#insane vigilante who wants to use her as a human weapon

[tastycitrus]

nice how you can say "cassandra cain has some fucked up parents" and you don't even have to specify which ones you're talking about because that statement applies to all of them

[number9robotic]

Intro to RAPTURE ACADEMY

(so remember a few months ago I said I wanted to make a list of characters for a fighting game? It has a name now lol)

RAPTURE ACADEMY is a superhero/alternate history project centrally focused around the Rapture Academy and Institute for Superpowered Opportunists, a school thinly designed to raise supervillains. Primarily focusing on the stories and systems around a bunch of kids with intensely dangerous powers enrolled in a private academy headed by imprisoned supervillain No. 1 Angel as part of an internationally-backed plea deal. The kids are alright.

STUDENTS:

Anti (Canadian) - Analog horror-themed hoodie kid with dark powers (makes everything they hit distort like a broken VHS tape), surprisingly nice and wholesome and probably the least likely to actually become a career villain.

Hellbound ("Eastern European") - Princess sacrificed to a draconic ritual, became a half-dragon berserker who spends her time bound in magic chains. A demure sweetheart when lucid, murderous beast otherwise.

The Vigilante Smog Monster/"Smoggy" (Australian) - A swamp monster summoned by an indigenous tribe searching for a protector, can turn into sludge and murder smoke, wears enchanted wooden masks.

Twintails (Japanese) - two students in one! A male wizard apprentice and a female ninja apprentice from rivalling clans that were fused together by a trickster yokai; one person is in control at a time, they swap from sneezing.

IDKYS/I Don't Know You, Sorry (Filipino) - Aspiring idol/daughter to high-ranking entertainment execs with a literally hypnotic voice. Placed in school with a voice-to-computer TTS mask in order to be taught a lesson in humility, is the class queen anyway.

Magnus VI (American) - Indestructible cyborg cowboy built by a mad science firm who can explosively self-destruct any joint in his body before reassembling. Extremely arrogant. No one touches his hat.

Metal Alice (French) - Daughter of a supervillain who died and was brought back as a haunted animatronic unknowing that she died. Is a walking portal to the ghost dimension who can pull out all sorts of phantasmic metal weapons, from scissors to chainsaws.

Hot★Shot (Chinese) - Cocky martial arts prodigy, has fire abilities, up-and-coming superstar. Basically thinks he's the protagonist of a shounen fighting game, is a colossal asshole from it, yet is the popular jock regardless.

Vioelectrolysis (Motswana) - Upbeat mad scientist-in-training who fights using a giant modified fire-extinguisher that mixes chemicals for deadly use, as well as a bigass flail for deadly use. She may or may not be a mutant.

White Slate (Greek) - A living statue accidentally created by a mad artist, has the ability to turn people into stone with his touch. Is missing a face, sometimes paints one on for intimidation points. Mostly an emo boi who paints a lot.

zZomnia (Pakistani) - Phoneaholic teen haunted by nightmares that double as guardian spirits with insanely powerful weapons whenever she's asleep or is on the verge of it. Is constantly sleepy. Leave her alone.

Bitter Batter (N/A) - Just an ordinary girl with no superpowers, but a baseball bat, a silent death glare, and murderous intent. Originally a teen vagrant before being enlisted in the school. The most "normal" student and also the most fn terrifying

Moonlight Rosebloom Powderpuff of the Unside Neverlandian Court (Scottish?) - A bubbly (alleged) fairy noble from a (disputed) faraway realm hidden in a (presumably) magical garden. Wields (conversely very real) magic. It's very pink.

Ryvr Sticks (Ukrainian) - A scarecrow infected with a paranatural fungi giving him sapience, regeneration abilities, and hallucinogenic powers. Indisputably the class clown and source of gossip. Is a wicked breakdancer.

FACULTY:

No.1 Angel (███) - Headmaster, part-time supervillain, full-time asshole. thinks he's a superhero who deserves to protect humanity but then gave another superhero cancer using his light manipulation powers for trying to stop him.

Panopticon (███) - head of security, a silent dude in black armor and an old-timey diving helmet who sometimes appears unacknowledged to stare at everyone in class, in hallways, or off campus. Powers unknown.

Señor Heartpuncher (Mexican) - Teacher of self-defense. Retired lucha-themed super with a long history of being a hero, but once had a heel-turn and became teacher because he owed a favor to No.1 Angel. has the ability to absorb and reflect kinetic force, perfect for teaching kids how to hit punches then tank them

Drill Instructor Friday (Brazilian) - Teacher of phys ed. Acts like the scariest and most intense drill instructor you can think of. She's also a genuine werewolf. Comes up with some of the funniest PG-13-level insults imaginable and then punishes you for laughing at them.

OfOz (Haitian) - Teacher of paranatural arts (magic, anomalies, anything "supernatural"). Pretty chill and charismatic expert in the field, is able to split his soul/body separately. Only one half of him is teaching classes, other half is doing supervillainy elsewhere in the world.

DDDD (South Korean) - Teacher of technology arts. Is the head of a megacorp developing devices for supers, mostly villains. Teaches remotely from the other side of the world using a mini-mech suit that she pilots from her office. It has weapons. She forgets this. Frequently rants about her competitors and has to be reminded by her secretary to stay on topic.

Sir SPECTACULAR!!! (Swiss) and The Virtuoso (German) - Teacher and assistant teachers of theatrics (getting students to figure out their gimmicks/brand/performances as supers). They used to commit "theatre crimes" together with SPECTACULAR!!!'s super-conductor powers and Virtuoso's super-VR tech, turning cities into musicals. After turning the state of Oklahoma into a musical, they've settled down teaching kids and enjoy it.

Mr. Professor Von Ruin (Austrian) - "Teacher" of ethics (the legalities and philosophies of being a super). he is actually a cat. a super-intelligent, talking cat, pet of a supervillain, but a cat. he doesn't really teach, so his period's just a free block.

Miss Brutalist (Swedish) - Teacher of logistics (resourcing and management of being a super). No powers, actually runs a business designing HQs and lairs for various supers. Most of her assignments involve getting students to do paperwork for her projects.

Dr. Infinity-Plus (Hungarian) - Teacher of general sciences and maths. Has incredible foresight/caculation abilities, which drove him... not quite "insane" but very jaded, paranoid, and antsy. Will often derail classes to vent about existentially terrifying concepts. wears a Rubik's cube-like helmet to dampen his mind.

Sewn Chaos (Azerbaijani) - Teacher of home economics. Former career super before using her textile-manipulation powers to design costumes for others, helps the kids figure out their costumes. genuinely like everyone's favorite grandma up until she shares stories of all the f'd up villains she worked with. Good times!

DREADNAUT (Russian) - Head librarian. Ghostly cosmonaut afflicted by paranatural forces while on the moon, now has gravity powers but is stuck in a fugue state. manages the school's library containing vast resources... which is constructed upside-down in order to make it harder for kids to access.

Gutwrencher (Czech) - Head nurse. A zombie in all but name, has a flesh-mending/regeneration factor she can use to heal herself and others. Is constructed out of various necrotic body parts and stitching that often come apart at inconvenient times. Some students are attracted to her and don't know why.

Mr. BRB (Italian) - Head janitor (and also the only one). He's a necromancer who summons ghouls to help do the cleaning for him but often still leaves things dirty. Mostly chills out in his office to record his personal podcasts and offer advice to kids who ask nicely.

[imonthinice]

The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 18/?

Word Count: 2.5k

Author's Note: Y/N - your name, A/N - any name (your best friend's name)

Warnings: Mentions of court, mentions of Jason's injuries, swearing, No beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Jason walked out in a few minutes, just in his boxers. She looked at him before letting out a slight laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Don't laugh, you're the one who tore my clothes."

She sighed, "And you're going to have to go home in torn boxers, Bruce is going to kill you."

"God, don't remind me," he said before sitting beside her.

She laughed, "You could just not go home?"

"I wish. But I have a life. You have a life."

"It's unfortunate, isn't it. Can't spend all day with you but you're all I want to do."

"Funny."

"Thank you, I really tried," she thought, "You remember how I seem to have a fascination with vigilantes?"

"Yes, why?"

"I remembered why. So, when I was in high school, graduating year, I had law class. I was bored, so I did law, don't question it," she laughed. "Anyway, in my law class, they split us into groups. Specifically, Pro-Justice-League-Association and Anti-Justice-League-Association."

"Pro and Anti?"

"Yeah, apparently it was relevant? I guess the JLA doesn't use conventional methods to get evidence? Don't care though. Anyway, I was on the side of Pro, obviously."

"Obviously."

"Wait I'm not done! By the end of the class, I had debated every member of the Anti team and converted them. It actually introduced me to the Robin-Forums, which is just smack dab full of conspiracies."

"Robin-Forums?"

"Oh my god? You don't know those? You're all over them. Some people are convinced you're Kid Flash, some are convinced you're Robin, it's crazy."

"That is crazy but seems funny. What about my family?"

"Someone in my class posted "Why Clark Kent is Batman: An Essay" which has like, 20k likes? It's very popular."

"Well, I swear he isn't Batman. He's just very fond of the night."

"That's what I said, but that man is convinced otherwise."

"You would know if any of us were vigilantes. We're not good at hiding secrets."

"I'm sure you have your secrets, I just find it funny people think you have time to be Kid Flash."

"People spend all their time worrying about me, when will it end?"

"Ha! That's fair. Tabloids running your name probably doesn't help the conspiracies."

"I remember one of my ex-friends from high school mentioned me being Kid Flash, I was so confused, I guess it makes sense now. I'm going to have to show everyone that. They'll get a kick out of it."

"I bet they would. I'm waiting for the day I'm on it as someone who's a hero. Hoping they say I'm Wonder Woman or something. I think it would be funny."

"You get Miss Martin because everyone thinks you're too beautiful to be human."

"Aw. That's so corny that I hate it! Well done."

"Thank you. I learned it from Dick."

"Of course you did."

"Where else would I learn it from?"

"If you're genuinely asking, the internet, probably."

"That's fair. That's completely fair. I think Dick learns a lot of his lines from the internet, honestly."

"Oh yeah, there's no way he comes up with everything on his own. No way."

"So, what other dumb stories do you have?"

"Well, I think my sister is either a vigilante or really, really, weird."

"You think your sister is a vigilante?"

"Okay so, she's a businesswoman. No big deal, right? Wrong. She's always out, more often than she has to be, she's always spending nights away from home."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"Okay well Adrianna, Aria, whatever you want to call her, she's being suspicious."

"I'm sure you're looking too far into it."

---------------------------

The Night Jason Was Stabbed.

Aria clutched the scythe in her life hand. She had failed. She had worn her best dresses that she could hide beneath her capes, she had drugged him, she had stabbed him 6 bloody times, and he had still survived!

She was angry. She walked up to the Red Hood on his time off while he was catching a drink, looking stressed. She didn't care if he accepted her offer to go to her room, she just cared about that moment. The one where she could slip in the crushed-up pills and no one would stop her.

And she had done it. She waited until after he chugged the whole drink to strike. He was stumbling around, like an idiot. She hit his head with the back of her blade, knocking him to the ground where she proceeded to stab him 6 times in his right side.

She kissed his forehead before leaving, which required her to removed her mask a bit, saying "Goodnight, sweet Prince," before running into the darkness.

But the blue one, Nightwing. He got to the Red Hood before he could die. And she was pissed. All that hard work, just for him to not even die.

The scythe was still bloodied from the Red Hood. Her lips were still warm from his forehead. But now, he had possibly seen her face! Her plans were foiled every way when of her goblins came up to her.

"Ma'am, your weapon."

She passed it over without second thought. She wanted it rid of the blood of a living man, she wanted it soaked in the blood of a dead man.

Her plague doctor mask fell a bit as she began to tear up. She had failed. She had never failed at knocking "Heroes" down a peg.

Call it crazy, but she knew the fights between her and the Red Hood were far from over. She even felt as they'd grow closer.

As she looked at the walls covered in the photos of the vigilantes of the world, she knew this was only the first battle. The war was hers. They didn't know what was going to hit them.

But there was an issue. Her sister, Y/N had become close with one of the Waynes. She needed the Waynes to get to the "Heroes" which meant possibly hurting her sister.

----------------------------------

"I hope I'm looking too far into it."

She wasn't.

One night when they were both 17, it was just Aria and Y/N in the house when Y/N was awoken by a loud crash from the downstairs window.

She went to investigate, bat in hand, to find her sister, stumbling over the coffee table. Bleeding out and clutching her side from the blood. Stabbed.

Y/N took no hesitation to take care of Aria. Stitching her up like they had as kids when Y/N would sitch up Aria after shut cut herself on skates, or if Y/N ran straight into a car.

Those images still dance in Y/N's mind to this day. Something was up with the way that her sister had a mask, a long bird-Esque plague doctor mask. A cloak. Knives. Guns. A scythe.

The best outcome would be her sister was attacked while LARPing in the park. The worst? She was a villain. Midway? A hero of the night, a vigilante. Anything was better than a villain.

If only she knew the pain Aria had caused her until this point. The fact that Aria was the one who drugged and tried to kill Jason. The pieces of the story were unravelling in front of everyone's eyes, they just needed to connect them properly.

--------------------------------

Aria had a plan. Kidnap her sister and her lover's family. Get ransom. Get them hurting. Locate the "Heroes". The only issue was that Y/N would recognise the cloak, the mask. She knew the get-up.

Aria was not about to redesign her entire outfit for the sake of not alerting her sister. She figured it would be unlikely that Y/N would focus on the cloak when she's being used for ransom money.

Or at least she hoped. She wasn't certain her plan would even work. Breaking into the Wayne Manor, after one of the kids had been stabbed, in a mugging was going to be difficult.

They had employed security, something that was never common at the Wayne Manor before this moment. She was upset. If only her sister had met the Waynes before the stabbing.

Then she thought.

Red Hood is a Wayne?

It made sense, sure. They got stabbed at the same time. But was it reasonable? She didn't know. Why would an 18-20-year-old be a vigilante? He couldn't even legally drink?

She thought it didn't make sense. That the Red Hood was never, could never be the Wayne kid. But if he was, what could that mean?

She was certain he wasn't. But the thoughts swirled in her mind as if beckoning her to come to the conclusion.

She was crazy, she knew that. She was obviously crazy, she became the villain, the opposite of her twin in every way. She was insane. Arkham would like her. But there was something about the Red Hood being a Wayne that kept coming back to her. Haunting her like the night she was stabbed by Green Arrow back in Metropolis.

She was on their radar. They knew her. They would come to get the Waynes.

She knew the Justice League Association knew of her. But the people didn't. This stunt would make the people know of her.

The name Hour will ring through the streets of Gotham. The streets of Metropolis. Smallville. Anywhere she could get her hands on. She would begin her reign of terror.

No one could stop her now.

---------------------------------

Jason had left after Bruce had called him. She assumed he needed to work or one of his siblings did a dumbass move. It was upsetting that they couldn't spend every moment together, but she knew that it was par for the course with Jason.

She was bored. She didn't have a job, her parents paid her bills if she focused on school. But she wasn't something to do, a reason to be having down days. She knew school gave her this, but it wasn't like it was every damn day.

A job would be every damn day. Hopefully. A reason to do so much in her life.

She figured she could work at Wayne Enterprises. But she didn't want to be that girl. The one who's fucking the CEO and is subsequently untouchable. You can't befriend her and talk sit, she'll tattle.

She wanted to be a normal working person. A colleague, not a boss.

Wayne Enterprises was a last resort for her. If she couldn't get hired anywhere else, she'd go apply thee. You don't fuck company property, she thought.

But she also thought fucking Wanye Enterprises "Property" was fun. and no one was really going to stop her, not even Bruce. Even though Bruce tried to lecture her and Jason, there was only so much he'd do. Barbara and Dick both worked at Wayne Enterprises and hadn't been reprimanded for that.

And obviously, they were having sex. They had been together for a while, Jason said.

Which, obviously they were having sex if they were together for that long.

She scrolled a little while for jobs, marking down a few she'd look further into. Not really anything exciting, she was still young, 1st year in college, a freshman. Not many prestigious places would hire someone her age. Especially while they're still in school.

There were only unpaid intern jobs in her field. And she wasn't about to fuck with not getting paid, even if it was her line of schooling. She didn't think it was worth it to put all of your efforts into a job that you weren't getting paid for.

A lot of kids thought her way, including her sister. Both of them grew up thinking that getting paid for work was necessary, her parents had always told them that. Even if her parents had strict religious views, they would still back her up if someone wasn't paying her, even if they fell out.

She thought if Bruce felt the same, that kids should be paid for what they do. He figured he did since he employed all of his kids once they were old enough to work at Wayne Enterprises.

She noticed Lexcorp, who had recently put up a building in Gotham, was hiring. She thought it would be funny if she went to work for her boyfriend's dad's competitor. She was tempted.

Worst comes to worst, she'd be a Lexcorp employee.

She, of course, would have to dress up for these interviews, and she had the clothes to do so, but she didn't, per se, want to wear them.

She also didn't want to go outside when trials were still raging. So, she figured she'd call Christopher's parents about getting him a lawyer and then scroll the pages for shopping. His parents finally had the time to deal with their son, because Christopher didn't want to interrupt his parents with him being an idiot.

She dialled.

"Hello?" his mom asked.

"Hey, Laura. It's Y/N."

"Y/N! Sweetheart, we've been wondering about you ever since, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. We can talk about it later I swear. So, I already told you about what Christopher did, right?"

"You did."

"He needs a lawyer, the man is pressing charges."

"Well, that's stupid. He has no right."

"Apparently he does."

"We'll get Christopher a lawyer. But how are you, darling?"

"I'm okay. Could be a hell of a lot better. I have faith in the court system."

"We're all worried about you, kiddo. You've wrapped yourself up in a lot of a mess recently."

"I know. It's weird. But I swear I'm strong enough to pull through, you've known me for what, 13 years? Give or take? I know how to handle myself."

"That doesn't mean we can't worry."

"I know, new city, new people. I swear behind the scandals I'm in that I actually have friends."

"I assume we'll meet this Jason eventually?"

"Eventually. We need to find the time between court dates, work. Adulting."

"You don't have a job?"

"Jason does. And I'm thinking about getting one to pass the time."

"Working to pass the time is a new thing, fascinating, you kids are."

"Nothing can make sense of all these things I've done, I know."

"Those sound like song lyrics."

"Sometimes songs are the best way to get all your thoughts compiled into one place, you know. I starred as Katherine Howard, Laura. I know how to convey emotion through art."

"I know. That's still one of the performances Metropolis holds on to, you know."

"I wish they didn't. But it is what it is."

"It's a good performance, kiddo."

She laughed, "Anyway. You get onto that lawyer. Christopher needs it right now."

"I will. Be safe. We love you."

"I love you lot."

Click. She thought about Christopher, and the bullshit he went through to save her.

She brushed the thoughts off and pulled out her journal. Scribbling down her sister's bird mask. She couldn't get that off of her mind. She could have sworn her sister made the thing out of actual bone.

It was like she threw a steampunk aesthetic into a plague doctor. She was certain there was more to it that she didn't know.

Literally Aria LMFAO

[jbuffyangel]

Something To Live For: Arrow 1x10 Review (Burned)

I’m back! 

There’s a significant time difference between my 1x09 review and this review. No, I did not take a six year long holiday break. It just became too difficult to complete the Season 1 reviews the summer prior to Season 4. So, I decided to complete Season 1 and Season 2 reviews once Arrow was off air.

This means I have not watched 1x10-1x23 in eight years. I nearly forgot everything. Is L*urel still in this show?

She sure is.

“Burned” is the first real snoozer of Season 1, which kind of sets up the tradition of episode 10-15 slumps Arrow suffered nearly every season.  This has less to do with Arrow and more to do with it being a twenty three episode series. There’s gonna be some filler.

This episode still holds significant meaning to me though because it contains the SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR speech. This is my favorite John Diggle speech, which is why I named my blog after it. It is also the first time Arrow declares their mission statement.

Let’s dig in...

Oliver and Diggle

The bad guy plot is the worst part of “Burned,” so let’s just cut to the chase. There was a terrible fire in Starling City years ago. The fire chief recalled his unit but one of his men, Garfield Lynns, insisted the building could be saved. The chief refused to send in any more men and as a result Lynns died. Except, this is Arrow and nobody stays dead. Lynns is alive, ticked, insane and burning firefighters, which leads to Joanna’s brother (a firefighter) getting killed.

Cool? Cool. Moving on.

Oliver is having difficulty coping with the fact the Dark Archer kicked his ass all the way back to the stone age. It was a somewhat embarrassing loss and Oliver’s body wasn’t the only thing bruised. We are gifted a very lovely training sequences of a half naked and very sweaty Oliver Queen to show he is recovered, so his hesitancy isn’t physical. It is mental.

Source: @olivergifs​

Oliver is having a crisis of confidence and is avoiding suiting up like the plague.

Diggle: This guy, the other archer, he got in your head. He took something from you … he took whatever’s in your heart that lets you jump off buildings and take down bad guys.

Oliver worked for every skill he has. It was not gifted by a bolt of lightning. He does not come from an alien planet. Oliver is a weapon honed over time, which includes his superpower. 

Oliver Queen does not fear dying. 

That’s the “whatever” in his heart which gives him the confidence to jump off buildings. This superpower was honed after five years of fighting for survival. Oliver almost died so many times he’s built some kind of emotional immunity to it. It doesn’t freak him out like it would the rest of us.

The darker side of this superpower is Oliver doesn’t care if he lives or dies. Season 1 Oliver Queen is very fatalistic. He’s not suicidal, but he’s accepted death is the price he may have to pay in order to complete his mission. More importantly, he is drowning in guilt and believes death is the ending he deserves.

There’s rigidity in everything about Oliver – from his beliefs to even the way he moves. His posture is rod iron straight and there’s very little movement in his upper body and arms. It’s a physical manifestation of his PTSD. It’s like he’s encased in a brick wall, a tomb of suffering, which makes it difficult to breathe or move. It’s like the act of living is physically painful.

The problem is - Oliver came home and it is having an unexpected emotional impacted on him. He’s been laser focused on this mission, but bit by bit, the feelings he’s long since buried are resurfacing.  Moira, Thea, Tommy, Diggle, Laurel (AND FELICITY) are chipping away at this brick wall. Oliver didn’t adopt this machine like persona because he doesn’t feel anything. It’s because he feels so much, which means even the small holes in this wall are having a profound impact on him.

This all leads to the greatest John Diggle speech in history! Yes, I say that knowing full well Diggle has spectacular speeches throughout the series, but this will always be my favorite because it’s such a universal theme. 

We all must have something that makes life worth living.  This “something” is not limited to romantic love. It can be family, or work or a cause – basically whatever makes you get out of bed every day. It doesn’t have to be just one thing either. In fact, I hope you find many things/people to live for because that means you are living a full and connected life. By that same token, if you don’t have something to live for then you’re not really living. You just exist.

Or in Oliver’s case - survive. He’s known nothing but survival for the last five years. I think he absolutely cares for Yao Fei, Shado and Slade, but that’s exactly why Oliver shut down. He did care for people and it led to nothing but heartache, betrayal and loss. So, Oliver decided to be done with all that and has worked very hard to keep his loved ones at a distance ever since returning home.

He’s been extremely successful at it in many ways because Oliver refuses to share who he really is with anyone outside of John Diggle. So, that’s why it had to be John Diggle to tell him that it was okay to feel again.

Oliver: I’ve been close to death on the island more times than I can remember and I never feared it. Because I had nothing to lose. But when that archer almost killed me, when I stared death in the face then, I thought about all the people I’ve let into my life since I’ve been back – my family, Laurel, Tommy. And that made me afraid. Afraid of what would happen to those people if they lost me. Again. And for the first time in so long I had something to lose.

Oliver may not fear death, but he does fear what his death will mean to those who love him. Like I said earlier - Oliver is not suicidal. If that was true he wouldn’t have fought so hard to survive the island, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to live. He’s far from it. But this is the first time in a long time Oliver cared whether or not he died. And that scares him.  

Diggle: Maybe you’ve got it backwards Oliver. You think the people you’ve let in have taken your edge. I think it gives you one. Maybe a stronger one even. You can stare down death with something to live for or not. SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR is better.

That’s endgame folks. Oliver’s story is about a man learning to live again. He will collect more and more people/things that he cares about as he walks this road, which means there is more to lose. Losing his life is far preferable than losing someone he loves again.  Oliver can tolerate a great deal of physical pain. It’s the emotional pain that scares the crap out of him. This is why he fights tooth and nail to keep emotions at a distance. It just hurts too much.

Opening our heart to others often means opening our hearts to pain, but that’s not the only side of love. It brings happiness and contentment too. You take the good with the bad. Diggle is trying to open Oliver’s heart to the good.

Is Oliver alive? Or is he just breathing? The answers to those questions make all the difference in the world. A difference Diggle knows will make Oliver an unbeatable weapon.

Lynns: I'm not afraid to die

Oliver: I know. You're afraid to live.

COULD IT BE A PARALLEL?

Methinks yes. It’s interesting “Burned” revolves around fire. Fire is where Oliver’s story began. Lian Yu was about purification, but it was also a rebirth. 

A rebirth we see expanding as Oliver opens up his heart. A fire is lit from within our hero and it’s growing beyond penance, justice and retribution to hope, passion and enlightenment. Oliver Queen is finding reasons to live again. And it will make all the difference for his survival.

L*urel L*nce

If you sense I have less patience with L*urel’s character in Seasons 1 and Season 2 than I did in Season 3 and Season 4 then you’d be right. My opinions on this character changed radically so I’m coming into Season 1 and Season 2 reviews with a Season 8 perspective on L*urel.

Tommy wants a drawer. That’s all. A drawer. Tommy Merlyn is a simple man. Doesn’t take a lot to make him happy. He even wrote a list explaining all the reasons he deserves and needs a drawer. We never see the list, but I’d imagine it looks something like this:

I AM HUMAN PERFECTION.

I did not sleep with your sister.

I am asking for a drawer rather than run screaming to the North China Sea with above referenced sister.

I make you omelets.

I make your character moderately tolerable which is a miracle in of itself.

I could continue, but you get the idea. What’s absolutely ludicrous is OLIVER gives L*UREL relationship advice.

Oliver: Well we're friends.

Me: Oliver, my son, NO YOU ARE NOT. 

At least she had the common sense to scoff at Oliver’s friendly attempt to intervene on Tommy’s behalf. (Seriously, dude just stay out of it. This is wildly inappropriate.)

L*urel was ready to move in with Oliver (even though she knew he cheated on her regularly), but freaks at faithful Tommy requesting armoire access. JFC this woman is a dating disaster zone.

L*urel: I don’t take things slow remember? I close my eyes and I jump just like you. 

My initial reaction to this speech is to call it nonsense. 

I thought this was a case of Arrow telling rather than showing with L*urel’s character. However, upon further contemplation I have reversed my opinion.

L*urel may be a pragmatic attorney on the surface, but we have watched her run the gamut of human emotions week to week. So much so it’s difficult to get a read on the character the writers are trying to construct. (Spoiler alert: they don’t know what kind of character they are trying to construct). One week she loves Oliver. The next week she’s condemning him to hell. L*urel L*nce’s feelings definitely control her.

She has been reckless too, working outside the law, by contacting the vigilante for assistance. A relationship she resumes after telling her father in 1x09 that The Hood is a killer with no remorse. See what I’m saying about the ever changing emotional spectrum?

I’m not saying L*urel having emotions and expressing them is bad. That’s a healthier reaction than what Oliver is doing, but she has been all over the map. It’s less about who L*urel is as a character and more about the writers needing her to react a certain way to make the episode work.

Oliver likes to present himself as a cool cucumber, but he has a rather unpleasant temper too. It may seem like he’s emotionless, but that is just a façade. It’s a cover for the torrent of emotions he keeps at bay.

Laurel: I think that’s why we spooked each other. Our feelings, our fears, they control us. Not the other way around.

L*urel’s “spooking each other” statement is a big line of bull, which we’ll find out later in the season. L*urel was not spooked by Oliver. She was the furthest thing from spooked, which is why she asked him to move in with her.

Oliver wasn’t spooked either. Anytime I reflect on L*uriver I’m reminded of a scene from Sex in the City. Oliver isn’t freaked out by his feelings. He’s just not that into you, L*urel.

The process in which we get OLIVER to realize this and admit it to himself will take much longer, but I can be patient. It’s time will come.

But do I think these two characters are similar? YES. They are too similar in fact. It’s one of the main reasons they don’t work as a couple. This is exactly why Tommy and Felicity are perfect for L*urel and Oliver.  They need someone steady to temper their emotions. 

They need someone happy to balance out their anger. They need someone with a bright light in order to find their own.

It’s also worth noting that Tommy was ready to run into a burning building to save Oliver so GIVE HIM A DAMN DRAWER L*UREL.

Stray Thoughts

Flashbacks were kind of boring. Fyers kidnaps Yao Fei. Oliver saves his own life by accident. Meh

Thea calling Moira out was long overdue. This kid needs a parent ASAP.

Everyone's fall clothing is really adorable.

JUST UNBUTTON THE FRACKIN BUTTON OLLIE.

Merlyn kidnapped Walter right? Or Moira? I seriously don't remember. I don’t think I care either. lol

L*urel: I am not the best example of healthy grieving.

LL has a rare moment of self awareness, which is lovely.

Oliver: I heard what you said to your father. That I'm a killer with no remorse.

L*urel: Do you?

Me: You impertinent little snot.

I like Joanna much better than L*urel and I wished she stayed, but removing Joanna from the show is the first step the writers took to limit L*urel's role. The shift is upon us.

  Not to be unsympathetic, but Moira is starting to rack up the dead husbands.

Thea fantasizing that Walter is cheating on Moira with a stewardess as the hopeful pitch is YIKES. Goodness this show could be dark.

Musings of the Kiddo  

Kiddo: Yeah! He's actually putting his family first!

Me: Settle down. It doesn't last long.

Kiddo: I thought L*urel was gonna find out.

Me: Oh my sweet summer child.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

[linkspooky]

This Thing

de·hu·man·i·za·tion 

noun

the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.

This thing A meta on the dehumanization of villains done by the heroes in the manga My Hero Academia, if you’re interested read more underneath the cut.

Before saying anything else, yes crimminals are a group of people who can be dehumanized. People who break the law are still in fact people, and while this is mainly talking about a fictional work it’s worth remembering that dehumanization is a tactic used to justify violence and the taking away of human rights from crimminals and incarcerated people. 

People are still people. No matter what bad things they do they’re still people. And victims are victims even if they don’t present their victimhood in easy to digest ways. The conflict in My Hero Academia is one much more complicated than hero vs. villain because it exists within a society that generates its own villains through intentional neglect. I say neglect, because most heroes seem to be of the perspective that villains are either born evil, or choose to do evil entirely of their own free will and are never victims of circumstances or forced into the livelihood. 

Villain isn’t just what costumed crimminals are called in MHA, it’s a literal legal definition that are given to certain crimminal offenders. We don’t know what exactly the legal ramifications are, but the fact that you can literally be called a villain just for being a repeat offender shows the way hero society views it’s crimminals. 

Villain has different connotations, it means an inhuman evil, not just a person who has done bad things. Police also have much more power in comparison to our society as well, in the manga vigilantes when his sister Makoto brings up the fact that technically her friend who has been accused of villainry is innocent until proven guilty and formally charged. 

Tsukauchi gets physically angry with her. 

What’s important in this situation is the girl they’re arguing about pop step is an innocent victim. She was kidnapped by a man, had a parasite inserted into her brain and is being physically controlled. What she needs to be is saved not put down, but the law is so inflexible it’s only capable of seeing her as a villain not as a person caught in a bad situation who needs to be saved from that situation. 

And it’s much later revealed that there is technically a way to save her life, but because it requires breaking of the laws the police and heroes won’t ever do it. Beating her up won’t save her, it’ll just kill her as an innocent victim of circumstance, and stop her from doing any more damage to the people around her. Even if the police knew the way to save her life they won’t attempt it because it breaks the law. 

Being a by the book cop is all well and good, but when the law that exists doesn’t protect people there’s something wrong with the law. This isn’t an isolated incident either, we’re shown over and over again in the main manga as well this is always how villains are responded to, violent suppression. 

At the start of the manga Shigaraki says this, that heroes and villains are both violent but because heroes are categorized as such their violence suddenly becomes heroic. All Might just dismisses what he says as him being a madman.  

Not only that but in the aftermath of the break in the heroes all attempt to dissect Shigaraki’s character. They all make him out to be some kind of insane person that could have no possible rationale or reason behind his actions. 

They dismiss Shigaraki’s attack as him simply being a man-child who thinks he can do whatever he wants. There’s no possible way that he could have any kind of sympathetic reason or human rationale, because he’s a villain, right? Except we learn later that’s not the case. 

The words that Shigaraki is saying to All Might echo the words of his abuser. Shigaraki is like this not out of his own choice, but because he was deliberately shapped and moulded by someone. The reason why Shigaraki is impuslively violent is because as a literal five year old he was exposed to violence over and over again, and told this is who he was, this is what he was for. 

All Might later discovers that Shigaraki is not only the son of Nana Shimura’s son, a child he was personally responsible for when his mother died but decided to go along with his mother’s plan to abandon him (for his protection) and then also that All for One had specifically raised Shimura Tenko as a weapon against him. All Might knowing completely the manipulative kind of man that All for One is, and that Shimura must have been young when All for One took him in. Is still able only to see Shigaraki as a crimminal. 

He is literally told that he can’t see him as anything other than a villain otherwise his judgement would be affected. At this point it’s not even ignorance, it’s intentional neglect. All Might SHOULD know that something is up with Shimura Tenko and that he didn’t choose to become a villain and was most likely influenced by All for One and yet the heroes all choose to ignore that fact and instead put him down like any other crimminal. 

The problem with dehumanizing crimminals is that cops are not omniscient. Cops make mistakes. Cops are wrong, like... a lot. When you give people the power of law, there are people who are victims who were just trying to survive who are going to get caught up and treated exactly the same as people who are genuinely dangerous and out to hurt others like AFO. There are people who are perfectly innocent sometimes who will get caught up in it too.

People like Tsukauchi and Gran Torino may be good cops, they may be by the book cops, but that’s it. They’re the type that gets angry at the fact that due process exists because they believe that cops always suspect the right people, and that their hunches are never wrong or they could never possibly arrest someone who doesn’t deserve it. Neither of them acknowledge that the system is flawed and often makes mistakes, and because of that they end up believing that the police are always in the right, that the police could never prosecute someone wrongly, and those are dangerous beliefs to have for literally any law system, especially one with guys that shoot lasers out of their eyes.. The reason due process exists is not to slow the hand of justice, it’s because the legal system is really flawed. 

The problem with giving too much power to police is that we don’t exist in a perfect world where the police will obey even their own laws. Why don’t we just put cameras in everybody’s houses? People who aren’t doing anything illegal won’t have anything to worry about. Unless suddenly things like speaking out against the government become illegal because the police now have the power to enforce it. What I’m saying is the rule of law does not necessarily = good or evil. Rules are not always good, and they’re also not absolutes they change all the time, and they also don’t always exist to protect people they need to protect. We see this literally happen in My Hero Acadmia, the government uses it’s power to kidnap a child and erase his name literally the exact same way All for One did so he could be raised as a child soldier. 

The conflict in My Hero Academia is not good guys vs bad guys, especially when the good guys don’t even act as good guys, and a step beyond that rigid laws and adherence to social order is not ever going to solve the problems associated with villains like Shigaraki because those laws are fundamentally unjust. They don’t exist to protect the people who most need protecting, they exist to oppress a minority in order to maintain social order. 

Yes, violent crimminals are still a group of people. They are still human beings with rights. If they’re not guaranteed those rights they will be abused. We’ve literally seen this play out in action. 

Hawks corners Twice, and then says he’ll go out of his way to Save Twice because he personally likes him. The only one of the villains Hawks treats as a human and not just an enemy to put down is Twice, and only because he personally likes him. 

Twice brings up the fact that all of his friends deserve to be saved the same way he is. In fact, he even goes out of his way to say that he would die to save these people, and Hawks just ignores them because he sees no humanity in them only the one he personally likes. 

Then Hawks goes out of his way to mention that if Twice doesn’t stop fighting back, it’s his fault if they die. Twice is trying to argue with Hawks that the people he sees as a danger to society, and that need to be taken down are humans capable of being kind just as much as they are a threat. 

Twice murders him. He goes out of his way to murder him and stab him in the back. Hawks acting in a capacity as a hero, goes out of his way to dehumanize Twice again and again, completely ignore his own feelings and words, and then that conflict eventually escalates to murder. The point is not that Hawks had no choice but to kill him, but rather Hawks convinced himself he had no choice but to kill Twice. 

The problem with applying this extremely harsh and punitive, even war-like view of law and order is that innocent people like Twice who literally only wanted to keep his friends happy will get caught up in it. Hawks literally thought that Twice had a chance for rehabilitation, that of the league he was the one most likely to rehabilitate and he still murdered him.

Heroes aren’t interested in rehabilitation. They are there to beat up villains. For several of them, it’s not even that far of a jump to get to the point where they start justifying killing villains. Miruko is almost excited to murder the Nomu who are, you know, innocent victims of mad science. 

They want to take down Ujiko, but they don’t care at all about his creations which are all former people, and the heroes know this by this point. Finally, I want to discuss one of the most empathic characters in the manga. 

Aiawa is the current guardian of Eri. He participated in the mission to rescue her from Chisaki. He is someone who views Eri as a victim, and never gets upset with her or blames her for her out of control quirk the same way Chisaki once did. 

Not only that but Aizawa himself has had a friend kidnapped and stolen away by All for One. He knows personally what All for One can do to a person, by changing Shirakumo to Kurogiri he completely warped his personality and controlled him to the point where the person he once was was almost gone. 

He knows All for One is capable of having that affect on people, not only that but Kurogiri himself says that Shigaraki is like a lost kitten that he can’t throw away because he feels responsible. 

Aizawa has rescued a victim who is in similiar circumstances to Shigaraki. Aizawa has literally seen his best friend warped and changed by All for One’s hand. It should be obvious what Shigaraki has been through by now, and yet Aizawa doesn’t seem to care about Shigaraki’s circumstances at all.

Shirakumo has done bad things in AFO’s name as well. However, Aizawa decides to see Shirakumo as a victim. Even though Shirakumo is also complicit in the grooming and raising of Shigaraki for what he is, and almost certainly had a hand in manipulating him. 

Aizawa empathizes with Kurogiri because he knows him personally, because he wants Shirakumo back. He doens’t bother to care about Shigaraki, because he doesn’t know Shigaraki personally. It’s not only hypocritical, it’s also just plain ignorance. 

Aizawa is literally given every story reason to care. Shirakumo literally tells Aizawa that Shigaraki is a person he wants to protect and that he’s fond of. Aizawa believes that despite the terrible things he’s done, there’s still the boy who wanted to become a hero somewhere in Kurogiri, and he’s literally proven right. 

Shirakumo still has a chance and is given a chance to become a hero, because Aizawa cares about him because they were friends but that’s about it. It’s not like Aizawa is driven by a very rigorous and strict sense of justice. He’s clearly willing to make exceptions, even for people who have put his students at risk, or even personally attacked him. He’s willing to reach out and understand Shirakumo’s circumstances, so clearly he doesn’t have a completely black and white view of good and evil. However, Aizawa’s reasons for sympathizing with Kurogiri and only Kurogiri are ultimately pretty selfish. It’s because he wants Shirakumo back. He doesn’t care about the circumstances, or even who Kurogiri cares about now he just wants his old friend back. Therefore he has no reason to care about Shigaraki who was victimized in a similiar way to Kurogiri, just because he doesn’t know him. I guess you’re not obligated to care about anybody, but it’s the exact opposite of empathy, especially in a character like Aizawa who has always shown to be especially protective of children. Nobody tries to understand Shigaraki, nobody tries to empathize with him, even though he also once had the exact same dream as both Shirakumo, and even Deku. 

But Shigaraki’s just a monster that needs to be put down and stopped, there’s not a fragment of good in him like there was for Kurogiri, like there was for Twice. 

Aizawa even gets angry at Ujiko for the callous way he treats human lives. For the way they were tossed aside. He’s righteously angry for Ujiko’s victims, especially Kurogiri. But he doesn’t stop to think for a second that Shigaraki is possibly another victim manipulated by the likes of Ujiko. Once again because Aizawa doesn’t personally know Shigaraki, or because Shigaraki is a bad person, who cares if he gets hurt and manipulated by Ujiko. 

So we see by the heroes, Shigaraki referred to as a thing, Shigaraki referred to as an it. He’s just a monster to be stopped. It’s like he’s a boss in a video game the heroes need to kill. 

Even though they literally see him being experimented on by Ujiko, an actual abuser who has used his money and connections to commit inhuman experiments his whole life that too must be Shigaraki’s fault somehow. The heroes are repeating the exact same lines that Shigaraki’s abuser All for One did on him. 

By treating him as a monster. By treating him as a thing that needs to be killed, rather than a person who needs to be saved. They are doing All for One’s work for him by creating a symbol of fear and robbing a lifelong victim of abuse of his humanity. It’s like they want villains like Shigaraki to exist so they can remain heroes. 

[scribble-blog]

Soulmate AU part 15 (finally) ((oops)) !!!!!

First  • Previous  • Here  • Next

Oh my god you guys. I’m really sorry for saying yesterday and then not making the update (But on a better note I passed that final!!!!!!) and because of how hellish this week promises to be i’m not gonna make any other attempts at promising updates. I will say that my school isn’t normally near this hectic, so things should calm down come Sunday. Hopefully.

Enjoy!!

Red Hood was the first to speak, lowering his head in a wince. “Damn, kid. Sorry.”

“We had no idea.” Red Robin said quietly. “I hope you can believe us about this, at least. If the Justice League — or even just us- had known about this at any point for the last four years, we would not have let you face it alone.”

Gravely, Batman spoke. “What measures are you taking to find Hawkmoth?”

Adrien and Chloé both looked to her and she suppressed a sigh. As the Guardian, she supposed she actually did understand the most about this. 

“One of the powers granted by the Miraculous is a mask of anonymity. How do you think five teenagers have managed to keep their identities all this time? The magic around the jewels keeps us from being recognized in our superhero forms, and that includes the leaps of logic needed to puzzle out who the person behind the mask is. It’s why I felt safe enough to come ask for help from the supposed best detectives in the superhero world. It would take me detransforming right in front of you to reveal me.”

“That’s all well and good,” Robin said. “But what measures have you taken to find Hawkmoth? You don’t necessarily need to find his identity to track him down.”

Marinette tried not to scowl at his patronizing tone. “Due to how his powers work, we’ve been unable to do anything other than figure out a general area that he operates in. If you’ve found the blog, we’ve been using the maps generated during each Akuma attack to figure out his general range. But we think he may have either multiple places, or that he might be transforming out of his lair and sending Akumas out like that to mess with our data. And we aren’t exactly able to track the butterflies when they can fly through solid objects.”

“And you’re teens, with busy lives and no actual support system for superheroing, so it’s insanely difficult to devote much of your actual time to being proactive against him, other than the patrols your videos mention,” Red Robin summarized. Marinette nodded, Chloé and Adrien echoing the motion.

Batman just sighed. “I’m unsure of how wise it would be to actually send one of us to Paris to help you, if Hawkmoth targets those with dark emotions. But we will dig into this, and I promise we will do anything we can to assist you in your fight.”

“Oracle and I can start working on something,” Red Robin suggested, and the other three nodded. 

“If you need to contact us-“ Marinette pulled out her yo-yo, and opened it up to the screen. “This is how you can contact me. I’ll be notified of any messages or calls even outside the suit.” She offered them the yo-yo, extremely secure in the knowledge that now matter how they try to bug it, it would never work.

Red Robin took it, and after fiddling with it for a moment, looked back at her. “Isn’t this also your weapon? How does that work?”

He sounded distressed by it, and his expression only dropped further when Adrien laughed and said, “Magic.”

“Do you mind if we stay a bit?” Chloé asked, “If you want to accompany us, I wouldn’t mind, but I was kind of interested in seeing Gotham.”

Marinette caught Robin smirking, and wondered why, before Batman opened his mouth.

“I—”

“—Can run some kids around Gotham for a little bit,” Red Hood cut him off. “C’mon, Bats, let ‘em live a little while they’re visiting. I won’t let them get lost.”

Batman sighed. “Robin, you go with them.”

“Tt.” The other teen moved forward again, up to Batman’s side. “If you insist.”

Marinette wasn’t enthused, but she held her jabs in. 

“Awesome,” Chloé breathed, and as she took a look at her, Marinette recognized some of the way she used to stare at Ladybug. Chloé was trying her best not to actually fangirl over getting to spend time with some of the Gotham vigilantes.

It brought back vivid memories of Chloé running around in her Ladybug suit, pretending to save the day. 

And then Chloé gave her a dirty look that said she knew exactly what she was thinking, and leapt straight off the tower.

“Abeille!” Marinette scolded, running over to the ledge. Chloé was hanging below, laughing. 

“You’re too uptight, Ladybug, live a little.” A hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to see Red Hood. “Hey, Bee-girl. Race you to that blue roof.” 

“Me first!” Adrien yelled, bounding past them, propelling himself with his staff out into the open air. Red Hood shot his grappling gun and swung after, and Marinette sighed.

“I work with children,” she grumbled, only to be met with laughter from Red Robin. She turned back to them. “Thank you, Batman, for what you’re doing for us. It means- a lot.”

He nodded at her, and then to Robin, before he and Red Robin flung themselves from the side of the roof, both heading in the opposite direction from her partners.

“You and me, then,” Marinette said to Robin. With a thought, she smirked. “Bet you we can make it to that rooftop before they do.”

“Tt, Red Hood has probably already gotten distracted by another passing fancy.” Why did the way he said that sound familiar? “But I believe you are correct.” And he rushed off.

She matched him, swing for swing. And silently, they stole through the sky, listening to Chat Noir baiting Red Hood about something, Abeille snarking over his comeback, their teammates laughter covering the sound of them thoroughly catching up and then, without warning, surpassing them.

“Hey!” Abeille called, and suddenly it was an actual race. 

Marinette gave Robin one look and he, by some miracle, seemed to understand. They split around a building, and Marinette was on her own. 

Each swing brought her higher, each view of Gotham new and beautiful and confusing, until she heard it. 

On the streets below her, a raised voice.

“Chat,” she called as loudly as she dared, knowing that he would hear her. And then she dropped down.

“Please, please, just let me go-“ the woman cried, clutching a bag to her chest.

“Where are you gonna go, huh, Cynthia?” The man asked, looming over her. “A fucking homeless shelter? You gonna sleep on the streets? You know none of your friends are gonna put up with your goddamn bullshit the way I do—”

“Anything’s better than going back with you!” Cynthia shouted, looking terrified. Marinette couldn’t stop herself from stepping in. 

“Madame?” She moves out of the shadows and into the narrow beam of lamplight that covered the street. “What is the problem?”

Cynthia raised her wild eyes to Marinette and dashed towards her, cowering behind. “Please, please, don’t make me go back with him, I can’t. I can’t.”

“Listen, Red,” the man spoke to her. “This ain’t your business. Let me take my girlfriend home, she’s got meds that keep her from doing shit like this-“

“I don’t,” she spat. “Don’t fucking lie, I don’t have meds, you just-“

“Sir,” Marinette said calmly, her pulse like a jackhammer on the inside of her ribs. “If this really is a simple disagreement, perhaps some time apart will help you both collect yourselves. I’m sure—‘

“You ain’t sure of nothin’, bitch,” the man sneered. “That’s my girl. You’ll hand her over to me or you’ll face the goddamn consequences.”

Marinette’s hesitation was her downfall. There was no way she was going to let the man take Cynthia, but she was torn between getting the woman away quickly or trying to talk down the boyfriend. And in the second where she waited, the man chuckled. 

“Please, no,” Cynthia whispered. Marinette turned her head to assure her. The woman looked stricken, eyes wide over Marinette’s shoulder.

The gun she didn’t see him pull went off.

TAGLIST:

@the-fusionist @rebecarojas07 @lowandco @kotaleartzu @resignedcatservant @alenee13 @mystery-5-5 @ladybug-182 @actual-disaster-human @loysydark @rumbelle18 @magic-miraculous @vixen-uchiha @athena452 @mochegato @ash-amg @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @thestressmademedoit @sassakitty @doriebell @toodaloo-kangaroo @myazael @theatreandcomicfreak @mer-mel @dahjokester @northernbluetongue @abrx2002 @area51qt @jessigurl-design @renscorpio @cici-schnee @multplelifes @redscarlet95 @razzledazzle247 @rosep16 @emotionalsupportginger @kceedraws @tired-butterfly @kuroko26 @catthhay @moonystars14 @shamefullove @shreky-boi @imanerddealwith @chaosace @captainmac6 @purple-people-eaters-productions @crazylittlemunchkin @weird-pale-blonde-person @bigpicklebananatree

[currentfandomkick]

Marinette did not sign up for this part 7

So i kind of live, and this continues on. 

first part here   previous part here      ao3 here 

             Stephanie twitched when she finished comparing financial resources needed to handle a covert operation, butterfly garden underground, AND manage to keep it secret from the rest of Paris. Cass checked her numbers and it became very apparent that only—and she stressed the only—someone insanely wealthy and is a recluse could be Hawkmoth. And in Paris, that meant one man—Gabriel Agreste.

             Cass was the one to narrow it down to him, and Steph argued with her about it being impossible as “He’s been akumatized!” Honestly, Cass was acting like the Ladyblogger who published one of her early ‘could be Hawkmoth’ theories with Gabriel Agreste as a option with “probably had Mayura as Hawkmoth in her place” argument. It was retracted, and there was a apology put up for it that included: this list was not intended to be serious guys—I put multiple known akuma victims here and ways they could have been Hawkmoth no matter how public the akumatazation was. Did not expect this one to be taken so seriously, my sincerest apologies to M. Agreste and Mm. Sancoeur.”

             Steph could smell the ‘I was forced to do this’ off the apology, and did her best not to agree with Cass that it was forced as then Cass would argue it was a serious accusation put in mixed with less serious ones to get people thinking. To get Ladyblog followers to take notes and pass it to Ladybug and Chat Noir for further investigation. Which, would be a good way to contact the heroes. Except…

             “She interviews the Miraculous team on a bi-weekly basis Cass, she’d have plenty of opportunities to tell them her theories.”

             Cass crossed her arms. While they might heavily disagree on this aspect of who Hawkmoth and Mayura are, there is another aspect that is held in contention between the two of them…

             “Plus, Hawkmoth and Mayura are totally a couple, and everyone knows Gabriel Agreste is too hung up on his wife’s disappearance to consider moving on, let alone do it.”

             “Professionals.”

             Stephanie rolled her eyes. Cass is good at body language. There is no doubt about her being better than most. However—Hawkmoth is an egomaniac. Egomaniacs don’t give up when their goal is in reach for a henchman getting ill or injured. Not unless said hench is, well, romantically involved with them. She knew from watching Gotham’s underbelly for years—their romantic relationship had to be rock solid for it to even be considered. Married or may-as-well-be.

             “He’s ended how many battles early for her? Totally bordering on, if not actually, married.”

             Stephanie paused when two girls joined them, the ladyblogger herself with a too big grin, and soup girl if Cass wasn’t mistaken.

             “Hawkmoth and Mayura relationship debate?” The blogger grinned.

             Stephanie nodded, as yes, and this is serious. “Cass is convinced they’re just professionals with standards.”

             Soup girl groaned. “Not this again!”

             “Girl, I told you, I’m not the only one who thinks they’re a couple, and serious.”

             Stephanie grinned as Cass huffed. A vote for Team Hawkyura!

             “I told you, Hawkmoth is too obsessed with the miraculous to be capable of human emotions, and Mayura is too smart to fall for him. He’s probably paying her a lot or cancelling out a debt for her to work for him how she is,” Soup girl reasoned.

             Stephanie shook her head while Cass rose victoriously, scooting a bit closer to her fellow ‘stop shipping the villains’ teammate. Which is ridiculous—it isn’t shipping if it isn’t even subtext at this point.

             “No, no,” the blogger leaned forward, settled into their table on Stephanie’s side. “That means the relationship would have to be healthy, and its perfect possible for it to extremely unhealthy and for Mayura to be in a bad relationship with someone who isn’t wroth her time. Why else would she keep using a broken miraculous that’s making her sick?”

             Stephanie nodded at the blogger’s side. “And abusive relationships can happen to anyone. Back in our home city,” Steph gestured between herself and Cass. “A top psychologist went villain because she was manipulated into thinking the guy just needed her love to fix him and fell into a life of crime and wanted to stay by the guy’s side regardless of how many times he hurt her.”

             Cass nodded at that, frowning at that. She wasn’t there for Harley Quinn, henchman of Joker. Stephanie was. She did see the aftermath and bits of Harley’s (ongoing) recovery.

             Soup girl shook her head. “Its not that, everyone knows the Peacock is emotions so she would know he’s toying with her. She would know she deserves better. She’s staying because of finances or blackmail or maybe even being able to fix something that’s unfixable.”

             Cass hummed in agreement. “Needs to survive.”

             Soup girl nodded. “There’s no motivator more powerful than that.”

             “Um, love,” Stephanie supplied. She may not be the best at all its forms, but loving gotham’s citizens enough to want to save them was part of what drove her to become Spoiler in the first place. Spite too, but that didn’t seem like the best thing to mention at the time.

             “Exactly,” the blogger passed Stephanie one of her cookies. “Love makes people do crazy things, or did you forget Hercules.”

             Soup girl looked exhausted at that, pinching her brow. “We agreed never to bring Disney logic into these arguments.”          

             “The quote is true—People do crazy things when they’re in love. And Mayura is in love with Hawkmoth, and he’s in love with her.”

             Soup girl rolled her eyes. “Then you’d have to give up the Gabriel and Natalie theory for good. He’s still in love with his wife, and he treats Natalie more like a tablet than a person. No way that’s how he’d treat someone he’s in love with.”

             “Are we forgetting how he treats you and Adrien?”

             Stephanie and Cass exchanged a look. Stephanie focused on soup girl then. Really looked at her. Tired, twitchy, all signs of needing and not getting a good night’s rest.

             “Okay, he goes way overboard with supervising and has control issues, I’m not saying he doesn’t, ever. But he doesn’t let me take commissions unless my grades are up there, hires tutors for me and Adrien regularly, and he’s let up on controlling who Adrien can be safely friendly with to avoid crazy fans ever since I joined.”

             “You joined, therefore are something he can control, and are therefore not going to endanger Adrien or Gabriel since it would hurt your career,” the blogger explained.

             “Sounds like Hawkmoth,” Stephanie added absently, then froze as Cass grinned at her. back track time, ASAP. “But it can’t be since the guy was akumatized.”

             Soup girl looked relieved at what Stephanie said. Though, thinks weren’t looking up much on that front. She might have Batgirl pay the man a visit… after hacking the girl’s schedule and Adrien’s and seeing how much this man really was trying to control them both.

             Cass raised an eyebrow at her.

             “Thank you—can you get Alya off that train too?”

             The blogger leveled Stephanie a look that reminded her too much of Lois Lane that time she tried to interview the Batfam on Gotham crime rates and the effectiveness of vigilantes in a city that was entrenched in corruption and if it was better to just gut the Gotham justice system and start anew with different training and such, to prevent villain strength and intensity escalation. In short—she scared Stephanie. Just a little.

             “I think maybe Lois Lane could, but I doubt it.”

             “Lois Lane is the hero the world is not good enough for and her word is worth more than all of Metropolis.”

             “Not that hard to achieve,” Stephanie said without thinking. There is a lot of property damage there after all, they just have a more white collar-exclusive criminal element. Plus, Lex keeps his bigger projects in other places that are harder for Superman to find.

             Soup girl snorted at that.

             The blogger took offense.

             Stephanie would say all-in-all, not her worst time out on a mission doing detective work in broad daylight.

--

             Marinette was quick to transform into Multimouse and meet up with Rena in the Lourve. It wasn’t the first time either—Alix’s dad took to helping her translate Gaurdian since she hadn’t learned it all before Fu died. Besides her, he was the only one who could read the spell book… though that reduced the miraculous grimoire to nothing but the potions. It held the history of the kwami, how to summon and bind them, and even how to craft weapons for them. It included instructions on how to become a Guardian and what was required of her the sole guardian, and how the Order operated with mentions of ways it could be reformed should it ever vanish.

             It was the closest thing Marinette had to a mentor on how to re-build the Order and choose members, and how to make the best choices as Guardian. It even listed allied organizations and how much stock should be put into trusting them.

             But right now, she wasn’t there as Ladybug to go over another passage or talk about possible meaning and philosophies (did they really mean her job is to kill to protect the miraculous, or like, be that ready to ensure they remained safe?) or the whole “is the soul splitting a metaphor or actual magic” (magic). No, she was there as Multimouse, with Rena Rouge, as representatives of the Miraculous Team to meet up with the Amazonian Historian sent by The Former Ladybug, Hippolyta.

             “Greetings Alwphekion,” the woman nodded at Rena. “Muidion,” she acknowledged Multimouse. “I am Vupyte of Themyscira, and our leading historian on the miraculous. How may I be of assistance, young Champions?”

             Multimouse stepped forward, forgetting she wasn’t Ladybug at the moment. This question had been burning in her mind since she was told of the missing pair. “Could you tell us how the ladybug and black cat miraculous would interact with the main five if it wasn’t for Hawkmoth?”

             Rena glanced at Multimouse, knowing that something was off. It was possible Marinette may be more involved intellectually than she’d been letting on… though given her unofficial spy-work, it was possible that Marinette was Ladybug’s first choice in help… which lead to questions Rena had to keep silent… until Hawkmoth was defeated.

             “Ah, that is both simple and complex. If you wouldn’t mind,” Vupyte gestured for the pair to sit with her. “I was expecting something like that to come from Alwphekion, not you Muidion.”

             Multimouse would have been flustered a few years ago. Hell, even a few month ago, before Fu was compromised, she would have panicked a bit. But right now?

             “Ladybug tasked me to get any information to help her rebuild the Order. I won’t fail her.” She couldn’t fail the kwami. Especially Tikki who never gave up on her, even when Marinette was ready to throw in the towel a hundred times over and give her miraculous to Alya—the brave one she once had to mimic to handle being Ladybug.

             “Ah.” Vupyte leaned back. “No wonder there’s such a storm in your eyes.”

             Multimouse didn’t know how to handle that, so she brushed it aside.

             Rena put a hand on her knee and squeezed.

             Multimouse was glad she wasn’t alone in this.

             “That story goes back far beyond when my people interacted with the miraculous. Perhaps I could have a figure you trust help me digitize my research on the history in full for your Ladybug?”

             Multimouse nodded. That… “Director Kubdel was vetted by Ladybug previously for his discretion and understanding of how sensitive the miraculous and miraculous matters are.”

             Vupyte agreed to use the man at a later date. “For now, I can give you an overview of how the work together.”

             “That would be sufficient.” Multimouse did her best to copy M. Agreste’s professional affect. To hide how out of her depths she was at the moment.

             Vupyte grinned. “First off, The Savior, your Ladybug, has the role of creation. Her role in the group is to guide them to growth, to safety. She is your strategist in battle and the team’s healer. You know this already. She is the only one able to undo the Destroyer—your Chat Noir’s—abilities. However, she can only undo his damage so long as she believes it needs her intervention. Should she find his judgement—and his punishments for those violating the contract between those under the Miraculous’ protection, the Order, Champion and Kwami—be just, she cannot undo what he did.”

             Multimouse felt her heart seize. Plagg mentioned the Atlantians tried to convince a Fox into destroying a rival kingdom, a kingdom that was not doing as the Atlantians’ claimed. When the Fox refused… Plagg never said what happened after that.

             She knew only a third of the Atlantian’s survived the sinking from what they’d released to the public about their history.

             “A ladybug is given all the creative force that exists between her and her black cat, while the cat is given all the ability to detect danger. Half of each of their souls are swapped to ensure this ability switch remains, and that their bond is unbreakable so long as they are called on as Champions. The cat protects her from harm, and she supplies him with what is needed. They are only ever called on in times of absolute crisis—when the Contract is violated, or when the world’s balance is nearing a breaking point.”

             Rena was too still by Multimouse, piecing things together. Multimouse hoped she didn’t pass this on to the others… not until Marinette was certain they were safe to remain in the Order and that they want to be in it—that they don’t feel obligated to out of duty but truly want to protect the kwami. Even if it means never being a hero again.

             “The turtle shields them both—the Cat in battle and the ladybug when healing. They can even bring forth another weapon, though what it is, there is no record that we have found reliable.”

             Multimouse raised an eyebrow.

             “Shelter?”

             The Amazonian shook her head. “No Muidion, something else entirely… the incomplete records I found mentioned people being pulled to the turtle, feeling absolute safety and complete trust in them no matter what happened around them. What causes this, is unknown.”

             Multimouse felt the need to roll her eyes. she was fairly certain it was a cross between ‘must parent them all’ and the turtle’s capacity to ensure nothing broke Shelter. Possibly making it opaque, or something else. She’d ask Wayzz when Nino was asleep.

“Often the turtle focuses on getting civilians out of the area to safety. They are often aided by the Peacock, who creates a creature from a single emotion and ties it to an object, to direct its actions. The turtle protects those in danger with their shelter while the peacock’s creation and the peacock keep enemy combatants busy.

             “The butterfly may check for spies among their ranks, potential traitors too by their emotions but that is often another’s role. They often connect members across distances with those outside of their ranks, acting as a diplomat and choosing new members. At times, they might even make use of their full ability and create a champion of their own, granting them the power to make an army to help the cat while following the ladybug’s plan, or to test a possible candidate’s worth by seeing what they do when given power, and how it is used while having the failsafe of taking it away again.

             “The bee tends to fight beside the Cat, at times ordering the butterfly’s champion should their connection fail, and is ready to take down said champion should they betray the group with a single sting. The bee answers to the ladybug and cat alone—following the pair’s vision and ensuring it is executed whenever one or both of the pair is absent.

             “Then there is the fox, like you Alwphekion. I assume you have grown fond of your ally,” Vupyte gestured to Rena’s flute. “They let you craft any illusion you want. But I doubt you were told of the true power of the fox.”

             Multimouse shifted at that. “The Gaurdian was young when their temple was destroyed. I doubt they hid it intentionally.”

             Vupyte paused at that. “I did not mean it like that Muidion, simply that the Fox is given little emphansis by the Order to the point it was given a dishonorable title for their champions to inherit, the Deceiver,” Vupyte spat the title like sour milk. “Alwphekion is the one who sees all in their truth, through every lie one has spoken or believed. A fox is not a crafter of fallacy, merely presenting what one feels or desires. Their greatest gift is in their true voice, the one that none can lie or withhold information upon being addressed by it.”

             Rena leaned forward, focusing on Vupyte. “How?”

             Vupyte sighed. “The records of that were destroyed in Alexandria’s flames. It is a power a fox can only use with great conviction and motivation. Until then, they can only sense deceptions in shades while the truth rings of their own melody according to legend.”

             Rena stared at her lap.

             Multimouse put a hand on her arm. “We’ll figure it out.”

             Rena leaned into the touch then, sighing. “I have a question of my own, if you don’t mind.”

             “Certainly I do not,” Vupyte assured. “I am here to help the Miraculous Champions however I am allowed by you. I owe your predecessors more than I could ever repay.”

             Rena nodded at that. “What are the chances a butterfly user could make themself a champion?”

             Vupyte opened and closed her mouth, lips pressing and pursing until she found words to her liking. “It is not impossible for them to do so. They would have to drop their transformation to do so, which would prevent proper guidance, and would need to give themself a very limited power.”

             Rena took a deep breath.

             Multimouse took a sharp intake. That changed the rules. A lot.

             “So, hypotethetically, if one’s power could only affect a specified amount of things at a time, say, put into a given space and then whatever new thing was put in was then ejected from said space,” Rena continued, “would that be a feasible power for a butterfly’s champion to use without a butterfly guiding them?”

             Multimouse felt her stomach drop at Vupyte’s hesitance.

             “That is… rather specific.” Vupyte pondered it for a moment more. “While I can’t be certain of the logisitics, it is one of the safest abilities to give in those circumstances. Tight limitations, a weak ability that lacks army-growing capacity, so no need to use the butterfly champion to connect their chosen champion to their subjects, and it is straight forward so no need for an explanation, or perhaps the lack of one would make their reaction to discovering this limit more genuine.”

             Multimouse felt sick.

             Things aligned quickly in her head. Finances. Schedules. Timing. Targets of preference—teens at Dupont where Adrien goes and is able to talk about his day to either Natalie or Gorilla, who would report it back to him. Even Adrien’s concerns for them—weaknesses, insecurities, fears…

             It made too much sense.

             Multimouse stood up. “I have to go, excuse me.”

             Rena gawked at her. “Wait, Mul—”

             Multimouse ran out quickly, running to an alley to detransform and get Tikki to get her head on straight as Marinette spiraled.

             Gabriel Agreste couldn’t be Hawkmoth.

             He couldn’t be.

--

             Outside the alley, Tim, Cass and Stephanie froze as the girl Tim was convinced was Ladybug appeared. She was in a grey suit before.

--

             Rena looked back at Vupyte, hoping her girl got the air she needed. She knew Marinette would come around eventually, but for now…

             “One moment.”

             Alya sent off a quick text to Aurore. The girl was good at keeping Marinette distracted, out of a spiral, and helping her process.

             Aurore confirmed she found Marinette in an alley bordering on a panic attack and was taking her home.

             Rena sighed in relief.

             “Okay, now that that’s settled, there’s something you didn’t spill.”

             Vupyte smiled at Rena. “You are a clever Alwphekion.”

             Rena raised an eyebrow.

             Vupyte sighed. “A ladybug and black cat take the longest to mature in their team. It is no fault of their own; a side effect of half of their being being doubled and the other being taken. Of the two, Ladybug requires the longest time to come into her own as a strategist and healer.”

             Rena snorted at that. “Have you seen Ladybug?”

             Vupyte sucked in her breath through her teeth. “I have.”

             Rena watched her more intensely then.

             “She is not even out of her training suit, while the rest of yours have become personalized, implying that you are not being overtaken by your role. That you have blended with your kwami and role, rather than be consumed by it.”

             Rena froze at that.

             “What do you mean be consumed by it.” it didn’t come out like a question, it fell out like doubt defending fear.

             “Ladybugs fill in any holes in their group. Right now you are missing two, and one is injured,” Vupyte noted.

             Rena filled in the blanks. “Until we get a Butterfly and fix the Peacock, Ladybug isn’t really Ladybug, is she?”

             Vupyte sighed. “She is a child trying to run a home alone until they are both present as allies.”

             Rena frowned at that. “Then why isn’t Chat affected?”

             Vupyte looked far older then. “Have you not noticed that he can only extend and shorten his staff?”

             Rena opened her mouth, only for no words to come out.

             “He should be able to turn his weapon into whatever hand-held weapon he desires at that moment to protect your team. He cannot fulfill his role as Judge and Protector proper. He may be his own person within his transformation and within the team, but he lack his full range. Ladybug has her full range of abilities, but lacks her individuality as a Ladybug proper. Her team is incomplete, so she must continue to cover and cover and cover until it is complete with all five of her strongest allies at her side. Until then, whoever is under the mask will give and give and give until there is nothing left.”

             Rena swallowed thickly. “How do I stop that?”

             Vupyte leveled Rena with a few words. “Find Hawkmoth and Mayura, take their miraculous, and once the miraculous is fixed, hand them to worthy champions—ones who are strong judges of others for the butterfly, and of who is in need for the peacock.”

             Rena felt her mind waver to Rose for the peacock—the girl who fought for everyone. She was blanking on a butterfly though—a strong judge of character was hard to think of as a core characteristic of someone she knew she could trust.

             “You have one in mind,” Vupyte said quietly. “Good. You will have to find another for the other, or an ally of yours must find candidates. The sooner this is determined, the sooner your Ladybug will come into her own. The only other way… would be dangerous.”

             Rena nodded. She texted Chat and Carapace to meet her to talk about what she learned. They’d protect Ladybug. Their Leader. Paris’ Savior. And their friend.

--

             Aurore is many things. Miss Sting is a necessity to keep Paris safe. Aurore of the weather girl duo on KIDZ+. Miss Mandeliev’s favorite to call on for environmental studies and among Bustier’s favorite to read a well researched report. She is also one of poor Marinette’s longest standing friends, and one of the only people who can catch her mid attack and get her to pull out of and process her spiral without setting off a different bout of anxiety.

              Which is why she captured the akuma in a jar, hid it in her backpack until Chat or LAdybug could handle it, and nabbed her friend in the first place when Alya messaged her. She is not on the best of terms with the reporter (she might be holding a grudge over Lady Wifi calling her a hack and may have gone on a spree fact checking the Ladyblog in the early days and found holes on a Certain Person who has been since excommunicated by the students of Dupont and left the school in disgrace within a less than a week of attending). Especially since she insisted on being Mairnette’s best friend when Marinette has her already. honestly, the other never has been the best at seeing the obvious…

             Like the fact that Marinette’s anxiety up ticked with Ladybug’s issues. Or that around the time Chat Noir took on being Mr. Bug, Marinette was injured. OR that Chat hangs around Marinette a lot when Marinette is around an attack, even covering for her.

             Aurore dealth in meteorology and environmental sciences. She dealth with public appearances, PR, and being a child star. It is not her place to point out that Marinette is clearly (a) Chat and Ladybug’s confidant somehow, (b) a member of the team (c) Ladybug or some combination thereof. She didn’t want to make a call, she didn’t have evidence to back it up, and she didn’t run on intuition like Alya.

             Aurore is a Bee, and they operate best within rules.

             Ladybug made not looking into identities a rule. One she’s certain Rena has been ignoring… but Miss Sting follows Ladybug’s word to the letter. She has not looked into anyone’s identity and actively ignored any possible relveations in favor of working on her civilian life and focusing on capturing akuma before someone becomes akumatized, and bringing her catches to Ladybug or Chat for purification or destruction respectfully. Depending on how schedules lined up for patrols.

             Now, Aurore is content listening to Marinette ramble about baking soda and baking powder with buttermilk on her latest recipe and how that connects to their chemistry homework (as they were both smart enough to dodge the math that goes into physics, unlike Adrien or Nino and Rose who were naïve enough to take music theory).

             That doesn’t stop her from seeing faint movement on their school roof in reflections.

             Ladybug may not have made it a rule to protect Marinette. Chat may not have stated such either, but his actions told her it was a priority. And her duties as Marinette’s longest unstrained friendship demanded she monitor the situation.

             Once Marinette went down for snacks, aurore snuck into her friend’s bathroom and transformed to send a single message” I think Chat’s princess has a stalker now. Keep an eye on repeats in her environment.”

--

             Pegasus was furious when he saw the message. Cowboy was hacking camera in the area as they spoke with the other members of the team.

             Rena paled and Carapace looked oddly dangerous in that moment.

             Chat Noir and Ryuuko were the most deadly of the group… Chat’s suit almost… moving, but it had to be a trick of the light. Ryuuko had the same look Rena did when Carapace did something particularly dangerous—like refuse to flee before his time ran out and somehow stayed transformed beyond the standard five minutes after using shelter through sheer force of will alone.

             Ryuuko turned to Chat with a most Peculiar shade of anger. “I will be shadowing her.”

             It was not a question, but a demand.

             “Shouldn’t we check with Ladybug?” Pegasus asked while continuing to check camera. Nothing. Nothing at all.

             This must have been what was setting his friend on edge these last few days. Someone stalking her, but just out of a camera’s reach. Professional…

             Pegasus desperately hoped it was some paparazzi after Marinette the Designer’s secret identity, or even MDC. Anything but someone going after her for something… something he wouldn’t let cross his mind.

             Chat shot him one look that obliterated the option entirely. Pegasus may not know who his comrades are outside of the mask, but he’d be a fool not to remember that Marinette was a spy on Gabriel Agreste. That she was in constant danger as a civilian.

             Was it Hawkmoth?

             Mayura?

             Someone they hired?

             He didn’t know, and he needed to. Needed to protect his friend.

             She believed in him when he wasn’t sure of himself. She argued against his worst insecurities (nuisance, annoyance, best left forgotten) and proved she likes Max for Max. For his rambles, for his excitement and passion and his own brand of sass to their friends.

             King Monkey appeared with a rare serious expression. He didn’t know of Marinette’s involvement at all—only Chat, Ladybug, Alya and himself did—but King must know Marinette. Because that look on his face reminded Max of a friend he’d seen punch someone a little too hard for their hand to keep Max safe from a pair ready to hurt him for his mumbling as a child.

             “Whoever is doing this,” King Monkey stated with an eerily calm. “I’m calling the right to make their life a bit too chaotic.”

             “Get in line,” Rena growled, her flute ready at a moment’s notice.

--

             Elsewhere three gothamites were passed out in the same room. They decided to take a break and watch a movie together.

             They had no idea the Very Displeased eldest of the batchildren had entered the room and forced them each in a separate bed, or that he allowed a certain “demon spawn” to add a variety of traps that, while they all knew how to escape at this point, were still ass to get out of and made it clear they were in hot water.

--

             Jason hoped things worked out for the best… after his screw up, he figured Dickie and Demon Spawn should at least have a fighting chance. Or at least Nightwing would have a better chance at convincing the Justice League and the Miraculous Team they meant no harm.

             He hopes.

--- 

hope you enjoyed!

BTW we have fanart by @thegreysman!!! here which tumblr is rudely not letting me show off. 

@heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace@jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04 @bisha43rbs @izang

[hood-ex]

I also have a question about writing bat-related fanfic! Whenever I think of a good plot, I always have a tough time building up the beginning because I have to create the initial conflict. And usually that conflict is some villain getting the upper hand (because I love that trope, sue me), but then comes the issue of how that happened in the first place, you know? Like, this one guy is going up against a bunch of highly skilled vigilantes. Got any tips for logicing it out?

The teacher is in!

Your Villain

First, let’s think about who your villain is going to be. We want to figure out who your villain is, what advantages they have, and how we can build a story around those aspects. 

Is your villain a member of Batman’s rogue gallery or is your villain someone new? If it’s someone we’re already familiar with (Joker, Clayface, Riddler) then you’ve already got an idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are. If it’s a villain you created, you get to choose their strengths and weaknesses. 

The villain’s goal

Knowing what the villain’s goal is will help you piece together scenes for your story. Think about what the villain’s ultimate goal is. Do they want to steal money? Do they want to be like the Joker and just cause senseless chaos? Do they want to produce drugs that can be weaponized? Is it something more personal like with Mr. Freeze where they want to help someone they love? Do they want to weaken Batman by killing one of his family members? Do they want to straight up kill Batman?

Once you have an idea of what you want your villain’s goal to be then you can think about what the villain already has/what the villain can do to achieve that goal.  

There are four things you can think about that will give your villain the upper hand. 

1. The villain’s powers and intellect. 

What advantage does the villain’s power/intellect give them over the vigilante? Riddler and Hugo Strange are extremely smart. Scarecrow has fear toxin. Joker has laughing gas. Clayface can regenerate and shapeshift. 

Even though the bats are smart, they are still vulnerable to these types of things. As the writer, you have control over how you want to disadvantage the vigilante. 

Let’s say the bats have been exposed to fear toxin. Okay, well, maybe Batman and Robin have fear toxin antidotes in their utility belts. But Nightwing? He doesn’t carry that kind of thing around with him. Also, maybe Scarecrow changed the dosage/effects of the toxin, so now the antidotes Batman and Robin have are useless or aren’t as effective. Maybe the antidotes are actually in the batmobile, but the batmobile is far away and the drugs are taking effect now. 

Like, yes, the bats are skilled and are prepared for many situations, but they’re still human. They don’t have supernatural reflexes. They aren’t bulletproof. They can’t predict every little trap that the villain has set out for them. Keep that kind of thing in mind, especially if you’re using a villain that you created. 

2. Using the setting to their advantage

Think about the place where the fight/confrontation takes place. What are some things about the place that the villain can use to their advantage? Are they near a river or the ocean? Maybe there’s a boat nearby that makes it easy for the villain to get away in. If the villain’s intention is to abduct a vigilante then they could ride away on the boat with the vigilante in tow before other batfam members show up to help. 

If the fight takes place in the middle of the city then maybe the villain is putting civilian’s lives in danger. Now the vigilante has lost track of the villain because they have to stop and help the civilians. Or maybe Batman has to choose between saving civilians or going after the villain who just abducted Robin. He chooses to help the civilians, so now the villain has successfully gotten away with Robin. 

3. The villain’s connections

Villains can use unexpected means to get the advantage over a vigilante. For example, in Tomasi’s Nightwing run, Two-Face has Nightwing shot with a bullet laced with fear toxin. Normally, you wouldn’t expect Two-Face to have fear toxin, right? That’s Scarecrow’s thing. But that doesn’t mean that Two-Face can’t use his connections to get some fear toxin for himself to use against the vigilante.

Your own villain can do something similar. If your villain isn’t a major player from Batman’s rogue gallery then maybe they can steal a weapon or a toxin that will help them. Maybe they’re super smart and can create their own toxin that other villains would find valuable to have. They could then work together to create an even more potent toxin. Maybe your villain teams up with another villain, and while the other villain creates a distraction, your villain comes in and attacks the vigilante. 

4. Blackmail 

Villains can use the vigilante’s loved ones or civilians against them. This can make the vigilante do things they normally wouldn’t or it can make them give themselves up to the villain. 

Building Around the Villain

Okay, so how can we take all that ^ information and build up to the conflict?

First, figure out which characters you’re going to want to go against the villain. Do you want just one person? A few members of the batfam? All of the batfam? 

Let’s create a hypothetical situation and say that we want a story that starts off with Nightwing as our protagonist. Our setting is in Bludhaven. Dick is walking down the street and talking to Tim on the phone. They’re making plans for Tim to come stay with Dick in Bludhaven for a few days. 

Great. We now know that at least Dick and Tim are going to be involved in the story so far. 

Let’s say the villain of this story is a scientist named Patty Thompson. She has absolutely no powers, but she’s extremely intelligent. She knows that Dick is Nightwing because she lives across from Dick’s apartment complex and once saw him go through his apartment window as Nightwing. She did some investigating about the residents in his apartment complex and put the pieces together. 

Now why is Patty interested enough in Nightwing to go through those lengths to figure out his identity? It’s because she’s managed to create a fear toxin replica that not only copies the effects of fear toxin but also causes temporary paralysis. She intends to use this toxin on Dick. 

Why? Well, let’s think back to our villain’s motivation. Because Patty is a scientist, she needs a lot of money to fund all of her research, equipment, and experiments. She decides she will capture Nightwing and sell him to the highest bidder so that she can get an insane amount of money for her funds. 

Nightwing is far more skilled in physical combat than Patty is, so what are Patty’s advantages over Nightwing? 1. She knows he’s Dick Grayson. This means she can attack him unexpectedly when he’s not Nightwing. She can also blackmail him into coming to a specific location or use one of his loved ones against him. 2. She has a fear-paralysis toxin that Dick doesn’t have an antidote for. Plus, the toxin is fast-acting and before Dick can try to run away, he’ll be paralyzed. 

So far we have our characters, setting, and we know how the villain is going to get the upper hand over Dick. All that comes next is putting all the pieces together to get to the point of the initial conflict. 

Let’s say that Patty wants to nab Dick when he’s dressed in his Nightwing gear so that bidders will know he’s the real Nightwing. She creates a setup for Nightwing that draws him to her (either by pretending she needs help or creating an explosion.) She has the fear-paralysis toxin in gas form. As soon as Nightwing appears or is in a more vulnerable position, she sprays him with the gas. He becomes paralyzed and Patty drags him off. 

Meanwhile, Tim (remember how I laid it out for him to conveniently show up around this time) arrives in Bludhaven to hang out with Dick as planned. After not finding Dick anywhere, he realizes that something happened to him. That’s the cue for him to call in Bruce and to get other batfam members involved. And that’s how Dick eventually gets saved by his family. 

So there we have it. I hope that scenario and the information about the villains can help you think about ways to create the buildup of the conflict in your story!

[afni-fics]

Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 26: Dragon Rising (part 5)

Chapter 26: Dragon Rising (part 5) by C_R_Scott Chapters: 26/? Fandom: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Tim Drake, Lucien Flavius Additional Tags: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Skyrim/DCU crossover, Reluctant Dovahkiin | Dragonborn, Not Beta Read, Alternate Universe - Skyrim Fusion, Modded Skyrim, Skyrim Spoilers, Tim Drake is Dragonborn | Dovahkiin, Batfamily-centric (DCU), Tim Drake-centric

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Summary:

The conclusion of the "Dragon Rising" portion of the main Skyrim storyline.

-------------------------

When Tim and Lucien made their way into Dragonsreach's throne room, they could hear, even from the front doors, that Jarl Balgruuf was already in a loud, animated discussion between his steward Proventus and a different guard. This one was male and had very striking facepaint. Tim frowned. Irileth was nowhere in sight. 

Swell.

"Good. You're finally here." Proventus said. "The Jarl's been waiting for you."

The new armed guard on the Jarl's left hand agreed. "We were just talking about you. My brother needs a word with you."

A quick glance back confirmed Lucien had decided to hang back by a couple of yards, but his own hooded face was lined with a subtle scowl since he didn't see Irileth either. Then Tim paused at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne and bowed respectfully to the Jarl. 

Jarl Balgruuf looked at Tim appraisingly. It made Tim uneasy. "Irileth informed me of the dragon's death at the Watchtower, but she mentioned something... strange that happened there." The Nordic ruler narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "I'd like to hear your perspective on the events."

Tim slipped on his best Wayne mask, the one he normally reserved for dealing with Lex Luthor company executives whenever any decided to visit Gotham and Wayne Enterprises. He was nothing but professional as he spoke. "I wish I could give you my perspective, my Jarl," he said politely. "Unfortunately due to my illness and injuries, I wasn't in the right state of mind to remember much of that night. I do know that there are accounts from others who were there when the dragon died that I appeared to absorb 'something' from it." He shook his head. "What that 'something' was, I couldn't even fathom how to describe it with any accuracy from second-hand accounts. The most I can offer is that I've heard the word 'Dragonborn' used in conjunction with the events. I am sorry I can't offer more clarity than that."

Balgruuf stroked his beard thoughtfully. "If Irileth's men, honest Nords to a man, who were there that night and witnessed the miracle, are calling you 'Dragonborn', then it makes sense that the Greybeards have sent out a summons for you now. You must be Dragonborn."

Tim felt a lump rise to his throat, but he swallowed it down and clung to his "mask" like a second skin. "Who are these Greybeards, and why would they want to summon me?"

"They are masters of the Way of the Voice," Balgruuf started as one of his servants brought him a drink. He took one silver goblet and waved the rest away. "They live in seclusion high on the slopes of the Throat of the Word." He took a long draught before continuing. "The Dragonborn is said to be uniquely gifted in the Voice - the ability to focus your vital essence into a Thu'um, or a Shout. If you really are Dragonborn, they can teach you how to use your gift."

The servant girl offered Tim a drink, but he waved her away politely as he kept his focus on Balgruuf even as the left-hand guard began to address him.

"Didn't you hear the thundering sound as you came to Dragonsreach?! That was the voice of the Greybeards," the man in the dark armor said with absolute self-certainty. "Summoning you to High Hrothgar! This hasn't happened in... centuries, at least. Not since Tiber Septim himself was summoned when he was still Talos of Atmora!"

If the guard was going to say anything else, he was cut off by Proventus "Hrongar, calm yourself. What does any of this Nord nonsense have to do with our friend here?"

As Proventus triggered a heated argument with who Tim now knew as Hrongar, the Jarl's brother, he took the moment to take a breath and absorb what had just been said. He swallowed the desire to include his own frustrated voice to the squabbling between Proventus and Hrongar, but held his tongue. Instead, he let Balgruuf finally break the argument up before speaking up again.

"What do these Greybeards want with me?" Tim asked.

Balgruuf shook his head. "That's the Greybeards' business not ours," he said with almost an apologetic tone. "Whatever happened when that dragon was killed, it revealed something in you, and the Greybeards heard it." The Jarl met and held Tim's gaze solemnly. "If they think you're Dragonborn, who are we to argue?" Then he broke off the gaze and sighed. "You'd better get up to High Hrothgar as soon as possible. There's no refusing the summons of the Greybeards. It's a tremendous honor."

As the Jarl mused wistfully, something about envying Tim about his upcoming 'pilgrimage' and waxing nostalgic about the peacefulness of the Graybeard's high altitude monastery, inwardly Tim was trying and failing to wrap his head around this entire situation. How had things escalated so damned fast and in such a completely insane direction?! He wasn't whatever they thought this "Dragonborn" was! He couldn't be! He was just a human vigilante from Gotham. He wasn't a metahuman. He wasn't descended from magic or an alien from Mars or Krypton. He was just a rich kid from Jersey for Christ's sake!

There was a subtle shift in the Jarl's voice and Tim's attention jerked back to the man on the throne. "You've done a great service for me and my city, Dragonborn."

"Oh crap!" Tim thought silently with a faint edge of alarm, though his face betrayed nothing of his inner thoughts. "He's referring to me as 'Dragonborn" like it's replaced my name. This can't be good."

"By my right as Jarl, I name you Thane of Whiterun. It's the greatest honor that's within my power to grant."

"Wait-- What?!" Tim's mask slipped as he blinked in surprise and stared at the Jarl with blatant bewilderment.  He was momentarily distracted by the fact that Proventus had walked up to him bearing a large parcel that was wrapped with what looked like a cloak bearing the crest of Whiterun, an image of a horse's head in profile. "Oh, no, no, nonono..." Unconsciously Tim took a step away from Proventus.

Despite the young man's obvious confusion, Balgruuf pressed onward, not caring in the least about Tim's visible discomfort. "I also assign you Lydia as a personal Housecarl, and this weapon from my armory to serve as your badge of office."

"Now one moment--" Tim tried to interrupt, even as the Jarl's brother Hrongar was attempting to offer him what looked like a very ornate greatsword that was nearly as long as Tim was tall. He tried to wave the sword and the parcel away, but thankfully Lucien came up and accepted both on Tim's behalf, looking about as startled as his friend was feeling. Lucien shrugged his shoulders apologetically at Tim. He had no clue what was going on either in that moment. 

Tim held both hands up as if surrendering to Balgruuf, if only to just make him stop talking for the moment. "I... appreciate all of this. You have shown me a great deal of generosity, Jarl Balgruuf, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart... but..." Then Tim caught sight, out of the corner of his eyes, a heavily armed woman with a sword and shield coming into view. He focused on that for the moment. "I don't even have a house in the area to have a 'housecarl' in," he argued. "You don't need to give me one of your soldiers."

"That's easy enough to fix."

Tim felt the blood drain from his face. "Oh sweet fucking Jesus," he thought to himself with dismay.

"Proventus," Balgruuf said. "Didn't you mention that there is a house that is currently vacant in the Plains District the other day?"

Tim tried to open his mouth to protest again in a vain attempt to derail the Jarl's obvious train of thought. However, thankfully, another strong voice spoke up loud and clear.

"That won't be necessary, my Jarl!" 

Tim almost sagged in relief as the main doors to Dragonsreach flew open and Irileth marched herself into the great hall with calm unwavering authority. 

"My apologies for being late," she said as she bowed respectfully to the Jarl. "But there was a disturbance being caused at the city gates by a couple of Redguard men I needed to attend to." Then she glanced at Tim and Lucien, taking a moment to look over the things that had been handed to Lucien with a subtle frown, before turning her full attention back to the Jarl. "And there won't be a need for your new Thane to purchase a home within the city walls. Timothy and I spoke the other day at the Temple about his favorite areas in the Hold..."

Tim glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, repressing his new confusion as best he could. They never spoke about any "favorite areas" the other day when she visited him at the Temple. She just asked him to come to this meeting with the Jarl and left when he agreed. Then, as she continued her "suggestion", he realized what she was doing.

"...He mentioned having a fondness for Riverwood. The people there were kind to him after surviving Helgen, and he spoke with me at length about how much he was looking forward to taking in some of the hunting in that area once he leaves the city. I believe Gerdur's husband mentioned that they have an old house that's been vacant for years in the village during his most recent delivery of lumber." She gave Tim a knowing look. "It would take a number of weeks to bring it up to livable conditions, but considering our Thane is going to make a pilgrimage to High Hrothgar upon leaving the city, his new housecarl will have plenty time to make that happen.

Balgruuf regarded Irileth thoughtfully, then he smiled at Tim. "Yes, I can see why Riverwood would be such an appealing place for a young man such as yourself. In my youth, when my father was still Jarl, I remember relishing the freedom to roam those forests during hunts with my old friends Kodlak, Olfrid, and Eorlund. It's not a luxury I can afford myself these days, but I cherish the memories." He turned to Irileth. "Please send a missive to Gerdur. Let her know that our new Thane has chosen her village as his home whenever he is in the Hold, and send Lydia to see about starting preparations to make the vacant house ready for use by the time he returns. 

Irileth nodded respectfully. "Yes my Jarl."

Tim marveled at how smoothly the dark elf routed the Jarl. She couldn't stop him from offering Tim a piece of property in Whiterun, but at least she was able to put a solid day's travel distance between that potential "home" and Dragonsreach, as well as make it expected that it would be weeks, at least, before he would be able to spend any significant time there.

Balgruuf then regarded Timothy. "We are honored to have you as Thane of our city, Dragonborn. May the Divines watch over your journey to High Hrothgar." Then he turned to his steward. "Back to business Proventus. We still have a city to defend."

***

Once dismissed from the court, Tim and Lucien were led out of Dragonsreach by Irileth, under the excuse that she was going to help prepare him for his journey to High Hrothgar, since neither he nor Lucien had ever been to that part of Skyrim. 

As soon as the heavy wooden doors to Dragonsreach were slammed shut behind them, and the trio had put decent amount of distance between themselves and any nearby guards, Tim turned to look at Lucien and Irileth. "Ok... Can someone please explain to me what the hell just happened in there?!"

  ====================

Note:

So, in my Skyrim head canon, Jarl Balgruuf is the kind of man who cares about his people, wants to be a fair ruler, but has absolutely no impulse control to speak of. Proventus tries to keep his Jarl on task, but has no ability to restrain his boss's worst impulses if Balgruuf has his mind set on something. Irileth is really the only one who can keep the Jarl on the straight and narrow... so long as she's in the same room as him.

Poor Tim, though... He's so confused.

At least he's healthy now, right? And he's got a new greatsword he has absolutely no clue on how to use:

#elder scrolls dc#fanfiction#tim drake#skyrim fanfiction#red robin#batfam#crossover#lucien flavius#wip#afewnovelideas

[ask-the-good-creeps]

Pastas hcs about their personalities?

Slenderman: Tall, mostly silent spaghetti monster gets more disheartened with humanity with each passing year.

Splendorman: Happy, eccentric noodle man is a fan of pizza. All the ghost kiddos wanted him to try it so he did and he loves it.

Trenderman: Fashionable cousin of Cthulu will stress-create (stress baking, stress sewing, etc...)

Jeff the Killer: Contrary to popular belief, he doesn't swear or drink often, and is actually a more soft-spoken dude.

Homicidal Liu: Liu actually doesn't dig the whole vigilante thing - Sully talked him into it.

Eyeless Jack: Is technically blind, but not really. He has a sort of 'sight' but it isn't like ours and he gets upset sometimes that medical textbooks and journals aren't usually written in Braille, so he can't read them.

BEN_Drowned: He likes video games, but isn't obsessed like people seem to believe he is.

Laughing Jack: Highly claustrophobic, but only in spaces that have no clear exit...this includes places like theatres when the lights are down, he'll actually get really anxious despite all the space.

Jason the Toymaker: Total foodie. Like, he loves his toys, but he can't pick between them and a well-made meal.

Candy Pop: Spontaneous, and probably the most insane pasta out there...loves pranks.

Candy Cane: Absolutely adores animals, namely reptiles/amphibians, and especially her pet turtles.

Kagekao: Very outgoing. Loves big festivals (like Carnival in Rio, Brazil) especially if he can keep his mask on and not draw suspicion during them.

The Puppeteer: Very calm and collected, doesn't anger easily. When something happens that generally upsets people like him, he usually ends up feeling disappointed by the scenario instead of angry.

Bloody Painter: The most stoic person you'll ever meet, except when he's with his girlfriend. Judge Angels can make him smile on rare occasions...he's still pretty stoic, though.

Judge Angels: "I'm happy! Let's go watch the sunrise!" "OH MY GOD I'M GONNA KILL HIM THEN MYSELF." "Why is everything so miserable in the world?" "Now how about that sunrise?" - all in the span of 5 minutes, sometimes at random and sometimes as a response to certain stimuli.

Nurse Ann: Very quiet woman who used to have a very loud weapon to do the talking for her.

Ticci Toby: ADVENTURE, PERSONIFIED.

Masky: Generally upset with his life's circumstances but has come to terms with it. Existential dread is frequent.

Hoodie: A solitary wanderer. Loves to explore, loves to see new places and be outside on his own.

Kate the Chaser: "Kate, No!" "KATE, YESSSS"

Clockwork: More on the stoic side, but sometimes the dam bursts and she gets really emotional - usually when she's by herself.

Jane the Killer: Sly fox, much cunning, very tricky, yes.

Hobo Heart: Quiet man who only likes his dog.

Nathan the Nobody: Psychotic breaks - a lot. It's what drove him to vigilantism.

Sally: Lonely child, violent when necessary but mostly kind.

Lazari: Happy, peppy, spunky li'l demon who is bold enough to make friends with a priest.

Lacy Morgan: Silent. Doesn't communicate much.

[maddmuses]

Dante Redgrave

(fc: Wacky Woohoo Pizza Man)

Age: 44 (DMC3 19)(DMC1 28)(DMC2 33)(DMC4 38)(DMC5 43) Occupation: Devil Hunter, Paranormal Mercenary, Private Investigator, Vigilante Aliases: Anthony “Tony” Redgrave, Dante Alighieri, Devil Hunter, Son of Sparda, The Legendary Dark Knight, The Strongest Demon Slayer, The Legendary Devil Hunter Date of Birth: 6/4 Species: Cambion (Human-Demon Hybrid with Mystical Heritage) Ethnicity: Anglo-Saxon-Italian (Umbra Witch Heritage) Affiliations: Devil May Cry, Lady’s Devil-Hunting Business, Several Criminal Organizations (under pseudonyms)

(Selectively-Canon Dante)

Personality He loves it, it’s what he lives for. He’s absolutely crazy about it! What’s it? Killing demons. Dante’s first and foremost interest is killing demons, though the motivation has varied over the course of his life. Initially, he was motivated by revenge, wanting to lay low those who had killed his mother, and presumed his brother. Though as time went on, he would find that killing demons was a niche that made decent money, allowing profit to motivate himself by opening an agency, Devil May Cry, that specialized in dispatching the paranormal.

But as he came to grips with his responsibility, as a son of Sparda, understanding that even if it was his brother who stood in his way, Dante had to protect the world that his father once had from the forces of hell, Dante would become more altruistic in his devil hunting. As Dante would orient towards a force of justice in the world, he would eventually develop into a sincere love for fighting, taking on foe demon or human alike, though he’s declared that killing a full-blooded human is out of the question for him, no matter how evil they are. In combat, though, so as to enjoy it longer, Dante will often hold back, usually only reserving greater stores of power for those who he thinks merit it.

Dante is often seen as a flippant, devil-may-care, type of person. Employing frequent use of quips and one-liners with a habit of taunting opponents, and dispatching with them in flashy and stylish ways. Dante often has very little respect for an opponent who doesn’t earn it, and this disrespect is always extended to the hoards of nothings and grunt demons that are thrown his way.

Laid-back and easygoing, Dante rarely takes situations seriously, approaching them with a dangerous amount of levity and casualty that he often manages to be on the receiving end of some terrible circumstances. Whether this attitude is deserved or not is rarely an issue, though, as Dante always manages to find a way out.

Dante is an altruist by nature, never enforcing payment from poor clients, and often taking paranormal work disregarding its pay, or lack thereof. This can often result in him being in a situation of poverty, particularly when he’ll simply turn down work that doesn’t appeal to him, even if it pays well. This often ends with Dante being taken advantage of, with clients banking on his generous nature, when it comes to demon slaying.

Biography Born as the younger of twins, Dante and Vergil were both born in Red Grave city. The sons of the Legendary Dark Knights Sparda and the Umbra Witch Eva, the two twins were born to a strange intersection of life, being of both hell and earth, with a supernatural connection to the former. As youths, Dante and Vergil were both trained to fight by their father, largely those being the memories that both held of him.

Sometime prior to the twins’ eighth birthday Sparda would disappear, and never return, the understanding is that he died, though many wouldn’t deign to ponder upon who could have managed such a feat.

Much like any pair of siblings, Dante and Vergil were often competitive with one-another, developing a rivalry over a number of things. They would often argue, and frequently enough would come to blows that the two, as adults, wouldn’t even be sure of how many times that they’d fought. This rivalry would be such that Vergil had even been convinced that Eva had favored Dante, which would only be a solidified suspicion with time.

On their eighth birthday, Eva would separate Sparda’s pendant, and engrave them with the twins, giving them to the corresponding child. It was a reminder for them, of not only their father, but of their mother, and each other, a symbol of their bond of family that would never be truly broken.

Some weeks after this, though, tragedy would be brought upon the house of Sparda again, as the disappearance of the knight reached the ears of Inferno’s denizens, a squad of demons would assault the family’s manor. As the building was set ablaze, Eva rushed to rescue her children, hiding Dante away in a closet, while she went to then find Vergil. However, it would seem that the older brother was already gone, and Eva would ultimately perish trying to save her sons.

With only the memory of his mother telling him to leave if she was gone, and become someone else, Dante would wander the next ten or so years, living with a number of people, including at least one woman who posed as his mother, under the adopted name of Anthony “Tony” Redgrave.

Eventually, it would seem that Dante had forgotten all details of his own life, until the death of Nell Goldstein, and several other key events and deaths, forced Tony to confront some of the trauma that he’d experienced as a child. Armed with the purpose of avenging his mother’s death, Dante procured some seed money through less than legal means to obtain a Private Investigator’s License so that he could open up his business/firm/shop.

Before he had even named the establishment, Arkham appeared, offering an invitation to him from Vergil, who had actually survived the demon attack from over a decade prior, and had encountered Dante in a prior adventure, was resurrecting the Temen-ni-gru. The rest, as they say, is in the fucking video games.

Abilities and Skills -Martial Arts: Dante is a highly skilled martial artist, able to fight with several styles to devastating effect, even being able to kill demons while without weapons. While wearing devil arms that function as gauntlets and greaves he uses a number of martial arts to tear through enemies with the enhancements from the weapons, though they do not seem to be able to simulate skill that isn’t present. Dante tends to borrow techniques from film and video games that he enjoys, utilizing his superhuman abilities to make them possible and viable. Dante’s unarmed fighting tends to favor striking more than grappling, though he’s also capable at dodging and evasion, often making great use of his agility to avoid enemy attacks as intense as the likes of Vergil’s.

-Weapons Training: Trained to an unknown degree by his father Sparda, Dante is skilled in armed combat to an insane degree. Dante displays a proficiency with a variety of weapons, performing seemingly impossible feats with them, and outfighting other superhuman-level opponents. Upon first coming into contact with a weapon, he almost immediately seems to be able to size up its abilities and powers, and is able to use them at a similar scale of skill to his other weapons. Similarly, Dante seems to be able to make use of any firearm that he picks up, whether or not he’s had experience with a similar one in the past. --Swordsmanship: Dante’s specialty in combat, he tends to favor large two-handed swords wielded with a heavy-swinging one-handed style, though he can also use them in a traditional fashion. He’s also displayed a skill with single-handed swords, particular when used in tandem.

-Marksmanship: Dante’s sense of aim is downright superhuman. He is not only able to almost always hit his targets when aiming, unless said target is able to dodge after the point of firing, but he is able to re-sight his handguns almost immediately after firing, so that he may hit the same target again. Additionally, Dante has displayed sufficient accuracy and reflexes to match Lady, another significant marksman, bullet-for-bullet to prevent her shots from hitting him.

-Tactical/Situational Analysis: Often underestimated in this regard, Dante has a particularly keen penchant for being able to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent with very little combat needed. With this, combined with a sense for the battlefield as a whole, Dante is able to take on harrowing odds, often being outnumbered by hordes of demons at a time, and knowing the appropriate way to take them out effectively.

-Musical Talent: As expressed through his ability to use a Devil Arm that takes the form of an electric guitar, through which he is able to deal devastating damage. He also owns drums and a guitar in his office.

-Networking: Dante is known for being perpetually in debt, but despite seeming to have no money prior he was able to start his business. Through making connections and underworld contacts, Dante was able to gather the seed money necessary to start Devil May Cry.

Superhuman Powers and Abilities -Cambion Physiology: Being the son of a demon and a human, Dante is a cambion, which grants him a number of powers and abilities, as well as a greatly enhanced physicality, contrary to what his body would imply. Additionally, as the son of the Legendary Demon Knight Sparda, Dante and his brother are known to be particularly exceptional demonic specimens, despite the dilution of their blood. In fact, some have argued that the humanity present in the two have allowed them to surpass their father. --Superhuman Strength: Dante’s superhuman strength is contrary to his size by a significant scale. Examples of feats include: Shattering stone with little effort, snapping handcuffs, blocking a punch from The Savior, and blocking a punch from Nero’s Devil Bringer. Dante notably seems to perform these feats of strength with little concern for injury, meaning that it’s likely many of these remain in the lower level of his abilities. --Superhuman Speed and Agility: Dante’s ability to move and react is far beyond the levels of what normal humans are even able to manage. Dante is able to move so quickly that he seems to be teleporting, without the need of his Trickster Style. Dante’s feats of speed include throwing a sword at such a velocity that it superheated air around the blade, before running to catch the Rebellion after throwing it, while it was still moving. Dante has also been able to move at such a speed that he’s been able to move so quickly that he and Vergil were able to clear all of the rain from a large radius within that moment through slicing them with their swords. This would mean that not only did they have to slice the drops of rain, but also the resultant fragments of those drops to such a degree that they eventually cleared the area. Additionally, Dante is able to leap great heights, balance himself on a rocket, run up vertical walls, and even move in such a way that he can change directions of his velocity midair. --Superhuman Stamina: Dante seems to be tireless. The only occasions in which he has expressed or shown fatigue were following either fights with Vergil, or Vergil-like characters, as well as when someone intentionally exhausted him through their machinations. He often goes on hours-long missions in which he fights almost constantly without rest, but still seems to manage. --Superhuman Durability: Dante is able to shrug off extreme injuries that would prove fatal for humans, his feats of survival are so numerous that one might assume it’s impossible to kill him, though it’s been inferred that he can still perish, though only if the damage accumulates and exceeds the extent of his healing factor. --Accelerated Healing Factor: When wounded, Dante is able to rapidly heal and recover from injuries, even to the point that he can simply stand up after being impaled several times, and continue to fight as if no injury had occurred. This, paired with his durability, allows Dante to essentially ignore most incoming damage. --Shapeshifting: Dante is possessed of a low-end type of shapeshifting that allows him to appear as he once would have at any time. This means he can’t assume the shape of another person, but may appear as he did at a younger age, if he’s so biased. However, Dante seems to generally prefer assuming an age that’s accurate to his current age, with few exceptions (Devil May Cry anime and 4). --Devil Arms: An ability that seemed to belong to Sparda, and was passed on to Dante and Vergil, when the cambion slays demons he tends to absorb strength from them, often in the form of their blood in Red Orbs, which he can use to make himself stronger, or later uses to devastating effect with his Dr. Faust Devil Arm. However, if the demon is particularly powerful, Dante can produce Devil Arms from their essence, essentially turning his defeated foes into another weapon to add to his arsenal. The strength and type of these weapons often seems to be determined by the demon’s strength and species respectively, as when Dante has produced similar Devil Arms the stronger demon (King Cerberus rather than Cerberus) produced a more multi-faceted and powerful weapon. --Devil Trigger: When Dante’s blood truly boils, and he embraces his demonic nature, the very state of his being changes. Dante enters a state that all demons have known as “Devil Trigger”. While most demons simply grow stronger, and this is true for Dante as well, the cambion actually will begin to resemble his truer demonic visage. When changing into this form all of Dante’s demonic attributes increase in strength, as well as his Styles after the obtainment of his own Devil Arm. While the specific attributes of Dante’s Devil Trigger form change over time, based on a combination of his own maturity of his devil powers, as well as how much of it he’s choosing to use in that moment, it is understood that when Dante elects to enter Sin Devil Trigger that he’s tapping into his true demon form. In more demonic and powerful stats of Dante’s Devil Trigger Dante will not only grow stronger, but gain new abilities as well, with his Sin Devil Trigger being able to do a host of things his other states have never been shown to manage.

-Umbra Witch Ancestry: Due to Eva being an Umbra Witch in her life, Dante’s abilities and potential are different than that from other humans, even to the point that it seems he has unique powers, him and Vergil both, even among demons. This specifically manifests themselves in the form of his Styles. --Trickster Style: Through the use of energy, Dante is able to enhance his speed and agility even further, making for unique maneuvers such as appearing in front of an opponent in a teleporting-like fashion, dashing through the air, despite initially falling in a different direction, and creating a platform of energy off of which he can leap. Through the use of this same energy, Dante is able to cloak himself during these maneuvers with a sort of protective barrier that temporarily makes him immune to most forms of injury, though this requires timing and coordination, though not as much as Royalguard. --Gunslinger Style: A style focused on Dante’s firearms, when he channels this he’s able to not only use a more broad variety of firearm techniques that one might not be able to accomplish even with his customized weapons, such as broad sprays, firing at multiple targets in single chains, and the like. Notably, though, Dante is able to charge his bullets with energy to enhance their firing power, causing them to deal more damage, and occasionally even cause secondary effects depending on the type of ammunition. Gunslinger may well be his single most destructive style, due to the nature of his weaponry. --Swordmaster Style: Along with Trickster, this style may be Dante’s favorite. Through channeling energy into his weapons he’s able to enhance their abilities and elemental power. When used with his Devil Trigger or Devil Sword Dante he is even able to conjure blades of energy that fight independently of Dante’s actual weapons, though still respond to mental commands. With most of his Devil Arms, Dante is similarly able to unlock unique abilities and powers that aren’t normally in a Devil Arm’s wheelhouse when using this style. ---Dark Slayer Style: More of an extension of his Swordmaster style than a sincere style on its own, Dante is able to mimick certain abilities and techniques employed by Vergil when he wields Yamato, though it’s fairly clear that he isn’t particularly fond of the fighting style, since he usually weaves it with the use of other weapons, rather than on its own. --Royalguard Style: By minimizing his presence, and assuming a more martial-arts oriented stance, Dante shifts into his Royalguard style. Again, through the use of energy, Dante is able to erect a very temporary barrier, though one that is inherently more powerful and sustainable than the one his Trickster Style employs. The drawback is that this energy can actually draw on Dante’s fatigue, and make it so he has to wait until he can activate his Devil Trigger if not used correctly. Though, when Dante uses this style efficiently, by only blocking at the last moment, he’s actually able to absorb the force of the hit and convert it into more energy for use. As Dante blocks attacks this style does build up a second type of energy that he is able to use as “revenge” attacking in kind with a single touch to any target while this energy is stored. When this occurs an immediate transference of the energy occurs, damaging the opponent with a similar, or greater, amount of force than what was absorbed. Another two uses of this includes enveloping himself in this second type of energy into an impenetrable shell, or using it to counter an opponent’s attack and turn it onto themselves. --Quicksilver Style: One of the more exhausting abilities that Dante has, he replicated it upon killing a Geryon and witnessing its abilities to manipulate time, Dante is able to initiate something akin to Witch Time. Through the use of his “Style Energy” Dante is able to create pockets of temporal distortion that causes everything within a certain area of himself, though it seems he may make exceptions outside of himself, slow down extremely. This power is costly and can easily exhaust Dante, prompting him to use it infrequently, as he’s already naturally quicker than most opponents anyway. --Doppelganger Style: Another ability that he learned after defeating a certain kind of demon, Dante is able to create a duplicate of himself that seems mildly distorted. This ability is shared by his brother Vergil, meaning that it is more inherent to them than it was an absorbed ability. However, when Dante has employed Doppelganger he is unable to use Devil Trigger, though Vergil’s use of the technique implies that it is possible for him to transform while using it, and to create a duplicate while transformed, though this would compound his exhaustion.

Weaknesses and Limitations -The forces of Inferno and Heaven: While Dante has been shown to be all but immune to most forms of damage, it’s consistent that demons, and weapons designed to kill demons, have a better chance at killing Dante, and have more ability to harm him than otherwise.  He has also been outfought by other demons in the past, notably his brother. -Styles: The energy of his styles, particularly the three that drain him (Quicksilver, Doppelganger, and Royalguard), can fatigue Dante much faster than any number of fights would do on their own. If he doesn’t use these intelligently, then he will become exhausted, and risks dying.

Equipment and Support Gear -Devil Sword Dante: Essentially the true manifestation of a fully-realized Dante’s power. He used the power of Rebellion’s ability to bring together in tandem with the power of The Demon Blade Sparda/Force Edge that he’d earned from defeating his brother in the past to bring about his final demonic state. This weapon shares his will and acts with a mere thought on its owner’s part. This weapon bears all the same functionality as the two swords that combined with its owner, but is also able to conjure blades of pure energy that act as a further extension of Dante’s will. --Assorted Devil Arms: Over the years Dante has accrued a number of Devil Arms that he tends to bring in and out of his own rotation. While he has his favorites, he tends to find a lot of similar weapons, and most often will use the most powerful version of a given weapon, rather than those that he has had longer that may be more limited, or simply weaker. Dante seems to be able to keep three additional Devil Arms on him, besides his sword, at a time.

-Ebony & Ivory: A pair of customized handguns that were designed specifically to withstand Dante’s particular brand of heavy usage. Notably, Ebony is actually designed for long-distance targeting, and to be comfortable, while Ivory is more suited for rapid-firing and fast draw times. Both are M1911-style guns customized to boast many features, such as pivot-style triggers, distinct custom sights, muzzle compensators, custom slides, forward-portion bolted rails, double-stack magazines with slam-pads, gold-plating, (Ebony) two-handed trigger-guard, wood grips, pictures inlaid into the grips, (Ebony) left-sided ejection port, outside extractor, and off-hand fitting (Ivory). --Assorted Firearms: Aside from Ebony & Ivory, Dante uses a wide variety of firearms, including shotguns, rifles, rocket-launchers, and such. He often doesn’t bring many of these with him, often picking them up over the course of a mission, though he can swap between four at a time.

[whirlybirdwhat]

Recognition

Multi-chaptered, Jetko fanfiction. Ao3 at WhirlyBird70 for the full story!

“You know, as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were.”

-----

He had spotted him while waiting in line for the ferry. The boy, about his own age if just a bit younger, had black hair, twin dao by his side and a swirling sea of a red burn across the left side of his face. He seemed to be traveling with an older man, who carried none of the weapons or scars that the boy did.

But none of that was the first thing that had caught Jet's attention - no, it was the way the boy held himself.

A steady stance, ready to move at any moment, yet relaxed enough as to not put stress on muscles or bones, along with feet in just the right position to gather chi for a bending move. A head held high, with the good side (if there was any) facing away from the older man, watching with an ally on his probable blind side. Hands crossed over his chest, betraying his agitated state.

And lastly, his attitude.

It was that of a noble, and a high ranking one at that.

But why was a noble dressed as a common poor person, with weapons instead of a guard, on the second least safe route to Ba Sing Se?

Jet had to know.

Once they had their tickets, he tried to find the boy again. Smellerbee seemed suspicious of his behavior, with a stern warning of Be good, Jet, but seemed to shrug it off eventually.

And besides - Jet was being good. Just ... wary thats all.

The boy had moved to the other side of the area, to where his ferry presumably was - the same one Jet was to be on, it seemed.

He still hadn't seen all of the boys face, just the old angry burn that seemed to disguise any emotion.

But when the boy turned to say smething angrily to the old man, Jet's breath was taken away in one sharp moment.

He knew that face.

-

"You know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were."

-

In Gaipan, he had amassed a large amount of Fire Nation wanted posters. The faces of criminals, fellow vigilantes, exiled nobles and powerful benders were all committed to memory, in case he ran into them. So he could aid in their attack on the enemy (or take them down if their crimes were too vile).

However, the most striking face he had seen was on the poster in the town of Garsai.

The poster was of a young boy and an a older man. Both had golden eyes, and elegant royal features. The elder wore his gray hair in the traditional hair style of many nobles, long and with a top knot. Next to his painted face was the title The Dragon of the West.

He had scoffed at the time, wondering what damage an old man could have done to have earned the name. Then a village guard had told him, and he hadn't slept for a week.

The younger man, or boy rather, had his dark hair pulled into a tall pony tail, with the rest of his head shaved bald. This only served to make the dark scar on his face stand out even more. That very scar, coupled with the intense glare of his pale gold eyes, and the features of his face, made him unforgettable in Jet's mind.

After all, who could forget the face of the scarred, younger version of the Fire Lord?

-

The boy stiffened in front of him and angled himself ever so slightly to face Jet.

So the scar did impair his vision, Jet noted for later.

"So I just have to wonder,"

-

The boy, Li as he lied to as what his name was, was incredibly skilled with the dao, and with sneaking around.

Odd, for one with Fire to put time into mastering a weapon.

But it worked for them, and soon the teens were passing out meals to the refugees on board.

Jet had already put meals aside for him and his freedom fighters, but he was surprised to note that while Li put one aside for his uncle, he refrained from grabbing a meal for himself until all the other passengers had their food.

Odder, for a noble to actually care for the people around him, much less those not of his country.

"From what I heard," He said, sitting down after Smellerbee stormed off, "People eat like this every night in Ba Sing Se. I can't wait to set my eyes on that giant wall."

He glanced at Li from the side of his eye, while his attention largely focused on Mushi. Heh. For all the noble walk and attitude, Li still ate like a hungry teenage boy who hadn't had a good meal in a while - fast, and guarded so that no one stole the food.

Jet would know. He was the same.

Mushi, on the other had, ate slowly, enjoying the food. But that wasn't what Jet wanted to know. How do you feel about the wall, old man?

"It is a magnificent site." The oldest of their group finally answered.

"So you've been there before?" Jet inquired carefully, trying to sound only curious.

Li stopped eating for a moment, tensing at Jet, and looking with thinly guarded worry at his Uncle.

"Once. When I was a ... different man." So he believed he had changed, huh?

But.. Jet had too, hadn't he? Months ago he would have lunged for their throats the minute he recognized their faces. But now...

"I've done some things in my past that I'm not proud of, but that's why I'm going to Ba Sing Se- for a new beginning. A second chance," He announced honestly.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't be wary of these people.

(Because even the Fire Nation, with their unnatural gold eyes and fire(hate) in their hearts, were still people. People, not monsters, that could still hurt. Not monsters. People. Human.

He knew that now.)

"That's very noble of you. I believe people can change their lives if they want to. I believe in second chances." Mushi looked at his nephew, and something in Jet's heart twisted ever so slightly.

That gaze was full of love and hope. And Li, looking down at his bowl with a guilty slouch of his shoulders, didn't seem, to be aware of it.

It had been a long time since anyone looked at Jet that way.

But he had to wonder, how longer had it been that anyone but his Uncle looked at Li like that?

-

He had been suffering from frostbite, his Freedom Fighters save for two had left him, and he was confronting the fact that he might have been wrong, when they met her.

The Fire Nation woman.

The woman who gave them her own food after seeing them collapsed on the road, and used her own fire to save Jet from the cold destroying his limbs.

He had not accepted her help easily. But she taught them all, that while she was loyal to her Lord, she was still human.

That she had had a child die at the hand of the Ocean-Possessed Avatar,

That she grieved like all of them.

She educated them on the ways of her nation, and of the corrupted heart it hand.

Of the Banished Prince, and the Insane Princess, blessed with Blue Fire.

Of the wish for peace most of her nation had.

Jet's heart had mellowed at her words. His hate, while not entirely gone, had been soothed. He had learned, and cried for his sins.

(The Fire Nation woman had gathered him into her arms, and gathered his friends in as well, in a way that reminded him of his own mother.

He cried harder.)

-

He waited, watching Li.

Watching the way he casually rested a hand on his sword. The way he tensed for a blow, mentally and physically.

And then, after a beat, Jet spoke.

"What's the Prince of the Fire Nation doing on the ferry to Ba Sing Se?"

(Ao3)

[theloveofanime2017]

Field Trip (Part 2)

Todays Promt is: Field Trip

Pairing: Damian and Maps

Word Count: 2426

A/N Another chapter up for Ultimate Power Couple Collection!!! Enjoy (A/N at the end)

Maps felt sick to her stomach she was just kidnapped. She tried to open her eyes to see where she was... or where she was going. Slowly opening up her eyes she saw that she was hanging down from a man's shoulder like a sack of potatoes heading deeper into the woods. This was bad.

She groaned in pain as she tried to move but it was useless. She really hoped Damian was okay at least. Then there was a loud creek of a door opening as they made it inside they escalated down stairs, the basement?

"The boss will be please when he hears we've brought back some more meat." Maps cringed, she knew well enough that this was the end, but what murderous villain is she going up against.

The man threw her down and chained her to the chair. The man stared at her for a moment and smiled. The dim light made her skin sparkle and glow.

"She's a little on the skinny side don't you think?" Asked the women as she dropped another body in the chair next to her. There was someone else? Who?

Maps stared silently glaring at her feet. She felt so helpless.

"The boss will be back to collect you two, he needed to get some supplies from his work shop so sit tight." The man said before laughing. Their footsteps echoed in the distance meaning they had left. Looking towards her right she saw a boy chained up as, not just any boy.

"Damian? They got you too!?" No response. He was knocked out cold, she had to wake him up.

"Psst Damian wake up." Still no reply, She scooted her chair closer to him making a loud screeching noise she cringed looking back to where the two henchmen had left, but she was still in the clear scooting again she made it to his side.

"Damian its me Maps please wake up." Before Maps could call him again she heard the sounds of screaming. Her heart stopped the voices sounded of the two kidnappers. She needed to hurry and do something before her and Damian were next. Lucky, Damian started to stir in his sleep, he was waking up.

"Damian you have to help us get out of here I think the crazy killer guy is here."

"W-What?" Damian got a good look of his surroundings struggling against his chains. It wasn't as dark as he though it was only dim. There was a door that lead back up stairs so that meant they were in a basement of some sort. So that gave him little options, the vigilante began to pick the iron clamps holding him down.

"Don't worry, I've got this under control, what happened while I was out?"

"I think those two kidnappers are dead."

"I see, are you alright they didn't hurt you, did they?" He stopped to give a one look over her before continuing to undo the chains.

"No I'm fine, surprisingly." She looked around to see a small window 5 feet above them. "How are we going to escape? Who knows how far we are from the camp and there's no signal out here." She whispered there were footsteps right above them, they were running out of time.

"I'll make a distraction for the killer while you run, simple." Maps scoffed.

"Yeah like that worked last time." She heard a small click as Damian's chains fell around him he quickly stood up working on hers next. "I know it doesn't seem like the best course of action but I can't risk you getting hurt."

"Oh, but you seem fine with getting yourself in danger?" She said, of course she wasn't really going anywhere with this conversation she knew that Damian had a better chance of protecting himself then she did and she'd be kidding herself if she wasn't actually scared. But this small banter between the two helped ease her nerves even with the blaring opera music playing above them.

Wait? opera music? where has she heard this before. If only she had her 'villains of Gotham journal' on her then she'd know. As she was about to complain about how long he was taking, her chains came undone and she sighed from the release.

"Maps listen closely I'm only going to explain this once, the villain we're dealing with is Professor Pyg an insane serial killer." Maps nodded, she should have known it was that creep she was a little surprise that Damian knew about him. Suddenly the music stopped.

"I am uncertain of his plans dealing with us at the moment, but lets not give him the chance to do anything. I have a feeling this may also include the students as well we need to get out of here and get everyone to safety."

"Oh, I beg to differ, petit."

Maps gasped, This was defiantly bad.

At The Camp

"Hey guys Damian and Maps have been gone for a while now, do you think something happened to them?" Asked Olive. She knew she should have went with Maps, just encase something like this would happened.

"They've only been gone for 40 minutes maybe rich boy finally confessed and they're-"

"Ugh! Colton would you just drop it already they're not getting together anytime soon and if they were, it'll happen on their own terms not yours." Shouted Olive as she stormed away.

"Wait!? where are you going?"

"Where else jerk I'm going to look for Maps." Kyle called after her.

"Olive wait I'm coming too." Kyle chased after his girlfriend as Colton humped in frustration.

"Geez, spoil sports I'm just having some fun, I'm not going to cover for them all they're on their own." Colton got up dusting off his pants before heading into his shared cabin.

At The Basement

"Oink, oink...now how shall I deal with the two of you?... oink"

Maps started to hyperventilate she wasn't ready to die, how come no one in Gotham was ever safe? frantically she started to look at any possible exits only coming up with the window as her only exit. She couldn't possibly run past them both without getting caught. Well that is an option but it was risky.

Maps looked back at Damian to see him unfazed by all of this, he looks calm and collected. Ready to fight if needed, he wasn't giving off his usual Damian Wayne frown but something more serious. She has never seen this side of Damian before it was, cool.

"What do you want Pig?" Damian growled at his opponent.

"My Oh My! aren't you the chipper one, its quite a shame that I'll have to chop you up into tiny little pieces for my pies."

"y-you don't have too." Maps laughed nervously slowly creeping towards the window. Wait! did he just say Pies?

"Oh, no precious little one, but I must, don't be afraid for I am here to save you." Pyg walked closer out of the shadows looming over them.

"Heh, how could a sadistic serial killer save anybody. As far as I know your just another piece of trash slotting around Gotham. Do us all a favor and leave before things get real ugly." Threaten Damian he took a step forward to prove he dominance to the murder. Damian wasn't afraid of this clown he scoffed give him two minutes and he'd have him begging for forgiveness.

The only problem was.

Pyg gave out a gruff chuckle from under his pig mask pulling out his bloody knife, that he most likely killed his goons with.

"Oink, oink...I like you boy I can see it now, you and I both see all too well the corruption, the filth, in Gotham. You and I know that Gotham cannot survive unless the cancer is cut out. We both share the same mission, only I do it with a little bit more flair..." Pyg moved forward to slice at Damian's throat, he skillful jumped back before the blade could make contact. Getting into his fighting stance.

Damian didn't care about keeping his adrenaline in check. He didn't care about the danger of the situation. Nor, did he care about the rage building up in his system. All he cared about was getting Maps to safety, no matter what.

He took a breath, let it out...

Then the tension snapped.

The first moved came not from Damian or Pyg, but the screen accompanied by a childlike figure spring forward tackling Pyg to the ground.

Damian was still putting the pieces together of what had happened, but his mind and reactions caught up in time.

Quickly he sprang into action kicking the knife out his hand before grabbing Maps' again, running upstairs and getting the hell out of this house.

As they ran, they came across two bodies sprawled out on the floor blood soaking the hard wood floor making the air stench of death.

Footsteps were rushing up from the basement as they heard the most sickening maniac cry they have ever heard of... well Maps has ever heard of.

Damian quickly shoved Maps into a closet to his right, before running to grab a weapon of his own. "Damian!?"

"Be quiet, we're not going to make it out of here by running I'm going to take him head on." Scrambling around in the kitchen for a knife as well. "When I give you the signal run."

"The signal? what signal?"

There was silence.

Then she heard tumbling.

They're back down in the basement? Maps clutched her hand tightly, it was bleeding. It must have happened when she had tackled Pyg, she must have accidentally cut her hand on his knife.

Good thing the cut wasn't as deep as she thought.

Maps felt around for a light switch or a weapon of her own just encase things turn south which she doubts. Damian seems to know what he was doing, strange.

As her fingers were moving upon things she felt something warm and soft. Pressing her finger into it she pricked the object and there was filling coming out of it.

Bringing it up to her nose her finger it smelt like...oh god.

Stumbling back from the shock she fell switching on the lights in her wake only to gasp in horror. There in front of her were pies, corpses, and a-a disembodied head. "I-I think I'm going to throw up." Shaking, she scooted as far away from the the human pies as possible, she was so over this.

"Damian?" Maps whispered.

He still hasn't given the signal yet, whatever that means. But she didn't want to be in here any longer. She opened the door slightly to get a peak making sure they aren't upstairs. It was completely empty aside from the two dead bodies on the floor.

"Good I'm going to make a run for it." As she opened the door slowly she tip toed over the dead bodies to the front door as quietly as she could, so they won't hear her foot steps. What was she a ninja?

Finally making it there she placed her hand slowly on the door twisting the knob, she was almost free. Until she felt a hand grab her shoulder tightly, her heart sank the tears were now flowing down her face as she accepted her fate.

"Please Mr. Killer man I don't want to die I-I have three kids at home, and, and I have to take care of my sick grandmother and I-I don't taste good." Maps wailed out loud falling to the floor hoping he'd spare her life.

"Would you just stop that already, I'm not going to kill you, yet." Maps eyes blew open hearing his voice, Damian's voice.

She turned around to see that he had a few scratches here and there but all-in-all he was alright. Frowning his nonchalant frown, Maps was just so happy she jumped up into his arms tackling him to the ground.

"Thank god you're alright, I'm so happy." She buried her face into his neck breathing in his musty and pin tree sent. She really didn't care what he smelled like she was just happy they both were alive. Damian didn't know what to do it wasn't odd to be hugged by people that he saved but it never really lasted this long and he never really enjoyed them that much.

But this felt right.

He snaked his arm around her waist pulling her closer to him while the other hand played with her short hair. Closing his eyes he buried his nose into her hair breathing in her scent. Yes, this felt so right.

They stayed like that for a couple more minutes before Maps remembered where they were. "Hey Dami?" He hummed a yes into her hair. "Wheres that crazy killer pig guy?" He opened his eyes and sat up with her in his lap.

"I'd have you know he was properly handled, of course."

"Right, How?" He helped her up onto her feet before taking her back down to the basement, she hesitated a little a bit afraid of the unknown. Oh, why did she have to ask? More then anything she just wanted to leave.

"Do not be afraid he has been apprehended he can no longer do harm to anyone." She nodded and followed him down into the basement. As they made it to the last step Maps had caught sight of the most amazing thing ever Pyg chained up to a chair all beaten and bruised up, he was unconsciousness so she felt at ease.

"Wow!? Damian I seriously don't know what to say. You just took down one of Gotham's most disturbing effective murderer strategies in Gotham. I mean your like only 12 years old, how?"

Damian frowned. "Excuse me! I am 13 for your information, and this was mere childs play although this does seem strange, we must have gotten him at some inconvenience considering the two dead goons upstairs." Maps nodded, she didn't really want to know what he was planning to do with all those pies. And how close it was to their camp site, she has a feeling Pyg was either going to feed them human pies or turn them into one.

"Can we go now." She stated he nodded and they headed back into the forest hopping they didn't venture to far from the camp site, someone was bound to come looking for them at one point, right?

To be continued...

Because Tumbler won't let me post anymore then 2 thousand words so part 3 on it's way.

Bye.

❤

[thedcdunce]

The Penguin

“Where's the thrill in committing the perfect crime if nobody knows it was you?” - The Penguin

Real Name: Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot

Gender: Male

Height: 5′ 2″

Weight: 175 lbs (79 kg)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Black

Abilities:

Genius Level Intellect

Cold Tolerance

Equipment:

Trick Umbrellas

Base of Operations: Iceberg Lounge, Gotham City

Universe: New Earth

Parents:

Tucker Cobblepot; father

Miranda Cobblepot; mother

Marital Status: Single

Citizenship: American

Occupation:

Businessman

Crimelord

First Appearance: Detective Comics #568 (November, 1986)

Last Appearance: Convergence: Batman and Robin #1 (June, 2015)

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect: From an early age Penguin was never very physically strong or appealing and this forced him to learn to live life with a keen intellect. It should be noted that his intellect is almost always sinister in nature even in the most mundane of decisions.

Business Management: Oswald's criminal operations would succeed without a hitch if not for the actions of Batman. Oswald has existed both above and below the law with his businesses; running a legitimate night club as well as selling drugs from within it.

Leadership: Penguin always travels with henchmen on any criminal mission or even to the zoo. He controls bodyguards, chefs, servants, gang members, villains and so on with masterful talent. Oswald has led both legal and illegal operations within Gotham City; under any conditions.

Avian Trainer: Penguin has used his knowledge of birds for criminal purposes as well as personal purposes. He shares a special kinship with birds, especially the African penguin.

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Oswald dedicated part of his life to the martial arts, to beat those who mocked his appearance. Being a master in judo and boxing 

Cold Tolerance: The Penguin can tolerate sub-freezing temperatures longer than most people. He can spend extended times outdoors in the winter before frostbite, hypothermia or even discomfort begin. This ability is not superhuman; he is just at the far end of normal human cold tolerance.

Equipment

Trick Umbrellas: The Penguin employs an assortment of "trick" umbrellas, many of which can be used as weapons as well. A few of his umbrellas are equipped with motorized flight capabilities, and he often uses such devices in order to affect an expedient escape.

History

The Penguin is a fancy criminal and self-styled entrepreneur, who uses his business as a front to cover his criminal activities. Penguin started as many criminals in Gotham City, by performing crimes with a specific theme surrounding birds. Eventually, Penguin outgrew his hands-on crimes and became the mastermind of organized crime in Gotham, making him a valuable asset for both criminals and heroes alike.

Origins and Early Crimes

Born Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the Penguin was bullied as a child for his short stature, obesity, and beak-like nose. These traits made him an outcast in his rich, high society family; their rejection drove him to become a criminal. When Penguin was a young child, his father died of pneumonia after being drenched in a downpour. Because of this, his mother became over-protective and forced him to carry an umbrella whenever he went outside — even on sunny days. In keeping with his family's tradition of wealth, the Penguin lives a life of crime, yet executes it with his own self-proclaimed class and style.

Unlike most of the villains in Gotham, the Penguin is a gentleman villain, in control of his own actions and perfectly sane, features that serve to maintain a unique relationship with his archenemy, Batman. During the early days after Batman's appearance, Cobblepot joined Harvey Dent AKA Two-Face, and several other Gotham criminals to bring down the crime family led by Sofia Falcone. Cobblepot was only with the group very briefly and was arrested after a firefight at the docks with Tony Zucco and Eddie Skeevers.

Later, Penguin managed to get a hold of a lethal drug developed by Ra's al Ghul, but his plans of spreading it in Gotham and use it to blackmail the city were stopped by Batman and Talia, Ra's' daughter.

Suicide Squad

The Penguin attempted to steal rare falcons from the Gotham University, but his plan was thwarted by Batman and he was arrested. When he was released on parole, he claimed to have fallen in love and gone straight. His new girlfriend wouldn't tolerate criminal behavior. Cobblepot ran a legitimate umbrella factory staffed by ex-cons, but he was sent back to prison because this counts as "consorting with known felons."

Much later, Amanda Waller recruited him to the Suicide Squad for one mission, in exchange for prison release. Penguin helped them plan a top secret mission where they rescued imprisoned author Zoya Trigorin from the Soviet Union. He was forced to accompany them behind enemy lines, because Rick Flag wanted him to have a stake in his own plans. They were forced to fight the Russian army, and Penguin was nearly killed. In the confrontation, Penguin realized Russia is not an appropriate country for him or his criminal activities and after a deadly mission, they escape the country.

Crimes and Affairs

Upon returning to Gotham, Penguin returned to prison, where he met Mortimer Kadaver. While in prison, they came up with a breakout plan and it all started with Penguin's sudden death. The Penguin was buried after his fake death, thanks to Kadaver who used hypnosis to send Penguin into a death-like trance. His henchmen released Penguin from his tomb and once he was revived, he was forced to accept Kadaver into his gang and they started a crime spree. Eventually, Penguin double-crossed Kadaver and shortly afterwards, he was stopped by Batman.

Penguin soon arranged his own escape from prison and located Harold Allnut, a mechanics and engineering genius who Penguin manipulated to create a bird controlling device. Harold's machine allowed Penguin to control large flocks of birds with microwaves, forcing the animals to create chaos and destruction in Gotham. Penguin's intention was to sell the machine to international criminals and kill Harold afterwards, but part of his plan was also the kidnapping of a notorious actress, with whom Penguin had become infatuated. Using the bird device, Penguin kidnapped the actress and attacked Batman in the Batcave. However, as he was selling the invention to other criminals, Penguin's plan was thwarted by Batman, who had deduced the device's mechanism, and Harold himself, who turned against Penguin, allowing Batman's ultimate victory over Cobblepot.

Legitimate Businessman

Penguin eventually established himself as a legitimate businessman in charge of his nightclub, the Iceberg Lounge. However, it was just a facade in order to control criminal activities from a privileged position.

After a while, Penguin organized a large criminal ring that consisted on kidnapping pregnant girls and sell their kids to adoption. However, Penguin was attacked by a strange villain and the penthouse of the Iceberg Lounge was bombed when his crime was revealed.

Penguin survived the explosion and learned that the people behind the attack were a new group called The Body. Penguin then gathered three helicopters and attacked a large group of members of The Body, saving Batman in the process. Before leaving, Penguin warned Batman about the new enemy.

When the great gang war broke out in Gotham, Penguin auctioned weapons he stole from the US Navy, as well as meta-humans and assassins among the many gang parties in Gotham. During this time, Penguin was confronted by Hush, who was looking for Riddler. Shorly after, Gotham was drowned in chaos and the police ordered a civil curfew for the entire city. Penguin took control of the Gotham Power Company and caused a massive blackout in the city.

Infinite Crisis

The Penguin becomes swept up in the events of Infinite Crisis. He is part of the Battle of Metropolis, a multi-character brawl started by the Secret Society of Super Villains. The Penguin, along with several other villains, are bowled over by the surprise appearance of Bart Allen.

One Year Later

While the Penguin was away from Gotham City, the Great White Shark and the Tally Man killed many of the villains who worked for the Penguin, and framed Harvey Dent. The Shark had planned to take over Gotham's criminal syndicate and weaken all his competition - Penguin included. Upon his return to Gotham, the Penguin continues to claim that he has gone "straight" and reopened the Iceberg Lounge nightclub, selling overpriced penguin merchandise. He urges the Riddler to avoid crime, as it's more lucrative in their current, non-criminal lifestyle.

Batman R.I.P.

Penguin was briefly approached by Slam Bradley who wanted information over Hush's current whereabouts.

When Batman disappeared from Gotham, Penguin was the first target of the vigilantes of the city.

Robin talked to Penguin and offered a large amount of money in exchange of information about Batman's whereabouts. Shorly after, Penguin showed Robin a picture proving that Batman was alive but somehow insane. Some days later, Batgirl attacked Penguin in order to learn Batman's location, but Penguin knew nothing about it. Furthermore and due to her aggressive attack on him, Penguin ended his partnership with Batman.

A few days later, Penguin was pleased to let the meta-human criminals of Gotham get rid of Intergang for him. Penguin even applauded Man-Bat after he massacred some men of Intergang, who had been using the Iceberg Lounge as a meeting point.

Battle for the Cowl

After the death of Batman, Penguin became one of the main crime lords in Gotham. Around this time, Penguin was informed that someone had damaged Two-Face's crime ring and he was taking the blame for the hit. When Penguin learned that the responsible was a new Black Mask, he hired Riddler's service as a detective to find the criminal. However, Black Mask struck first by sending Firefly to kill Penguin, but the pyromaniac was stopped by Catwoman. Penguin's forces were weakened but the crime lord emerged unscathed.

Some time later, word about Vicki Vale's discovery of Batman's secret identity was spread in the underground of Gotham and Penguin started looking for the reporter to capture her. When a couple of amateur criminals wanted to join Penguin's crew, he sent them to kidnap Vale and bring her back to him, but they failed miserably.

During a meeting with members of the Penitente drug cartel, the Penguin was attacked by Red Hood who nearly killed Cobblepot and Gabriel Santo.

Convergence

Penguin and Gotham were taken by Brainiac and Telos and were trapped for a year. Cobblepot attempts to force Ivy to work for him, but he is foiled by, Batman, Robin, Red Hood and Scarlet.

Fun Facts

The Penguin's corpulence and short height causes him to waddle when he walks, giving credence to the distasteful "Penguin" sobriquet that has plagued him all of his life. Adding to the unflattering pseudonym, Cobblepot also has a distended, pointy nose which closely resembles a bird's beak.

[multiverseforger]

Violator is the oldest and most powerful of five hell-born demons known as the Phlebiac Brothers, and his main purpose is to guide Hellspawns towards fulfilling Malebolgia's desire: to cultivate evil souls on Earth for Hell's army. He has been Hell's guide for multiple Hellspawn, his latest charge being the current Spawn, Al Simmons.[2] However, Violator views humanity as weak and so asserts that demons should lead the armies of Hell, not Spawn. Accordingly, much of his terrestrial activities, sanctioned by Hell or not, are aimed at proving his superiority to his master. The Violator's current disguise is that of Clown, a 3'10"[3] overweight, balding man with menacing face-paint and four fingers in each hand. The Violator is not a demon to be taken lightly: he has shown many times that he is more than a match for a young Hellspawn. His hands are tied by his role, though, as he cannot kill a Spawn without an order from his superiors. His role is not to kill the Hellspawn, but to weaken them and cause them to waste their powers in wreaking havoc. His chief purpose is to groom and prepare the young Hellspawn for their service in Satan's army. He has been killed multiple times, each time to be returned to Hell and reanimated by his master.

Fighting for his lifeEdit

His brothers turn on him at one point, sending him fleeing for his life through a New York city shopping district. He becomes briefly allied with a moral but naive vigilante.[4]

At one point he is kept prisoner in a scientific facility seeking to weaponize his energies. Violator has to deal with an unexpected trip to hell, an insanely murderous angel and the facility's director of security, the stone-bodied Badrock.[5]

After suffering a humiliating defeat in Hell during Spawn's return to claim the throne of the 8th sphere, Clown reappeared on Earth on the order of Mammon to wreak havoc in Spawn's life as part of the larger plan to give Nyx an opportunity to betray Al. He was a "mental adviser" to Jason Wynn, his former contact and partner in the deal that cost Al Simmons his life. He helped Wynn regain his sanity and return to the NSA, but had other plans, rather than being charitable. He has assumed the dominant role in Wynn's psyche and when Wynn was vulnerable, hanging from a steel girder many stories up, he caused him to fall to his apparent death. Clown then took over Wynn's body and used it as his new vessel. He turned Wynn's body into a fanged, bloated parody of his former self. Clown then began to attack and 'mark' citizens of Rat City, turning them all into blue face-painted Clowns. It was revealed that the Violator was possessing hundreds of civilians and forcing them to run amok, committing acts of violence and vandalism, all with a smile on their faces. After their attacks brought Spawn to the brink of death, leaving him bleeding and broken on the streets of Rat City in his Al Simmons persona, the Clowns vanished. The Violator has not been seen since, but has revealed that he has been turned loose on Earth with no strings attached, and it is only a matter of time before he returns to plague Spawn anew.

In Spawn #167, a new Clown emerges, who is thin and agile, and fond of using knives. Clown hijacked the body of Barney Saunders, who had been having an affair with a married woman named Wilma Barbera. Trying to escape discovery by Wilma Barbera's husband, Barney Saunders jumped down the garbage chute only to be trapped there a couple of days before the bright light event (Spawn's destruction and recreation of the world), and was trapped in a garbage chute and doomed to be eaten alive by rats and roaches. The new Clown easily escapes and frequently uses a knife to attack his enemies. He also can still change into his demon form when he wishes.

The Violator is revealed to be the cause of all the havoc of an apartment complex, freeing the residents of restraint and allowing them to fulfill their desires and violent urges. This allowed the Violator to create a portal to Hell from which the other Phlebiac Brothers could enter the world. Violator is confronted by Spawn, but easily gains the upper hand in the battle. Mere moments from Violator's victory, Barney Saunder's spirit gains control when his body sees his lover Wilma. Barney Saunders decides to go through the portal into Hell, knowing that the only way to close the portal was to trap himself and Clown on the other side while he could still maintain control over his body. Barney reveals that he was angry at his lover for not coming to save him when he was starving in the garbage chute and takes her with him, stranding The Violator, Saunders and Wilma in Hell.

Clown has recently reappeared in New York City (how he escaped from Hell is unknown). It is Clown who finds the decapitated body of Spawn in the alleys, and it is he who tries to mask the dead zone created after Spawn's suicide. Clown tries hard to keep the Spawn's death a secret and kills anyone aware of the Spawn's demise. Clown plans to put together his own army to bring down the kingdom of Heaven (against the wishes of the "Elders", supposedly very powerful rulers of Hell). He travels to Connecticut to enlist the help of a fellow demon who now assumes the life of a human and is married to a human as well. Clown tries to convince the fellow demon (who has not yet been named) to join his own private army, but to no avail. Unfortunately for the nameless demon, Clown is not going to take "no" for an answer. Clown gives the man two days to get his affairs in order before departing. The man, still defiant, looks in his cabinet to find the severed heads of his prize winning dogs and a note from Clown reading, "I'm not Clowning around!".

Clown is absent for a while, but then reappears in New York City to find an Angel crucified to a wall (done so by the newly ordained Hellspawn). He is unaware that there is already a new Hellspawn and asks the Angel who pinned her to the wall, as he beats her with a crowbar. She laughs at his lack of knowledge about "What your side is doing, Mr. Clown," which angers Clown. He gives her a reason to fear him as he contorts his Clown face into that of the Violator. She says she is unafraid, to which he replies, "There are worse things than death, especially for an Angel"; he then tears the wings from the helpless Angel's back.

After Jim and the Freak arrive on the scene, the Violator reveals himself. Though the Violator tells Jim he has the answers he seeks, it is made clear by the Freak that the Violator is not on his side. When confronted by the truth, the Violator threatens Jim and the Freak. Before Jim can get any information from Violator, he retreats deeper into the alleys. The Violator goes to "slaughter someone who could endanger my plans". In the next scene, the Violator is switching between his two forms in order to trick Jim, pretending the Violator is fighting Clown.

Clown emerges and claims that he has dispatched the Violator. The Freak curses Clown and then retreats in fear. Clown and Jim are left alone. Clown explains a little about Jim's newfound power; that his costume is alive and that there are ways of controlling it. He then laments over the Angel's current insanity. He makes Jim believe that someone else had been behind this vile act and not he. Clown explains that he is Jim's ally and that Jim should trust him in order to find the answers he seeks. Before the two can converse any longer, Clown dashes away, telling Jim that he has an appointment and he will see Jim around.

Clown is nearly run down by Sam and Twitch's car, after running in front of it. Clown is then pursued by the two detectives after he urinates on their car. After being stopped by Twitch, and tackled by Sam, Clown is taken to the pair's precinct (although this was obviously Clown's plan). Clown is put into a cell with three other men. Clown sits beside and talks to the one he identifies as Claudio.

He tells Claudio that he wishes to have a conference with Claudio's boss. Claudio becomes defensive and asks why Clown thinks the boss would want to see him. Clown explains to Claudio that he is going to make his boss an offer he cannot refuse. He proclaims that now that he has found a Spawn, he plans to combine his power, Spawn's power, and Claudio's boss' power in order to make the New Unholy Trinity. Spawn 294 and 295 reveals that he had made Spawn's powers and all of the other Hellspawns. Later, 300 confirms that Violator was the one who killed Wanda Blake and had evolved to a point as he is now more bulky in his demon form

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest - Semper Fi

James’s father had been fond of the phrase ‘look on the bright side’. It’s the sort of useless platitude that a person ignores right up until their life goes completely fucking insane and all of a sudden ‘useless’ becomes ‘only rock in a sea of madness’.

So, the bad news: Agent James Nichols, former United States Marine, current member of Task Force: VALKYRIE, was living a lie that could cost him his job, his life, and/or his sanity at a moment’s notice.

The good news: lots of night shifts!

Being in the monster-hunting business meant a lot more nocturnal work than made any kind of scientific sense. Biologically speaking, there was no reason, whatsoever, for the overwhelming amount of light-shy horrors in James’s line of work. Being one of those horrors, he knew the actual reason was because humans were scared of the dark, and always would be. But there was no taking that to the boys and girls down in R&D, now was there?

James’s mouth said, “They send in more of those etheric goggles?” because it was still in this meeting, even if his mind wasn’t. His ears were trying to do their duty too, the poor bastards, but with his brain lost in itself they were having a hell of a time.

“Rounds,” Agent Michelle answered.

“That just -” Ricky started.

“We know,” Michelle and James said at the same time.

“Score one for government work,” Ricky muttered. Ricky was the kind of guy who grabbed a new styrofoam cup every time he wanted coffee. In a related story, Ricky had to buy his own cups, because the Old Man had had enough of buying them for him. “We hear from Geri Squad?”

“Nothing bad, check-ins at the usual times,” James answered, his brain actually latching onto this one. “Just like when you asked ten minutes ago.”

“Yeah, it’s just...”

“Something feels wrong,” Michelle finished, and her two work partners nodded silently. “Which is why we’re inside, having a bullshit meeting that could have been an email, because all of us want to be sure the other two are as scared as we are.”

“That’s weaponizing your psych degree,” James said, pointing his own cup - the rim chewed from compuslive nibbling - at Michelle.

“I’m sorry, which one of us decided to ‘distract’ the Old Man before the dock job by putting laxatives in his food?”

“And his drinks,” Ricky added.

“Leading to his hospitalization,” Michelle concluded.

“I was acquitted,” James’s mouth managed. His brain had gone back off on its own tangent. Something did feel wrong, something in the air but not like a scent. More like a darkness or, or -

Or a light, maybe? Like a nagging light, yeah. Something shining from a weird spot in the room, and you can’t quite figure out from where, or why, and if only you could just find it everything would be fine.

Hold up, James’s eyes interrupted. Michelle’s pointing an actual gun at you and she seems serious.

That’s crazy talk, James’s brain returned, and then it double-checked.

“Michelle, the fuck,” James said flatly, staring at the pistol in his fellow Agent’s hand. “What are you - Ricky, seriously?”

“You got something to tell us, James?” Ricky’s elbow twitched, just the faintest shake.

“Maybe? Why are there guns in our shitty meeting room?”

Michelle picked up her phone in one hand, tapped something, and turned it to James with the front camera on. He could see his face; lean, scarred just under the left eye from a bigass stinger, slight muzzle, thick fur done up in the style of facial hair. Lupine, mainly.

“That’s my face,” James’s mouth answered, because his brain was still working through it.

“Yeah, and what big eyes you have,” Michelle said slowly.

“Oh fuck me,” James and his brain said at the same time. “You can see me.”

“Yeah,” Michelle and Ricky answered.

“...If I said I can explain?”

*    *    *    *    *

Michelle and Ricky passed him off to the Old Man. The Old Man called in Project: TWILIGHT. TWILIGHT’s field boy recused himself from the interrogation, so that became one of their suits, who ended up getting dragged out by Michelle after he pulled a gun in the middle of questioning. Now it was James and some CIA spook he’d never met before, an Agent Vasquez. He had the chance to use the restroom and wash up before he got let back into the interrogation room. She came in a solid eight minutes later, with food.

“I hope you can tolerate McDonald’s, because that’s what’s open. Greasy bag of death.” Vasquez tossed the paper sack to James’s side of the table. “Again, from the top.”

“What’s the point? You’re looking for inconsistencies in the story, fine. I get it. But you’re just gonna shoot me in the back of the head, so maybe, I dunno, do that. Bury me outdoors.”

“From the top, Agent Nichols.”

James sighed. “I’m the same James Nichols you recruited to Task Force: VALKYRIE. My unit was assaulted in the Mojave by an extra normal entity while on leave. Two of us died. A third was put down after he proved infected. My record speaks for itself.”

“It does,” Vasquez agreed. “If I have to eat this shit, you should too.” She took out a pair of fries and bit off their ends. “Seriously.”

“This cutting-edge CIA interrogation techniques?”

“My mother didn’t raise me to let people go hungry in my own house, and as of right now, I own this building and everyone in it. Eat your goddamn food.”

James fished a burger out of the bag, opened it, regretted opening it, and took a bite because hunger was stronger than his standards. He scarfed the thing, needing to feel something in his belly, before he kept going. “So...the county line job.”

“Operation Little Night,” Vasquez corrected. “You were cut off from your team.”

“You could say it like that. I was abducted. The thing that linked back up with the team wasn’t me.”

“The thing that linked back up with the team wasn’t visibly lupine,” the spook opined. 

“See, this shit here is why I think you’re just going to shoot me,” James snapped. “Do it or don’t, alright? I’d’ve shot me by now, because fuck me, one, and two, I’ve got no way to prove anything. Nothing but my word to say that I’m the kind of crazy motherfucker who went back to TFV knowing you’d assume I’m a monster and put two in my head. It was a dumbass move and I kept doing it for three years running! The vigilantes I’ve got under-the-table deals with? More people like this,” James gestured to his face. “The ‘tips’ I give out to my team that put us in the position to protect civilians? Magic. That what you wanna hear? Except you can’t verify that either, so fuck off and quit with the fuckin’ runaround.”

Vasquez leaned in, brown eyes locked on James’s. “So why come back, Mister Dumbass?”

“Why - Jesus, lady. Why do you think? I swore an oath. An oath I haven’t been released from.” James leaned back, disbelief in his eyes. “Maybe that’s just words to you over at the spookshow, but it’s not to me, and not to anyone I’ve served with. ‘Always faithful’.”

Vasquez looked thoughtful for a moment, and then tossed something bright and metal in front of James. He looked down, dumbly, at the key sitting there.

“You’ve got forty-five minutes to figure out your most convincing version of that speech before you give it to the brass,” Vasquez said. “They’ve gotta try and give it to the White House and Congress, so you better make it good. You’re the third one of you folks we’ve found in the ranks, and the other two had to be sedated.”

“What the hell happened?” James asked, even as he uncuffed himself.

“Who knows, but the gig is up, Agent Nichols. And VALKYRIE is calling its shot. You up for preventing a war before it can start?”

“You gonna feed me better than McDonald’s?”

“I’ll feed you your own asshole if you keep sassing my cooking in my own house, wolfboy.”