#but at least the whole thing should be visible on mobile

[faytelumos]

What settings or vibes do you find yourself coming back to and writing again and again? If you'd like, please provide receipts.

A setting that I repeat in almost every story I've posted so far is one of the character's home. Maybe it's partially because this provides a good excuse for only having two characters in a scene, which helps in the nameless writing I do. But the fact that I so often couple this with the resident being vulnerable while the guest is taking care of them, and that this kind of scene comes so easily and frequently to me, shows that I do have an affinity for this setup.

Over and over again I'm attracted to these hurt/comfort scenes where the characters are stripped of their power in their own homes. Though the vibe of the scene changes between soft-spoken and ugly breakdown and mama bear and things between, the configuration is so often derivative of that template:

Character A is vulnerable, and character B enters their home to help.

Examples and further details:

There was a trio of story bites I did with a specific focus on Vulnerability. I wanted to make scenarios where character A was completely and utterly at the whim of character B, and character B chose to be gentle and trustworthy.

In It's Cold Outside…, Villain nearly died and is still physically incapable of defending themselves (and barely able to talk) when Hero sits down to take care of them. For the entire piece, Villain is sitting on the floor wrapped up in a blanket, and Hero is moving around their house doing things to help. Villain is defensive and uncomfortable because they're completely at Hero's whim, in Hero's house, on Hero's terms. But as the piece goes on, Villain begins to shed their temper and their skepticism and is able to trust that Hero won't hurt them.

---

"Feeling better?" Hero uttered. Villain glared up at them, pulling the blanket tighter around their shoulders. They considered saying something nasty for a moment.

"My toes are killing me," they mumbled instead. Hero nodded.

"Would you [like me to] check on them?" Villain looked over Hero's face as if there could be a secret motive. But they nodded, leaning back, and Hero carefully helped them set aside the hot chocolate and open up the blanket.

---

The next piece I did, Open Wounds, was an attempt to max out this feeling of helplessness and vulnerability. Hero was injured by a more powerful character than either one present in the scene, and has summoned Villain into their home for the first time because they can't get out of the tub by themself.

---

"I can't get up," they whispered, their voice watery.

Villain stared. Hero had summoned them into their home, completely defenseless, even immobile and naked. They were perfectly and completely harmless. It couldn't possibly be any easier to end them.

There were tears brimming in Hero's eyes. Their arms were covered in goosebumps and they were shivering subtly. They were blushing across their whole face, across their ears, down their neck.

---

This piece really lingers in the feeling of quiet and vulnerability. Villain takes a long time to make sure Hero is dry, during which time the two are speaking in hushed tones. But Hero's been trusting Villain the whole time, injured and naked as they are, and it becomes clear that Villain doesn't intend on betraying that trust.

---

Villain kept quiet, gritting their teeth as they carefully cupped and patted down the length of Hero's arm. Once they were both dry, Villain started patting their chest. "I'm sorry," Hero breathed.

"Shut up," Villain said gently. Hero huffed a soft laugh as Villain quietly gave up on any illusions of modesty.

"I'm lucky you're a good person," Hero whispered. Villain glanced up at their face, but despite the tense amusement, Hero's eyes were still closed. Villain looked back down and patted Hero's stomach.

---

The third piece in this trio, Ol' Ben, is about Hero trusting Villain, not with their own life, but with the life of Hero's small, elderly dog. The dog's care has become complex in his old age, and leaving him behind, especially with a self-proclaimed troublemaker, is not easy for Hero. Once again, Villain, who has most of the power in this situation, chooses to be kind and gentle.

---

"Just… be gentle with him," Hero said. "He's just a little old man, and he's deaf and half-blind, and he gets confused." They picked him up carefully, holding him by the ribs and smoothly laying him with his back along their arm, a hand cradling his back end. They looked sad again. Soft.

"I'll be patient and kind," Villain promised. Hero rubbed Benny's tummy, looking at Villain with pleading eyes.

"He's almost sixteen," Hero whispered. "Just, please—"

"Hero," Villain uttered, softly reaching out to pet Benny's head. He moved his head around to sniff Villain's hand, then looked again to Hero. "I might be a troublemaker sometimes," Villain said, "but I'm never a monster. I'll keep Ben safe and happy. I swear it."

---

Besides plain vulnerability, I like to write about the struggles of handling complex emotions, and the difficulty with letting others in to help. Many of my hurt/comfort pieces feature at least one character being pushy in order to get around the other character's emotional defenses.

Open Late is probably the second best example of this. This story breaks the pattern in that it does not take place in either character's home, but in a 24 hour diner. Both Hero and Sidekick are still reeling from a bloody accident, and Hero is succumbing to the grief and loss while Sidekick attempts to hold him together. She tells him what to do and uses a lot of firm physical contact to comfort and direct him.

---

The diner door chimed in the almost empty night, footsteps shuffling loudly in through the door. The host's booth was empty, and Sidekick didn't wait for anyone to appear. She adjusted her hold on Hero to keep him tight to her side, keeping his head almost forcibly on her shoulder, and walked them to a nearby booth. She nudged him in first, and he numbly fumbled for the seat, stumbling in between the cushion and the table, and she tugged at his cape to keep it from choking him when he sat. She scooted in immediately after him and nudged him in deeper. He pressed himself into the wall, hands already coming up to his blood- and tear-streaked face, and she moved the sauces and shakers and sugars away so Hero had open table in front of him before sitting hard against him, firmly squeezing him between her and the wall.

---

I think this piece more than any other so far focuses on one character helping the other through negative emotions. Hero and Sidekick are both actively processing a traumatic scene in their own ways, and Sidekick comforts, distracts, and cares for Hero as he breaks down over the lives they lost.

Breaking up (Is Hard Enough) is another example where a character uses stubbornness to care for another. After a somewhat long-term relationship ends a week into February, Hero attempts to spend Valentine's Day alone. Sidekick's response to the situation is to come into Hero's apartment, like it or not, and have a movie night. While the actual confrontation with the negative emotions is minimal, Sidekick does at least acknowledge the Hero isn't doing well before attempting to distract them with a fun evening.

Of all of the pieces I've done so far, I think Rescue exemplifies the pushy caretaker the most. Hero is injured and barely has any food in their apartment, and when they repeatedly challenge Villain (who has broken into their apartment with groceries), Villain laughs at them, physically forces them to sit down, and scolds them. This caretaker isn't doing anything gently, and even when they wipe away Hero's tears, they're being threatening and fierce.

---

"I, you can't fool me," Hero tried weakly. "I'm, you can't just buy me with food." Villain laughed, throwing their head back slightly as they did.

---

Even after moving out, her new home does not provide a sense of emotional security. She leaves the first new place almost immediately and ends up staying with friends. But when she is attacked in the middle of the night in this third home, neither her nor her friends can quite settle down and relax.

---

Yamez had pulled himself up close to my right side, resting his head on my shoulder, his arm over me. Ohrik lay along my other side, holding my hand gently, Shohm wrapped around him with an arm over me. None of them seemed to be sleeping. Yamez was still trembling, and I hugged him tighter to my side. He clung to me, but said nothing.

Despite their presence, despite their arms around me, their closeness and affection, I couldn't feel safe.  Not when moments ago I had been dragged from the cot and beaten without disturbing any of them.

---

Thank you for reading my extremely long analysis.  I don't think this practice of using the home as an emotional stage is particularly revolutionary or original, but it's clearly something that haunts me.

[mistmarigold]

What if Sunjae didn’t die that night? Part 5 (lovely runner au)

[Read Part 1, 2, 3 and 4 here.]

Sometimes Sunjae wished that he could just log off from life. He barely used his phone or social media so it wasn’t as if his digital footprint was driving him into madness. Yet, he was just constantly tired - from everything.

Except maybe one: his tiny notebook with the sunflower cover which had become his go-to for any and all thoughts that came to mind.

Alas, the world didn’t stop rotating just because Ryu Sunjae was feeling it. It also didn’t let him forget his commitments and that’s how he found himself sitting at a production office for a meeting that was long overdue. Maybe they decided to hurry up after the whole retirement thing came out, he almost smiled at that.

“We’ll be waiting to hear back from you soon! If there’s anything else you might need from us, please let us know,” the Assistant Producer was saying while seeing him off.

“We’ll get in touch!” His manager responded.

“Thank you,” Sunjae said lowly, doing a tiny respectful bow before walking down the stairs.

As always, with his mind preoccupied, Sunjae didn’t notice much around him - a side effect of years of coddling by guards in public. However, it was yellow and the funny thing about that colour is that it always forces him to hold and register, even if it’s for a moment.

This time around, he didn’t just register but rather walked to the source of yellow absentmindedly, already knowing who it was before she even needed to turn.

The employee talking to Sol looked up at him and greeted hurriedly, making Sol turn around.

“Oh hi, Sunjae! What’re you doing here?”

She had come a long way from staring happily at him and staying silent, now she was talking to him as if they knew each other their entire lives (they did but only Sunjae knew that).

“Are you here for a new film?” She beamed at him.

The employee shook his head behind her as a signal to Sunjae but he nodded at her, a small smile on his face.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, looking between the employee and Sol.

She turned a bit so she didn’t have her back to anyone, “oh, I came here for an interview. But their office is upstairs and they don’t have accessibility so I won’t be able to work here. I was just about to leave.”

Sol bows before attempting to leave.

Sunjae looks at the employee, then stairs and feels such bubbling rage within him, it surprises himself. At least the employee had the decency to feel apologetic regardless.

“I’m really sorry about this, we loved your work and were looking forward to meet you,” he says.

Sol shakes her head, “oh, it’s okay! Thank you for considering me, I understand.”

But Sunjae didn’t understand. He was about to intervene before his manager put a hand on his shoulder, addressing Sol, “can we drop you off?”

Sol chuckles, “oh no, it’s alright! Please go on with your work,” she makes her way out of their little group, “bye, Sunjae! Good luck for your movie.”

Sometimes Sunjae wished she would act more like his fan - the clingy kind who wants to spend a lot of time with him.

He goes to her, stepping in front of her so she can’t continue her way out, “let us drop you. Are you going back home?”

She nods and shakes her head at the same time.

“You aren’t going home?”

“No, I mean I’m going home but you don’t need to drop me. I’ll be fine, you should continue with your work, I don’t want to be a bother.”

“I insist, please.”

Sol was about to protest again but visibly gave up and nodded.

“I’ll get the car!” Sunjae’s manager says before going out.

While they waited, Sunjae wanted to talk and diffuse the awkward tension they suddenly had out of nowhere. But at the same time, a part of him was worried about the mechanics of Sol managing her way in the car. A long time back, he had looked it up: how wheelchair users get in the car and what it means for their mobility especially with public transport. He didn’t remember much anymore apart from the fact that there wasn’t a collective way they managed because everyone had different kinds of mobility. He wasn’t sure about Sol’s - how it had shifted over the years. He saw her get in her friend’s car that very first night, it was quick and fairly easy with optimal height. Her friend had helped her in but Sol managed her way fine.

Just then his manager called, “just saw a few photographers around the building. Come to the back entrance, I’ll pick you up there.”

Sunjae looked at Sol who was looking at him inquisitively before looking at the employee standing a bit further away, “can you show us the back entrance?”

The employee nodded and lead them there, Sol and Sunjae following behind side by side.

However, their office had some serious issues in regard to accessibility because there were couple of stairs leading towards the door.

Sunjae looked at the stairs and then back at Sol, who was also looking at the stairs. Before he could say anything, she turned to him and smiled, “Sunjae, you should go. I’m assuming there is paparazzi outside? I think you should go on your own and I’ll be fine.”

Sunjae felt conflicted. But for the moment, he silenced all of his thoughts and bent down in front of Sol.

“Please, I insist. If your mother finds out, she’ll be upset with me that I let you go like this,” he says gently.

Sol was about to say something but Sunjae continues before he loses courage.

“Can I…. please carry you down the stairs?”

A part of him wanted to go hide away in his room, in the dark, but he was choosing that as his moment of 10 seconds of courage, hoping that it wasn’t cringe, praying that she wouldn’t take offence.

Sol’s eyes widened a fraction, “I-“

Sunjae’s phone buzzes for a second, followed by his manager-driver bursting in from the door, “Come on, Sunjae, they’ll see us soon. I don’t know what’s up today.”

Sol looked between the two, Sunjae not hurrying her but keeps looking at her before she does a tiny nod - that’s all the confirmation he needs before he stands up and scoops Sol up in his arms. A hand behind her knees while the other encircles her waist, Sol looking anywhere but at him while he keeps looking at her to ensure she isn’t uncomfortable. They go down the stairs comfortably, as if Sunjae wasn’t holding an entire human, while Sol held on to his neck for dear life, shyly hiding her face in the curve of his neck, a tiny breath away from his skin.

Sunjae’s manager quickly ran up the stairs and picked up Sol’s wheelchair before running down and out the door, not realising that he only had to do it until the bottom of the stairs.

“Dongseok!” But he was gone already, opening the car trunk. He finally notices Sunjae standing at the open door, while holding an awkward Sol but instead of realising his mistake, he gestures for him to hurry up.

“Sorry about this,” Sunjae mutters lowly before hurrying out to the open car door. He bends a bit before leaning in and settling Sol down on the seat, their eyes meeting for a moment as he pulls away.

“Thank you,” Sol says softly, a small nod and smile on her face before she straps herself in.

Sunjae goes to the other side and gets in.

“I’m sorry about earlier. For hurrying you and for Dongseok putting your wheelchair in the car,” Sunjae says at last, diffusing the awkward silence.

“Oh no, it’s fine. Thank you for doing what you did earlier and for dropping me home. You didn’t have to go to such trouble,” Sol twiddles her fingers in her lap.

Sunjae nods but he could feel the tension in his bones and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want her to feel like he was invalidating her or overpowering her or taking advantage of her disability. He never wanted anyone to feel that, let alone Sol. Especially because he was in a position of power in so many ways. But considering the possibility that Sol might feel that way about him, he felt sheer agony.

He tries to pull down the collar of his sweater a bit, to give himself the physical space to breathe.

“Are those my flowers?” Sol leans forward to pick up the small notebook from the seat.

Sunjae looks over and nods, watching Sol gently caress the cover.

“This looks prettier in person. Thank you, Sunjae-ya for not letting my flowers die,” she beams up at him, her eyes watering.

“I couldn’t let them die,” he replies, “thank you for giving them to me.”

Sol’s smile brightens up even more - he didn’t know that was possible.

As they were about to round up to the buildings near Sol’s place, he asks, “what role were they considering you for?”

“Huh? Oh, it was for a Video Editor role. I’ve been doing that for a while now on my own so I wanted to see if I could find something in Films,” she says, a dismissive tone in her voice.

“Is that something you’re interested in?” Sunjae inquires further, staring at her while she keeps caressing the tiny notebook in her lap.

She doesn’t answer for a minute, making Sunjae think if she heard him at all. But then she looks at him, a sad smile on her face.

“I’ve always wanted to work in TV/Films, as a Director than any other role. But even with Editing, it does involve creative processes and vision so it was the next best bet because I could easily do it from home without worrying about accessibility issues like today for instance.”

Sunjae nods just as the car stops and the doors open. Dongseok opens the trunk to get Sol’s wheelchair and setting it up based on her directions.

Sunjae gets out and goes to her side of the door, intently focusing on Sol. Again, he wasn’t sure how she manoeuvres around cars and especially one with the height - it was higher than her friend’s. But she was confident and relaxed, not worried or awkward about her mode of mobility.

Once Dongseok was done and had stepped away, Sunjae asks, “how can I help?”

This time around, Sol was a bit more comfortable, “could you please ….carry me down?”

Without hesitation, Sunjae moves forward, puts one hand behind her waist and the other under her knees, and easily lifts her down onto her wheelchair, lingering for a moment before pulling away, their eyes refusing to pull away from each other.

Once she was all settled in and comfortable, she gives him a wide smile, “thank you so much for dropping me home! Take care of yourself and good luck for your movie.”

She bows and waves to both Sunjae and Dongseok, before turning around to leave.

“Sol!”

Sunjae stopped mid-step. Saying her name out loud felt both like a blasphemy and relief. As if it was forbidden, yet it felt like coming home at last. He didn’t even know where home was, really, but it felt right. Instinctual. Bound to happen.

When Sol turned around to look at him, confused, he wasn’t sure what he was about to say either. Lost in his own contradictory feelings when it came to her, while she was blissfully unaware about everything.

He walks up to her and says, “thank you for letting me drop you home. I wanted to apologise if I made you feel uncomfortable at any point and to thank you for trusting me.”

He didn’t wait for her reply but did a tiny bow before going back to his car, turning around once to smile at her before getting inside and leaving.

[Part 6 here.]

[cakesandfail]

Actually, I think what I want to talk about regarding Feet of Clay is something that's often overlooked, which is also my favourite thing to talk about regarding serious Discworld topics: Vetinari, and perception, and ableism.

In Feet of Clay, we're already seeing the turn from "let's get rid of the Patrician entirely, possibly by murder or at least Guild-approved inhumation" to "let's make him seem unfit to govern so that he has to step down, giving us a proper transition because we know everything will turn to shit if he's instantly gone." And that's progress of a sort, right? People are acknowledging his skill as a politician, and the fact that removing him from power with no plan for what comes next will cause the whole city to collapse.

But why do people want to say he's unfit to rule, specifically?

We know that at least some of the answer is that 'concerned citizens' think he's too soft on immigration, and he's not a king so why does he get to tell people what to do, and shouldn't he just rein Vimes in a bit instead of letting him go poking around in people's business. But I'm not sure that's the whole story.

What I would like to know is: why does this change to "make him look incapable" happen now? Is it coincidence that people make that switch once he starts walking with a cane? I don't know if it is.

On the one hand, they might have just given up. Even the gonne couldn't kill him, he's got a few people around him he can trust, maybe assassination isn't even worth trying any more. Things are stable, anyway, no point fucking everything up when you can have a nice, peaceful, planned transition of power to whoever is going to do what you want to do.

But on the other hand... Vetinari is disabled now. He uses a mobility aid. It's visible to everyone that he isn't the same as he used to be. I imagine the kind of people who don't want dwarves and trolls in the city, or who think that it's fine if poor people are treated like shit, are also not particularly liberal when it comes to disability too. Would it really be so hard to say "oh, well, he's not getting any younger... and of course with his bad leg..." and imply that any sudden decline in his physical or mental state is to be expected? That it's all just getting too much for him? An injury like that, well,he must be on some strong medication for the pain, surely? And so on. Putting the idea in people's heads that a disabled person in this job is at an automatic disadvantage- it doesn't matter if they actually believe it, personally, because the point is that somebody will.

And the thing is... it looks like kindness. It looks like acknowledgement of pain and understanding of new limitations. But having been on the receiving end of that shit, I can tell you it's not. It's an assumption that you are fundamentally Less Than, and that rather than using the people and things around you to maximise what you can do, you should just go away entirely.

Does any of this work? Nope. Is Vetinari aware of it and taking advantage of ableist assumptions? Yep. But those assumptions, I feel, still have to have existed in the first place if they're going to be disproved.

[britcision]

OKAY FRIENDOS

This chapter fucking fought me, not least because I wasn’t actually sure what exactly Danny wanted out of meeting Waylon… and then I realised that was because Danny wasn’t sure either

I did consider just letting this one run long and posting in two parts when all was said and done, but this was where I’d have had to break the chapter in two for Tumblr anyway, and it’s actually a really good place to end… so one more chapter for Waylon!

And then tumblr mobile decided not to let me fucking paste the chapter in, and I am fucking DYING with the laggy piece of shit that is the mobile website. I crave death. Let me join the boys.

First Chapter and AO3:

Previous Chapter:

——————

A Good Excuse To Be A Bad Influence 

Jason wasn’t exactly expecting to roll up to Danny’s dorm to thumping stripper music, and yet as he turned off the bike… that was definitely what was happening. 

Flicking the visor up, he soon caught sight of the cause, a visibly frazzled Danny hurrying over. His pocket seemed to be having an independent party that Danny himself was not invited to. 

“I have sinned against the almighty Tucker and am being punished for my crimes with an endless loop,” he explained flatly without being asked. 

Jason snorted, reaching back to unhook the new helmet from the back of the bike and hand it out. 

“Oh? And what did you do to upset his highness?” He teased, a smile tugging across his lips in spite of himself. 

In spite of the certain knowledge that Tim would absolutely be latching onto this form of punishment the second he found out. 

He’d not really felt like smiling since he got in last night, yet the second he saw Danny his anger eased. 

Didn’t hurt that the pit was practically vibrating in smug satisfaction, clearly appeased that he also wouldn’t let them be kept apart. But there was still an open happiness all Jason’s own in watching his new friend suffer. 

Danny sighed, pulling out a heavily wrapped sock-sausage that eventually contained his phone, and scrolled to show Jason some messages. 

Jason scanned through them quickly, because the music was fucking loud entirely unmuffled, then passed the phone back to be reburied. 

“You knew what you were doing,” he told Danny entirely unsympathetically, and Danny snickered. 

“Sometimes he needs to be told when he’s being a dramatic bitch. So were you there for the whole,” he waved a hand vaguely, the other stuffing his phone back into his pocket. 

Which meant Jason had to think about the cave again. And the phone call he’d gotten an hour after ignoring Bruce’s summons. 

:::

Jason was actually on his way to bed on time for once in his life, the early end to patrol and lack of crime lord duties giving him a chance to get a full five hours sleep. 

He should have known he wouldn’t get lucky two nights in a row; Constantine wasn’t around to distract Bruce anymore. 

He’d contemplated not answering. Contemplated trying not to shoot Bruce in half an hour if the fucker showed up at his window. 

The pit growled. 

It was the worst thing he’d ever heard. The worst thing he’d ever felt. And he did feel it, vibrating in his very bones. 

It sent shivers creeping up and down his spine, muscles tensing as if to run away from something inside him. 

He answered the call, hoping it wouldn’t show in his voice. 

“What.” Flat, unfriendly. Not encouraging conversation. 

“You didn’t come to the cave.” B’s voice was equally flat, but in his case it sounded like a condemnation. An accusation. 

Jason gritted his teeth. 

“I have shit to do in the morning. Make it quick,” he snapped, giving his bed a glare it definitely didn’t deserve. 

His pillows had never done anything to hurt him. 

There was a momentary pause before B audibly decided not to push it. 

Good. 

Jason was in a mood to bite. 

“We have intel on the Infinite Realms. I’ve sent the report. You need to stay away from Danny Fenton, for your health,” B said, still cold, still clinical. 

Like he didn’t care. Like what Jason wanted didn’t matter. 

Jason’s grip tightened and the phone case cracked. 

“Yeah, no. Fuck off.” He spat the words, adding “get new phone” to his list of chores for the morning. 

He’d been doing so well with this one. Of course B had to ruin it. 

At least the old man didn’t seem surprised by his reaction. 

“Jason. It… he. His abilities may affect your condition,” he said slowly, sounding tired. Old. 

The pit snarled, sensing weakness, and Jason kinda wished he was still lost in its rage. Back when he was, it was easy just to hate those moments. 

B showing signs of humanity fucking hurt. 

“He is. He’s making it better,” he shot back, brooking no argument. 

“We don’t know that, Jason. Please, just… just for a few days. Until we can talk to the League, understand what he’s doing to you.” 

Was. 

Was that Bruce begging? 

It froze something small and soft in Jason’s chest, stuck him in place. And did nothing to stop the flood of icy rage from filling him up. 

Filling his chest, crushing his lungs, making it hard to breathe. Because of course, anyone and everyone else’s judgement was worth more to the man than Jason’s. 

Begging Jason to listen to him, when he would never, ever, fucking ever listen to Jason. When it didn’t fucking matter if Jason begged. 

“And why the fuck would the League know better than a doctor from the Realms?” He finally snapped, ignoring the way his throat tightened. 

There was a long silence. 

“A doctor?” Bruce asked softly, his voice still so flat and emotionless that only his kids could have read the confusion. Jason rolled his eyes. 

“Danny brought me to a doctor. I’m gonna be fine,” he ground out reluctantly, part of him resenting Bruce’s constant insistence on knowing everything. 

But… well. If it got the guy off his fucking back. 

There was a long silence, one that Jason was fully aware B was likely spending working this new information into his latest paranoid fantasy. 

Jason seriously considered just hanging up and going to bed. He was about to do it when Bruce spoke again. 

“Would this doctor be willing to speak to the League?” And there it was again, Batman voice, clinical and distant and always, always fucking suspicious. 

Jason rolled his eyes harder. With emphasis. Willing to be interrogated by first the Justice League and then separately also goddamn Batman. 

Actually, now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure B wouldn’t get anywhere with Frostbite. Frostbite took his work seriously and was, yeah, king of a full realm of yetis. 

None of Bruce’s pointed silences, menacing looming, or vague growls would bug the guy who got Danny through Fucked Up Ghost Puberty. 

(And would probably be helping Jason through his own Fucked Up Ghost Puberty… joy of joys.) 

It might actually be fun to see him try. If just being here wouldn’t put Frostbite in danger, because hell fucking no that wasn’t happening. The guy may not be his king but Jason would still die first.

But of course, in all his paranoid bullshit about the Realms influencing Gotham, B had somehow conveniently missed what America was doing to the Realms. 

Like Jason hadn’t even done the full write up. 

“Not while the fucking League are required to hand him right to the US government for torture and experimentation. Which, by the way, did you read my report on the Anti Ecto Acts?” Jason asked sarcastically, doing his very worst fake concern. 

And again he was met with silence. Fuck, maybe Bruce hadn’t read it. Jason had dropped it in the day before all this gala bullshit had started, and it had been a busy two days since. 

Maybe B deadass hadn’t put the pieces together.  Might as well hammer it home for him. 

“You know, the one that says you, me, Cass, and Damian are all non-sentient because we’ve been exposed to the pits?” Jason added, eyes narrowing. 

Which wasn’t technically true, since it was the resulting liminality and ability to process ectoplasm that made them count, but Bruce didn’t need to know that yet. 

Finally he spoke again, voice gruff and clipped. 

“I’m looking into it. But for now, Jason, please-” he said again, the cover of Batman beginning to slip. 

But Jason was done. No fucking chance Bruce was giving him orders when he hadn’t even bothered asking for Jason’s opinion. 

He wanted to spout off about dangers of the Infinite Realms after talking to some wet paper bag of a man who hawked his soul like it was a pokemon card. Hard pass. 

And even after hearing that Jason knew what was going on a damn sight better than Bruce did, he still wanted to push him around? 

Fuck that. 

“Sorry B, legally non-sentient, guess I can’t be blamed for my actions,” he drawled, then turned his phone off and dropped into bed. 

He had a lot of shit to do before picking Danny up in the morning. 

:::

Jason shook his head, partially to clear it but also in answer to Danny’s question. 

“Hell no. Tim told me he was being a paranoid old fuck again so I went to bed,” he growled, a little surprised by the sudden rush of anger the memory brought. 

It must have been strong enough that Danny noticed it, because he could feel Danny’s worry too. 

He sucked in a sharp breath, pushing the anger back down. He still hadn’t turned his phone back on. 

Actually it might still be beside the bed in his apartment. It didn’t really matter. 

Danny took the new helmet from him, leaning up against Jason’s side in a soft wave of comfort-sorry-amused. 

Amused? 

Before he could ask, Danny had turned the helmet over to look at the visor. 

“So I’m guessing, from what we talked about in the car, what Tucker told me, and what you’re not telling me, that Bruce thinks you should be far, far away from me?” He asked innocently. 

The pit fucking growled again, raising the hair all along Jason’s neck, and Danny trilled soothingly to it. 

Even knowing what to expect, the sudden and complete lack of rage still made Jason shiver. 

“Thanks,” he said before Danny could apologise. 

For managing Jason’s unstable emotions for him when Jason couldn’t. Although… 

If they actually were the pit’s all along, that’d explain why it had been so hard to push through. It was weird that the idea was actually starting to feel comforting. 

Danny gave him a slightly relieved grin, nudging back. 

“Yeah, well, not like you recently bound your entire soul and afterlife into keeping me safe. Not like either of us know what the fuck that’s gonna mean,” he said, all flippant and glib, and… 

Yeah, he’d almost have a point, except Jason had put himself on the chopping block to keep others safe since he was thirteen years old. 

He shook his head, chuckling softly. 

“Oh, I didn’t get on with the old man long, long before you came into the picture,” he assured Danny with a dry smile, rolling his eyes. 

Danny snickered, spinning the helmet and looking “innocently” up to the sky. Whatever the fuck came out of his mouth next, Jason was ready for it to be a doozy. 

“Yeah, well… if I’m the bad influence boyfriend your dad wants you to stay away from…” and that sentence alone almost made Jason choke, without even the kicker, “can I drive your motorcycle?” 

At least it stopped Jason from coughing. He shot Danny a sudden suspicious glare. 

“Do you even know how to drive a motorcycle?” He asked with a full awareness of what the answer would be. 

Danny shrugged, giving Jason his best “innocent” smile. 

“Definitely motorcycle adjacent?” He offered sweetly. Jason shook his head firmly. 

“Nope.” 

“Oh come on!” Danny pouted, tossing both hands into the air, his new helmet held tight despite the dramatic gesture. 

Jason shook his head again, in case Danny had missed the point. 

“Nnnnnnnope,” he drew the word out, popping the p, and Danny rolled his eyes at him. 

“It’s not like a crash would kill either of us anyway,” he huffed, and while he may have that kind of confidence in his ghost powers, Jason’s core hadn’t formed yet. 

He wasn’t about to fucking risk it. 

“That doesn’t mean it’ll be a fun experience. They’re called “donor-cycles” for a reason,” he told Danny archly, definitely not moving from astride his girl while this was “up for debate”. 

Glanced back to find Danny staring at him, clearly holding back a snicker. 

“That sounds waaay more like something the Disapproving Dad Who Doesn’t Like His Son’s Hot New Motorcycle Boyfriend would say,” he pointed out, rising on tiptoe to rest his chin on Jason’s shoulder. 

Jason licked him. Mostly on the cheek. 

It was a stupid impulse, the kind he usually didn’t even get with anyone but Dick, and he might have regretted it immediately if it hadn’t fucking worked. 

Danny jumped back, cheeks flushing, and while Jason was pretty sure his own had pinked up, well, behind him Danny couldn’t see that. 

But he pulled on his helmet just to be doubly sure. 

“Yeah, well, protecting your ass includes not letting you kill us both in a fiery wreck. Or maim us,” he added before Danny could voice the protest Jason could clearly taste. 

Silence from behind him, and then Danny sighed and pulled his helmet on, climbing aboard behind Jason again. Who decided to throw him a bone. 

“I’ll teach you how to drive it first,” he promised, and Danny cheered loudly, thrusting both fists into the air as they pulled out. 

Neither really noticed that Danny’s background music had changed to Radar Love. 

** 

When they’d finally dragged themselves to bed, Tim had offered to let Tucker use one of the manor’s nearly infinite guest rooms. 

They’d picked one out and everything, changed into pyjamas (Tucker borrowed an old pair of Dick’s), and sat on the bed in Tim’s old room talking about technology until they both fell asleep. 

Probably around 8am. 

Tucker hadn’t had a proper slumber party since leaving Amity Park, but he was kinda getting used to waking up tucked next to a still-sleeping Wayne adoptee when his phone buzzed around 10am. 

Foul treachery from Danny. As usual. 

Tucker barely woke up, hand crawling from the pile to rest against the PDA, and that was all he needed. His awareness slipped from the device to his phone, always linked. 

From his phone to Danny’s. Into Danny’s music app, where he picked a suitable vengeance even as he slipped back into sleep. 

Watched Danny through the phone as if it were a dream, easily filtering out the sounds of his own music as Danny flailed around, trying to turn the music off, trying to turn the music down, failing on all counts, and flailing his way out of the dorm. 

Down to meet Jason, his phone now buried in six layers of socks that did nothing to stop the music from being heard, or Tucker from watching. 

Tucker cranked the volume a little more anyway. The thought had to count for something. 

If Danny wanted to call him petty, well, Tucker Foley could redefine “petty” all on his own. 

Providing his friends with a semi-mocking soundtrack really was the least of his abilities; he was literally doing it in his sleep. 

**

Honestly, driving in Gotham wasn’t even all that exciting from Danny’s perspective. After being tossed around the GAV despite the seatbelts, a couple of cranky fellow drivers just didn’t register. 

If they hadn’t been going through the city, maybe going highway speeds it might have been different, but he’d kind of worked out how loud he had to be to be heard. 

By Jason snickering when he screamed at pedestrians. 

If they didn’t want to be screamed at they shouldn’t be trying to loom menacingly. 

Of course, that just meant now was the perfect time for him to use his new power for evil. Danny flipped his visor up, straining as high as he could to yell to Jason. 

“SO, THAT CONSTANTINE GUY?”

There was a sudden click in his ear and he jumped as Jason’s voice came through, quiet and definitely amused. 

“There’s a radio in your helmet, Danny.” 

Oh. 

News to fucking him, he was pretty sure that wasn’t standard in motorcycle helmets, but not from any lived experience. Johnny 13’s dead experiences were a little out of date. 

Poking around the sides of his helmet, Danny soon found a button. 

“Sweet. Looks like you finally forgot to mention something,” he teased, and heard Jason snort loud and clear. 

Didn’t have to hold the button to talk then. Good times. He’d get Tucker to take a look on the way home after he ecto infused it. For now he flipped the visor back down. 

“Looks like,” Jason agreed dryly, swerving them around a cluster of traffic. 

He wasn’t exactly sticking to the letter of the law, they were definitely half again over the speed limit, but they hadn’t gone on a sidewalk so it was nothing to a Fenton. There was even an empty slot in the lane he merged into. 

“So what about Constantine,” he prompted, and while it broke Danny out of his musings, it also reminded him of the exact thing he’d planned to do to make the trip more interesting. 

“Oh, I own his soul. Like, a dozen times over,” Danny chirped perkily, grip tightening just before Jason had to slam on the breaks to keep from hitting the car beside them. 

They sped off again before the sudden swerve caused comment, and passed a block or two in silence. Then Jason sighed. 

“Of fucking course you do that for everything and not just Mariokart.” He mostly sounded resigned, so Danny allowed himself a snicker. 

“What, it’s not like we’re gonna die. You’re even still on the road,” he dismissed easily, waving a hand to show just how unconcerned he was. 

Did not expect Jason to huff, reach back and grab his hand, and pull it back around himself. 

“I’m reconsidering teaching you to drive,” he told Danny flatly, and Danny pouted but took the hint and held on. 

“Oh come on, you can’t say that, you haven’t even seen me try!” Danny protested. 

Jason made an unimpressed noise. 

“Your town’s weather includes reports of if your parents will be on the road.” 

Which, by the way, was totally unfair of him, since he’d never have known that if Danny hadn’t told him. Or Tucker hadn’t told Tim. 

Same difference. 

“My parents, not me,” Danny argued anyway, shrugging, “and it wasn’t their driving that killed me.” 

This time he was close enough, snugged tight to Jason’s back, that he felt the guy’s whole body shiver with a loud and rumbling growl. The same growl he’d heard and soothed earlier. 

Something had really riled up Jason’s pit ghost. 

Danny hummed another quick soothing trill, stroking his aura gently across Jason and his extra passenger. 

Sort of trying to do it unobtrusively; he would actually really prefer that they didn’t fully crash. It kinda worked, in that Jason managed to unlock suddenly solid muscles enough for them to make the next turn. 

“Sorry,” Danny said quickly, kind of to both of them, “guess Pitty doesn’t like the death jokes today.” 

They passed another few buildings in silence, and Danny had definitely noticed by now that they weren’t heading for the manor. Didn’t matter so long as Jason knew where they were going. 

Danny waited him out, long enough that he almost wanted to make another joke and lighten the mood. Again though, Jason broke it first. 

“Pitty.” He did not sound impressed. But he didn’t feel mad. More what the fuck just came outta your mouth. 

Danny gave him a quick squeeze, and almost felt the pit purr. 

It was kinda getting stronger the longer they hung out. Technically that probably meant that both cores were making progress. 

“Well, technically you probably get to name it, but until you come up with something I’m calling it Pitty,” Danny explained, and rather felt that Jason should be grateful. 

Unlike the rest of his family, Jason had seen the full list of how Jack Fenton named things. Danny preferred to think he took after his aunt. 

He coulda called it the Fenton Pit Friend or something. Really, it wasn’t hard to think of anything worse. 

From his aura, Jason now seemed to be intentionally ignoring him. 

Stewing in indignation-disbelief-confused-confused-confused. Well, that was his call. 

Anyway. 

“Back to Constantine though, I wasn’t kidding. I do actually own his soul,” Danny said casually, since they’d gotten distracted from his previous attempt to make the drive more interesting. 

For a moment he wasn’t sure if Jason would rise to the bait this time either, and then another sigh came over the radio. 

“Y’know, somehow, that’s the least surprising thing you’ve said. Man sells his soul so much everyone seems to have a chunk,” Jason grumbled, and Danny snickered. 

“Oh, pretty much. He’s the Caterpie of human souls. He never made a deal with me directly though,” he added quickly, without being fully sure why. 

He was pretty sure Jason wouldn’t jump straight to “Danny is a soul trader”, but honestly he’d gotten used to getting ahead of wilder trains of thought. 

“Oh? How’d you get twelve then?” Jason shot back, clearly warming back up to things. 

Mission accomplished. Danny grinned. 

“Well, previous Ghost King was in nappy time for a couple thousand years, but he had this whole thing about collecting souls to add to his army of thralls, so basically anyone could sign their soul over for a chunk of power. Real charmer,” Danny snorted, rolling his eyes. 

It was so far from the worst thing Pariah Dark had ever done, but so far it was definitely the longest lingering annoyance. 

“I got the impression,” Jason agreed in pretty much the same tone, prompting Danny to continue. 

Which. Yeah. Was more fun than thinking about the mountain of thrall contracts still awaiting their owner’s deaths, which the Observants were still fussing over. 

Nobody wanted more thralls, souls wiped clean of everything that made them, well, souls. Just unliving batteries. Even ghosts found them creepy. 

On the other hand, there was nothing the Observants loved more than rules. And the rules said a signed contract had to be honoured. 

Really they shoulda expected Danny to ask who the fuck signed for Pariah, since he was (again) in nappy time prison. He hoped nobody else died while they sorted that out. 

“Danny?” 

Ah. Yup, he did it again. Danny shook his head and sighed, kinda missing the wind in his hair. It kept him more present than the enclosed space of the helmet. 

“Sorry. So, John Constantine, clever bitch, wrote himself a contract that signed his soul over to the Ghost King, not Pariah Dark. Got through whatever screening was in place no problem, and now he’s my problem.” 

A problem that Clockwork had presented Danny with on his fucking birthday no less. 

That had been part one of the soul screening process; who was stuck with Pariah by name, and ho boy that was a depressingly long list… and still growing, though it had slowed recently. 

News of Pariah losing his crown was slow to spread, and frankly Danny himself could be doing more to help that, except. Well. 

Not taking the damn crown himself until he had to. Not wanting to give the creeps of the world anything to call him. 

There were a lot of good reasons, okay? And Clockwork had specially singled out Constantine’s contract and delivered it to Danny himself as a birthday present. 

“Well, that explains one,” Jason agreed with a snicker, pulling to a stop in front of the police station, “but what about the other eleven times?” 

Danny snorted a laugh, sliding off the bike and stretching. As much fun as hugging Jason at high speeds was, he didn’t like being still for too long. 

“Tax season,” he explained cheerfully, pulling off the helmet and looking around, “I guess we’re meeting Harley here?” 

Snickering to himself, Jason pulled off his own helmet and tucked it into the storage on the back of his bike. Danny passed it over, noting that Jason had also had to get a second little pod for the other helmet. 

He wasn’t gonna ask. Maybe they were in storage? 

“Yeah, we’re meeting Harley here. Better not to swing by the manor for a while,” Jason added, his expression souring. 

Which did make Danny feel a little bad actually. He didn’t want to cause trouble for Jason with his family… 

But before he could say anything Jason ruffled his hair roughly, shaking his head. 

“It’s not your fault, Danny. This kinda shit happens every other week, Bruce gets on his bullshit and I steer clear. He’ll calm the fuck down eventually and remember to mind his own business,” he explained dryly, nodding towards the doors. 

Danny hesitated before moving to follow. It felt true, he could feel Jason’s sincere-exhausted-familiar-still over it clear as day, it just. 

“I’m still sorry I wound him up though,” Danny finally decided, heading after Jason up and in. Jason who rolled his eyes and held the door open. 

“Danny. He winds himself up. You could be a literal angel and he would not fucking care. You couldn’t unwind him even if you miraculously found the key. We’ve all tried,” Jason said with a sigh, though at least the anger seemed to have burned off into just… 

Tired. 

Jason just felt tired. 

Probably cuz he was off fucking around with Cass last night, but Danny wasn’t about to call him out on it. 

Not when they’d just walked into the police station (ew) and the wild sight of Harley Quinn, hair in pigtails and dressed in her signature red and black, sat on the duty officer’s desk with a bat. Filing her nails. 

Total silence filled the room, broken only by the swing of the doors opening as Danny and Jason stepped through. 

The whole room was watching her in a kind of terrified awe, like she was a particularly dangerous bomb waiting to go off. Danny’d swear they weren’t even breathing. 

She looked up as the door opened, grinning broadly at the sight of them and waving in a large, exuberant gesture. 

“Oh, there’s my boys! Hey boys!” She called in obvious delight, and half the room flinched. 

Didn’t seem to matter that she hadn’t even been in Gotham for ages, let alone being her former roguish self. She had the kind of presence that left a lasting impression. 

No wonder Danny liked her. She coulda fit right in with his ghost friends. 

Maybe she’d come join them for fight club. 

** 

Pulling himself slowly from sleep just a little past noon, Bruce had to admit he was feeling better. The headache had dulled to a low throb but he felt clearer. 

More aware of himself, and after a glass of water, more like he could take on the day. 

It was far from his first concussion and he was well used to navigating the symptoms over the next few days. So long as he didn’t get any serious memory loss he wasn’t going to worry about it. 

He had far more serious things to worry about, but even they seemed more manageable after almost nine hours of sleep. 

Honestly… he wasn’t surprised that Jason hadn’t come to the cave. Hadn’t agreed to stay away from Danny when asked.  

It had felt like a reasonable request at the time, like the bare minimum of common sense. But they didn’t have that kind of relationship anymore. 

Jason didn’t trust him. Didn’t trust Bruce’s judgement, in how to deal with criminals or anything else. 

Jason hadn’t been the boy who’d looked to Bruce with such trust, such wonder and awe, even before he’d died. 

Sometimes Bruce wondered where he’d gone wrong. 

But there was no use dwelling on the past. Bruce would like to re earn Jason’s trust some day, but he wouldn’t ignore their present relationship. 

Jason wouldn’t trust that Danny was a danger to him without proof, so Bruce would find that proof, if it existed. Hopefully before Jason’s condition became proof itself. 

The first and most obvious step would be to consult the Justice League Dark at today’s meeting, and then make arrangements for this doctor from the Infinite Realms. 

He’d have to look into those laws Jason mentioned ahead of the meeting. Perhaps bring them up to Constantine, see how it might affect matters with the Infinite Realms. 

A bitter part of him mused that he wouldn’t be surprised if the magician was completely unaware of most international laws, let alone the ones of the various lands he travelled, but still. 

The man had been so adamant that the Infinite Realms were completely beyond their ability to handle. That they should cut and run at any cost. 

Bruce could hardly imagine he’d be pleased that the US had apparently declared its inhabitants the targets of its newest genocide. 

Of course, changing the laws and having them struck down would take time, but Bruce still hoped that the act of beginning might be enough. 

Enough for him to visit Jason’s doctor in the Realms or some other neutral ground, since the doctor couldn’t come here. 

Jason had said that he would be fine, not that he was already fine. Bruce wouldn’t have believed him if he had, not really; Jason hadn’t been fine since he’d been dunked in those damn pits. 

Their poison had stuck with him far longer than anyone Bruce had ever heard of. 

Hells, Bruce had had his own dunking. He could just barely remember the rage that had forced itself down his throat, into his lungs as he was brutally thrust back into the land of the living. 

He had controlled it, had mastered it quickly, and now it was nothing more than a faint scrap of memory. Even that was still enough to grant his deepest sympathy to Jason’s struggles. 

If the rage had never left him… 

But no, he decided, going through his morning routine like he was still the young playboy Brucie who never showed his face before 3pm. 

There was no point in indulging those thoughts either. He had mastered the pit’s fury, and it released him. For whatever reason, Jason hadn’t. 

And now they all had to deal with the consequences. 

Still, Bruce let himself hope for the future instead. 

If his children were right, if Jason was right… if Danny or this mysterious doctor from the Infinite Realms could help him with the pit rage… 

He might one day see that little boy again. The boy who looked at Bruce like he’d hung the stars, who could fly because Robin made him magic. 

There was nothing in this world or any other that Bruce wouldn’t give to see Jason whole again. To see him happy. 

The United States government were going to learn (again) what it meant to come between the Batman and the safety of his sons. 

The Justice League’s meeting would be in another four hours. He had plenty of time to do some research and amend their presentation. 

So long as Jason was right. 

And speaking of Jason… there was just one other thing he’d like to do this morning. Heaving a sigh while he had the privacy of his room, Bruce pulled up his phone again. 

He didn’t quite indulge himself as far as making a face as he punched in Constantine’s number, because concussed or not he was an adult. And he was going to need the man’s help. 

Surely Jason wouldn’t object to a single check in with a trusted practitioner? 

As the phone rang, Bruce once again cursed the circumstances that kept Zatanna off world. He was about 75% sure that Jason actually liked her. 

But maybe the extent to which Constantine annoyed Bruce would also cheer him up. 

The call went through, and Bruce snapped his wandering attention back. Maybe he’d take the rest of the day off after the meeting. Heal up a little more. 

Alfred would be proud. 

“Constantine. A moment of your time before the meeting?” It even sounded like a question, not a command. Sleep really had done him a world of good. 

**

Part of Jason wished he could say he was surprised that Harley had taken GCPD HQ hostage just by showing up, but he honestly wasn’t. 

Part of him wished he didn’t think that was exactly her intention, but… he didn’t particularly like lying to himself. Harley was fun. 

And got results, even if she also tended not to end lives. He could respect that. 

And promised not to rat him out to Danny, even if she made no promises about Waylon, who definitely also knew both his identities. 

That… Jason wasn’t really surprised by that either. They’d never talked about it, but Waylon had definitely known he was the second Robin for some time. 

A few of the rogues did, or at least assumed as much from the way the Batman would either obsessively chase or obsessively avoid him in mask. 

Jason personally preferred and egged on the side that thought Red Hood was Batman’s evil twin brother. Or clone. Mostly because Bruce hated them. 

Knowing civilian identities was a step beyond that Bruce would certainly never admit that more than one or two knew, but Jason had (slightly) less issues. 

It was kinda an open secret among the rogues who’d been around since the glory days; Bruce Wayne is Batman. As Danny so rightly said of Dick, the butts matched. 

(Jason was considering adding more padding to the body armour in his pants, if only to change the silhouette, because that was a fucked yet accurate identifier apparently.) 

Most of the rogues didn’t fucking care, Joker and Two Face especially, but it was something that no one talked about. 

And that they all specifically agreed to keep from Riddler for as long as possible. 

(It was his punishment for being obnoxious at trivia nights in Arkham; no one bothered to suggest banning him or asking him to behave.) 

For rogues like the Gotham City Sirens? Hadn’t been a secret since Bruce took off the mask for Selina. 

Killer Croc probably wasn’t technically one of the sirens yet (and wouldn’t that be fun?) but he hung out with Harley, and despite his size he wasn’t stupid. 

The only thing Jason was a little worried about was Waylon mentioning his current alter ego in front of Danny, but honestly the fact that they were at a police station would probably keep his lips closed. 

All vigilantes were illegal. 

Red Hood was illegal and a serial killer. 

And probably couldn’t get the silent and terrified reverence Harley currently held over the station even if he walked in with a rocket launcher. 

She beamed at them, hopping down off the desk with her bat over her shoulder. A little closer, Jason noted that this bat was also bedazzled, but in a different pattern from the one she’d had last night. 

Or the same bat, redone, but he wasn’t putting money on it. 

She hopped down off her desk and skipped across the room towards them, and Jason wished for half a second that he could command half as much menace doing something so… well, innocent. 

But no, he just put heads in a bag, that wasn’t scary apparently. Fucking Gotham. 

He obediently bent down for Harley to kiss his cheek, not wanting to be yanked around in the cop shop (even as a civilian), and still managed to be surprised when Danny also accepted a cheek kiss and then returned it. 

Harley squealed in delight and ruffled his hair, then pinched both Danny’s cheeks. 

“Awww, ain’t you all cute and cosmopolitan! So, shall we go see my big green bestie!” She declared happily, releasing Danny and turning back to lead the way out of the room. 

Didn’t go for the keys. Didn’t address the question to anyone who should have been leading them down. Just got going, the way Harley always did. 

No one moved to stop them. 

** 

Surprising precisely no one, Harley absolutely knew the way down to the cells at the GCPD. Not from a lotta personal experience, o’ course. 

Nah, Harley usually went from crime scene to Arkham back in the day, but she’d known people and busted people out of holding before. 

It had taken a couple real big favours to get Waylon kept here instead of shipped back to Arkham, but that was what favours were for. No one liked having a Harley-debt over their heads. 

And Brucie’s word was gonna get Waylon released on her recognizance, once she scooped some shivering copper out from under their desk. 

He’d have to actually behave this time though. No big bat-centric events, nothin’ above ground. 

Honestly… she might ask him ta head home. Being in Gotham wasn’t good for either of them. Too many old patterns and bad habits, and Waylon had been doin’ a real good job keeping his nose clean. 

If he wanted ta head back to Coney, they could get ‘im a ride. And if he didn’t, well, she’d have someone to watch the new show with.

Her two baby birds were following her like good little ducklings too, absolutely adorable. Although… she paused for a second, cocking her head. 

“Is there a reason we’ve got theme music?” She asked with a delighted giggle as the song clicked. 

It was a little muffled, but Styx’s Renegade? Ballsy choice for a trip to the cop shop. 

The question seemed to surprise both boys though, and then Danny sighed, reaching back to pat a weirdly bulging pocket. 

“Yeah, I upset my techno-god bestie this morning. Apparently my punishment is a soundtrack of my life,” he said dryly. 

Jason paused, a slight frown on his face as he listened too. 

“Wait, it changed? I thought you were on a loop?” He asked, and that was an interesting development. 

Danny just shrugged. 

“Yeah, he’s probably keeping an eye on us and changing it up when he thinks it’s funny. I think I know this song,” he added with a slight frown, brows furrowing as he listened. 

Jason listened a moment longer, then snickered and shook his head. 

“Tuck’s got good taste in music,” he said simply, and yeah, Harley remembered Tucker from dinner. Another lil cutie, all tucked up with Timmy in their own little world half the time. 

Damn good at Mariokart and Spiderheck too. 

Danny snorted and flipped Jason off. 

“Suck up.” 

And immediately the music changed, flipping straight to Pink’s Slut Like You, suddenly louder… although that mighta also been the song. 

Danny groaned as his pocket loudly declared that he was not a slut, and Jason laughed at him entirely unapologetically. 

“And that’s why I’m not the one with the soundtrack,” he declared smugly and Danny sighed, raising both hands in unequivocal surrender. 

“Yes, yes, I’m a bad and naughty boy and I’m getting my just punishment. Can we just get going?” He asked almost rhetorically. 

The music changed again, sultry twanging of a guitar before Lil Nas X began to sing Montero. It took Harley a moment longer to place it than the boys, both of whom now looked confused. 

“I can’t tell if he’s encouraging you or not,” Jason said finally, and Danny sighed. 

“Well I’ve pole danced into Hell before, so I’m taking it as a compliment either way,” he decided with a shrug, trying to shove what looked like an overstuffed sock deeper into his pocket. “I swear the volume shouldn’t get this loud.” 

“Joys of a touchy tech friend,” Harley opined with a snicker, glancing around to see if there were cameras Tucker could be watching from. She blew both she found a kiss, then spun to continue their quest. 

And realized that neither of the boys had followed her, both now watching her warily. 

“What?” She asked, frowning and turning to see if she’d stepped in something. Nope, just clean floors. 

“Danny’s sin was calling Tucker overdramatic,” Jason explained, and oh. Yeah, that explained the looks. 

Harley waved a hand cheerfully, deliberately brushing it off. 

“An’ now he’s givin’ ya life a soundtrack, so I dunno that he disagrees,” she said lightly, skipping back towards the stairs, “c’mon!” 

And when no new burst of music began to switch out Lil Nas, the boys got to following again, Danny grumbling about unfairness. 

Harley liked Danny. He had a refreshing lack of fucks to give, a good sense of humour, and he doted on Jason, who fucking deserved it. 

They’d be so good together, and Harley was gonna have the time of her life watchin’ them work that out. 

Which, now that she thought of it… 

“Hey, by th’ way, ya said ya didn’t wanna meet at the manor?” She prodded, turning to walk backwards down the steps to the cells, frowning at Jason, “what’d Brucie do now?” 

And watched the ease in Jason’s face freeze, muscles tightening, and Harley sighed. Yeah, a trip back to the manor was definitely in order. 

“Just his usual bullshit,” Jason grumbled, running a hand through his already wild helmet hair. Danny snickered beside him and gave her a broad grin. 

“Jason’s officially banned from hanging out with me,” he explained far too smugly, since there wasn’t a chance Jason would have listened to any Bruce-ban. 

But, he was beside the tall and handsome stud he had a crush on, so Harley wasn’t gonna argue. She grinned back at him, just as her foot nearly slipped on a step. 

Before the fall could fully start, she pushed off harder with the other foot, dodging both startled hands grabbing for her, and turned the fall into a backflip down the rest of the stairs. 

Taking gymnastics as a kid really should be a prerequisite for villainy. Especially with the Robins flipping around all over the place. 

She landed almost perfectly, stepping onto her back foot and then raising both arms and giving the boys a little bow. Then she sighed, resting her bat over her shoulder and mock pouting, tapping the side of her jaw. 

“I guess I’m just gonna have ta go back and give ‘im a lil percussive maintenance… bet he hasn’t been restin’ right since he got that concussion either. Maybe I’ll call Selina ta keep ‘im in bed for a week,” she mused. Jason mock puked. 

“I thought you wanted him to rest,” Danny snickered, earning himself a glare from his one true love. A consequence that did not phase him in the least. 

Harley laughed and waved a hand lightly, skipping ahead to get the door into the hall that held the actual cells while they descended the rest of the stairs. 

“Oh, she’s a big girl, Selina can do the work,” she teased, laughing louder when Jason groaned like his soul was being sucked out. 

There was a cop still sat behind the desk just inside the door, an older man whose stocky frame had started softening with age. 

He didn’t quite jump out of his seat as she entered, but dark eyes widened and ruddy skin paled when he saw her. Which, yeah, she had that effect on people. 

“Why are you here?” He demanded, voice only shaking a little. 

Harley gave him a sceptical once over. 

Not someone she’d run into personally, though probably on the force when she’d been active. Off the streets now, probably not far from retirement and trying to make it all the way there. 

Not a lotta Gotham cops did these days, in spite of the rampant corruption. Being in the Penguin’s pocket did sweet fuck all to protect ya when Scarecrow was having a hissy fit. 

This old bugger had probably joined back in the bad ol’ days when they could just ignore mob crimes, hassle the homeless, and look the other way if a situation got violent. 

These days between Gordon, the bats, and the increasingly dramatic rogues (among which she still counted herself even if Batsy didn’t, she had a reputation to uphold)? 

Lookin’ the other way wasn’t the protection it used ta be, and bein’ conveniently “late” to a crime scene didn’t help much either. 

This guy? Probably folded like cheap laundry at the first sign of trouble, but he’d stayed in place. That’d make her job easier anyway. 

Smiling sweetly at him, Harley strolled forwards and propped her bat on the floor, both hands on the handle as she leaned forward over it. 

“Pickin’ up a friend,” she told him sweetly, nodding to the line of cells down the hall, “Uber for Mr Waylon Jones?” 

The guy (Officer Perkins, said the name tag, but he’d not really proved himself memorable yet) swallowed visibly, hands shaking but still visible above the desk. 

Not going for a weapon. Not surprising. 

No one who’d seen a gun pulled on Harley before tended to try it themselves. Just like the Robins, she was a tough target. You had to be real sure. 

“Do you have the appropriate paperwork?” He rasped, a Gothamite accent still prominent despite the quiver. 

Harley raised an eyebrow, letting her smile go deadly sweet. 

“Would ya stop me if I didn’t?” She cooed, rocking forwards on her toes and grinning when his chair slammed back almost two feet. 

The shaking had progressed to a full body shiver, sweat dripping down a blotchy brow as he slammed a ring of keys on the edge of the desk, as close as he was willing to get. 

Harley scooped them up and straightened, tipping him a wink as she sauntered past. 

“Thanks bud! But yeah, I do actually have the paperwork, Judge Thompson’s gonna fax it all along this afternoon,” she told him brightly, twirling the ring of keys around one finger as she skipped back towards the cells. 

The judge’d fax it after she had another lil chat with Brucie. They’d cut things short last night, apparently too short for even their actual chat to finish sinking in. 

Gotta fix that. 

And remember to mention Waylon. 

And maybe see if he had any info on her own little issue. Though she might hit Barbara up for that first, bring some treats down library way. 

It was gonna be a busy day for ol’ Harley, but at least she got to spend time with the kids first. 

“Was that really necessary?” Jason asked with a raised eyebrow, following her down the hall with barely a glance at their shaking audience. 

“Necessary?” Harley asked sweetly, glancing into the first couple cells and skipping on. “No. Fun, yes!” 

“See this is why I like her,” Danny decided with a sage nod, and Harley shot him a wink, “she knows how to have a good time.” 

“I know how to have a good time,” Jason said immediately, and holy shit that was just sooooooo cute she nearly dropped the keys to go pinch his little cheeks again. 

Just all pouty and defensive and they weren’t even talkin’ about him! It was too much, Harley couldn’t stand it! 

“Yeah, and I like you too,” Danny replied in what he probably thought was a cool way, but no, that was just fucking adorable too. 

Too. 

Cute. 

Harley was gonna die. 

And maybe get herself a cool glowy transformation sequence apparently, which would be kinda cool. She’d always kinda wanted a magical girl moment. 

She could be their fairy-ghost-mother! 

And, to be fair ta Waylon, she had definitely gotten side tracked again. Almost forgot who she was here for. 

But really, it did not mean he had to make a grab for her when she almost walked right past his cell! She coulda done him an injury! 

He released her arm before the bat came down though, chuckling in that growly way of his and raising both hands. 

“Hey. Didn’t want you goin’ right past,” he said innocently, and Harley sighed fondly and reached her bat through the bars to bonk him gently on the head. 

“Hush you, I’m not that distractible,” she scolded him, completely ignoring any disbelieving noises from her two little love birds, “an’ anyway, you gotta be nice to me. I’m bustin’ yer ass out.” 

She jangled the keys at Waylon instead, then began swiping through them for the right one. 

The big guy obediently stepped back to let her look, his attention shifting past her to Danny and Jason. 

“An’ you brought company,” he growled, a wry grin on his face. She had to wonder if he’d noticed how dang adorable they were already at the gala. 

She’d missed soooo much! But he’d catch her up, because that’s what besties did. And cuz she’d kick all the kittens out of his room if he didn’t. 

Jason shrugged, coming up behind her to lean on the bars. 

“I had a passing interest in why you wanted to use me as bait for Two Face. We’re not exactly close,” he explained, the edited down version for their legal listeners in. 

“Ya got balls for a rich kid,” Waylon chuckled just as Harley found the key. One quick victory fist pump and she got to work on the lock. 

Really, there was a reason modern stations had one key ta open all the cells. Or electric locks. What if there was a fire? 

But then, it was Gotham. They’d happily let all their perps burn. An’ probably keep usin’ it as an excuse why they all needed a fat budget increase. 

“Victory! An’ he’s my adorable lil nephew, Croccy, so you’re gonna play nice,” she warned Waylon sternly, swinging the door open and wagging a finger at him sternly. 

Again, for the benefit of their audience, but also because she enjoyed putting on a little panto. A bit o’ show. 

(She’d have to remember to tell him Danny wasn’t in on the whole Hood secret though. She’d slip it in somewhere.) 

Waylon grunted in amusement and stepped through the door, stretching to his full height and breadth in the hallway. And stopping. 

“Who’s playin’ music?” He asked, head cocked as he tried to trace the muffled sound. 

Honestly, Harley’d kinda forgot it was playing until he said it. 

Danny sighed again, at his most put upon, and raised a hand. 

“I have offended the technogod and am being punished by soundtrack,” he explained in a tone so dry it desiccated. And didn’t exactly help. 

Harley patted the now-more-confused Croc on the elbow. 

“He’s upset one of his lil nerd friends by callin’ him dramatic, so his friend hacked ‘is phone to make it play music,” she explained much more helpfully for sure. 

Again, Jason and Danny took slight steps away from her. 

Again, nothing continued to happen. 

Harley’s smile grew more smug. 

“An’ apparently said friend still can’t get inta mine,” she declared brightly, shooting another glance up at the security camera and tapping her pocket. 

Waylon grunted again, clearly not needing to ask further because her explanation was perfect, and gave Danny a nod of recognition. 

“An’ is that why you’re here? Mood music?” He asked, heading off down the hall back towards the doors. Which, yeah, they had places to be. 

Danny brightened right away, grinning up at Waylon and moving to let the big guy pass. 

“Unless you want a rematch? I haven’t been tossed around like that in a while and I could use the exercise,” he snarked, and yeah, this was why Harley liked him. 

Waylon clearly did too, snickering and clapping a massive hand on Danny’s head on his way by. 

“Mouth like that’s gonna get yer killed one day, kid,” he grumbled, ignoring the still cowering cop as they made for the stairs. 

And Danny, bless him, angel of timing, just laughed and followed along, shooting Jason a wicked grin. 

“Oh, it’s way too late for that,” he said light as air, making Jason let out a snort of laughter. 

Waylon glanced down to Harley again, fully aware he’d missed something. She gave him another pat on the elbow. 

“Jason an’ Danny met at Dead Kids Anonymous. Kid’s got himself a ghost transformation an’ everything,” she explained simply, which didn’t have to be completely true to get the point across. 

It made Waylon snicker again, even as Danny cackled along behind them. 

“Now THAT is what we’re telling everyone else. We might as well have,” he rasped between laughter. 

His pocket music seemed to have changed to Thriller. Appropriate. 

Jason rolled his eyes, but he was still grinning. 

Harley didn’t think she’d seen him smile this much the entire time he was alive again. It was nice; most of the times she’d seen him as Robin they’d been fightin’, but he’d always been havin’ so much fun. 

At least he looked like he had. Poor kid deserved to smile a whole lot more too. 

Waylon was taking the news of Danny’s lack of mortality pretty well, giving the kid a thoughtful look. They’d made their way mostly out of the station now, their little bubble of terrified silence moving with them. 

That’d get old one day, but until then Harley was gonna take advantage. 

“Maybe we’ll have another tussle then,” he agreed with a low chuckle, holding the door for the others to leave through. Real southern gent. “Good t’know I won’t break ya.” 

Danny bounced through the door as chipper as Harley herself, giving him a beaming smile. 

“Hell yeah, we’ll find somewhere nice and out of the way. Oh, we had some questions too though,” he added almost as an afterthought, giving Jason a sheepish look that again: too cute. 

Maybe that was how he’d really died. Too cute to live. Though she’d let him make that joke himself. 

Jason didn’t seem bothered, though he did look a little more tense. Not sure where they’d be taking this, more’n likely. 

“Once we get somewhere private,” Waylon agreed, glancing between Jason and Harley himself. 

That probably meant it was on her to pick a destination then. Well, Harley had a place in mind that (while not technically private) wouldn’t involve onlookers. 

“Yeah, I know a spot! I’ll send ya the address, Jayjay, an’ we’ll meet ya there. Don’t think we’ll get four on that bike,” she teased, pulling out her phone. 

She knew the perfect spot, and it’d give her a chance to loop Waylon in. All good news. 

Jason held up a hand quickly.

“Not got mine on me. Text Danny,” he called, and Harley waved her phone over her head in acknowledgement. It might give Tucker a way to jump into her phone, she wouldn’t know.

Tech wasn’t her shtick. Just a good thing they’d all exchanged numbers the night before.

** 

It was a weird feeling to have his body shaken while his consciousness was so far from it. 

Feeling his face pull into a frown not quite mirroring what he felt it should be. Tucker could never have explained precisely what part of him entered his devices; just that it was him. 

Quintessential, pure essence of Too Fine. Everything he was without the meat he was born in. 

But then he did have to slot back into that meat, and trying to do that without matching positions always left him feeling weirdly off kilter the next day. Like he’d put on a shirt but the shoulders were skewed too short. 

So despite not being conscious of a face on his extended form, Tucker tried to form it into a frown anyway, sliding back under his own skin like a teen sneaking back through a window after curfew. 

Hadn’t those been heady days? 

Eyes slowly opening, it took Tucker a moment to remember how to focus them. That they weren’t cameras. But then Tim Drake-Wayne came into focus, and the frown changed to a grin even before he fully “woke up”. 

“Morning,” he mumbled, rolling and stretching, getting used to the feeling of a body again. It was a little weirder each time, which he might have worried about if he didn’t see himself as an extension of his PDA anyway. 

“You were singing in your sleep,” Tim told him without preamble, returning the smile. 

Tucker hesitated for a moment, suddenly embarrassed. If… well. If he’d been singing along, that… 

Look he’d picked songs that’d embarrass Danny, he wasn’t gonna give a fuck about it. The only actual question was, did he tell Tim? 

Who else would ever understand better just what it meant to interact with tech the way he could? Could get excited with him about how cool it was? 

He wasn’t fucking gushing to Technus. No way. Tuck was easily the one winning that ongoing hackathon, but it was the principle of the thing. 

To the zone with it. Tim knew about Amity Park, he knew about the ghosts and the liminal tech. And while they hadn’t exactly discussed liminal people, it’d come up. 

Tim could have a sneak preview. As a treat. 

Decision made, Tucker gave the younger man another broad smile because yeah, bragging about your super powers to a very cool and impressive person? That felt good. 

Tim might be a vigilante too, but Tucker was pretty sure Jason was the only souped up Robin. Most of the bats were famously power free. 

“Oh, yeah. I was bullying Danny,” he explained with a light chuckle, glancing up to find his beloved PDA, Ida. She was half under a blanket now, so he tugged her back out. 

Tim chuckled softly, leaning back and stretching himself. 

“Good dream?” He asked and Tucker snickered, stroking gently across the screen. 

“Danny wishes it was a dream.” Tucker paused, frowning a little at the confusion on Tim’s face. “So you remember we kinda talked about the whole liminal thing?” 

That seemed to jog Tim’s memory, confusion fading into an analytical frown that Tucker was already becoming familiar with. That good ol’ geek face. 

“The humans with budding ghost powers,” he agreed, and Tucker had to wonder if maybe he just hadn’t put the right pieces together yet. 

He hadn’t exactly said that most of Amity Park were liminal, but it was a little hard to remember he had to. Like, they lived on a portal to Hell. 

Maybe he shoulda. 

Well, at least it was a cool way to introduce it to him. 

Tucker pulled Ida into his lap, flipped her over, and tapped the plain plastic backing to demonstrate. 

“Mine’s a low level technopathy at the moment,” he explained as the PDA hummed and then began playing… well, still Montero, so he flicked it again and changed it immediately to Country Roads. 

Tim was watching him with a kind of hungry fascination, and Tucker turned the music off with a thought, then passed her to Tim so he could check for secret touchpads. 

“It’s not something I can do with anything,” he explained with a modest shrug, grinning with pride as Tim immediately got to scanning the casing. 

All simple plastic, not even biometrics; what would be the point? Even touching the PDA was pretty much a formality at this point. She was a part of him. 

“Technopathy? So you can control it with your mind? Why not with anything?” Tim asked eagerly, hands stroking over the plastic, eyes darting between it and Tucker. 

Like he wasn’t sure which was more interesting, Tuck or tech, and Tucker absolutely took that as a compliment. 

“It has to be a device I’ve really gotten into. Like, down to the source code, or something I’ve cracked before a couple times, and then I can just feel how all of it works.”

Tucker wiggled his fingers demonstratively and the PDA beeped to life under Tim’s hands, making the other man gasp. And yeah, totally envy in those cute blue eyes he turned all balefully on Tucker. 

“How many of the functions can you use? Anything the PDA can do, or…” Tim trailed off, clearly thinking of everything he’d already seen the PDA do. 

The real question would have been what couldn’t Ida do. And honestly? Yeah, Tucker remembered the trial phase. 

He gave another shrug. 

“Technically? Yeah, anything she can do, but I still prefer hacking the old fashioned way. Most of the network stuff too, cuz I’m only really “in” the PDA. Or Danny or Sam’s phones.” 

Tucker hesitated, wondering how best to really explain the difference. Danny had never been any good at it, Tucker’d had no idea what he was talking about from the video game thing right up until he’d been sucked in himself. 

Which… was probably gonna be a next-hangout adventure for Tim and the bats. And Oracle, if he could swing it. 

For now he gave up, giving Tim a hopeless grin. 

“Honestly it’s something you’ve really gotta feel for yourself. Danny’s great at the transition from real world to code, but he always just punches things, y’know? Turns out knowing how code is actually supposed to work doesn’t translate well to being part of it,” he added with a sigh. 

Because frankly? It was bullshit unfair. Tucker could code an entire other galaxy around Danny with his eyes closed, but put them in the same metaphysical layer as a firewall and Danny could just. 

Punch it. 

Which, theme for the week, was also not how firewalls fucking worked. At some point Tuck figured he’d either gain a new level of understanding through liminality, or give up and ask Technus a couple questions. 

Technus was currently Tucker’s subject instead of Danny’s anyway. They’d made a bet. 

Which meant Technus shoulda told him about their shenanigans in time, which was probably what Tucker would hold over his head for the whole firewall thing. 

It was so nice when things just worked themselves out. 

Tim looked a little disappointed, but mostly still intrigued. Tucker could see his fingers just itching for his own tablet to take notes. 

“Do you think that’ll change?” He asked, blurting it out like he couldn’t hold back now that Tucker stopped talking, “I mean, if you become more liminal? Or just practice your abilities more?” 

And see, this was what Tucker loved about Tim Drake-Wayne. They were on the same wavelength. He grinned back. 

“Probably. But I mean, it’s kinda cheating too. For now I kinda like that I have to do things the way I always used to first, before any ghostly powers kick in. It’s more me, y’know?” And like hell he’d let anyone think his code skills were just some meta ability. 

He’d worked damn hard for those skills, and he was damn good. One of the best, and he was also good enough to know he still wasn’t actually top of the charts. 

That was the Oracle, although knowing they still hadn’t cracked his servers felt really good. 

Tim was all but vibrating, clearly full of questions, but they were both interrupted by a loud growl from Tucker’s stomach. Immediately echoed by Tim’s, so at least he wasn’t alone. 

The two shared sheepish grins, and then Tucker stretched. 

“So, breakfast and then Twenty Questions?” He offered cheerfully, and Tim nodded at once, thrusting the PDA back and rolling off the frankly massive bed. 

“We can start while we eat, everyone else has probably gone out by now,” he said over one shoulder, stripping out of his clothes from the previous night and hurrying for his closet. 

Ah hell, Tucker had only brought the one change of clothes… which Alfred had laundered yesterday after the snowball fight. Which would mean they were. 

In a place. 

Probably in the manor. 

Maybe in the room they’d talked about setting up? 

He looked to Tim, and only then noticed that his tech idol was shucking off his boxers in exchange for new ones, entirely unselfconscious. 

Tucker frowned back down at his current borrowed shirt instead, waiting til he at least heard both feet on the floor before looking over again. Tim might not care, but in case he did, Tucker could be a gentleman. 

And then he could ask the important question. 

“Speaking of Alfred… my clothes?” He asked hopefully, and yeah, the way Tim’s mouth dropped open and his brain visibly blue screened? 

Just like Danny. They were gonna get along great. 

** 

Of all the top secret, private places in Gotham to go and have a villainous chat… Danny never would have expected a milkshake bar. But like he’d said last night, that was kinda what made it perfect. 

Who’d expect to find Harley Quinn and Killer Croc, properly Waylon, sat in a pastel pink corner booth in the back of the bar? 

Honestly, none of the staff seemed surprised. But they might not have been to see all the bats walk in; it was Gotham. Rogues happened. If no one pulled a weapon, don’t be the reason that changes. 

It made him feel right at home, really. Just like Amity Park. 

And they made a damn good milkshake. Danny took another deep slurp of his, cookie butter and cheesecake was definitely a combo he’d been sleeping on. 

If pressed, he couldn’t really explain what he’d wanted out of this meeting. 

Something in what Harley had said last night had struck home in a way he hadn’t expected, but with Waylon in front of him now… well, for one thing he seemed a lot more like just some guy who happened to be green. 

And who was just adorably happy with his cotton candy milkshake, complete with little umbrella. 

At the gala, he’d been big and menacing and monstrous, all things Danny was very used to and meant “friend” more often than they meant anything else. He’d still take a rematch, but he just… 

Well, that was just it, wasn’t it? 

Waylon really wasn’t all that monstrous, if you looked the faintest scratch past sharpened teeth and scales. He was polite to the servers, a happy straight-man to Harley’s jokes, and he could have teased Jason more for Danny’s tastes but it was definitely effective. 

Jason was much more at ease here with two rogues than he’d been any time his adoptive dad was around. That… well, Danny knew full well he didn’t know much about Jason’s life. 

It felt like he’d learned a whole lot more just today already, though again, it’d be hard to explain exactly what. 

The conversation had been light, easy, and full of banter so far, and Danny really wasn’t sure how to segue from that to “so you were called a monster all your life”. 

Because while for the most part Danny now only had to deal with the GIW calling him a monster (and they’d been quiet for years now, still rebuilding after the whole “bomb the ghost zone” bs)… the things his parents had called him still hurt. 

The things people thought he was, ghosts and living alike, he just… he didn’t know what to do with it. These days he could mostly ignore it, and unlike Waylon he could even pass for living. 

(Never for a ghost though. He’d never be able to stop any ghost from seeing him and knowing immediately, instinctively, that he was other.) 

In some ways it felt like meeting Vlad all over again, but without the crushing disappointment. Well, what it might have been to learn there was another halfa if he hadn’t preceded it by being a massive creep. 

It was… complicated. And all tangled up in his feelings around Jason, because Jason actually was like him and really did get it, or would soon. 

And Jason clearly liked Waylon, for all he grimaced and bitched about the deadpan teasing. Waylon had a lot of interesting stories about Jason’s cape days, most of which Jason hurried to try to interrupt. 

Harley had more, and they’d sat at opposite ends of the table before the boys had arrived, almost certainly so Jason couldn’t shush them both at once. 

If he clapped a hand over Harley’s mouth, Waylon would either take up the tale or start one of his own, and vice versa. There was just no way Jason could win. 

It reminded Danny of his own rogues, though maybe more Fright Knight than Ember or Johnny. The ones he got along with, but more respectfully than just his friends. 

Kinda like watching Harley with the rest of the bat-brood. 

Danny was very nobly doing his best not to enjoy it too much; within a week or two it’d be his turn roughhousing with his rogues, and he was hoping Jason would return the favour. 

There was no way he could get any kind of ghost fight club going without his usual players, and those were the ones with all the most embarrassing stories of his early days. 

Johnny and Kitty especially had blackmail material for days, so as much as Danny was loving the lil baby Robin stories (carefully never actually mentioning the name, since no one was masked)… no, his feeling was kinda more impending doom. It’d be his turn soon. 

And Ancients help them if Harley and Waylon met Johnny and Kitty… nope, not thinking about that. Suppressing a shudder, Danny deliberately tuned back in to Waylon’s story about the time he’d kidnapped Bruce Wayne. 

At least Jason was having fun with this one. 

Of course, it couldn’t have the obvious ending; whether or not Waylon had known at the time that he had Batman, you couldn’t mention the punch line out in public. It’d be rude. 

He left the story at the Robin beat down instead, declaring that the big Bat himself hadn’t even bothered to show up. Didn’t quite go full stage wink, but it was pretty much the next best thing. 

Danny laughed along with the table and Jason shook his head, settling back into his seat with a low huff. 

“Fun as this is, we did have some questions,” he said, voice just a little lower than before. 

Danny was a little surprised he’d bring it up in such a public space. Right up until Harley glanced around, nodded, and settled back into her seat. 

“Clear too. Any o’ the gawkers ‘ve been seen out,” she agreed with a slight nod. 

Danny startled, looking around himself. The milkshake bar was… about half as full as it had been when they arrived. His confusion must have been obvious, because Waylon snickered. 

“It ain’t the Iceberg Lounge, kid, but this is one of Dr Freeze’s more self sustaining operations. Can’t all be heisting diamonds,” he added with a slight shrug. 

Not noticeably less confused, Danny turned to Jason instead. Jason chuckled softly, shaking his head and giving Danny a grin that was almost proud. 

“Shit, you’ve lived in Gotham a year and it’s a fucking miracle how little you know. Iceberg Lounge is the Penguin’s upscale club. This place is run by the guy we talked about last night, freeze rays and diamond heists,” he explained quickly. 

Harley snickered, draping her arms over the back of their booth. 

“An’ if some o’ his ol’ Arkham buddies come in ta chat, his people know ta clear out anyone tryin’ to listen in too hard,” she added, nodding to one of the servers. 

Well. 

That tracked. 

Danny had also definitely thoroughly demolished his “keeping away from rogues” spree, which kinda sucked. But then, since he’d basically gone from one extreme to the other? 

Maybe that’d be fun to tell his classmates about too. It definitely tracked more with Danny’s understanding of his own luck. A whole year, no trouble? More like no chance. 

Also meant this had to be a safe place to talk, apparently. What was it about rogues that made them so eager to get on with each other but nobody else? 

Well, Danny got on with most of his now. But still. 

Jason leaned forward, arms folded on the table. 

“So what’s going on with Two Face, Waylon?” He asked quietly, still apparently aware of eavesdroppers. 

Waylon glanced around the bar, then shrugged, settling back against the booth. 

“Hard to say, with ‘im. Coulda been a coin flip, coulda been somethin’ else, but he wasn’t just gunnin’ for the gala. Somethin’ about you specifically put a bug in his ass, kid,” he added with a frown, nodding towards Jason. 

Something in Danny tensed, not liking the idea of anyone targeting Jason. Of course, it must have happened before… when he was Robin. 

And he’d died. 

Danny hadn’t even noticed he was clenching his fists until Jason nudged his foot under the table. 

Safe-worry-you okay? Jason’s aura was getting clearer, and Danny did his best to smile back. Sometimes his Obsession still snuck up on him. 

Forcing himself to relax, he grabbed his milkshake instead. It felt warm, which was odd until he realised his hands were icy cold. 

Not quite literally, but closer than he’d come in a while. 

Neither of the rogues seemed to have notice, Harley playing with her milkshake while she frowned at Waylon. 

“An’ you decided the best thing ta do was hit the gala first?” She asked dryly, her tone neatly conveying just what she thought of that idea. 

Waylon shrugged. 

“Not like I coulda swung an invite to get in nicely. Sounded like he had somethin’ real nasty planned, kid,” he added, shaking his head and leaning back in his seat. 

Jason frowned, giving Danny another soft kick on the ankle as he leaned forward. Unnecessarily, for sure, Danny totally had his shit under control now. 

“But no one said anything about why? I don’t think I’ve even met him,” Jason asked and yeah, that probably meant as Jason. Maybe even post Robin. 

Waylon shrugged again. 

“It’s fuckin’ Two Face. Maybe he ran outta matching targets and figured two lives had ta count?” He offered, though it looked like it was still bugging him too. 

Harley huffed and shook her head, blonde ponytails bouncing. 

“I’ll keep an ear out too.  There’s a couple people who’ll prefer talkin’ ta me over you, sugar,” she teased Waylon as he grunted, a tinkling laugh falling from her lips. 

Waylon snorted, but a reluctant smile curled his lips. 

“More likely to spill to ya,” he agreed in a low grumble, poking his straw around a mostly empty milkshake. 

Harley nodded brightly, clapping her hands. 

“Exactly! ‘Specially if they don’t want any of their own special lil secrets told,” she agreed with a truly wicked smile. Then she paused, a slight frown curling her brow. 

It was still a little weird to be able to see the moments where her brain revved up. Danny had to assume it was having been raised by Jazz; it was clearly easy for people to get lost in the bubbly exterior. 

Fingers drumming on the table now, something had clearly jogged her memory. 

“Might be somethin’ ta do with Black Mask too,” she said more quietly, gaze unusually serious as she caught Jason’s eyes, “he’s been quieter ‘n I like lately. Keepin’ ‘imself out of trouble.” 

Danny might just ask if Jason could get him a rolodex of the Gotham villains to match the server Danny had provided for the Zone. 

It did not help that they all had their own wild code names. He was used to dealing with people who had a lot of personality, sure, and theatrics. But ghosts usually just had the one name. 

Except apparently for Frighty, or Halloween as Danny would have to start calling him now. It’d take some getting used to. 

Jason noticed his desperately pleading puppy eyes and sighed. 

“Look, I’ll give you the rundown on everyone tonight. Black Mask is a whole ass problem. Crime boss for the False Face Society, really likes skinning peoples’ faces. Red Hood kicked him out of Crime Alley a couple years ago, he firmed his grip on the rest of Gotham, and him being quiet is never fucking good.” 

And as if that didn’t sound bad enough… 

“An’ he really doesn’t like Jason,” Waylon growled, shoulders tightening and straining his shirt. 

Something in Danny tensed again, and he forced himself to take a long, deep breath. Closed his eyes and took another. 

This was why he’d avoided the whole subject. Until now. 

He could taste Jason’s concern like a tang in the air as he spoke up. 

“There’s fuck all he can do while I’m in the Alley though. Unless something’s really changed he can’t challenge Red Hood,” he explained quietly, leaning in until their shoulders brushed. 

Harley heaved a dramatic sigh, raising a hand and waving to one of the servers. 

“Yeah, yeah, you jus’ take care of yaself, kid. Roman’s a pain in the ass an’ if ya let him kill ya again he’ll be intolerable,” she grumbled, the tone at odds with the cheery smile she gave the first server to glance over. “Another round!” 

“Anything different?” The server, a young man with shaggy blond hair asked. 

Danny considered it, since the menu was both extensive and interesting, but really? It’d complicate things, and he didn’t want to think about something else. 

Just the idea of some asshole gangster trying to kill Jason was bad enough. But he sucked in another deep breath and reminded himself that this was pretty much all speculative. 

Black Mask was quiet, not actively threatening, and Gotham had an army of vigilantes to keep an eye on him even before Harley and Waylon got involved. An army of vigilantes who all seemed to like Jason. 

Jason wasn’t worried. Danny wasn’t gonna go all protective mama bear on the guy just because rogues existed. 

The one thing he’d always promised himself was that even with a Protection Obsession, he was never gonna be as bad as Jazz at her clingiest. 

He loved his sister, she meant well, but he’d hated her constant fussing. Danny had actually died sure, but he’d come right back and she hadn’t noticed for months. 

Jason didn’t have a scratch on him. Or any reason to put up with a clingy almost-stranger, Danny reminded himself as he accepted his new milkshake, hiding a smile behind the glass. 

Hell, if Jason being Fright Knight meant he’d sense if Danny was in danger, maybe that could work both ways. That’d be worth asking Frostbite about, and they had to see him for Jason’s core checkup soon. 

Having survived one Clockwork encounter without a lecture, Danny wasn’t pushing his luck. 

And if it turned out that it wouldn’t be that easy… well, there were other ways Danny could know if Jason was hurt, and unless they had a way to change dimensions? No Gotham rogue could take Jason anywhere that Danny couldn’t find him. 

The feel of another halfa was still faint for now, barely noticeable unless Jason was in the same room, but it was already stronger. 

Or Danny was more used to looking for him. More used to the feel of his energy, the boiling rage of the pit tangled up in everything else that was Jason. 

Kinda a lot still angry, but tempered. Mixed in with that wonderful sense of humour, dry sarcasm and death jokes, and determination. 

Danny was pretty sure he could find Jason pretty much anywhere on Earth right now if he had to. And it would only get easier. 

With the question of Harvey Dent settled as much as it would be (and if a flip of a coin was all he needed, maybe as much as it could be), the conversation turned lighter. 

Harley and Waylon stayed off the topic of rogues, probably to minimise the need to keep filling Danny in. They also mostly avoided embarrassing baby Jason stories though. 

No, instead they filled Danny and Jason in on what they’d been up to down on Coney Island. 

Danny had never expected to enjoy another circus story again, let alone an actual freakshow, but somehow? Hearing Harley tell it, he almost wanted to drop by. 

Not see the damn show. Nope. Hard pass. 

But hanging out with the performers, Harley’s tenants? That sounded like fun. They were just ordinary people, if a bit to the left. 

Roller derby sounded great, even if Danny wouldn’t play it with humans. In the Ghost Zone though? They could probably make a rink. And baseball bats. 

Waylon’s stories were way more domestic too; there was just something about a 7’ crocodile man telling you about his efforts to finally hold the skittish little grey kitten upstairs. 

It was just… well. Like hanging out with Kitty and Johnny, or Wulf. Maybe the only people who could understand what it was like to be a vigilante were the rogues who fit the other half of the mold. 

They all lived lives skewed away from the normal, didn’t fit in. The more they talked and shared stories, the more Danny settled. Relaxed. 

Which was when the last piece finally fell into place. He knew what he wanted to ask Waylon now. 

** 

Still on edge from the night before, Constantine wasn’t exactly thrilled to bits to be hearing from the Big Bat again so soon. 

Honestly, why couldn’t he have a nice, normal emergency? Just the world ending, some arch demon jumping for the throne of Hell, a wayward amateur magician or cursed artefact? 

Why did it always have to be Amity fuckin’ Park? 

Still, after they’d given the whole League the rundown, John was planning on washing his hands of the whole affair. They’d be up to date, they’d have his recommendation (leave well enough alone), and whatever they did after that? 

That could be Zatanna’s problem. Or Shazam’s. Which didn’t really matter. 

So of course there was just one more thing that Batman wanted from him first. 

“A health check on yer revenant?” He asked skeptically, arms folded as he scowled at an annoyingly refreshed and rejuvenated looking Batman. 

Who just nodded patiently like he hadn’t said anything crazy. 

“Nothing strenuous. Just a check in, and then we move on to the meeting,” he agreed blandly, watching John from behind the cut outs. 

Constantine pinched the bridge of his nose and drew in a heavy breath. Let it out. Decided not to think about all of the things that could go wrong tangling with a fuckin’ revenant. 

Bats was still here, hale and healthy, so the kid was clearly used to extreme provocation. How bad could John’s company be? 

Way, way worse the little honest part of him supplied, but… 

Well. The worst of it all was, no matter how damn annoying the man was, how fucking insistent on poking into shit that’d get ‘em all killed? 

Constantine liked him. 

Just a bit. The tiniest, littlest bit, that he firmly ground under his heel at every opportunity, and especially when that poking was getting close to end-of-the-world levels. 

It was the only reason the League had his number at all, because John Constantine sure as shit was not a hero. He liked the world not ending, yeah, but he coulda had Zatanna call him for those. 

He just. Had maybe the very smallest soft spot for how earnest the Big Three all were, deep down. Wonder Woman especially, there was a lady who’d been in the game longer than John himself, and yet it never fuckin’ touched her. 

They still looked at the world, at an old shit like John Constantine, and saw something worth saving. 

So even when he was tired, stressed, and wondering just how deep he should dare to probe to check the Bat’s explorations in Amity Park hadn’t garnered the wrong kind of attentions… 

He huffed another reluctant sigh. It did not help knowing that even if he refused, the Bat would just argue him down until John gave in, or the meeting started. 

It was three hours before the meeting was due to start. 

Constantine would rather jump straight through the damn Fenton portal. 

“Fine,” he growled, hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his trench coat. If the revenant got cranky, he could always hide behind the big Bat. 

The bastard didn’t even bother thanking him, just nodded like he’d expected John to agree all along, and made for the exit. 

Were they fuckin’ going out in full costume? In the middle of the day? 

Well heavens forbid Bruce Goddamn Wayne do anything subtly. 

** 

Tim’s afternoon was going great. Thanks to Tucker, he’d had a full and hearty brunch, which made Alfred happy. 

Tim wasn’t much of a gourmet himself, probably as a result of having to survive on what he could find in the house between his parents’ visits. So long as it went down his throat and kept him alive, he was happy. 

He knew Alfred’s cooking was great, it always tasted fantastic, he just… didn’t get excited about food. 

Tucker though? Tucker gushed enthusiastically over every bite, moaning loudly as he dug into pancakes, sausages, bacon, and even black pudding. 

He enjoyed his food almost as much as Wally, and Tim found himself savouring his own a little more as he watched. Usually he’d swallow half of it whole, just to get back to work. 

But he didn’t have a new case today. Sure, there was still work to do on Amity Park (and rewriting all of the Justice League reporting protocols, ugh). 

But he had Tucker here to help, and really, today could be about getting to know the guy. He’d more than learned his lesson from the last few days. 

It turned out that food tasted a whole lot better if he actually stopped to chew it. 

They’d talked while they ate too, Tucker often with his mouth full like he just couldn’t stop and wait to swallow. 

It was kinda adorable. 

Tim had shared some stories about the missions he’d been on with Young Justice, Tucker had told him more about Technus. There may have been a secret side trip to Amity Park in the works so Tim could meet him. 

And introduce Cassie to Pandora. 

There may also have been a secret side trip to the Ghost Zone being planned too. That one was gonna have to be extra-double-top-secret though, since Constantine put a bug in B’s ass about the Infinite Realms. 

But honestly, how bad could it be if three completely untrained teenagers could just hop in and out on a whim? 

Sure, there were risks. Some of the bigger, scarier ghosts that Tucker told him about. And just the air of the realms itself, which wasn’t great for humans in the long term. 

That, Tim was a little less sure about. Tucker could say it’d never done him any harm all he liked, but he was kinda half dead now. Dead enough for super powers. 

Not that Tim wanted super powers. It’s not like he’d ever needed them to keep up with his super friends. He didn’t need them, not even to interface his brain with his computer… 

Nope. 

But that was also how they got around to how Tucker would be getting home, because Tim finally twigged. 

“Wait… when you say Danny flew you here, you didn’t actually mean what you said about the plane, did you?” He asked cautiously when they’d migrated back to the bat cave (with a plate of cookies and juice. Alfred was totally taking advantage of a chance to feed Tim). 

Tucker grinned sheepishly and shrugged. 

“Well, I didn’t know Danny was gonna just go off like that right away. But yeah, he just came and grabbed me and we flew through the Ghost Zone.” 

He seemed to think Tim might be upset with him, but honestly? This was great news. They might be able to wrangle a little extra time. 

“So… needing to go home today was because of Danny?” He asked hopefully. 

Tucker caught on at once, like the genius he was, tracking Tim’s grin and beginning to smile in return. 

“Well, technically I do also have classes on Monday, but so long as I’m back tonight I can fake it if you have another way to get me home, like… say, a bat plane?” He asked innocently, head cocked to one side. 

Tim snatched up his phone, sending a quick text. Of course, there was always the chance Connor wouldn’t answer. Or that he’d be busy. Or that he’d have school. 

As if he wouldn’t have dropped pretty much anything when Tim called him. God Tim loved his boyfriend. 

“I was actually thinking of something a little more discrete than the bat plane… especially since you have some experience being carried.” 

————————

Tag List: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikkobara @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @perfectwastelandcreation @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel @may-rbi @mothman-the-mothman87 @viyatrix @stargirl1331 @idfk-man10 @thedepressedrobin @skulld3mort-1fan @rootsmudge @ravenshadow17 @cankoking @phantom-dc @mentalcarebear @magic-pincushion @redamancyardor @lyra689 @itsparadoxlacuna @alcorbearson @asphyxia778 @why-must-i-be-like-this @tkiesai

Next chapter:

[mecchantheotaku]

Fuck it I know I got a chapter of my AU to finish but have a little thing based on this post. Consider it an extra for the AU.

Hunted twitched helplessly on the floor. It took just one mistake for him to fall off the side of that cliff. He had been dodging the pursuit of that cat that just wouldn't leave him alone, but he accidentally dodged in the wrong direction once, and this happened.

He had just gotten his breath back, but he still couldn't move. He was lucky to have survived without fatal injury.

He saw people passing by and weakly called out for help, but it looked like they didn't even notice him.

He closed his eyes and began to cry, when he was suddenly found by the person he least expected.

"Hunted? Hunted, are you... can you move?"

It was Opportunist.

"N-no... whenever I try, it feels too tense, like something's going to break..." Hunted answered, tears still falling down his face.

Opportunist then gently ran his hand down Hunted's back to make sure nothing was broken. He looked visibly scared doing this, which was unusual for him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he determined nothing was broken.

"Okay, I'm gonna pick you up. Tell me if you get that feeling again."

Opportunist picked Hunted up. Hunted gasped in pain as he was lifted, but calmed down once he was nestled in his fellow ex-voice's arms.

"I felt it a little when you lifted me. But it's better like this." Hunted said.

"Okay, I'll take you back to the apartments now. You could do with some rest." Opportunist said, walking to the apartments.

At this point, Hunted needed to speak up about Opportunist's change in demeanour.

"Why are you only now more open and honest?" Hunted asked.

He could always sense Opportunist's true feelings, but he was confused as to why he was openly showing them now.

Opportunist stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath and then spoke.

"I shouldn't talk about it here. I'll talk when we get home."

Hunted understood. It was still a public area. Opportunist would never have that sort of talk where people could hear him.

"Okay. I don't usually think this, but right now, I trust you."

---

Opportunist laid some pillows down in Hunted's 'bed' for support and then laid him down in it.

Opportunist hesitated to show vulnerability, but he sighed and spoke up.

"You know Witch, right?" He spoke.

"Yes. I know you and Hero encountered her along with Wing in that one loop. Does this involve her?" Hunted said.

"It does. I didn't want to have my back to her as we attempted to leave, but Wing insisted we go first. Something about doing right by her. I didn't want to do right by her, though. I knew she was up to no good." Opportunist explained, smiling the whole time but clearly distressed.

"And then...?" Hunted asked, in a patient tone to let Opportunist know he was listening.

Opportunist took another deep breath. It was clear he was afraid to open up.

"And then, as we were heading up, she threw us down the stairs. We broke our spine. So did she. We were stuck there, until she was taken, and we separated from Wing at the mirror." Opportunist said.

Hunted looked at Opportunist, who was still smiling despite his obvious trauma. If he could move, he'd comfort him.

"And seeing me in that state reminded you of that." Hunted said.

"It did. I... I didn't want you to go through that." Opportunist's mask was beginning to crack. He was clearly holding back tears.

Hunted spoke softly to reassure Opportunist. "It's okay to cry. You're afraid of being looked down upon. But I won't look down on you. I understand how you feel."

Opportunist began to sniffle. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise."

Opportunist finally let the tears out. Hunted used whatever mobility he had to gently comfort him with his fingers.

After Opportunist had a good cry, he spoke to Hunted with genuine kindness.

"I hope you get better soon. I should let Stubborn know what happened."

"Thank you." Hunted replied.

Opportunist genuinely smiled, touched by hearing those words.

[thefirstknife]

First, I wanna say that I do NOT condone the extenely nasty and toxic behavior of various parts of the fandom, especially towards the devs. But I'm starting to wonder more and more if this is actually something the company brought on themselves? The game at this point relies on an increasingly expensive and predatory FOMO model and a lot of players seem to exhibit symptoms of genuine addiction to the game, or at least a very unhealthy relationship cultivated by that FOMO and "well I sunk all this money in I can't just stop now" mindsets. Which leads to players burning out and being irrational, which leads to some players being ruder or cruel and gives toxic players (who would be toxic anyway) a community that doesn't reject them out of hand because the community itself is so exhausted and frustrated and genuinely struggling to have a healthy connection to the game due to the entire model it operates under. It doesn't mean the devs or other players deserve the cruelty they've faced, but it feels like this behavior breeding among the fans is the natural consequence of the direction the game has gone. (I notice this in various mobile gacha type games that are heavily FOMO and predatory, too--the addition and sunk cost issues seem to make it truly difficult for people to be able to behave rationally)

In a way, I guess? It's not really the devs making these decisions though, it's the executives and marketing which pretty much has nothing to do with the game itself. It's still Bungie, but this stuff goes beyond just Bungie and just Destiny and just game development.

Basically, what people are mad about is capitalism. But since it's much harder to fight a whole system we live under and the system under which games are being made, people instead turn to individual companies and then also on devs, mostly because devs are the ones who are visible online. A marketing CEO from Bungie who signs off on these decisions isn't on Twitter.

I definitely wouldn't say that any company "brought individual employee harassment" on themselves. Like, no matter what state the game is in, you should never go for the random devs online and people should know that, no matter how mad they get. They're definitely not making these decisions and a lot of them are actively against them. For example, this is from a senior narrative designer at Bungie:

Note that the first thing he mentioned is "monetization and business interests overshadowing artistry." This isn't isolated, it's just one person who wanted to share, but it's a general sentiment among the actual devs. Nobody wants their work to be subjected to the aggressive monetisation schemes that ultimately piss off the consumers and ruin the product itself.

But as I said, the issue here goes above and beyond just one game or one dev studio. A lot of people keep talking about awful monetisation in Destiny, but I genuinely can't agree that Destiny, of all games, is the worst game monetisatio-wise. I'm actively involved in games that are worse and especially games that became worse, the best example of which is Overwatch. I don't think Destiny gamers could even comprehend how awful Overwatch became monetisation-wise. And that doesn't even begin to dive into other horrible practices in the gaming industry.

The point isn't to say that just because there's worse than Destiny, that Destiny is fine. It's definitely not and some things have certainly changed for the worse, though there were also horrible practices in Destiny before that were since removed. There used to be loot boxes. Like, actual gambling loot boxes. I would honestly just buy the ornaments directly rather than being tempted to buy 50 loot boxes and gamble. The only good part was that dismantling items from loot boxes could give you bright dust, but that makes sense for loot boxes that you had to buy with silver. So technically you bought that dust with silver. You could get them also for levelling so there's that, but that was really the only way to earn anything. Grind insane hours and hope for the best or take the easy way out: buying boxes for money. I cannot stress enough how much gambling is the worst predatory practice in existence in the gaming industry. Nothing else will ever be as detrimental and scummy as encouraging gambling. People don't really remember this or even know, but the switch to direct purchase is actually better.

However, of course, the increase in the amount of things that are silver-only is definitely felt. One of the worst parts is shaders for me. Shaders got no business being for silver and in bundles where you technically have to spend $10 for a shader. Event cards are also a sore spot; they're literally just Eververse bundles, but with extra steps that tie them to an event so you feel like you're earning stuff in gameplay. They come together with random currency (tickets) that stays unused unless you buy the card. It's 100% made to make people want to pay.

But sometimes the criticism on monetisation is also really superficial and from people who don't understand game development. One of the examples that people often use is dungeon key. Now, personally, I think that dungeon key should be separate for each dungeon instead of forcing you to buy 2 dungeons at once for $15. You should be able to buy just one. Like, come on. However, the idea that we have to pay for dungeons is not a predatory practice. It's content that has to be made and requires resources and dev hours (regardless of what people think of the dungeons). People will usually say "dungeons used to be available with seasons!" This is a lie.

Before WQ, we had 4 dungeons released since vanilla D2. Shattered Throne was the first and it was a part of the expansion. Pit of Heresy was second and it was a part of the expansion. Prophecy was a part of Season of Arrivals (!). And Grasp of Avarice was 30th Anniversary, a separate pack that had to be bought separately. Out of all dungeons available so far, only one was a part of the season and I genuinely don't even know how they managed that and I feel like some devs probably laboured over Prophecy essentially for free. So the idea that "dungeons were just for free in seasons" is just a lie. Only one was, an exception that possibly negatively impacted developers. If we want 2 dungeons per year, we will have to pay for them. And we do. It's either that, or maybe they can include one dungeon in the expansion and that's it. I wouldn't mind that, but the same people shitting on devs are also the people who shit on devs over "content droughts" and "not enough content" so I don't think that would satisfy them.

The point is that while some of the criticism is absolutely warranted, a lot of complete misunderstandings and lies often get mixed up with it and this all results in the situation we're in now where the only thing that the community is doing online is being negative and spiralling into dev harassment. And they end up feeling justified because the company is engaging in predatory practices. It's very easy to get into that mindset and to feel like you're not just allowed to harass, but encouraged.

The biggest issue with monetisation is always people who spend a lot of money aka whales. And by a lot, I mean a lot. Like there are people who buy every single thing in the store (and this is applied to all games). An average player buying a shader once in 3 months is not a problem. The whales are what shows up on marketing reports and what makes soulless capitalist ghouls add more of this shit to games. Which makes it even worse that the people who are perpetuating this hate train against monetisation riddled with incomplete misleading information and lies ARE WHALES. Aztecross who made the big video is a whale. Last time people checked his stream, he literally had 8000 silver in his account and people who watch his streams have said that he frequently has segments with his chat where they look at the store and he buys stuff, ON STREAM, while also asking his chat which items he should get. He's a hypocrite who is doing this to earn more money and is, to me, not any different from the soulless capitalist ghouls that work in gaming industry marketing departments.

The best thing he can do, if he cared about this topic, is to stop playing and stop making content about Destiny. Like, that's genuinely it. If he and other content creators like him are so serious about this topic and believe that the monetisation is such a serious problem in Destiny, they should stop spending money, stop playing, stop marketing the game and stop making content for it. There is no other way for Bungie to get the message, certainly not by going at random devs. And then after that, the next best step would be to involve yourself in political action to bring stricter laws to the whole gaming industry when it comes to predatory and anti-consumer practices.

In the meantime, serious talk: if any video game ever made you feel like you have to spend money, especially money you don't have, and you spent that money against your better judgement, please reach out to someone. It's not shameful and you're not alone. Games are a hobby and entertainment and should never put you in financial risk or ruin. If any video game is too much for you and you can no longer pay for it, but you feel like you have to keep playing and it's risking you financially, again, please reach out to someone. There are people who can help you deal with these feelings, especially if you know you can become addictive. The gaming industry as a whole preys on people's need for entertainment and dopamine rush and if you can't resist it on your own (which is, again, not a shameful thing), there's options to get help. This is mostly about the extra stuff like microtransactions, but it also works for just base game stuff. A year of Destiny content is cheaper than a year of some other games, but it doesn't mean that it's something everyone can afford. You can absolutely skip seasons or even expansions. You can also wait for them to be on sale and I always recommend looking out for sales anyway. There's genuinely very little value in being constantly pushed by FOMO and there IS a way to get out of the FOMO mentality. You can work on that, especially with people who can offer professional help if you need it.

Never let the capitalist scum control you.

[landgraabbed]

inspired by the whole dragon age top surgery scar thing, i do think it makes sense to have them similar to the real world in this setting. yes, magic exists, but a huge part of the world of thedas is that magic and mages are heavily restricted to circles in many places. and regardless of player choice the circles still exist in some shape as of veilguard. i'm sure anders would do top surgery as he has performed all forms of lifesaving treatments in darktown, but let's not kid ourselves into believing that everyone has a neighborhood mage working at a clinic.

i think it can be a case of representation done in a way that advances the worldbuilding. those without access to magic and such would be more likely to have to do it surgically; those in places where a friendly neighborhood mage would do it for them probably don't have to worry about scarring, or at least it being as visible, and so on.

i do think there is a lot to be said about visible representation in fictional settings, and i am firmly in the camp that it should be done in the context of the setting. there's a lot to be said about shoving real world wheelchairs when there could be other ways to promote the accessibility of people with mobility issues in that setting. i'm thinking about caxton frost from dread delusion, who uses a cane when at home and uses spider-like mechanical legs during missions. or lorian from dark souls being aided by his brother's magic to teleport around the arena, having lost the use of his legs; interestingly, this makes his battle one where mobility is the name of the game since he will frequently go to your blind spots. i do think the speculative brand of representation is really interesting, especially as someone whose disability is visible in a way that is very shaped by current tech (insulin pumps and glucose monitors).

edit: i do think representation doesn't just have to be about how people in [insert setting here] deal with [disability/gender affirming procedures]. it can also be like, how does this person achieve their goals now. i am thinking about the wheelchair dudes in bloodborne who effectively use their wheelchair as a gatling gun mount dfjsfdfjds

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

thoughts on 4WS? everybody and their mom knows the prelude,but would you be interested in talking about some of the other interesting vehicles with stuff like this?

or maybe other methods of decreasing turn radius?

I love the “everybody and their mom knows the Prelude”. Truly the embodiment of the silicate chemistry XKCD.

But sure! I can’t really say much about 4WS beyond “It’s when the rear tires steer opposite to the fronts to decrease turn radius at low speeds or when they steer with the fronts to increase stability at high speeds, and it really helps make cars be and feel more agile, which is why you see it on the new Range Rover and why you will probably see it in many other cars now that they are all ballooning out of proportion. Cool! Don’t park too close to curbs tho or your rear end will kick out into them and curb your wheels”, so let’s move on to… less orthodox ways to decrease turn radius.

You’d included a GIF of the Rivian “tank turn” which they were going to include in their models only to then not, but I took the liberty to place it next to a GIF of the BYD YangWang U8 showing it off at the latest and incredibly exciting Japan Mobility Salon [for some reason this post is stuck on the old editor so pretend that link is blue] to offer suitable accompaniment

(start at 1:36 if it doesn’t do so automatically)

Hope this will do in lieu of commentary because all I could offer is a demonstration of how many times I can type “what the fuck” in a row. Oh and if that wasn’t enough they also showed one do this.

I am genuinely pretty sure I came up with such a wheel design and then thought “no, this is stupid and absurd, forget I thought that” and then BYD was like “lol, lmao, rotfl even”.

But if you have wheels that don’t make you fear a robot uprising and surfaces that grip too hard to permit that Tchaikovskian bullshit, what are you to do?

Well, turn radius is a function of steering angle and wheelbase, so you can just alter those! Now, one would think the distance between the centers of your wheels would be pretty tough to alter, and indeed, it is. Well, it is pretty tough to alter without getting a wall involved and giving you more problems than you solved, if you know what I’m saying. Let alone to alter it reversibly. But some have done it! Enter Rinspeed, Swiss Porsche tuner turned concept car maker whose staying afloat I genuinely cannot explain, and more specifically its early-00s concept the Presto, a concept car that, once you realize you cannot for the life of you find four people willing to get near that horrendous front let alone in the thing, has the ability to cut your losses and accordionize itself.

“Yahchoo!”

Nice, Ron. And sure, the windshield is borderline nominal, the doors were sacrificed to the gimmick altar so one assumes you must get in Hazzard-style without even having a roof to paint something racist on, and it’s probably illegal in many fun new ways, but at least it’s gotta be a TON of fun.

You know what I suddenly feel like we should move on to something else. How about this thing?

“The Mk1 Golf?”Almost - as seen by the five bolt wheels, different bumpers and barely visible side vents, while this was an ordinary Mk1 Golf, Italo-Swiss tuning house Sbarro took care of that problem by shoving a Porsche 3.3L behind the front seats (what is this, Renault? [again, please record yourself saying “that link is blue” and play that recording back repeatedly over a spinning spiral GIF]). But the thing is, Franco Sbarro saw the whole ordeal and thought “Ah, but the engine that we put right in front of a massive trunk lid is going to need accessing at some point. I must think of the most rational way to accomplish that”, and then made the car fucking open in two. What is it with Switzerland and cars doing this shit.

So yeah. If you were willing to spend an absolute fortune to make your Volkswagen Golf a positive deathtrap, you could, through an incredible and unimaginably dodgy feat of engineering, shorten your wheelbase by a measure I measured at comfortably under two inches. Now, I cannot think that makes much difference in turning radius, but hey, I’ve seen masculinities built and shattered over less.

Fortunately, the wheelbase is just one of the determining factors of turning radius, and the other, steering angle, is a pretty popular thing to increase through aftermarket components because it’s very important in drifting: as explained in this brilliant-as-always article from Speedhunters, since drifting consists of holding your car at a big angle relative to where you’re going, if you want to maintain that big angle you kind of need the front wheels to be able to be at a big angle relative to where the car is pointing.

Unfortunately, your steering wheel doesn’t stop turning just because it feels you got to turn it long enough already - it stops because the wheels are about to hit something. So in serious drift cars the front wheels have to be pushed outwards to keep them from encountering car as they turn. But of course, there is an alternative to pushing the wheels out - pushing the wheel wells in! That, in fact, is the technique employed by the personal driftcar of world champion Piotr Więcek…

….no, not the 800hp S15, I said the one he drives for fun.

Perfection. Indeed, since the last generation Twingo shares its platform with the Smart Forfour which itself shares bits and bobs with the historically rear-engined Smart Fortwo, the engine is in the rear, meaning the front wheels have nothing in between to stop them from turning outrageously wide, making its turning circle great for city driving, city parking, and apparently tandem drifting with an 800hp S15.

But I cannot talk about ways to facilitate street parking without talking about the first thing I ever received by email, in January 2011, or more than twelve years ago (yeah I know, sorry): a video of this car.

Apparently, it was an idea that had existed since the 50s, too!

I find this to be a really clever idea - you already need to bring the spare tire around anyway, and you already have a shaft spinning in that direction because that’s what connects the engine to the differential! Unfortunately though, nowadays most cars -especially the space-conscious ones- are front wheel drive, which would make implementing what already was a packaging nightmare to begin with take up even more space, probably to the point of being counterproductive. Unless perhaps you put the spare in front of the engine and redesigned the differential to *spends the next six months thinking about this*

[fefairys]

ok i wanna make my own tips post for the redditors

hello welcome :] here's some things i've noticed it seems a lot of you aren't aware of. i might add more later:

first of all, PLEASE turn on custom theme! you don't have to actually make or find a theme yourself as it gives you a default one, (but it is really fun and good to personalize your blog however you want) but doing this makes it easier to view and search your own blog, as i will describe later. this makes it so that you will show up at yoururl.tumblr.com and not just tumblr.com/yoururl it gives you your own page! it's good!! you can only tick this setting on desktop:

another very important thing: DO NOT FUCKING REPOST ART WITHOUT CREDIT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. honestly you should not report art without permission at all, but at LEAST credit the artist. and saying "idk who did this but credit to them" DOES NOT COUNT. take some time to reverse google image search and find the artist. if you can't find them, DON'T REPOST!!! turning the art into a meme doesn't mean you don't have to credit the artist!!!!!! AAHHH!! ok.

TAGS/SEARCHING in reblogs, all tags serve to do is (a) leave a bit of quiet commentary, if you're too shy to leave it in the actual body of the post or (b) organize posts on Your Blog Only. tagging a reblog does not make the post show up in the searchable tag. reblogs are not searchable through the tumblr search bar.

to find posts from a certain tag on your own blog, go to yoururl.tumblr.com/tagged/tag. you can also add /chrono to the end of that url to view the posts in chronological order! you actually don't need to tag original posts with every variation of a tag either. for example if you tag something as "r/196", it will show up when just "196" is searched for, because it contains "196" in it. so you dont NEED to tag the post "196, r196, r/196" etc. but i mean. do whatever u want. honestly i think a lot of veteran tumblr users don't even know that. but yeah tagging with a ton of variations like that is unnecessary unless you're spelling something differently or doing an abbreviation as well as a full title, such as "#what we do in the shadows, #wwdits"

also, your posts are searchable by literally any word in the post, whether it be the body, the tags, or even your url. so if your url has 'catboy' in it, and someone searches 'catboy' they will see all of your original posts in the tag lmao. it is pretty stupid but that's how it works.

on that note, FILTERING with filtering tags, it is very specific. so if youre content warning tagging something, please just tag it with the word, like "#blood" because if you tag it "#cw blood" or "#blood ///" people who just have "#blood" blocked, will still see the post! lots of veteran tumblr users don't seem to grasp this either 😭

you can filter out words as well as tags, but that can get tricky because if you filter out "rape" words like "grape" and "drape" will also be blocked, so i only use the word filter to block peoples urls. because even if you have someone blocked, you can still see people reblogging their posts, so if u don't wanna see them at all, block their url as a filtered word.

you can do all of this in the regular ol' 'settings' tab on desktop. on mobile it's settings -> general settings -> filtering

PAGES something i love about tumblr but is getting used less and less is the ability to make separate pages on your blog. the option to do so is all the way at the bottom on the theme customization panel. (only available on desktop tumblr)

nowadays a lot of people just make a carrd and provide a link to that, but tumblr allows you to make your own separate blog pages! a lot of people use this to make "about me" pages, since it provides a lot more freedom than just the "blog description" section! you can put images on there, and just completely code the whole thing yourself! unfortunately, these pages aren't visible on mobile unless you link to them in your blog description (see my blog as an example) using <a href="link">link title</a> lots of people have links like this in their descriptions that lead to about pages or carrds! you should click on these to learn more about the person you're following!!

some people have "DNI (do not interact)" or "BYF (before you follow)" pages to set boundaries on who they do or don't want following them, as a warning of like "hey if you fall under this criteria and you follow/interact with me, you're getting blocked" so those are good to check for! some folks have lots of strong opinions on these that theyre "stupid" or "useless" but really it's just a warning and setting boundaries. like, if you follow me and ur not supposed to, i'm just gonna block you anyway, it was just a warning that that's what was gonna happen!

speaking of blocking, just fuckin' block whoever you want whenever you want. if you find someone annoying just block them. if they post something you don't like just block them. there's no need to get into an argument. just block! and they're gone! wheeee!!

SIDEBLOGS!!! you can have separate blogs from your main one that are connected to your same account! some people have tooooons of sideblogs for every single fandom they're in, some people just use their main for everything. it's up to you!

note that you can only like posts, send asks, follow people, and reply to posts under your main blog url. sideblogs are just for posting and reblogging in a more organized manner :] it's good to say in the description of your side blog what your main blog is so people know who you are when you like and reply to posts and such! (and also to list your sideblogs somewhere on ur main for the same reason. i use the aforementioned about page for this ^u^)

um that's it for now! there's a lot of other things i could talk about, but i'm sure other posts are covering it.. these are just ones i really want to iterate, especially the tags thing cause i think a lot of tumblr users don't even realize that lol ^u^ i've been active as fuck on tumblr since 2013 so I can answer questions if you have any :)

[omegalomania]

i Love your Heartbreak video game art !! just curious, how did you pick their stats bars?

thank youuu!! honestly i wasn't gonna go whole hog with the stats but the thing got away from me lmao but im SO GLAD YOU ASKED

the art in question is going off the gist of the "heartbreak feels so good" mv being like a sidescrolling platformer which would sync combat with mobility in a very tight synergy to go with the overall vibe of the video. basically that means jumping all over the city, fending off attackers, and making sure you don't take too many falls or let your health get too low.

patrick is a glass cannon! high speed, high attack, and middling-to-high stamina - he hits super hard and super fast and needs to be moving always. his health is middling but his defense is low, so if you pin him down he goes down quick. part of my reasoning here is that patrick is so. damn. zippy. on stage he bounces ALL over the place he is VERY kinetic and mobile, along with the fact that patrick's signature white boy rage in the early days was very definitely a Thing meant that him having the highest attack stat was a no-brainer. docked his health and stamina to even things out some, which means playing as him would be an exercise in precision timing. difficult but rewarding.

pete is a high-mobility blitzer. he lacks a lot of high attack or defense power but he's got middle-to-high speed and decent stamina to make up for it, and a decent health stat on top of it. if you're playing as pete, this is the guy you pick for speedruns basically - combat is not gonna be your focus here. your goal is to be very mobile and hard to catch but you've got a decent margin for error with the high health stat. if patrick and andy are the extremes (hard-hitting fragile speedster vs. slower damage absorption and survivability), pete is more middle of the road. and part of this is again because of how mobile this dude is - he's sporty, he's athletic, and he's also throwing himself all over the damn place when it comes to live shows, spinning and crowdsurfing and the whole nine yards. he also doesn't like physically fighting by his own admission so i figured that'd make him an ideal candidate for a low-attack high-mobility playstyle.

andy is the tank. the dude is built like a brick shithouse made of solid beef and it made sense that his stats/playstyle would reflect that. high health, high defense, maxed out stamina: the dude is a fucking damage SPONGE and it will take a LOT of hits before he goes down. speed is super low as an equalizer and attack is middling, not too shoddy, but lbr if you're picking andy you're probably just gonna facetank everything anyway. realistically andy should be like totally maxed-out all stats cause of how damn beefy he is but i figure i should opt toward just him being the raw power since patrick got all the attack/speed. my reasoning here was. well. i mean just look at him

joe is locked at first but can be unlocked once you beat the game at least once with any of the other three :) he's similar to pete in that he has a more middle-of-the-road approach compared to andy or patrick but with the added challenge of a pretty low health pool. middling-to-low attack, low speed, but high defense and stamina means that he's basically your pick if you favor stealth. if you're playing as joe your goal is gonna be less killstreaking your enemies and more crowd control, kiting them around to your advantage. like pete, joe is a pretty nonviolent guy by his own admission, so i figured a playstyle that would minimize enemy casualties and optimize low visibility (since he doesn't love being in the spotlight anyway) would make sense.

THANK YOU FOR ASKING BTW i love rambling about this stuff so much so it means a lot that people ask!!!

[fantastic-nonsense]

What do you think of the idea of Barbara Gordon becoming a Green Lantern? Like how the Elseworld stories Created Equal did it. I sometimes felt like if certain writers wanted to undo the consequences of TKJ so badly that this would be the relatively less offensive/convoluted route to take it. Even if it's temporary in-story. Personally I'm just shocked the Guardians haven't considered Babs as a GL in the main verse, then again they're not known for bright ideas :P

I think it would be a very fun short-term or AU arc to put her through just in general, but maybe that's just because I've idly spent time debating what color Lantern the Batfam would be (Babs would in fact be Green, btw). I've had a lot of fun with the "Black Canary becomes a GL" arc in DCeased recently and it would be kind of fun to do a Blackest Night-type thing where the whole Batfam gets deputized by various Corps for a hot second (though I live in fear of them being mis-sorted by whichever writer DC would pick to write that story).

Generally I think speculation on what color Lantern a non-Lantern character would be if they were to be deputized is fun in general, but speculating about Batfam members is a fine line between "having fun" and "getting a headache because of fanon characterizations influencing peoples' choices." Re: canon, I think there's a lot of reasons the Guardians never truly considered Babs or most of the other Batfam members for rings, but you're absolutely right that she would make a great one.

I don't think it's a good way to "undo the consequences of TKJ" and I don't think it should be viewed as such, but I do think it would be a really interesting way to mitigate and explore the concept of Barbara as a "walking" hero while still keeping her at least semi-paralyzed and giving her visible and obvious mobility aids. This even got addressed in Steph’s Batgirl run, where Bryan Q. Miller engaged with the idea conceptually by having Steph hallucinate Babs in a Green Lantern mech construct while under the effects of Black Mercy:

tl;dr it's fun. I like it and would like to see it explored one day in an AU (Bryan Q Miller, come back and write that Lantern AU and all of your other Black Mercy ideas already!). But I'm also not particularly surprised it hasn't really been thought of or addressed in the main universe given Babs' existing connections with the Batfam, Birds of Prey, and Justice League.

[evolvingbeautyandmess]

USUAL DISCLAIMER: so these posts are dictated via speech to text and due to spoons and the whole vibe of the blog there's really just going to be minimal at best editing. Also I don't know why Google census curse words but here we are

So today sucked and last night wasn't that great either.

But at least I no longer subscribe to this idea rooted in toxic positivity that one should not complain because it could be worse.

Growing up I often heard don't complain it could be worse (when what was going down was very much worthy of saying something) and certainly as I became more visibly disabled in my adult life though looking back on it I was born with s*** but that's a whole other post. I found that there's a certain element of ableism where people expect disabled people to not complain even when we're facing oppression and I mean like full throttle systemic oppression in addition to the social oppression

And that is rooted in the idea that disabled people are less than inferior so we should be happy we get crumbs in the first place.

To ask to be treated as a full-fledged human (which fun fact we are) is often treated like we're asking for too much.

I remember they were times where my brain developed second brain cyst and people were like well at least it's not cancer or they say s*** like well at least you have a roof over your head. And then some would directly say don't complain it could be worse.

And here's the thing that pisses me off about that besides the fact that it really if you internalize that it can f*** you up.

I mean for an example when my brain developed the second brain cyst yes benign but still a f****** brain cyst I was barely sleeping I was in a s*** ton of pain I was not getting help from doctors and my mobility was getting worse and it was scary and I was sad and it was a lot but instead of people allowing you to just be a f****** human being, and just sit with and process etc the weight of all the changes , a lot of people are like well don't complain it could be worse which tacks on even more weight.

And if someone was saying holy crap this is the worst thing ever in the history of all humanity I have the worst nothing in the world can compare to my suffering and my suffering alone and someone responded it will actually ya know it could logistically be worse, that would be one thing.

But that's not what most people are saying and it wasn't what I was saying. I was just saying I'm having a hard time with it I'm struggling. And that's fine to feel that way. Just because you don't have it the worst does not mean that what you're going through is not hard.

And also telling me don't complaining could be worse well now and addition to everything else that's going on in my life I'm thinking about all the suffering in the world. Thank you very helpful kindly f*** off.

There's a difference between finding beauty and finding peace in moments during struggle if you can if that's what you're feeling but this f****** toxic pressure to be positive is f****** ridiculous. It makes it so much harder than it has to be.

And I found a lot of people who say that s*** only say that s*** because they themselves are uncomfortable with their own feelings and thus they're uncomfortable with your feelings. They say s*** like that sometimes because they don't know what to say to you and they don't really know how to help you but instead of sitting with that with themselves they go well don't complain it could be worse.

And so yeah the last 24 hours at times have royally sucked. Not the worst I've personally been through and certainly not the worst that is going on in all of humanity to say the very least, but it has sucked I did not appreciate it I did not order it I could not return it it reminded me of s*** but I did not need a reminding of and it made me question why does my life have to be so f****** challenging sometimes.

But at least I'm in a place now or I don't question if I'm overreacting or if I'm not being quote grateful enough ".

I know that being a full-fledged human being I am totally capable of holding space for its difficult and what I'm struggling with and acknowledging that and sitting with that well also finding certain things in my life that I am grateful for. Those two things can exist and those two things do not negate each other.

And you know what I don't have to always simultaneously acknowledge what I'm grateful for to show that I'm grateful for things. Sometimes things are difficult enough where it feels too big to then have the emotional space and spoons to go but I'm grateful for this. Doesn't mean that you're not grateful for anything ever, it just means that what you're going through is a bit too big in this moment for you to think beyond it. And eventually you will but you're not there yet and that's okay.

And those are some thoughts that I had tonight. F*** medical insomnia which is a whole other post and f*** toxic positivity.

[merulast]

Tech talk

Tomorrow is kickoff. How do I feel? Kinda. Okay? I fetch a flu on the last days and my credo "do this or die on the road" starts to kick in. But on the other hand we always get a flu when we don't need it, eh? And when had we ever needed one? Anyway.

So far I wrote quite some Blog posts about how to find routes and plan stupid stuff. Stupid, because many things will not work once you start the trip anyway. But planing is still a good thing (isn't it?) because at least you learn about the possible options. And knowing the options is always a good thing!

But lets talk about something else: The Tech!!!!11!elf

It's so tech!!

I want to travel some 'roads' that are not very common for mid Europeans to hit. And what do you do if you want to know more but have no friends that ever leaves the home town? You reach out for social media and videos. And you probably had already noticed that I'm not quite a fan of vtubers and traveling youtubers. I would love to rant a bit more about them. But not now.

I still enjoyed to see the scenery. To see the locations. See the bus or the trains and having the opportunity to create my own, silly incomplete picture of what it is like. And so I decided that I also want to capture media! At least this time. Because last time, I did not even shot an single picture of anything in more then 1 year of living in Xi'an.

What to do with this media. Well. I don't really know! Will I just place them online? Maybe? Make youtube Videos that violate alot of copyrights? Maybe! Make fun on other popular vtuber content that made me cringe? Hell yeah! We will see!

(obviously I will most likely do nothing of all that!)

(Noel Philips - full time 'being not at home to review toilets' v-tuber)

Timelapse

The main brain fart that made me plan this trip was to see and feel the 'world' in between two places. And I noticed that some bored highway guys made timelapse videos of driving from a to b.

And while timelapse videos can have this 2007-warcraft-rouge-in-bw-with-linking-park-music feeling, they also can be interesting. Plus they ripe like wine. They are usually just showing the raw thing. No filters, no effects. No 'selection' of what to see. And I kinda like this. Nobody might be interested into a timelapse now. But it might be interesting later.

Anyway. So I decided to try that. And noticed, that there are not really affordable 'timelapse' Devices on the marked o.o?

Mobile Phones can do the trick. If you use some nice apps, they even could do it well. But for how long? What do you think how long will your power last? Mobile phones are small computers. They are not meant to record something for 4,8,24,48 hours non stop. And im pretty sure that most of the apps had not been written for this kind of 'professional usage', too.

Cameras are bigger devices. The can have a lot more capacity on board and the image quality should be nice. Okay. Do you want to spend more then 500 bucks on them? I .. dont know. Isn't it overkill? Another thing is that this cameras are huge. How to place them in public transport and let them run for 24h without getting robbed?

Build something! Yeah. Sure.

I got my hands on a cheap gopro7. When it comes to timelapse feature, there is absolute nothing positive to get something more modern. It shoots in 1080p and, to my big surprise, the build in power supply was able to last 12 hours straight without external supply. It is smal and I can easily tape it where-ever I want. With one picture taken all 5 seconds there is no shaking visible, even if I tape it straight to the casis of a bus, the picture remains very smooth.

360° Pictures

Why isn't this a thing? You shoot a picture and people can look around the whole place! ITS AMAZING! Fuck selfie with Ninni-Graniny in front of a Town sign. See the whole place! You can even upload them on google 'streetmap'!

See that tiny blue bubbles? Klick on them to see what this part of 'desert' looks like.

✅ Thats amazin! How could you not love this to look around all by yourself?!

❌ Serious cameras that make 360° pictures our of the box start at much moneyz

✅ But every modern smart phone can do that out of the boy if you take multiple pictures!

🆗 And It may looks not very professional for many reasons. You should watch an tutorial for better results

(who told you emojis would look nice on this? Grandmother whatsapp?)

Conclusion

So yeah. I will try both. Making some 360° pictures of locations that have none available, and also record the time lapse. We will see how it turns out!

[bestonlinemarketingcompany]

Digital marketing strategies for small business

The growing presence of brands online has changed how they function and engage with clients. Where technology is used to integrate branding and advertising into everyday professional, personal, and entertainment activities.

Communication is the first strategy for implementing a strong marketing plan. Fortunately, there is cloud software in the market to help you in planning your projects.

When your whole team is on board, you’ll need to decide on the kind of strategy you’d like to use. Do you want to invest in video? After deciding on the direction you’ll take, it’s time to set the budget for your marketing.

Digital marketing is a buzzword in business. It’s something that we’ve heard about so many times and we will continue to do so. Marketers in both profit and nonprofit organizations have also realized its importance.

The success of digital marketing comes after a careful analysis of your strategies. And accomplishing that isn’t as easy as it sounds. In this article, we present you with strategies that you need to incorporate into your business.

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is one of the most efficient methods for driving organic traffic to your website. For small business SEO, there are three types of SEO to consider: on-page SEO, technical SEO, and local SEO.

On-page SEO concerns optimizing each of your web pages to rank higher on search engines. It entails performing keyword research to identify those that fit the context of your page, then optimizing your content to target those keywords.

Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing your website and servers to ensure search engine spiders can crawl and index your pages without any friction. Some examples of this would be:

Increasing site speed

Ensuring all pages are mobile-friendly

Use SSL (HTTPS).

Create an XML sitemap.

Add structured data markup (schema) to pages.

Set canonical links for content.

Ensure there are no duplicate content issues.

Local SEO is a strategy that helps local businesses rank well for searches contextual to their geographic location. For example, if you’re a business operating in New York, local SEO would help you rank higher in searches than your competitor in New Jersey.

The advantage of SEO is that it’s highly scalable. You might start with a few pages targeting specific keywords, but once you’ve laid the foundation, your content (and therefore the number of prospects you reach) can expand exponentially.

It’s really important that you track the performance of your SEO activities. You can use something Google Analytics to monitor incoming traffic, but a tool like SEMRush will help you track your positions for individual keywords.

2. Content marketing

Content marketing is a strategy for attracting and engaging your audience by creating content they’re interested in. This can include:

Articles

Whitepapers

Ebooks

Videos

Podcasts

Infographics

There are a few things you can achieve with content marketing, so we’ll start with the most obvious.

When your content is optimized for search engines, blogging is a fantastic digital marketing strategy for generating organic traffic. If you consistently create informative content for readers, search engines will identify your website as a legitimate source of information.

It also helps in establishing your credibility as a thought leader for your readers. So, if they have related questions in the future they’re more likely to return to your content before going to competitors.

Starting a blog isn’t a complex process, it’s never been easier to build a website and start publishing content. As we stated above, consistency is key, so you should publish blog posts at least once a week will help you improve your site’s visibility online.

Beyond driving traffic, you can also utilize content to help leads make purchasing decisions. For example, you could write an article on why your product or service is a better fit for leads than your competitors.

Once you start blogging, include a call-to-action for visitors to subscribe to your email list. This gives you a way to continue engaging leads with content and promotions.

3. Link building

Link building is the practice of obtaining links to your domain from other websites. This is one of the key factors that SERPs (search engines) use to identify whether or not your domain is an authority.

The more high-quality links you can collect, the better your domain score will become. But you will want to avoid links from low quality or spammy websites that have lower domain scores.

You can use tools like ahrefs to check the score of any domain, which will help you identify whether or not you want to request a backlink.

Of course, not everyone will just offer up a backlink to your content out of the good of their heart. Don’t get us wrong, it’s absolutely worth asking, but you’ll want to think of something you can offer in return. Some examples of this would be:

Backlink trade (you link to them if they link to you).

Write a guest post for their blog (and include a link to your content).

Create a Top 10 in the industry article (request a backlink from all those you intend to include).

If you’re focussing on local SEO tactics, your priority should be to obtain links from other (non-competitive) local businesses in your area.

When digital marketing for nonprofits, you may find that you have access to a lot more goodwill, so link building can be a little easier. Brands can benefit from associating themselves with you, and local (or even national) news organizations always need to produce content (for which you’d be a great fit).

4. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is an excellent example of one of the more cost-effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses. They give you access to audiences you may not have been able to reach otherwise and offer an avenue for businesses to market their brands.

The big three social media platforms for brands have always been Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But you may also find value in more multi-media focussed platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat.

Here is how you can use social media platforms in your marketing campaigns:

Boosting brand awareness.

Recruitment of employees.

Recognizing your team for their efforts.

Sharing needful information about your business.

Engage with your audiences on topics they’re interested in.

Provide customer support.

Finding new prospects via keywords and hashtag searches.

It’s important to ensure social media posts are consistent with your brand messaging and targeted at your audiences. To make it easier, it’s best to have someone dedicated to this role such as a social media manager.

Social media marketing is aimed at personifying your brand. Thus, someone must be available to answer questions. They should be able to interact with users in your comment section.

5. Email marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most efficient digital marketing strategies for small businesses. The average email open rate for 2022 is 21.5%, which is 3.5% higher than it was in 2020 at 18%.

But what does it consist of?

Email marketing is essentially a strategy for engaging your readers (which can be customers, subscribers, or even employees). Each campaign will have its own goal, and the content you create should be focused on convincing readers to take actions that help you reach that goal.

For example, if you’re trying to increase conversions you may want to send a promotional code or discount to your subscribers.

Something that a lot of marketers struggle with is building an email list in the first place. We’d recommend using lead magnets to attract new subscribers, as it’s always best to offer something to people in return for a subscription (after all, they are giving you their personal data).

The most important aspects of email marketing are engagement and consistency. Everything from your email subject line to the content itself has to provide value or be of some interest to your readers.

You’ll also need to set KPIs and track the performance of email metrics to identify what’s working well and what needs improvement.

If you need a more thorough overview and some tips on getting started, head over to our email marketing guide for more information.

6. Video marketing

Whether they’re consuming content for work or fun, know that people love video content. Video marketing is a sure way of garnering interest and support from multiple audiences in a much more engaging format.

You can engage audiences with both long-form and short-form video content, but you must ensure that you keep content tight and relevant to the topic.

Here are four reasons that video marketing is one of the best digital marketing strategies for small businesses:

Personal. It inspires emotions and empathy. And you can’t get that from other forms of marketing.

Educational. Video will help you to educate your audience about your products.

Visual. People process video content faster then written content.

Memorable. People remember video content for a longer time.

Sharable. People are more likely to interact with and share videos over written content.

Searchable. Videos have dedicated search engines on YouTube and Vimeo (and others).

The downside is that video content can take more time to create, as you’ll need to consider the visual elements, scripting, editing, and promotion.

You may also need to invest in software that allows you to create videos easily, meaning video marketing may not be as cost-effective as other digital marketing strategies on the list.

For more details on our products and services, please feel free to visit us at: Website Content Writing Services, Infographics Creation, Website Designing Services, Website Redesigning Services & Logo design.

Please feel free to visit us at: https://webigg.com/

[hostitsmartcanada]

How to create a website for a travel agency?

As you know, in today's digital era having a professional and user-friendly website is very much necessary for a business like a travel agency. A website becomes the ultimate gateway for many customers. 

Creating a travel website might feel like a hefty task, but it is not like that. With proper guidance, it will be a successful business outcome. We will be learning more about creating a potential website for travel agency services. A well-designed professional website will surely attract your website visitors. But always note that a website should only not be visually appealing, but also it should be user-friendly and easy to navigate.

A travel website should be easily accessible so that visitors can easily get into pages like booking without any hurdles. They should have a good and hurdle-free browning experience. Not only that, proper usage of Search engine optimization techniques will help your website to get more visitors and may also help you to rank at the top of the search results.

So now that you got some proper information about a travel agency website let us dive into how to start a travel website in a detailed way. 

Creation of a travel agency website

1. Understand your website objective or motto 

Well, first and foremost, always prepare your website goals and objectives, like thinking about what a person needs when he is going to start a travel website, showcasing travel packages, attracting new customers, and do provide a hassle-free booking experience.

2. Choose a proper domain name and hosting provider 

Select a domain name that reflects your travel agency business brand vitally. Always choose a name that is easy to remember and spell. Once you choose a domain name, the next task is to choose a hosting provider to choose a provider that fits your budget and needs. 

3. Select a CMS 

The best CMS simplifies the website creation process, even for those who don't have technical knowledge. Wordpress is one of the best and most popular CMS that offers a wide range of themes and plugins. Especially you can also have a whole different section to design your whole travel website properly. It allows easy customization and management and make it easy for beginners. 

4. Install and customize your theme

Once you install your wordpress, you can select your theme and then align them as you wish. But remember to consider your travel theme and features related to it responsive design, and proper customization options. 

5. Add Essential pages 

To provide relevant information to your visitors, you should include relevant information like 

Home page for a proper introduction and highlighting your key specification 

Create a different section showcasing your popular travel destination with an attractive image and brief description.

Include your travel package and also your services like accommodation, transportation, and activities.

Share information about your agency's history. 

Have a contact us page so that people can easily get in touch with you. 

6. Try to create an SEO-friendly website 

Increase your website visibility with search engine results. It is very much necessary to optimize your website with a search engine. Do consider the following things: 

Research and pick the relevant keywords that would fit your website and travel agency business and use them in your website content. 

Always target an eye catchy and easily understandable meta title and description. So that each and every user who is visiting your website can easily understand what's actually on your website. 

Properly optimize your website page speed by compressing images and using fast domain hosting. 

See that your website is mobile-friendly and is giving the audience a seamless mobile experience. 

7. Provide a Well maintained booking system: 

Last but not least, provide a well-maintained booking page for your clients or website visitors. Ensure that all the links which they are clicking are going to relevant pages or not. Also, ensure having a secure payment gateway so that people can have ultimate trust in your website while paying.

Conclusion

Well, these where some of the things you need to keep in mind while creating a travel agency website. Otherwise, all your customers might jump to your competitor's website, and you may lose the lead. 

Source

[army-of-bee-assassins]

Hi Disco Elysium fandom! If y'all have noticed me and a small group of other users here adding image descriptions (IDs) to your posts, and if you want to know more about why, then I have some relevant information for you here! Namely that:

The ultimate goal of those adding IDs is for as many people as possible to include image descriptions in their original posts!

I'm gonna get into the details of image descriptions (like how and why to write and reblog them) down below, but I just want to state some things from the get-go:

A post that's accessible from the start is much better than one that's only accessible in the notes. Ideally, accessibility should be included in the original post. That way, blind and other disabled people don’t need to go searching for content they can access. It is everybody's responsibility to foster an accessible and inclusive environment! That's the only way it's even possible, actually.

Also, there are far too many new posts in the Disco Elysium tag every day for a small number of people to describe them all. It's great that there's so much new content every day! But a good 98% of it is completely inaccessible, and - considering there's less than 10 of us who are regularly writing image descriptions in this fandom - it is simply impossible for us to keep up with it all. Even if someone has described your posts in the past, that does not mean you can assume that they’ll definitely describe the next post you make (not without directly asking, at least).

This is why it's important to 1) write your own image descriptions and 2) if someone else writes an ID for your post, edit it into the original post itself instead of just reblogging it (no credit is necessary).

If you want any help writing IDs (including if you want to ask someone to just write the whole thing for you), there is a (non-fandom-specific, accessibility-focused) discord server for that! Here is the link to join the server. It is very active, and I have used it myself for help with tricky IDs many times and gotten pretty quick responses.

Now, on to actually talking about image descriptions themselves! I promise, they're not as difficult or time-consuming as you may think. And I swear to you, fanartists - people will still reblog your art with a description. They're not ugly or taking up too much space. I have some great examples at the end!

Why write image descriptions?

Image descriptions explain what an image is of for people who would otherwise not be able to access it. They are necessary for blind people. Many blind people use a text-to-speech program called a screen reader, which reads text aloud. When it comes across an image, the screen reader will just say "image" and the user will have no idea what it is an image of. IDs are a solution to this problem. After the screen reader says “image,” it will then read the image description aloud. However, not everyone who needs image descriptions uses a screen reader! Some people are low vision and have trouble seeing what's in the image but can still read text visually. Some people have a hard time processing visual information and interpreting what's happening in an image. Some poor and rural people have weak internet connections and images never load. And sometimes the image is of grainy text and it's difficult to read. Image descriptions are a benefit to people in all of these situations.

Can I just use alt text?

Alt text makes the image accessible to people who use screen readers. Someone without a screen reader can also click through to alt text on a desktop browser. However, there is no way to access alt text on tumblr mobile without using a screen reader, and needing to click through to see descriptions is not ideal either. Therefore, alt text is not accessible to everyone who may need an image description. Until tumblr makes alt text easily visible to everyone who wants it, it is always going to be best practice to write an image description under the post as well.

Please use both alt text and an image description in the body of the post.

Can you put the image description under a read more and/or use small/stylized text?

Please don't do this! The small/stylized text is an obvious one. As mentioned earlier, some people who need image descriptions are low vision but do not use a screen reader. Using small or stylized text is obviously a detriment to them. It can also cause eye strain and headaches.

The read more thing is less obvious, and unfortunately something I see fairly often. Imagine for a second that you are a person who needs image descriptions. Now imagine that in order to get the full content of every single post with an image on this website, you had to click through a read more and - on mobile - fully navigate away from your dashboard. Every single time. This wouldn't feel very accessible, would it? And secondary to that, if you ever deactivate, then that ID that you put under the read more becomes completely lost to time.

I promise your description is not too long. Just use plain text and keep it in the main body of the post.

Why should you check the notes for an ID before reblogging an inaccessible post?

You may think that if a post has an ID in the notes, then anyone who needs that ID will just go into the notes to find it themself. However, this runs into the exact same issue as the read more thing: it's straight-up bonkers to expect people who need image descriptions to do this on every single post they come across.

Instead, you can easily start making your blog more accessible by checking the notes yourself and making an effort to spread accessible versions of posts! This is a wonderful way to start making your blog more accessible, especially if you're not someone with the ability to write image descriptions yourself! When you spread an accessible post, then the people who follow you will spread that version too, and it can become more widespread than the version without an ID. The more people do this, the easier it becomes for people needing image descriptions to come across them naturally on their dash!

Checking the notes for an ID is now easier than it has been in the past. In the notes, filter them down to reblogs with "comments only". This should show you an ID if there is one. Unfortunately, on posts with more than about 1000 notes or so, this feature doesn't seem to work as well (and tumblr staff hasn't fixed it since the new notes system was implemented, despite numerous complaints). The ID may not show up even though there is one. You can still scroll through the reblogs sorted down to "comments and tags" to find the image description, though this will take slightly longer. However, even on posts with thousands notes, it usually takes less than 60 seconds.

How do you write an image description?

I promise this part isn't as hard as it seems! I'm gonna link to some posts where people have explained things better than me in just a moment, but I'll just say: Any description is better than none. And even in a super detailed photograph or piece of art, you don't necessarily have to include everything. Zero in on what's most important in order for someone to understand what's going on in the image, and focus on that in your description. Not that you can't include the cool details when they're there! Just try not to get too bogged down in it.

My friend JD has a few very helpful posts about how to write image descriptions that I'm gonna link to here:

How Do I Write Good Image Descriptions?

How to Make Your Art Accessible

I also wanted to link to some great examples of Disco Elysium fanart with IDs written by the OP! Example 1 - by funnywormz Example 2 - by mascindulgence Example 3 - by empress-s

And lastly, I wanted to talk about the most common kind of screenshot in this fandom: dialogue screenshots. I have a very useful Google Doc here where I have compiled every bit of dialogue I have ever transcribed from Disco Elysium screenshots. A lot of the same quotes are very popular, so it's very easy to just ctrl + F and then copy and paste into your image description! And after the almost one year I've been doing this, there's a whole lotta game dialogue in there. If you take a funny screenshot of dialogue from the game that you want to post, there's a good chance you can find what you're looking for in that document!

I'll wrap this up with an example of one of these dialogue screenshots with a description. I make all the names lowercase (despite them being all caps in the game) because screen readers will sometimes read all caps like an acronym and just spell words out. Otherwise, it’s pretty much just a straight transcription of the text in the image.

[image description: A screenshot of dialogue from the video game Disco Elysium, transcribed below.

You - Look at the perforations.

Damaged Ledger - There are many of them. And they are divided into three separate rows.

You - Tally up the different rows.

Damaged Ledger - The first row has 18 dots.

You - Not bad.

Damaged Ledger - Not bad for what? You don't even know what it means yet. End ID.]

And that's all there is to it. As always, feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions!