#first clark thought it might be a threat

[dollielliot]

𐙚ྀིྀ ⠀︵　info on the Apalchee highschool shooting that happened today, 9/4/24˖ ㅤ૮𐔌ྀི ´ ཀ ྀི 𐦯ྀིა⠀

The 14-year-old suspect in the fatal mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia, high school has been identified as Colt Gray, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at an afternoon news conference. The suspect is a student at Apalachee High School who will be charged with murder and will be handled as an adult as he moves through the criminal justice system, Hosey and Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith added.

Two teachers and two students were killed, Hosey said. Nine other victims were taken to hospitals, according to the officials. The gunfire sent students and faculty desperately scurrying for cover as schools across the county went into lockdown and parents scrambled for information. Wednesday’s shooting is the deadliest of the 45 school shootings so far this calendar year, according to a CNN analysis. It is one of 11 school shootings with four or more deaths since 2008 when CNN first started tracking school shootings. Authorities said the first report of an active shooter came in at 10:20 a.m. ET. A school resource deputy assigned to Apalachee High confronted the shooter, who got on the ground and was taken into custody, Smith told reporters.

The witness sat next to the suspected shooter

Lyela Sayarath, 16, told CNN the alleged shooter sat next to her in an algebra class. She said he left class early, around 9:45 a.m., but didn’t take a bathroom pass. She thought he might be skipping. Toward the end of class, someone told her teacher over the loudspeaker to check their email, she said. Shortly after, Gray was outside the classroom door, which was shut, Lyela said. Another student who went to the door jumped backward when she saw he had a gun. "I guess he saw we weren’t gonna let him in,” Lyela said. “And I guess the classroom next to me, their door was open, so I think he just started shooting in the classroom.” At first, she told CNN she heard a burst of gunfire – maybe 10 to 15 shots – and then they were “kind of just Students dropped to the floor and crawled to the corner, Lyela said.

“It seemed like this wasn’t something he planned too well or that he wasn’t really strong with the gun because he didn’t try and shoot our door. Once he saw he couldn’t get in our room, he just went to the next one.”

Latest developments

The high school had received an earlier phone threat, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN. The phone call Wednesday morning warned there would be shootings at five schools, and that Apalachee would be the first. It is not known who placed the call. It was not immediately known whether the assailant had some connection with his victims, the sheriff said, though officials stressed that will be part of the investigation. Schools in Barrow County will be closed for the rest of the week.

Student texted mom: ‘I’m scared’

Erin Clark was at work Wednesday morning when she got a series of text messages from her son, a senior, who was attending class at Apalachee High School.

“School shooting.”

“I’m scared,” he wrote.

“pls” “I’m not joking,”

“I’m leaving work,” Clark replied. “I love you,” her son, Ethan Haney, 17, wrote back.

“Love you too baby,” his mom texted before racing to the high school.

Clark told CNN her son heard eight or nine gunshots before he closed his classroom door and, with the help of another classmate, moved chairs and tables to block the door.

Clark told CNN she was “absolutely terrified” when she read her son’s messages. “Just kept praying he’d stay safe,” she said.

Schools in the county went into lockdown

As emergency responders came from several counties, video from outside the school showed at least five ambulances and a large law enforcement presence at the campus, and at least one medical helicopter could be seen airlifting a patient from the scene. At the football field, where authorities had students gather, people lowered their heads and formed a prayer circle in the end zone, standing on the letters for “Apalachee” as their classmates milled around the field. All schools in the Barrow County School System, which includes the high school, were placed on lockdown and police were sent out of an abundance of caution to all district high schools, according to the sources, but there are no reports of secondary incidents or scenes. Some of the critically injured were removed by helicopter, and additional helicopters are on standby.

Atlanta Trauma Center and other hospitals take patients

Grady Health System – a Level 1 trauma center in Atlanta, about an hour's drive from Winder – received one gunshot wound victim from the incident who was transported by helicopter, a hospital spokesperson told CNN. Earlier, a source with knowledge of the situation who is not authorized to speak to the media, told CNN Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital in North Georgia received two victims from the shooting. The source said one victim was an adult with a gunshot wound to the stomach and was in surgery, and another was a minor with unspecified injuries. Three gunshot victims were taken to nearby hospitals following the shooting, according to a hospital official, and five other patients reported to the hospital with symptoms related to a panic attack. Two gunshot victims were taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Barrow with non-life-threatening injuries, Northeast Georgia Health System spokesperson Layne Saliba said. Four other patients came with symptoms related to panic attacks.

Another gunshot victim was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville with non-life-threatening injuries, Saliba said, and an additional patient came to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton with symptoms related to a panic attack.

Georgia governor sends prayers and says he can send resources

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has directed all available state resources to assist at the scene, he said in a statement on social media. The governor urged “all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state.” President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incident, the White House said, offering federal support to state and local officials.

“His administration will continue coordinating with federal, state, and local officials as we receive more information,” the White House said in a statement. Attorney General Merrick Garland similarly said the US Department of Justice “stands ready” to support the community after the shooting. “We are still gathering information, but the FBI and ATF are on the scene, working with state, local, and federal partners,” Garland said at a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force.

Winder had a population of about 18,338 as of the 2020 census, according to the US Census Bureau The Barrow County School System is the 24th largest school district in the state, per the district’s website. It serves about 15,340 students, 1,932 of whom are enrolled at Apalachee High School.

[cevansbrat0007]

The Do-Over

Summary: Everyone deserves a second chance, including jerks like Bounty Hunter, Ari Levinson. Takes place directly after the events in Hello, Duchess.

Warnings: Mature Themes, Ari Being A Menace, Bucky Barnes, A Deep Love of Clark Bars, Light Groveling, Bickering, Discussions of Grief, Threats of Violence, Gentle Manhandling, Brief References to Negative Body Image, Cursing, Minors DNI

A/N: Special thanks to my creative consultant, @curls-and-eyeliner. Part my Sweet Renegade Series. Semi-proofread, not beta'd. All mistakes are my own. Likes, comments, and reblogs are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!

An annoyed Ari takes a pull from his cigarette as he listens to his friend and fellow combat vet give him shit all the way from his office back in New Mexico. As soon as this was over, he was going to ditch this empty parking lot to find himself an ice cold beer and a goddamned steak. 

He was officially ready to put this day behind him. But first he needed a decent dinner.

“So let me see if I’ve got this right.” His friend begins, now that he’d finally stopped cursing up a blue streak. “Do you really mean to tell me that you took our best lead, which just so happened to be the perp’s girlfriend, and fucked it all to hell?”  

Okay, but just because that’s what happened doesn't necessarily mean that it was actually his fault. He’d just been a little off his game.

“Hey Buck, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re beginning to sound as dramatic as Rogers.”

“Steve would never fuck-up something this big for us.” He could practically hear the man flipping him off.

“I’m telling you this girl would’ve cut off Golden Boy’s balls and fed them to him for breakfast, okay?” He takes another puff, flicking some of the excess ash out his driver-side window. “Trust me.”

“Hold on.” An exasperated Bucky sighs into the receiver before placing the phone on his desk to speak to whoever had just walked into his office. He hoped whoever it was had better news than he did, otherwise he feared his old war buddy might have an aneurysm.

Sometimes he got the impression that Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes was wound a little too tight.    

The silence drags on as Ari contemplates getting out of his car to stretch his legs. It’s another several minutes before Bucky is back on the line, and this time he sounds positively exhausted.

“We can’t afford to lose this one, man. Westbrook might be a piece of shit, but he’s an expensive piece of shit. So while I don’t care how you feel about the girl, you need to make things right. She could have some valuable intel.”

“Yeah, I know.” His mood darkens as he flicks the cigarette onto the pavement. As he watches it hit the ground, he finds himself wondering if it was finally time to quit the cancer sticks altogether. It’s not like he hadn’t thought about it before.

“Besides, what do you care if she was Westbrook’s fuck buddy?” Ari’s treated to the sound of his friend unwrapping something that sounded suspiciously like a candy bar. There was only one person who was known to keep that stuff at the office.

Which meant that shit had better not come from his personal stash, otherwise Bucky Barnes was a fucking dead man.

“I don’t.” Ari growls, sucking on his teeth. “And that had better not be a Clark Bar you’re eatin'.”

“Hate to break it to ya, pal. But based on what you told me earlier, it kinda sounds like you might.” There’s an unmistakable sound of a grin in his voice, which irks the bounty hunter to no end. 

“And I think it’s finally time you got your hearing checked, old man.” He growls back, although his words lack any real fire. 

“As for your precious Clark Bars,” he continues. “See, normally I’d pass on ‘em. But Pixie’s been on a health kick lately and she threw out all the junk food. So, I’m desperate.” Bucky gives an exaggerated groan. “Plus, she has no idea about your stash.” 

“Jesus.” Ari grumbles, firing up his engine with the intent to head back to the house he was currently renting. “I really wish you two would just suck face already and get it over with.”

“Mind your fucking business, Levinson.”

“Then keep your filthy hands off my fuckin’ Clark Bars, Barnes.” There’s a heavy sigh on the other line, prompting Ari to roll his eyes. All he wanted was for this conversation to fucking end.

“Look.” Bucky grunts. “You bring down this Westbrook fucker and I’ll buy you a goddamned case of those stupid bars. Alright?”

“You got yourself a deal.” Turning on his truck, Ari slowly heads for the exit as his stomach begins to rumble. Maybe he’d track down some shrimp to go with that steak.

“And fix whatever it is you fucked up with that bookstore broad while you’re at it.” 

“I’ll do my best.” He grimaces as his mind treats him to images of you threatening him with your taser. “But if that little spitfire puts me in the hospital you’re footin’ the bill.” And with that, Ari hangs up the phone.

As of now, he was officially done for the night.

A Few Days Later…

You’re sitting on the floor of your stockroom when you hear the tinkling of bells signaling the arrival of a customer. Groaning as you rise to your feet, you wipe your palms on the fabric of your pants and head to the front of the store. 

Business had been unusually slow today, so hopefully this patron - whoever they were - would be in the mood to buy something. As you were driving in this morning, you’d briefly considered holding another sale. Maybe it was time for another book fair. That seemed to be pretty popular the last time you’d done it. 

You’re in the middle of making a mental note to reach out to the local librarian when your eyes land on the absolute last person you wanted to see standing in your lobby: Ari Levinson. 

Not this guy again. 

“Yeah, it’s me.” He says, offering up an unapologetic shrug as he takes in the sight of you in your form-fitting yoga pants. 

Apparently you’d spoken out loud. Perhaps if you kept doing it, the man would eventually get offended enough to leave. Wishful thinking at its finest.

When the intruder realizes you don’t plan on speaking again, he decides to take advantage of the silence by doing something completely unexpected. 

“I just dropped by to, uh…” He takes a deep breath, rocking back on his heels. “Apologize for how our last meeting went. While it wasn’t my intention to insult you, I know that I did.” One big hand comes up to massage the back of his neck. “Just wanted to offer that, for whatever it’s worth.”

“Oh. Wow.” You reply dumbly, crossing your arms over your chest. For whatever reason, you got the distinct impression that he didn’t make apologies often. 

“You’re right, sweetheart. I don’t.” His lips turn up in an awkward grin as he takes a step toward you. “But a real man knows how to own up to his shit, which is exactly what I’m doin right now.”

“Okay.” 

Mouth suddenly dry, you go to take a step back, only to find that your legs no longer work. Next thing you know, Ari is in your space, his boot clad feet are now mere centimeters from your well-loved sneakers as he towers over you. 

He holds out his hand as a gesture of goodwill, silently imploring you to take it. Your eyes lock with his as yours moves on its own accord – almost as if you’d been entranced. 

Your hand feels so small and delicate in his grasp. And for a second, you wonder what it might be like to lace your fingers together. How it would feel to hold onto him so intimately for just a few seconds longer. You sneak a glance up at Ari, only to watch as his pupils dilate, his nostrils flaring just slightly. It’s enough to let you know that you’re not the only one affected.

“You think we might be able to try this again?” His deep baritone washes over you like a balm. “You have my word I’ll do a much better job of, uh, keeping myself in check.” 

Yanking your hand away, all you can do is nod. Part of you almost wished the man would go back to acting like an asshole. At least then you would know how to handle him. This so-called charming and apologetic Ari was a different beast entirely.

“I–” You swallow thickly. “Yes, that’s fine.”

“Thank you for your kindness.” His easy smile has the nerve to do funny things to the butterflies in your belly. “And while I would hate to do anything that might spoil this good will, I would like to ask you a couple of questions right now.”  

Instantly suspicious, you open your mouth to deliver a curt “no”. However, having already anticipated this, Ari is quick to amend his request by promising not to be too invasive. He also insists that he’ll follow your lead. 

“If at any moment you want to stop, we’ll stop. You have my word on that too, darlin’.” He surveys the room, absentmindedly scratching at his jaw. “You good with me ensuring we have a little privacy?” Again you nod, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. 

Because at this point, it just didn’t make sense to kick the man out. Especially not when he seemed to be taking great pains to be respectful. You could only hope that he’d appreciate your cooperation enough to go bother someone else when you were through. 

Maybe it might be worth leading him back towards someone who’d actually appreciate his attention. Someone like your would-be frenemy, Charline Marshall. 

Seemingly encouraged by your response, the invasive bounty hunter hustles towards the door so that he could flip your sign from open to closed. And, unbeknownst to him, it also gives you a chance to begrudgingly appreciate just how good his ass looks in his Levi’s. 

Alright. So maybe you’d hold off on feeding Ari Levinson to Charline and her disciples – at least for right now.

“You know.” You cough, needing to give yourself a moment to recalibrate before you said or did something dumb. “I actually just remembered that I needed to fix a couple of things around the shop during my lunch break.”

An unruffled Ari simply smiles and winks back at you. “Thought you said you believed in your ability to multitask?”

You resist the urge to stick your tongue out at the smug bastard. Because he was right. You absolutely had said that. And then he’d had the gall to fucking listen. 

“Fine.” Shooting him a glare, you head over to the counter and toe-off your shoes. 

“Appreciate it, darlin’.” 

Just like last time, out comes his pen and tiny notebook. He flips it open to a new page before giving you his full attention. Meanwhile, you’re now hellbent on acting like he doesn’t exist. 

“How long have you owned your shop, Baubles & Quills?” 

If you were to look in his eyes at that moment, you would’ve seen them shining with genuine inquisitiveness. Almost as if he actually wanted to get to know you. 

“A few years.” You reply, bracing your hands on the flat surface of the desk. “I spent a large part of my childhood here, buried amongst books. My uncle left it to me when he passed. But I’m sure you already knew that.” 

Taking a deep breath, you send up a silent prayer to the Lord asking him not to let you fall before hefting yourself onto the counter with all the grace you can muster.  

“Maybe.” Ari concedes while jotting something down on his notepad. “But it’s different coming from – just what the hell are you doin’ woman?!”

“Checking out this light fixture.” You huff as you work to steady yourself.

“Any reason you couldn’t do that from the ground?” The bounty hunter surprises you by sounding more than a little stressed.

Confused by his response, you manage to spare a quick glance in his direction. Although your unlikely companion looks less than happy, you fail to fully grasp the nature of the problem. 

“Because I couldn’t quite tell if this whole panel was out, or just the one little section.” 

“Alright, well…” He drags an agitated hand through his already messy brown locks. “Now that you’ve seen it, how about you come on down from there?”

“Oh my goodness, Levinson.” An exasperated chuckle bubbles its way from your throat. “It’s just the counter. Save the freakout for when you find me on the flippin’ roof or something.” 

“You’re standin’ on the damned thing wearin’ nothing but socks. It’s like you’re askin’ to fall.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.”

“How the hell is my expressin’ concern about your safety bein’ dramatic?” 

“Next question, buddy.” You have to bite the inside of your cheek to keep from laughing at the affronted look on the bounty hunter’s gorgeous face.

Ari forces himself to take a breath before attempting to return back to the task at hand. “I have it here that your Uncle is the late Lenny Barstowe. He was, by all accounts, an upstanding pillar of this community.”

“He was.” You agree, bending down to grab the duster resting near your feet. 

“You say he was your uncle, and yet you two don’t share the same last name.” He frowns when he notices your slight wobble. 

And for the tenth time in almost as many minutes he finds himself wondering why the fuck you didn’t hire someone to take care of shit like this for you? Hell, give him a ladder and a free afternoon and he’d handle things himself.      

“Wow. Nothing gets past you.” You sniff, trying to fight back a sneeze as dust goes flying. “They teach you those observation skills in private detective school?”

“Sure did.” Ari snorts without missing a beat, tucking the pen behind his ear. “First thing on the syllabus, in fact.”    

“Thought so.” 

“So glad we cleared that up.”

You can’t stop the small thrill that courses through you when you notice the newfound tick in his jaw. If you weren’t careful, you could find yourself growing addicted to that little zing in your blood. To that tiny spike in your pulse you felt every time you two sparred.  

“But if we could go back to your uncle, I’m sure losing him had to be hard – what with him being your only family.” He takes a turn fanning himself with his notebook. ”Was your friend, Martin, there for you during that difficult time?” 

That particular question actually makes you pause and reflect. You’d been so lost in grief back then, which is part of the reason it had taken you so long to claw your way out of that dark hole. And, if memory served, you’d done that majority of that clawing on your own.

“I’m sure he was around, Mr. Levinson.” Your answer sounds cagey, even to your own ears. “But I pretty much wore my grief like a sweater back then. And if I’m being honest, those first few months after losing him were nothing but a miserable haze.”    

“I know the feeling.” He murmurs as he scribbles on the page. 

“Look.” You blow out a breath as you attempt to gauge the distance between the desk and the ground. As of this moment, you officially regretted not grabbing your step stool. “I don’t know where Martin is or who he’s running from. All I know is that he was scared, but he refused to tell me anything more, okay?”

“Did he ask you for money?”

“Yes.” 

He’d also called you too. And while you choose to keep that little detail to yourself, you figure there was no harm in telling him about the money. At the time you’d had no idea you were potentially aiding and abetting a criminal. Or maybe you just hadn’t wanted to believe it.

“And did you give it to him?” The intense look in his beautiful blue eyes has you suddenly feeling foolish.  

“Yes.” 

It’s that one word, spoken barely above a whisper, that leaves Ari shaking his head. His gaze drops to the ground as he works to rein-in his temper. You have no idea what a struggle it is for him to do so – because he’s not upset with you. 

If anything, you’d just given him one more reason to run that slippery motherfucker into the goddamned ground. 

“How much did he get you for?” Even though Ari has calmed himself considerably, his tone still comes off harsher than he intends. 

“Almost $500.” You tell him, your face hot with embarrassment. “I suppose I should’ve asked more questions. You probably think I’m an idiot for –”

“It’s okay, darlin’.” He swiftly interjects, not wanting you to get upset. “You’re doin’ so great bein’ honest with me right now.” Unsure of what else to do, he tosses his notebook aside in favor of reaching for your hand. “I know this shit ain’t easy.”  

“I think I’m done for now.” You tell him, doing your best to avoid looking at your now joined hands. God, he really needed to stop doing that. “Please.”

“Okay.” He readily agrees as his thumb strokes along the ridge of your knuckles. “Then we’re done.” You watch his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallows. “Are you gonna let me help you down off the counter before you kick me out?”

“It’s okay. Don’t want you to hurt yourself.” You mumble as you busy yourself with trying to figure out the easiest way to sit and scootch your way out of your current situation.

The last thing you needed was this man accidentally throwing out his back over some misplaced chivalry. 

To his credit, Ari decides to ignore your feeble protests. “C’mon and let me help you.” He repeats, gesturing for you to step towards the edge of the counter so that he can grab you by the waist. “And then I’ll be on my way.”

“Really, I’m fine.” You attempt to swat at his hands, which doesn’t actually work.

“C’mon, darlin’.” He assures you gently. “Just trust me.” The next thing you know, you’re suddenly being lifted into the air. “I got you.”

“Ack – I’m too heavy!” You squeal, immediately caught off guard by the way your legs briefly dangle in the air. Try as you might, you honestly could not remember the last time a man had picked you up. 

Your heart speeds up as he effortlessly sets you down on your feet, allowing your body to slide down the solid wall of his chest. Instinctively, your hands fly to his biceps in an effort to steady yourself. 

“Thank you.” You’re suddenly having a hard time breathing around this man. “But you really shouldn’t have done that. You could’ve hurt –”

“Sweetheart, you ain’t nothin’ but a feather.” Ari rumbles, his hands still resting firmly on your hips. 

“Somehow I doubt that.” You whisper, knowing that you should demand that he let you go. Except your body is too busy buzzing to actually cooperate. 

“Happy to prove you wrong any time.” While you suspect that he hadn’t really meant to say that, his smile is full of promise. “But right now, I’m afraid I’ve gotta head out.” Although it still takes another second for him to release you. 

Not that you’re complaining any. Which deep down you know could spell trouble for you. 

Before he leaves, however, Ari reaches into the front pocket of his jeans to hand you what looks a lot like a business card. “What’s this?” You mentally smack yourself in the forehead the moment the question leaves your mouth. 

“My card.” He responds as he now heads toward the door. “That’s my cell, just in case you need it.”

“Oh.”

“Call any time, day or night.” Ari’s gruff, no-nonsense tone goes straight to your core. “You remember somethin’ about Martin? Call me. You lookin’ for someone to stand guard while you lock up at night? Call me. You need to hear a friendly voice in the dark? Fucking call me.” 

His offer takes you by surprise. So much so, that you’re temporarily rendered speechless as you clutch the stiff piece of paper in your palm. While you weren’t sure if you’d ever take him up on his offer, you could certainly appreciate his generosity. 

“Thank you.” You rasp, your teeth going to nibble at your bottom lip.

“Any time, Duchess.” His head dips politely as he exits through the front door. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

And just like that he was gone, which meant you could finally breathe normally again. Strange butterflies once again fill your belly as you take your time examining the card your bounty hunter had left behind. While you weren’t sure if you’d ever call him, you decide it’s worth tucking into a zippered pocket in your purse before getting on with the rest of your day. 

Little did you know that you would come to need that tiny piece of paper sooner rather than later…  

END

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[pumpkinstrawbrew]

.batcrow feat. the owl.

or a situation, which is stuck somewhere between existential threat an’ scuffle between barn animals.

...

(it’s one of those underdeveloped, raw-ish concepts that i indulge in just for funzies. it all started very simply. i was thinking about what kind of person might make bruce jealous. the topic was kinda challenging, considering that bruce in the comics *at least in the ones, i read* or even btas is rarely express this emotion if at all. in fact, at one point, he literally said to the woman, who he supposedly was in love with, that she should stay with the other man, who also liked her, bc he needed her more *he got disfigured an' such* an’ she was like ‘wtf is wrong with you. to paw me to the other man like that’, clearly outraged. but bruce didn’t seem to fully grasp what her issue was lol.

still, what if he somehow got jealous of another man, when it comes to crane, anyways? and who that man could possibly be? my first thought was superman, bc bruce generally can be kinda petty, when it comes to him. but clark is such a puppy-like character. he wouldn’t have been mean about it, or even be someone who could potentially like jon in such a manner. at worst, bruce might have got annoyed at crane *not clark*, if he said smth about superman’s strong arms in front of him. some jealousy there, but not quite what i was looking for, when pondering on that set up.

an' then, i recalled the owlman! i only know the version of him from the cartoon, an’ honestly after seeing glimpses of what they do with him in comics, i’d say this is the only owlman for me. from the crisis on 2 earths ‘toon. gotta admire a character, who is SO nihilistic an’ SO sure in his own worldview, that he literally does nothing an’ dies, just bc it doesn’t matter to him. he even smiles a bit, if i remember correctly. kinda both chillin’ an’ sad. the owlman had an ego, but he also just kinda….wanted everything to die an’ that’s it. he is what might have happened, if bruce went full blown doctor strangelove, after his parents death. which is funny, bc owlman isn’t bruce wayne at all, but he is the one who ‘takes’ his place in his own universe. i don’t remember if it was ever revealed in the cartoon, who the owlman was or if they left it ambiguous. i'm pretty sure, that they made him bruce’s brother in the comics, specifically. but i might be wrong, bc there was a few owlman in batman's ran, i think...?

either way, this version here is devoid of backstory. the main thing for him is that there was never a bruce wayne in his universe, an’ coincidently enough, no jonathan crane, either. as result, owlman knows nothing about scarecrow. he had analogs of other batman’s rogue gallery, who were either heroes or anti-heroes, but he never had professor of fear of his own. an' that’s part of the reason why he gets slightly curious about him. at the begining, it's very casual on his part. i guess, he might have wondered why it's those two *jon an' bruce* specifically, who never existed in his reality. everybody else, clearly did. so he looks a bit closer into it, still mostly for the sport. only to find out about strange relationships that crane has with the bat.

the owlman is an isolated kind of character. he doesn’t care for his own teammates. nor he's able to reciprocate their affection. i mean, he didn’t really react to the villain version of wonder woman kissing him. he was surprised, sure, but not hurrying to return the gesture or even seemingly knowing what to do about this situation. which led me to believe, that at least in the frames of that toon’s worldbuilding, he had no alt alfred or robin or anyone, who he was close with. kinda an opposite of batman, who does to a degree surrenders himself with people, even if he keeps them at *emotional* distance, more often than not. but the point is, that bruce still wants a connections an’ not devoid of hope to see the things sorta/kinda working up. in comparison, owlman is as nihilistic as a person can get, so it makes zero sense for him to have close ties with anyone. or even see it smth that he needs. but i imagine that witnessing how batman acts with his enemies, jon esp, be a very confusing experience for him. like, why pity such a person? why even show some small signs of kinship with him? an' what’s so different about this one, if anything at all? 

so after some more pondering, he approaches crane just to see for himself, if he is worth all that effort *sympathy* or not. an’ hey, scarecrow is kinda fun. reactive an’ jerky, an’ surprisingly aggressive for such a coward. owlman's usual enemies are the good guys. they're heroic an' noble. but jonathan isn’t that. not even close. his worldview is bitter an' twisted. whatever wrongs were done to him, didn't mold him into a hero like with any other owlman's enemy. the scarecrow is a villain to the boot an' it's...new. his use of fear is interesting too. none of his enemies had this gimmick. this makes the owlman wanna play around with him for a bit longer. or owlman experience unknown emotions for the first time in years an’ kinda not fully certain what to do about it, other than indulge in it. his end goal still the same. it won’t change for/or bc of anything, but he can have a small distraction, before the curtains call. it's not everyday, when he can find a person, who is kinda interesting to him, even if bc of pure novelity that he can hang out with a man, who had never existed in his own timeline.

then, he learns about the scarecrow’s life. how it went downhill or rather, how it was sorta doomed from the start almost. an’ oh. here it is. that’s what batman feels too, isn't it? that silver of kinship. the owlman never had this before. an’ it’s not a bad feeling, either. he was never able to relate to the others. it’s like ‘everything sucks so much. everything just sucks forever’ an’ he has found someone who understands the meaning of this sentiment, an' not just being an emo about life. at least, the owl would assume that jon understand it in the exact same way he does *but jon doesn’t lol* 

meanwhile, bruce is concerned. owlman is a very bad, bad kind of man to have around crane for many different reasons. one of which is that it doesn't sound like a hard thing to convince someone like crane, that destroying everything is the only 'right' way to go about things. jonathan's life is generally was an' still is awful, so why not end it all, but with a huge, literal bang?

it’s like a nihilistic doom an’ gloomy buddy club. sounds hella corky, but in reality, it’s dark stuff, actually. jon be beyond depressed in this case. him getting all buddy-buddy with people, who are more unhinged an’ dangerous than him isn’t a new thing. but in this case, it’s like an extra salt on batman’s open wound. the bat himself states in comics at least twice, how crane is one of those villains, who don’t just stay the same, but who progressively gets more an’ more insane an’ deranged each time he breaks out of arkham. him hanging out with the person, whose worldview is basically ‘it would have been so much better, if we all were dead’ an' who literally an' genunily means this, isn’t smth that is good for jonathan's *already declined* mental health. esp if owlman is also rather problematic in other ways too. not to meantion, that him dragging crane along is also kinda personal. in this way, he might be showing bruce, that no matter how much he wants his rogues to change or how much good will he shows them, they're all just human, therefore they're all hopeless an' bad. bc all humas are bad in owlman's understanding. it's like 'aw, you want to believe that this one isn't a lost cause? what if i will make him help me to murder everybody? still think he worthy of your delusions?' owlman might have an end goal, but he's also arrogant an' petty too.

on main, i have two rough-ish concepts for their uhhh, trio shippy thing. in PG-ish version, it’s just that owlman influencing jon in an awful ways, an’ since he kinda/sorta resembles batman, crane subconsciously rely on him, bc he's somewhat familiar. besides, the owl hints that his own life was bad too, an’ it’s like finally someone gets on the same level of despair as crane does. an' also, maybe...this what could have been, if the bat was a villain too. they could have been on the same team. so in a way, it's kinda more of jonathan playing into this weird fantasy of himself an' bad batman, than him fully understanding the real level of 'oof' that owlman tries to acomplish with 'the plan'.

*funny enough tho, where it really counts, jon isn’t like owlman. he, for one isn’t someone who would just give up. after every fail an’ each kick an’ shove, he still gets up. the thing about jonathan is that he wouldn’t just lie down an’ die no matter how much pain an' humilation an' despair, he felt. an’ he also wouldn’t *in the end* commit to the idea of murdering countless people just bc his life sucked. even if, it doesn’t mean, that he won’t go through motions an’ nearly, truly consider going along with it. he isn’t alright in the head, an’ his negative emotions tend to get the best of him. still, i feel like most versions of jonathan would in the end, decide that no, it's not what he wants or ready to take responsibility for.*

it all would resolve in comic book fashion, where jon would help the bat in the end, an’ not that other man, who had his allure an’ had almost seduced crane into doing one last evil act any human being in existence could have ever done. still, there always be longing on scarecrow’s part for this odd, wrong ‘batman’, even if he sticks with his own, regardless. 

*an’ yeah, the bat is kinda jealous throughout all of this lol. the world can be hanging by a thread, but no one said, that he cannot be a tad possessive, while he’s saving it *an’ crane* too. owlman will have fun with this knowledge, while it will go completely over jonathan’s head. mister ‘i can pin-point everyone’s fear from one conversation’ would have a really hard time understanding that batman’s beef with the owl not strictly hero vs villain thing*

then, in more mature version, it's kinda the same-ish plot, but owlman prob would do way more messed up things, which might put crane into a position, where he’s afraid to not comply, but also not actually willing to do it. an’ naturally, there bruce won’t be jealous, more so angry. really struggling with idea, if he should let just this one man *or an owl, whichever rings more true* die. an’ then, if this is a reflection of him, what kind of person, he really is. so it’s more of moral dilemma an’ a character study of a nihilistic sociopath, who just might have wanted to have a lil chew-toy, as he prepares his biggest scheme.

anyways, it’s not like an otp3 or anything. i’m a very bond/pair oriented fella. so when i’m dabbing into 3 way dynamics, it usually has more situational/reactive undertones. but i won't deny, that it’s fun to think about 'what if' or even about some situation in the void, where the bat an’ the owl double teame the crow. which in any plot-included or a somewhat coherent narrative just wouldn’t have happened bc of how all 3 of them function / react to things. it just not in their character to do it this...randomly. but if i will ever make a superhero pwp ficlet collection, i might try to do smth with this idea.)

[alexanderwales]

Book Review: Metropolitan Man

[content warning: sexual violence]

It's been 10 years since I wrote Metropolitan Man, and last night I read it for the first time in almost that long. Since writing it, I've written over 4 million words, and hopefully, grown as a writer. I've also forgotten parts of the story, so was looking at it with as fresh of eyes as possible. These are my overall thoughts.

I should say, before I start, that I've read tons of comments and discussion on this story over the years. I don't know how many of these thoughts are my own, or how much I've internalized things that people have said.

Writing Style

There were lots of changes I thought about making while reading, but people hate change, and this story is about ten years past when I wanted to be making editing passes on it. In many places I kept thinking of little extras I would add, things that would make the dialogue pop a little more, or provide characterization. I had this idea for a line where I describe Lois typing out two letters like she was letting loose with both barrels of a shotgun. There's dialogue to clean just a bit more, a few places where words are repeated or something is just a bit awkward, and where it could have been tighter or more clear.

The biggest thing that stood out to me was how little time got spent on scene setting and how short some of the snippets were, just five paragraphs to get a scene across before we're onto the next thing. I might have webserial brainrot, but those are definitely places where today I would give a little more breathing room and maybe use the same amount of words to describe something in a more oblique and stronger way. One that stood out as a clear example was a private investigator going home with Jimmy Olsen even though she was done pumping him for information, which could have been twice as long and benefitted from it. Another was a brief little thing about a Superman spotter on the roof, where I'd now describe everything he was doing, and only get to the conclusion of "he was a Superman spotter" at the end of the section to let the reader have this mini mystery of what they're being shown and why.

I would describe things more if I was writing this today, trying to get those nicely tight and evocative descriptions and ditch the stuff like "she wore a white blouse", but I often feel that way about stuff that I'm revising from last week, so it's not surprising.

The plot is very tight, which is good. I tend to prefer my plots tight, but it takes work, and webserials aren't conducive to it because it's difficult to know when you're writing a scene whether it's really pulling its weight as far as moving things forward. The initial idea for MM was to move as cleanly as possible through a series of events: Superman -> Superman is invincible -> Superman is Clark Kent -> Clark Kent grew up in Smallville -> the ship is in Smallville -> the ship has a Kryptonite power source -> Kryptonite can kill Superman -> Superman is dead. The only thing that would make it any faster would be if we dropped the Lois Lane subplot, but that's like half the novel.

Superman is OOC

I've gotten tons and tons of comments on this story over the years. If I hated myself, I would go back through my email and count them up, but there are some death threats and "kill yourself"s in there, and I prefer not to reread them. The major thing that people hate is the ending, which I don't care to talk about, but the other major thing is that Superman isn't Superman.

In this, I largely agree, but then, I'm pretty sure I've always agreed. That said, Superman has had a ton of interpretations over the years, and there's a wide range of acceptable behavior from "a Superman", even if we're not counting the really out there variations like Red Son or some of the alternate timelines.

... but I still would probably make him more like a canon Superman if I had to do it all over.

There are a few things that raise red flags at the beginning, which is where I think they're inexpertly placed. Superman takes Lois off the roof and flies her around, making her very afraid, and this is fine, I think, a misunderstanding that might be stronger if we got his insight into what was happening before we got hers to help bridge some of the disconnect there and characterize them both better. But there's a little note after that, where Clark makes a joke about "Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane" that I think is a HUGE red flag, and which probably comes too early in the story. It would be better as a joke someone else made that Clark laughs along with, which raises the red flag to half mast.

The other major moment I would change is when the bombs start going off. Superman pulls back, unsure whether he's actually immune to mustard gas, and I think this is one of the moments that most goes against the character of Superman. Canon Superman would just say "welp, guess I gotta find out whether I'm immune to mustard gas in a hurry". Superman making the argument that he doesn't know the bounds of his powers and so should exercise caution reads as either cowardice or as him being way too bitten by the rationality bug.

This would then obviously have to change the plot of that section a bit, because in the novel as it stands right now, Superman is convinced by Lois Lane that he can't just sit on the sidelines for game theory reasons. Better to either scrap that section or have Lois convince Superman that for game theory reasons he should offer to have testing carried out against him in a way that doesn't harm civilians, which canon Superman might submit to if it saved lives. Then the rest of the plot can proceed as normal, because Superman is immune to everything and that's the whole plot beat anyway.

I'd definitely clean up some of Superman/Clark's dialogue to nail the character voice better, but I don't think it's that bad, and it's mostly a few places where the wording is off. I think in particular the points where he's feeling anger go too far, and are not how someone internally conflicted about the anger might talk.

And then, oh yeah, Superman punches a guy's head clean off, which I think is the biggest sticking point for most people.

I've thought about that scene a lot. I personally like it. But if I were ever trying to sell this story to DC, it's one of the things I would almost certainly change. Superman doesn't kill, except in that one movie that came out just before this story was published where Superman snapped a guy's neck.

The change I am most happy/comfortable with is that Whitman, the governor whose children were [REDACTED], is the one to kill Calhoun. This happens just outside the courthouse with Superman watching and not intervening in the slightest, or maybe catching the bullets as they go through Calhoun so no bypassers get hit.

I don't know, as I type it out, it doesn't have the same weight to it. It's not cool. It's not a watershed moment. Maybe there's a plot thread to pull there, where Superman has tacitly endorsed other vigilantes, and it would be a great time to pull in other mundane street-level heroes ... but that's an entirely different story at that point.

Another option is for Superman to simply fly off with Calhoun and put him away, but that lacks punch too, and gets talky, and ... it's about the rage, right? The feeling of injustice, not just at Calhoun, but at the entire world, and it's not just an unhappy side effect that there's blood everywhere, all over the clamoring press, that's part of the point.

Social Justice

I really enjoy how wide-ranging the novel is, and how many things it touches on. Good job me. There was a line I had completely forgotten about where Lois asks "Why doesn't Superman stop abortions?" that I had completely forgotten I had ever written, and which brought a big smile to my face (but no wonder some Superman fans hate this story).

There are a few other things that I raise my eyebrow at a little bit, at least sitting here in 2024. There's a particular line that Superman gives when talking about this whitewashed mural of the past they're walking by, and he says "It's easy to forget that slavery ever happened, you know?" Now, I will grant you that this is a part of a conversation where he's saying that maybe he should have been a better student of history, and is saying this as a white guy in 1934, but I wanted him or someone else to tear that statement apart. It never really happens.

"It's easy to forget that slavery ever happened [if you and your people have not been affected by slavery]". The novel takes place ~70 years after the end of the Civil War, which means that when Clark was growing up there would have been freed slaves who were in their fifties, probably many of them in Kansas, though Smallville is (notably) small. I don't know, it wouldn't have been historically accurate for them to have a discussion of privilege, but there's way more meat on that bone, and it's all left as subtext.

Also probably the case that if I were writing it now, I would pay more attention to race in general, but that I'm less sure on, because it would mean some major structural changes to be done well. There's a single black guy in the whole thing, who is barely a character and has no speaking lines: the farmhand Ma Kent has before he gets lured away with the promise of being an actor. I have never felt that any novel needs racial balance to it, but if you're going to be talking about slavery and whether Superman would have done anything about it, you start to make black people look like props, which is not a good look.

I mean look, I think it's fine for a given story to not actually take a stance on political issues or have a diverse cast, but this story goes from abortion to the Equal Rights Amendment to Prohibition to Nazis to the death penalty, and then despite being set in 1934 sort of talks around the subject of how shitty race relations were. As a white guy, I never feel comfortable talking about race, but I think it would have been appropriate to have here in more than the cursory way it was handled. But the cast is just not that large, and the way that modern Superman stories handle that is usually making Jimmy Olsen black and then not actually talking about the fact that he's black so it's just a palette swap, which I don't think would work here, especially since Jimmy is such a bit character, and also it's 1934.

Sexual Violence

Alright, I will say it: there's too much sexual violence.

Chapter 7 is when the two Whitman kids get kidnapped. Their driver gets his throat slit, the boy gets dismembered, and the girl gets raped. I knew it was coming and I was still horrified by it.

I would not remove this part. I would foreshadow it better with a few scenes with Calhoun, the brutes, etc., and I might change some of the details to be a bit less awful and gruesome, but I don't think I would remove it. There are a few core ideas here that I think all work:

The better class of criminal has left the city now, and all that are left are the worst of the worst, the people who will not respond to incentives or symbols or rational thought.

If you cannot strike at Superman's physical self, you strike at his mind instead, and one of the ways to do that is psychic damage. In Calhoun's case, this is irrational, a pure desire to hurt Superman in any way possible while his empire collapses.

The amount of evil in the world is enormous. The pain and suffering cannot be comprehended. I love what Superman says, that this isn't really unique, that these things happen to children all the time. He's upset about not being able to save them, but they're a drop in the bucket.

I think you have to be careful with sexual violence, whether it's depicted or hinted at or just briefly mentioned. There are tons of people who are not on board with that in their media, and even of those who are on board, it has to be handled carefully and can feel very cheap, as though you're just going to the worst and most transgressive thing you can think of for the shock value. People will see it as lazy and trivializing and making entertainment out of this horrible thing.

I think the world is shit. I think terrible things happen. I have always felt both oppressed by the weight of evil in the world and powerless to stop it. I think that's the thing that I'm gesturing at here, and it feels weird to me that sexual violence would get put on a pedestal as the one thing too horrible to mention, even though we're mentioning all the most horrible things.

How do Superman comics and shows and movies deal with this? My impression is that they don't. Surely Superman must be stopping rapes from happening, but I cannot think of a single time I've seen it happen. I'm actually having trouble thinking of a time it was implied to happen. I think this is probably a good idea on the part of the people who make these bits of media, but it's absolutely not realistic if you're thinking about how Superman would operate in the "real world". Sexual violence happens, child abuse happens, and I guess we just sort of assume that these things are dealt with by Superman off-screen.

Though ... I mean it impacts the characters, right? Does Superman not have a trauma response? Does he have a superpower where he can bottle it all up? He's definitely too late to stop certain crimes, and he definitely can't make things better for some of the victims, and I guess in the comics when he shows up to a burning building he generally has a 100% success rate and people come out with only minor injuries, but ... alright, this is definitely the sort of thing that led me to write this fic in the first place.

It's a question that the fic doesn't have an answer for: how do you go on living when you know that there's so much evil in the world?

I think dialing that particular scene back is, maybe, fine. But it's the sort of thing that would feel like I was being less authentic in a way, as though I wanted to grapple with the big questions but not that one, wanted to consider ethics and morality but silo myself away from things that actually are on my mind. I see the point of blunting that scene, and I rebel against it because I don't want to be blunted, I want to be sharp.

I would, however, remove a lot of the earlier references, or blunt those, because they didn't need to be sharp. There are, before the Whitman stuff, about five references to sexual violence, and maybe even just using "sexual violence" would be enough, rather than "rape". One of these references is to what crimes Superman is statistically most likely to stop, another is to a plot to besmirch his name, both can be massaged or they can go.

I don't know if I think about these things differently because time has passed or I've had a bunch of discussions about these issues, or whether it's just having the outside view. It's weird to think about what a conversation with myself would look like, if we were working on the story together.

Retrospective

I understand why Superman fans sometimes hate this story. There's the Superman OOC stuff, sure, but there are also a lot of questions about Superman that apply to canon equally well, and people hate that. Superman is a fantasy, maybe the ultimate comic book fantasy. He stops crimes and bullets bounce off him! You're not supposed to think about his stance on abortion rights. You're not supposed to look at the Clark Kent mask and say 'huh, that's strange'. I mean it's media, you can do whatever the hell you want, but if Superman is a fantasy, then there are a lot of questions that are fantasy-ruining.

I stand by the story as written about 80%, which is higher than I thought it would be, though there are certain things that I stand by more than others. There are certain structural changes and many line-by-line changes, and I'm glad that I didn't have the story open in edit mode, because it would have taken me three times as long to read and when I hit "save changes" people would grumble about archives or bad changes or whatever, because you can't please people.

About five years ago, I started writing A Common Sense Guide to Doing the Most Good, which was meant as a companion piece to MM. It ended up being all mechanics, no plot, and the plot that I wanted it to have was divorced from the center questions it wanted to answer. It didn't feel as grand, I guess, and the cats were out of their bags a little too quickly.

One of the Answers that MM gives is that the thing you should do in the face of overwhelming evil is to grind relentlessly, grind until your bones are scraping the grindstone and there's nothing left of yourself. The story does not believe this answer, but it's one of the places I ended up ten years ago, and am still sort of at now. The other answer is to live as best you can, be aware of the evil and do what you can against it without letting the idea of it (or the battle against it) consume your soul.

When I was finished reading, I kind of wanted to write an uncritical Superman comic. Something where Superman can be as his most loyal fans see him, someone who is Good and doesn't often have to grapple with what Good means, where the thorny edges of moral quandaries never come to light and the hero is always there in the nick of time. Where Clark Kent is a bold and noble expression of humanity rather than a deception and a mask. Maybe I will go do that.

[blueopinions49]

Healthy/Unhealthy Type 2

Healthy Social 2

Sue Storm (2w1 so/sx)- While id say Ben is closer to the heart of F4 id say sue is the soul of the group. Her view on humanity is formed based on how we all owe something to the other and need to progress and form community.

Kiki Takayama (2w1 so/sp)- Her main struggle in the story is how she is defined in relation to others and what acts of service can she provide to make life better for them. She goes through a bit of crisis mid way in the film and eventually returns to her center at the end.

Clark Kent 2w1 (so/sx)- Similar to Kiki his struggle on he is in relation to others might affect him a bit however, in his better written comics we see a superman who embraces his place as a protect of earth and balances both of his identities.

Unhealthy Social 2

Makima 2w1 so/sx- Her view of humans as pets and need to be loved comes from a place of wanting to emulate love. However Makima is a great example of 2 who has complete moved to 5 completely. Seeing love and good as a need to control others.

Harmony Cobel 2w1 so/sp- Power over other in the form of control and manipulation. Being fully on board with the severance program believing that it's what's best for others.

Allison Dilaruntis 2w3 so/sx- She's an emotional terrorist...yeah. Great example of a 2 disintegrating to 8 and becoming comfortable in manipulating others and using them in order for what's good for the group (the liars). Basically ruling over the town using blackmail and straight up violence when needed.

Healthy Self Preservation 2

-Fiona Gallagher (2w3 sp/sx)- While debatable if she is healthy or not her desire to protect herself and her family form all the threats on the outside world. She rejects the need of E2 to take care of others and Instead craves being taken care of.

-Cher Horowitz (2w3 sp/so)- To others she might come off as ditsy and rude however Cher exemplifies an odd and immature type of care. As the movie goes on we see a Cher who actually starts learning to accept and take care of others outside her narrow perspective.

-Alice Cullen (2w1 sp/so)- Her upbringing makes her wanting to be taken care of by Casper. Usually she reserves her caring nature to those around her and herself. However she always does extend an olive branch when it comes to helping others.

Unhealthy Self Preservation 2

-Amma Crellin (2w3 sp/sx) -A compete rejection of giving as a whole. Her desire to be taken care by someone makes her commit horrible acts and letting herself be hurt. Her frustration with her environment ends up fueling her with rage and resentment.

-Cassie Howard (2w1 sp/sx) - While I thought she was an SX type at first if we pay attention to Cass we can actually see that she is an SP type. One of the things we see of Cassie is that she will not be alone and if her emotional meets aren't met at the moment she will go out of her way to correct them even if it means bad choices.

-Elena Gilbert (2w1 sp/so)- Yeah we have beef...anyways...Her need to preserve herself and those around her can come off at the cost of EVERY other person who she doesn't know. Sometimes being incredibly hypocritical and rude.

Healthy Sexual 2

-Gloria Delgado-Prichette (2w3 sx/so)- The need to be completed by being loved isn't really her main concern. She has fully integrated to her 8 and become a pilar I her family were others can come for advice and wisdom.

-Sakura Haruno (2w1 sx/so)- Her health levels are very subjective due to the fact that her whole development is centered around Sasuke and well you guys know the rest. However id argue she leans more ti healthy due to her eventually detaching her desires from him and developing into her self.

-Rebekah Mikaelson (2w3 sx/sp)- The most 8 looking enneagram two in this post and we adore her for it. Rebekah has been emotionally neglected by her family allot and her only desire in this lifetime is to have a child and regain her humanity. And. by the end of the show we see a fully realized Rebekah with a family, happy and stable.

Unhealthy Sexual 2

-Maria (2w3 sx/sp)- Her only purpose in existence is to be attached to James and being a subconscious part of him. She is forever stuck in that place never truly getting to attach to someone who will value her and love her.

-Wendy (2w3 sx/so)- Fear of not being love by Jennifer makes her insecurities take over and eventually using the red crayon society against her. Even when she is exiled she returns to the rose garden orphanage to commit her last mistake. Most of her wrong doings come from an immature mind and lack of understanding of consequences.

-The Other Mother (2w1 sx/sp)- A craving for others to not join her in the limited space her makes her violent and angry. Also she eats children

P.S I should've used Annie Wilks for unhealthy SX2...

P.S part 2 I should've been more serious in some parts but I haven't posted in an official post in a while and college has been hell the last few weeks.

[flowering-thought]

how would Rowan and Daisuke handle rejection? Like... it’s not like their darling isn’t interested on them, but just has other priorities and so they don’t think they can give and provide the love and attention a relationship needs?

Ooo now since it's rejection with a reason other than not having affection for them? That makes it more interesting-

Not edited

WARNING - MINORS DNI

AFAB reader and reader is described as feminine and chubby/plus sized.

Yandere themes, manipulation, thoughts of kidnapping implied

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Daisuke Kawahara

Rejection Due to Environment HC's

• Daisuke knew you had a lot on your plate. With work and classes and paying for your dorm and keeping up with your school friends? He knew you were busy, but that still didn't stop his heart from nearly breaking at the rejection you gave him.

• You telling him how sorry you were and that maybe if you weren't so busy you would be happy too! But that you didn't have the time or energy for one.

• Daisuke kept his cool and said it was okay but he couldn't look you in the eyes for fear of crying. He hadn't cried except when his grandmother died- and now he was on the verge of tears..

• But when he got home he curled up on his bed with Mikan and slept away the night until he woke up to his dad checking in on him.

• He couldn't hide how upset he was so he spilled the beans and asked his dad what he should do. After all, there has to be something right?

• After getting some ideas and advice he started his plan. He made some threats to your employer to get you fired. Was it something rash? Yes, it was. But that was only the first step.

• You would of course need that money to pay for your dorm and school, so he donated some money to your student dorm and told the people in charge to say that she was qualified for some special program where your dorms and meals are covered along with extra expenses.

• He knew that if he gave you the money straight up you wouldn't accept or would feel pressured to make him happy. He didn't want that.

• Of course to get the school to accept the money and do as requested isn't normally accepted unless you have blackmail on the dean of the school hm?

• Thank god his older brother has such good blackmail material on so many people or he couldn't have blackmailed them for a month or so-

• But thanks to his plan to lighten your plate you gradually had more time to spend with him. He lures you into a false sense that everything is fine and may say how much Mikan misses you when you don't visit..

• And your friends? He doesn't mind you having a couple but he starts to give the few he doesn't like some suggestions and spreads rumors about them that he could quickly dispel as long as they stay away from you ♡

• And he will ask again when enough time passes where it wouldn't be too awkward.

Just don't reject him this time okay? Lord knows what he'll do if you reject him twice for no reason. He might just snap enough to give you a surprise sleepover in one of his extra rooms ♡

⋆｡˚. ੈ ⋆｡˚. ੈ ⋆｡˚. ੈ ⋆｡˚. ੈ ⋆｡˚. ੈ ⋆｡˚.

Rowan Clarke

Rejection Due to Environment HC's

• Rowan honestly couldn't believe what was happening. He knew you were busy but he enjoyed helping out when he could. And now you were going to reject his feelings?

• As mentioned before, Rowan has very little patience and it all goes to holding back the full extent of his feelings for you.

• So he left, visibly upset but hid the extent of how upset he was.

• What was he going to do now? He was lost. He didn't know how to release the stressors from your life and wasn't sure how to get rid of them without violence. So he moped around his house for a night before sometime around three am he had an idea after drinking some moonshine and reading one of the detective books his sister left lying around-

• You wouldn't be stressed if everything just disappeared! So after a couple of rumors and a bit of blackmail he got the stay-at-home company you worked for to cut your hours. And the people in town now gave you slightly dirty looks but Rowan knew one more word from him would turn those rumors around and make them leave you alone.

• He didn't like being manipulative but sometimes he had to do it. And he slowly but surely made sure that he was the only person you talked to. He would barge into your house and check on things. He would make you food with crops he grew-

• He may have suggested you both drink one night some of the wine he prepared two years back and kept encouraging you to drink over your limit..

• He needed you to have a breakdown. He knew most of the time that you were positive to make it on your own. But he needed you to just let loose and cry in his arms so you'd finally just leave everything to him ♡

• And it sure worked. A bit of wine and soft words of comfort; and the dam just overflowed until you were sobbing in his arms.

• As much as Rowan hated to see you cry, he found it so much nicer when you depended on him. You were so cute when you admitted you were struggling and wished you could just relax without worrying about all the things going wrong in your life.

• So Rowan promised you he'd go to the town and set those rumors straight. And he kissed your forehead and promised you everything would be alright.

• And surprisingly? You felt so much better with Rowan by your side. When you woke up and went to town to get some bread some apologized to you like Rowan didn't start and end those rumors in the bat of an eye!

• And part of you felt like Rowan was too kind to help out around the house. And you found yourself looking forward to his meals and his conversations and making more time for him despite your job giving you back your hours.

• After all he was there when things got rough! And so instead of him asking you out again, you asked him. And Rowan nodded his head and told you that he'd come up with the best first date ever!

Just don't scare Rowan like that again! He already had his basement cleared out in case things didn't go his way this time ♡

[coneheda]

50

50 "in my defense, I really wanted to."

“Uh Lex? We might have a problem.” Anya says, pulling her out of her day dream. Lexa groans as she gets up from her desk. The last three hours of her day could not be going any slower, all she wants to do is go home and lock herself in her room with her girlfriend who’s finally coming to visit. Okay, it hasn’t been that long since they’ve seen each other- Lexa was just there for work two weeks ago- but any amount of time spent apart is torture. Hopefully whatever the problem is, it can resolve itself quickly. 

“What is it?” She asks, but there’s no need to wait for a verbal answer when she looks over her colleague's shoulder and sees the alert popped up on the screen. Her chest tightens as her heart rate speeds up. This has to be a mistake.

“You ran a background check right?” Anya asks. Lexa ignores her in favor of shoving her out of the way to take over the monitor. Suspect detained. Potential bomb threat. Terrorism. The words swirl around her head as she reads them. But It’s not the words that have ice running through her veins, no in her line of work they’re a common place, but the face attached to them? That’s something she never would have seen coming.

With shaky hands she pulls up the security feed, taking in the small figure hunched over a table, hands cuffed together but still able to clench themselves in disheveled hair. Lexa stares at the image, trying to understand how she missed something this big. It’s only when she sees what the detainee is wearing that she jumps up.

“Oh fuck.” She scrambles to grab her belongings and races up to her boss's office.

_____

Clarke likes flying. Likes seeing the world from a new perspective. Likes people watching while she waits for her flight. Likes the fact that she can cross the country in a matter of hours instead of days. She even likes the overpriced food, it’s all part of the experience. 

Correction, Clarke liked flying. It’s going to be a long time before she sets foot in another airport. 

It had started off a normal travel day. Arriving three hours early, a habit her mom had ingrained into her, even though she knows she doesn't need half that to get through security and get to her gate with more than enough time to spare. 

She even remembered to mail her surprise to her girlfriends to prevent any potential embarrassment that could have come up had it gone through the scanner. 

So when she was randomly selected and her hands swabbed, she thought nothing of it. It’s happened a handful of times before and she just waits patiently while they run their test. 

When that test came back positive and she was roughly escorted to a small room with no windows and interrogated for the next two hours? All patience and calmness were sucked out of her, replaced by anxiety and confusion. Honestly it’s a good thing she went to the bathroom before queuing up for security otherwise she would be physically shitting herself instead of just mentally. 

She has no idea how explosive residue got on her hands or the trace amounts they found on her bag. They keep asking her what the target is, where the bomb is, what it’s made of, if she’s working alone. For the first five minutes she questioned whether their test was faulty or she somehow switched bodies with someone, maybe it was all some sort of sick joke. But the questions kept coming and the people asking them kept getting scarier looking.

The next time the door opens she doesn’t lift her head up from the table. Her tears have long since dried up and her fear has morphed into anger. 

“Oh my god Clarke!” Lexa rushes over to girlfriend. Startled eyes take her in as she smooths down blonde locks. “Baby I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” 

Clarke feels borderline delirious after the last few hours, enough to momentarily question whether or not who she’s seeing is real, but quickly shakes it off and allows herself to be lifted from the chair. The cuffs are removed and Lexa wraps an arm around her to guide her out of the hell box.

The scary people hand over all her belongings and don’t try to stop them from leaving. It’s a complete 180 from ten minutes ago when they told her she was facing life in prison.

Clarke doesn’t even realize they’ve left the airport until she’s being buckled into a car. 

“Clarke?” Lexa asks, concern evident in her tone.

“What the fuck just happened?” Clarke says in disbelief.

“We need to talk.”

“Oh great, first I’m accused of terrorism and now I’m being dumped fan-fucking-tastic. I swear I don’t even know what you need to make a bomb let alone how to build one. I don’t know how it got on-”

“Clarke.” Lexa cuts her off, “I’m not breaking up with you, you might want to dump me after hearing what I have to say, but I really hope you don’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Clarke asks and oh how Lexa loves the little furrow between her brows.

“It’s my fault.” Lexa tells her “You’re wearing my sweatshirt and I assume you pulled it from the hamper instead of washing it.”

“So?” Clarke asks the furrow getting a little deeper. 

Lexa takes a deep breath. “Well it had explosive residue on it…”

Clarke blinks. Once. Twice. “I’m sorry what? Why would your sweatshirt have- are you a terrorist??”

“No of course not!” Lexa hastily puts a stop to that train of thought. “No, I- it was a work training thing and I put it after and didn’t think about the fact that you might wear it before washing it let alone try to go through any sort of security with it on.”

“A work thing? What kind of foreign policy advisor work involves explosives!” Clarke says in exasperation. She looks at her girlfriends guilty expression. “That’s not actually what you do, is it?”

Lexa shakes her head, “No. Although I know enough about it to tell people, so it could be?” 

Clarke is quiet for what feels like hours to Lexa, but is really more like a minute. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. I can’t believe I believed you. You’re terrible at lying! At least I thought you were, is that all an act?”

“In my defense I really wanted to. Tell you that is, but I couldn’t unless we were married and no it’s not an act. My job is the only thing I’m good at fudging the truth about. At least when it comes to you.” Lexa explains

“So why tell me now? We’re not married. Am I going to have to go live in a cave somewhere?”

Lexa laughs “no nothing like that. You’ll just have to sign a few forms and promise your first born to the government.” Clarke glares at her. “Okay okay, I’m serious about the paperwork though. My boss gave me the green light due to the circumstances and because I hope that one day we will be married, if you’ll still have me that is, but no one else can know.” 

Clarke can’t stop the flutter in her chest at the word married. Even if part of her is still angry at the whole situation, the idea of marrying Lexa is something she hasn’t stopped thinking about since they got together.

“Are we okay?” Lexa asks, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

Clarke sighs, letting the chaos melt away. “We’re okay.” She snuggles into Lexas side. “If you didn’t want me wearing your clothes all you had to do was say something.” She grumps. “You’re really going to have to make this up to me and do all the flying for the foreseeable future.” 

[skylarmoon71]

Winchester - (Supernatural / Smallville Crossover AU) - Chapter 2

Settling into Smallville was easier than you thought.

For one, being new made you basically invisible. You weren’t exactly a local, so you had sort of free range. Not many people paid much attention. 

You could conduct your research without being questioned by a group of curious friends or adults. While you had gotten acquainted with Clark’s friends, they never really asked when you would disappear to the library for hours. They probably just assumed you were a bookworm.

Chloe seemed overall excited that someone was as interested in the weird as she was.

That’s why you’re currently seated at the back of the library, adding another news clipping to your little journal.

The presence of someone momentarily distracts you. When you lift your head, the first thing you spot is the length of plaid.

“Hey Clark, what’s up?”

Your eyes are back in your book.

“I haven’t seen you for a few days. I just wanted to check in on you.”

“I’m fine, just busy.”

“That’s good.”

You thought that’s all he wanted, but he was still standing there a bit awkwardly. 

You pause.

“Umm, did you need something else?”

If you’re being honest he’s been acting weird for the last few weeks. Since you discovered his secret. Now it feels like you understand.

“Clark, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Maybe he just needs reassurance. He finally looks a bit more calm, taking a seat right next to you.

“That’s not what I was really worried about.”

Now you’re a bit puzzled.

“This doesn’t scare you?” He asks.

“What do you mean?”

“The fact that I’m you know..” He looks around, then leans over.

“An alien.”

You’re about to laugh, but he seems serious.

“Clark, I literally told you I hunt monsters. I know angels and I’m pretty sure this town is filled with supernaturally powered people. I think  a harmless alien that runs around actually helping people are the least of my problems."

Despite his previous unease, he leans back in his chair with a smile.

You sort of understand his hesitance. None of his friends are aware of this. His powers, the meteor shower, his spaceship. They’re all in the dark, so some part of him must assume that if they ever knew, they wouldn’t be able to accept him.

Accept that secret.

You supposed it was never a worry for you. You’ve never stayed in a place long enough to wonder what other people thought about you or your life. You have no attachments, not like Clark. So there’s no fear of losing that. You always thought that the only thing you needed was your brothers and your few hunter and angel friends. Clark has an entire life here. A lot to lose, to fear.

Closing your book, you turn to him slowly.

It might be time to come clean about your own fears, maybe it might give him at least a peace of mind.

“Do you know why I love books so much?”

He looks intrigued, shaking his head, ready for an explanation.

“A few years ago I learned that I have grace, much like an angel. I’m human but my body can accommodate something beyond my understanding. Some really bad people realized this and they tried to take me, make me into a weapon so my brothers did everything to stop it. For weeks, months, they went through every possible piece of text known to man.”

You turn over your palm, staring at the small tattoo.

Clark’s eyes drift to your wrist that has a small book with an S and an D marked inside of the small page design.

“I wanted to help, I wanted to feel useful, so I started doing the same. I did a deep dive and eventually we found a spell to make me invisible to the threat. Because of them I can live freely without fear. At that moment I guess I realized it. Knowledge is power. I’ve lost count of how many times that a spell, or some lore has saved our lives. I guess in some crazy way I clung unto that. In this life I know there isn’t anything my brothers won’t do for me, the same way your parents have probably always protected you.”

The look of recognition flashes in his eyes and you smile.

“Being different isn’t easy. There will always be a weight that comes with that, not just for us, but the people that we love. At the end of the day, all we can do is help make that weight more bearable. Reading, understanding what’s out there, that’s what I can do. Helping people, that’s the part that you play. There’s always going to be something to worry about, but it doesn’t have to be what drives us. We can all make a difference in our own way. Just have faith that it’ll work out.”

Maybe he understands, because he looks a bit more at ease.

“You’re right, thank you (Y/N).”

You grin.

“Anytime, now can you grab those books over on that shelf. It’s pretty high and I saw something about mermaids, I can’t wait to see what that’s about.”

Clark laughs as you point at the shelf.

He can already tell that your company will be an exciting little adventure. 

[mdhwrites]

My Adventures With Jimmy's Two Gay Dads (MAWS) Episode 6 Review

Spoiler Free Thoughts: A good course correction from the episode before with good fun, a good bit of escalation as far as the scope for what they can do for villains even if they're still tech related, FINALLY some concrete answers on plot things and just a wonderful pair of villains that I'm sad we likely won't see again, at least not anytime soon. The only thing I was just okay with really was the Lois, Clark and Jimmy stuff. None of it was bad but it was a little rushed and a little awkward at times and I don't think Lois got a moment to shine like I had been expecting/hoping. It all worked well enough though to has me excited for the next episode once again.

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So this is going to be shorter than usual because my brain is hissing at me at wasting typing energy on something other than the Lindworm retelling I'm working on (if you're interested, go check out my Discord) so I can't focus as well as I normally can. Luckily, I don't actually have as much to say about this episode as usual, especially beyond what I said in my spoiler free thoughts.

This episode is just good. For resolving the previous episode it does the job fine but it is probably the clunkiest part, as if they don't want to fully resolve it or didn't want to linger on the drama for too long. It still works well though with Clark stating why Lois impresses him, Clark showing why Lois loves him (and I wish Lois got a moment like that that just let her shine as a reminder of why these two want to be together) and Jimmy shows the right reaction to the secret by giving Clark space since it's obviously sensitive to him. He also then has the right reaction of indignation when he finds out Lois was 'told' first.

Which... I would like Jimmy to stop being objectively right and that not going very far. This episode isn't too bad about it but for the past two episodes, Jimmy feels like he's doing the correct thing that the other two might learn from but that doesn't really go anywhere. The lack of them talking as much as maybe they could have would have helped it feel stronger in this episode too and I just feel like it was kind of lacking. If you're going to keep make Jimmy shine or feel just as important as the other two, can you please actually resolve that in someway during an episode?

But I do want to touch on Clark's reason for keeping the secret because I like that they DIDN'T use Spiderman's reason. A lot of people responded that part of why Supes has been hiding his secret is the threat it poses to his loved ones and friends but like... Until the last month, why would Superman, one who always sees the best in poeple, think that? No one wanted him dead, no threat could challenge him and he believes people are inherently good.

As such, the reason IS selfish. It's so he could be seen and treated as normal, even to the point of ignoring those around him. When he asked Lois "Do you really think that little of me?" I'd hoped that would get turned around on him at the end when he talked about these fears. They say they never would which works but I think it would have been more powerful to more specifically target that Clark needs to have faith in those around him.

It also made him saying the effective mission statement of Superman, that he will help humanity until the day people are accepting of all and help each other, a little rough for me. Not that it is bad for him to say but I wish his response to being told that no one would accept him for being different had been "You know, I had thought that but today I got shown that I might just be wrong about that and so long as I can believe everyone can be like the ones I love, I'm not going anywhere, especially not so long as they need my help."

Speaking of outcasts though: I LOVE Mallah and Brain. They truly do sell old married couple energy, the bit about the dishes is AMAZING, while also being mad scientists. And yet, you never fully disbelieve that they aren't honest. They genuinely want to help people and live a life of peace but, you know, mad scientists be mad scientists. They actually reminded me a lot of Lumiere and Cogsworth, especially with Mallah talking about having been alone for decades contrasting with "Ten years we've been rusting, needing so much more than dusting."

Also, good on Ivo that he seems to be recovering OKAY after the Parasite suit but man, revenge isn't what you need boy. You need therapy. Speaking of villains, my limited knowledge of Omecs (again, hope I'm getting the name right) make me look at this version and go "Some people are going to be MAD" because it does genuinely feel like just using a comic name for something that is absolutely not what it is in the comics. Maybe some version of them but definitely not the version I'm most familiar with, at least to my knowledge.

Do I mind? Not really. It gives them a neat name and they can get renamed later once their origins are fully revealed or the like but even that would reasonably feel cheap to comic fans. Again, doesn't matter that much to me but for once I would understand others being annoyed.

But in general, it's just a good episode that I think handles the aftermath of episode 5 well, continues showing how much charisma and charm the show has in its character writing but I am REALLY ready for a Jimmy focused episode already. One that is genuinely about him and not about the trio like this one was.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[skyekilaen]

In a queer-friendly post-collapse community, Clark finds new love with Van & a close bond with Van's girlfriend Hadas. To keep it all, both men must overcome past losses & the violence threatening their close-knit town.

First 3 chapters, content warnings, and buy links here.

 And here's the whole blurb in case it sounds intriguing...

After the second U.S. Civil War, life is dangerous, but risking their hearts might be the biggest threat.

When charismatic newcomer Clark walks into Van’s life in post-war rural Colorado, neither can ignore the sparks between them. Van has built a fulfilling new normal with his girlfriend Hadas after his wife’s death, but Clark’s brash flirtation and dominant tendencies awaken a desire for a kind of romance Van thought he’d lost forever. Even if he’s not sure he’s ready for it.

Clark survived the war, but his family fractured and now his relationships are in ruins. All that must be his fault, or everyone wouldn’t say so. He’s relocated to start over, zero interpersonal complications welcome. His inescapable chemistry with Van, who seems to crave more than hookups, is a complication. So is Clark’s growing platonic bond with Hadas. Both want an emotional connection he can’t give them, and he’ll only disappoint them if he tries. Won’t he?

Then a violent gang of thieves targets their small town, and Van and Hadas prepare to put their lives on the line protecting their close-knit community. Having lost too much already, Clark starts to pull away, spooking Van. But when a traitor betrays them all, Clark is the only one who can save the two people who asked him to open his heart… and made him want to risk it.

A high heat polyamorous M/M romance with an M/M/F HEA.

Tropes: post-apocalyptic, small town, hurt-comfort, widower, polyamory, open relationships.

[josefavomjaaga]

That one time, when Soult accused Joseph of treason... (Part 3)

We left the story (part 1, part 2) when Joseph, like in a bad comedy show, accidentally got to read a letter in which Soult suggested to the minister of war, Clarke, that Joseph might be in secret negotiations with the Spanish insurgents that Napoleon’s soldiers in Spain were fighting against.

Of course, being the king of the country and a man who took great care to see himself and his authority respected, he did what any respectable man would do and immediately confronted Soult whined to Napoleon about it.

Joseph to Napoleon. Valencia, 9 September 1812

Sire, Colonel Desprez had left yesterday when Marshal Suchet brought me the enclosed packet from Marshal Soult. I had this officer recalled [i.e. Desprez, not Suchet or Soult; Soult would not have obeyed anyway]; and reading these dispatches struck me as such that I thought I had no other course of action than to address them directly to Your Majesty by this same officer, with whom Marshal Soult had long conferences which you would do well to be informed of. I do not know what to say about the insane conclusions of this marshal; but to communicate them to six generals is undoubtedly the only means which he thought he could use to destroy the effect of the order which I gave him, by dispatch of June 30 and August 7, to hand over command to the most senior general officer, if he continued to refuse to carry out my orders for the evacuation of Andalusia; it is a revolt against the authority which Your Majesty entrusted me with. The communication which he makes to Paris is also unseemly; neither of these actions can go unpunished. I ask Your Majesty for justice. Let Marshal Soult be recalled, tried, and punished.

Nappy, that evil Soult man was mean to me! Go slap him!

Also, considering that Joseph himself was openly defying Napoleon’s orders ever since he had put his behind on the throne of Spain, which may have been one of the reasons why Napoleon installed the army governors in the first place, it takes some guts to accuse Soult of insubordination. Glass house?

I cannot remain any longer here with such a man, I am worried about the conduct which he is going to hold; therefore send as soon as possible a general who replaces him; take some sort of decision: until then I will do what depends on me to prevent, if I can, the total ruin of affairs, which the resistance of a man who commands the largest army, who must have a great deal of money and means of intrigue, can bring about.

A great deal of money and means of intrigue, coincidentally, would be a good way to describe Joseph...

Moreover, I refer to everything contained in my previous letter; and if you do not have absolute confidence in me, and if you do not show it in a way which imposes itself on all the wannabe rulers of sovereign principalities in the Peninsula, there is no other course of action to take than to allow me to return to France, in accordance with what you were kind enough to say to me when I took leave of you.

I’ve lost count how many times Joseph had already offered his resignation at this point. Napoleon probably knew what to make of this threat, as Joseph never followed up on it. Besides, it was always a conditional threat: if I don’t get my way, I’ll resign.

Also, in the state in which affairs are, my presence can restore them less than that of a consummate general who would come here clothed with the fullness of Your Majesty's confidence.

This letter, as seen above, was written and handed over to Colonel Desprez on September 9. But this didn’t suffice. To make sure that Napoleon really learned how badly his beloved brother was treated by his evil marshals, Joseph wrote another letter:

Joseph to Napoleon, Valencia, 14 September 1812

Sire, Colonel Desprez, my aide-de-camp, left here on the 9th [...]

On the 15th, actually, according to Miot de Mélito. Which means that he in the end carried this letter as well. Service around Joseph was not known for either speed or efficiency.

[...] with dispatches it is very important for Your Majesty to receive from this officer, and details which are his alone and which only he can give. However, if events prevent him from arriving with his dispatches to Your Majesty, you will find enclosed three documents which it is good for you to know as soon as possible. I have been without letters from Paris for three months. I have no news of Marshal Masséna.

I also have done nothing to try to change that and to make sure communications are not interrupted. - It’s interesting that, independently from each other, both Clarke and Soult at some point would come to the conclusion that the courriers were usually intercepted on Joseph’s territory..

The enemy army in Alicante is comprised, including the English, Sicilian and Spanish landed troops, of 30,000 men; it is fortifying itself, and does not seem to think of going on the offensive ever since I rejoined the troops of the army of Aragon. If it were not for the worries given to me by the character of Marshal Soult, which chance brought to my attention by making his letter of the 12th fall into my hands, I would no longer doubt that affairs in this country would soon be restored.

Translation: There’s an enemy army in the territories I am supposed to govern, but I’ve run to Suchet for cover, so I’ll just let this enemy army be and take care of the real problem: the fact that Soult does not do what I tell him to do.

Your Majesty can, moreover, be convinced that I will do all that he has a right to expect of me in this difficult circumstance.

Napoleon: That’s precisely what I am afraid of ...

This is not the time to renew the assurance of my devotion to you: you know very well that I am truly your affectionate brother.

And with this assurance, Desprez finally sets off for Paris, in order to first meet Clarke, and then he will have to run after Napoleon, who, unbeknownst to either Desprez or Joseph, is already on his way to Moscow.

In the meantime, Soult, who received letter after letter from Joseph, accusing him of disobedience and insubordination and of having caused the defeat of Salamanca - but not once mentioning Soult’s intercepted letter to Clarke and Desprez’s journey to Paris - had nolens volens started the evacuation of Andalusia. Slowly and methodically, starting with the troops who were most exposed, sending ahead a corps of engineers to make sure the roads were okay, then a large train consisting of as many sick and wounded as were in a state to be transported, but also artillery, archives, all sorts of luggage and all Spaniards who had compromised themselves in Sevilla by cooperating with the French over the last two years (among them a certain pregnant young lady Madame Soult soon would not be happy to learn about).

It’s an interesting contrast to the way Joseph would retreat from Spain in early 1813. - Of course, while Soult conducted his evacuation, Joseph all the time continued to breath fire in Soult’s direction because Soult took so long to finally leave Andalusia.

After a march of 37 days, on 2 October 1812, Soult joined Joseph’s troops and went to see Joseph at Fuente de Higuera.

Now that must have been a scene ... not. As Soult relates in his memoirs:

This encounter was to be more than chilly. The king had, for three weeks already, been aware of my letter to the Minister of War, dated 12 August, and had sent Colonel Desprez to the Emperor. I learned of it on arrival. I expected the king to address me about the matter first: he did not say a word about it.

For some things, you need balls. I guess demanding your authority be respected in a letter to somebody hundreds of miles away is somewhat easier than actually enact that authority in this guy’s presence...

[stoptellinglieslois]

Love fair Act 30

Vampire fanfiction Clark Kent human x Richard Grayson Vampire no capes or tights but fangs and might.

Clark pov

I failed in my attempt at using the ring for power against the zombies. I realised I could get more ideas on how to get rid of the zombies, I've done it before in using something or another I could utilise it now but what though.

I stare at Lois non responsive body on the steps her breathing is light I didn't trust her even in the state she was in.

"You fool how dare you assume you could use that piece of junk on your retched finger against me and think you can win, I will get you and Richard the fallen prince of..." Jason cut Ghul's rant.

"Look old dude whatever look either you bring these bitch's here or you step out of the shadows and fight us." Jason said. Duke said nothing but ready for any anticipated move from the evil sorcerer.

"WHAT you dare challenge me you demented beast I will enslave you and then capture your little lover and grind him into dust." Ghul challenge. Lover who would that be surely he is not talking about oh I see.

"I dare you to come out of the shadows instead of these foul creatures." Richard said advancing outside where the zombies made there way to the manor in snail pace.

"I hate you. The fact that you have stayed alive all these years and not parish in any of my assaults is a cruel joke to Thalia's memory." Al Ghul spat out like he was cursing us just by speaking or breathing.

"I could end you all here and I will." The floor of the manor started to shake the ceiling fixture fell on us Richard came rushing in, One chandelier was falling directly on him so it would not hit me, Pieces of crystal fell all over the place and all around us but I was not expecting the vase that flew out of nowhere and coming into Richard direction.

I pushed us out of the way I realise these things won't really hurt him but be more of a distraction for him. "My hero." He purred I wasn't expecting that reaction from him I was a bit out of step with him flirting with me even if we are being attacked by a crazy.

Unknown stuff was hitting us from every direction and that's when I had enough.

"GHUL." I didn't know why I thought of calling out the most dangerous being that I ever met to a challenge. "Oh look the serpent is hissing at me what will you do next ha ha ! hiss at me some more." Ghul didn't even see me as a threat but more like a nuisance. but where he was it feels like he is somewhere he wasn't local.

I closed my eyes I have no idea why but I did, It was dark and cold where he is it feels like he is in another dimension that was weird I never could do these types of things before and now I can on a whim.

It didn't stop what was to come next though I felt posses by someone but I knew this feeling all to well Joseph !

I started to levitate like I did when I was unconscious and was in the past. "Sorcerer call off your dead or I will make your next plan with the faker on the steps disastrous." I had no idea how I did that I summoned a big sharp kitchen knife and animated Lois unconscious body and I made her take the knife and placed it over her neck now I have hostage good.

Raz Al Ghul didn't like that I discovered his plan at all so he was planning on using Lois again in some form or another. "I see the serpent has temerity fine I will call off the dead but that does not mean I won't come back and kill you or you're young." And with that I locked into Ghul's energy things I never knew I had in me and pulled his energy towards me I lifted the Zeus ring and started sucking his essence into the ring making him being pushed into another dimension altogether.

I trapped him somewhere where it would take him a while to find his way back into our plane. Lois also vanished into thin air like she was never there but I knew all too well she was somewhere he would use her again.

The zombies fell and turned into ashes and then the wind swept up the ashes as if they were never here in the first place, As Raz lost control over them the objects halted in pelting us as the room became peaceful once more.

All eyes were on me wide surprised and shocked in awe like they never saw this type of display of supernatural before.

I stood there like the stranger that I am like an alien among other stranger beings.

End of act 30 next is act 31

Thank you for reading

[random-movie-ideas]

Superman Villain Movie Possibilities, Part III: Metallo

John Corben AKA Metallo fills a specific niche in Superman's rogues gallery, specifically in that he best personifies the threat kryptonite poses to Superman. His story typically starts with him being nearly killed, and his brain being removed and place in a robot body with a kryptonite battery. This new body gives him similar attributes to Superman with the added effect of the kryptonite heart weakening Superman in the process, forcing Clark to work more creatively around him.

Origin Movie: He's not the worst possibility for an origin movie. Honestly, the biggest issue with Metallo is that he had to be created by someone, making him slide well into the co-villain or supporting villain role rather than main villain. For an origin movie, I think it best to keep with Dr. Emmet Vale as his creator, a character who doesn't necessarily have to do much more than die at Metallo's hand shortly after the villain's creation. Possibly his almost-death could be an unintended consequence of Clark's actions, but with an origin movie, it could also simply be unrelated and the film stands as a nice parallel between one person with superhuman powers using them for good, and another using them for evil.

Sequel Movie: This feels a bit more natural, and can allow Metallo to be his own villain while being created by a higher profile villain. Say, we establish Lex Luthor in the first film and sow the seeds of his hatred for Superman there, with Metallo's creation being a natural result of that, Lex trying to create his own Superman. From there, Lex could sit on the sidelines and wait for the finale film while Metallo faces Superman. It's also a good place to expand the lore, let the first film introduce Superman and his alien origins, and then let the sequel be the one to introduce kryptonite and its effects on the hero through Metallo. (I understand the original premise for Man of Steel's sequel before Batman v. Superman was a thing had slated the idea of Metallo as the main villain, so that's possibly the literal direction they might have gone).

Finale Movie: Much like Toyman and Livewire, there's not much compelling reason for him to be the big bad the rest of the series supposedly led up to. I have two thoughts though. Some versions of Metallo's origin had him created because Dr. Vale had been led to believe that Kryptonians would doom Earth, so one could lean into that. Another take on him featured him striking a deal with a demon that allowed him to shapeshift his body into anything metal, and maybe there's something there, but it generally feels like others fill the finale role better.

Supporting Villain: We have covered this above, but he would be a fantastic secondary villain depending on who his creator is. With Lex Luthor, he's an easy cyborg bodyguard/counter to Superman. With Project Cadmus, he might have been conceived as the answer to what happens if Superman goes rogue. So many possibilities.

My rankings of these are:

Supporting Villain: His origin lends him well to being the right hand of a bigger bad.

Sequel Movie: His creator being previously established allows him room to shine on his own, and being a sequel allows the Kryptonian world-building to be spaced out a little better.

Origin Movie: Still possible, but might lead to a bit more clunky writing in some spots. The parallels angle is the shining point.

Finale Movie: Much like the previous villains, he just doesn't fit this role.

What do you think? Let me know who else I should cover!

[warriornunsgirlfriend]

I posted 5,500 times in 2022

That's 2,523 more posts than 2021!

152 posts created (3%)

5,348 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@warriornunsgirlfriend

@timelostdoctor

@sassymajesty

@lexa-griffins

@redfoxraccoon

I tagged 5,489 of my posts in 2022

#ava and beatrice - 706 posts

#warrior nun - 639 posts

#otp: in this life or the next - 616 posts

#doctor who - 522 posts

#clarke and lexa - 409 posts

#otp: may we meet again - 358 posts

#buffy the vampire slayer - 357 posts

#thirteen and yas - 300 posts

#ash watches things - 299 posts

#otp: she was the whole universe - 298 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#partially because she’s scared of her feelings but also she’s so afraid to lose ava that she’s making one last attempt to shed her feelings

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

This scene destroyed me. The entire time I kept hoping that they would find Mary 😭. Ava losing the first sister she had ever had. Beatrice losing her sister and trying to grapple with her fear of losing Ava under the constant threat. Camila buckling from the weight of losing so many, Mother Superion losing her strength for just this moment. Lilith having to be the one to tell them, even if only in code, and having no one to grieve with. All of them devastated over losing yet another sister in this pointless war.

It’s fine. I’m fine.

251 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#4

I just have a lot of thoughts about this

And this

Because Beatrice always reaches out to touch Ava, without even thinking, to offer comfort, to make sure she’s okay. But then it’s like she’s so afraid to touch Ava at the same time. She’s so afraid and I just have so many emotions about my sweet little badass gay nun 🥺🥺🥺 please let them become canon in s2 and let Beatrice grow unafraid to touch and love.

312 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

#3

I haven’t even met Faith yet but from what little I’ve seen I already know I’m in love 😍🔥

370 notes - Posted March 15, 2022

#2

Every friend group should include:

A mean bisexual

An even meaner lesbian:

See the full post

391 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Can we talk about this scene

I mean I know we’re all talking about this scene but

Beatrice is so free here. She’s touching Ava without restraint (or at least with a lot less than usual). This might be the first time Ava sees Bea with her hair completely down.

And Ava can’t take her eyes off her. Even when the other dancers in the bar bump into them she glances away for a second before immediately looking for Bea again. I don’t think this is the first time Ava has noticed her feelings for Beatrice but I do think that this might be the first time she’s let herself hope for more.

I need to write a Drabble for this scene.

1,496 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[thebubblesareevil]

My mom Married Superman!

Danny is almost 15 in the beginning

The first time Clark met Danny he thought he was a threat (he is but only a potential one) there were reports of a green portal opening in the middle of metropolis and something flew out. Superman came to the rescue of course and he found the figure that came through. He had gravity defying white hair, purple skin, and he was wearing a torn black and white suit with combat boots and a jacket. (I love this version of his design). The thing that concerned him the most is that he didn’t seem to have a heartbeat . He appeared to be injured, he was bleeding green and holding his side, however when Superman approached him he got defensive and attacked, Superman and the Alien? Fought for nearly an hour before the intruders injuries finally caught up to him and he took off, Clark followed him at top speed and at one point lost track of him. Clark scoured the city looking for him, but the being was gone Clark searched a bit longer before heading back to the daily planet just in time to see Lois heading out for the day. Clark asks her if she would like him to walk her home and she says she’s fine and that’s she’s gonna stop and get groceries anyway. So she heads home and she’s almost home with a bag of groceries when she passes by an alley and hears a quiet groan.

She stops for a moment before she gave in to her curiosity. She pulls out her taser and slowly makes her way through the alley to find the source of the noise. She was expecting a lot of different things, what she wasn’t expecting was a teenage boy covered in blood and some kind of green goo. She says shit and goes to call 911 when the kid wakes up. He sees her with her phone and tries to get up and run away. She tells him to calm down she’s not gonna but him, she calling for help right now. If anything this freaks him out even more he grabs the phone and throws it at the wall yelling NO! When he sees her start to back away. He apologizes and says no hospitals. I’ll be fine just go. Lois on the other hand “says to hell with that! Look kid you’ve got two options; either I call an ambulance, which might be hard considering my phone is now in pieces, or I drag your ass back to my apartment, we get you patched up, and you tell me what’s going on.” Danny just gapes at her for a second before letting out a broken laugh. “What could you possibly gain from helping me?” Lois gives him a predatory grin and bluntly say “one hell of a story, whether it gets told or not is your choice but I wanna hear it”

Danny looked her in the eye, he was barely able to stand, leaning against a wall, he weighed his options. If he wasn’t hurt he would be fine but if the red and blue weirdo showed up again he might be in trouble. On the other hand if he went with her she might betray him. He sighed and said fine but at the first sight of trouble he’s gone. She agrees and goes to help him stand and is surprised and worried at how light he is. “By the way the names Lois, Lois lane.” Danny gives a short “Danny” back

When they get to her apartment Lois immediately got to work. She laid out some towels and got him on the couch. His blood had started to dry so they had to cut his shirt off, much to Danny’s protest. What she found underneath made her blood go cold. Burns, bruises, slashes, and even what looked like bullet wounds, though she definitely couldn’t tell you what kind of gun did THAT, along his side is a massive blast wound. She wasn’t sure how he was ALIVE let alone awake. Once they manage to get him cleaned up Lois gets to work stitching up any open wounds she could, thankful for all the first aid training her dad forced her to learn.

By the time they are done with the first aid Danny is barely conscious. Lois tells him to get some sleep and they can talk things over in the morning. Danny doesn’t really have the energy to argue and so he just lays down. Lois watches as he falls asleep, she turns down the lights and starts to head to her room when she hears a quiet “thank you” she gives a soft laugh and says “anytime tough guy” she climbs into bed and before she dozed off she had the passing thought of “what the heck have I gotten myself into”

————-

The next morning Lois jumps out of bed, not sure what woke her up until she hears something in the other room. She grabs the bat from next to her bed and slowly makes her way to the kitchen. She’s just about to swing when she sees the heavily bandaged teen… cooking? “And what do you think you are doing?” He drops the hot pan spilling grease and now there’s smoke. Before she can even grab the extinguisher the floor is frozen. She just stares at the ice before looking back up at Danny’s panicked face.

“Well that’s convenient, got anymore tricks up your sleeves?“ Danny laughs and says a couple she freezes and says “I was joking!there’s more?!” Danny rubs the back of his neck before flinching. Lois sighs and tells him to go sit down before he hurts himself even more and she’ll order delivery.

Once she’s ordered the food she goes into the other room to see Danny on the ground. She rushes over to help him and asks what happened. He looks absolutely destroyed, and says he “couldn’t change, why can’t I change, what’s wrong with me” she helps him sit down and asks him to explain what happened. He tells her that he has certain “abilities” like the ice and he was hoping to change forms to speed up the healing process. But he couldn’t change. She looks at him and asks change into what? What are you some kinda superhero. Danny looks down clenching his fists and says no, I’m not, superheroes save people I couldn’t even save HER. He grabs his abdomen like he’s in severe pain and just says it hurts… she kneels down in front of him and says that it’s going to be okay, not even Superman can save everyone. He looks at her through pained eyes and says one of the most surprising things so far “who is Superman?”

Over the next hour while they are waiting for the food to arrive they come they discover a few things 1 Danny is from another universe 2 something is blocking Danny from accessing his power (Danny suspects that it has something to do with failing his “obsession”) 3 apparently Danny is half dead (for the last time I am not a zombie) 4 Danny fought superman (still a stupid name) and 5. Danny is never going back if Lois has anything to say about it. A lot to process and not a lot of time to process it. In the meantime they needed supplies. Lois gives Danny her computer so he can learn about this universe while she goes to the store to get more medical supplies, some clothes that will fit Danny, and wine (cus god knows she’s gonna need it) when she got back she found Danny passed out on the couch with the laptop on the floor. She’s just about to pull the blanket back over him when he surges forward from a bad dream reopening his wounds the two of them rewrap his wounds Danny apologizes and says he’ll get out of her hair as soon as possible. She laughed and said you kidding you still owe me the rest of that story youre not going anywhere anytime soon. Danny smiles laying down and saying thank you before falling back asleep.

The next few weeks passes much the same although Danny is healing remarkably fast. The two of them create a sort of routine but one day Lois forgets her phone and Danny decides to venture beyond Lois’ apartment and bring her the phone. He gets distracted and lost twice but manages to find the place without much difficulty after that. He arrives only to learn that Lois has rushed out to conduct an interview with her partner. Perry has exactly 0 hesitation before putting him to work. Lois returns with Clark in tow to find Danny, covered in printer ink, being named the conquering hero for repairing the printer.

Lois leads them in a toast to their dear hero and introduces Danny to all of them as the son of an old college friend who just passed and tells them he’s gonna be staying with her for the time being. Everyone gives Danny their condolences, but it’s when Clark approaches that he doesn’t stop staring. Lois laughs and tells Danny not to worry smallville might look tough be hes harmless before giving him a wink. Danny laughs and says it’s nice to meet him. He then gives Lois her phone and is about to leave when perry calls back to him asking where his new intern is going Lois let’s out a loud laugh and turns to Danny and says looks like you’re stuck here now Perry’s not letting go. She then yells back that he and jimmy are going on a coffee run. Danny likes jimmy olsen he reminds him a bit to much of Wes for him to be comfortable but he likes him none the less, plus he lets Danny get a death wish coffee with a triple shot of espresso without judgement so he has no complaints.

Later that night Lois and Danny get home (doesn’t that sound nice) with their take out and (just because he’s a little shit) just as Lois takes a sip of her drink Danny asks when she was gonna tell him that Clark was Superman? She of course spews her drink all over the place and yells WHAT?!? Before laughing because really clark? Nerdy I can’t see without my glasses Clark? Never seen at the same time as Superman Clark? Surprisingly tall Clark? Highly efficient Clark? The Clark that always seems to have the scoop on Supes’ villains Clark? I’ve never actually seen him WITHOUT the glasses Clark?!? And damn if it didn’t make sense CLARK!?!?!!!

“I’m gonna kill him” “you’re not gonna kill him”

She yells back why not?!! And Danny raises his eyebrow and says you’d miss flirting with him too much. She raises a finger like she’s about to argue but just shrugs and says “you’re not wrong”

Danny laughs and finishes “and besides HE doesn’t know you know or I know, don’t you want to torment him a little. Just a little harmless revenge?” Lois Wipes away an imaginary tear “I’m so proud”

Together the two come up with different ways to mess with Clark, Danny using his limited access to his powers and Lois being well lois and flirting relentlessly talking about all the things she do if she had Superman, getting Clark to play fuck marry kill using Superman Batman and Wonder Woman. It comes to an end however when Clark overhears the two coconspirators planning their next prank. He does the whole sorry for not telling you but I had to protect you spiel that Danny already warned her about so she cuts him off. “I’m not mad at you for keeping your secret, but you can’t blame me for having a little fun with it when we figured it out.” Clark is relieved and things go pretty smooth from their. Danny doesn’t want Clark to know everything about him just yet (how do you tell Superman he went toe to toe with a half dead teen?) but they tell him that he’s a meta and his family situation is… complicated to say the least.

It’s about a month after the big reveal that Danny accidentally calls lois mom. It was at the planet that it happened. At this point everyone had figured out that the backstory was at least partially fake, but they could also tell that Danny did not have the best home life, so when danny is focusing on his homework and says “hey mom can you help me with something real quick” no one said a thing however there were a few teary eyes (perry) not that anyone would admit it. A few weeks later when Lois asks Perry for help adopting Danny she had a team of investigative reporters ready to blackmail every official in the city to grease the wheels to get things going (surprisingly all of Danny’s birth records are readily available, lois suspects Clark, Danny suspects someone a little more…blue). Danny has made it clear to Clark that he doesn’t really want to be a superhero (not again, he can’t fail again) and so he doesn’t bring him up to the league (Batman is already very aware of lois lanes new meta son, how could he not be when Bruce Wayne got 3 different calls from the daily planet recommending their newest intern for the Wayne scholarship). It’s been nearly a year and Clark has fully integrated into the family. With Danny’s help Clark plans a romantic evening and proposes at the top of the daily planet.

Danny was the ring bearer. When clark first told Danny his intention to propose he told him straight off the bat that he would not call him dad, he has a dad, he may be dead(a primordial god?)but he is still his dad. But he might be persuaded to call him paw but he’d have to earn it. (Clark teared up a bit Jonathan Kent loves his worlds best pawpaw shirt) that Father’s Day he got a #2 dad mug (later on as he is walking into the kitchen he finds a blue man with silver hair drinking out of a #1 dad cup who says suck it before vanishing).

It’s not long after Danny turns 16 that things get a little strange. Clark comes home one day stressed and he doesn’t really want to talk about it. Lois forces him to sit down and explain what happened. When Clark tells them he has a clone Danny freezes for the rest of the explanation. He manages to shake him out of his stupor before he asks Clark when he’s gonna meet his step brother. Clark is confused and says he’s not sure what’s gonna happen next but he’s not his son. Danny looks him dead in the eye and says “I know you are freaking out right now and that is OKAY you had your dna STOLEN and used to make a whole person, I’d be worried if you weren’t freaking out, but right now this is not about you. This is about your clone who just woke up, found out that everything he knew was a lie and has no idea what is going to happen to him. He needs YOU whether that’s as a father, brother, uncle, or cousin he needs your support” Clark looks towards lois and he gets a similar response “smallville, he’s right I know you, and I know you’re gonna do what you think is right, but that boy needs a family just as much as Danny did and I’ll be damned if we leave him on his own” Clark looks between the two and says “thank you, both of you, I’m not sure how we are gonna do this but we can give it a try.” Danny gives a small smile and says “I’ve got an idea, it’s crazy but it’s something.” What follows is a very long story and a promise of secrecy.

The next week Clark goes to mount justice to meet with the team. It took a whole lot of convincing but Danny is right there with him when he arrives, looking a little worse for wear after an unpleasant trip through the zeta tube (memories of a cold mechanical tunnel and pain pain pain). When Clark introduces him as his stepson the newly named Conner flinches a bit ( this does not go unnoticed by Danny) and Batman explains that Danny will be helping with training and getting the mountain fully upgraded. The team is suspicious and after the meeting is over Danny manages to sneak up on conner and guides him into the next room with Superman to have an important heart to heart. Everything is not perfect but Clark joins in every now and again with training until the two can get comfortable with each other. Danny fits in well with the team and even gives out pretty good advise every now and then. It has not slipped by anyones notice how protective of Conner Danny can get but hey he’s his little brother who can blame him? And it’s not like Conner hasn’t gotten pretty protective (he saw Danny without his shirt ONCE that was more than enough) Danny flirts relentlessly with Kaldur who is fully convinced he’s joking, Conner is convinced his older brother is a hopeless idiot and is honestly not shocked that he managed to get a girlfriend before he did. M’gann thinks it cute and tries to help Danny.

Everything is going great until Zatara brings his daughter to visit the team. She just keeps STARING at Danny, she’s not mean, she’s not rude, she doesn’t flirt, in fact she is downright friendly to Danny. It’s the staring that annoys Conner and Kaldur (for very different reasons) and after her father is taken by the helmet of fate that she really starts to hang out with Danny more. She won’t explain but sometimes she looks sad when she looks at him.

(Danny tries transforming over and over again even as the pain gets worse with every attempt before the team finds him collapsed in the middle of the base, he refuses to explain. His core so very slow to heal itself so certain of his previous failure scared to fail again). When Danny finds out that lex Luther is blackmailing and mind controlling his brother well let’s just say. You can’t prove a thing and neither can lex and that’s what matters (he still shudders at the neon green color of the kryptonite he keeps with him at all times)

When vandal savage makes his move and the team is forced to fight the league the light managed to get a chip in Danny’s neck and klarion decides to play a little. As the team is making progress klarion pulls out his hostage and orders him to unalive himself. The team screams Danny does nothing, klarion repeats the order and still nothing, as he starts to throw a tantrum Danny turns his neck fully around his green green green eyes staring into klarions soul and said in the dead tongue.

Wͦh͕̻̟́ͩ̇͂͊o̗̗͓̞͑ͪ̅ ̞͉̻̺̟̓̀ͥͦ̽̉a̞̣͈͚̱ͮͮ̇r̻̦̉ͩ̆ͅe̻̱͎ͧ ̫͔̔ͧͤ͐̾ͣ̀Y͚̰̦̠̰̏̑O̜̭͍͉̥̍Ú̹ͭ̏̇ ̞͒͗̿ͫt͖̣̮͚̩ͬo̭̯̮̳͕̽̐̎ ̝̤c̝̠͔̈́̄o̖͍͔͕̎͌m͇͍̲͋ͪ̄͑ḿ̻͚͎͊̍ͧ͗̊ȧ͆͌ͨ̑n̖͚̳̹ḋ̼̱̮͙͙ͥͧ ̥̮͈̞̆̉͑M͚̲̹ͩ̿̆Eͥͯ͗ ̗͇͓̹̣̠͍ͦͭͪ͐w͓̳ͨ̋̎ḭ̜̤̲̘̼̭͗t̲̹̻͔͓̞̂̓ͅc͖̻͚̯̠̤̳̑ͣ̔͆̃̉ẖ̞̝͈̘͉͍̍̈̑ ͙̯̠̋͗͐ͩ̒b̭͔̓͑o̰̺̼͖̫͖̽́̑ỵ̘̩͉͇͙̓̍ͣ͐͑͊̒

Klarion backs up and when vandal tells him it’s time to go he does so without a fight. Danny returns to normal as soon as they apply the cure Kaldur catches him as he falls and looks at the rest of the team and asks “what just happened” Danny doesn’t tell them he can’t.

As time passes Kaldur and Artemis end up going undercover, Danny is never convinced of Artemis’ death no matter what dick says but doesn’t tell anyone. While klarion is no ally to them he does not harm Kaldur even when he clearly wants to after all “he wouldn’t be to happy if his little toys got hurt” Danny starts college double majoring in astronomy and mechanical engineering but he drops in every now and again to visit Conner, wolf, and sphere (he always brings a new squeaky toy for wolf each time he visits, reminded of how much cujo loved his). The mystery of who Danny is stays a mystery, until a new plot arises.

The News arrives by way of doctor fate, the ancient sorcerer felix Faust has summoned an entity from another universe to siphon its power as his own. The team move in immediately. Across the continent Danny is having dinner with Lois and Clark when his core starts to BURN

He falls to the ground and both rush to help him but there is nothing they can do. Danny does something he hasn’t been able to do in over a year. He calls to the ring of rage and a portal opens in the middle of the apartment. From the other side they can hear a girls bloodcurdling scream Danny drags himself through the portal followed by Superman and on the other side he sees a face he never thought he’d see again.

Elle is stuck in the middle of the summoning circle angry and In pain, screaming, she sees Danny and her face is so filled with hope she reaches for him only to be shocked by the barrier. Danny is barely being held back by superman before Danny says in a whisper only someone with super hearing could hear “cover your ears” both Conner and Clark do so and Danny looks right at the boosted Faust and he

Sͦ̒C̫̦͛R͊́͌̓E̲̹͓̰͗͐͛̈͆Ā͖̔ͧM̜̪̺̭̊͐S̥͙͚̰͚̘

Everyone covers their ears trying desperately to block out the screams in vain. Faust is on the ground but Danny just keeps screaming until a bright light surrounds him and he is replaced by the glowing form of Phantom, above his head there is a freen flaming crown he vanishes and reappears right in front of Faust

iͤf̰͂ͫ̄̎ͪ͛ͭ ̝ͪ̏͂y̹̬̺̍̌͊ͅo̞ͦù̺͓̞ ̬̔ͬe̦̯̣̹̞̒̌̆̋̐v̪̗͓̲͈̹̓ͥe͈̜ͣ̔́ͯ̍͒̚r̫̎̉̂͑̀̈́ ̼͎͋ͭlá̟̰̮ͨ̐ͅy̬̖ͅ ̞̥̈̄͋̊̎͆à͔̻͇̮̈́͋ͬ̑ ̤̯̘̝̂ͤͯh͖͎́̅̍ͤ̅a͇ǹ̺͖̩̻̣̊̈͑̌ͣ̈d͙ͧ ̯̣̭͓̦̾ō̹̰͇͙̓̐ͤ̑̋ͦn̰̘ͯͪ̃͐̈ͮ ̪̗͖̫͚͊̾ͣ̽ͦh̬̰̠̞̻̹͑͊ͮ͛̑̍ȅ͚̆̄r̤̠̼ ͎͇̾á̟̩ͤ͌ͭ̈͗ͅg̖̪̰̗̳̘̍̅́a͓̝̻̾̉̏͌i͍̭n̖̮͎̼̗͚ͭ͐ ̙̥̫̜̱̖̩t̰̳̭̜͐ͧ̒h͍͖̮̣̘̼̖ͫi͎̣̬̲ͥͤ̇ŝ̠͖̦̗̻͔̮ͧ̆̾ ̯ͭ̄͗ͪ͒̾w̯͕̲͇̦͍̔͊̋̋i̜̠̳̳ͦͥͥl͚͕͔̫ͤľ̜͇̦̲͍͉͎͗̈́͂ ͖̱͎̩̺̺ŝ̩̭̼̤̰ͤ́͐ͦ̚ê̫̮̤͇̺͙͂͒ͦ̔̾e̬̰̠̤̫̾ͥ̊m̜͚̥̱̰͇ͫ͛ͥͩ̿̚ ͥ̌̽̈l͚͎̼̪̳͙̦ͭ̃́̌ͫ͗͛i̼̠͇̼̍k̪͕͉̭͎̩͐ͦ̓̒ͨḙ͙̤̞͉̐ ͔͉͈̠̈m͉̖̀͛̔̉e̘̹̬̩ͧ̐̇͆ͫͧ̚r̭c̬̫ͬ̑̑͒ͯͭy͎͎̼̦̗̝̱͋́͐̽ͣ̽

Faust then collapses before the ghost. Danny rushes over to Elle freeing her from the circle, followed by Conner and Clark. After a touching reunion they all return to the ship where Clark asks if Danny is gonna introduce her? Danny laughs and says sorry almost forgot “clark, Conner meet Danielle, my clone/cousin/would be assassin” seeing their shocked expressions Danny says don’t look so shocked I am not the only one here that has been cloned which leads to Elle thoroughly bombarding Conner with questions.

(When asked why she never told him she was okay she explained that normal ghosts can’t travel through universes dumbass)

When Elle finds out about about Danny’s crush she teams up with Lois to get them together. It was chaos pure and simple

[soulmate-game]

Hawkmoth was a bitch, and Marinette meant that with every fiber of her soul. Fu was also a bitch, and Marinette actually had good memories of the guy. Not many, but she had some. The fact that the guy got two ten-year-olds to become super heroes and fight a supervillain for him kinda soured those memories, though. But with Chat Noir not allowed to leave his house? Yeah, even as young as they were it only took about a year to find out who HawkMoth was and another year to take him down.

Except, that left Marinette alone. The final battle took her mom away, and Chat had to move out of Paris after his dad was arrested. Luckily Jagged allowed her and her papa to move into his house in Gotham, and everything was…

Well, it was okay. For about a month.

Then her dad was gone too, and she had no way to talk to Jagged, and the police were scaring her—

Yeah, that was the basic order of events that led to where she was now. Pushing fourteen years old, ex-superhero, protector of a magical box of gods, stealing the tires off of a very nice motorcycle.

Marinette was tempted to just take the whole thing, she loved bikes and knew she could drive it. But the thing had more security than she knew what to do with, and the fact that it belonged to Red Hood… she didn’t want to deal with trackers today, thanks. So the tires it was.

Should she maybe care more about the fact that she was stealing from a vigilante with a violent streak? Maybe. Did she? Hell no. For all she knew, maybe Red Hood was a bitch too. (Yes, she was still learning English slang. She was fluent by educational standards, but learning how to curse in a foreign language was fun and she still had a little bit to go. Her few street friends were very happy to help).

A shadow dropped down in front of her, and Marinette’s hero instincts kicked in. The tire iron she was using cut through the air, slamming right into the side of Red Hood’s knee.

—*—*—*—*—*

“Hood,” Batman’s voice grumbled over the comms, instantly grabbing the attention of everyone else who was on the comms. It wasn’t as gruff as he usually sounded, in fact it almost sounded like… he was trying not to laugh?

“Did you get gassed by Joker?” Dick asked before Jason got a chance to respond. “Need backup?”

“No,” Batman responded, sounding a little more composed. “Not a rogue. But Hood, I need you to join me at my location as soon as possible.”

Finally getting the chance to talk, Jason responded a little warily; “Sure, B. Wait,” he blinked at the location that was sent to him. “Isn’t that where my bike is parked?”

Batman didn’t respond at first, only the sound of labored breathing— again, as if he was trying not to laugh. “Just get here, Hood.”

Sighing, but not too mad since the night had been fairly quiet so far, Jason decided to humor the old man and head over. When he could see the cape-clad back of Batman, he easily leapt over the last roof and sauntered over.

“Okay, B,” he had his thumbs tucked in his pockets as he drawled. “What’s the issue?”

Batman was grinning. As in, actually showing amusement. And he just pointed down, straight at Hood’s bike.

Jason rolled his eyes under his helmet, turning to look. At first he didn’t see anything amiss, until he saw movement and looked harder. Oh. Oh, holy shit.

“Is that a kid?”

“Yep,” Batman’s grin grew.

“Is she… stealing my tires?” Hood was so, so glad he wore a helmet that hid his expression. Because… wow.

“Yep,” Batman finally lost his composure, chuckling. “This seems like Karma, don’t you think?”

“And you just watched her so you could rub it in,” Jason groaned, throwing his head back in exasperation. Of course he would. Nobody knew it (except the other heroes who knew him) but Batman was a petty little jerk when he wanted to be. He bought the whole Daily Planet just to spite Clark, for crying out loud.

“Don’t adopt her,” Batman said as he stood up, patting Red Hood’s shoulder. “It looks like she’s almost done.”

“Shit,” Jason hissed, looking down to see that she was, actually, very close to being done. She had already had one tire completely free by the time he had arrived, and now she was only seconds away from getting the other one completely free.

He took a quick assessment— she was tiny, and really thin. Definitely a street kid, he thought, though he didn’t recognize her. He knew most of the street kids that stole to get by, nowadays, which meant she must have been fairly new. But even though she seemed to know what she was doing, her small frame made her take longer unscrewing the tires than it normally would have taken. Sure that she wasn’t a threat by any stretch of the imagination, he jumped down. His plan had been to startle her a little by showing up out of nowhere, but he didn’t want to scare her too badly. Just make her jump a little.

But he had underestimated her, it seemed. Without wasting a second, she jumped up and swung her tire iron at his knee. He cursed, she was a lot faster than her had been expecting. He was able to move so that the weapon only clipped the side of his knee, his knee pad thankfully taking the worst of it. She still hit hard enough to make him stumble and hiss in pain though, which was an accomplishment.

That’s when she abandoned her weapon and her tires, darting to try and escape only for Batman to drop down and block her escape. Though really, it was the grin Batman had that scared the girl most of all, apparently, making her slowly back away from him.

“Please stop smiling,” she begged with a faint French accent to her words. “It is not natural.”

That made Red Hood laugh, already recovered and right behind her. He plopped a gloved hand on her head.

“I know, it’s creepy right?” He joked. “What’cha doin’ stealing my tires, kid? I kinda need them to drive anywhere,” he was careful to keep his voice light and devoid of any anger. He wasn’t really upset, all told. It would be hypocritical of him if he was.

She looked between the two vigilantes for a moment, clear intelligence behind those bright blue eyes as she seemed to consider something. Suddenly she pulled away from Red Hood and stepped away from his reach, straightening up and trying to look tall.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said as firmly as she could. “My father was Tom Dupain, he was killed in a mugging three months ago. We were living in a house that our family friend leant to us after my mother’s death six months ago, and we moved here from Paris. I haven’t been able to contact him, and the police… I don’t trust them,” she admitted, clearly seeing this as the chance she had been waiting for. “I have been living on the streets since my father died. I am sorry for trying to steal your tires, Monsieur Red Hood. But it was a risk I had to take.”

“Did you expect us to catch you?” He asked, crossing his arms as he re-evaluated the girl. She was a lot stronger than he had assumed earlier, both physically and mentally. She seesawed her hand to indicate ‘kinda’.

“Even if you didn’t, I could make good money off your tires,” she justified with a shrug. “To me, I would win either way.”

“Who is your family friend? Can he help you now, take you in?” Batman asked, moving forward and kneeling down to be closer to Marinette’s height. Neither he nor Jason had missed the part where she was an orphan, but they had expected that considering what they had caught her doing. And they both knew that she wasn’t likely to take any apologies they tried to offer very well. It was best not to show pity, or she might get angry.

Marinette frowned. “... Our family friend is Jagged Stone. He lets me call him Uncle Jagged,” she told them, clearly expecting the disbelieving grunts they gave. “I mean it! You can call him, he might even be looking for me! I—“

“We know,” Hood assured her, now kneeling down as well. Man, she was short. “Calm down, we know you’re telling the truth. Jagged has made several public announcements about his missing honorary niece, we just didn’t recognize your name right away. And Jagged doesn’t have access to very many pictures of you, those he does have the Mayor isn’t allowing him to show because that spineless jackass—“

“Language, Hood.”

“—Cares more about keeping bad press off the air than finding a kid, even if it’s a world famous rockstar who’s asking. That’s probably why you haven’t heard anything, the mayor’s keeping it off the radio and not many reporters are brave enough to take the story and get on his bad side.”

“Oh…” Marinette took a deep breath, fighting the tears that were threatening to rise up. “He has been looking…” she sniffled, curling in on herself a little. “Can you take me to him?”

“I think we can do that,” Batman agreed, standing up. “I’ll contact him. Red Hood, can you handle everything here until I give you a place to meet up with Jagged Stone?”

Jason nodded. “No problem, B. Come on, little rabid pixie. Step one of gettin’ you back to your uncle is to help me fix my bike back up.”

Marinette sighed, shoulders dropping. “All my hard work, undone…” she playfully complained. But in the end she didn’t argue or fight against it, she just sat down and helped him reattach his tires.

All the while, Jason’s family kept teasing him over the comms. Clearly they were also thoroughly amused by the cosmic display of karma.

“...Monsieur Hood,” Marinette asked once they were done repairing the motorcycle and he had given her his too-big extra helmet. He tilted his head a bit to show he was listening. She squirmed. “Can… can we stop by my hideout? I have something really important I have to get.”

Jason smiles gently under his mask. She might not have been a street kid for very long, but she really did bring back some memories for him. He got on his bike and held a hand out to her.

“Sure thing kid. Wanna grab something to eat after? Can’t have a reunion on an empty stomach.”

She gave him a lopsided smile— not quite overjoyed, but definitely hopeful and thankful. Maybe this was the end of her streak of bad luck, she could only hope.

“Only if you don’t mind, Monsieur Hood,” she agreed before taking his hand and letting him help her onto the bike.

“No skin off my back, pixie,” he assured her. Then they were off. He followed her directions until they got to an abandoned building about three miles away, not in a good part of town at all but at least not in crime alley. Marinette easily led him through the building, skirting around other piles of ratty blankets and up broken stairs until they got to the badly-maintained top floor. She led him over to an almost invisible door in the concrete wall that pulled out to reveal what was probably a broom closet once upon a time. It was crowded with what looked like junk and empty boxes, along with a few blankets and two or three changes of clothes that were clearly her’s. A few belongings scattered around— a book, a small pink purse, and… Marinette came out of the pile of mess holding what had clearly been a very carefully hidden box. She also grabbed the purse and slung it over her shoulder, but didn’t seem worried about anything else.

Jason frowned at the box. It wasn’t that big, but it was clearly made of old wood. There were intricate carvings that were painted pink, in a symbol that was itching at the back of his mind. He recognized that symbol, but from where?

“Ready to go, kid?” He asked as he thought about it, getting a nod from Marinette. Twenty minutes later they were at a Batburger, sitting in a shaded booth that couldn’t be seen from the street.

She never let the box out of her sight. She kept it on the seat next to her, and Jason noticed that she tried to keep one hand on it at all times. But when she spoke, now her French accent stood out to him even more than before. But why—?

And then it clicked. Paris. Hawkmoth. Ladybug, Chat Noir, magic artifacts called Miraculous. Wonder Woman had raised a fuss when the heroes disappeared, declaring that something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on what. Then the magic users they trusted were called in, and returned from Paris with the grim news that the former Guardian of those artifacts had activated a failsafe and passed the guardianship on to someone else while erasing his own memories at the same time. But nobody knew who he could have passed it on to, so Batman had been given the green light to do all the research he and his team could into the Miraculous box to try and help track it down.

And here it was. The carvings were in pink now, which might have been the “cosmetic change” that Constantine had mentioned might happen when the box changed guardians. He had found the box full of super powerful magical artifacts… in the hands of a newly orphaned street kid who couldn’t have been older than fourteen at best.

What the hell?

“...” Red hood reached into his pocket and pulled out an old receipt and a sharpie. He scrawled on the back of the receipt and handed to Marinette. The girl was halfway into a bite of her burger when he did, and blinked at him owlishly before swallowing and cautiously reaching out to grab it. She frowned at the numbers scrawled there.

“What’s this?” She asked.

“My contact info,” he explained. “I won’t ask questions about why you have that box,” he watched her instantly stiffen but continued as casually as he could; “but it doesn’t matter. You can call me if you ever need help with anything, kid. Help with that box, help if you get in trouble in Gotham again, or even if you’re having a bad day. You can call me for whatever, got it? I don’t care if you think it’s stupid, if you can’t talk to anyone else in your life you can always call or text me and I’ll do whatever I can. Got it?”

“...” Marinette sniffled for a second and looked down at the table in silence for a second. “... what if I want your motorcycle?” she joked, but the watery tone of her voice gave her away.

Jason laughed, patting her head. “I need my bike, but we can talk about getting you your own once you are old enough to get a license. You almost done? Bats says that Jagged is ready to meet you, I can take you to him right now.”

“Yeah, lets go!” she was newly energized and shoved the last bite of burger into her mouth greedily. “And Red Hood?” She asked as they headed out to where he had parked.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Thanks.”

—*—*—*—*—*

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