#like if i had to pick a look for canon!joey THAT WOULD BE IT

[poppadom0912]

Hi, Would you make a Halstead!sister where she is a teen and have her very first boyfriend and when she decides to break up with him he hits her. She wants to hide it from her brothers but they found out anyway

Warnings: Abuse and violence, swearing, canon-typical injuries.

A/N: Okay, this fic will be the last one for a while and I mean it this time. Writing this was so random but I got sudden inspo when I found this half written soooo please do enjoy!!

You swear that this wasn't supposed to get as bad as it did.

You were still in high school and it might've been your first boyfriend and it definitely took too many tries to convince your brothers to give you permission to date but somehow, you got it in the end.

Several times, both Jay and Will but mainly Jay, warned you of abusive, manipulative and toxic partners which you knew existed but never thought you would date someone as such.

Joey was nice at first. After inviting him over for dinner a few times, your brothers began to be more lenient towards him though they would never admit it aloud.

Yes, they were still quite wary considering you were both still young and in school but over the course of a few months, you were finally allowed to go on a date alone without them acting as chaperones.

Then, it came to your break up.

During school, you and your best friend found Joey and another girl in your year locking lips against her locker without any shame at all. It was there and then you decided that evening you were going to break it off with him.

The two of you met up in the school car park where he would usually drive you home but unbeknownst to him, you had different plans for that today.

You hated how he was acting so nonchalant, the biggest smile on his face when he noticed you walking up to his car. You felt sick, desperately wanting to smack that smirk off his face.

"Y/N! Baby, I missed you at lunch. Where-" Joey started, opening his arms to embrace you but was cut off.

"Don't call me baby." You said sharply, your tone showing you were being completely serious. "We're done Joey."

Joey blinked, tilting his head to the side in confusion before laughing. "Oh Y/N, you're hilarious! Come on, we're going to my house-"

Once again, you cut him off, harshly shoving his hand off your elbow. "No, I'm being serious Joey. We're breaking up."

His face immediately fell at your words. All of a sudden, with the flip of a switch, he changed completely. It was so fast that it started scaring you.

Before allowing him to get a word in, you turned around so you could walk away and go home on your own but you were held back. A hand was suddenly tightly gripping your wrist, pulling you back towards Joey.

"What the hell!?" You exclaimed, trying to rip your hand out of his but he wouldn't budge.

"Joey, you're hurting me. Let go." You said, trying to reason with him but nothing was working.

You tried to calm him down, Jay's voice in the back of your mind explaining step by step what to do in cases like this but you found yourself frozen, unable to defend yourself alike to how you were taught.

It was all so sudden. One moment you were angrily staring up at Joey and the next you were looking to your left, your right cheek burning as it tingled with numbness.

Both of you were shocked at his actions. Using his shock to your advantage, you pulled your wrist out of his hand, ignoring the burning sensation you felt and ran.

*****

Unfortunately for you, it was a friday night and that meant both your older brothers were at home. Typically, on the weekends, you swapped and went to Will's before going back to Jay's for the weekdays. So that meant Will was at Jay's apartment to pick you up.

You were still breathing heavily as you entered the house, unintentionally slamming the front door shut as you came to your senses.

You were home. You were safe.

"Y/N, are you okay?" Jay shouted from the living room. He heard the door slam and was confused since he knew he specifically told you to never slam doors.

"Uh- yeah." You hesitated, licking your lips as you answered. "I'm, I'm good."

"You're red and sweaty- did you run all the way here?" Jay asked after a moment of studying you, taking note of your red cheeks and sweat collecting forehead.

"Yeah I did, I'm bursting for the toilet." You quickly thought of an excuse, lying about why you ran home.

Before he could reply, you dashed past him towards the bathroom to keep up with said lie.

"Hey Y/N-Oh..." Will words were lost as he watched you disappear as quick as he saw you.

"What's up with her?" Will asked, looking confusingly at Jay and down the hall where you disappeared.

"I'm not sure."

****

Joey went back to disturbing you as soon as monday came. The weekend seemingly getting on his nerves because he was buzzing monday morning to the point that you turned back around whenever you saw him.

But you could only run so far from him because at the end of the day as you waited for your best friend, he was grabbing you way too hard.

This process only repeated itself for the next two weeks, becoming almost routine where you only missed him for two days overall.

Three weeks since he first laid hands on you, you were now covered in an amalgamation of redness, bruises and finger-shaped marks.

Today though, today something changed.

It was friday, nearly a month since you broke up with Joey and you were walking to Med. Will was supposed to pick you up but his latest patient was causing problems and asked for you to walk to the hospital only ten minutes away.

So you and one of your friends who lived near that area walked together, departing as you reached the ED doors and she walked home.

As you waved her off, your smile bright and hurting still from how much both of you were laughing, you weren't paying too much attention to your surroundings. You didn't think there would be much danger outside a guarded ED but alas.

One second your waving your friend off and the next, your on your hands and knees on the floor. It happened so fast you couldn't comprehend what even occurred.

"What the-"

Someone harshly pulling you up stopped your trail of thought, their grip so tight that you couldn't focus on the burning in your palms and knees.

"Joey! Let me go you dickhead!" You shouted at the boy as soon as you looked up at the perpetrator.

Pulling your wrists from grasp, you grunted when his grip didn't let up, instead it did the opposite and tightened to the point that your hand was starting to go pale.

"Please Joey- Please just let me go and we can talk this out, I promise." You pleaded with him, eyes going glassy when he started pulling you away from the hospital entrance, panic finally setting in.

You tried pulling yourself away, heels digging into the ground to stop him but he was too strong, his height and build giving him an advantage along with being on the football team while you barely even participated in gym.

"Joey your hurting me-" You were cut off when he shoved you up against the wall head first and then repeatedly shoved your head back when you kept talking.

"Shut up bitch!" He almost screeched, hand on your forehead to prevent your head from moving, ensuring your eyes remained on him.

Your vision blurred, head banging with what felt like the worst headache in the universe. Your reply was simply a whine, no words possible due to the pain he inflicted.

His elbow was digging into your torso, your lungs and ribs restricted from any movement because of the pressure.

"J-Jo..." Everything of his increased, his grip, his shouts, the pain he caused.

Your breathing was taken away from you when he suddenly brought his fist to your torso repeatedly.

All of a sudden, he disappeared and you were falling, your legs unable to support you.

Before you could meet the ground, you were caught and being hauled into an embrace you hadn't felt in a decade. The familiar cologne one you bought with your own pocket money and a voice you'd known since birth.

"I've got you Y/N." Will whispered to you, cradling you gently in his arms.

"Ethan, you got him?" Will called out to his colleague but you were so out of it you couldn't see the other doctor.

"I'll handle him, get her inside." Ethan replied as he restrained Joey, his past military training helping him plenty.

The last thing you remembered was Will's reassuring words before everything went black.

*****

"We have to wait for her to wake up to determine how bad the concussion is but besides that, she's okay." Will finished explaining to Jay the prognosis who arrived five minutes ago.

"She's also got old bruises." Jay finally looked up from your face to Will's, anguish clear on the latter's face. "This has been going on for a while now."

Jay was speechless.

He was at a crime scene when Will called him, something neither brother did when they knew the other was at work and despite trying to anticipate what was going to happen, he could never guess it would be this.

Will explained that he and Ethan were taking a quick breather outside together after the death of their last patient when they heard a man shouting and though they couldn't see you, Will easily recognised Joey.

While Ethan subdued Joey, Will wasted no time in getting you to safety and inside the ED where Connor treated you.

There would be no long lasting effects from any of the injuries but they were bound to stick around for a while and they would definitely hurt.

Will couldn't get it out of his memory - seeing your ex boyfriend continuously punching you with no remorse and almost strangling you with the death grip he had. Will saw it every time he blinked and felt like puking.

Jay had walked passed Joey when he entered the ED and to say he felt like throttling the boy was putting it very, very lightly.

But Jay had plans for little Joey, he was more than confident that Voight would let him have a few words with him later. Especially if it involved you - his boss seemed to have a weak spot whenever you were involved, everyone did.

"I need to find Goodwin and get off shift early, I'll be back." Will said. Maggie could only do so much for so long.

Jay hummed. "I've got her, she's not going anywhere don't worry."

Will hadn't been gone for long when you started coming back to. Jay was messaging Hailey, asking for updates on what they were doing with Joey when he felt your fingers twitch in his other available hand.

Jay waited patiently, forcing himself to let you take your time and not rush you just in case. Will mentioned a concussion that they weren't too sure on the extent on its damage.

Your whimpers had his heart in your control, a lump in his throat at you clearly in pain and his inability to cure and rid of all your ills.

Seeing your eyes, the colour so bright under the hospital lights and because of the fear you felt so vividly, Jay found himself unable to breath for a moment.

"Is he gone?" You whispered, voice hoarse as you squinted up at your older brother.

"Yes he is." Jay nodded, ignoring the burning that randomly enveloped his eyes and brushed your hair back with such a feather light touch that you didn't register the gesture. "He's never going to touch or bother you ever again, I promise."

The only response you could formulate was tears, the waterworks instant as soon as the words came out of Jay's mouth.

"Will and I will make sure nothing happens ever again, we promise."

[smytherines]

for the choose violence ask game, 3 and 25

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

For me, its the "Owen was probably even worse before the fall" one. I disagree with it, but it's whatever, I don't hold any ill will towards them or anything we just have very different interpretations

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

I dunno if this is common necessarily, but I have seen it pop up a few times: that theorizing about what Owen's post-fall experience might have been like is creating a trauma for him that does not exist in canon

I think pretty much everyone in the fandom can agree that the fall was a very traumatic event for Curt, that it destroys his life and sense of self, that it devastates him mentally and emotionally. He's our protagonist, we can see the effect the fall had on him, so we're all in agreement that it fucked him up (understandably)

But there is sometimes a tendency in the fandom to minimize Owen's experience after the fall, or erase it entirely. Like people saying he faked his death (no he did not), or that he was totally fine after the fall and wanted revenge purely to be a petty bitch about nothing more than a bad breakup. And that's weird to me, because even strictly in canon what happened to Owen is at the very least equally traumatic for him. He falls far enough that it is reasonable for Curt to assume (with barely a glance) that Owen is either dead or dying, or that Curt simply does not have time to get to him, Curt leaves Owen for dead, then the building explodes. I think that alone, with no additional details, is enough to severely fuck a person up. At the very least on par with what Curt goes through in his four year grieving period

And the more detail you add in, the more the line "the horror of staying alive" makes sense. So if we include the Joey Richter tweets (which I think it's reasonable to at least discuss them, he is one of the co-writers) then it looks like Owen fell about two stories (so probably 20-30ft) onto what is presumably an iron or steel structure. That's automatically... many, many injuries. The most likely in a fall being broken bones, spiral cord injuries, and traumatic brain injuries. Plus probably burns because explosion. Then we have this:

So if we add in the possibility of Owen being captured by the Russians and bailed out/nursed to health (and "groomed"???) by Chimera, then things start to get a whole lot more horrifying

I think its very fair to debate the effects this sequence of events has on him and to what degree they explain and/or mitigate his actions, but in my opinion it is not reasonable to deny they happened at all. At the very least the baseline of "a fucked up thing happened and they are both profoundly fucked up by it" is the most accurate way to describe the canon events of the show

And then strictly on a personal level, thinking about what Owen's experience could have been like being severely injured in Russian custody and then being bailed out by Chimera, that's very interesting to me. I love picking apart characters, especially ones who -- in the real world, at least-- would be disabled. I'm personally very interested in how pain and injury and illness impact people, how isolation and heartbreak and being dependant on someone else for your survival can do some incredibly fucked up things to a person. Analysis is fun! And there absolutely is a canon traumatic event to analyze when it comes to Owen

[pretty-batty]

Would you like to come back?

Eddie x Original Female Character Pt 2 of Eldath's Priestess 2406 words

No warnings. Tags: Dungeons and Dragons, table top gameplay, flashback usage marked by =, slight angst, Jewish oc, family dynamics. Now on ao3 No beta this time. We ride like the Rohirrim in the Battle of the Pelennor.

Summary: Judy gets reacquainted with her favorite troupe of misfits, and the newest members.

Notes: Not canon compliant, alternate history of Hellfire, semi-accurate portrayal of Dungeons and Dragons. hint of Eddie the Simp.

Judy was buzzing with excitement, tossing her dice bag into her purse. She had gotten the call from Fred Emerson, the Dungeon Master of Hawkins legend, immediately asking her if she would “join in the newest crusade against the Shadow Lord”. She had never accepted an offer to quickly in her life.

The handmade drawstring bag kept her pencil case company as she went to her suitcase and pulled out her binder, cracking it open. From the corner pocket, she saw her old character sheet.

Feyanim Hellarad       Half-Elf Cleric            Lvl- 14- High Priestess          Lawful Good

From banished princess to priestess of Eldath, yearning for adventure far from the cloister and the crown.

Her memory played vignettes of her times as Nim, starting with her older brother, introducing her to the game on her twelfth birthday.

“A princess? Are you sure?” he had asked.

Little Judy nodded at her desk, “yeah! But she has a heart of gold. Forced into the cloister by her mother, the queen, and her jealous stepfather, the king.”

“Is she illegitimate?”

“I think so. That would add…” She paused, searching for the word.

“Angst.”

“Yeah…angst.”

Judy’s eyes shot to her bedside clock. 3:45. Fifteen minutes to get to Scott’s place, pick him up, and drive to Fred Emmerson’s place for the game. After a year without playing, in Pittsburgh where her brother’s body lay buried, she was itching for the game to continue. Her old group, her old comrades. She finally exited her front door.

                                                            =

Her brother, the dungeon master, introduced her to the group the first Friday of freshman year, Eddie in tow. His hair was longer than when she had last seen him. She had hoped he would grow it out.

The newest members of Hellfire club, the trailer park metalhead and the nepo-baby.

Her stomach was in knots. Where were the other girls?

Before she could open her mouth, Eddie took a step forward, his voice booming throughout the stage. “I am Edward the Stalwart, half-orc fighter, prepared to cast off the bonds of the past through my unquenchable thirst of adventure.”

“And how do we know you, young Edward, have the grit to join the band of fearless warriors who sit before you?” Joey asked, theatrically gesturing to the other men at the table.

To be honest, she had tuned out Eddie’s answer, too paranoid about her own.

Their gazes turned to her now. “I…am Feyanim Hellarad, half-elf cleric.” She cleared her throat, feeling a push of energy, “from banished princess to priestess of Eldath, I yearn for adventure beyond the cloister and the crown.”

The table was quiet. She looked at Eddie, whose sweet brown eyes gave her the encouragement she needed.

“And what makes you, dear princess, fit for adventure as a priestess of the most peaceful of Gods?” Her brother asked, no longer the Joey she was used to, but the DM, omniscient voice of the world she wished to join.

The question stumped her. It was a good question. Why would she venture from Eldath’s still waters to join this rowdy band of fools?

She heard two of the older boys make a comment, leading to a chuckle, which turned into a laugh. A ginger boy, bespectacled and haughty, called over to Joey. “Listen, man. We get that she’s your sister and all, but is she really ready for advanced Dungeons and Dragons?”

Judy’s lips pursed in irritation. Staring down the table, she took a step further, placing her foot on what she planned to be her chair, puffing her chest out. “I am already a priestess, skilled in the healing arts. And by all that is holy, I will ensure your survival. Something tells me you lack a healer in this party. If I may be frank, this party lacks any sense at all.”

“Then welcome, Princess Hellarad, to Hellfire.” Joey placed a hand on her shoulder, whispering with pride, “good job.”

She sat down, beside the boy who had talked down to her, and across from the boy she had known for years. Judy and Eddie’s eyes met, excited to be joining the first campaign of the year. They reached across and grasped each other’s hands, uncertain of why. Was it a shake of mutual friendship? Or did she just want to touch him, like she always had, and he finally wanted the same?

Before the winter break, Joey had planned first boss fight, a paladin oathbreaker and his undead horde was prepared to slaughter the party. He took his job as DM very seriously, carefully considering all player’s strengths and weaknesses, deciding what path he wanted them to go down. He was more narrative focused, though his battles were just as intense.

“What is your action, princess?”

“There is still time we can make it.” Shouted Marty.

Eddie sucked in a breath, “I’m already down. We can’t last much longer.”

“Your action princess.” Joey insisted.

Judy looked at Eddie, who gave her a nod. He was on board. The others were either prone, dying, or occupied by the undead horde. She looked at the rogue, Andreas the Swift, who had yet to reveal himself. He gave her a nod.

“Does he see me?”

“In his fury he has paid no mind to you.”

“Then I get advantage.” Judy gritted her teeth, “I cast command,” rattling her first d20 and sending it to the table, 14, with her modifier it still wouldn’t hit. The next d20 followed with her call, 19, with her wisdom modifier that would be a twenty-three.

Her brother cracked a smile, an evil smile. She felt her heart sink before her brother froze, as if struck by lightning. “What is your command?” He bellowed.

From the far end of the table, her finger extended, and she cried out, “grovel!”

“Yes…” Her brother slammed his hands on the table along with his face, to make it seem as though he threw himself down, “my la..dy…”

Knowing it was his turn, the halfling assassin played his held action and backstabbed the prone paladin oathbreaker, with advantage, and all his proficiencies, doing heavy damage. Judy’s command turned the tide. That and her brother’s two very unfortunate rolls.

                                                            =

Summer rains were Judy’s least favorite. The droplets themselves, warmed by the atmosphere, felt like stones against her skin. Fat rain, heavy rain. Also, the humidity made her hair both expand an extra half an inch in width and cling to any piece of skin it touched. A hot, wet, sweaty mess.

She slid quickly into her 1970 Volkswagen beetle, closing the door behind her. There was her cleric figurine, mounted with a rolled slip of duct tape, and sitting beside her was an armor-clad half-orc, her lover’s paladin. Gifted to her before she left for Pittsburgh by Eddie Munson, the presiding Dungeon Master of the Hawkins High School Hellfire Club.

“I won’t need him anymore. Besides, I don’t think I could bring myself to separate the princess from her paladin.” He took her hand and enfolded his figurine in her palm, “as sadistic of a DM I might be, I would never.”

Judy’s lips fought back a frown, “I’m sorry. I just can’t stay here and wait…”

“I know,” he released her hand to caress her face, bringing her lips to his in a gentle kiss. “You’re still my girl, however far you go.” Another kiss, this time on the bridge of her nose. A journey up to her face that he had taken many times before, a path he adored. “And when I graduate this year,” his lips rested on her forehead, his nose nestling in her hair, “I will get in my van and come to you.”

“Class of eighty-six.” She smiled.

She started her trusty steed, twisting the key in the ignition and listening to the turnover. Knocking it into reverse, flicking on the windshield wipers, she looked over her shoulder to pull out smoothly from the driveway.

“Eighty-six, baby.” Eddie’s voice echoed once again though Judy’s ears, as the phantom kiss still warmed her skin. She never should have left, never should have watched him shrink away as she drove further from her home. Her eyes graced back as if he was still standing there. Nothing.

The citizens and military personnel had entered a regular routine, the belching crags that divided the town into fourths became as normal as creeks and cliffs. Judy’s practice of Pittsburgh navigation took a backseat to the slow and cautious pace of post-earthquake Hawkins. None of her destinations were severed by a crack. First, five minutes away, was Scott Clark, another teacher. He had started the year after Judy entered high school, taking over for Emma Magil for 8th grade science.

Their journey went off without any conflict. Judy had asked him about his fiancée. Scott had asked her how her mother was doing. Neither really dug into the unspoken sorrow in the air. She parked her beetle in the street, as the driveway was already full of cars. The two got out and joined in the festivities within.

The kitchen and the dining room were separated by a countertop, upon which was a lineup of various snacks. A veggie tray, some cheese and crackers, tiny sausages on toothpicks, mini ham and cheese sandwiches.

God bless you, Sheryl. Judy thought.

Fred had married Sheryl Kaufmann when Gareth was in middle school. Joey would drag Judy to these grownup games at the Emerson house. She’d sit with Gareth as he kicked rocks in the driveway. Sheryl would come out with snacks, and he’d grumble a forced ‘thank you’.

That woman tried so hard. She didn’t make him call her mom. No pushing boundaries, forcing herself to be liked by her stepson. But she still tried. And even when Gareth warmed up to her, called her ‘Cher-bear’ when she called him ‘Gare-bear’, told her he loved her too, she still felt the need to prove herself. She wanted him to have a good home, a place to feel safe and happy.

In the end, they all loved Sheryl.

“Celery’s gross.” Gareth said, staring blankly at the veggie.

“You don’t have to eat it.” Said Sheryl as she floated through the kitchen.

“Not to everyone,” Dustin reached his hand past the upper classman’s gaze, fishing out three sticks of green and placing them on his plate.

“I don’t know, Henderson.” Judy rattled her d20s in her hand, releasing them on the table. “Celery is just bitter and stringy.” She sighed at her results, “Guess purple and red are going to dice jail.” The dice clattered in her brother’s old ashtray. “Bummer, these were his.”

“Whose?” Will asked, sliding next to her at the table.

“My late brother, he was the DM of Hellfire before Eddie.” She answered, rolling the final two dice, “nine-teen and twelve, guess I’m using these.”

Will sat awkwardly, taking a moment to salvage the situation. “I didn’t realize Hellfire was so old.”

“Oh yeah, it started as an offshoot of the chess club.” Judy popped a tiny sausage into her mouth, half her mouth chewing as the other half continued, “My brother was a sophomore. Fred was the teacher who signed off on it. Seventy-eight, I think. I came in two years later and somehow these guys had already set up their boys’ club.”

Andrew dropped his bag on the table, sitting on the opposite side of Judy. “And how is our beloved nepo-baby? Still squeezing into places she might not be wanted?” Setting his cane down between them, he slumped into the hardwood chair.

“God, you are such a dick. I saved your lives how many times in my four years as your resident cleric?”

“None of that matters now, your eminence.” A voice bellowed.

Dressed in his Renaissance best, Fred Emrerson slowly made his way down the stairs to the dining room, the wood creaking below his weight. His graying auburn hair tucked under his feathered flat cap. “Such a high ranking Eldathyn priestess should do well not to dwell on lives owed.”

“Wait…Eldath?” Dustin slid beside Will, “what’s your name again?”

“Uh..Nim Hellara-”

“No, your actual name.”

“It’s Judy.”

“No. Actually, Hebrew name.” He insisted.

“Who says I have a Hebrew name?”

“You’re a Jew, of course you have one.” The table let out a chorus of sniffs in amusement. Dustin was always frank, seeing no point in sugarcoating and beating around any proverbial bushes.

Judy nodded; lips pressed in a thin line. “Yudit-Miriam after my great-grandmother.”

The young teenager smiled, as if the pieces of an ongoing puzzle fit into place. “Huh.”

Once Fred reached his chair at the end of the dining room table, the game began.

The tavern was busier than usual, the cloud giants had occupied a nearby summer palace. And with unusual activity and monsters to be slain, comes many an adventurer hoping to increase their renown, or their coffers.

Judy worried Nim would struggle to fit in, but with Andreas the Swift by her side, she was quickly welcomed into the party.

“Nimmy,” he asked, “what’s that thing you used to do? That poem?”

“The limericks?” She clarified. They nodded and Judy took a sip of her lemon-lime pop. She began.

“There was once a woman from Wheeling, who had a particular feeling. She laid on her back, tickled her crack, and pissed all over the ceiling.”

It got a laugh. But her eyes fell once more to Dustin as his gaze burned into the side of her head.

The younger players were at a lower level compared to the others, and Fred had planned accordingly. But Andrew, Scott, and Judy pulled most of the weight, Gareth and Jeff were auxiliary. But Fred was a kinder DM compared to Eddie. He never liked to punish his players, and only wished for a good story and plenty of laughs. The younger players: Dustin, Will, Mike, Lucas, and Erica, were uneasy and borderline paranoid. No doubt traumatized by Eddie or the tales of him.

“Perception check on the door.” Erica rattled the dice, “not gonna let you take me out because of some trap.”

Fred was ready to tell her it was ‘just a door’, but he let her roll anyway. And even with her nat16 and the modifier, she still refused to believe it wasn’t rigged with a trap.

Judy’s character stepped forward, holding her shield up in front of Erica. “Okay, if something happens, you won’t get hit.” The lock was picked, door opened to the next room. No bomb, no spikes, no danger, just a door.

“A valid fear, my lady.” Scott’s druid reassured Erica, “the Gods can be cruel.”

Judy leaned in and whispered to her, “Fred doesn’t run games like Eddie. The worst thing he tried to do was the Tomb of Horrors. A tenth of the way through, he scrapped it. The only time I heard him use the ‘just a dream’ cliché.”

 “I read that module after that session, and it is so asinine. And the captured nymph thing was so creepy.” Andrew Grumbled.

They continued through the maze of corridors, an entire world inside the walls of the small palace, occupied by a very uncomfortable cloud giant.

Through a spell of marching teapots and a well-placed howl from a dark corner, the group managed to rid the small castle of the cloud giant squatter. The fact of the matter is, not all D&D sessions are climactic battles or salacious dramas. Sometimes, it’s just pretending to be ghosts to scare away a cloud giant because he’s too high level and no one wants to die.

Once the session was over, Fred offered to give Scott a ride if he agreed to stay for a few more beers. Judy had her own belongings packed. While she had enjoyed herself for the first time in recent memory, the ache in her chest refused to abate. It wasn’t the same without her paladin.

The air draped over the trees, the smoke from the cracks caught beneath the thick layer of moisture. It stuck to her skin, her hands becoming clammy with each swipe across her shorts. She just wanted to get home.

Dustin stopped her before she got to her car.

“You’re Yudit Mountain Song.”

“Yudit Mountain Song?”

“Yeah,” Dustin opened Eddie’s binder of character sheets, messily flipping through the pages. Judy watched the many NPCs fly by, familiar faces and strangers alike, until she finally saw it. Her face. “She’s a reoccurring character, a half-elf bard who gave us some excellent quests and much needed rescues. Even gave my character her harp, lets me have an extra bardic inspiration slot after a long rest.” He excitedly handed the binder off to Judy.

She gazed at her own face, her own body. He had given her some additions, fantasy length hair and a lyre. Her lips parted in song. Eddie had made her a singer.

“I knew you looked familiar.” Dustin continued. “At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but then you said that dirty limerick and I remembered Eddie saying that exact joke when introducing her before the Vecna storyline.”

Judy flipped through the character sheets until reaching the back. Eddie had made one for Kas, altering little traits to mirror himself.

“Pretty sure Yudit and Kas used to connect, before his sword made him all…evil.”

“Maybe I was the blade and not the bard, slowly pulling him to the darkness, seducing him with power.” She smiled, “or maybeeee I was both.” Judy closed the binder, handing it back to Dustin. “I’m sure we’ll never know.”

Thank you for reading! This is a passion project of mine, and it means a lot that you are taking time out of your life to read this. Next chapter very soon...like tomorrow maybe. tag list: @voyeurmunson

[rosalind-hawkins]

Hihi!! Seto Kaiba for the character ask 3 and 7?

Thank you for asking! Answers for this post and still taking asks if anyone else is interested!

3. What was their best canon look?

I'm actually quite tied between his Duelist Kingdom outfit (I love it so much I have my own version of it for myself, as just regular clothes) and his white suit from season five (is just so slick and professional). Obviously his upgraded dueling outfit in DSOD was awesome and extra, but I like to think more about what Kaiba wears day to day. The Duelist Kingdom outfit is the closest we see him get to being casual ever, and unless I'm mistaken, the first scene we see that outfit is when he's working on the Duel Disk prototype. It's the outfit he picked for fiddling with his tech in his own home, and that makes it feel more personal, in a sense. This is what he wore when he was alone and not necessarily trying to impress anybody, and we don't get to see that part of Kaiba too often. (And in my Rock Bottom series, this is the outfit I have him in from halfway in Season Zero up through the end of Season Two, so this one is almost def my fave based on that.)

7. What do you think they would appreciate as a gift?

I had to triple check this one because I kept getting it mixed up with 5 and I was like, "wait, I already have something written for this, don't I?" and the answer is true for both, actually.

The thing about Kaiba is, he can already have whatever he wants. That's the worst kind of person to buy a present for, because you think, "Well if he wanted this, he would have gotten it for himself already, yeah?" And that's not necessarily true with Kaiba. He doesn't make time to take care of himself or enjoy himself, so a gift geared toward that would be very appreciated from a loved one. So I think secretly planning a vacation for him (Mokuba or Ishizu) or custom handmade BEWD art of some kind (Ryou) would be really nice for him. In the past I've usually written Joey as giving him *ahem* certain sexual experiences *ahem* as a present because Joey doesn't pretend he can give Kaiba a good gift, but he does know that he can show him a good time.

Another thing that would be sweet and specifically thoughtful imo (and this feels like something Duke would do) would be to look at the years that he was either in the orphanage or with Gozaburo, track down the systems and game copies for the best games that came out during those years, and spend a few weekends with him playing the games he missed out on during the time that he most needed them. Make sure that time is blocked out on his schedule and just have fun.

In Power of Three, well before Ryou and Seto get together, Ryou gives him a Christmas card with a single serving of tea inside, and at the time he's Kaiba's first actual real authentic genuine sees-him-as-a-real-human-being, talks-literature-and-philosphy-with-him-over-coffee FRIEND, so he's just touched way more by it than Ryou realizes. The gift is part of Kaiba's new experience with genuine friendship. It's just a little thing, but coming from Ryou, it meant something.

I have actually spent a lot of time on this question before and written a few of those scenes. And that was a really long answer to two simple questions, sorry about that! 😅

For fun, I'm including a snippet from my old Euroshipping fic Tainted Love below, where Ryou gives Kaiba a handmade BEWD sculpture for Christmas, it elaborates on it being a good gift for him (besides the obvious reason).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Go ahead, open it. But be careful: it's fragile."

Intrigued, Seto tugged away the ribbon, peeled back the wrapping paper, and removed the lid of the box. He lifted away the flat piece of styrofoam and lifted away a few layers of tissue paper—then stopped, eyes wide in genuine surprise. As carefully as he was capable of doing so, Seto extracted his gift from its nest of protective wrapping.

"Did you make this?" he asked, voice so quiet that Ryou could hardly hear him above the sound of the fire.

"Yes." Ryou swallowed nervously, then continued, because Seto's silence unnerved him, "I started working on it a while ago, and the first few attempts kinda sucked because I was out of practice. I got some higher quality paints to use on it too, and because I know an art major who owed me a favor, I was able to bake it in a proper kiln. I was afraid that it might not be ready in time—"

"It's beautiful."

"Thank you." Ryou'd never heard Seto so soft-spoken before. He'd heard him whisper, but that was different from this. Even after all the time they'd spent together, the brunette's current expression was one that Ryou'd never seen and he didn't know how to interpret it.

"It reminds me," Seto said slowly after a brief pause, "Of when Mokuba made the Blue-Eyes card for me when I was a kid."

Ryou perked up a little. He'd never heard this story before.

"We'd been here for less than a month, and I already hated it." He traced his index finger over the delicate details of glossy porcelain wings. "He made that card to encourage me, because we weren't allowed to see each other. That's how he saved me, and that was also the day I swore I would own a real Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, since that was my first one. I'm not the type to accumulate objects because of the sentimentality attributed to them, but... I still have it."

"It brings back good memories, I hope," Ryou murmured, tucking one arm under Kaiba's and giving it an affectionate squeeze.

"Indeed it does."

When Kaiba began to set aside the wrappings, Ryou released him and let Kaiba stand, standing up with him. Kaiba carefully set the hand-made, ten-inch painted sculpture of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the center of the inset shelf above the fireplace that served as a mantelpiece. It's mouth was open, each of the teeth pointed as it screeched at them, its wings spread behind it as it gripped the rocky crag that formed the base of the statuette. It's eyes caught the light with a brilliant sparkle.

"Are those... real sapphires?"

"I couldn't find or make a shade of blue that could do its eyes justice." Ryou ducked his head bashfully.

"You really shouldn't have—"

"Don't worry about how I got them," Ryou interrupted, trying to put Seto's mind at ease. "The only hard part was setting them in his eyes so that they didn't look out of place."

[turningvioletviolet]

Okay so I just finished the Nerdy Prudes Must Die digital ticket, and I have to say, the most interesting part of watching it is that this crowd...didn't really seem to have watched Nightmare Time?

There were a lot of NMT callbacks and references in the show, and when I saw it live (closing weekend, not opening like the digital ticket), people cheers so fucking loudly at all of them that it actually started to annoy me because at times you couldn't hear what the actors were saying/singing over the cheers.

Some of the most notable examples of this include (massive spoilers ahead, obviously):

"You kind of look like that homeless guy from downtown".

The digital ticket crowd laughed at the joke, sure, but the closing weekend audience fucking lost it.

That's because it's a three layered joke: first there's Richie's simple dig at Pete looking homeless, second there's the inside joke that Joey actually plays both Pete and the homeless guy, but third there's the fact that the homeless guy is canonically Pete's older brother time traveled to the past...they just don't know it.

The digital ticket audience laughed an appropriate level for a group that recognized the first, maybe the second layer of the joke. But it was the closing weekend crowd that absolutely lost it.

(And it wasn't just a matter of the cheers not being audible - later on, when the "I have been waiting for my hot chocolate for what feels like five fucking years" joke came on, the digital audience screamed exactly as loud as they did when I saw the show live closing weekend. So the issue isn't how much audience noise the mics picked up, it's how many audience members understood the reference)

The Lords in Black

First of all, even before the Lords in Black appeared onstage, when the teens were starting the ritual, the audience in closing weekend was already losing it, whereas the digital ticket audience was dead silent. When the Lords in Black actually appeared, both audiences screamed and cheered, but I swear the closing weekend audience cheered for FAR longer, well into the actual singing. There's a much more telling fact, though.

When I saw the show live, people would cheer like crazy for just about every bit of spoken dialogue, be it Nibbly's "I wanna lick it" or Blinky's "We've been watching you Gracey".

I think the line that got the loudest applause was Tinky's "Oh boy, a Spankoffski! I'm gonna have the whole set in my toy box!" Like, people were freaking the fuck. out. at that line.

But in the digital ticket...that didn't really seem to happen. They reacted like it was just generally creepy dialogue, not like any of it actually meant anything to them.

Until Wiggly spoke, of course, and spoke of "friendy wends" and his "Christmas list". Then the audience lost it. Which suggests to me that they had seen Black Friday, but not Nightmare Time, and certainly not Time Bastard.

Hatchetfield Action News with Dan and Donna

On the first announcement, I swear to god people were cheering so loudly that you'd have though it was Joey and Lauren actually onstage and not a voiceover. I actually had no idea what the first half of that announcement actually said until I watched the digital ticket because the cheers were THAT. LOUD.

The second announcement was almost as bad, but not quite. But then Dan and Donna actually came onstage in the middle of a song, and there went my ability to discern a single lyric for a hot minute, lmao.

The Black Book

As soon as the teens picked up an object wrapped in cloth, I heard gasps and turned around and you could tell that people already knew what it was going to be. And as the object got unwrapped, those gasps erupted into ecstatic cheers.

Watching the digital ticket, having seen that, felt almost uncomfortable because of how dead silent the audience was. They weren't seeing the Black Book oh my GOD, they were waiting to find out what the mayor just had them dig up. Hell, when Pete asked, "a book?", there were a few chuckles from the crowd. Nobody was fucking chuckling on closing weekend, let me tell you.

And more

Mostly just little things, honestly. When Soloman Lauter first mentioned The Church of the Starry Children, and the crowd burst into cheers. When Grace was telling the story of what happened to the Waylans, and the audience made a possible connection to the whole "Axe Men" thing.

So yeah.

I wanna reiterate that, despite being one of the people freaking out, it honestly was kinda annoying, especially once the Black Book came out and things got lore-heavy.

Like, I kinda wanted everyone in the audience to shut up for two seconds so I could just watch the plot, lol. But at the same time, it was very energizing and validating, hearing so many people externally losing their minds the same way I was losing mind internally.

I'll also say that for the more dramatic scenes, like when they were digging up the black book or reciting the incantation, it does come off as more tense when the audience is dead silent, compared to an audience losing their marbles.

Anyway, to say the least, it'll be interesting to see what type of audience the YT release has (they did have cameras on either end of the aisle through the show I attending, so I'm guessing that they'll use some of that footage, but I wouldn't be surprised if they compile multiple shows' worth of footage to make the cleanest possible YT release).

[iamlostsomewhereinthegarden]

Braiding Yugioh Hair Headcannons

Me writing this came to me in my dreams actually

You’re the Kaiba’s adopted sibling that’s just a year younger than the gang!

Yugi Muto:

* The only place that you can actually braid properly is those yellow bangs and it still sticks up awkwardly

* The amount of products and hairpins you have to use to braid his hair in his head and have it stay on his head is enormous

* The only way that you didn’t go broke by buying the products and hairpins was by tricking Kaiba into wanting to see yugi with his hair braided down

* Aka telling him he would never be able to get the products to keep his hair down, it works really well

* Honestly yugi was just happy to spend so much time with you despite the hectic process

* The braiding sesh was actually fun for him and Yami was so confused and amazed when he was in control of the body

* Yugi also enjoyed the shocked looks he received when others especially the gang saw his hair completely braided down

* A lot of people thought the world was gonna end lol

* His hair was back standing after 3 weeks

* 2 weeks with products in before washing it out then another week of the hair slowly rising back up

* He enjoyed his time with braids

* You tried braiding his hair without products

* But to keep it down you had to place either a bunch of clips or hair ties and it ended up giving him a headache

* “Yeah Y/N these clips aren’t going to work, sorry!”

* It was a shame too seeing as you got him dark magician hair

* So it was flying braids or spending a lot of money to keep them braids down

* Your pick

* The only time it works without product is when his hair is soaked

* But then it’s frizzy and weird when it dries, better to not do it

* At least once every 3 months Kaiba buys the products to relax Yugi’s hair in order to braid it cause you bother him for it

Seto Kaiba:

* Don’t you dare touch my hair

* This rule applies only before work and important meetings or galas

* Ofc you can braid his hair any other time and he’ll wear it pridefully out of work

* Kaiba is weak to his younger siblings (cause they’re his only family members)

* He doesn’t wear it to work only because a whole crew of valuable people almost got fired for making fun of the braids his sibling did

* “It seems you guys don’t value your jobs huh?”

* He still comes in to work time to time with braids and clips but no one dared to j joke or laugh about it now

* Yeah he has short hair, but he grows it out just enough for you to make some braids in it

* Mokuba enjoys braiding his hair too

* You guys add a bunch of BEWD clips into his hair also so Kaiba walks around even more prideful

* He enjoys his clips

* Braiding Seto’s hair is bonding time whether it’s just the two of you or all 3 siblings

Mokuba Kaiba:

* Braiding his hair is also sibling bonding time

* He gets his hair done on the regular though and takes great pride in it

* His hair is really messy and gets tangled easily so the braid is the best thing for his hair

* You joke often and call him Rapunzel

* A bunch of Kuriboh pins are added to his hair much to Seto’s disgust but he doesn’t say anything

* Almost threw hands at school for someone making fun of it

* “My older sibling did it for me, I bet you wish you had two cool older siblings like mine huh?”

* Despite hands not being thrown the other kid was roasted so bad you had to pick him up cause the teacher took him out of class

* “They started it by making fun of your work!”

* That kid better pray their parents don’t get laid off cause Seto is petty af

*You’re also really pissed when he cuts his hair later, but convinces him to not cut his hair as short as canon

Joey Wheeler:

* Doesn’t like his mullet being changed

* But through the power of you and Serenity he eventually relents

* His hair is great

* You give him cornrows cause of the “Brooklyn Rage” joke to mess with him

* He likes it

* This session also cause Serenity to get her hair braided

* It turns into a bonding session between your boyfriend and his sister

* It’s really cute and he enjoys this time

* But ain’t no one catching him outside the house with the braids

* He’s got a reputation to upkeep

* But I’m the safety of his or your home he’ll gladly wear it

* Or wear it with a hat

* He only wears it at your house cause Seto refuses to make fun of your work

* Actually is kinda cool with Seto cause he also gets stuck in the hair braiding bonding time so they spend time together anyways

Ryou Bakura:

* Have you seen his hair?

* It’s most likely Mokuba quality but fluffier

* He enjoys having his hair braided

* It’s relaxing and destressing

* Has definitely fallen asleep with you braiding his hair

* But he’s def tender headed

* So no box braids or super tight twists, plaits, or braids

* Reminds him of doing his younger sister’s hair

* And when his mother did his hair before he left to be by himself

* When he comes over for hair braiding day at the Kaiba place the staff knows it’ll be a calm day

* Man can make the situation calm af on this day

* Takes care of everyone’s hair and makes it’s hair not tangled

* Mokuba loves him cause of this reason and approves of the relationship

* Seto and Ryou works on promotional art, ads and other business stuff Ryou during the hair caring sessions

Marik Ishtar:

* OMG ITS HAIR BRAIDING TIME AINT IT?!?!?

* Loves his hair getting done with you

* Enjoys your hand in his hair

* Brings him great comfort as it means someone isn’t scared to touch him and actually loves him

* Reminds him of the time his father was actually nice to him and ruffled his hair and he braided his dad’s hair

* Also reminds him of the peaceful times when Ishizu braided his hair and when they did Rashid’s hair

* You bring back the sessions and he’s very happy about

* Actually the whole family is

* Always has some drink with him for this time

* Is actually part of his self care schedule

* It specifically says in his routine list:

* “Y/N braiding my hair”

* Very good family banding time

* Good job on helping bring the family back together!

Duke Devlin:

* Has you often braid it

* Finds it fun and relaxing

* Crap ton of dungeon dice monsters and dice monster hair accessories made by Kaiba Corp specifically for him based on your request

* Speaking of which, he would also be someone to do business during the hair sessions

* But the staff knows it’s gonna be a chaotic day when he comes over

* Screws around with Seto but genuinely helps Mokuba with his hair

* Has you try to do his hair in multiple complicated styles

* His hair is silky smooth but thick af

* Sometimes he falls asleep when you card your hand through his hair before braiding it

* Loves the time you spend together doing hair and make up the most outside of cuddling

Maximillion Pegasus:

* In this case Pegasus is your adoptive father and you’re friends with the friendship gang through Duelist Kingdom

* Hair care day is a weekly thing

* Minimum of once a week it happens but it usually happens every single day

* He wants to connect with the child that reminds him of his dear wife

* This is how he first connected with you when you were newly adopted and still shy

* Eventually you become comfortable with him but the braids are really bad

* Now we speed up to the present and you’re an expert hairstylist and your braids are immaculate

* His hair is silky smooth and thing too

* When you’re sad he comes in and it’s a hair makeover session!

Tags: @reallyromealone @jkloserdazai @kokonoiscoconut @gaybitchfx

[taiyami]

1, 3, 4 and 5 for both Jounouchi and Yugi please!

!! YES CHEF RIGHT AWAY !

My darling Jounouchi Gnocci and Yugi Boogie..

1. Okay yall are going to kill me. I never watched pokemon and I played like 2% of platinum growing up. I also never watched Digimon. SO! I'm going to do what I do best and assign them a BIRD ! ! !

I was kind of torn on Yugi, I really want him to be a belted kingfisher because they're one of my childhood favorites (and to me? Fit his energy?) They don't really stand out with any extraordinary behaviors though, so I'm also placing him with a parrotlet.

Parrotlets are the smallest parrot species and they're mischievous little birds that are SO sweet and extremely smart, they fit him very well. I hope to own one some day ^_^

-> Jou was SUCH an easy choice for me, what immediately came to mind was some kind of corvidae family member. I think he could be a jackdaw, but Scrub Jay's are soo him to me <3 They're pretty smart, playful, have big barks and are very under-appreciated birds! Just like our Jou.

3. Favorite Canon Looks?

-> This question haunts me because I love pretty much all of Yugi's outfits, including the stupid capsule monster filler arc armor suits 😭 Yugi was one of my biggest fashion idols growing up as a queer emo kid. I'd have to say his classic DK/S0 outfit is truly my favorite if I had to pick one. The symbolism of his thick leather vest that connects to his choker underneath his normal school uniform has always been eye catching for me. I also much preferred the rope on the puzzle compared to his silver chains. Very nostalgic look for me. (CLOSE TIE WITH HIS ANZU DATE OUTFIT <3)

-> Joey baby.. okay so I'm kind of lame, I LOVE. His battle city fit, I think it's so him. The sneakers, the baggy T-shirt, I also think the colors of this palette suit him well. I also like his wtd arc outfit, which is kind of similar vibes.

4. What movie(s) do you think they would not be able to stand?

This is so difficult.. I'm going to say Jounouchi isn't much of a fan when it comes to musicals or psychological thrillers. He seems like the warrior of the week film guy. He might groan about them in front of Honda but he will watch any chick flick with Shizuka. Hes surprisingly thoughtful about them too!

Yugi .... oh man, I don't know. He seems like he'd be a really big film nerd but at the same time he's not? He enjoys movies that have all sorts of twists and turns and also ones that are bold and not very subtle (FANTASY FAN). I think he'd have problems with very Film Bro movies? He doesn't understand the appeal of them and almost always finds plot holes within them that can never be explained.

5. What is a gentle memory they might have?

-> I personally think Yugi has SO many sweet memories of himself and his grandpa when he was growing up. He is such a grandpa's boy.. he remembers so many times that Grandpa was tucking him into bed at night and telling him stories of magic and fantastical creatures and adventures in his younger days.

-> And we know Jou has SO many memories of him and his sister as a kid. I doubt all of them were entirely gentle and more bittersweet leaning. Coming from a big brother like myself, I could see Jounouchi distracting her from their parents fighting by coloring with her or playing outside. But after they get reunited as teenagers, I bet they have all sorts of fun new memories together like finding the BEST spot to get pizza or biking to the beach every now and then together 🥹💓

YOUR HONOR. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH?

Character Questions!!

[hecckyeah]

Hey! I’m super enjoying your pro-Joey Friends phase. It was my favorite show for a long time.

You had a GREAT post about how that relationship really grew and matured both Joey and Rachel’s characters, and I want to add that the fizzling of that relationship also DESTROYED Joey’s character.

Joey finally falling in love - real love - with Rachel made him see the hollow/shallow reality of his womanizing ways. His parents’ dysfunctional marriage really affected him early on in the series, and I head canon that he felt safe with Rachel. They developed that trust from living together. She was a person he’d never tire of the way that his father tired of his mother and sought out someone else.

When things didn’t work out with Rachel, the writers infantalized him. For laughs. Monica and Chandler joked that they’d have to have a room for him at their new house so they could take care of him forever because he couldn’t take care of himself. A grown man. Who had a good job and lived on his own since his 20’s.

If anyone should’ve been stuck in neutral forever, it was Ross. He was self-destructive from the start (Carol destroyed him and he never got over it and kept hurting other people because of it) and it would’ve been so satisfying to see him just stay in NY and raise his son and be a confirmed old bachelor. He had the temperament for being alone.

Oh! And one more thing: Joey was the first one to step up and offer to be committed to Rachel to help her raise Emma, and even tho Rachel turned him down, he ended up doing it anyway because Ross drove her away.

Anyway, I haven’t thought about all of this in a long time! But it’s been a lot of fun to read your takes and analysis. ☺️

Hi!!

Okay oh my gosh YES to all of this. OH the essays I could write.

I actually went through this exact same phase many years ago, and hadn't watched Friends in a while, so now just speeding through the entire series in a couple months, it's really giving me a different perspective than I had the first time. I'm also quite a bit older (you know how people change so much from late teen years to early twenties? It's crazy) and I have a different frame of reference for all the issues these characters deal with, since a lot of them have become my own issues now. There's so much nuance I didn't pick up on the first time around.

You are so right about Joey's character deteriorating after season 9. It's like the writers didn't know what to do with him except continuing his infamous saga of being an immature, stupid womanizer. He has no character development in season 10. Nothing pushing him ahead, nothing to look forward to like the other 5. Monica and Chandler having their babies and moving, of course, Rachel getting the Paris job offer, Phoebe and Mike getting married. What's in all this for Joey? Jokes about him being possessive of food and regressing back to how he was five or six seasons ago.

Infantilizing is absolutely the perfect word. Of all the friends, I would say Joey had the biggest development in the shortest amount of time, with Rachel right there with him. He was immediately ready to step up when she told him she was pregnant, without giving it any kind of second thought. In fact, he begged her to stay and live with him when she was so sure he would hate the idea. He was there with her at every turn, when she was scared about the braxton hicks, when she had so much anxiety about being a single mom, and especially when she missed going on dates and he made the perfect pseudo-boyfriend.

He absolutely felt safe with her, probably more than anyone he'd ever known. They're so similar in so many ways and he'd been living with her for years. Rachel couldn't even live with Ross for a year, or probably less (the timeline isn't super clear, let's be honest lol). She and Joey finally fell into this relationship built on an incredible foundation of trust and friendship (just like two other friends we all know and love), but they broke up because......???? of Ross? Or something? They were so perfect for each other, the writers had to bumble their way through a breakup in the weirdest way possible.

And then how do they treat Joey in season 10? Like he's the dumbest person who's ever existed. I get that he's not the sharpest crayon in the box, but they play up the stupid factor by about a thousand, and it's infuriating. I've always said he's the emotionally intelligent one of the group, but not even that is really shown in season 10. He flunks at the Pyramid game, he doesn't realize he's not speaking French, digs are made at his character, like you said with Monica and Chandler having a "Joey room" in their house. Sweet idea, horrible insinuation.

I mean, the man is in his mid-thirties. He's been through more life than Ross, for sure. I specifically remember watching that episode recently with Joey's parents and thinking how mature he was, how protective of his mom. And how angry he was at his dad, and insistent that he make things right with Ma. He's had to fight tooth and nail for a place in the world of showbusiness. He's had to watch all his friends find love and settle down and get everything they've ever wanted, while he's been in love exactly once in his entire life. He's grown and matured and when his best friend was pregnant, he realized that he actually wants to settle down and have a family. I mean, what level of growth and maturity does it take to realize that?

In earlier seasons, his demeanor was totally different. I don't even recognize season 10 Joey. They had to kill his very essence to explain their breakup.

And yeah, like you said. I think they wrote Ross into a storyline that -- if we're being realistic -- can only end with him being a bachelor and working at the university. He's never been able to live with anyone. He was a terrible roommate for Joey and Chandler, and he and Rachel couldn't last. Not only is he self-destructive, but he's destructive to everyone around him.

What kind of world do we live in where Joey "my god, she is... beautiful" Tribbiani doesn't get a happy ending, and Ross "we were on a break" Geller does??

Anyway, there's the essay for the day. My mind kind of ran away with me and I probably have more to say and maybe I'll organize my thoughts someday, but I'm watching season 10 as we speak and I'm just so. so sad. about how it all turned out. But I'll just live in AO3 Land and pretend Rachel and Joey raise their little family and grow old together and Ross stagnates and continues his precious tenure.

[wrathfulrook]

Wrathling - Prologue/Chapter 1

Fuck it, we ball. There will be no regular post schedule :)

Ok, with much ado, here's my Deputy's canon. Enjoy.

Series rating: E

Relationship: John Seed x Patience Ekner

Word count: ~2k

Read it on ao3.

John Seed stared at the bound deputy in front of him. His eldest brother had been given custody of Deputy Pratt, his sister had taken the Marshal, and the deputy in front of him, Joey Hudson, was entrusted to him.

The sheriff and junior deputy had eluded the Project.

While inconvenient, it would be fine. God had a plan, and the Voice had never led the Father astray. John was a devout man; he had faith in the Father. This would be resolved quickly, easily, in accordance with God’s will.

John chuckled lowly at the woman before him. “Crying already? But we haven’t even begun…”

As he advanced toward her, she shook harder with her sobs, and he smiled. He loved what he did. And it was time to save Deputy Hudson’s soul.

~~~

Deputy Patience Ekner stared at herself in the mirror for far too long. She looked more or less the same as she did when she last looked in the mirror early this morning. She was only slightly worse for wear. A bit dirtier, a bruise here or there. Her hair had been re-braided. Her black choker still sat snug on her neck. The only real difference was the change of clothes. She wore a pair of light jeans, a black tank top, and her green uniform shirt, stripped of badge and name, while the rest of her junior deputy’s uniform laid in a haphazard pile on the concrete floor.

Dutch had advised she lose the uniform, so lose the uniform she did.

She couldn’t discern any real visible difference from her now and her this morning. But she’d been shot at. She’d shot back. She saw a horde – because there’s no other way to describe it – a horde of people attack the helicopter she was in, throwing their bodies onto it. She’d killed today. With intention. She hadn’t even really realized she done it, pushed a woman from the helicopter, until she saw her getting smaller and smaller as she approached the ground. She saw a man willingly climb the vehicle, higher and higher, until the propellers…

She felt she ought to look different after seeing something like that.

“Oh shit… Deputy, I’m picking up something new out of Holland Valley. It’s a broadcast from John… You need to see this.”

She exited the tiny bathroom and found the older man in front of the ancient television set, tuning into the aforementioned broadcast. Patience rapidly bounced her leg but kept her eyes glued to the staticky screen as John strolled around, dictating on sin to the music of the world’s most insane infomercial. She attempted to tune out the background cultists, focusing on the Baptist, who was admittedly more attractive in motion than he was on flyers and billboards. He was the one to watch out for. The cult’s recruiter. But when Joey was marched out, her mouth duct taped shut, her eyes hard and defiant despite the mascara-stained tear tracks dried on her face… her focus was turned into horror.

“…we’ll come for you. Welcome to Eden’s Gate.” The broadcast ended, only to immediately begin airing again. Holy fuck, they had the thing on loop.

“Shut that guy up,” Dutch said, and Patience leaned forward to turn the dial to off.

“Do you think he has the others? Whitehorse? Pratt? The Marshal?” Patience rubbed her temples, trying to clear her mind. Answering her own question she said, “No. Why would he taunt us with just Joey if he had the others? I mean, I guess he could, I don’t know, I don’t know how his mind works.”

“Not understanding his mind is a good thing.”

She sighed in frustration. “Not if I want to get Joey back, it’s not.”

“Deputy, I understand you want to get Hudson back. Everybody else, too. But how do you expect to rescue anyone from John Seed? In case you missed that broadcast, there are a hell of a lot of Peggies.” Dutch’s gruff and no-nonsense tone didn’t inspire a lot of hope in the junior deputy.

“Yeah, thanks, I saw it,” she snapped. “But that was one of his stupid PR schemes. We have no idea where exactly she’s being held or, more importantly, how many people stand between us her.”

“Those are all cons, kid, not pros.”

Patience gritted her teeth, leg still bouncing up and down. “Joey is my friend.” Joey was her only friend. They weren’t overly close; the pair had only met once outside of work. But she was new in town and new to the force. Joey was the closest thing she had to a friend, both at work and outside of it, and she had no intention of leaving her in the clutches of John fucking Seed. The memory of his hand stroking her throat, almost lovingly, threateningly, made her want to chop the man’s hand off.

“There’s a reason he chose Joey, out of all the people he’s taken out of the county, to star in this little production.”

“Because she’s a deputy. And he’s trying to demoralize the people still fighting back against this cult,” Patience answered bitterly.

“Because you’re a deputy!” Dutch roared in response. “As far as we know, you’re the only one on the force who hasn’t been captured. Look, Dep, the Seeds don’t want law enforcement running around trying to stop them, especially after that public arrest attempt.”

“Whitehorse could still be out there. I saw Staci and Marshal Burke get grabbed. They have to be being held somewhere. I never saw Joey or the Sheriff get taken. Clearly Joey did, but that doesn’t mean-“

“John trying to lure you out. You and Whitehorse, if they don’t already have him. But you can’t just rush in headfirst. That’s what he wants. That video, it wasn’t made for the whole county. It was made for you. He’s ‘marked’ you. That the first of his four steps to recruiting cultists, kid. A personalized video.”

“That’s fucked,” Patience growled. “But I can’t just leave a fellow deputy there.” Dutch was getting on her nerves. What was the point of saving her if not to pit her against the cult?

“I’m not saying you should abandon her. I’m saying you should be smart about it.”

Patience put a hand on her leg to stop its incessant bouncing. She certainly couldn’t get Joey out alone. How many people in this county would be able and willing to help her? Dutch would be able. But willing? And who else? She didn’t even know anyone else in this county. Dutch was right. She had no idea what kind of help she would even need.

“What if I head out and do some recon around Seed Ranch? See what we’re up against? Would you be willing to help me get her out?”

Dutch shook his head. “Doesn’t matter how much info you can gather. I doubt the two of us would be enough help to take on the Seeds. But we aren’t the only people in this county that hate that damn cult. With communications open again we could reach out to some people.”

Patience’s thoughts were racing.

“Okay, wait. You’re right. We’re getting ahead of ourselves. I think I should stake out the place and figure out exactly what we’re up against. We can figure out everything else later.”

Not waiting for an affirmation, she stood up, heading towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get Joey back.”

“Not tonight.” Dutch’s hand on her shoulder held her back. “It’s been a long day.”

“Understatement of the century,” she snorted.

“Exactly. Falling asleep in John Seed’s backyard isn’t going to help your friend. Stay the night. Then go.”

Patience nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

~~~

John threw his knife across the room, with a snarl, Deputy Hudson jolting when it clattered against the wall and floor.

“Confess!” He backhanded the woman across the face, and her scream turned into a sob.

He threw himself backwards, running a shaky, bloody hand through his slicked-back hair. He was close to losing himself to wrath. Losing himself to wrath, and taking it out on Hudson. And Hudson was not the deputy he was angry with.

He stormed out of the room, yelling, “Take her back to her cell!” as he went, trusting someone would hear him and take care of it.

The junior deputy had just blown up yet another one of his silos, and Joseph was starting to question his competence as a Herald. The deputy had been a holy terror since the day the Reaping began. She’d been destroying Project property and resources, hindering their preparations for the Collapse. She murdered untold numbers of the Project’s brothers and sisters.

Gleefully.

She was hell on earth.

And not he, his brothers, or his sister had managed to capture her. She had become a severe threat to the Project in a relatively short span of time, and it was rapidly coming time to make her pay. The horrors she had visited upon them could not be left unpunished.

~~~

Patience woke abruptly with a gasp, heart racing. She quickly tossed her head back and forth, not quite yet aware of her surroundings. The air outside her sleeping roll was cool, and she could just catch a glimpse of stars glittering above the pine needles. Calming down, she realized she could just hear Peaches’ even breathing on the ground, below her own perch on the tree stand.

She sunk lower into her covers. She was safe. It was all okay for now.

At least she’d woken up this time. The nightmares had been recurring, almost nightly, and they didn’t usually wake her up. At least the waking up was a reprieve. Not that she remembers the nightmare. Or nightmares. She wouldn’t know.

All she remembered were the feelings. The fear. The horror. The unrelenting sense of dread. The crushing weight of them usually stuck with her for a least a little while after waking in the morning.

Though she didn’t know exactly what the nightmares were about, she had plenty of nightmare fodder for her subconscious to draw on. The things she’d seen… The things she’d done…

The deaths on the helicopter had only been the beginning of the hell that was now Patience’s life. The broken bodies at the bottom of Joseph’s monument. The crucified and hanging people along the roadsides. The strung-up corpses that had so clearly been used for target practice. The immolated bones.

So many bodies.

And she’d created a fair few bodies of her own. She didn’t even know how many. Didn’t keep count. Couldn’t if she wanted to. She could still hear the screams of Peggies. Those she didn’t manage to kill with one clean shot. Those who watched their beloved friend or sibling or lover or whoever get taken down by her. So many bodies and so much screaming.

God, even the good guys were the stuff of nightmares. She kept company with multiple man-eating animals. Sharky, who was now one of her best friends, she met when he was luring those brain-dead Angel cultists to his trailer park to burn them alive. There were some pretty harsh rumors flying around about the Whitetail Militia’s conduct, too.

She hated it all. And the nightmares were eating her alive.

But she couldn’t stop. Every crucified, immolated, hanging corpse. Every Angel. Every scream she heard in the night. It would only keep happening and get worse. The goddamn cult was a threat to everyone in this county and she was one of the few people doing anything about it.

But for right now, she closed her eyes and attempted to sleep once more. She needed to be alert tomorrow. She was going to stake out Seed Ranch. See if she could figure out the lay of the land. See if she could determine where John Seed kept his prisoners. So she evened her breathing and hoped for dreamless sleep. It would all be okay.

She could suffer through a lot to save people. Even just one person.

She would suffer through a lot. Because that’s what it would take.

Chapter 2

[puzzledmemories]

✏

Send ✏ (or "PENCIL") for mun to write about a muse they thought about trying to roleplay or one they are already roleplaying outside Tumblr RPC ((accepting on Mondays!))

((In the yugioh discord server that I'm in that has rp, I have a muse problem. I have so many muses in that server.))

((I'll stick to one on this post. I rolled a d20 (there's 20 characters I write in that server currently [i counted], some i write more than others), and the die picked season two Jun Manjoume from Yugioh GX!))

(Jun here is pictured in the middle. Yes. That asshole.)

((This is an AU Jun, though he's very much still in the Society of Light, as he is for the majority of season two of GX. This is a group AU that like five or so people are part of, however, and what makes this an AU is that Judai was the first member inducted into the Society of Light, not Jun, which very clearly contradicts canon but was a really exciting concept that a bunch of us were into.))

((Judai is very physically weak, and can't really do much on his own. Jun, along with Asuka, Daichi, and Johan (we brought in the season three cast for fun) all help look after him. However, Jun is still out there recruiting people! He's still doing his thing! He just, along with Asuka and Daichi, tries to get Judai to fucking rest and not push himself in Society of Light activities. [Johan is actually only pretending to be a member, he's a spy, but this post isn't about him.]))

((Jun's favorite activities are wrangling Judai, spreading the word of the Society of Light, and uh, being in a cult, because did I mention the Society of Light is a cult? That's canon. It's a cult. Jun still likes to duel and stuff but he's pretty brainwashed, so,))

((I love this AU, one of the people involved is planning to write a fanfic of this AU and I cannot wait to see what they write. We call this AU Dream Mirror of Chaos.))

((I don't write a lot of DM characters on that server, only an AU Yugi, so I feel obligated to also talk about a character I've thought about taking on for this blog from DM.))

((I have Ryou on this blog. Is it any surprise that I've thought about Yami Bakura, too? I even have icons downloaded for him [that I occasionally comb through in case any look convincingly like Ryou, I feel like Yugi and Yami have way better manga icons than Ryou lol], but I just. Don't know if I could do the guy justice? I'd have to reread Millennium World and research into Zorc and stuff.))

((I'm just so iffy on Millennium World lore than I am the rest of DM, and I feel like that informs a lot of Yami Bakura's character...))

((But then again, I felt kinda iffy about being able to write Ryou well, too, but I pushed myself to take the plunge...))

((I'm very undecided about this. I've been very undecided about this for all, like, three weeks I've had this blog, and I'll continue to be undecided.))

((i've also thought about joey wheeler here and there, for reasons i cannot disclose. it would just be funny, is all i'll say.))

[flowerbloom-arts]

idk if you have mentioned this before but do you have any voiceclaims for your OCs and canon characters?

nice new pfp btw 😳

First of all thank you it's one of my favorite Muddler drawings that I made!!

Hmmm voice claims... I have a few.

The thing tho, sort of, is sometimes my mental voice for some of them have a specific accent I don't think a voice actor would be able to replicate easily, like Moominmamma having a swedish accent with bits of south-eastern British she picked up from Moominpappa and his old friends, or Fuzzy having a danish accent faded with northern American or Inspector having a cockney accent with Finnish sprinkled in. Most of them are THAT kind of specific. But if I had to go just by the sound of their voices...

One voice claim I have down is Alasdair Stuart (the voice actor of Peter Lukas from the Magnus Archives) for Hodgkins, maybe he'd go a smidge deeper and gruffer than his Lukas voice but that's the gist of my voice for him.

Cosmo Sheldrake as the Joxter, particularly inspired by his cover of Green Grass, though I imagine years of casual smoking would've taken a little toll on his vocal chords.

I've associated alot of Eleisha Eagle songs with the Fuzzy and I can't separate her voice from her at this point, so she might be her voiceclaim.

Joey Batey as Hodgkins' lost brother, almost certainly, you might know Batey as the bard from the Witcher but I mostly know him from the band the Amazing Devil.

I've listened to quite a bit of S.J. Tucker and she's honestly quite the voice actress if you've listened to her story readings along with her songs, I've imagined her as my OC Iris, who is Hodgkins' mother.

Christine Ebersole... If she could do an actual posh British accent then she would be Aunt Jane for me, hands down. But either of the Mary Poppins actresses also does it for me when it comes to Jane.

I've flip-flopped a bit for the Fuddler's (as in, the one from the comics) voice actor, I'm stuck somewhere between Brain David Gilbert or Louie Zong, I think it's very vibe-dependant.

I listened to the Freaks by the Tiger Lillies a bit and went "Mhm yep that's Stinky right there" (I don't recommend listening to the whole song because goodness it's uhhhh graphic, unless you're into that. But if you wanna hear the voice without all that I recommend just looking up the animation meme for it). I think the singer was by the name of Martyn Jacques but I'm not 100% sure.

I think that's most of them for the ones with particular voices.... The rest are specific ideas I can only describe without naming a certain actor.

[socially-awkward-skeleton]

Thanks @derelictheretic @adelaidedrubman and @natesofrellis for the tags!

I've tagged a fair few people in the last few days and my brain is still a fog so I'll leave the tags this time.

Today's the first day I've managed to crawl out of bed and feel partially human again so I figured I'd share some more of Kit's canon timeline stuff I've been working on (still very much a rough draft at this point):

She marched through the wooden swinging door of the bar, her boots crunching through the gravel parking lot. As she approached the vehicle, Boomer's head popped out of the window, his ears flopping as he barked happily at her arrival.

She pulled open the passenger side door and he tore out, his front paws climbing up her jeans as his tail swished frantically back and forth.

"Hey, bud. Did you miss me?" He gave a quick bark and started to sniff at the doggy bag in her hands. "Traitor. Showing your true colours now, huh?" She scratched the spot between his ears. "I'll forgive you. I've always been a sucker for puppy dog eyes."

She hopped up onto the hood of her jeep and climbed up onto the roof. Ripping open the bag, she pulled out the paper wrapped burger. It was hardly the healthiest thing subsisting on fast food but it would be quickly burned off when she was bound to get caught up in another firefight. Boomer was quick to follow the smell of fresh food and hopped up onto the warm metal hood of the vehicle, curling up, tail still happily drumming away.

She stared up at the YES sign above the Holland Valley. She hated that thing with a burning passion, everyday it sat there, mocking her. No matter how much life seemed to steadily be returning to normal in Fall’s End since she had liberated them from the clutches of the cult and one John Seed, that sign reminded her that the job wasn’t over. It had barely even begun. Somewhere, Joey and Staci were still being held prisoner by the Seeds. She could rest a little easier knowing that Earl was alive and well at the County Jail, but her friends weren’t getting off quite so easily.

She scanned through her radio channels, hoping to hear anything, any word at all on how the efforts went for the rest of the citizens of Hope County. Landing on a cry of help from Nick Rye. Mary May had told her about how quick John was to come down on her and Jerome, as well as Nick. Seen as pillars in their community, John came for their throats immediately like a rat backed into a corner. A quick way to sow the seeds of doubt in those who didn't believe was by ruining those who they looked to. It was cunning, but it lacked control in its execution. Something she was finding to be common in the way the Holland Valley Herald handled most things.

–

She pulled up outside the landing strip, surrounded by Peggie trucks. Climbing out of her vehicle she took the rifle from off her shoulder and crept up towards the hangar.

One man ran around like a chicken with his head cut off, trucker hat popping up and down in and out of cover, panicked by the men he was going up against. She picked off several men to clear herself a path to Nick and slid behind the crate he was currently taking cover behind.

“Holy shit, thank you. You’re the deputy folks have been talkin’ ‘bout, aren’t you?”

“Introductions later.”

Kit stood up and pulled a grenade from her belt and threw it over to where the trucks were parked, the explosion caused the whole ground to rumble. Fire quickly spread to barrels along the tree line that burst into flames and set several peggie soldiers alight. Their screams vastly overpowered the sounds of Nick’s radio playing from inside the hangar.

She kneeled back down behind the crate, placing her rifle on the ground beside her, fingers still wrapped around it in a white-knuckled grip. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, nails running down her jeans as she took several deep breaths, a shiver coursing down her spine. She squeezed her eyes so tightly that she could see blobs of red and orange swimming in the darkness behind her lids.

Just breathe, Kit. Breathe.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Kit opened her eyes and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand. Standing up with her rifle at the ready she took out several stragglers on the perimeter of the landing strip as bullets whizzed past her.

Bodies scattered the ground, blood soaking into the sand around them.

The pilot stared at her with eyes as big as dinner plates.

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" She asked flatly.

He said nothing more on the matter but he knew the look, his grandpa used to shut down like that too. His dad had told him it was shell-shock, it happened to folks sometimes when they came back home from war.

[soulsxng]

I know Lera and Joey have like 10,000 kids but like....what if they had another

@sansloii | If they had a kid... | Accepting!

Name: Aela (left), and Siora (right)!

Gender: Both are girls!

General Appearance: Both have dark hair, though Aela's is naturally curlier than Siora's is. Aela has Joseph's hazel eyes, while Siora's are closer to Lera's. Either way, both have the green ring around their irises that Joseph has! I feel like they would also have some of the crystals growing from them, similar to Lera. Both are also fairly small right now, similar to how Ber was when he was a baby...though I have a feeling that at least one of them will end up getting pretty tall, all things considering!

Personality: Aela is a kind of shy little kid. Very quiet, and though curious, she likes to hang close to Lera and Joey most of the time! Siora, on the other hand, is far more outgoing and wants to run off to investigate every new thing she sees. Both girls, regardless, tend to be wary of strangers, and if someone they don't know tries to talk to them, they're apt to zoom over to Lerato and/or Joseph to try to gauge if the stranger is the good kind, or the bad kind. With family and friends though, they're both very bright and playful, if not a tiny bit mischievous!

Special Talents: I feel like both of them would be really good at reading people, looking at both Joey and Lera. Aside from that, Aela is very magically talented, even at a young age (probably the equivalent of 7 or 8-ish here, though I kind of feel they'll grow pretty quick in the first 3-ish years of their lives, before slowing down to a more normal rate? *big fuckin shrug*), and I feel like Lera and Joey probably never had to worry about her losing control. Siora is struggling a little to figure her own magic out, but seems to learn other things really easily. Picking up knowledge about all kinds of things after only hearing or reading about it once.

Who they like better: Aela -> Lera, Siora -> Joey. Though I also feel like Aela is just really clingy with her dads either way. I also feel like both of them probably learned from Ber how to kind of play sides a little bit, when they really want something aslkdfna

Who they take after more: Aela tends to take after Joey more (though she probably has a few of Lera's more obvious mannerisms, too), while Siora seems quite a bit different from both at first glance-- probably because of her cheerier, more excitable demeanor. She just takes after Lera when he was younger, tbh. I honestly feel a little bit like she might end up reminding both Lera and Joey of Dakota as she gets older. ;u;

Personal Head canon: My immediate thought was "Oh, at least one of these girlies are gonna have a ghost.", but the more I thought about it, the more I was like "What if, because they were most likely born from Innaius itself, and their soul is probably either the same, or literally just half of each other's?", so now I'm thinking they might either share one ghost, or have some cool, connected dual ghost type thing. Pops up when one of them is having a tantrum when they're little, and both Joey and Lera are over here like "...shit.", only for one of them to go to grab the one not having a tantrum, so they don't get hurt. Immediately notice that the ghost is actually starting to manifest from both of the girls, and the one that's calm is the only thing keeping the ghost from absolutely wilding out with the other's tantrum.

Face Claim:

[solarishashernoseinabook]

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

Thank you! Answering them all as one as per usual :3

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?) Hmmmmmmm that's a good question actually! I think maybe Richard Thompson Learns About Rangers, it's short, fluffy, has worldbuilding and a focus on found family :3

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits? Whelp, we've got fluff (used 12 times), light angst (used 4 times), and angst, injury, and reminiscing (all used 3 times). That's, er, fairly accurate lol. I do be writing a lot of fluff.

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics? I think I mainly focus on character relationships! Not just romantic ones, I take time to build up platonic and familial ones too. And when there's hurt, there's almost always comfort. In fics like The Ward Ghost I spend more time showing recovery from trauma and characters looking after each other than I spend showing the trauma itself, and this goes doubly so for The Royal Ranger - most of the trauma went through as an autistic child raised by unsupportive parents is implied or shown in brief flashbacks, and more of it is about Crowley giving him space to be autistic in an environment that won't punish him for it

11. Are you partial to a certain character/pairing or are you more equal-opportunity? If you are partial to any character/pairing, why do you think that is? Either Will/Horace or Will & Halt lol. I like both the dynamics. It's fun to write Will and Horace in love, and showing Halt being a father and mentor is just great, especially when contrasted with how gruff he is

15. What’s your favourite AU that you’ve written? You're gonna make me choose between my two largest AUs? You're a cruel, cruel person /j

Okay but seriously, I like both The Ward Ghost and The Royal Ranger equally for different reasons. The Ward Ghost asks one simple question - what if Will hadn't gotten his apprenticeship? - and continues on from there. I have to put a lot of thought into what the characters would be like after the six years that have elapsed since, and what canon events I can or can't include, and if I can include them, how. The Royal Ranger is really fun because I get to play with narrative conventions to show how Halt sees the world through an autistic lens. When we're following Halt's POV, for example, I typically barely describe other character's facial expressions or tones of voice, to indicate that he has trouble picking up on them.

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to? I want to write an RA fic featuring predominantly - almost entirely - original characters. I've got it planned, sort of. Built With My Own Two Hands briefly features Will's last apprentices before he retires, identical twins named Joey and Roy, and I had a lot of fun writing them for the couple of paragraphs they appear in.

36. Do you visualize what you read/write? Yeah! A lot of scenes are ones I visualised beforehand so I could plan them out before writing them

50. Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about! Yay, a choice!

46. Do you prefer writing on your phone or on a computer (or something else)? Do you think where you write affects the way you write?

Okay, firstly, I never trust people who can type easily on phones /j

(in all seriousness tho modern phones are so uncomfortable to type on. No proper tactile feedback - and no, vibration doesn't count - and they're just too big and awkward to hold. The only phone I was able to type comfortably on was my old Blackberry Curve)

I actually most prefer writing by hand, with pen and paper! There's the obvious advantage of not having tumblr on hand to easily check, but it has other perks as well. Without the option to easily delete what I just wrote, I spend less time agonising over phrasing and just get the raw ideas down. If I realise I need to add something to what I've already written, instead of wondering where or thinking of how to transition to it, I just make a note to put it somewhere and continue on. There's a layer of portability to a notebook and pen that laptops don't have, and I don't have to worry about battery life or notifications breaking the flow of writing, and I can curl up more easily to write (which is a huge advantage when you're queer and autistic and can't sit in a chair without curling up). Finally, writing is a tactile stim for me (so's typing, but that depends heavily on the type of keyboard I'm using) so I feel motivated to do it just because! When I go to transcribe it to the computer later, that's when I do my editing.

I also regularly switch back and forth between handwriting and typing my fics - mainly if I get stuck. If I'm stuck typing something, I close my computer, pick up my notebook, and start writing from the last sentence I remember - even if it doesn't gel perfectly with what I already wrote, that's something I can fix later. If I'm well and truly stuck while handwriting, I go to my computer and transcribe what I wrote. Going over it and thinking about it often helps me realise what was causing the issue that stopped me writing - either I didn't set something up properly, or something was happening in the wrong spot in the story, or the character's POV doesn't fit the scene very well.

Link to the ask game if you want to play!

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Honor in Crisis

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam, NTT, Titans, JLI, Arrowfam, Flashfam, GL Corps, Infinity Inc

Summary: Every chapter will focus on one character specifically and then I'll update their statuses in order.

This is a no powers au/fix-it fic for Heroes in Crisis. I wanted to focus on the characters and their healing. I decided that'd be easier to put some of these characters in a fic like this and work on it more from a real-world perspective. I DO want to say that I do not believe healing is linear so don't plan on a clear-cut happy ending. I'd say (and idk for sure) we're gonna eventually get a bittersweet ending for certain characters but nothing tragic.

Chapters: 7/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Kole Weathers, Lilith Clay, Eddie Bloomberg, Michael Carter, Michelle Carter, Rani Carter, Charley Parker, Grant Emerson, Roy Harper, Grant Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Thaddeus Thawne, Bart Allen, Helen Claiborne, President Thawne, Todd Rice, Alan Scott (DCU), Damon Matthews

Relationship(s): Damon Matthews/Todd Rice

Additional Tags: No Powers AU, Canon Divergent AU, Fix-It Fic, Angst, TW // Self Harm Mention , TW // Suicide Attempt Mention

Chapter Seven: Resurface (Joseph Wilson's POV)

Joey picked at his bandages. "Joseph," his therapist whispered. Joey placed his hands flat on the man's desk. He knew it was a warning from how his therapist looked at him. His therapist was gentle, mouse-like, and clumsy. It almost brought a smile to Joseph's face how cartoonishly sheepish the man seemed. "Thank you, Joseph... Last week we spent a lot of time discussing the note you wrote to your friends and family. Were you satisfied with where we left things, or would you like to expand on your feelings about it in today's session?"

Joey shook his head and drew his hands back. He planned on going out quietly in his apartment, surrounded by his final work. He'd planned things down to the last moment, his last breath. Things still went horribly wrong, even then. He screwed up, taking in alcohol with pills, and combined with the blood loss he endured, he ended up answering a phone call. He wasn't even sure who had called him. Everything was a blur. The only thing he remembered was pain. Cracking ribs, an immediate withdrawal, pressure on open wounds, blinding lights, blaring sirens. It was an assault to all the senses, and he couldn't speak for himself with his hands bound. He winced at the memory of it.

Now that he could tell his therapist everything, he couldn't gather his thoughts. Everything played in his mind at once. His childhood, his adulthood, his failed relationships. Everything was messy and impossible to grasp without falling apart entirely. He found himself doing that a lot lately. Drifting far away with his thoughts, forgetting the present. That wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't so difficult to return to his body afterward. He used to do it on purpose as a child. It was the best way to remain positive and shut out the worst of what went on around him.

"Joseph. Please don't pick at your bandages," his therapist whispered. Hearing his first name like that called him back to his body.

"Sorry," Joey apologized, "I went away..."

"Joseph, are you aware of how long you—. You said you went away... Where did you go?" his therapist asked.

"In my head... It's like when you're swimming and fully submerged in the water... Except you don't ever have to come up for air," Joey answered, "I used to do it when I was younger when my parents argued."

"It sounds like you spent a lot of time in your head as a child," his therapist replied. Joey nodded. "Can I ask you when you started doing this?"

"I don't know... I've done this for as long as I can remember. I can't control it anymore... It just happens," Joey replied. His therapist took off his glasses and wiped them clean. He opened his mouth to speak before Joey recalled something relevant to the question. "Wintergreen... He's my father's friend. I remember he told me I could make it go away."

"It?" his therapist asked.

Joey chewed his lip. "The noise... The arguing and fighting. Most of it had to do with moving houses or my dad taking dangerous assignments," Joey replied, "It was unbearable... But Wintergreen said I didn't have to hear anything I didn't want to. I could make all the noise disappear... In my mind." Joey frowned at the memory.

Usually, the doctor was a man of few words, but Joey noticed something bubble to the surface. "I want to leave you with a question: Were you going away to protect yourself... Or were you trying to protect mom and dad?" the therapist whispered. His therapist said mom and dad the same way all the adults said it to him growing up. It wasn't patronizing. It was something else. The words were softly cushioned as if it would've been painful to hear their names. Joey appreciated the man's gentle nature.

"What do you mean?" Joey asked.

"Children can often minimize their needs when they see their parents struggling... Expressing basic needs might feel overly demanding. There might not be any fear of punishment, but there might be a hint of guilt. Do any of those feelings apply?" his therapist questioned. Joey let out a breath as if he'd been punched in the gut. He wasn't sure how to answer.

"See you next week?" Joey asked. His therapist nodded and thanked him for coming. Joey rushed out of the office and returned to his room.

His roommate sat on the bed, struggling to write something in his journal. He looked up at Joey when he heard footsteps. "Therapy kick your ass today?" his roommate asked.

"Yes... You okay, Charley? Do you want to talk?" Joey asked. Charley scratched his head. Joey wasn't in a rush for an answer. Charley understood ASL, but it took him a little longer to piece the sentences together.

"Oh, yeah. I'm alright... Well, no. No, I'm not okay," Charley replied as he flopped back on his bed. Joey sat on his bed and cocked his head. "But aren't you tired of people dumping their crap on you?"

"Dump on me, and I'll dump on you," Joey replied. Charley chewed his lip. "What's wrong?"

"Oh... Well, it's about you. I don't want you to take offense, though," Charley whispered, "Listen, I like you and everything, but I think it's fucked up what you're doing to your brother."

Joey knit his brows together and lifted his hands to reply. "No, no. What's up? He comes to visit every day, and every single day, you turn him away," Charley chastised him, "I wish I had family that wanted to see me. I've got nobody."

"You don't understand... My brother abandoned me—."

"But he came back... And he saved your life," Charley blurted out. He covered his mouth.

"Charley, say that again," Joey commanded. Charley shook his head.

"Joe—."

"Who said you could speak to my brother?" Joey asked. Joey wasn't mad at Charley. Not really. Joey knew Charley was right, but he was in shock as well. How could Grant have gotten there in time? Why was Grant there? What could he possibly want? He hadn't seen Grant in years, and he definitely didn't want Grant to see him like that. Weak, broken, pathetic. Joey wasn't in the mood to be ridiculed.

"I didn't mean any harm... He bumped into me when I was visiting my lawyer," Charley explained, "And he looked like you, so I just assumed—."

"I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry... I don't want to see my brother, but not because I hate him. I love my brother, but he's hard to get along with. We're so different," Joey replied. Different. That was an understatement if he ever heard one. Charley tapped his pen on his journal.

"That's not what's wrong with me, though... You know I'm working through some stuff about my anger?" Charley asked. Joey nodded. "Where am I gonna go if I get out of here?"

Joey sat up straight and frowned. "Charley, I'm sorry... I didn't know—."

"Yeah, I didn't really think about it, but this week's been good... What if they make me leave... And I've got no place to go?" Charley questioned. Joey frowned. "I shouldn't be putting this on you... I should talk to Doc Morton."

Joey took a deep breath and lay down. He wanted to shut everything away and sleep, but there was still more to do. Soon it'd be time for dinner and group. Everything would keep moving. He would keep breathing and thinking and feeling... And he didn't want to.

[ask-joeydrewstudios]

@storm337 submitted: Let’s drop some ANGST on this CUDDLY BITCH!

Based on Joey’s reaction to finding out about the canon verse.

Other Joey based off yunisverse’s Joey design from their Rubberhose AU.

TW: Body horror, gore

“You….you actually did it!”

Joey takes a wobbly step back, bumping into the toons. He herds them against his back, barricading them from the form stepping out of the broken mirror on the other side of his desk. Black drips from the man’s grey bushy beard, as dark as the look in his wild green eyes. Desperation clings like the ink stains ground into his disheveled suit. His perfect white teeth shine, bordered by a smile that stretches painfully at his cheeks and puts Bendy’s grin to shame. Joey has never seen such wild hungry need before. This wasn’t supposed to happen. What did he do wrong?

“They’re perfect!” the man shouts, grabbing at his greasy hair and making a grand gesture to Joey’s children. He gets ink in the graying strands on the side of his head, sticking them out with his constant pulling. Bendy grips tighter onto Joey’s pant leg, tail snaking around his ankle. Boris presses into his back, paws hooked over Joey’s shoulders and muzzle just peeking out from behind his arm. Alice twists the edge of his vest in her hands, body trembling so badly her halo wobbles and drips. Joey is acutely aware of how trapped they are, blocked from the door by his own desk and the deranged man that will not stop advancing. He stalks towards them, an unstable and unpredictably jerky motion. The effort looks painful, like he’s ready to collapse at any moment and held up by nothing but his own twisted form of spite.

Someone will come. Sammy will storm in any minute now, covered in ink and screaming about another pipe bursting. Wally will sheepishly slide through the cracked door to ask if Joey has seen his keys. Henry will shuffle to his armchair for a nap after too many cups of coffee. Someone, anyone. Shawn, Norman, Grant, Thomas, Susie-

“Please,” his copy begs, stumbling the last foot forward and lunging to grab Joey’s vest. He yanks Joey forward, siding him on top of the desk and ripping him from the toons’ hands. Alice shrieks. Bendy’s tail stretches stubbornly before snapping back like a spring. A teacup shatters on the carpet, crushed by several books. At least one script is ruined by an inkwell tipping over. Joey can feel his body shaking, fear making his blood run cold. They are nose to nose and the envy emerald of the man’s eyes are hypnotizing - Joey can’t make himself look away.  An animalistic panic rises, freezing him like helpless prey in the sight of a predator.

“You have to tell me how you did it. I tried so hard, I did everything- I need to know!”

Joey can’t speak. There’s a lump in his throat, blocking his words, making it hard breathe, let alone speak. He is scared of this man, but his fear has nothing on the absolute terror radiating from the toons- his children. They need him, they need him to do something.

“Tell me,” the Other Joey hisses, fingers digging painfully into Joey’s chest. “Tell me, or I’ll find out myself.” His eyes slide past Joey’s, attention slipping to the toons. Alice makes a hiccuped sob noise and Boris whines loudly. Impossibly, Other Joey’s grin widens, teeth bared in a feral snarl - ready to feast, ready to consume and satiate his need. Reflected in his eyes is Bendy, wrapped around Boris’s leg and crying. He’ll start with the star. No one is coming, no one knows, and if Joey doesn’t do something- He would rather die than let this thing touch his kids.

The inkwell is just within reach, the glass slippery with ink and cold in Joey’s palm. He grips it hard enough to make his knuckles ache, praying that it won’t slip from his hand. The Other Joey begins to lean over him, looking ready to crawl across Joey to get at the toons, one black hand dripping ink outstretched towards Bendy. The little toon squeaks pitifully and Joey swings his arm up, slamming the inkwell as hard as he can against his copy’s temple. Glass shatters in a sparkling array, dancing through the air. Black ink explodes from his attacker’s temple like a burst pipe. A high-pitched inhuman screech escapes the Other Joey’s mouth, revealing pointed teeth and a forked tongue. He topples over, hitting the floor with a splat and dragging Joey down with him, knocking the glasses from his face.

“Run!” Joey screams, scrambling on top of his counterpart and putting all of his weight onto keeping the other man from getting up. The form below him begins to undulate, solidity failing as the body liquefies and shifts. “Go, get Henry!”

The toons bolt, Boris carrying Bendy as the little demon thrashes in his grip. Joey watches his children flee, black tears gushing from Bendy’s pie-cut eyes, his white gloved hands reaching out to Joey desperately. Alice hesitates in the doorway, reluctantly holding the knob.

“I love you,” Joey says, wondering if he’ll ever get to repeat himself again. “Keep them safe.”

Alice gives Joey a jerky nod before slamming the door shut with all her might. Over the pounding of his own heart Joey can hear their footsteps getting fainter until they completely disappear. Henry will protect them. Henry will get them out of here. Henry will fix this. He has to.

The Other Joey throws his head back and roars, the sound making the room shake with its defining vibrations. Joey’s heart skips in his chest and he scrambles back on instinct, his mind telling him to flee, to get as far away from this threat as possible. Shards of glass dig into his aching palms. Half of his double’s face has melted into ink with the consistency of molasses, dragging his eye and nose down into a malformed amalgamation. His grin has transformed, a much sharper version of Bendy’s stretched smile, the edges abnormally close to his dissolving ears. A gooey stub that was once a hand shoves Joey with enough force to send him flying across the room and crashing into the opposite wall. He can’t help but cry out on impact, his old body shrieking from the abuse.

Shadows swim across the office walls, long tendrils of black growing across the furniture and sucking the light from the room. Joey can’t hear anything over the beating of his own heart. He watches in horror as the Other Joey morphs, fingers reforming into hooked claws and arms stretching long enough that he drags his knuckles on the floor. His body elongates and thins, hunching over as the top of his spiked spine touches the ceiling. Horns, twirled and crooked, curl up to halo his head in a mockery of Bendy’s silhouette. One eye remains, glowing an unearthly red, the last reminder that the thing before Joey once resembled a human.

Joey knows how useless an endeavor this is, but the longer this monster is preoccupied with him, the farther the toons can get. Diving for the door requires speed that Joey lost decades ago. He doesn’t even get close to the knob. Retaliation is expected but the massive hand pinning him to the ground and bruising his ribs is still startling. Even more so are the fingers that curl around him, lifting him into the air and squeezing just to hear him scream The last shreds of Joey’s strength evaporate and he goes limp, gasping and wheezing. The world goes fuzzy and nausea flips Joey’s weak stomach.

“I will find them,” the Other Joey hisses, forked tongue writhing like a snake. His breath smells of rubber ink and death. “They will be mine.”

He drags Joey in eye-to-eye again, then impossibly closer, the red too bright, burning, then all consuming. For a moment there is nothing but red until shadows, getting darker and more defined, creep from the ether. Forms take shape, people, and the red dims. A scene emerges, walls erecting, boards aligning, ink pumping. A man writhes helplessly in a demonic circle, trying and failing to escape the ink that clings stubbornly to his body. It climbs him, drowns him, seeps inside of him, and turns him. This is Sammy Lawrence, something tells Joey, another version of Sammy Lawrence. Time skips and speeds forwards, decades gone in seconds, and Joey watches the madness descend. The Other Sammy tries to hold on, but all too soon he loses his mind, loses himself, and the descent is as fast as it is brutal.  A shadow of the former music director wanders the halls, humming senseless tunes, praising the creature that destroyed him. So desperate for release he follows the whims of the demon, an obedient pet with none of the love.

The world shudders and reforms itself, swirling like watercolor paints mixing together. The Other Susie walks willingly into the circle, coaxed by the Other Joey’s sweet words and tantalizing promises. Her shrieks are shrill and demented, betrayed. The version of Alice that forms from her is broken like her trust and wails in deformed agony. Its misery does not last long, unable to sustain its form it puddles and disappears. When it emerges again, Joey sees near perfection and feels nothing but pity for the girl who still, somewhere deep inside of her, remembers who she was. She hides, and Joey wonders what horrors hide with her.

Another jerk, a spin, the click of a projector rewinding before it stutters into motion. The Other Norman almost gets away. He makes it to the exit, fingers just grazing the door, before the Searchers catch him and drag him away, kicking and screaming, begging to return to his family. The Other Joey stands over him, projector held high above his head, and makes sure the Other Norman is watching when he drops it. The way the body jerks and the crunching splat sound bounces off the walls makes Joey want to hurl. The ink claims the Other Norman as a sacrifice, twisting and reanimating his mangled remains until a mindless monster emerges from the mess. Its unrestrained rage is as untamable as the deep sorrow it feels, grasping for the pieces of its former life. The Other Joey releases it into level 14, left to wander and search for the people it loved, that it knows it loves, but can’t remember.

Red overwhelms again and Joey furiously blinks the tears from his eyes as reality reshapes itself. He is back in his own world, in his office, sobbing in the tight grip of an abomination, but the demented universe of his copy continues to flash behind his eyes. The cries of the studio employees play in his head, over and over. The Other Sammy’s twisted singing, the Other Susie’s sharp screams, the Other Norman’s head cracking open. The Other Henry, an old man like Joey himself, tentatively hopeful and walking right into a death trap.

Joey knows what happened. He knows this version of himself, the real version of himself, intimately. He knows this monster’s struggles, his strife, his desires, and what he did to all who cared about him. This was him, more Joey Drew than Joey was apparently, and the guilt drops like a stone into Joey’s stomach. Him, his studio, his employees, his world, are a diversion of the norm. The Other Joey- the Real Joey is what is right, is the true destiny for the man that is Joey Drew in any universe. It is a sickening realization, one that leaves Joey numb to his core. He knows, logically, that he is not this thing, but at the same time he is. They are Joey Drew, and Joey Drew is supposed to be a mad, demented, selfish animator that will do anything to make his sick, twisted dreams come true. 

“How dare you,” Joey hisses, narrowing his sore blurry eyes. The Other Joey manages to look taken aback at his fiery statement, grip loosens ever so slightly. It is just enough for Joey to take a painful but refreshing breath, fuel the flames, and let it spill from his heart. The red that overwhelms him this time is all his own.

“How dare you do that to them. How dare you use them like that. They cared about the studio, about the cartoons, about everything! They were loyal to your dream and you-you-you killed them! You deserved to fail. You deserve this.”

The creature that was the Other Joey Drew hisses and looms over Joey, opening its sharp maw and unleashing a torrential shower of ink. It coats him, clinging and slithering over his skin, devouring and absorbing him. There is nothing but the dark and the cold of the all consuming ink.

Joey fears for his children. He fears for his employees, his studio, for himself, but not for his life. No, Joey knows where and when he will die and it is not here and it is not now. This creature will not kill him. It has done worse already by revealing the truth. Joey knows it will make him hurt, it will make him cry, it will make him bleed. It will try to break him, just like it broke the Other Sammy, the Other Susie, the Other Norman. It will try to corrupt him, to turn him, to destroy him, and Joey knows he must do everything in his power to fight back.

No one is coming.

((HOLY FUCK this was spectacularly written, like… jebus. i was literally on the edge of my seat, the tension was so real you could cut it with a knife. the descriptions of The Other World and joey’s reaction to it all– and the way the Other Joey is written is so terrifying I was actually spooked from my desk even though it’s just a fanfic. and that ending… god damn :’D well done, and thank you so much for the fic!! <3))