#look I’m just saying that there are tons of books I think Jason would like beyond just Jane Austin

[mxtantrights]

hii! could you please write a jason todd fic based on that like tiktok trend where reader goes "hey guys can you watch my boyfriend real quick" and leaves the room? thank you ! 💗💐

“Can you guys watch my boyfriend?” You ask.

It makes Jason pick up his head from the book he’s reading. He doesn’t get to ask you what you are doing before you’re pressing a kiss to his cheek and leaving the room.

Jason looks towards your phone, which rests on the back of a water bottle. He sees the video going. His eyebrows scrunch in the middle.

“What the hell is that?” he asked.

In the frame, the book Jason is reading is fairly worn out, but the title can still be read. It’s pride and prejudice and zombies.

Jason looks right back down at his book. He scratches the top of his head a bit confused, but then his eyebrows go relaxed and he gets back into reading.

It takes about 10 seconds before Jason makes another move. He looks at the camera again, and then he fishes his own phone out of his own pocket and holds it up to the camera.

“I can do that too,” he whispers.

He sticks his tongue out. You can hear his phone camera going off. It takes about ten pictures before he turns it around and shows his screen to the camera. It’s just pictures of him taking pictures.

Jason puts his phone down and goes back to his book.

“Okay book club emergency meeting. I think they’re trying to change the plot of pride and prejudice. And you know what? I’m not against it. This could be someone’s introduction into literature.”

Jason sits in silence for a moment. Nodding his head to himself. Like someone else is actually speaking to him.

“I mean making the zombies a sort of metaphor for the impending class struggle that is happening is a great take. Also I just find zombies kinda interesting. I fought a zombie once.” He says then he stops and folds the book closed with his finger in the middle.

He leans back in the chair. His head up in thought.

“Or maybe it was an actual zombie and just someone with wounds everywhere. I mean zombies do kind of exist but not in the way we think.” He goes on

He taps his chin with the pointer finger of his free hand.

“I wonder if Batman has fought one before. He has contingencies for everything. He’d probably solve the zombie apocalypse…”

Jason sets his book down and reaches for his phone again. He unlocks it and you can hear him typing away on it. Then you hear the message go through.

It takes about five seconds before he gets a reply.

Jason flies out of his seat with a gasp.

The video ends there.



a/n: this was funny as hell to think of. I mean Jason would have tons of reactions based on what he’s doing in the moment. I imagine that he’d probably spill government secrets if you sat him in front of a live audience lmaoo. Thanks anon for sending this in!! <33333

[theodorecanaryhood]

Enemies and love eternal

One shot DC fanfic

Jason Todd x Male reader

Warnings: language, threats, mentions of DV and assault

Life has a habit of throwing unexpected surprises at you, some great. So great that you don’t ever want to leave that moment in time.

Some bad, some so bad it feels like eternity and you can’t do anything but wait for the perfect time, that moment you get to breath in relief.

Bruises, black eye, cracked ribs. There wasn’t anything you hadn’t been put through.

Flashing lights and sirens, a courtroom, a new apartment.

1 year had been the worst year that turned to a year that was perfect all of a sudden.

Then even more perfect as you met Jason, Jason Todd. A man who literally swept you away and gave you everything he could at the drop of a hat.

A man so obsessed with you that he gave his all to make sure you were safe.

A year into the relationship, the two of you moved in together. You both were inseparable. Two years, Jason was planning your future together.

Now, six years all of a sudden and the two of you had brought a house, living in a nicer part of Gotham.

Your home was wherever Jason was, as was his. The change had brought on a new experience for the both of you.

‘I’ll be back soon baby’ Jason said as he kissed you, his giant form compared to yours engulfed you.

His big hands on your smaller form buried you, Jason’s lips pressed against yours for a few seconds.

Jason’s black muscle Tee and white joggers remained perfectly on his body, complimenting well as he walked away.

Steam from your tea filled the air as the light dimly lit up the page on your book, the fireplace created a lovely atmosphere as the warmth filled the room.

A light knock at the front door brought your attention away from the book, you walked as the cold floor in the hall hit your feet.

‘Hello?’ You asked as you opened the door, a tall man standing at the door.

‘Hey’

It took you a few seconds to adjust to the dark night, then realising you were face to face with your ex boyfriend.

Reluctantly agreeing to let him in, you knew Jason would hit the roof if he knew. However, your ex, Chris, seemed calm and just wanted to talk.

‘This is a nice place, you rent?’ Chris asked, you shook your head.

‘I own it, me and Jay brought it a few years back’ you replied.

Chris stood and watched you as you nervously stood in the living room.

‘So, how’ve you been?’ You asked, Chris shrugged.

‘Just wanted to say, I was thinking about you’ Chris said as he walked toward you.

‘Ok’

Chris held your hand as he looked in your eyes, pleading there but also, a hint of darkness behind his stare.

‘Y/n, I still love you, I want us to have another chance’ Chris admitted as he watched as you cringed a little, pulling your hand away.

‘I’m flattered, I understand that you have changed. But, you have just been released from prison, and I have a boyfriend’ you replied, Chris’ face changed.

‘We’ve been together for six years, you and me were together for one. In at this point that I have always dreamed of. We could’ve had that, but you missed your shot’ you continued.

‘Please, give me another chance’ Chris pleaded, his best effort to give puppy eyes.

‘I gave you tons, but I can’t anymore’ you replied very bluntly.

A firm grip on your wrist caught your attention, Chris’ face changed quickly as he looked dark suddenly.

‘Let go of my arm’ you sighed, Chris tightened his grip.

‘Sit down, listen to me and realise. You are mine’ Chris growled as he twisted your arm.

You winced a little in pain as you saw Chris twisting your arm, your ex boyfriend was present in the moment with the darkness he had those years ago.

‘Let go’ you winced as Chris continued gripping tightly.

‘You fucking cunt, you dare to leave me’ he growled again.

‘Hey, take your fucking hands off of him’ Jason shouted, suddenly appearing as Chris let go.

‘Who the fuck are you?’ Chris asked, smug as he saw your red mark on your arm.

‘I’m his boyfriend, who the fuck are you?’ Jason barked.

‘Jason, Chris’ you pointed, Jason had a look of realisation on his face.

‘You’re the shithead ex boyfriend who couldn’t keep his hands to himself’

Chris chuckled coldly as he looked you up and down, Jason being taken over by anger. His witnessing of you being taken hold of in a way Jason would never do to you.

‘That little twink was more than just a fuck toy, he was also a punching bag. And he deserved it with that attitude that came out of his mouth’ Chris coldly remarked, Jason took a step forward.

‘The fuck you just say? If you wanna keep your kneecaps I suggest you stop talking’ Jason barked, Chris laughed.

‘Like you could’

‘Don’t test me bruh, look at the size of you compared to me. I deal with assholes like you all the time and they never come out in one piece’ Jason said, puffing his chest out and towering over Chris.

Your ex boyfriend actually looked scared a little, you smiled a little as Jason made Chris nearly cower away.

‘Last I checked you’re a pussy boy who is unemployed and had to move back in with mommy and daddy after being released from prison’ Jason continued as you saw a little bit of a sore point hit as Chris looked hurt.

‘I think I’m gonna go’ you said, about to turn as Jason wrapped an arm around your waist and held you in place.

‘Stay right there baby’ Jason ordered, you held yourself still as Jason slipped his arm away.

‘Ok’ you obeyed, Chris looked at you with venom in his eyes.

Witnessing you being respected, protected and treated well made Chris annoyed, seeing as Jason was actually good to you.

‘Get out of my house, before I throw you out’ Jason growled at your ex boyfriend as Chris nodded a little.

As Chris walked toward the front door, Jason turned around and called out to Chris. A final threat that he meant every word of.

‘You ever touch y/n again, you ever even so much as breathe in his direction. I will rip your fucking nutsack off’ Jason called, Chris walked out the door as there was a silence that filled the air.

You turned your head with a small smile toward Jason as he still had anger on his face. Jason looked at you and instantly, within a second, his stance and voice calmed.

‘What?’ Jason said softly to you, you smiled even more as you grabbed Jason’s arm.

‘You’re hot when you’re angry’ you laughed as Jason pulled you in for a kiss.

This moment was when you had even more reassurance, you deserve better after all the hard times and pain you suffered with Chris. And here, right in front of you, he stood.

[allyendergirl]

Jason Todd most certainly read a shit ton of classic American and English lit bc the classics are waaaaaayy fuckin cheaper than any other type of book. I just got 4 classics for ¢50 each bc they were on sale, normally they are $1 for these versions at Walmart. I have a copy of The Scarlet Letter that says it’s like $3.45, my pretty Frankenstein copy from Barns & Noble is like $10-15? So that means a simpler cover is $5 cheaper or so. My non adapted copy of Huckleberry Fin is like $6, my copy of Jane Eyre is like $4, and I’m sure I’ve seen other classics like Persuasion, The Story of Dorian Grey, Persuasion, anything from Charles Dickens and so on, be of similar price, so that totally bodes well for all of Jason’s bought new books being classics. Classics also turn up at thrift stores a lot! I have very few new modern books that cost less than $10, both are generally geared towards middle schoolers. Since I think Jason would have a high reading level I don’t think he’d be interested in a lot of books from that age group, because of that he Developed a taste for the classics, not only because when school was out the classics he grew up with were the easiest to access, but because during the summer it was also the most engaging reading he could get his hands on most of the time. The library being too far to walk alone to, the small collection of classics he amassed over the years from his birthdays kept him company most summer days, sitting at lemonade stands, down time while babysitting, sun bathing on the apartment building rooftop, looking inconspicuous at the park while in between pick pocketing. When he was homeless the books he allowed himself to bring were sometimes the only things he had to combat the hours of nothing that came with transiency. And after he found a more stable haunt Jason did anything to reattain his beloved classics, anything to get just a taste of what it used to be before death had cut into his life mercilessly. And those classic books held there purpose after Jason moved into Wayne Manor, a sweet reminder of the life he’d be born to.

[luwritesomething]

DAMIAN WAYNE HEADCANONS !!!

ah, love of my life. this man right here got me years ago into learning more about the batfam and now here i am. you can say it’s kind of his fault. anyways,,, no one asked for this but my brain did. 

requests are open! hit that anon button and tell me your idea!

warnings: swearing, hadn’t been proof-read.

damian’s head is a MESS. don’t get me wrong, the guy is a little genius, but imagine the chaos of languages he has -- arab, english, chinese, i’m a hundred percent he knows russian, urdu is nanda parbat’s official language... 

because of this (^^) he just sometimes shuts down and stays silent. he can’t even think.

he loves all animals but he can’t handle insects. jason found out, and damian bribed him with a collectors special edition of classical books. nobody must know his weaknesses.

he writes in cursive, i have no clues but also no doubts.

words are difficult for him, that’s why he talks the way he does -- so professionally, like he is from another age. 

can stand tim (in small amounts) but no longer they will always have an intellectual rivalry -- it’s probably more from damian’s side rather than tim’s.

he still feels like he has to hide that he looks up to dick.

damian searched what fanfiction was. he’s scarred for life now. 

he’s straight up bored of paparazzi. he’ll go lady gaga on their ass and stare at the ones that are hidden in a bush trying to take pictures of him in secret.

also he will go full cole sprouse on the people trying to take pictures on him while he’s walking through gotham (this means he will snap pictures of the civilians before they snap a picture of him. camera duels, that’s the name)

listens to A LOT of music. everything his siblings listen to, he does too. classical music is his favorite, however. (also enjoys jazz).

taking care of his animals and his duties as robin are his favorite activities.

doesn’t understand social media, but still uses it. he’s too stubborn to admit he’s bad handling that.

too lazy to figure out how to cook, but if he tried in the slightest, he would be an amazing cook.

damian is an incredibly fast learner. it amazes the fuck out of bruce how many new things he can learn in just one day. 

he grows to be an actually very kind person, but his snarky remarks and dry humor never disappears.

likes the addams family. what a surprise.

doesn’t get horror/slasher movies. he keeps getting bored and doesn’t react to the jumpscares. jason says he is dead inside, which everyone agreed on.

they don’t know (^^) that damian is making a superhuman effort to not kick someone when the jumpscares occur because this little guy has his senses to the maximum all the time.

can’t be bothered unless someone is being ignorant or trashing about his family. he’s the only one that trashes about his family >:(

texts like a grandpa but at least he knoews what’s happening (most of the times)

like jason, damian has been kicked out of the wayne family chat numerous times.

has an elderly person soul except for when he’s fighting. then he’s a vicious little shit-

plays piano. no, i will not elaborate.

will correct your grammar in a condescending tone of voice.

“don’t patronaze me.” @ everyone.

has general knowledge about a shit ton of things. and since he doesn’t know how to properly socialize (canon) will spill those facts in order to start a conversation during galas.

has threatened the police -- 10/10 will do it again.

damian couldn’t care less about gossip but since he’s a good listener he always ends up knowing the tea about  E V E R Y T H I N G.

cocky bastard. that’s it, that’s all i’m saying.

he has no idea how to handle compliments. it still makes him freeze whenever someone says he’s cute or has pretty eyes.

“no.” (damian’s answer every time someone calls him cute).

believes in soulmates and in love at first sight, not as a superficial concept but as a ‘i’m clicking and mystically attracted to this person rewardless of their looks’.

reads A LOT.

never as much as jason, and also he doesn’t just read like narrative books -- he reads those thick books about how to do things, biographys, and studies about subjects he randomly knows about.

barely sleeps, if he ever does. 

sleep is for the weak™

(^^) proceeds to randomly fall asleep during patrols or family dinners.

acts like a brat but he actually isn’t -- it’s so complicated to explain, i hope someone just gets it.

at 17 he’s taller than dick and almost as tall as jason. suck it, @ everyone who mocked his height.

jon kent is his Best Friend™

(^^) damian told me himself.

he’s very handsome (canon lolz)

no but like, i mean, he will actually be one of those men you think ‘good fucking lord, he’s handsome’

damian thinks selina is cool.

has a lot of anger and frustration inside. it calms him down knowing jason also has problems like those because it makes him feel more... normal.

because normal is something damian would have liked to feel if he hadn’t been conceived to be perfect.

he would love six of crows -- would really like kaz brekker.

secretly enjoys the ya genre, will never admit it out loud.

[anachronisticcrab]

Hello! I’m not sure if you are still doing asks and of course if your not it’s completely fine but if you are can you do Demi-God children of Bia? maybe will being a champion of Nyx to please? Again if you don’t it’s absolutely fine I was just wondering and if you can thank you very much I appreciate it greatly

Hi! I’m so sorry about how long this has taken to get back 😭😭 my asks are always open, my mind is always ADHD

Anyways, demigod children of Bia/Vis HC’s (I will say that I don’t know a ton about Bia, cause I’ve gotten to know other gods much better, but I will do my best here)

Most of her children are mute or selectively mute, as she doesn’t speak much in the mythos and is often the silent force behind everything

For those who don’t know, Bia is the goddess of force

This is what tripped me up lol cause force is such a versatile word so I’m gonna put all my thoughts in here

‘Force’ can be like unstoppable force on the battlefield (which is how Bia went along, as in the mythos she was the force aiding the Olympians against the titans)

It could also be the force of love, the most powerful motivator so some of these demigods are extremely close

‘Force’ also always makes me think of the forces of nature, like gravity and mass and all that so I think it’d be really cool if Bia’s children could semi alter the gravity levels around them in order to fly and crush their enemies

Also Royal Bia Kids bringing their subjects and enemies to their knees would be very fun

As well, they’re extremely tight knit with children of Nike, Kratos and Zelus

Often they’ll feel obligated to and protective of Zeus’ children (a child of Bia and a child of Nike actually housed Jason for a long time in New Rome)

They have the capability to change the tide of battle

Extremely persuasive

(Personal hc here) Bianca and Nico are descendants of Bia and Nike, which is why Maria chose their names

Will as a champion of Nyx is god tier omg

Is able to create miniature constellations and nebulae with his light powers thanks to his blessing from the Night

Night and Day simultaneously

Uses his powers with Nicos to create night scenes for younger campers

This is the real source of his glowing powers, and he will glow a billion different colours at once to create the galactic look of the night sky

Part of the reason he’s obsessed with Star Wars ngl (always in the night sky)

When I think of night I think of space so don’t judge how this is mostly on space lol

Genuinely think she should’ve been sweeter in canon so she’s genuinely the sweetest mother ever you can fight me

She gives Will protection in the shadows and cover of night

Helps him fight his way through Tartarus with Nico in the solo book

All I can think of for now, again so sorry for the months long delay 😭😭 I hope you enjoyed tho ❤️ if u wanted me to do smth else/I misunderstood pls let me know too

btw for everyone who sees this— feel free to add anything on

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 16: Summertime Nightmares (Alt prompt: Consolation/advice)

AO3

Prev

The following week was the last of the school year. And it was...weird to say the least. Some of her classmates were upset that she hadn’t been the one to tell them. Many of them (most) assumed that she’d known and just hadn’t told them. She didn’t want to argue with them and she knew her dad hadn’t announced her existence in Gotham yet, so she just pointed out the fact that the Wayne family was very private.

That mostly worked. Lila kept poking though, insisting that Marinette would have told them if she trusted them. Nino disagreed, which shocked Marinette. He usually believed Lila, or at least he hadn’t ever openly gone against her before. But not this time. This time, he insisted that Marinette trusted them and it was probably her dad who asked her not to say anything. While wrong, Marinette didn’t disagree. She’d let her dad take the fall for this one. Alya though...she wasn’t taking it well. She thought Marinette should have told her ages ago. If she had known before Lila came, maybe she would have told Alya. But Alya had been more lax on what she posts on the Ladyblog since Lila’s arrival. She’d done less research, and was posting things not related to Ladybug and Chat Noir. While that wouldn’t usually bother her, Marinette did not want her newly discovered family to be the next big story on Alya’s blog.

So she basically just kept her head down, kept quiet at the class hangouts. And now school was finally out for the summer. It would be a little over two months with no Lila. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Marinette walks into the bakery and smiles widely at her Maman and Papa.

“Hello honey, how are you?” Her Maman asks, sliding a croissant into her hands.

“I’m fine, Maman.” She says, mentally preparing herself to ask what she’d been avoiding. Her dad had offered to let her stay in Gotham for the summer. It was both a chance to bond, and a chance for him to train her a little so that she could fight better, help her make a case against Hawkmoth, maybe even find his identity. He also wanted to give her a break. He thought that taking a step away from Paris, from always policing her emotions, was in her best interest. She agreed, but she still hadn’t talked to her Maman. Or her Papa.

“Bruce called.” Her Papa says. Marinette freezes. He wasn’t supposed to call yet! “Asked if we’d made a decision about letting you go to Gotham for the summer.” Rats.

“I was gonna talk to you guys today! I didn’t wanna upset you. I love you guys so much, but I also really wanna spend time with the other half of my family because I just met them and we haven’t really had a chance to bond or get to know each other and-”

“Honey, we understand.” Her Maman says, cutting off her ramble with a smile. Marinette blinks.

“Really?” She asks in a small voice. She didn’t want to hurt them. Her Maman smiles and relief floods her body.

“Of course honey. It would also give you a chance to not deal with constant akuma attacks.” She says. Marinette squeals in excitement, running over and wrapping her parents in a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She yells. Watch out Gotham, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Wayne is coming back!

---

“Why hasn’t Marinette answered yet? She’s always down for a class picnic.” Alya says with a pout. Lila suppresses an eye roll, opting instead for a worried frown.

“Do you think she’s mad at you?” She prompts, knowing exactly why the little brat wasn’t answering. She was supposed to be on a plane right about now. Lila had borrowed Alya’s phone the day before (to make sure Marinette hadn’t tried to say anything about her again) when she saw the text. Marinette would be spending the entire summer in Gotham.

Lila, in a moment of what was surely pure excellence, deleted the text. It was perfect! Alya wouldn’t know Marinette had left and Marinette would be waiting for a text from her stupid BFF. But Lila had thought of that too. She’d changed the phone number on Marinette’s contact in Alya’s phone. It was now set to go to a fake number in a messaging app that Lila spent €1 on each month. It was worth it though, it’d definitely come in handy before. And now all she had to do was wait. Sure Marinette could always text Alya first, but Lila had heard too many times that Alya usually reached out first. Probably because of how much of a scatterbrain Marinette is.

“Why would she be mad at me?” Alya asks with a nervous smile. Hook, line and sinker. Lila frowns and places a hand on Alya’s arm in a faux attempt at reassurance.

“I didn’t wanna say anything, I really shouldn’t.” She says, shaking her head.

“Please. I’ll owe you one!” Alya insists, just as Lila had hoped. This would be a key part of her plan later on. Once Marinette has been silent for a few weeks.

“Well...okay. I heard her talking to Adrien the other day.” Lil starts, using the only other person who could go against her (but won’t!) “She said- she said she couldn’t trust you!” Alya flinches back as if she was hit.

“She said that?” She asks in a small voice. Lila nods sadly, celebrating on the inside. She’d be able to use this summer, while Marinette is away, to finally take everything away from that no good brat. It would be glorious.

---

Marinette was moments away from committing a murder. She was only going to do it because she knew for a fact that she’d get away with it. With a singular pout, she’d have the world’s greatest detective on her side. She was certain of it.

“Miss Marinette please put down the knife. I assure you prison is not lovely this time of year.” Alfred says with a sigh as he walks into the kitchen.

“Then tell Dick to get out of the kitchen!” She complains, pointing at her oldest brother who was currently covered in frosting and flour. She was trying to make cupcakes for after dinner, since she knew how much Dick likes sweets. She was trying to do something nice. And when Dick came into the kitchen, claiming he just wanted to spend time with his baby sister, Marinette let him stay. Because she loves her brother, she does.

But somehow in the two minutes that he was in the kitchen, he managed to dump the entire canister of flour. Not good, but she’d already baked the cupcakes so it wasn’t the end of the world. But then somehow, he’d managed to dump the entire mixing bowl of frosting. The entire thing. She had no clue how he had managed to do that, considering the fact it was frosting. It didn’t exactly run smoothly out of a bowl. It’s supposed to be able to hold its shape. Honestly, it was a mystery.

“Master Dick, you know that you are not allowed in the kitchen.” Alfred says with a frown. Dick pouts.

“I just wanted to spend some time with Mari.” He mumbles. Marinette almost regrets wanting to kill him. Until she watches as he wipes some of the frosting off of his head and eats it. Yeah, she doesn’t regret it anymore...but she does still love him.

“Okay, we’ll definitely have to spend more time together later. But for right now please go take a shower or something. I need to make more frosting and I do not trust you to be in the room when I do.” Marinette says exasperatedly. Dick sighs but leaves. Marinette puffs out her cheeks, giving Alfred a look.

“Yes?” He asks, his lips quirked up slightly.

“I honestly don’t know how you deal with them sometimes.” She grumbles before grabbing a new bowl. The cupcakes aren’t going to decorate themselves.

---

Jason huffs, annoyed that he’d been talked into staying at the manor with Marinette. He wasn’t mad at Marinette, he would do just about anything for the kid. Didn’t mean he wanted to stay at the manor just to make sure she didn’t sneak onto patrol. She’d assured them that she was too tired to try anything, but Bruce hadn’t believed her. Thus, Jason stuck at the manor.

But the kid had made a shit ton of cupcakes and Jason had a copy of his favorite book, so the night wouldn’t be too bad. After a few hours lounging in one of the rooms near Marinette’s, Jason starts to nod off. He’s about to welcome the rest, knowing everyone would be back from patrol soon, when he’s yanked from sleep by an ear piercing scream. Shit.

---

Marinette blinks as she looks around. Oh god. No, no please don’t let this be real. She chokes out a sob as she looks around her. Paris was once again completely underwater. The Eiffel tower was split in half. Hands shaking, she glances up and sees the moon. Or, what’s left of it. She moans in distress, letting her tears fall freely. She tries to breathe, but it won’t come. She’s panicking now, trying to ignore the burn in her chest as she sees the disaster around her. The terror around her. The destruction. She clutches her throat, trying to force her body to breathe. Force herself to suck in air, to be okay.

“Oh, Marinette, I see you’ve decided to join us again.” A familiar voice says. She tenses, slowly turning and looking behind her. Standing in front of her, just as she remembered him, was Chat Blanc. She should’ve known. She should’ve known that just because it was okay for a couple days didn’t mean it would stay okay. She should’ve tried harder to find Bunnix, should’ve tried to find a way to stop Adrien from finding out. Movement by Chat Blanc’s feet catches her attention and she glances down, regretting it immediately.

“What have you done?” She asks, rushing forward and falling to her knees, desperately trying to stop her little brother from bleeding out. “What have you done?” She yells, glaring at Chat Blanc through her tears. Her hands shake as she puts pressure on the wound, using Damian’s cape in an attempt to stop the blood.

“Marinette-” He tries to say, and she just shakes her head, hating that there’s blood coming out of his mouth. She knows what that means. She knows that this is bad. And there are no hospitals anymore. Everything is underwater. Everything except the three of them.

“Hey no, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay, I’ve got you little brother.” She chokes out, trying to smile at him.

“Father,” He manages to say, his voice barely audible. “Help him.”

“No, no, please. Please don’t leave me! Please, no, no!” She screams, trying to wake him back up, trying to force him to get back up. He couldn’t die like this. He couldn’t die at all. She just found him. And now she’s lost him.

“Now we can be together forever Marinette.” Chat Blanc says, finally speaking up. She glares at him and his stupid smirk. The smirk that had haunted her since the first time she saw the white suit.

“I don’t want anything to do with you! You killed my brother!” She screams. Glancing down at her shaking hands, she can’t help but notice they’re covered in blood. She shudders, trying hard not to throw up.

“Brothers, actually.” He quips. She snaps her gaze back to him.

“What?” She hisses, standing so that she can hopefully run and get to one of her brothers before it’s too late. She can’t lose all of them. She can’t. He casually steps to the side, revealing her other brothers. But none of them are moving. Cass is also lying with them, but she’s not moving either. Gone. All of her siblings. And it was all her fault. She let Adrien know her identity. She didn’t try to fix that mistake and this is what happened. She lost every- her dad. Damian said- She turns and runs away from Chat Blanc, scanning the horizon and trying to stay as together as possible. She had to try. She could still save her dad. She could still help him. As she looks around, she manages to spot his cowl. Rushing towards it, she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Marinette?” He says, looking at her with a frown. She scans him for injuries, relieved that he just had a few small wounds. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

“I’m so sorry dad.” She whimpers, throwing her arms around him. He holds her for a moment before pulling away.

“Marinette, we have to go. We can’t stay here. It’s only a matter of time before-” He stops talking and his face morphs into the most horrified, anguish filled face that Marinette had ever seen. Right before he starts to crumble into ash.

“No!” She screams, horror and grief washing over her in waves. She was all alone and it was all her fault. And now she was going to die too.

---

“Come on Pixie, wake up kid. Come on, it’s okay, I’m here. Jay’s here.” A familiar voice soothes. Marinette stops thrashing, coughing slightly as she realizes the loud noise had been coming from her. She’d been screaming. Jay’s here? But then- She immediately opens her eyes, sobbing in relief when she sees Jason looking at her. No blood. Okay. She lunges forward and wraps her arms around him, sobbing into his chest.

“I’m sorry.” She cries. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh kid, you don’t have to be sorry. It’s okay. You’re okay.” He whispers, holding her close. They sit like that for a few minutes, until a knock on the door frame makes her reluctantly pull back. She glances over and a new wave of tears immediately appears. She launches herself off the bed and runs into her dad’s arms, sobbing once more.

“Jason, what happened?” He asks quietly, she knows that Jason doesn’t know, but she doesn’t answer for him. She can’t. All she can do is cry in her dad’s arms, relieved that she could cry. That her nightmare didn’t end with her almost being akumatized like it had before.

“No clue. Heard her scream so I ran in here, but she was asleep. Once she woke up she started crying and apologizing.” Jason says softly, probably for her benefit. She tries hard to remind herself that the nightmare didn’t mean anything. Her family wouldn’t be hurt because of her.

“Is everyone okay? Damian and Tim and Dick?” She asks, still buried in her dad’s arms. She’d ask about Cass, but she was still in Hong Kong. Marinette made a mental note to text her later.

“Everyone’s fine. Did you- do you want to talk about it?” He asks, and she almost agrees. Maybe it would be better to finally tell someone about Chat Blanc. To share that burden with someone else. But...maybe not her dad. Especially not since Adrien actively knows her identity and she wouldn’t be opposed to dating the boy in the future.

“I- er, um.” is all she manages to say before shaking her head. She won’t talk to her dad about this, and she doesn’t want to leave his arms right now. Not while she feels safe. She can almost hear him whispering to Jason, but she knows he’s trying not to let her hear, so she ignores them and instead wraps her arms around him tighter.

“Can I go get you a glass of water? Maybe a cookie for Tikki?” Her dad asks after a few moments of whispering with Jason. Marinette frowns. She didn’t want to be left alone. Not yet.

“I’ll stay with ya Pixie Pop.” Jason says, almost as if he had read her mind. She nods, giving her dad one final squeeze before walking back over to the bed and climbing up, letting Jason wrap her in a hug.

“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” Her dad says before walking away. The silence only lasts a beat.

“You wanna tell your big brother why you woke up screamin’?” He asks. Marinette squeezes her eyes shut, desperate to get rid of the images from her nightmare.

“Nightmare.” She says simply. Jason chuckles.

“Kinda figured that part out Pix.”

“I’ve had it before.” She starts, aware of how her voice shakes. “But this time it was a lot worse. This time, I wasn’t the one who died.”

“What could be worse than dyin?” Jason asks, though she can tell by his tone that he knows. He knows what’s worse than dying.

“Watching all of you die.” She says simply. His hug tightens and she lets out a shaky breath, desperately wiping at her tears. “That’s not even the worst part Jay.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna.” He says softly.

“I know.” She says. “A version of it has happened. In a different timeline. That’s the worse part. Luckily when I had to go save that timeline, I didn’t know you guys. So you weren’t caught in the middle of everything. But in my nightmare, since you know about me and- and you guys just wanted to help but no one can win against that. No one. It was so hard to beat him when it actually happened. But the dream. It was awful.” There’s silence as he just holds her, lets her know he’s there without saying it. She’s so thankful for her family. For her brothers.

“Here’s your water.” Her dad says. She finally sits up and looks at him, noting the way his face is creased in worry. She manages a small smile.

“Thanks dad.” She says, her smile growing slightly as his face begins to relax.

“Mari! You’re still up?” Dick says, walking into the room. She blinks at him in confusion, not expecting him to just walk in. She watches as he looks between everyone else, clearly putting it together that something was wrong. He frowns, before his face stretches back into a grin. “Come on, bring all your pillows and blankets and we’ll have a Disney movie marathon until we fall asleep.” He directs, running out of the room to presumably get his own materials for the movie marathon.

“You don’t have to.” Her dad reassures her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. She shrugs.

“Might as well. I know I’ll definitely not be able to sleep anymore tonight.” She says, grabbing a couple pillows and her blanket, dragging it with her to the movie room. Leave it to her brothers to have a way to help her feel better after a nightmare. Marinette smiles to herself, once again relieved that she was in Gotham.

Next

Masterlist

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82

[phantaloon-books]

Things about Tower of Nero that I want to highlight to remember them forever:

Lu being an absolute badass woman, I just love her too much

Piper McClean being canon wlw, she was actually kissing another girl, we really fell in love in october

Chaos being canonically female (just chaos being mentioned as a deity rather than what's below tartarus)

nobody DIED, like no one on the good side at least?? yes plenty of beings have died throughout TOA, but nobody died in TON?? so many died in TLO and BOO, I expected to mourn someone and I didn't have too??! it made me so happy

solangelo. that's it. solangelo makes me happy.

will being incredibly supportive of nico, and instead of stopping him, going with him on dangerous adventures because he doesn't want to leave him alone. also them treating Nico's PTSD for what it is

WILL SOLACE CANONICALLY GLOWS IN THE DARK. HE'S A GLOWSTICK BABY.

also will just appearing at the gates of the throne room, glowing in rage because someone touched his boyfriend (and tried to kill his dad), and him just marching through everyone (everyone else letting him), just to pick up his hurt precious boyfriend and take care of him.

meg McCaffrey got her happy ending. she's baby, she deserves her family and her happy ending. also Lu being the mother and the 12 children being siblings?? that's one hell of a way to tell nero to fuck off and right his mistakes. we love meg.

dionysus being the best olympian after apollo. the duo content we needed, and now will never get

nico mentioning bob and how he wants to go look for him, because he can still be in tartarus

rachel still being a Total badass and hitting people in the eye with her blue hairbrush thus being iconic

meg acting as lester's anchor and only reason why he didn't let go of the ledge, not falling into chaos, is top tier 'reasons why I cried reading', because if you think about it, Meg is the first ever friend apollo ever had, and them being best friends is everything to me

also apollo choosing to go looking as lester rather than apollo because lester feels like home is on top tier 'reasons why I cried reading' too

again, the only thing apollo did in the end (once he was god again) that could be described as 'godly' was be in several places at once, fly his chariot, and get meg her unicorn

but apollo shooting fucking fire out of his hands is crazy asf, it was so cool. he really got amazing godly powers this book.

rick being bold enough to showcase abusive parenting knowing that a huge porcentage of his readers are minors, helping many realize that they could be in abusive households, and giving them a tool to reach out for help

apollo defeating nero was so satisfactory, because you realize in the end, that nero wasn't really a monster, he was monstrous, but still very much human (if only with some godly power), and pretty useless once he couldn't hide behind props and weapons, his being wasn't powerful, he was just under layers of protection

the jackson/blofis scene was so warm and loving, they really are willing to put their family in danger, baby estelle in danger, to help 'percy's friends' even tho she knew percy didn't like apollo, but she still takes in everyone who needs help, and paul being a loving and accepting husband

sally working on her SECOND novel, she really is having her best life

none of the big heroes from other series having protagonism, besides nico and will, instead giving the other kids from camp halfblood their chance to show they're just as worthy as the "heroes of olympus"

(still I would have loved to see a scene with everyone else, like the heroes of olympus guys, fighting together one last time, just for nostalgia's sake - I legit hoped to see percy and annabeth arriving with chiron in triumvirate tower, but yeah)

the arrow of dodona may have been a dumb, cringey, and slightly ridiculous thing at first, and I personally rolled my eyes everytime it said anything, but it knew what would happen from the start, and without its sacrifice, apollo would have achieved nothing. we stan one arrow

nico wearing a white cowboy hat. idky but it makes my heart swell with joy. he a gay cowboy

y'all know I love Apollo's arch, and I just gotta point this out. his trials, his time as lester, started with him falling to earth, and ended with him getting up after purposely throwing himself off the earth, towards tartarus, almost falling to chaos. that's really clever writing.

the olympians watching over him, and some actually being concerned for him rather than his progress.

poseidon not really giving a fuck about the world or council meetings anymore because percy's not there anymore

athena being the only one apart from artemis who trusted apollo could do it makes me warm fsr

lester deciding that the best way to retell his adventures is by singing is hilarious to me, he really thinks it'll solve everything

Grover not telling percy and annabeth jason died seems so funny to me, he really said "nah it doesn't matter much, field trip, yes"

"hey man" my heart broke in twenty million pieces. like I don't know where I expected to see jason. but that wasn't it. and it hurt me as much as it hurt apollo man.

(also I kinda hoped we would see nico summon his spirit or smth, but I'm actually happy nico realized that jason went by his own choice, and he was in peace, so he decided not to summon him, because it was alright. that hurt too)

kinda love how lester passes out after literally every battle. it reminds you that even tho he's apollo, his body isn't. I'm sure we all would pass out too if we did a quarter of what lester did in the span of 4 days. his body isn't made to endure that, it doesn't even have a halfblood endurance, it's a weak mortal body

the trogs were fucking hilarious. their screeches and grrs, idk there's something ridiculous and so childish about them, it's so fun

really happy that apollo never had a /real/ love interest (reyna doesn't count), cause that wasn't what his story was about. instead he got to make so many friends, and have quality time with them and his children, it's amazing

apollo being thankful people were telling him he'd grown, and was more human, because he realized that was the best thing he could have learned from his time as a mortal

also him saying fuck you man to zeus and his speech, like "no asshole dad, I did learn, I'm not going to see this as punishment, it was a great time in which bad things happened but I enjoyed it." yes, we love apollo not letting zeus win

getting to see what everyone will do now. nico and will figuring out rachel's prophecy, probs saving bob. rachel living her best life away from her parents. leo doing what leo does, always helping those who have no one else. the hunters' open storyline about this fox, possibly hinting at content? piper settling down in a quiet life is what she deserves tbh, she's earned quiet life with a cute gf, wish her the best. Frank and hazel being the best praetors, and I bet they will continue to be so. And annabeth and percy, who chose their happiness over all, at last

kinda wish we got to see someone still really miss jason after apollo becomes god again tho lmao like apollo missed jason more than the others, nico and piper being the exception. I mean, leo is fine and dandy, hazel and frank are okay, percy and annabeth are done mourning... I just we got to see any of them really mourning, rather than reading they mourned. it would have made it feel more emotional

the last conversation and the last words in general. "the sun always comes back" and "we're friends now. call on me. I'll be there for you" that shit got me sobbing my heart out. rick really managed to do right by the books and end it like he should have, unlike BOO. he took what made TLO good and used a similar formula. it's very different from "and for once I didn't look back", but it still fills you with warmth and the feeling that even though it's over, it's okay.

I'm just really emotional, this is all I can think about, but you bet I'm gonna add more when I remember

[hintofelation99]

Hi im new on Tumblr so idk if this could work but I haven't seen post of things like "what Jason as a boyfriend would do" or smth, and I love your account so I was wondering if you could like write smth like that, only if you want, Thx <3

Oooohhh, I like that. I like that alot, and I will be commandeering it for other batfam members. BUT, for now let's focus on sweet, cranky boi Jason (I'm thinking about this in terms of Jason/Roy cause that's my preferred pairing, but in the main portion of this I do try to be vague).

Firstly I imagine Jason and Roy have a ton of little arguements. Like their relationship is amazing and they adore eachother, but they fight over so many little things and honestly it's pretty funny to watch.

Jason: What the fuck Roy why you put my gun in the freezer?!

Roy: Well I wouldn't have put it in the freezer if you put it away like you said you would.

Jason: I was cleaning it and left to use the bathroom you asshole! And why the fuck did you decide the freezer was a good place for it?!

Roy: You didn't take care of your shit so I'm freezing your assests!

Honestly their little arguments are how they show love, like they nag eachother and annoy eachother but it's because they know that their relationship is strong enough to withstand those fights. They're comfortable enough to argue and make up afterwards.

(I'm adding a 'read more' thingy cause this'll be long, srry :))

Now on to how Jason is in a relationship:

He is cranky and sarcastic but no matter how upset he is he will always care for his partner. He can be in a horrible fight with his partner but if he finds out that they haven't eaten all day he will make them a grilled cheese or something

When he's angry he can be rash and accidentally say things he doesn't mean, so he often needs to take a step back, leave get some air, and text his partner what he's thinking (a personal aside: I will argue that this is a healthy method of handling conflict as long as both parties agree to it)

He leaves a lot of notes, mostly sticky notes with little love letters, reminders, or quotes that he read that remind him of his partner

Cooking or baking with his partner is one of his favorite things and honestly it's when he's at his softest/most relaxed, he never gets upset when a mistake is made while cooking and while he doesn't like to waste food he does understand that sometimes shit happens a meal doesn't work

His partner is also a foot rest. While he reads he will prop his feet up on his partners lap, legs, shoulder, or even head without a second thought. If his feet get pushed away he will put them back on his partner in a more annoying spot

Most nights he's not very cuddly, but almost every morning his partner wakes up in a octopus hug of some sort because Jason sleep cuddles. It's cute at first but Roy started bringing a spray bottle to bed after Jason accidentally put Roy in a choke hold while sleeping (at first the spray bottle was a joke but now Roy randomly sprays Jason to annoy him)

He crankily shows PDA. Jason is a pretty gruff and at times prickly guy, so when he does do PDA (just hand holding or a kiss on the cheek) he always looks so grumpy about it. Like passerbys have asked Roy if he and Jason were fighting or something, because goddamn that boy looked so annoyed when he held Roy's hand

He gets so flustered. Like Jason died at like 15 and then went into training, and yeah most people have some relationship stuff before 15 but I'd imagine that Jason didn't experience a whole lot of flirting or innuendos, so whenever something like that happens he get's briefly confused then turns bright red

Some nights he'll read to his partner, he loves books and absolutely lights up whenever he talks about them, so on soft nights in he'll sometimes read aloud to his partner

He annotates books and always underlines or circles or points out sections that remind him of his partner

No matter what Jason is a bat, so he'll always be emotionally constipated (it's genetic in a non-genetic way if you're pickin' up what I'm puttin' down) so getting him to giggle is almost impossible, but whenever Roy does make him giggle it's absolutely amazing. The best way to make Jason giggle is with bad flirting, especially like shakespearean pick up lines

He always knows when his partner needs coffee or tea and somehow always has coffee or tea ready to offer

And last but not least he hates doing things alone, growing up and after his death he was so independent and so lonely. So, when he has a partner he prefers to things with them and will wait to do something until his partner can come. So grocery shopping, going to the bank, recon, etc. he want's his partner with him. He doesn't admit it or even realize it himself, it's a subconcious thing, but the longer he spends away from his partner the crankier he gets

[bigskydreaming]

I will forever squint suspiciously at a fandom that overall makes a bigger deal out of Dick Grayson expressing he didn’t want to replace his father when he was still young and actively grieving than they do Tim Drake literally hiring an actor to be his fake uncle and saying no to Bruce’s first actual offer of adoption.

Like, if you can get on board with Timothy Drake-Wayne after that, because Tim changed his mind after he was further along in his grieving process, you can get on board with the idea that at some point after the age of ten or twelve Dick similarly changed his mind about thinking a second father would be an insult to his first father’s memory.

*Shrugs* I just don’t get how hard some people go to bat for the idea that Dick never wanted or needed someone he viewed as an actual parent at any point after he was eight. Because you can’t deny that whatever Dick has said about that in the comics, he’s NEVER made it nearly AS big a deal as most fans who cite it at all do. Like, when you run with the most extreme extrapolation of that but gloss right over Tim’s far more extensive efforts to keep Jack Drake the sole father figure in his memory at first, I feel like something else is going on there.

(And I’m not trying to turn this into a Tim vs Dick thing, btw, I’m honestly just using Tim’s story there as a benchmark for how a clearly parallel sentiment is overwhelmingly referenced in regards to just one character but not another. My issues with the way people engage with this particular idea in regards to Dick like, exists without Tim being in the equation at all. That was simply an example of the fact that there IS a discrepancy.)

But point being, as all roads in this particular direction of thought almost always seem to lead to Dick being slotted into some nebulous category separating him from the rest of his siblings, where he’s only partially Bruce’s kid but not FULLY, not like the others....I am the Wary. 

Because whatever the surface intentions behind that, it almost inevitably voids some of Bruce’s responsibility to him as a parent, while at the same time making it easier to heap parental or caregiver style responsibilities for the others on Dick. If Dick’s more like Bruce than he is like his siblings in the overall family dynamic, this not only lessens the need to show him on the receiving end of Bruce being a parental figure, it simultaneously heightens the urge to make him a parental figure to the others to pick up Bruce’s slack there, because they’re more partners than they are father and son, see. So why wouldn’t Dick pick up Bruce’s slack and help him out there, and why would he need Bruce to actually be fulfilling that very role with him instead?

All the things people are critical of Bruce for in his parenting with Dick aren’t quite as bad, right, when Dick’s not fully his son or doesn’t quite view Bruce as his father....its easier to reframe it as fights between colleagues. Or recast Dick’s estrangement from Bruce as not actually a failure on Bruce’s part to reach out and cement exactly what Dick meant to him every time Dick flat out says “I want to know what I mean to you, give a name to it, give me an explanation for why you made these choices that isn’t that you don’t want me because all I see when I look at those choices is you expressing you don’t want me.” 

Because if Dick doesn’t actually want that explanation ever, if Dick doesn’t actually want that rock-solid expression of Bruce putting a name to what he feels for Dick and what he views him as, then the arguments between Bruce and Dick in his late teenage years DO become two-sided. Its just them butting heads back then. Rather than what they actually WERE in the comics, which was Dick clearly expressing insecurities about his place in Bruce’s life and Bruce repeatedly letting him leave or outright telling him to leave without actually giving it to him.

(I’m not even talking about NTT #55 for once, I’m actually talking about when Dick went to Gotham after he found out about Jason being Robin now. And as the events of that issue get referenced a TON in fandom, its HIGHLY suspect that one specific part of that issue gets rewritten in particular: where its acted like it was Dick that stormed off in a huff there or Dick who didn’t want anything more than to confront Bruce about Robin. It really doesn’t get addressed enough IMO that yes, Bruce said outright that he did it because he missed Dick....and then two panels later, Bruce literally asks Dick to go now. Says I would like you to leave now. Bruce is the one who blew up and lost his temper, literally smashing something while Dick was just heated because he was understandably upset, while Bruce somehow made it like he was the one being hurt by Dick and asking for space from him. Yeah, he said I miss you, but he never DID anything with that and in fact just turned around two seconds later and drove Dick away again, like Holy Mixed Signals, Batman! Y’know? Like what exactly was Dick supposed to do with that? “Oh, so Bruce misses me, but also he didn’t want me there, like I was literally RIGHT THERE for the first time in seventeen months and he missed me so much that....he didn’t even ask me to stay for dinner? Or call or reach out to me afterwards? So....my conclusion is.....what, exactly?”)

Ultimately though, my big beef with the stuff about adoption or Dick not wanting to replace his father, its not even about those specifically. Its about that period when Bruce very visibly was NOT in Dick’s life....and that was BY BRUCE’S CHOICE. That is the thing that needs addressing in my book, and far too often goes unresolved. No matter what the particulars of Dick’s views or wants re: adoption, there is literally no confusion about the existence of comics where Dick is repeatedly the one to reach out to Bruce, at a point in his life where he no longer had any legal ties to Bruce whatsoever.....and clearly express in one way or another that he is there and willing to talk, that in fact he WANTS to talk about why Bruce doesn’t seem to want HIM, specifically. 

It was Dick who brought up the issue of Bruce adopting Jason but not him and asked WHY at that one issue with them at a party. It was Dick who returned to Gotham and asked Bruce WHY he made Jason Robin when he hadn’t wanted Dick to be Robin - (and for the record, NO version of events where Bruce is the one to make Jason Robin aligns with Dick voluntarily giving up Robin.....the one and only continuity in which Dick did that, HE made the choice to pass Robin on to Jason. Mixing and matching continuities specifically to make Dick unable to claim hurt or resentment for the identity he crafted for himself being given away to someone else without his approval because ‘he was the one who said he didn’t want it anymore’ is yet again, suspect, as it serves absolutely no purpose other than to lessen the hurt done to him and abdicate Bruce’s culpability in hurting him when he did that). 

It was Dick who returned to Gotham after Jason died with no intention but to express his condolences and share their grief, and it was Dick who returned to Gotham to check on Bruce after Tim said he was worried he was going to get himself killed, as well as again more longterm in order to help with Tim’s training.

And in each and EVERY one of those situations.....it was Bruce that ended those encounters, and ALWAYS without ever offering Dick any actual resolution or change in their dynamic. Despite Dick’s very presence in each of these being a very clear sign that Dick was unhappy with their estrangement and wanted a change to it or else he wouldn’t even be there, he would be off being comfortably estranged somewhere else and totally content with that.

THAT’S the bigger issue and always has been, I think. That no matter how else you parse it, Dick repeatedly looked for and asked for reassurances, some kind of actual TIES to Bruce, and that Bruce for whatever personal reasons of his own, repeatedly did not give....even when Dick walked him right up to the perfect opportunity to just fucking say “I would like you to come home more, I want you here, I want you as part of my family even though you’ve already aged out of our existing legal bond.”

Bruce still just WOULD NOT SAY IT. Dick was very clear about needing and wanting something from Bruce that Bruce DID NOT GIVE HIM. Bruce gave him basically nothing to work with in these encounters more often than not. 

(In the interest of not being disingenuous here, I do admit that at the party when Dick asked Bruce why he’d adopted Jason and not him, Bruce did give a fairly touching response about how by the time he thought Dick would be open to it, he thought that Dick was too old to actually want or need it anymore. BUT, problem is, even with that it does absolutely nothing to change or address how the very fact that Dick was expressing insecurity about this now meant that Dick WASN’T actually too old to want or need it. It was literally a smack in the face that Bruce’s conclusion was wrong and not actually about Dick’s wants. And Bruce knew this, even referenced it at later points when he threw it back in Dick’s face to accuse Dick of resenting Bruce adopting Jason and not him.....which is a clear indication that Bruce knew it was something Dick still wanted or else there would be no reason for resentment, and THAT is the issue there. That no matter what Bruce said at that party about his reasons for not adopting Dick sooner, that very conversation itself should have been reason enough for Bruce to rethink his stance then there....but he didn’t. Also he ended up adopting Dick like five years later soooooo.....if he could do it then when Dick was even older, that doesn’t work as a barrier for him not doing it then.)

And that’s the troubling part.....how many people try and make that period of their lives unclear with no other visible purpose than to make the fact that Bruce WOULD NOT OUTRIGHT CEMENT DICK AS FAMILY OR ASK HIM TO STAY, like.....less problematic.

And as I’ve said before and will no doubt say again.......that logic process bugs the hell out of me, because it ultimately tries to claim the responsibility for Dick’s unhappiness in this regard back then is at least as much his fault as Bruce’s. That it was some kind of fight between equals, or that it was something Dick initiated or that Bruce had no power to resolve on his own via just his own choices or gestures.

Because it wasn’t! That’s not remotely what all of that was! And like I’m also always saying, you don’t HAVE to stick with the canon by any means. You can literally rewrite things so Bruce adopts Dick before he’s eighteen and they never HAVE that period, you can rewrite things so that Bruce reaches out and ends that period early on by DOING THE WORK of being the parent in that situation, you can ‘fix that’ by any number of means......yet over and over we see that period of estrangement repeatedly upheld as a thing that exists in the history that fics and headcanons reference having happened......but with the only ACTUAL change from the comics being that its framed as though it was just growing pains or Dick being stubborn or a dozen other things that somehow keep coming back to Dick doing something wrong there instead of repeatedly standing in front of Bruce asking for him to clarify their relationship and Bruce changing the subject or asking him to leave.

Again. THAT’S the problem.

You want Good Parent Bruce Wayne? Then WRITE Good Parent Bruce Wayne. Don’t just write Stubborn Teenaged Asshole Dick Grayson who btw doesn’t even really want Bruce to be his parent so there’s absolutely nothing Bruce could have done to bridge that gap back then anyway. 

(As that’s an equally critical part of the equation here as well. See, since Dick DID clearly express a want for a clear connection to Bruce back then, acting like Dick never really wanted a second father is a super convenient way to write over the part where Dick spelled out for Bruce how to bridge the divide between them and make things good again.....by demonstrating an actual WANT to have Dick in his family!)

But writing Stubborn Teenage Asshole Dick Grayson Who Did This To Himself.....that is something entirely different from writing Good Parent Bruce Wayne. You haven’t actually done or said anything with BRUCE’S character by just making Dick the fall guy for every conflict between them as though they were just equals all along and there was never any kind of actual parent child relationship or even a DESIRE for there to be a parent child relationship. Where the responsibility for being the PARENT like, lands on the....y’know. Parent.

And for the record, I don’t think this issue is confined just to this period of the comics, I think rather that its kinda the point of origin of a very large recurring problem in Dick’s conflicts with other people.

Because like I said, it was abundantly clear that Dick was expressing a want to be acknowledged as family, or just flat out acknowledged by Bruce at all, during this time. And if people can somehow make THAT period into just his fault.....then of course it should be no surprise that they can make any conflict he’s part of into his fault. Its a freaking blueprint for doing just that! 

And that’s exactly why this pattern recurs so damn often with EXACTLY the same fanon beats......whatever role the other character plays even in initiating a conflict is shifted onto Dick and somehow made into his own proactive choice and not something he’s actually reacting to. Thus Dick does double duty as both the CAUSE of the conflict and the resulting EFFECT - aka how he reacted to that thing that originally, he did not actually cause or initiate. While meanwhile, the other character not only gets off scot free bearing no actual culpability....no, now since DICK is the one making all the actual choices in the conflict from start to finish, now the other character is actually his VICTIM in it as well.

And that’s just.....so....blegh.

[ectonurites]

hey! how knowledgeable are you on stephanie brown? because i got in a bit of an argument with a dc fan on reddit who claims she's all these awful things, but im still relatively new to steph and i want to see what was true and what wasn't. link to screenie right here: https://ibb.co/vh6CYCJ

these may be matters of opinion, but even then, i'd like to know your take. i haven't read her firsthand often enough and i trust your judgement over this random redditor who seems to have some sort of blonde-woman related trauma left untapped.

I'm not necessarily the most knowledgable on her in the world, but I do know a decent amount because she's one of my absolute faves and I love her

But ohhhh boy that screenshot is a lot.

I will say that several of the things this person brings up are based in canon but are taken in the worst faith and framed in the way that makes her look as bad as possible, if that makes sense? It’s ripping things away from any context, because there's a very clear bias against her here.

I'll go through it point by point under the cut

First of all though before digging into this, I want to make it clear she was a 15 year old for the majority of the things this person is talking about. Like just pause for a second and remember she’s a 15 year old victim of abuse. That is something that I think factors into a lot of her behavior! Anyways, I kinda while doing this got into a ranty 'talking at you' format in response to the person who wrote all that, so don't take any of this as me yelling at you who asked the question/you anyone reading this.

"She always acted entitled" - Saying Steph is entitled is absolutely ridiculous to me. Stephanie grew up with a very unstable childhood due to her dad frequently being in prison and her mom dealing with a drug addiction, living in a lower class part of the city. Tim is entitled. I don’t mean that as like a bad thing about him, but he is based on his living situation, she is not. She has wanted life to be better for herself and her mom, and is determined about that, but she is not and does not act entitled.

(Secret Origins 80 Page Giant)

"and stubborn" - I will give you stubborn though, that one is true. She’s stubborn as hell! I don’t really see that as a bad thing though, pretty much every bat is stubborn?

"demanding that Batman and Robin accept her untrained ass" - Steph may have been untrained in fighting but she's shown to have exceptional gymnastics skills from the start, and at one point Bruce even says that with the right training she could be as good if not better than Tim (in Robin #88)! So like... her realizing she enjoys trying to be a hero after she tried it out to deal with her personal business, so she looks to the local experts… and is determined about it… how is that a bad thing? It’s also not like she walked up to them and said ‘im perfect as i am let me in’ what she wanted was a chance to be a hero. But she also wasn't even really looking for approval, either, not having Batman's blessing was never going to stop her. ("So excuse me if I don't jump when you bark, Batman." in Robin #16) Later when Bruce does bring her in to train (and she also gets to train with the BoP) she's excited! She’s stubborn about wanting to be in the hero business, but it’s not like she’s unwilling to work for it.

"advocating leaving criminals to die because they 'deserve it'" - She’s a 15 year old who grew up knowing firsthand how dangerous Gotham criminals can be because of her dad, of course off the bat when they’re in a dangerous situation where any of them could die (because that’s the context here, this is in Robin #35 where they’re trapped in some super dangerous snow) she thinks they shouldn’t go back for another criminal who just tried to kill them and should instead save themselves. But she also literally WITHIN THAT SAME ISSUE then says she realized she learned something after listening to Tim and trying to save the guy! In the same issue! Characters in a story aren’t supposed to be perfect from the start… they learn things along the way???

(Robin #35)

"trying to steal from the shops they just stopped from being burglarized" - She’s 15 and doesn’t have a ton of money. She was gonna take two sodas, and when Tim said not to do it she paid with very little fuss. They stopped people who were robbing the place at gunpoint for prescription drugs. If you can’t understand the difference in severity between those things like… I do not even know where to start. (this situation is in Robin #56 btw)

"forcing physical affection onto Tim despite his visible discomfort and repeated objections (not even stopping when he told her he had a girlfriend)" - This one I will give you because she did cross boundaries with all that! But I do also want to clarify that she didn't start coming onto him until after Tim kissed her first (in Robin #5) while not telling her he had a girlfriend. That doesn’t excuse her later actions but for the first issue that she’s coming onto him from her perspective he expressed interest and she was just returning it! She even specifically says 'Maybe I should pay you back for saving my life the same way you paid me' (in Robin #16) before kissing him. That first time she kissed him unprompted was under essentially the same circumstances he kissed her unprompted, and she literally did not know about Ariana until after the fact. From that point once she knew about Ari she definitely should have backed off and she didn’t, that’s a very fair thing to criticize about her as a character. But Tim lead her on first, and I feel a lot of people like to casually forget that when talking about this situation. The way this is phrased of ‘not even stopping when he told her-‘ implies she was repeatedly doing the bad behavior before he told her, which is not the case. She still did bad things here but don’t misrepresent the situation.

"And lashing out at Tim, her mother, and her classmates in violent fits of anger" - Every comic book character lashes out at other people for the sake of drama like, I dare you to come up with a well-known superhero character who hasn’t done shit like that to a partner/family/friends in a moment of high tension/stress?

"She treated the girls around her like they were stupid bitches" - frankly this ones a little too vague like, I'm not sure off the top of my head exactly what they're talking about? in that era right around her pregnancy and stuff I really don't recall her being mean with other girls? I could be forgetting something I guess but the closest I can think of is a bit after this period of time when she has the confrontation with Greta in Young Justice but that was Greta attacking her first, not the other way around.

"got insanely jealous if Tim so much as expressed concern about another girl" - Steph getting jealous and thinking Tim was cheating isn’t that crazy when STEPHANIE BASICALLY WAS THE OTHER GIRL DURING TIM’S LAST RELATIONSHIP? Tim has cheated a little bit before! Tim cheated on Ari with both Jubilee from Marvel (during a crossover thing where he even mentions Ari specifically so it’s not like this was out of continuity/a setting she wasn't an issue or something) and also with Steph. While most of the kissing between them was Steph coming onto Tim which I wouldn’t count as cheating on his end, he did still kiss her which I would count. Not to mention that the jealousy thing (I imagine they’re talking about the instance with Star, the girl who taught Tim to skateboard, this arc of stuff starts in Robin #80 and continues for a few issues) is happening during the time she’s dating him while she still doesn’t even know his real name. He literally has a whole other life she doesn’t know about, and is someone who has initiated romantic moments with other girls while in a relationship multiple times before! With that in mind I don’t think a 16 (she's def 16 by this point) year old girl being kinda paranoid about how he interacts with girls he might know in his civilian life is that unreasonable? The later big instance with jealousy is the Darla situation- where Steph sees Darla kiss him and gets mad about it (and doesn’t talk to him about it) and thats what prompts her to become Robin. The important thing to remember about Steph in this time frame is that DC decided she had to die and they wanted to make her Robin first to drum up more attention for that death. They were doing ooc things with her to set those pieces in motion, and that needs to be taken into account. I think her getting upset about seeing something like that isn’t even ooc, but her using it as motivation to become Robin and not even saying anything to him about it is. In the earlier instance where she’s upset/jealous about Star, she does communicate to him what’s going on at least a little bit on the rooftop after they’d saved her. She makes it clear the thing she was upset about is that she feels like she can’t trust him because she doesn’t really know him while he knows everything about her, and that’s why she thinks he’s cheating. Her reaction to the Darla thing is not in line with how earlier in canon Steph would have handled the same situation, because they wanted her to die and needed a way to explain her becoming Robin.

"and expressed that jealousy by accusing him of cheating and throwing things at him" - I just addressed the cheating stuff but the throwing things was fucking slapstick oh my god this is a comic book for kids/teens like. ah yes this is horrible abuse in this little funny montage of how Steph wants him to leave her alone because she’s mad at him and he refuses to give her space

(Robin #82)

I don’t think anyone at DC or even in fandom would/should try to argue she’s perfect, because she’s not! And I don’t want her to be because perfect characters are boring. Steph is flawed, Steph has been compared in canon to Robin-era Jason by Cass & Bruce

(Detective Comics #790)

And I think these highlight some of her very real flaws that are an interesting part of her character. These plus her stubbornness and determination are part of what makes her her.

And for fuck's sake the world was mean to her, and to act like it wasn’t is just blatantly ignoring a lot. A criminal father who made her life really difficult (‘when my dad was mad at me he’d lock me in the closet!’), that time she got kidnapped for two weeks and her mom had left her (a 15 year old) alone at home so long she didn't even find out it happened (in text Steph says Crystal was visiting friends, a lot of people interpret that as her mom possibly being in rehab for her addictions again), that whole thing about how one of her dad’s friends tried to sexually assault her as a child, also just how due to her dad's work sometimes criminals would be living in their house (Literally the fucking Riddler at one point!), the fact that we as an audience watched her get tortured for several days because a plan she tried to enact to prove herself backfired since Batman didn’t trust her with important information (something Selina even calls him out on in her internal narration), like… sorry but in what way is all that not the world being mean to her?

She was Robin, she dated Robin, she likes Eggplant (because purple would've looked stupid), and makes jokes. She’s also impulsive, headstrong and determined, and wants to prove to herself and others that she can be more than just the daughter of a shitty criminal, that she can actually be a force to do good in the world.

She’s a complex character, and nobody is required to like her, but to act like she doesn’t have a single redeeming trait is ridiculous. You could write a paragraph like that with the worst moments of basically any character and make them look like shit if that's what you were setting out to do.

[pjo12fan]

Headcanon #3

Annabeth discovers she loves baking

The bad news: she’s really bad at it.

But nobody dares tell her.

The thing is everyone’s so used to Annabeth being really good at everything:

She trashes Percy, Leo and Jason at video games.

She’s been giving Piper a run for her money on their karaoke nights, and now there’s debate on who the best singer is.

Hazel’s starting to regret giving Annabeth horseback riding lessons, cause she’s getting scarily good.

And she’s even taught herself Chinese, to the point where she’s speaking it better than Frank.

So, when she starts getting into baking, all her friends are thinking, looks like here’s another thing Annabeth is a badass at. On the plus side, there’ll be free cookies right?

Wrong.

There are free cookies. But as it turns out, Annabeth is really awful at baking.

It started when Percy’s parents were away for the weekend on Sally’s book tour, they let Annabeth stay over so Percy wasn’t alone.

And Annabeth just went into a frenzy. Making batch after batch of burnt cookies, feeding them all to Percy.

Except he didn’t dare tell her how bad they were, he just kept swallowing as many as he could. And she would just keep making more.

The thing is Annabeth was completely oblivious, she just loved watching Percy eat for some reason. And she would smile and ask him, “Do you like it?”

And poor Percy’s just forcing mouthful after mouthful down his throat and nodding enthusiastically. He figured she’d get better over time.

Well, the seven demigods had a reunion at Percy’s place a couple months later.

Annabeth’s decided to bake a cake and some cookies as well. But by that point, each of them had already experienced Annabeth’s baking before, so they knew it wasn’t going to end well

Frank and Hazel are determined to avoid the inevitable, and they actually bring a cake they bought, to the apartment.

But when Annabeth finds out, she just says “I reckon we could finish two cakes, besides mine’s almost done!”

Upon hearing that Leo just closes his eyes and starts to groan, but Piper slaps the back of his head and tells him to not be rude.

She hates it as well though. But she figures somebody’s gonna let it slip sooner or later.

Anyway as the night goes on, Annabeth just brings out trays and trays of cookies.

And Jason can’t help but ask why she made so many. “I swear it’s not humanly possible for someone to eat this many cookies.”

He’s lying though. It is possible. If the cookies were good. It just wasn’t possible for someone to eat that many of Annabeth’s cookies.

She doesn’t know that. She just laughs cause she explains how Percy really loves them and how he can’t stop eating them. She was scared there wouldn’t be enough, so that’s why she made a ton of them just to be safe.

She goes back into the kitchen to get more. Everyone just stops chewing and gives Percy dirty looks. They’ve pretty much had enough at this point. It’s literally been months of burnt, horrible cookies, forced smiles and painful chewing.

And that’s how the evening goes, whenever Annabeth gets up to leave. Everyone is just begging for Percy to end it, once and for all.

Once the coast is clear, Piper and Frank spit out mouthfuls of cookie into the bin. Hazel and Leo just stare at the son of Poseidon and shake their heads.

“How could you man?” Jason’s just pleading with his bro, “Why haven’t you told her? Whyyy?”

And Percy’s basically given up at this point. He just can’t do that to her, he can’t tell her it’s bad.

It’s gone on too long, and they’re all in too deep he explains, they’re just gonna have to wait until Annabeth gets better.

And Piper’s mouth just hangs open. She’s in complete, utter disbelief. “Percy, honey, are you insane?!!?!”

“It’s been months man,” Leo’s chiming in now too. “She’s getting worse!”

“I’m pretty sure the last one I ate had a blonde curl in it.” Frank’s almost in tears and he’s begging on his knees at this point. “Please Percy, you have to tell her.”

“And tell her tonight Percy,” Hazel orders. “After we’re gone.”

“Why me?” Percy complains. “Cant someone else tell her?”

They all facepalm when Percy says he can’t because he’s told her so many times he loves her cookies, he’s pretty sure he doesn’t even hate them anymore at this point

“Why would you do that Percy? why?” Jason picks a couple cookies from the tray, checks to see if Annabeth is in view- she isn’t, and he tosses them in the bin.

Leo clicks his tongue. “It’s time to own up man.”

Percy looks like he wants to cry, he just shakes his head saying he can’t do it.

But by then, Piper just wants all the pain to end, and she’s blatantly pouring charmspeak into her words. Telling Percy, “Gotta tell her Perce, it’s better she finds out from you than someone else. And it’s better you be honest than have us keep lying about it.”

“Lying about what?”

Annabeth’s frowning, staring at each of them. They were clearly talking about her.

Everyone’s gone silent. Nobody dares meet her eyes. Even though she’s wearing an apron with a cartoon on it, and she’s got ridiculous rainbow mittens on, Annabeth is still so very scary when she’s mad.

“Lying about what?” She demands. “What’s wrong?”

Nobody replies. Frank quickly excused himself to the toilet. Jason and Piper suddenly found a real interest in the design of the coffee table. Hazel’s nervously playing with her hair, staring at the wall. Leo starts fidgeting with the springs in his pocket. And Percy’s just staring at the floor, he figured he could probably list hundreds of monsters he’d rather fight right now to avoid being here.

“Hello, anyone?” Annabeth’s practically got steam coming out her ears at this point. “I know you can all hear me!”

Piper looks up, makes eye contact with Percy, who’s silently pleading with her to not do this, but she turns away and looks at Annabeth. “You should ask your boyfriend.”

Annabeth cocks an eyebrow, staring at him expectantly. “Well?”

Percy’s mind has gone blank. He can’t think of anything to say. Other than the truth. Piper’s charmspeak is still echoing in his ears, and it’s taking literally all his strength not to do what she says.

He can’t take it anymore though. He opens his mouth and starts saying, “Well, we all kinda think-”

“We?” Leo’s shaking his head. “Don’t speak for me man.”

Jason feigns annoyance. “Yeah Perce, it’s what you think.”

Percy stares back at them. Are they being for real? But everyones face is just telling him, hey, you got us into this mess, now you gotta fix it.

So what can he do? He clears his throat, he puts on his bravest face. “Annabeth, I have a confessions to make.”

Annabeth has got her hands on her hips. “Mhmmm.”

“I think the-”

Ring!

He’s cut off by the doorbell. Someone’s knocking impatiently. And Percy is the most relieved man in the world at this point.

Frank goes to open it. And it’s Nico.

“Oh hey Nico,” He starts saying. “What’s up? Do you wanna come in?”

Nico pushes past him and walks straight into the living room. Everyone stares at him.

“What’s up man?” Jason asks.

Hazel goes for a hug but he signals for her to stop. Instead he turns to Annabeth.

“You gave me a box of cookies yesterday.” Nico says. “And I tried one.”

“Oh yeah!” Annabeth grins. “Did you like them?”

Nico stares at her, he can’t tell if she’s joking.

“No.” He says.

“Oh,” Annabeth pouts. “I didn’t know that, everyone’s been telling me they’re great.”

Then Nico narrows his eyes, as he looks at all of them - Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank, Hazel, and Percy, all sat on the sofas, collectively holding their breath.

“Cowards.”

He spits out the word, staring down each and every one of them, before disappearing into the shadows.

And that’s how it’s done folks.

This is so long, but I just couldn’t stop writing hahaha, Nico’s a badass though

[haljordangreenjedi]

okay so somebody asked me to rank the green lanterns a couple days ago and i just did it based on the general Vibes i got off each one because i don't know enough about the lanterns and now i want to hear from an expert SO: RANK EACH OF THE GREEN LANTERNS (the human ones but if you want to include others go crazy) FROM NOT-SO-BEST TO BEST AND EXPLAIN WHY

OKAY SO, first off, i love you. you should know that. second off, there’s good and bad sides to all four human green lanterns and really this is just personal preference, and 3/4 of these are subject to change at some point, but this is where we stand as of right now:

4. Guy Gardner

first off, he was Hal’s case worker in Emerald Dawn II (1991), because Hal got in trouble for drunk driving and got sentenced to a maximum security prison for 90 days to be used as an example. And I just, I don’t like this plot in Hal’s life, it doesn’t make a ton of sense with his character or his profession (it would literally end a pilot’s career.) anyway, enough about Hal Jordan because I’m supposed to be talking about Guy here. Guy’s trying to help Hal out which, gets him points in my book, but he also ends up like hating Hal at the end of this arc and it’s just like, I’m sorry, that’s unoriginal, pls try harder. 

I also don’t understand this whole Vuldarian DNA plot that’s a thing with him, but his time owning a bar is cool. I just, I haven’t read a ton of his comics and i haven’t gotten attached to him yet, so that’s that. He’s in 4th, sorry Guy. Better luck next time. 

3. Kyle Rayner

Kyle gets third place for two reasons: he has some pretty great interactions with Hal, with some key points of believing in Hal when he needs it the most (and that panel with the stacked rings and Hal taking Kyle flying. That panel gives me life for reasons I can’t fully put into words.), and his girlfriend was literally murdered and stuffed into a fridge. I have to respect the trauma. 

Reasons I don’t like Kyle: you know how in middle school there was always that kid who would show off in gym class? or like your favorite teacher would pick some new kid to champion and you just kinda... hated them on instinct? Kyle’s an artist, but he has that vibe. He’s the kid in school that suddenly everyone has decided is the Best and it’s annoying. I get it, he’s meant to be like the “best green lantern,” the one to restore the corps when Hal and Parallax tore through it and then he’s a white lantern. I just... idk, he’s nice, he’s cute. I want to read more about when he was teamed up with Jason and some people have made it so that Hal has become his bother father figure which is also adorable, it’s just instinct to not make him my favorite. I’ve already done the whole phase of liking the ‘Chosen One,’ I don’t need to go back to my Harry Potter phase. idk, please universe don’t hate me for this.

2. John Stewart

okay, I have mad respect for John Stewart. It’s also instinctual. He’s the brains of the human Green Lantern operation. No, like, literally. If the four of them have one collective brain cell, John has it at least 89% of the time. He’s an architect and a former Marine, he punched Hal in the face in a bar before they were both Green Lanterns, which is hilarious because as far as I’m aware, it’s never touched on as being something either of them remembers. Kudos for not holding onto that rage, John. Hal has something to learn from you. 

There’s also an interesting change in his way of thinking from when he was a Marine to his duty as a Green Lantern, and I like that growth even if it’s not always acknowledged. There is a bit during the Color Spectrum War arc where they go over his guilt at the destruction of a world, and it felt remarkably deep for a DC comic, even if it was technically part of a Hal series. He’s just one of those guys that you can’t help but respect because he seems to have all of his shit in one basket, and it’s a good counterbalance.

1. Hal Jordan

you knew this was coming. if you didn’t, then you need to go look back at what my username is and think for a while. I love Hal Jordan almost more than life itself and it might be because of how well i can relate to this man. he is the most cocky, depressed, stubborn piece of shit in the galaxy, and I LOVE HIM. okay, like, there are so many different arcs about Hal and I know people have a tendency to not like him because like he’s the modern OG and he can be a piece of shit, and like, he was the bad guy but he came back from it and I just want to say: my dudes, that’s the POINT.

Hal has flat out stated that HE doesn’t even like himself, and you think that you as a reader are supposed to like him all the time? The man's life is rife with trauma, okay. Not everything he does is going to make perfect sense if you’re not paying attention and it’s just like. Honestly I can’t explain it all. Hal runs on spite and coffee and the list of people he lives FOR is very short, but the list of people he lives IN SPITE OF is very long. 

The dude runs with his gut constantly because that’s what keeps him alive. Even Sinestro has pointed out that HAL DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. He acts on instinct, he doesn’t plan out a shitload of battle strategies, and that’s how Hal manages to keep besting these people over and over. 

Also just, he’s sad boy. He wants to protect people, even if it means staying away from them. He’s willing to take the blame and appear to go rogue MULTIPLE TIMES for things he believes in and to find the root of the problem and it’s just like... you really think a guy that was happy-go-lucky and didn’t sit awake at night because of how prominent his failings are in his mind would be willing to do that? you’re wrong. sorry. you don’t designate yourself as public enemy number one AFTER ALREADY FIGHTING TO COME BACK FROM THAT ONCE if you don’t have a part of your brain saying you deserve it.

ALSO HIS GRIEF FOR COAST CITY WAS JUSTIFIED AND THERES A LONG LIST OF PEOPLE THAT COULD HAVE HELPED PREVENT HAL FROM BECOMING/SUCCUMBING TO PARALLAX AND A LOT OF THEM ARE ON THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OR TINY ANCIENT BLUE SMURFS. 

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK, GOODNIGHT.

(also i’m not sure if my answers were coherent towards the end but yeah!! send me asks about green lanterns because I have a lot of feelings. Anyway; Hal Jordan.)

[skyland2703]

OTP Asks: Boom! Comics; Billy/Skull (turnabout is fair play~): Who gets flustered watching the other peel and eat a banana? Who's the sensitive one (physically)? Who's the sensitive one (emotionally)? Do you have an AU thought?

If turnabout is fair play does that mean I get to send you Javelia? Don’t answer that.

Who gets flustered watching the other peel and eat a banana?

Billy! Skull knows just how much Billy tries to maintain a reputation, and while he wouldn’t want to do anything to tarnish it, that would hurt the boy, he is more than happy to make Billy get flustered with eye contacts and the very seductive eating of the banana, AFTER they start dating. So, this is how it goes: they’re sitting in the juice bar… so far, only Kim has managed to get it out of Billy, that the two of them are together— no one else knows (ok Bulk also knows) and Eugene just makes eye contact with Billy the first occasion he finds. After that, Billy is glancing at Eugene nervously anyway, and Skull finds THIS the best moment to take a banana, gently peel it, rub it along with his hands and— meanwhile Billy is just looking all red in the face and Jason Zack and Trini are just trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with him. They don’t know that his pants are too tight. They suspect it’s the shoes.

Who's the sensitive one (physically)?

Billy is the more physically sensitive one. He’s got a smaller frame, and a more sensitive body, with heightened senses in a lot of places anyway, and Eugene always makes sure he’s not hurting Billy every time they get together. He knows that Billy has a giant “Fragile: Handle with Care” sign printed all over his body. He know it, he respects it. For Skull, he’s not that physically sensitive, because the tough life has given him lessons, and under Bulk’s wing, he’s taken up a lot of exercise and workout routines, trying to fix his malnourished, used to be sensitive body. (Someone pleaee hug him.)

Who's the sensitive one (emotionally)?

SKULL SKULL SKULL SKULL SKULL. THERE IS NO QUESTION ABOUT THIS. ITS A GIVEN. He has a tough exterior but he tries. Oh god he tries to make it feel like he’s got no emotions. But he’s an open book, one that Billy can read even if he didn’t know the language— and he practically has a PhD in it. So Skull tries to hide his emotions, and he’s got a lot of them. Sometimes, when something hurts him, he lets it be, even though it kills him slowly. He wouldn’t confront Billy on disappearing to ranger battles when he didn’t know Billy was a ranger, keeping it to himself, the hurt that came with the self depreciating fact that “maybe I’m not good enough for him, and that’s why he’s making excuses to get away from me”. Billy found out, and he cried because he thought Eugene should trust him more than that, at least. “I love you. More than anything else. Please. Never say something like that again” That’s how the first confession from Billy had come around. And Eugene promised to be less self loathing, though that would still take some time— it’s not easy to mend what’s broken inside of you, you see.

Do you have an AU thought?

Excuse me, AN Au thought???!!?!!? I have AU thoughts for these idiots EVERY DAY. I mean it. They’re right after my Javelia AU ideas, I’m not kidding (can’t count SkyZ. I’ve exhausted AUs with them. Ask anyone) lets see: College AU, Tattoo Artist x Florist AU, Mafia AU (ngl that one sucked in my mind) I’ve got a roommates one already in my drafts, and a demolition lovers AU that I can list off the top of my head ^^

Now let’s see, what should we elaborate on rn?? Yes. Florist x Tattoo Artist AU. Involves ton of flower language and symbolism (yes, your line with the lilies got me thinking bout this… if you remember?) so Skull runs the tattoo place in a worn out run down area of the city, and Billy has a flower shop in one of the the better areas. Billy wants to try out new things, so he decides to get a tattoo, but he doesn’t know of what exactly. It’s another cliche meet cute, where the tattoo artist he finds is Skull and asks him to draw whatever feels like it’ll go with Billy’s personality, and weeeellllll….

[crow-in-a-teapot]

tower of nero spoilers

i have just finished the tower of nero. and before i go searching for other people’s thoughts and art and more of the characters i love so much, i want to write down some of my own thoughts because i know as soon as i delve into that ‘ton spoilers’ hashtag there are going to be complaints and criticisms and so much that i don’t want to hear, or essays that’ll make me upset, or things that’ll change my perception on the book (because on this website people really love to hate the trials of apollo).

i want to start with: i loved it. it didn’t feel earth-shattering or huge and momentous like some of my favourite riordanverse books (house of hades, the blood of olympus, the last olympian and maybe some of the magnus chase books take those pedestals for me) but it was satisfying. and i think it was satisfying because it in no way felt like an ending. whether because eventually rick will write that will-and-nico-go-through-tartarus-and-save-bob novella, or because we (or at least i) will continue writing and imagining and creating for this world i don’t know. he didn’t wrap up the story in a perfect little bow like ‘nineteen years later’, he simply put it on pause. gave us a glimpse of where every character was at at the end.

the only thing that makes me so angry and upset is that i did manage to get some spoilers for moments that i know would have been so good to experience for the first time if i hadn’t been spoiled for them. the moment where rachel mentions penguins in a mansion near her house, nico getting mental health advice from mr d, the fact that will and nico were going to be in the book for so much of the story, but the big thing was literally spoiled for me two days ago, it was the reason i sat down to read it as fast as possible because i was terrified of getting more spoiled and not being able to experience the moments for myself, was that piper had a girlfriend. i know that reading that for the first time would have been so cool and surprising, and the fact that when it came up for a moment in the last couple pages all i felt was disappointment because it was spoiled for me and because it was now tinged with whatever that person was saying about her having a girlfriend.

but i still had some warm fuzzy moments, the two parts where apollo thinks he’s going to die but nico comes up behind him - so good. impeccable. 

Leader Guy spat. ‘Now, I kill you.’

He raised his sword... and froze. His face turned pale. His skin began to shrivel. His beard fell out whisker by whisker like dead pine needles. Finally, his skin crumbled away, along with his clothes and flesh, until Leader Guy was nothing but a bleached-white skeleton, holding a sword in his bony hands. 

Standing behind him, his hand on the skeleton’s shoulder, was Nico di Angelo.

and

Nero raised his hand, ready to give the kill command, when behind me a mighty BOOM! shook the chamber. Half our enemies were thrown off their feet. Cracks sprouted in the windowsand the marble columns. Ceiling tiles broke, raining dust like split bags of flour. 

I turned to see the impenetrable blast doors lying twisted and broken, a strangely emaciated red bull standing in the breach. Behind it stood Nico di Angelo.

gods. poetic brilliance. i can’t believe i’m still a nico di angelo stannie in the year 2021. in five years i have not changed (ever since the tv show announcement last summer i have managed to morph into myself from 2017)

from here i’m not sure where to go next i kind of want to go through everything, except it’ll be more difficult than my tyrant’s tomb reaction because i wasn’t reading on a kindle and thus can’t just do funny little reactions to screenshots of quotes, so i’ll just skim through the book page by page and see what i can comment on (i’m not planning on doing analysis today, no thank you, just enjoying the end of my childhood and trying to squeeze as much out of it as possible)

i have an emotional attachment to mr. snake from the very first chapter, and am very upset that he’ll never get off on his baltimore stop and get to see his wife, lu had no reason to shoot and kill him like that.

that brings me to lu, i liked her, it was interesting to see how rick kind of brought in not only the overarching theme of abuse, but also people who let the abuse happen, i have more i could say on this i’m too lazy to right now, and i promised no analysis - or the fact that Lu had conspired to make the show non-lethal to spare Meg’s feelings rather than - oh, I don’t know - refusing to do Nero’s dirty work in the first place and getting Meg out of that house of horrors. 

And are you any better? taunted a small voice in my brain. How many times have you stood up to Zeus?

Okay, small voice. Fair point. Tyrants are not easy to opppose or walk away from, especially when you depend on them for everything.

the parallels to meg and lester heading to percy’s apartment, and then to camp half blood to the hidden oracle was so cool to read, every callback to the hidden oracle just there to remind us readers exactly how far apollo has come and how he’s changed; the entire chapter with sally, paul and estelle just felt sickly sweet, it just didn’t seem real how wholesome and good that family is, like i get why apollo broke down and just sobbed in that shower.

also rick really saying acab again in toa, i thought he was done after that elf cop chapter in magnus chase (the magnus chase series is a masterpiece) but apparently not, with A ‘good cop’ is still a cop... still a part of the mind game.

the grey sisters, i forgot about them completely but this threw me back into was it the sea of monsters when annabeth summoned them? i’m not sure, it could have been the lightning thief either, they really remind me of the disney hercules movie. the whole ganymede paragraph was gold, i love gods being canonically confirmed lgbt in the riordanverse. i also love the whole eye-tossing part - 

‘He will crush our eye,’ Anger cried, ‘if we don’t recite our verses!’

‘I will not!’

‘We will all die!’ Wasp said. ‘He is crazy!’

‘I AM NOT!’

‘Fine, you win!’ Tempest howled.

also, the explanation for why dionysus chooses to look the way he does was perfect, because it was something i often wondered about and wasn’t expecting to get an explanation for, and i imagine the whole mythological dionysus to look like.. well like a more feminine apollo i guess, beautiful in a gender non-comforming way.

Other Olympians could never comprehend why Dionysus chose this form when he could look like anything he wanted. In ancient times, he’d been famous for his youthful beauty that defied gender.

... 

In retaliation, Dionysus had decided to look and act as ungodly as possible. He was like a child refusing to tuck in his shirt, comb his hair or brush his teeth, just to show his parents how little he cared.

every scene with nico at camp just BREAKS ME, i would throw in screenshots of every damn quote but unfortunately, as said above, cannot and would rather not type every one; we’ll start with, obviously apollo confirming to him that jason is dead. 

He didn’t look angry exactly. He looked as if he’d been hit in the gut not just once but so many times over the course of so many years that he was beginning to lose perspective on what it meant to be in pain. He swayed on his feet. He blinked. Then he flinched, jerking his hands away from Meg’s as if he’d just remembered his own touch was poison.

ugh then will talking about how nico’s doing, confirming that he’s suffering with ptsd, mr d giving him advice, helping him sort though what voices in his head are real and which ones aren’t, then the paragraph that just recounts every horrific thing poor nico has been through, how will has to reassure him that he’s okay and ‘with friends’ when he wakes up after shadow travel

will’s kindness to apollo, buying him clothes, and apollo finding seymour the leopard’s head in his bed, put there by mr d aaaa AAAA A A A A A THE ORDINARY, EVERYDAY CAMP HALF BLOOD THINGS..

i could go on for years and years about how much i appreciate rachel having a big role in this book, and the visit to her apartment, everything, her art, the fact that she got what she wanted, she’s going to PARIS to study ART, she isn’t forced to be someone she’s not by her dad, and gets to be a big part of a demigod mission and not stand on the sidelines for once.

i love that her landscapes are still visions, that she still paints the quests demigods go on - the burning maze, jason’s funeral pyre, caligula’s ships; and how nico ~appreciates art~

‘And, hey, di Angelo -’ she pushed him playfully away from the canvas he’d been ogling - ‘don’t brush against the art! I don’t care about the paintings, but if you get any colour on you, you’ll ruin that whole black-and-white aesthetic you’ve got going.’

i. love. rachel.

WILL GLOWS!! THE HEADCANONS FROM LIKE FIVE YEARS AGO THAT YOU’D SEE FLOATING AROUND ABOUT HIM MANIPULATING LIGHT!! CONFIRMED!! CANON!! AMAZING

I AM  OBSESSED WITH THE TROGS, I LOVE THEM, THEY ARE GREAT, not gonna lie, i was expecting something more dramatic and spooky with how worried will was and how dionysus was going.. visiting the cavern-runners isn’t ♫ good for your mental health  ♫ but the little hat frog gremlins were a good addition. i like them very much and their funky little soup shenanigans. quoting the ghost king himself: trogs good. nice hats. (IM SORRY I KEEP MENTIONING HIM BUT I JUST) also how apollo starts wishing for breadsticks a s ajoke and theY STRAIGHT UP HAVE BREADSTICKS? HUH? WHERE DID THEY GET THE BREADSTICKS FROM??

yeah, i’m also still very much upset by every mention of jason grace, it’s funny how ever since his death in the burning maze i have grown to love him more and more and that’s not fun for me, for that boy to become one of my main comfort character’s and have his death and sacrifice and nobility mentioned every few chapters. i’m pretty sure i cried when he appeared to talk in apollo’s dreams, and this time the tears weren’t from the effort of keeping my eyes open and working for hours straight reading this book (i remember staying up until 2am to finish the sequel to beautiful, broken things, it was very much worth it)

‘All right, Jason. We miss you, though.’

ALSO. THE FACT THAT THIS KID. THIS CHILD. HAD TO THINK ‘BUT IF A HERO ISN’T READY TO LOSE EVERYTHING FOR A GREATER CAUSE, IS THAT PERSON REALLY A HERO?’ A KID ISN’T SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT THAT AND BE READY TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD,, i,, ugh,, he’s supposed to be finishing school and designing temples not being the perfect hero and soldier,, spain without the s,,

as @couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name said: ‘thinking about how ghost! Jason didn’t seem to understand why Apollo was so upset about his death because he’s been raised to believe a hero’s sacrifice is noble and his life doesn’t matter in the grand scheme and also if he doesn’t understand why the person who watched him get horrifically killed is so torn up over his death he probably doesn’t even realize his other friends are grieving him..’

IM SO UPSET THE ARROW OF DODONA IS DEAD D: IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ALL THE FUNNIEST MOMENTS WERE BECAUSE OF THAT ARROW AND IT'S DEATH WAS SO SAD WTH LIKE WE FIND OUT HOW USELESS THE ARROW FELT AND HOW THE GROVE OF DODONA ALL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE CRAP AND WOULD FAIL APOLLO AND THEN ONCE WE FEEL BAD FOR IT, IT DIES??

the entire python battle was pretty grim, there is a part of me that's like because this is the last book series i would have loved say the magnus chase and kane chronicles gang in a giant battle with everyone like the battle of manhattan but even more dramatic, but even so, i did appreciate that python battle and the whole almost-falling-into-the-depths-of-tartarus thing.

him talking to artemis was cool, but JESUS: 'I turned and strode out of my room, trying to recall how the god Apollo walked.' like that HURTS. it was such a huge culture shock for apollo to go throught this huge character arc and be so human and understand the pain of others, to be around gods again who are so.. apathetic. also, zeus. 'Interesting how he put that: I had done him proud. I had been useful in making him look good. My heart did not melt. I did not feel that this was a warm-and-fuzzy reconciliation with my father. Let's be honest: some fathers don't deserve that. Some aren't capable of it.'

OKAY OKAY SO THE END?? CHIRON TALKING TO A CAT (BAST) AND A SEVERED HEAD (MIMIR) ABOUT SHARED PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PANTHEONS!! WILL AND NICO RECEIVING A PROPHECY FROM RACHEL TO GO TO TARTARUS AND SAVE BOB!! THE HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS, INCLUDING THALIA AND REYNA BEING BEST FRIENDS (qpr.. qpr..) HUNTING THE TEUMESSIAN FOX!! PERCY, ANNABETH AND GROVER, THE ORIGINAL TRIO, GOING ON A CHAOTIC ROAD TRIP TOGETHER!! - SO MANY STAND-ALONE SET -UPS PFSJSJSJ

okay quick word on the reunions at the end: funny little elephant visitation program with livia and hannibal. love that for them. calypso and leo's relationship seems rocky and complicated, but that's to be expected, i think even if they do get properly back together again it might not last long, because it does pretty much feel like a teenage relationship where the two aren't very compatible, but we'll see. hazel and frank are so funny with their gold plated necklaces. lavinia - tap-dance icon. almost cried at the mention of jason's temple-extension plan again. percy not being sure about what he wants to do in college is accurate and i like that that's left to be up-for-interpretation (rick does THE MOST for the fanfic writers pfsjsj). i am OBSESSED with aeithales, like i hate deserts so the burning maze setting is not my favourite but GOD that HOUSE, the vibes are off-the-charts. i'd love a house made of living trees that's also a greenhouse filled with dryads. meg gets a unicorn. that is so great.

i kind of wish the book hadn't ended with 'Call on me. I will be there for you.' because every time I imagine the friends theme song and i don't think that's the vibe he was going for, BUT i do love him talking to meg, that was genuinely emotional - 'You'll come back?' she asked. 'Always,' I promised. 'The sun always comes back.' ; i really wish it had ended with that, but i guess apollo does tend to break fourth walls and talk to the readers, like a lot of the protagonists of riordanverse books.

[moonbeambucky]

Hey Neighbor (Part 4)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader Word Count: 2652 Warnings: none

Summary: You had a plan and then life came along with one of its own. With your future almost derailed you worked hard to get yourself back on track and finally everything seemed to be going right… that is, until your new neighbor moved in.

A/N: A huge thank you to my wonderful beta Sam @buckyofthemyscira​ Feedback is always appreciated!

PART 3 | HEY NEIGHBOR MASTERLIST

The past few days have been exactly what you wanted a month ago, peacefully silent, yet somehow it doesn’t feel right. You were able to finish your paper in record time, fully concentrating on your work but part of you missed the incessant music from next door.

There was an odd comfort knowing Bucky was home playing, and with the knowledge of his musical talent you now wanted to hear what he would come up with. Getting to know him briefly was… well, it was something. It could have gone a lot better if you didn’t stick your foot in your mouth.

Bringing up the music related noise was one thing but how you ever managed to bring up the noise of his “nighttime activities” made you wish you could have vanished into thin air, never to be seen again. You had done your best to avoid Bucky ever since, rushing out of or into your apartment as quickly as possible. You weren’t sure how you could ever face him again but you couldn’t deny that a small part wanted to.

Facing your shared wall you imagined where Bucky might be, picturing him on his couch, lounging across the cushions of the soft leather as he leisurely plucks away at the guitar strings, sounding out a melody. Or was he more focused, sitting upright and gliding his dexterous fingers across his keyboard? Was he at his computer editing his melodies? Was he thinking of you?

The silence was deafening. With your palm pressed against the wall you began to lean in with your ear, hoping you could hear anything. With a slight gasp you jumped back, there was noise but not any coming from next door. Your phone buzzed against the coffee table, with Steve’s face illuminating the screen.

“Hey Steve!”

“Guess who I saw going into Sweetgreen?” The strain in his voice clued you in to the right guess, Lillian. “Yup, and she wasn’t alone … yeah she’s still with Jason, for now,” he muttered under his breath, expecting her to cheat again.

“I’m sorry Steve. You know you deserve better than her, right? I know you know this.”

Steve sighed heavily. Even though he knew what you were saying was right, seeing his ex still hurt a lot.

“Thanks Y/N, I do know that, doesn’t mean I’m going to torture myself though and go in there so is it cool if I pick us up something else? I’m in the mood for carbs.”

Chuckling at Steve’s admission you couldn’t help but agree, salads were great and all but all this Bucky stress you’ve put on yourself definitely makes you crave heavier foods.

“Tacos?”

“Mmmm, yes tacos! Extra guac please Rogers!”

You set your table in preparation for Steve to come over with food, remembering to throw your wallet on the table to give him money. The last time he came over you had forgotten, being so caught up in reliving the terrible memory of your interaction with Bucky. Steve might have been right, if he handled talking to Bucky maybe you wouldn’t be so worried about running into him.

“Sam tells me you guys spoke,” Steve said, digging a tortilla chip into the container of guacamole.

You chewed quickly to swallow the bite you had taken. “Why do you always ask me a question mid-chew?” you joked. “But yes, we did speak and…” your voice lifted with anticipation as Steve’s eyes widened, waiting for you to continue. “He gave me the number for Elena Rodriguez. She’s head of the social work department and…”

“Oh my god Y/N please just tell me!” Steve begged.

“I set up an interview with her next week!”

Steve’s eyes crinkled with his excited smile though it faded shortly after as you nervously mused about fitting the internship into your schedule.

“One step at a time,” Steve offered with a small laugh.

He’s right. One step at a time. You didn’t even go on the interview yet, you might not even be hired for it; the thought of which worries you even more, but you remind yourself to breathe and take things as they come.

The elevator ascends slowly, filled with your eager coworkers looking to join the rush home. As it lets off on the ground floor, everyone dashes to the heavy glass doors as you leisurely stroll to the security desk.

Mr. Lee had a big smile on his face as he seemed to be in the middle of telling Steve a story. Slowly you approached the desk, seeing Steve smiling down at something in his hands.

“That’s what I said but Howard was ahead of his time. A comic book movie…” Mr. Lee chuckled. “It didn’t work in ’47 but it sure would be a hit now.”

“Oh, what’s this?” you asked.

Steve held up a sealed copy of a comic book, Kid Colt, which you were unfamiliar with.

Leaning over the desk towards you Mr. Lee spoke, “Tony found that for me in his father’s things. That’s how Howard and I met. He wanted to make a movie outta this. Stark Pictures. He never did though, the whole thing became a big tax write off.”

“I didn’t know you knew Howard Stark.”

“Oh yeah,” Mr. Lee boasted humbly, “Since I was seventeen. He was a good man. You know he was so proud to finally be a father. He worked a lot, probably more than he should have but he had Maria and the nannies bring little Tony over to the office. Tony Stank I’d call him. Oh boy, you could smell those diapers from a mile away it was so bad.”

Hearing Mr. Lee talk about the head of your company so freely like this made you laugh. It also made Tony Stark seem a bit more human. As far as you knew he was a workaholic who may or may not be seeing Pepper Potts. You’ve caught the way she looks at him though, with an extra twinkle in her eye or how she hesitates for the smallest moment to gather herself before going into his office.

“Tony Stank, that’s amazing,” you laughed, wondering if Pepper has ever heard this story before. “Well, have a good night Mr. Lee!”

Steve came around to the front of the desk standing tall, filling out his blue uniform with his broad stature. It was unfair how he could pig out on food with you and not show any sign of it. Meanwhile, your stomach has been rumbling all day from last night’s dinner.

“I’m on the late shift today,” he frowned.

“Poor Stevie,” you joked, wiping an imaginary tear from your eye. “Not that my night will be any better, I’ve got a shit ton of laundry to do.”

“Enjoy the sweaty laundromat then.”

“Oh I will,” you said sarcastically.

The steady hum of the running washing machines drowned out the sound of the newscast coming from a small TV mounted on the wall. It’s muggier inside than out, and even with the door open you can’t escape the permeating smell of cheap soap and mildew.

The wash cycle is nearly over so you move from the metal chair you had been uncomfortably sitting on, listening to music to pass the time, and lazily stroll over to the machine that is spinning your clothes. Quarters jingle in your pocket as you walk, ready to be placed in the dryer as you wait some more. You hate laundry day.

It’s crowded too, with all the chairs taken and other people leaning against the wall. A few kids were running around screaming, not helping their tired mother who looked too exhausted to even reprimand them as she folded all their clothes.

No one looked happy to be there, not even the attendants who had to apologize to the screaming man who didn’t understand why he couldn’t use one of their reserved machines. It was a cut throat world on laundry night, with other patrons fighting to stake claim for the next free machine.

A loud buzz lets you know your clothes are done, you wheel a basket over and open the door. The shadow of the clearly impatient person waiting for your machine blocks the dull light from the fluorescents above so you hope to grab everything quickly without dropping anything on the dirty linoleum floor.

“It’s all yours– oh.” Your mouth hung open, not expecting to see Bucky standing beside you. “H-hey.”

“Hey Y/N. Didn’t want to startle you,” he sheepishly said. “Uhmmm, is this free?” Bucky gestured to the obviously open machine.

You nodded quickly. Not knowing what else to say you stared awkwardly at the basket of damp clothes and said, “I’m gonna dry these.” Smooth.

Turning around you let out a deep breath and worried over what would happen next. It would be extremely rude to ignore Bucky and continue to listen to music. He hasn’t done anything wrong to you, not this week at least, but you were too scared to risk saying something stupid, again.

It would take at least a half hour for your clothes to dry so you put on a brave face and decided to walk back towards Bucky. Dressed in casual black shorts and a white t-shirt, his smooth, toned arms were crossed over his chest as he leaned against a support column, squinting to read the poorly transcribed closed captioning on the TV.

“Hey neighbor,” you said, offering a small friendly wave as he turned his head.

Bucky smiled, standing upright as he turned to face you completely to greet you back. He looked genuinely happy to see you, which made you feel even worse for how you left things.

“I’m sorry if I made things weird the other day. I didn’t mean to,” you blurted out before your brain gave any thought to see if this was a good idea.

Bucky chewed on his bottom lip, the gaze of his ocean blue eyes staring right through you. “Don’t worry about it,” he said with a cavalier air.

“So how’s the music coming along?” You were truly curious, having not heard any sound.

“It’s not bothering you, right?” Bucky winked.

“No, not at all,” you smiled softly. “Are you still working on that one piece?”

Bucky asked which one and you hummed the tune. Closing your eyes you missed the way his own lit up in delight hearing you repeat his melody.

“I know I complained about the noise but honestly it was so beautiful,” your voice lightened and he felt the weight of emotion even through the simple way you described it. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t focus.”

Bucky adjusted his weight, needing to ground himself after your words made him feel as light as air. His music meant so much to him, working tirelessly to bring to life the sound he envisioned in his mind, to know that the unfinished piece had such an effect already made his heart swell with pride.

He developed his music like a chef crafting a recipe. Each instrument was a different ingredient, carefully selected notes were gathered on the counter, waiting to come together in a symphonic skillet. The flavors of music combine, heating up together the piano is covered in the spice of an electric guitar, with the drumming rhythm simmering beneath the surface as the sound of strings are poured generously over the top.

In the end the dish is a delicious feast for the ears but here you were, happily devouring the unfinished ingredient in its raw form.

“Yeah…” his voice came out breathless. Catching himself Bucky cleared his throat. “It’s actually for an upcoming video game. I can’t say which, but it’s part of an emotional scene when the main character finds his family is gone.”

“I can sense the depth of it.”

“That’s not even the best part,” he explained as his face grew with a wide smile. Bucky became lost in describing the emotion of the violins that would come in. “They’re the voice of the character and when he’s lost everything I have them coming in, crying out in pain. It’s sharp and strong, and beautifully tragic.”

Listening to Bucky describe his music resonated in your soul. You saw the complete love and passion he had for it and once again you felt terrible about asking him to stop.

“I’d love to hear it, if that’s okay.”

You looked at him with hopeful eyes, and Bucky smiled, nodding before he spoke his answer. He couldn’t wait for you to hear everything together.

You passed the time by getting to know each other a little more. Bucky has a younger sibling named Rebecca who moved west to work as an avian veterinarian in a bird sanctuary.

“My parents are lost without them around,” Bucky joked. “Do you know how hard it is to try to explain how to use Skype to them over the phone?”

“Oh believe me, I know. Somehow my mom always calls at the worst time to have me explain the most basic function on her phone that she already knows because we’ve gone over it a million times but…” You threw your hands up as Bucky joined in with your laughter.

When your clothes were dry Bucky gave you some space to fold them alone which you appreciated, not wanting to showcase your intimate items in front of him. He was still a stranger, sort of, but you were glad you were getting to know him.

Checking the time you realized it was on the late side and you still needed to shower before bed. Your clothes were packed neatly into a laundry bag, well most of them were at least. One sock managed to get eaten by the dryer to your dismay, and you hoped its pair was somewhere on your floor having fallen out as you prepped the laundry.

Slinging the bag over your shoulder, you gripped the bottle of detergent with your other hand and walked towards Bucky.

“Hey,” you called out to Bucky who lifted his head from his phone. “I’ve got a few things to do tonight still so can I take a rain check on hearing your music?”

“Yeah, of course.” Bucky did his best to mask his disappointment but he understood. He noticed the slump of your shoulders, balancing the laundry bag high on one side and letting your other limb hang low with the weight of the heavy bottle.

“Do you want me to carry that back?” he asked.

“Oh, no it’s okay, I can manage.”

The apartment was only two blocks away, two long blocks but still, you didn’t want to inconvenience Bucky even though judging by the curve of his biceps it wouldn’t be a problem.

Bucky walked with you to the front of the laundromat as you smiled and said goodnight.

“Goodnight Y/N,” he whispered, watching as you walked down the sidewalk until he could no longer see you in the crowd.

The words stayed on his lips like they were always meant to be there and Bucky has a brief flash of a life he’s never thought about.

A warm bed, made even warmer by the figure curled against him. His breath syncs with theirs and he’s at peace. His heart beats to the rhythm of love and his lips purse together to plant a soft lingering kiss on their forehead. A smile secures itself on his face because he’s truly happy; surrounded by the comforting feeling knowing that when he wakes up that person, his love, will be by his side.

The machine buzzes at the end of its cycle dragging Bucky back to a reality that has him gasping for breath. He steps outside for a minute for air, needing to clear his mind of the vision that seemed so real it scared him; for better or worse he can’t quite say.

PART 5

[lemonprick]

every now and then don't you just start thinking about heroes of olympus and the reason why it's so unsatisfying continuity-wise as a sequel to percy jackson is that the small steps taken to dismantle the system of gods using children to fight in their wars are not acknowledged in the main narrative, and the mention of calypso and the very minor inclusion of kids from cabins other than the olympians don't do much to carry it on for another series

maybe it's just me but, pjo is kinda a tragedy? the fact that twelve year olds are forced onto quests to help a world they didn't choose to be born into, growing up seeing everyone around them fall before they got to reach adulthood, and having absolutely no choice in this narrative because either side they choose they're going to die no matter what

percy trading immortality for a normal life for all the demigods, his asking literal gods for basic human rights of not dying, at the end of the last olympian sets such a great potential for sequel exploring how things start to change in the demigod world; a hopeful tone to establish that although the world is broken we can change it no matter how little the steps we take

then hoo comes along and we're supposed to believe that despite fighting for five years, losing people along the way, turning down frickin' immortality, the highest honour the gods could give, just for a chance that those he loves and others that will take their place can live a better life, percy gets kidnapped and is ripped from everything he held dear and loses his memories and is transported to another camp, is forced onto another quest along with

a) four teenagers who are new to this demigod thing and haven't experienced the manipulation of the gods as much as he has (sure, they recognise the unfairness of the lives the gods have given them, but their points of view don't seem to show as much resentment towards them as much as percy is likely to have harboured)

b) a new roman praetor who, despite losing his memories, is raised in a culture where discipline and duty is prioritised, where the gods are to be treated with utmost respect and hence is numb to obeying their whims

c) his literal soulmate who has fought by his side through thick and thin, who had to endure eight months of his disappearance without a single clue as to where he could've been as well as a goddess for a mother who would disown her if she ever chose him over obeying her mother's commands,

he doesn't refuse to go? nor does he go on the quest out of reluctance and protectiveness over these children who don't know any better, and along the way doesn't begin to question whose side he actually wants to be on, now that the gods have dismissed his plea without so much as an excuse, and showing the others that maybe the gods aren't worth fighting for?

it doesn't show me a war-weary percy, not just feral and terrifying to watch on the battlefield, but absolutely refuses for him or anyone else to return there. the percy in hoo isn't one who curses out the gods, who is only forced aboard the argo ii after he sees jason, piper, leo, frank and hazel and is reminded of bianca, zoe, lee, beckendorf, michael, silena, ethan, luke, and those from kronos' army that he barely recognised from his first years at camp and decides he won't let that happen again, not ever. it doesn't tell me how he feels a pang in his heart whenever they can only do what the gods say because they don't know what else to do, and convinces them (and himself) that there's a way to make them listen, by going against what they stand for and resisting until they look us in the eye

idk man, there's a ton of things i'm not huge on about hoo, but how percy (and annabeth!) out of the seven approached the quest wasn't exactly my favourite. and how it ended without acknowledging things around here need to be changed or else. maybe it has been addressed in a later book like in toa, which i don't plan on reading, and if so i stand corrected

it's weird since i haven't read either series in so long but I was suddenly hit with feels this afternoon and wrote this post in a. frenzy after coming across this post on my dashboard