lissar surviving spoilers incestual rape and miscarriage (indeed, I'm not qualified to talk about it) but how hers is a story of healing: by surviving the elements, by nursing living things back into life, by building herself up into a legend without even knowing it.

9) Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Just an incredibly satisfying ending to a duology that at the same time echoes that quote from Michael Ende's The Neverending Story: "but that is another story and shall be told another time." I love when something ends with that sense of: "there are even more stories and adventures for our beloved characters out there than you can possibly fathom, and you are now free to make up them yourself."

10) Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

I was intrigued by the premise: a half-Jewish guy and a Mormon guy fall for each other over the course of a writing class. And upon starting it, I could tell straight (heh, straight) away that it was going to be a favorite. It's an unabashedly kilig romance about falling for the wonderfulness in each other,and both mains are fucking adorable, and made me want to give them both a ton of hugs. Oh, and this book further reinforced my belief that the key to first-person writing is having a good voice.

Another thing is, I basically never see YA books that deal with growing up in a religion and actually-loving it and having it be an inextricable part of your identity… and then having to deal with the darker, prejudiced sides that you really wish would be excised from it altogether especially if they are opposed to who you are. To deal with it sensitively and touchingly, not only in a YA book but in an m/m romance? Well done.

honorable mention!

-The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I was reading this on the bus on the way home to the province for Christmas and I could not stop laughing and I had no idea to explain to my very curious sister that it was because half the protagonists were high as a kite at the funeral of the friend that they all killed and one of them had just very noisily killed a bee in the church vestibule and it made the loudest sound on the planet and they're all gonna have to ~aesthetically grieve and pallbear now even though THEY killed their friend and w o w it's like Nuwanda from Dead Poets Society was cloned five times.

Sometimes "pretentious people murder someone and somehow it is hilarious" is just exactly my cup of tea.

and a couple of series binges!

Almost 10 years ago (god, what the hell), I had a "YA Paranormal Romances I Might Actually Like" list, and the two trilogies below were on it. There's something gratifying about finally crossing off books on your TBR that have been there for ages:

-The Shade Trilogy by Jeri Smith-Ready (Shade, Shift, Shine) This series came out on the tail of the Great YA Paranormal Romance boom and I really wish I'd picked it up then (I also really wish some of the covers it got weren't so damn off-putting. It's like Animorphs all over again) because it's such cut above so many of the books that were being churned out in those days.

The premise is: what if there was a global paranormal event that left the portion of the population born after a certain year with the ability to see ghosts? I really like that the author thought this out thoroughly – it's not just a oooh spooky ghosties gimmick. Everything is affected: the educational system, the police force, politics, technology, travel, you name it.

The heroine was smart and truth-seeking and had nuancedrelationships with lots of female characters (bff, mentor, aunt who raised her, mom who died… ), the Betty love interest was a total sweetheart who also didn't seem too good to be true and who was capable of making major teenage fuck-ups, and the Veronica love interest was a rock-and-roll ghost who had the post-life character arc that I sadly wish Maggie Stiefvater had given Noah Czerny. I kind of loved them all a lot and one of the reasons I wish I'd read these books as they came out was so I could've been un-jaded just a little bit about Those Pesky Love Triangles.

(Someday I…really ought to make an analysis about why I dislike love triangles in general and what exactly was up with the ones that DID work for me.)

-Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

I read the whole series toward the year's end. It was precisely the cold-weather binge I was craving. I may have my quarrels with some of her writing decision, but really few people can do atmospheric, poetic writing the way Maggie Stiefvater does. The romances were a bit too YA for me in this one, but I ended up really sympathizing with every single POV character anyway. And I mean, cold and poetry and family and books and wolves-as-family*.

(*One day, I'll have the emotional armor to watch Wolf's Rain again. )

[tumblunni]

I had a weird dream last night that there was like a new sequel comic made by the Bobobobo Bo-Bobo guy and it was calld ‘Blind Nya’ (???) and it was officially licensced by sega and then there was a scene of eggman in Garnet cosplay doing a fusion dance with Don Patch

Also another dream where I was equally convinced that a thing existed, but it was less funny this time and more So Mundane That I Wonder Why I Dreamed This. It was just some sort of anime dating sim that i thought was Ehh kinda average, like i was living in an alternate world where this had been a part of my childhood that was so boring i forgot. I think it was called ‘Goodbye Mayfly’, and in context my dream-mind was trying to remember the word Wallflower, i think? Anyway you are An Anime High School Girl and Date Some Cliche Strait Dood Archetypes. But I think also there was something with a parallel world that was magic?

Like I think I was possibly taking inspiration from the manga Dream Saga Takamahagara (hope I spelled that right) which was actually a very unknown thing that I liked when i was a young kid. (First ever canon trans character I ever saw in anything!) Anyway the plot of that manga is that everyone has a parallel self in a magical mirror fantasy world, and when you dream in our world you wake up there and vice versa. Protagonist was the only one with the power to remember our world when she went to that world, at the cost of not having a parallel life over there so she was totally lost and needed to have her parallel friends explain all the worldbuilding to her. But they didn’t remember her and she had to win their trust again until they awakened as part of the super duper hero team and gained magical girl powers and stuff. then save de world!! Also everyone was lil kids in real world and bishie magical girl/boy type characters in fantasy world, so it had that cool element of ‘wow i wonder what i’ll be like when i grow up and get to have grown up adventures’. (Ha.. ha... kids, the real grown up adventures are just paying gas bills and stuff, don’t idealize us...) And also there was one character whose fantasy world self was a girl and like in the real world she was ‘a boy who wants to be a girl’, and just it was nice to see a trans character explained in rather simple terms for kids, even if also sometimes the portrayal wasn’t 100% perfect. man I wish i could read that story again but its so hard to find the books! i never even got to see what the ending is...

ANYWAY BACK TO THE DREAM So it was a dating sim in that sort of setting, but the mirror world was just a very boring cliche alice in wonderland ripoff instead of the cool desert setting from Dream Saga that combined japanese and indian mythology. And it was just something like you were a princess and everyone else was a prince of a different kingdom and then you had basically the same dynamic as you did in real life high school? So it was just like ‘your choices in real life high school have way more importance and you’ll have an even bigger happy ending’, cos you’d unify some fantasy kingdoms. And then i (sadly) don’t rememember if any of the other princes got to be cool fantasy races or anything, but if I could make this game for real then they TOTALLy would be! Hug your shy and nice ogre boyfriend!! get swept off your feet by the king of bunny boy kingdom! (I am still so pissed that i saw concept art of the Viera race in FF12 as a both genders non sexualized thing, like it makes me even madder to know they wasted a good idea instead of always intending it to be the bad version...) Also I think the game actually had some character customization, and in the dream i was like ‘man this is the only good part of this’. It was kinda basic tho, you just selected from five or so preset appearances for your protag and all of them were white, lol. But it was interesting cos the appearance selection also corresponded to what elemental affinity your fantasy kingdom would have! And you had different kinds of elemental fairy wings. Also i recall that all the selection pictures for the different elements had the protag doing some sort of weird model pose while a lot of terrible ps1 era particle effects floated in the background. Like a non sexualized version of this random character from Monster Rancher: (have a good laugh at the badly translated profiles, lol)

And then like I never got to actually play the game before I woke up? I was just on the character creator screen complaining about how I’d apparantly played it before and I knew that half of the elemental options were essentially unuseable due to bad gameplay balance. Like there wasnt any battle or anything, the element just determined your starting boosts and penalties to social stats you needed to romance all the doods. And apaprantly some stats were easier to gain than others, so certain boosts were essentially useless and certain penalties made the game almost unwinnable. I think I always still picked those broken options tho, cos I was more interested in picking the character i thought looked coolest rather than winning the game. Also all of the dudes weren’t very fun to romance, apparantly! I remember that dream-me was really annoyed about the ‘chair kicking scene’? Like, there was one character who was an immature bully in highschoolverse and then he was supposed to be the super rich and noble prince that’s the best ending in the fantasyverse. One of those ‘oh i was just bullying you cos i liked you’ plots of a jerkass boyfriend who never even apologizes or anything. And the last straw for me was when he kept kicking your chair during class and then lying to get you in trouble when you told the teacher about it. I was like ‘wtf dude, you’re THAT immature? aren’t you supposed to be 16??’ And I think I was mad cos he had turquoise hair and I liked his character design but he was a douche.

Just like how I was annoyed playing Spirited Heart Deluxe cos Frebo has a cool design and is a sarcastic funnyman but then he’s also supposed to be an adult and you’re a teenager and its Creepy. (the damn art style makes everyone look like a teenager, how was I meant to see that coming??) And like yeah, I know that the game keeps going for like six years but there isn’t anything in play to make it so that you can’t marry him until after you’re of legal age and all. And he’s still got a huge age difference even if you wait til the end of the game to tie the knot, and its still a teacher-student thing thats kinda creepy... Oh and randomly I found a site that has pics of all the different job costumes in that game! Good so you can see how awkward it is to try and tell age, cos like your height seems to vary depending on which one you pick, lol.. And while I’m going off on this tangeant I may as well ramble about how its funny that the gay DLC expansion pack had so much of an art improvement that it makes it look weird in comparison. (All those routes were way better written too!) Also I’m still sad that the sequel got cancelled, but its funny how Frebo looks EVEN MORE younger than you! Damn u game why u confuse me with elf dads