#nope it totally from the kindness of his heart and not self-preservation at all

[miniscrew-anon]

A Dark and Shadowy Night

I love these two. They’re both so hecking scrimblo

——

hey u know how u owe me for being supr nice to you n stuff?

Dark sighs through his nose at the text that he reads with just a tilt of his head. He’s lounging on the couch, sprawled out and boneless with his phone laying next to his head. Still warm and loose from his latest dive into a certain cowboys onlyfans account. He lazily flops a hand around to unlock it and text back with one hand, expending the least amount of energy possible. He pokes at the screen with one finger while his other hand is buried in Waffles soft fur.

i dont owe you shit and youve never been nice to anyone in your life

Dark drops his hand and reaches for Chicken, who bats at him for trying to pet her but then bites his hand to beg for pets when he retreats. He baps her head lightly. She swipes at him again. He reaches for her and narrowly avoids her smack. Then she freezes, ears twitching. Her eyes go huge at something behind him. She jumps off his chest and zooms into the other room.

Dark peeks over his shoulder to make sure there’s nothing there.

“Stop seeing shit I can’t see. You’re makin’ me paranoid.” He grouses at the little cat. He goes back to petting Waffles, who is far more receptive to Dark’s strong fingers working at his nape and back. Happy vibrations from the mound of fur on his chest assure Dark that his pets are, in fact, very good and that Chicken is just ungrateful.

Dark lets his phone vibrate a few more times before picking it back up to check out what Shadow needs.

o good ur around

haha well actually im super nice and cool and youd miss me if i were dead

btw unrelated to me being dead meet me at the 5th st warehouse and bring your worktools

i need your expertise

"Shit.”

Dark looks down at the cat sleeping on him.

“Shit.”

Dark mouths an apology at his cat after he sits up to grab his shoes. The utterly betrayed look he gets has him cursing aloud.

"Take it up with the vampire," Dark says, stuffing his worktools into the back of his jeans and shrugging on his heavy leather jacket, "I'll have him buy you a fish dinner, okay?"

Waffles just turns away and saunters after his sister, tail curling in displeasure.

Dark groans. “You had better be dying, asshole.”

The drive to the warehouse in the bad part of town only takes Dark a few minutes. On the ride there he can feel his phone vibrating in his pocket. When he gets close, a block away, he kills the engine to jog down the block on foot and flicks through his texts.

parkings bad. no places in front. might have to walk a bit.

be sure to tip the doorman btw. otherwise he'll complain to mgmt

everyone inside is an employee so just introduce urself

A large man stands outside the front entrance. He's got a cigarette in hand but he's not relaxing for a smoke break. He's got a keen eye on his surroundings and one of his hands in his pocket.

Dark approaches from his right where a few black SUVs (really? So cliche) are parked and takes advantage of his blind spot. When the man goes for another drag, Dark darts out and gets him in a chokehold. Dark bodily slams the man into the brick when the guy pulls out his gun. The pistol clatters to the floor, followed shortly by the man's unconscious body.

Dark drags him behind one of the cars and lets himself into the building quietly.

The place looks like it used to be industrial. But whoever owns it left it to decay. Broken down, rusted machinery creates shadows and blind spots everywhere. No one has turned on the lights. Either because they don't want to attract any attention or because the electrical wiring has decayed away. Either way it suits Dark just fine.

It's easy to tell that the ten or so men walking the factory with flashlights are not any type of law enforcement. From their cheesy cheap suits to their non-standard issue handguns, these guys reek of underground business. And from the way they all have their fingers on the trigger, Dark can assume they're not looking to take anyone alive. They’re searching the building top to bottom, but there’s no organization to their search pattern. They’re just searching independently, going over places the others already have and missing large swaths of ground.

The typical tough guys with guns and a desire to kill that underground business men love to hire to take care of their more sordid tasks.

Not even close to a challenge.

It only takes Dark a total of nine minutes to put every man to sleep. They’re got numbers but they’re cheap labor with no training. Dark wouldn’t be surprised if more than half of them have never even been in a fight with how easily they go down. They’ve probably managed to coast on their size and intimidation factor their whole lives. Too bad for them Dark doesn’t intimidate easily.

He creeps around in the dark, stalking them like a tiger does a pack of unknowing gazelle. One by one he strikes silently. Dropping bodies and dragging them into the darkness. The others carry on, unaware of the apex predator among them.

The last man - a thinner guy with a pencil-thin mustache and a custom gun that looks like it would blow his skinny arm out of its socket if he ever actually tried to fire it - only notices the other lights have gone out when his is the only one left.

And by then it’s far too late to stop the figure behind him from striking.

As Dark is choking out the last of them a shadow shifts and melts out of the darkness into a human shape to his right. He doesn’t look up until the body in his arms is limp.

"I guess they just don't make hired hands like they used to, huh?"

Dark's smile is half a sneer. "I was much more than just a big guy with a big gun. And I worked for much bigger fish."

He drops the last body and dusts off his hands nonchalantly. "So. Who'd you piss off?"

"No one you'd know." Shadow brushes some rust from his shoulder. Wherever he’d been hiding must have been disgusting because he’s covered in grime. He's dressed head to toe in gray so dark it looks black. Hood up, scarf over his mouth, and dark tinted glasses on his face. The only way Dark knows it's Shadow is from his blaise attitude and smug voice. He’s not visibly carrying anything, but anything valuable enough to kill over is usually small enough to fit in a pocket.

Dark doesn’t bother asking more questions. Shadow won’t give him a straight answer and Dark genuinely doesn’t care. The less he knows the better, probably.

Shadow nudges one of the bodies curiously. “They dead?”

“No. Should they be?” Dark doesn’t particularly want to kill these guys. Their inexperience is probably a sign these guys are just some regular joes off the street. Ex-cons or guys no one else will hire. Crooked, sure, but not evil. It’d be a shame to have to kill them just for being in the wrong profession. But if they saw something they shouldn’t have…

But Shadow just shakes his head. “Nah. They’re just small potatoes. Well, except this guy.”

Shadow nudges the body at their feet and bends to go through the man's pockets. Dark watches silently. He cocks a brow when Shadow unlocks the stolen phone with a limp thumb and starts flicking through it, screen reflecting off his shades. He pulls out his own phone and takes some pictures of the other screen. Then he sends a text with the stolen phone and slips it back in the man's breast pocket. He pats the man condescendingly.

“Okay!” Shadow pops up and stretches like a satisfied cat, “I’m done! We can leave now.”

“Oh, can we now?” Dark rolls his eyes and turns to the exit. “Oh goodie.”

“Wow, rude.” Shadow pads after him as they make their way down a rickety catwalk to the ground floor. “Who pissed in your cereal?”

“The brat who thinks I can just drop everything to come to his rescue. I was in the middle of something important.” Dark grumbles.

Shadow manages to give the impression of a flat look through his full face disguise. “Scrolling through your boyfriends onlyfans and petting your cats really counts as important to you?”

Dark pauses with his hand on the rusted backdoor. Gives the smaller man a critical look.

Shadow holds his hands up innocently. “I don’t have any cameras in your place. You’re just predictable.”

“Whatever.” Dark brushes him off. He pushes the door open and glances around to make sure the doorman was still out before stepping fully outside. Shadow follows him with a bounce in his step. Dark isn’t sure if it’s from finishing a job or just an adrenaline rush from what must have been a close call.

The walk down the block to his bike only takes a minute. By the time they get there and Dark confirms that no one stole his helmet, Shadow has shed the outerwear and looks like a normal guy in a hoodie rather than a very conspicuous thief. Dark strides up to his bike and swings up on it, grabbing his helmet before Shadow can get his paws on it. “So, do I get a cut?”

His smaller companion pauses in his attempts to snatch the helmet. He tilts his head. One of his ears twitches. “A cut?”

“Yeah, a cut. Isn’t that usually how it’s done in your line of work?” Dark smiles at him. “Work for pay, right? Well, I did the work. Now pay me, asshole.”

For what he had to do to poor Waffles, he deserves a cut, dammit.

But instead of the thankfulness and grace a hero usually gets when saving a damsel in distress, Dark just gets laughed at.

“What do you think this is, a fucking diner?” Shadow, the asshole, wipes away tears as he straightens up, “First rule of our line of business - establish payment before services rendered. With a 50% deposit and remaining balance owed upon completion. No contract, no pay.”

Shadow smiles cheekily as he pats Dark on the shoulder. “So sorry, but no. But you can consider the economics lesson as compensation if it makes you feel better.”

Dark stares at him for a long moment. Then he puts on his helmet and ignites his engine. “Have fun getting shot next time, dickhead.”

Shadows cackling is drowned out by Dark revving his engine to turn out of the alley, left to walk home.

—--

(The next morning Dark almost slips on the thick envelope that was shoved through his mailslot sometime during the night. He smiles privately at the generous amount of bills and drops it on his kitchen counter, sipping his cheap instant coffee with glee.)

(Which he immediately loses when he has to gracelessly dive over the counter to save his earnings from two hungry cats.)

———

Yes I will mention the onlyfans thing at each and every opportunity that presents itself and no you cannot stop me

I like these two. I enjoy their dynamic that’s uniquely them and no one else. I like that they can be as skrunkly with each other as they want to be and there’s no judgement. Like yeah they break the law and both of them are fine with that, as long as they don’t get caught lol

And I really gotta stop being so lazy with posting on ao3 tho this is really too long to just leave as a tumblr post

[adhdeancas]

Hm, mommy issues anybody? Daddy issues anybody? Yeah. Let’s unpack that a little. Not a lot.

Dean runs his hand up the back of his head, feeling the soft spikes of his haircut. It was a stupid tic he’d picked up in his teens, it usually made girls melt. The sensitive guy, the nervous guy, the guy who’s eager to please. It made him look vulnerable. Girls liked that. He started catching himself on it and stopping when he got into his twenties. 

His phone buzzes. He looks at it quickly, ignoring the stupid clench in his heart that comes with the action.

One New System Update Available: Install Now?

He sighs and turns it off.

---

Long hours in the car are usually… uneventful. Full of all kinds of empty time that frankly? Dean likes. It’s a nice break from the constant weird noises of sketchy motel rooms with paper-thin walls, from the creaking pipes in the bunker. Mostly, it’s a break from thinking about whatever batshit depressing problems they have up their ass that week. 

But this time? The open road is endless, like a really shitty, really boring acid trip. A fucking infinity of his ankle cramping up on the side roads. And Sam always gives him the stink eye when he reaches for his phone, so he can’t even do that. He does make pit stops more often than usual, so he doesn’t crawl out of his own skin, and his glares keep Sam from mentioning it. Maybe he just thinks he’s got the shits. He’ll let him keep thinking that.

At least on the pot he can check his phone.

But time and time again, he lays down a loud paper cover that doesn’t do much to cover up the griminess of the seat and sits down, and unlocks his phone. He waits until he’s fully in the stall to do it, even though he could end the suspense the second he puts Baby in park. Maybe he knows what the answer is gonna be.

What the answer always is.

No New Messages. 

He sighs. Story of his life.

---

Sam snatches his phone next time it buzzes in the cup holder before Dean can even reach for it. Dean opens his mouth to gripe, but his stomach ties itself in a knot anyway. He doesn’t know whether he wants it to be… or whether he’s dreading it. 

“Who is it?” he tries to say it casually. It sounds forced to him, but Sam doesn’t notice. 

“Cas,” he’s got this dopey little smile on his face, and Dean feels his face heat up. For no goddamn reason, it’s not like-

“Why’re you- what’s up? Anything wrong?” Dean knows Sam would’ve said right away if something was wrong, but he wants his brother to spit it out already, and Sam looks like the cat that got the cream. That means he’s about to try to be funny. 

“Nah, nah.” Sam grins again, glancing away from the phone finally. 

“Well then put it down, Nosy, what the fuck,” He’s already seen the text, whatever it is, so it’s no use, but Dean bristles anyway. It’s not like Cas would’ve sent him anything actually embarrassing, right? What was the last thing they were talking about… the best roadside pancakes? Yeah, so, it couldn’t be anything weird. Well, it’s Cas, so it could always be something weird. But nothing incriminating. Hell, Sam’s accidentally opened a nude a girl sent him one time so it’s not like it could be worse than that. Not like Cas is sending him nudes. Dean cracks a grin at the thought of what a thirst trap would look like for Cas. Probably him in a, like, half unbuttoned button up laid out in a library chair. Maybe a book in hand. An angel blade. The weapon! Not-

“He just- he just wanted to update you on where he is in Gilligan’s Island.” There’s a laugh in Sam’s voice, and Dean wants to know why. Probably just the way Cas described it, he always finds this certain way of saying things that’s just… kinda endearing and kinda confusing.

“He’s watching without me? Son of a bitch!” 

Sam smirks. “Yeah, he and Jack. Jack finished Pirates of the Carribean and he wanted more island stuff.”

Dean shakes his head. “Motherfuckers…”

Sam rolls his eyes. “You want me to text him back for you?”

Dean rolls his shoulders out. “It’s fine, I’ll just do it at the next stop.”

They pull into the next gas station and Dean doesn’t look at his phone again until he’s hidden. 

---

Because Sam is a nosy bitch, he asks. Well that, and he’s really tired of the car ride taking twice as long with all the stops they’re making. Dean’s usually a ‘pee in a bottle and don’t pitch a fit’ kind of driver, himself included (Sam’s scarred for life at this point), but now? It’s like they’re traveling with a six year old kid, stopping every hour.

The third stop in Oklahoma alone, he stops Dean. “Okay, do we need to go to the hospital?”

Dean quirks his eyebrows and frowns. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

He’s got a clue what they’re talking about.

Sam bitches with his whole face. “We’ve been stopping every four fucking feet for days now, so you’re either dying and we need to go to the ER and get an endoscopy, or-

“An endoscope who?”

Sam doesn’t take the bait. Shocker. “Dean.”

Dean rolls his eyes and tries to bypass him. Sam is smarter than he looks. They grab his phone. “Sammy!” This time the word’s annoyed, a warning. Like he used to say right before he really viciously wrestled Sam to the ground and pried the last cookie out of his delicate little hands when they were kids.

Unfortunately, Sam has a height and reach advantage. He holds the phone up and Dean doesn’t have a chance unless- Dean punches him in the stomach. Sam makes a winded noise but manages to keep his arm raised. He glares harder. “You’re gonna talk to me, or you’re not getting this back.”

God, they’re a bitch. “Fine, fuck you. I’ll shit the old fashioned way.” Dean saunters off to the horrifically artificial lights of the gas station, a middle finger waving back just for his little bro. 

 When he gets back, Sam’s looking much more compassionate. It’s worse. “Dean, why are you so obsessed with your phone? What’re you waiting on?”

Dean rolls his eyes and gets in his car, leaving Sam to follow him. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, dude, I’m just making sure I don’t miss any texts from Mom,” He jams the key into the ignition and steps on the gas. Sam’s door snaps the rest of the way shut with the sudden force and they yelp. “Oh, don’t be a drama queen.”

“You’re the dramatic one right now, Dean.” Sam raises his eyebrows, condescension dripping off his expression. “Did she say she’d text soon?”

“Nope.” Dean shrugs. “Just making sure. It’s kinda my fault she died and then came back to life in a world she didn’t understand; least I can do is pick up the damn phone.”

Sam sighs. “Dean, she’s not gonna freak out if you don’t answer right away. Unclench, man.”

“Unclench?” Dean’s hands tighten on the wheel. “Fuck off, Sam, I’m fine!”

There’s a tense silence. Dean finally starts to think he’s given up this stupid argument, but then Sam shifts in his seat. “She’s not Dad, Dean. She’s gonna come back.”

Dean bites the inside of his cheek. “Never said she was. And Dad always came back.”

“Dean-”

“Sam, just drop it, please-”

“I know how hard it is-” 

Dean’s harsh laugh cuts the car into silence again. Sam’s got that kicked puppy look on his face, Dean knows it, and he forces his shoulder to relax before talking. “Look, Sammy, I appreciate it and all but- you have no fucking clue what it’s like for your parent to just fucking… ignore you.”

“I grew up with Dad too, Dean. Hell, he lied to me until I was like 6, he ran out on both of us all the time; I never knew where he was, he never told me where he was going-”

“Yeah, well, he always picked up the phone for you, didn’t he?” Dean lets out a harsh breath and changes lanes just for something to do with his hands. 

“He’d stay out for weeks no matter how much I called-”

“Yeah, but he answered. He answered when you called, when you texted, to tell you when he’d be home or to tell you to fuck off and stop calling, but he’d answer.” Dean wipes at his eyebrow. He doesn’t care about this shit. He doesn’t fucking care. “Dad called me when he wanted to talk to me,” then Dean corrects himself “-when he wanted to tell me something. So excuse me… if I get a little antsy. But you- you don’t get it at all.” Dad and Mom, they both left him. Both ditched him as soon as they could and never looked back. Not until they needed him to hunt something. And he got it, he did. But just because he understood didn’t mean he wasn’t pissed. And just because he was pissed didn’t mean he didn’t want them to call. Expect them or hope them to text, just to check in. Something more than coordinates and a link to a news article. 

He wants someone to care about him. And fuck if that isn’t the saddest thing anybody’s ever heard. 

“Dean…” 

It’s been a full five minutes, and Dean’s been waiting for Sam to bring it back up again, to not let this stupid thing go. “What?” he says sullenly.

Sam holds the phone up so Dean can see the screen without taking his eyes totally off the road. It’s a video, and he sees Cas awkwardly holding the camera away from him, two heads of blonde hair behind him. Sam taps the play arrow. 

“Hello, Dean.” Jack waves behind him with his usual energy, and Cas looks incredibly fond. “I’m here with Jack and your mother-”

“Mary,” Mary corrects. She crosses her arms uncomfortably, but her expression is soft. 

“Mary.” Cas repeats. “I decided to invite her to come by before you and Sam got back- that is, if you’re still coming back today. Sam has been telling me that you’re not going as fast as usual, and while I do appreciate you finally gaining some self-preservation-”

Dean rolls his eyes at the smiling jab. 

“- I do hope you’ll get back tonight. Mary has requested we order pizza and chicken wings, and I got the kind you like- the Mango Habenero, but-”

“No promises they’ll be here tomorrow!” Mary calls out jokingly. Sam’s grinning behind the phone now. 

“Hurry home! I miss you!” Jack adds sincerely.

The camera turns back toward Cas fully for a moment, and he holds it way too close to his face. “Yes. I- We- just stay safe. And stop worrying. And iHop is superior to Waffle House.”

There’s a rustling noise and then the video cuts off. Sam is grinning smugly from the passenger seat. Dean raises his eyebrows. “So you’ve been updating Cas about me?”

Sam shrugs. “We snapchat.”

“You what?”

“I send him pictures of you when you’re looking really constipated.” Sam clarifies unhelpfully. “Cas and I like to think up reasons for why you’re mad this time- avocado toast, streaks on the windshield when you try to wipe it at the gas station, that one piece of hair that does the weird-”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Dean snaps. “Wait, what about my hair?”

Sam laughs. “Just drive, Dean. For the wings.”

Dean frowns and pushes Baby faster. Well… now he doesn’t have to stop so much.

He makes Sam pee in a bottle next time he has to go.

[legionofpotatoes]

we decided to watch all story cutscenes from the new resident evil village videogame on a whim, since it’s not really our cup of tea gameplay-wise but seems to be this massive zeitgeist moment that made us morbidly curious. And I know how much everyone cares about my thoughts on things I know very little about, so. let’s get into it huh gamers. and yeah spoilers?

for context, I’ve only played resident evil 4 and a small portion of 5. I also read the wikipedia entry for 7’s plot recently. all this to say I was only vaguely aware of how tonally wacky the series was going in

I also completely gave up following the plot of the mutagens’ soap opera, so that paid off in spades here as you might imagine

anyway so that baby in the intro. that baby’s head is just massive. humongous toddlerdome. when ethan finds the baby’s head in a jar later on. there is no way that head would fit into that jar. bad game design. no not even game design. basic stuff. one hundred years in prison for jar modeler

if I see a single functional hetero marriage in video games I will cry tears of joy. I understand their misery is kind of The Point irt them badly working through the hillbilly romp trauma but like. sheesh. at least set that up as an emotional story goal the plot will help resolve. but nope they start off miserable and it goes nowhere

I know I know the mia thing has a huge wrinkle in it but like. not really in terms of dramatic function?? set up a happy end to the re7 nightmare (miranda can keep up appearances for all she cares) and then take that all away from angry griffin mcelroy for manpain. it will still absolutely work to set up the dramatic forward momentum. why throw in this cliche Hollywood Tension in their marriage if you’re not going to address it oh maybe because it’s normalized as automatically interesting because nuclear families are a self-propagating pit of a very narrow chance at emotional happiness relying on social stigma to preserve their empty function oops my baggage slipped in yikes abort mission

I called him griffin mcelroy because I saw his face on twitter and. yeah. I will continue to do this occasionally. my house my rules

... fuck the reason I’m hung up on this is specifically because the rest of the game is so tonally dexterous (which is a shining point to me! more on that later!), and yet they felt weirdly compelled to create the aesthetic trapping of a family-at-odds trope without following it through too well. a sign of both the good and the bad stuff to come

but listen the real reason why I wanted to talk about any of this is to nitpick the fascinating backwards-engineered nucleus of the entire thing; in that this game essentially creates a melting pot of just SO many disparate horror tropes and then makes a no-holds-barred unhinged effort at weaving thick lore to piece them all together. it is truly a sight to behold. like straight up you got your backwoods fright night situation, your gothic castle vampires, your rural-industrial werewolves, and don’t forget your bloated swamp monsters over there, with then a hard left turn into robotic body horror, and the entire ass subgenre of Creepy Doll writ large, and the bloodborne tentacle monsters, and a hellboy angel bossfight, which rides on the coattails of a mech-on-mech pacific rim bonanza, and just jesus henry christ slow down

almost all of these are textural hijack jobs that don’t really get into the metaphor plain of any of those settings but the game sort-of makes an argument that the texture IS the point and revels in it. It is kind of admirable almost. The same reason why the intro felt boxed in and unmotivated is also why the rest of the game just blasts off of its hinges to the point of complete and self-indulgent tonal abandon. I kinda loved that about it. lady dimitrescu made sure to hold her hat down as she bent forward in mahogany doorways and then suddenly she’s a giant gore dragon and you settle in your temp role as dark souls man with Gun to take her ass down. Excellent??

this rhino rampage impulse to gobble up every horror aesthetic known to man comes to head when the game wrestles with its FPS trappings in what is the most hilarious solution in creating visceral player damage moments. Since most cinematics and the entire game is in first person, that leaves precious little real estate for the devs to work with if they really want to sell griffin’s physical crucible. To wit. This dude’s forearms. Specifically just the forearms. They are MASSACRED throughout the story. The poor man lives out the silent hill dimension of a hand model. by the end cutscene he looks like a neatly dressed desk clerk who had decided to stick both his grabbers into garbage disposal grinders just a few hours prior. like in addition to everything else it manages to rope in that tinge of slapstick violence into its general grievous genre collection except this time it IS for a lack of trying! truly incredible

but wait his miracle clawbacks from everything his poor paws go through are retroactively explained away, yes, but far too vaguely and far too late to console me as I sat and watched everyone’s favorite baby brother reattach an entirely severed hand to his wrist stump by just. placing it on there. and giving it a lil twist ‘n pop terminator-style. and then willing his fingers back into motion right in front of my bulging eyes. this game just does not care. it does not give a shit. and boy howdy will it work to make that into one of its strongest suits

cause generally speaking resident evil was THE premiere vanilla zombie content destinaysh for like a decade, right? and as the rest of the world and mainstream media started encroaching and bloodying its blue ocean it went and just exploded in every single conceivable horror trope direction like a smilodon on catnip. truly, genuinely fascinating franchise moves

yeah the big vampire milf is hot. other news; grass... green. although I do love the implication that her closet is just identical white dresses on a rack. cartoon network-level queen shit

apropos of nothing I’ve said there’s also this hobo dante-devimaycry-magneto man, and I can’t believe this sentence makes sense. anyway he made that “boulder-punching asshole” joke referring to chris redfield and it was probably the only easter egg that really landed for me and boy did it land hard. I have not seen him punch the boulder in re5, mind. I had only heard about how funny it is from friends. and here this dude was, probably in the same exact mindset as me, trying to grapple with that insane mental image. with you on that ian mckellen, loud and clear

I advocate vehemently against the shallow pursuit of hyper photorealism in art direction but I gotta admit it works really in favor of immersive horror like this. the european village shacks especially gave me super unchill flashbacks to my rural countryside retreat in western georgia. I could smell the linoleum dude. not cool

faces are weird in this game. can’t place it. nice textures, good animation, but the modeling template is... uuh strange? and the hair. it has that clustered-flat-clumpy look that harkens to something very specific and unpleasant but I just don’t know what. sue me

griffin’s mental aptitude to take all this shit in stride and end every seemingly traumatizing bossfight involving some fucking eldritch being yet unseen through mortal eyes by essentially throwing out an MCU quip is just. What the fuck dude? I mean that was funny how you casually yelled the f-word at a god damn werewolf that you considered a fairy tale an hour ago but are you like, all right?? it was swinging a sledgehammer the size of a bus at you, ethan

oh oh the vampires are afraid of cold and your last name is winters. I get it haha

Pro Gamer Nitpick: boss fights seemed a bit unnecessarily long?? idk why the youtuber we picked decided the ENTIRE propeller man fight counted towards the vital story scenes he was stitching together, but man mr big daddy lite there really had some get up and go huh??

why are they saying dimitrescu.. like that. is it really how you say that word or is the english language relapsing into its fetish for ending every single word with a consonant at all costs

I’m not saying it’s a dramatic miss of a twist in context of all that’s going on, but the “you died in the last game actually and have been DC’s clayface ever since” revelation is low-key. it’s. it’s just funny to me, I dont know what to say. century-old god-witch fails her evil plan after she mistakenly removes heart from what was definitely NOT just some white guy with eight fingers after all

chris realizing he’s about to become the player character and immediately swapping out his tsundere trenchcoat for the muscletight sex haver sweater

the little bluetooth speaker-sized pipe bomb he taped to his knife was nuclear?? really??? I must have missed something because that is just too good. I buy it though I totally buy it. chris just got them fun-sized nukes in his car trunk for, you guessed it, Situations

anyway this is all for now just wanted to briefly touch on how unexpectedly funny and tonally irreverent this seemingly serious game turned out to be. did not articulate any cathartic story beats whatsoever but my god it had fun connecting those plot points. he just fucking put his severed hand back on his stump and it Just Worked todd howard get in here

[anthonyjlockwood]

lukebobby for #21 "you're not very intimidating"

tysm for the prompt, jay!! 💜 I spent way too long on this lol I’m sorry. you can find it on ao3 here! 

Bobby Wilson was not afraid of very many things.

In fact, he prided himself on being the most fearless member of Sunset Curve. He was the knight in shining armor, the one reckless enough to do anything the others deemed too dangerous— and that was saying something, considering he was best friends with Luke and Reggie. Alex, at least, had some sense of self-preservation.

Physical things rarely scared Bobby as much as emotional things. Feelings. Tears. Feelings and tears. Sadness, confusion-- anger, at least, he understood. He’d been all too acquainted with anger these past few months, because absolutely nothing on Earth pissed him off more than people messing with his friends. Luke’s fights with his parents had been getting more frequent. Alex had come out to his parents, and they wasted no opportunity to tell him what a “sinner” he was, and how he was “destined to burn.” It made Bobby see red. 

And then, there was Reggie’s parents. Mr. and Mrs. Peters were some of the worst offenders of the bunch, really. Because while the Pattersons and the Mercers had problems with who their sons were at their core-- which was horrible enough-- the Peterses just… didn’t care. They didn’t know who Reggie was, and they couldn’t be bothered to learn.  

In Bobby’s eyes, apathy was just as bad as hostility. 

So Bobby was no stranger to anger. But other emotions, less understandable ones, shook him to the core sometimes. Bobby didn’t really “do feelings.” Sure, he was a pretty good listener, but even when someone was complaining to him, he was always solution-focused.  

Someone more emotionally in-tune than he was would probably have a name for his incessant need to problem-solve, instead of just allowing people around him to be upset. Realizing that it was okay to be upset sometimes. 

But Bobby just… didn’t work like that. 

And, a brand new emotion had emerged recently, one that was far more confusing and frightening than any other.  An emotion that had accompanied some inner thoughts of his-- thoughts that he’d been skirting around for months, if not years. 

Bobby was in love with his best friend.

Or, at least, he thought he might be.  Bobby didn’t think he’d actually ever really been in love before. He took pride in the fact that he was reasonably attractive, and could get a date with pretty much anybody he wanted. But that’s as far as any relationship of his had ever gone-- just dating.  And the feelings he was experiencing now were… different, to say the least.  

Because Bobby didn’t just want to date Luke Patterson. He couldn’t explain what exactly, but… he wanted something more. 

And that shit was terrifying. 

He didn’t really know if Luke noticed that he’d sort of been avoiding him lately. He’d started using Alex and Reggie as a buffer so he wouldn’t have to be left alone with Luke for an extended period. Because, when he was alone with Luke, and the other boy did something totally offensive, like smile or laugh, Bobby just wanted to die. It sucked, honestly, wanting something you couldn’t have. Feeling emotions that you didn’t want; weren’t used to.

Emotions had always been far more frightening to Bobby than those more common physical fears. Heights. Flying. Darkness.

But, there was one thing Bobby would absolutely never do, under any circumstances, no matter how the planets aligned. One common physical fear that he would never deal with.

Bobby would never, ever, be the one to kill the spider.

And there was one, now, laughing at him from under the old, rickety sofa Luke had gotten cheap at someone’s yard sale. Bobby didn’t know what kind of spider it was, but it was big, and it existed, so that was all the information he needed, really.

But Bobby knew enough about fear to know one thing: never let the thing you’re scared of know that you’re scared. Knowing gave them power. And this spider had far too much power already. Since Bobby had seen it skittering across the floor nearly ten minutes ago, it had successfully managed to overtake the couch; Bobby had shot up like a rocket and scrambled up the ladder into the loft.

And he would not be coming down any time soon, thank you very much. 

This spider thought it was so scary, kicking Bobby off the sofa like that. Bobby would show it— just as soon as he mustered up the courage to climb back down the ladder.

Still, show no fear. That spider had to know who was in charge, here-- it would not be keeping Bobby Wilson up in that loft bed forever. 

“You’re not very intimidating, you know.”

He was talking to a spider. Before Bobby could process just how unhinged that was, a snicker from the doorway made him jump. Whipping his head up, towards the sound of the laughter, he saw Luke. Arms crossed, eyebrows raised, looking absolutely delighted to see Bobby in whatever predicament he’d gotten himself into. 

Luke surveyed the scene with a knowing smirk, and not a hint of sympathy. “What’chya doin’ up there, Bobby?” 

“Just-- just hanging out,” Bobby said nonchalantly. 

“In the loft?” 

“Yes. I… like it up here. I’m enjoying the view.”

“Ah, I see,” Luke nodded, as if Bobby’s words had confirmed some sort of unproven theory about the universe. 

Bobby was trying to act nonchalant, but-- the spider moved again. Bobby flinched automatically as it briefly emerged from under the sofa before disappearing again.

The only thing worse than seeing a spider, Bobby lamented, was losing sight of a spider. His eyes traced the floor near the couch frantically. 

Unfortunately, Luke had noticed his flinch, and his facial expression morphed into a smug grin. “Is… is the great Bobby Wilson afraid of something?”

“No!” Bobby shuffled further back in the loft bed, farther away from the door. 

“What is it?” Luke asked. “Is the studio haunted? Is there a zombie-vampire-ghost hiding under the couch, or something, waiting to claim you as its next victim?”

“There’s no such thing as a ‘zombie-vampire-ghost,” Bobby huffed. 

“Okay, so what—“  Luke was cut off by a loud shriek. Bobby dove behind a pillow on the loft bed, hugging it against his body and slinking further into the wall. 

Luke followed his friend’s gaze and saw the subject of his friend’s terror: a spider, standing by the leg of the sofa. 

“You’ve barricaded yourself up in the loft because of a bug?” Luke said gleefully. “Oh man— wait ‘til I tell Alex and Reggie about this one!” 

“You won’t be laughing when you see it move!”

“I’ve seen a spider move before, Bobby,” Luke snorted. “Not the horror movie material you think it is. I’m sure I’ll survive.” 

But… but then the spider did move, and it moved towards Luke. He got a better look at it, and he saw that it was probably about an inch and a half long, dark brown, and menacing-looking. 

Nope.

No.

Nooo thank you. 

With a shriek of his own, Luke scrambled up the loft ladder, too, the force of his body slamming into Bobby’s as he landed on the bed sending the whole structure shaking. “Dude, that thing is huge!”

“Yeah, looks a lot bigger and more threatening when it’s coming towards you, right?” Bobby snapped. “I’ll accept my apology in the form of you paying for the pizza delivery tonight.”

“What makes you think we’re gonna survive long enough to eat pizza later?” Luke asked incredulously. “That spider’s probably gonna have us for dinner first!”

“You’re being dramatic,” Bobby said. It was time to take the reins, here— he had to be the brave one. It was Spider Versus Bobby & Luke, now, and Bobby had to be captain of this team. Luke certainly wasn’t going to do it, useless as he was— now hugging the very same throw pillow that Bobby had abandoned, realizing that, as far as shields go, it was a fairly weak one. 

“Dude, don’t you watch those boring nature documentaries on the Discovery Channel?” Luke remembered. “That thing’s probably poisonous. Venomous. Whatever. It’s deadly.”

“So you just want to be stuck up in this loft for the rest of the freaking day?” Bobby asked. 

It wasn’t really the way Bobby would’ve preferred to spend his Saturday. Especially because the close proximity to someone he was trying not to have feelings for brought a tingling sensation to his cheeks and set his heart racing. He hoped Luke couldn’t hear it pounding away in his rib cage. 

Bobby had been doing a very good job at not thinking about Luke that way. But ever since Sunset Curve had gone to that stupid indoor skydiving place for Luke’s birthday— the only thing he’d really wanted to do, child that he was— and Bobby’s hand had brushed against Luke’s arm in the small air chamber, and Luke had grabbed Bobby’s hands in his own, lost in the thrill of adventure… Bobby had been thinking about it.

Thinking about how, with Luke, he felt alive. Alive in a way nobody else made him feel. Not Alex, not Reggie. Not any of the others he’d dated since. With Luke, Bobby felt like there could be something more. 

But, for the sake of their band and their friendship, Bobby had resolved to Not Think About It. He’d decided to take his feelings for Luke and bury them deep, and that meant keeping his distance. The exact opposite of… whatever the situation they were currently in was. 

Luke’s slightly panicked voice broke through Bobby’s thoughts. “What else are we supposed to do?!”

For as much as Bobby loved Luke— and was trying not to think about it— he recognized that the guy was truly terrible under pressure. Not for the first time, Bobby wished he’d encountered this spider with someone like Reggie. Alex, even, would be slightly preferable, because while he wouldn’t do anything to help, he also wouldn’t spike Bobby’s anxiety and make the situation worse. Alex, for all his anxiety about other things, didn’t really care about bugs.

But Reggie had this weird fascination with them. Bobby thought Reggie just wasn’t capable of hating anything. Reggie would probably pick the spider up with a napkin, or something, calm as you please, and start talking to it about his day or something.

Totally unbothered, totally friendly. Even to a spider.

Bobby was not friendly to spiders. This thing had to go, stat.

“We should throw something at it-- take off your shoe!” 

“My shoe? Gross! I don’t wanna get spider guts on my shoe,” Luke complained. 

Bobby rolled his eyes. “Well, we need some sort of ammunition, here!” 

“Why don’t you use your shoe?” 

“Hell no,” Bobby said. “I just bought these!” 

“Okay. Okay. What about…” Luke grabbed one of the pillows off the bed and jettisoned it down towards the general direction of the spider. It bounced off the couch cushions and fell to the floor. 

“D’you think we got it?” 

Just then, as if it were mocking them, the spider crawled back out from under the couch towards Bobby’s guitar stand.  

“Oh no,” Bobby moaned. “It’s-- it’s going for my guitar. What if it touches it?”

“We’ll have to burn the guitar,” Luke said solemnly. 

“Those are expensive!” he protested. “Hey-- hey Itsy Bitsy Spider, go for Luke’s guitar instead! A little to the left…” 

“Where’re Alex and Reggie when you need them?” Luke complained. 

“Cute that you think Alex would help us out, here,” Bobby rolled his eyes. “He loves when shit like this happens to us. He’d be getting a kick out of it, for sure.” 

“Reggie would help us, though,” Luke sighed longingly for their best friend, bassist and bug-getter-ridofer extraordinaire. 

“If they don’t come for us, we might be stuck up here for the rest of the night,” Bobby commented. 

“They gotta come eventually,” Luke reasoned. “They know we have to practice for the gig this weekend.” 

“I hope it’s soon,” Bobby’s eyes followed the spider, aimlessly making its way along the perimeter of the couch. To his relief, his and Luke’s guitars had come out unscathed. 

-

An indeterminable amount of time later, deep into his staring match with Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bobby finally heard the garage door open.  Risking a glance away from the spider, he saw the other two, very late, very unbothered members of Sunset Curve stroll into the garage. 

“Hey, guys,” Alex greeted, Reggie on his heels. “Ready for-- what’s going on?” He caught sight of his two best friends, hugging each other atop the loft bed, and raised an eyebrow. 

“There’s a spider,” Luke whispered. 

“Ooh, where?” Reggie perked up. “I love spiders!”

“There, by the couch,” Bobby pulled away from Luke, pointing in what he hoped was the spider’s general direction. “Get rid of it.”  

Alex snorted. “I thought you guys were gonna work on that new chord progression Luke came up with-- you said you wanted to start rehearsal early.” 

“Yeah, well, something came up!” Luke snapped. 

“Okay,” the drummer said, smothering his laughter into his hoodie.

Reggie had grabbed an empty coffee mug off the table and was crouched by the sofa, searching for the spider. “I don’t see it anywhere…” 

“It’s there!” Luke argued. “And what are you doing? Don’t use my coffee mug!” 

“Baby,” Bobby smirked.  

Reggie finally located the spider  and was ushering it into the coffee mug.  “Got it!” 

“Thank God,” Bobby exclaimed. “Take it outside. Make sure it goes far, far away.” 

He watched as Reggie honored his request, carefully carrying the mug to the garage door and stepping outside. 

“What was your plan here, anyway?” Alex asked. “Stay up in the loft until Reggie got here to get rid of the spider for you?” 

“Yes!” Luke and Bobby said in unison.

Alex snorted again. “Luke, you literally live here. What happens when you see a bug and no one’s here with you?” 

“I… may or may not climb through Bobby’s bedroom window,” the guitarist said sheepishly. 

“You do?” the guitarist perked up. Luke snuck into his room sometimes? 

Bobby… didn’t hate that, actually. He wondered why Luke had never woken him up before-- whenever Bobby woke up in the mornings, his bed was always empty. Did Luke sleep on the floor? 

Before his mind could get lost in daydreams of snuggling up with Luke under the covers, because he wasn’t supposed to be thinking about it, Bobby shook the thoughts out of his head. 

“Yeah,” Luke mumbled, lifting a finger to his mouth and gnawing on his nail-- Bobby had told him so many times to give that habit up. But, nail biting was a nervous tick of Luke’s, and Bobby knew it.  

What did Luke have to be nervous about? Did he think Bobby would kick him out of his room, or something? That wasn’t true at all. Bobby would love for Luke to spend the night in his bed--

“Should we start practice?” His voice came out in a very weird, high-pitched squeak. It sounded like he’d just gotten finished sucking all the air out of a balloon. 

Alex smirked at him knowingly.  Avoiding his gaze, Bobby shot up off the couch just as Reggie returned with the empty coffee mug.  He tossed it in the sink and headed back over to the others, grabbing his bass and slinging it over his shoulder. “Bug’s gone,” he grinned. 

-

Once they were alone, Bobby nudged Luke’s knee with his own. “Hey.” 

Luke turned towards him. “Yeah?” 

“Um… next time you see a bug in here,” he started nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “You can wake me up. If-- if you come into my room, I mean. If you even want to come into my room. I dunno if you’ve been sleeping on the floor, or whatever, but that can’t be comfortable. So… so yeah. You can sleep with me-- not like that. I just mean, you can share my bed if you want. Or, if you don’t want, I can sleep on the floor. We can work something out. Just-- you can-- just wake me up next time, okay?” 

So quickly he would’ve missed it if he’d blinked, Luke pressed his lips to Bobby’s.

“Okay,” he said with a smile. 

That night, Luke kept his word. He saw another spider-- smaller in size, but greater in threat, because Bobby wasn’t there with him-- he did climb through Bobby’s window.  Bobby felt him shake his shoulder, and, mumbling incoherently, he shifted to the far side of the bed, so Luke could climb in next to him.

And that’s how Bobby found out that Luke was a blanket hog. 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 250: Why Is This Family Not in Therapy

Previously on BnHA: Fuyumi invited everyone over to Camp Todovid for a wholesome family meal because what could possibly go wrong. Kacchan and Deku proceeded to spend the evening blinking distress signals at each other in Morse code while Natsu shoved breadsticks into his purse and skedaddled after getting mad at Endeavor in a completely unexpected turn of events which absolutely no one could have foreseen. After dinner, Shouto had a heart to heart with Fuyu (and then Deku) about whether or not he was ready to forgive his dad, and meanwhile Endeavor said a prayer for his very dead son Touya. Poor Touya. He was such a nice boy. You know what he really used to like? Messenger bags. He’d put the oddest things in them, too. I wonder if Touya would still enjoy collecting strange and disturbing things in bags if he was still alive today. Alas. We’ll never know.

Today on BnHA: Some guy named Takami who just got out of prison decides to show up out of the blue and fucking kidnap Natsuo because WHY NOT. But before that happens, we get a nice scene of Kacchan and Deku sitting down with Shouto and Fuyu, who finally decide it’s high time they talked about THEIR SECRET DEAD BROTHER seeing as LET’S BE REAL, THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS DINNER TO BEGIN WITH. So basically, (1) he’s definitely dead! For sure! 100% deceased!, and (2) Natsuo apparently blames Endeavor for his death, lol no big. Deku and Kacchan are for some reason super fucking chill about hearing this, and then Endeavor comes over and is all “TIME TO HEAD BACK” and omg I’ve never hated him more. And then as they’re driving away from Todofield Hall, Takami shows up and is all “HEY ENDEAVOR LOOK I KIDNAPPED YOUR CHILD AND I’M GONNA KILL HIM!” and holy shit but Horikoshi is just fucking with us now, though.

(As always, all comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added some  ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

all right manga, do your worst. I’m completely spoiler-free on this one. watch it not even be a flashback, after all of that lmao

(ETA: lol I read these two asks after I read the chapter and they’re pretty great:

honestly this week wasn’t that bad, though! the worst part of it was the whole “only 13 pages again” thing honestly. next week, though, it looks like we’ll be in for some fun times. oh goodness.)

so it appears night has fallen on Todofield Hall, and hoooooooooly shit you guys, are they. are they all gonna have a sleepover at Shouto’s house, because fdszllk I. I’m gonna. ldskfjla

(ETA: [kicks Endeavor in the shins] why do you hate fun!?)

who is talking?? are these prison stripes??

so is this the Takami guy narrating, then? just like we all predicted last week. ???

(ETA: so I saw all these people going “wtf is this Hawks’s dad??” and I was like “lol what” and it took me longer than I’d like to admit to put two and two together, but anyways, long story short, “Takami” just so happens to be Hawks’s recently revealed surname (with the same kanji and everything -- 鹰見). so while every instinct in my body is screaming at me “gtfo no way they’re related”, it is an extremely bizarre coincidence, so uh. ?? I got nothin’, basically.)

WHAT THE FUCK

IS THIS GUY STALKING THE TODOROKI HOUSE. ABOUT TO BREAK INTO TODOFELL IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT WHILE MY CHILDREN ARE ASLEEP!? CAN THEY JUST NOT CATCH A BREAK

also I will never understand villains who get all smug about being captured alive. “your one mistake was not killing me when you should have!” like okay, so you’re admitting you’re a piece of shit who should have died, and that the hero totally could have done it, but they were nice enough not to so SHAME ON THEM, apparently

anyways I really don’t understand what’s going on at all lol. some guy looked up to Endeavor and then got himself captured by him for some reason. let’s continue I guess

oh lord it keeps getting creepier

-- oohhhhhhhh shiiiiiiit, is this fucker about to air Endeavor’s dirty laundry?? is that what this is about?

AHHHHH

NATSU SWEETIE WHERE ARE YOUR SELF-PRESERVATION INSTINCTS?? IT IS NOT SAFE! and also what the fuck, does Endeavor just not have any security in his home at all? surely he must, if for no other reason than the fact that HE HAS KIDS and he’s not always at home! I have to imagine that any pro hero with a family understands that they’re a potential target for villains and would take precautions. I wonder if we’re about to see this sneaky guy get wrecked

(ETA: nope, Endeavor really has no security whatsoever and Natsu got snatched while waiting outside for his Uber. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was too busy missing his brother and being sad to remember that he actually has a quirk himself. c’mon Natsu.

-- actually, come to think, props to Horikoshi for once again bucking the trend and having a guy be the one who gets kidnapped and becomes the damsel in distress. I’m just going to assume that had Fuyu been the one to get captured, Endeavor wouldn’t have even heard about it until he received a text from her with a picture of the guy encased in ice and a caption asking “so dad, uh, what should I do with this?”)

BUT FIRST, WE’RE CUTTING BACK TO THE TODOROKI KITCHEN, WHERE TODOBAKUDEKU ARE CURRENTLY HAVING TEA WITH FUYU BECAUSE SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME YESSSSS

hhhglkohhhhh myyyyy godddddd

I KNOW!!! WHAT’S WITH THAT! WE’VE WAITED 250 FUCKING CHAPTERS PUTTING UP WITH YOUR SLY-ASS HINTS ALL “ALL RIGHT THEN, KEEP YOUR SECRETS” but is it finally time now? IS IT??!

Shouto says it’s not exactly an easy topic to bring up, and okay, fair. buuuut also, this is the same child who ambushed Deku in a corridor back when they barely knew each other and was all “let me tell you all about my dad’s quirk marriage and how he abused me and my mom and how I got this scar” so like. what exactly do you consider “easy to bring up” though

OH MY GOD IT’S HAPPENINGGGGGGG

we’re getting DETAILS. ABOUT. TOUYA’S PAST fkdslfh holy motherfucking shitballs someone pinch me

she says it happened right after Rei got hospitalized, which yeah, we all figured based on the middle school uniform in the photo. so that definitely pins down his age then, doesn’t it? Shouto was six when that happened, so if Touya was in middle school he’d have been between 12 and 15. so it’s very likely then that he was 14, the exact same age as Fuyu, so therefore THE TWIN THEORY IS CONFIRMED! WE DID IT TUMBLR

anyways back to being sad though, because

can someone please hug this child?? what are you all even doing?! do you not see his face?? jesus christ

oh no oh my god are you serious are you

okay, before I go on to the next panel and commence FREAKING THE FUCK OUT, I need to stop here though, because the thought that the Todos actually were in the process of healing nine years ago and could have potentially been spared years of additional pain had it not been for this tragedy is. just. I fucking can’t. I need a minute here. god

anyway. so now on to the freaking out though, because

:) :))) :))))))) huh. you don’t say

(ETA: hmm in hindsight I promised freakouts and then all I did was go “:)” but please understand that the “:)” conveys so much more inner freaking out than words could possibly communicate. just picture me screaming and waving my arms around like a Kermit the frog gif okay.)

look at this you guys. this revelation is so stone cold fucking sober that it even got Katsuki to make an actual normal face for the first time in god knows how many chapters, wow

by the way, words can hardly express how much I appreciate that Katsuki is sitting here chilling out drinking tea with the rest of them and listening to this tale of woe and empathizing like a normal, well-adjusted person, though. I will never take that for granted. thank you character development gods. y’all are bros

anyways the face in question that Natsu was making is so fucking sad, and just. THEY ALL NEED HUGS. why is this family not in therapy

NO!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU SON OF A BITCH!! JUST LIKE THAT YOU’RE RIGHT BACK ON MY SHIT LIST, ENDEAVOR!! CHRIST ALMIGHTY ARE YOU SERIOUS, SO WE’RE REALLY JUST GONNA LEAVE OFF THERE? “LOL SO YEAH, NATSU STILL THINKS DAD KILLED OUR BROTHER AND THAT’S WHY ALL THE TENSION” and Deku and Kacchan just nod like that is in any way a satisfying explanation rather than an INCREDIBLY OMINOUS STATEMENT which only goes and raises about A BILLION MORE QUESTIONS OMG. “oh okay, so he hates your dad because he thinks that he murdered your mysterious other brother we’re only just now hearing about. say no more. no further context necessary” fucking -- 

listen, you two. where the fuck are your investigative skills?? SOME SCOOBY SQUAD YOU ARE!!

oh my goodness gracious

listen guys, things I was not expecting to check off my character development bucket list today: Katsuki joining the Fuyumi fanclub and bonding with her over recipes. I wasn’t even aware that was on my list. BUT IT SURE WAS, AND IT’S CHECKED NOW AND I LOVE IT

also love that Shouto tells Fuyu to just text the recipe to him, and then he will share it with Katsuki. because they are best friends

also Deku is the only one here with any manners at all but oh well. we all been knew

(ETA: though to be fair, Katsuki asking for the recipe is about as big a compliment as one can give to a chef, and it kind of serves as a combination “thanks for the meal” and “everything was really good” tbh. shit, now I want her recipe.)

fdlkjfg

... [reaches out to gently touch the panels] so soft

-- BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S EVEN SOFTER?

[faint sound of my heart imploding] ah

oh my god his face

and Katsuki’s face too. boy are you jealous. to think you were all “WHY THOUGH!?” coming here, only to walk away from it all with a kickass new mapo tofu recipe as well as a new person to add to your secret list of people you would literally die for. awwwwwww

and Shouto. omg. this is the most bashful panel I’ve ever seen. what a blessed chapter

anyway so now they’re all driving away (back to school?? I think he said?) and Endeavor’s talking to them about their upcoming schedule. so I guess they are heading back to school, then

anyway so he wants them to work the weekend as well as two weekdays? damn that’s a lot of class to be missing, he’s asking them to skip literally half the school week (since they have Saturday class too)

wow you guys look at this panel

takeaways from this: 1.) I honestly would have thought Deku would be the one tutoring other people in English, if anything. as of the midterms, he was above Shouto in academic rankings, but more importantly he’s also the biggest All Might fan on the planet, and All Might spent a lot of time in America in his youth and presumably speaks decent English himself, so you’d think Deku’s English would be passable just from his obsession alone. but I guess you just can’t beat that fancy private school education

and the other takeaway: Katsuki doesn’t like being squished in the backseat of a cramped Japanese car with Deku and Shouto. this one is absolutely shocking. I’m gonna need a moment to process this for sure. anyways poor Deku, he’s probably getting so many elbows to the ribs right now. I hope he elbows back

(ETA: actually the fact that Katsuki is apparently sticking his head out the window here in addition to complaining about the cramped conditions makes me wonder if he’s actually getting carsick. my poor baby do you need some dramamine.)

guys, meet Endeavor’s chauffeur

so anyway this is a bit sudden but I have a new favorite character now. life is funny like that. does he remind anyone else of Major Armstrong

wow Endeavor is answering the question seriously

okay but shit, I really fucking love this answer, though. he’s so matter-of-fact about it. because the thing is, the question isn’t really “when did you start baby-sitting a bunch of kids”; it’s “when did you actually start caring about something other than yourself?” and the answer is that it happened when he finally reached the top and realized the responsibility that went hand in hand with that role. it forced him to finally look past just himself, and to think about what it really means to be a hero. shit, I feel another essay coming on, but it’ll have to wait for some other time lol. we still have to see if Natsu’s going to make it out of this alive

anyway so now Armstrong is chuckling and saying that status really does change people huh, and they’re driving on into the night

OH SHIT

THAT’S A NICE SON YOU’VE GOT THERE, ENDEAVOR. IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF SOMEONE... okay you know what, I’m not sure where I was headed with that joke, but in any case I can’t finish it because this isn’t funny at all actually, this is actually SO FUCKING BAD oh shit oh shit

NATSUUUUU

oh no he’s so scared oh fuck. fuck. he’s only 19, he’s just a kid still. god. why do I always get so worked up over these parts. what am I doing reading a shounen manga if I can’t handle seeing kids in peril. HORIKOSHI PLEASE BE KIND TO MY BABIES

holy shit

okay, is this implying that Katsuki was sticking his head out of the window in that previous panel?? I realize more important things are happening and this is hardly the time to dwell on this, but jesus christ my kid is out here trying to get himself decapitated. boy what is wrong with you

anyway so now something is going "pop” and I have no idea. ??

(ETA: lol I guess it was Endeavor? you know, how Endeavor sometimes just goes “pop” for no reason. that’s just the sound someone makes when spontaneously bursting into flames.)

oh

far be it from me to start whipping out analogies about a mama bear and her cubs, but. damned if that ain’t what’s happening though. motherfucker, you mess with his kids? so would you like to die fast, or slow

so now some weird fucking shit is happening to the car, and I guess it’s this guy’s quirk again?

wow my man, so you’re really attacking the car with the three protagonists with SOMETHING TO PROVE in the backseat. you really do have a death wish

(ETA: on top of that, attacking the car mere minutes before the winter break ends, and with it, the deadline for “defeating a villain quicker than Endeavor.” HMMM anybody got some popcorn?)

now Endeavor is shouting “LET HIM GO!” because that’s what superheros shout when someone is being kidnapped

lol poor Natsu looks kind of awkward now

like, don’t get him wrong, he’s still scared for his life. but also he’s starting to get a bit of that same feeling that Katsuki and Deku were getting in the last chapter, like he’s suddenly found himself right in the midst of some grade A melodrama from which there is no escape. anyways don’t mind him, he’s just going to chill here in this big pile of bandages and see where this goes

so Endeavor is all “........... YOU’RE FROM SEVEN YEARS AGO!” and honestly that’s impressive. I guess the quirk is a pretty memorable one, though

wow now they’re suddenly being all coy with this guy’s name? what the hell

?? Natsu bud, I feel ya, this really is some awkward shit right here

ohhhh!

that’s the name of the chapter! well all right then, so at least that much makes sense now

so now Ending is apologizing to Endeavor, and wow, tons of essay fuel in these next two panels here

“you had so many things that I could never get” doesn’t this sound remarkably similar to Deku’s speech to Kacchan during their second fight at Ground Beta? huh

and also, I think we are slowly dancing closer and closer to the Thing Katsuki Lacks That He Needs To Learn From His Internship From Endeavor. what do you guys think? I have a lot of thoughts about this, but again, I’ll save it for another post seeing as shit is hitting the fan right now and all

OH SHIT

ARE YOU SERIOUS, OF ALL THE TIMES TO HAVE ANOTHER THIRTEEN PAGE CHAPTER! HORIKOSHI YOU ARE FUCKING KILLING ME HERE

well shit. okay so when he says “don’t make the same mistake twice”, he’s clearly talking about Endeavor letting him live the last time they met, but also I can’t help but feel like there might be some kind of double meaning here as well. the fact that he went from theft to kidnapping and attempted murder, on top of him mentioning earlier about how he went digging into Endeavor’s past, makes me wonder if he could possibly be trying to recreate a specific set of events. or is that crazy??

but just, hear me out. what if something similar to this went down before, with Touya perhaps being taken hostage by a villain (though it couldn’t have been the same guy because the timing is off, and also Endeavor didn’t recognize him right off the bat), and Endeavor making some critical mistake which resulted in him failing to save him, and Natsu then blaming him for that and holding him responsible for the death. honestly that makes the most sense to me, since I would think that “literally murdered his own kid” would be kind of a deal-breaker as far as the rest of the family ever reconciling with him. so yeah, this could get very interesting here

(ETA: hoo boy, so I’ve been browsing the bnha tags a bit, and it seems that a lot of people are interpreting the hints in this chapter very differently from me lol. I admit I could certainly be wrong about the “don’t make the same mistakes” bit having a double meaning. but like, do we really believe that Endeavor just straight up murdered his son and got away with it, or that it was covered up or something? or that he drove Touya to suicide? I think it’s much more likely that Touya pushed himself too hard, or that he accidentally got caught up in one of Endeavor’s attacks, or something along those lines.

what really struck me, though, was that a lot of people actually seem to be hoping for it to come out that Endeavor really is responsible, though. like, to the point where they’re prepared to be outraged if it turns out he’s not, and this part of the story doesn’t end up conforming to the narrative of Endeavor just being a sinister cartoon villain. and like, I don’t really know what to say about that. except that I really hate this idea that if an abuser is ever portrayed as something other than a heartless monster then it’s super-problematic and/or just bad writing. that Endeavor not murdering his son = Horikoshi endorses child abuse. or something. anyways I don’t have the spoons to really throw my hat into the ring here, but basically my opinion is that life is rarely just black and white in that way, and this story reflects that, and I think it’s absolutely the right call to make and is actually very good writing and I respect it. 

and also like, it’s not some all-or-nothing thing here where he’s either a perfect saint, or the worst person to ever exist! what he is is a man who made some terrible choices in the past and abused and hurt the very people he should have loved and protected the most. and what he is, also, is a man who has realized the awfulness of the things he’s done, and is trying his best now to be a good person. what he is is a human being. and acknowledging that doesn’t mean that you condone the abuse; it simply means that you acknowledge that people are made up of more than just the worst things they’ve done in their lives. that’s it.

anyways, for all of my “not gonna through my hat into the ring” nonsense, I’m doing a pretty good impression of exactly that, so I’ll shut up now. damn you Endeavor and your controversy-sparking ways. what kind of psychopath looks at the fucking BnHA fandom and says “not bad, but you know what this place could use? more discourse.” you knew exactly what you were doing, you fiend.)

anyways I’m going to hope and assume that Natsu isn’t actually about to meet his end here at the hands of this bestriped man and his peculiarly thematic villain name and sinister bandage arrows (are they bandages?? maybe not since they seem pretty solid and he’s threatening to stab Natsu in the eye with one. idk). and for all of my joking earlier, this guy actually does appear to have a real, genuine death wish since he keeps talking about how Endeavor should have killed him before. so in addition to all this other drama, toss in an attempted suicide by cop as well! this fucking arc, man. goddamn

[ellana-ravenwood]

“I’m in, I’m all in” - Jason Todd x Single!Mom reader part 5/5

And here we are, the end of this series. I really enjoyed writing it haha. Well, obviously since this was supposed to be a ONE SHOT and turned into a...Five part series haha. Anyway, I really hope you like this last part, and thanks to y’all for all the reactions to this series, it was really motivating and encouraging <3.

FINISHED SERIES : PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4  NEWLY ADDED EPILOGUE : PART 1/3

My masterlist blog : @ella-ravenwood-archives

________________________________________________

A few weeks before Viggo’s kidnapping :

Jess’ can’t catch his breath, as they take his head out of the dirty rain water they were drowning him in. He coughs some filthy liquid, but just as he barely catches his breath they dip him in once more. 

And again. And again. And again. 

Each time, he almost drowns, but not completely. It’s pure torture. 

“This’ll teach you to not pay your debt.” 

He hears one of the thug who keeps plunging his head into the water say. And here we go again, face first into the shallow puddle. 

How humiliating it is as well, to be drowned in that way, in a dirty puddle, behind an old warehouse...Oh ? This time, the thugs don’t hold his head under water as long as the others, and Jess is able to catch his breath faster. 

His mind is racing as he begs : 

“Wait wait wait !” 

He didn’t actually want to do that but...This was his last chance of survival. His last chance to get out of the mess he put himself in. So what if others have to suffer because of him ? 

Now sure, he never wanted to ever involve you in his life again, not after he left without a word, but right now..The situation was hopeless, without you. 

And so, Jess heard himself say : 

“Wait wait wait ! I-I have an old buddy of mine who recently got in contact with me ! He wanted some- cough - some information about my ex fiancee !” 

The two thugs who were waterboarding him look at their boss, a sinister smirk on their faces. Said boss, Antonio Falcone of the Falcone family, arguably the most powerful mafia in Gotham (if it wasn’t for those damn Maronis), shakes his head, exasperated at the poor attempt of this guy to save his life.

He owed them hundred of thousands of dollars, and couldn’t pay them. If it was just a couple thousands, they would have broken his legs and made him do odd jobs for them to make it up to them once he healed...But that Jess ? 

He owed them more than most of the people that borrowed money from them REUNITED ! It was outrageous. And somehow, that sleazy motherfucker always got away with getting more and more money, while never paying it back. 

But it had been going on for long enough. 

Antonio wouldn’t let that go. Couldn’t. Especially not since he was in a good line to get up in ranks. At least, according to his uncle, Carmine Falcone, the Don of the family ! 

Having a guy owing them that much money in his district was bad publicity. He couldn’t let that go. He gestured for his thugs to waterboard him some more before finally ending it, but that annoying little man kept on going : 

“He’s a paparazzo you see ? He takes picture of...Well you know what paparazzi are ! Well he took picture of that woman, who was hanging out with the Waynes, you see ?” 

The Waynes ? As in “Bruce Wayne” ? Richest family in Gotham ? Antonio Falcone stopped the thugs from drowning that poor excuse of a man and said :

“What about them ?” 

“Well my buddy wanted to know if- cough- if the woman was her. My ex. My ex fiancee. And it was, it was ! He had pictures of her kissing one of the eldest Wayne boys, that Jason guy, the one whom everyone thought died ! And she has a son ! I mean...”

A light came on in Jess’ minds. Yes. Of course. Why didn’t he think of that before ? Yes. They would be his salvation ! 

“Yeah ! It was her ! And my son ! And they were close to the Waynes ! I have pictures, I can prove it to you ! I’m sure we can...I’m sure we can come up with some sort of a plan so I can get your money, and even more, thanks to them ! I have hundreds of pictures taken of them being the entire day together, and clearly being close ! We know Bruce Wayne already paid ransom before, even if Batman had to get into it and ruined things but...I’m sure we can be smarter ! I’m sure we can have a plan ! A man like you, mister Falcone, surely is smart enough to get away with it ! As long as nobody gets hurt and we plan things smoothly, it should be fine, right ? We-I mean you, could go away from this much richer than you were before !”

Jess surely had a good self-preservation instinct, as he instantly switched to flattery and...Well, it always worked very well on “Mister Falcone”.  

Antonio Falcone looked upon that miserable man with disdain, but with also some kind of new found respect. A man willing to sell his own kid to save his life ? Well, it was someone he could relate to haha. After all, he didn’t hesitate to kill his own father to climb up in ranks...

And Jess said his ex-fiancee and his son were hanging out with the Waynes huh ? Well. Well well well. 

As much as he disliked that that asshole would get away with owing them that much money once again, Antonio had to admit that they needed Jess to come up with a plan that would keep everything “bat free” and smooth...

Oh, this could actually turn an embarrassing situation into a way of shining in front of the boss ! 

************

A few hours before Red Hood tries to save Viggo : 

And this is how a plan came to life. A nasty plan, made by cowards. A plan to steal a child from his family, just so they could have money. 

But for what it was worth, Viggo was never supposed to be hurt. Plus the Waynes ? What would a couple of millions do to their bank accounts ? They were all filthy rich ! 

Jess tried to rationalize his bad decisions after bad decisions, tried to shift the blame on others, as he always did. Besides in the end, he was still alive. And that’s really all that mattered to him right now. So what if they bribed a couple of judges and lawyer, and go the kid’s custody thanks to that ? 

Only there was a little problem in their perfectly laid out plan...That goddamn child being way too curious and hearing things he shouldn’t have ! 

“COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT !!”

Never before Viggo had been that afraid, as he heard “his father”’s steps grow closer and closer. He rushed as fast as he could down the stairs, almost falling over and breaking his neck. He jumped over the last two steps, and ran to the bathroom he saw when he first came in the house. 

He snatched the home phone on his way. He figured that trying to escape through the front door was stupid, as he saw Jess closing it earlier. Plus where was he gonna run to anyway ? In Gotham’s street ? At this hour, no one would take notice of him and Jess would catch up too fast...

But barricading himself in the bathroom with the phone ? He had a chance to warn someone ! To say what was happening, and get some help !

Jess was right on his heels as Viggo closed the bathroom door. 

“Open up right now, Viggo ! This isn’t what you think !” 

Jess said, banging loudly on the door. Viggo scoffed and answered : 

“Oh yeah ? Well what is it then ?!” 

Silence. Two more bangs, grunts and bad words, and then...total silence. 

Viggo didn’t wait for an answer or anything, as he typed his mom’s number on the home phone. He also figured that there was no point in calling 911. 

First, in Gotham, they were always very slow. And second, what was gonna happen once they arrived ? Jess would tell them about winning custody not long ago, about being his dad, and the cops wouldn’t believe anything he would say. Because custody battles ? They were always pretty nasty so...

If anything could be said about Viggo (Y/L/N), it was that he wasn’t stupid. 

Jess was quiet outside of the room, which was pretty worrying. He gave up way too fast trying to open the door...But Viggo’s mind, no matter how smart that little boy was, wasn’t thinking about that right now. 

No, instead, he was praying for you to just pick up and quick ! Tears were slowly gathering in his eyes, as he was slowly realizing that he might be in really big troubles, and he just wanted to see you...

Your phone rung a  few times before it went to your voice mail. Viggo’s heart stopped. No. No already ?! 

It was late, you were at work. You didn’t answer your phone when at work. At least not when it was an unknown number. If it was your best friend, or whoever babysat your son, you’d answer immediately, but a random number you never saw before, such as Jess’ home phone ? Nope...

Especially when working at the bar, like tonight. You might have not even heard your phone ringing ! 

He left a message, hurriedly talking about what he heard Jess say on the phone, talking about the Falcone and all. And then hung up. He tried to call a few times, but he knew there was not much hope...

Now, Viggo really wanted to cry. He felt so helpless, and it had been such a tough day ! Making his luggage to follow a dad he never even met before, only to realize that this was all a scam of some sort...

It was a lot, for a little eight years old boy ! 

But that said little eight year old wasn’t one to give up easily, and so he started to call the next person he first thought of. 

Jason.

He knew Jason’s number by heart, and typed it on the phone, sure that the man would rush to his aid no matter what he said ! There was NO WAY Jason wouldn’t come to help. Even if he wasn’t with his mom anymore, Viggo was convinced that he’d rush to his aid anyway ! 

And if Jason didn’t pick up, cause it was late ? He could always call the Manor ! Or Bruce ! The man gave him his number last time, when they ate ice cream and all, before his mom came back. He said : “call whenever you want, whenever you need” ! Yes, Yes Viggo would just...

A loud bang, a gunshot, made him jump in the air, scared and...What ? 

The door handle fell on the floor, fuming slowly. Smoke filled the small bathroom quickly, as the door opened on two large men holding guns and...

“Are you kidding us, Jess ? Really ?” 

“What ? The little fucker is fast ok ? I couldn’t grab him before he locked himself in there. I tried to bust the door open but I couldn’t.”

The two men shook their head, exasperated. One grabs Viggo, but the little one wasn't ready to get caught without a fight. He kicked him as hard as he could in-between his legs. The man let him go, and fell to his knees, holding his crotch and whining something along the line of “motherfucker”.  

Viggo tried to escape again, and he almost succeeded as Jess was just staring at him dumbly but...The second stranger grabbed him. He laughed and said : 

“Haha that kid has more courage than you’ll ever have Jess ! And he’s definitely smarter than you. Are you sure he’s yours ?” 

Jess just glared back but didn’t say anything. Now the man was pointing at the phone that escaped Viggo’s hand when he got surprised, understanding that the kid tried to call someone. 

“Did you manage to get anyone on the line ?” 

He asked, as he roughly lifted Viggo by his shirt. Your boy tried to struggle more, but the man was too strong and with his free hand stopped him from squirming. Keeping a face full of pride, and trying to look very unimpressed, Viggo said : 

“Yeah I did. And they’ll be here to kick your ass very soon !” 

Of course, that was a lie. But they didn't know that, did they ? 

The man took the phone from the floor and lifted it to his ear. The answering machine from Wayne Manor was just ending on a “Wayne are not here, please leave a message if you must”. The man hung up, whistled, and said : 

“Ah, well damn, he’s really related to the Waynes too somehow ! Damn Jess, who would’ve thought you’d be the one leading us to a treasure like that huh ?”

“I told you didn’t I ? There literally were hundreds of pictures of her kissing that Jason Todd guy, and of my boy here playing with the two youngest Waynes !” 

“I’m not your boy !” 

Viggo yelled, angry, twisting his head to look at Jess, daggers shooting out of his eyes while still being stuck in that man’s arms. Said man laughed again and said : 

“Well kid, if it’s any consolation, you’re definitely nothing like that coward. You, have got spirit. He, sold you to save his own life haha. How’d that make you feel ?” 

Why ? Why was that man twisting the knife further into Viggo’s heart ? The little boy already understood that his own father was doing something very fishy, but knowing that he was selling him to those guys ? That was...well, actually, that didn’t feel as bad as Viggo thought it would. 

It was in fact some sort of relief ? To know that that Jess was nothing of a father ! To know that he didn’t actually want to be part of his life, and that he didn’t have to forget...Oh, but THAT did hurt. The pang in his chest as he realized he wished Jason was there, that HE was the dad he always wanted. 

But hey, maybe that it was clear that Jess was an asshole, Jason would come back, realizing that he still had his place in the picture ? 

It was funny, that Viggo’s mind wandered to the one he wanted so bad to be his dad, as he was carried away by two scary strangers, and thrown in a car. 

“So what am I doing now ?” 

Jess asked, and one of the thug turned to him and said : 

“You call her tomorrow and then...Nothing. If this all deal goes well you’ll never hear from us again. If it goes sideways however...”

Leaving the threats flying in the air, he climbed into the front seat with a dangerous smirk, and Jess gulped. The other man, the one whose balls’ Viggo kicked, rubbed his crotch a bit and was about to climb in the car too, in front of the wheel, when Jess stopped him : 

“Hey, you’re not gonna hurt the kid right ?”

“Why, you got attached to him or something ?”

“No, I never wanted kids. But he...He didn't do anything ok ?” 

“No he didn’t, and yet he’s paying for his father’s sins. How unfair life is right ?”

“But you’re not gonna hurt him right ? It’s not part of the plan.” 

“Him kicking me in the nuts wasn’t part of the plan either. And him knowing our plan, wasn’t part of the plan. Oh, and us being here that early to pick the kid up ? Definitely not part of the plan. All that because you couldn’t find a quiet place to call Antonio. You fucking idiot. So now, who knows what will happen right ?” 

There’s a silence, and Jess suddenly feels sick. Sure, so far he didn’t really think of anything else but saving his own skin, and he worked so hard to try and get close to you again...but then you destroyed all his attempts and they had to retort to going to court and now...Now slowly, Jess realized what he had done. 

But it was too late now. Anyway, was it really that big of a secret, that he was a piece of shit ? After all, he left his pregnant fiancee fending on her own just because he couldn’t face her and say it was too much for him ! Still, one last time Jess says : 

“Nothing will go according to plan, if you hurt the kid.” 

The man doesn’t answer, as he just smiles and climb into the front seat. And slowly, they drive away. Jess’ eyes caught Viggo’s terrified gaze as he was taken away, and a sudden pang of regret took over his heart...

Up until he realized that he still was able to feel his heart beating thanks to that kid. And to his ex, you, who happened to be linked to the Waynes. Plus, that guy was just trying to scare him, of course they weren’t going to hurt the kid ! They needed him in one piece, if they wanted the money ! 

And with a sigh, Jess went back into his house. He just had to wait until the next day to call you and say they had your son and all that, and this all nightmare would finally be over. FiNALLY. 

************

The present : 

Jason’s heart drops. His blood freeze. His mind goes blank.

Viggo wasn’t breathing. And his skin was so cold.

No. No no no no no. Please god no. Everything but this.

Not Viggo. Not his precious little boy. No…

But no matter what Jason was doing, his CPR didn’t seem to work. And the kid was growing colder and colder.

“No ! No ! Come on Viggo ! Come on boy, please ! Please don’t leave me !”

The boy was unresponding. His lips were blue.

“Don’t go please don’t go ! You can’t go ! You can’t leave your mom ! You can’t leave me ! Please, please !”

But Viggo wasn’t breathing. Wasn’t moving. And his skin was know frighteningly cold. His eyes weren’t opening…and he wasn’t breathing.

“Come on, come on breathe. Breathe…Come on, son, BREATHE !!”

A minute went by, and Jason knew the situation was dire. How many more minutes until the boy would have permanent brain damage ? And...What if he didn’t wake up ? 

No. No no no. This wasn’t possible. Viggo couldn’t die ! His little boy couldn’t die !! 

Jason, tears in his eyes, kept on giving him CPR, with the desperation of a man who would do anything to save his child. 

“Come on, come one Viggo, come back to me ! Come on, you’re a fighter right ! Come on, come back ! Please ! Please son, come back !” 

Another minute went by. And Viggo was still not breathing, growing colder and colder and...

Three little coughs. 

Jason’s breath caught. 

************

A few hours before Jason tries to desperately revive Viggo : 

Coming home to an empty house was odd. This was the first time you were alone in your apartment, without Viggo welcoming you back cheerfully (the little fucker never listened to his babysitter about his “bed time”, and would always wake up to come and jump in your arms). The first time in eight years. 

You didn’t like it. You didn’t like it at all. 

You felt as tears came back to your eyes, at how unfair this all situation was. 

You knew that this trial to get Viggo’s custody was bogus. That somehow, Jess had rigged it. You had no idea why, but you knew there was no way any sane judge would give custody of a child to a father who wasn’t there for the first eight years of his life. 

Even more so since everything went so fast, every paperworks was signed in a matter of a few days ! And they took him away from you and...

The tears spilled over. This was starting to be too much. And you caught yourself wishing Jason was here...You knew that he would know exactly what to do, in that situation. You knew he would never let it happened in the first place ! 

But Jason wasn’t here. Jason broke up with you. Because it was “too much” for him and...Yup, you were definitely crying again. 

It was fine though, this time, Viggo wasn’t there to witness it...The thought of your son not being peacefully asleep in his bedroom made you cry even more.

You went to his room, and laid in his empty bed. Holding his pillow tight in your arms, you cried and cried, smelling his odor as it was already starting to disappear...When would you be able to see Viggo again ? 

Jess didn’t seem to want you to see him much. Actually, you were pretty sure he was planning on making you regret those weeks of him trying to come back into your life, and you pushing him away. 

And so you cried. Without anyone to comfort you, not even your little precious son...That’s when your phone rung. 

Uh ? A text. You just received a text. You quickly looked at it and “a new voice message is waiting on your voice mail”. Oh right. Probably from that unknown number that called a few times before, when you were at work. 

You never answered those calls, especially not at work, but messages ? Sure, you listened to them. You never know, some could be good news. 

“Mom !”

Your heart skipped a beat. That was Viggo’s voice ! And he seemed scared ! You had no idea how you knew, but you could feel how your son felt even through the phone ! 

“Mom ! Jess didn’t want me still mom ! He’s with them Falcone people ! The ones in the paper ! And I don’t know why but he wants to take me to them and he wants to call you after mom ! Mom come please !” 

This send a rush of adrenaline to your brain, and you jumped on your feet, grabbing your bag before running out of your apartment. 

You didn’t go far though, realizing you had no idea where Jess lived. Motherfucker didn’t even give you an address. For “his own safety” they dared to tell you...But you had his number ! 

Without thinking twice, you called him. It rung three time before he picked up : 

“Hello ?” 

“What the fuck is happening Jess ?!” 

“Ah, (Y/N). Well, hello to you too. I’m doing great, what about you ? Why are you calling so late anyway ?” 

Of course he recognized you instantly. Just like you recognized his unpleasant sniveling little voice ! How did you even date that guy again ?! You barked : 

“What do you mean ? I just received a panicked message from Viggo telling me some pretty concerning things ?! What is happening ? Where are you ? I’m coming over.” 

“Calm down please (Y/N). I’ll have you know all our conversations are recorded, in case I need further evidence for the court that you’re unfit to be a mothe...”

“Shut the fuck up and answer me.”

“Answer you what ? Nothing is happening ok ? Viggo missed you and called you, if he sounds a little distressed it’s no big deal. He’s just a kid who misses his mom alright ?” 

Oh. It was clear Jess had actually no idea what your son could have possibly said to you in his message, or he wouldn’t be so chilled about it all. You continue : 

“You say those conversations are recorded right ?” 

“Yup.” 

You wished he was right in front of you right now, so you could bash his stupid face in. You hated the way he just said “yup”, so proud and satisfied of himself. So you delivered your fatal blow quickly : 

“Oh ? And what would they think when I’ll tell them Viggo said you had something to do with the Falcones ?” 

There’s a silence at the other end of the line, and you’re pretty sure you heard his breath catch as you said your last words. Finally, he says : 

“Ok well, I guess I won’t play more games then.”

************

The present : 

Three little coughs. 

Jason’s breath caught...to finally let a long relieved sigh when Viggo started to vomit some water, and breathe again. 

“Yes, yes that’s good my boy, that’s good, let it all out. Let it all out...” 

Jason said, helping Viggo to sit up, patting his back soothingly as the little boy coughed the rest of the water that were stuck in his lungs. 

Jason never felt so relieved. So light. So...He was going to be ok. The boy was going to be ok. Right ? He turned his face to him, and was suddenly worried again as Viggo’s eyes seem to have trouble focusing on his face. 

And the kid was still so cold. 

Without thinking about it twice, Jason took his jacket off, thanking his father for creating all their costumes waterproofed ! Even though Jason jumped into the freezing water too, his clothes were still dry and he therefor wasn’t as cold as the poor kid. 

Jason wrapped Viggo’s small body in his heavy leather jacket. He helped him put his legs where the arms were suppose to go, so as to create some kind of pants for him, and wrapped his upper body with the rest of his jacket. 

Jason was a tall man, and Viggo ? A rather short eight year old. The Red Hood’s jacket fitted around him perfectly, big enough to wrap all around him. 

The boy took a few deep breath, but was still not speaking. And his teeth were clacking against each others...

Jason took him in his arms, and held him close, rubbing his back and legs in an attempt to warm him. 

“Come on Viggo, you’re ok son, you’re ok. Right ? You’re ok. You’re breathing. You just need to warm up, you’ll be fine. Right ? You’re ok, you’re ok.” 

Jason heard himself chant, more trying to convince himself than anything else. And Viggo was still not talking...but his teeth and shaking were slowly disappearing. 

Until finally, he calmed down and snuck closer to Jason, snuggling his little face in the man’s warm chest. 

“Viggo ? Are you ok ?” 

“The Jason...”

Fuck. He recognized him. Well, duh, of course he did, Jason had to take his helmet off to give him CPR, and didn’t put it back on. Obviously he was going to recognize him ! Well. Too fucking bad. It was too late now to do anything about it anyway. 

So what if he knew his secret identity ? Jason trusted that kid enough to know he’ll never tell anyone else. Viggo pulled away from Jason slightly, and, still wrap tightly in the leather jacket, he managed to free an arm and reached up to lay a small cold hand on the man’s tears riddled cheek. 

“This explains a lot.” 

For a second, Jason lost himself to the touch of his little boy. Yes. “His”. He didn’t even want to hide how he felt about that kid anymore. In his heart, Viggo had been his son for a long time. And finally being able to be near him again made Jason feel lightheaded. 

He had dreamt for so long, to be able to talk, play with and hug that little one. Just like when he was still dating you. Putting him in bed, and telling him bedtime stories, as you looked upon the both of them fondly. 

Jason had craved, without even realizing it, to see that kid again. And so here, as he laid his small hand on his cheek, wiping away his tears...Jason couldn’t help but feel a little helpless. A little overwhelmed. 

He was suppose to be the one reassuring the kid right now, after that traumatic experience. And yet, here was Viggo, wrapped like a little bundle of hay in his leather jacket, comforting him by his mere touch. 

For a few seconds, his words didn’t register quite well in Jason’s head until...What ? Uh ? What does “this” explain ? But before Jason could ask, Viggo continues :

“That’s why you left right ? Because you’re Red Hood. You didn’t want us to get involved in all that right ?” 

Viggo said, showing the three unconscious men around him. And there’s hope in his eyes, and for a moment, Jason thinks about breaking that kid’s heart forever...but he can’t. 

He was planing on just saving him and then bringing him home to his mom, but stay cold and distant with him. Stay away. Make him hate him. Not leaving any hope that Jason cared...But here he was, crying his eyes out as he cradled that small boy in his arms, paternal instinct seeping out of his every pore. 

And so he couldn’t. He couldn’t stay away from that boy, he knew now. Just like he knew since the beginning that he couldn’t stay away from you forever. 

Seeing this hopeful little boy. He just can’t break Viggo’s heart, not after what just happened to him. And damn, why did that kid had to be so insightful and smart ? So observant, too ? Suddenly, he was reminded of all the time you told him that sometimes, having an intelligent kid wasn’t that great. 

Because Viggo always seemed to understand what he wasn’t suppose to understand. Always seem to know when things were up, and figured things out way too fast (for real, the easter egg chase wasn’t even fun as he quickly figured out wherever the “easter Bunny” could have put eggs...). 

And so Jason looks at Viggo, and he can’t. He just can’t. He can't decide to leave for good. Even more so because even as he thought he was safe if he left his life, he got hurt tonight and...

“You know, we’d be safer if you were with us right ? See, you left us and for the first time in my life I almost died. You should stick around...” 

Jason couldn’t do that to him. He couldn’t do that to that cute little one...He couldn’t resolve himself to definitely break his heart and shove him out of his life. Because he loved that kid. To death. And when he got hurt he got so angry, so sick with worries, so helpless, so...so... 

Jason couldn’t do that to him. But he also couldn’t do that to himself. He couldn’t stay away like that. He couldn't...Maybe it was selfish, but he didn’t want to not be part of your life, of Viggo’s life. He...He wanted to...he...

Viggo, thoughtfully, was still wiping away Jason’s tears. Not missing one. Focused on his task, as he continued : 

”If we’re with you, you can protect us. It’s easier. Cause you’re already there. And you’re Red Hood. So you will always protect us. I’m guessing your family are the rest of the people ? Batman and all ? If we stick around with you, and with them, we’ll be safe for sure. Right ? So you should really come back. And stay with us. Stay with me.”

Jason’s breath caught, and he felt tears welling up in his eyes again. But this time, they were happy ones. Because here, in front of that brave, smart little boy, he never felt so joyful before in his life. 

Here, as he finally decided what the actual right thing to do was. 

“Smart cookie...” 

He says, and then he grabs Viggo by the shoulder before hugging him tight against his heart. Not letting go. Not ever planing on letting go again. 

“Don’t leave me alone again, Jason...” 

“I won’t, I promise.” 

Viggo wraps his little arms around Jason’s neck, and hold him with all his force. Hugging him like he never hugged anyone before, refusing to let go.

Jason doesn’t mind, of course. On the contrary. He gives the embrace back, and stands up, holding the kid against him. Viggo clings to him for dear life, and Jason has absolutely no intention of letting go.

Not this time.

Not ever. 

“I’ll never leave you alone again.”

This time, Viggo knows that Jason won’t ever go back on his words. Because there’s so much strength, so much certainty in his few words...Yes. Viggo knows. He knows he finally found what he had been looking for for so long. 

And so the little boy lays his head against Jason, and says, right before falling asleep after all those emotions he went through : 

“Thank you, dad.” 

************

An hour before Red hood saves Viggo : 

Jess owed money to the Falcone family. And they took your kid in hope to ask for a ransom to Bruce Wayne. 

When you explained you weren't with Jason anymore, Jess panicked and got angry...But then he remembered that Bruce Wayne had paid for the release of total strangers before. Of people he didn’t even know, helping out just because he could. So paying for his son’s ex girlfriend ? He’ll do it. 

You tried to tell him this was a ridiculous plan, and to give Viggo back to you before anything could happen but...that’s when he shattered your heart as he explained that your son was already in the Falcones’ hands. 

Your mind went blank. You’re pretty sure you insulted and threatened him some more, until you realized there was no point in doing so, right now, you unfortunately had to work with him. 

You obviously agreed to not call the police. Not that they’d help much anyway. Plus them knowing would most likely involve the “Bats”, and neither you nor Jess wanted that. 

Because no matter how much you admired those night vigilante, and how much you were sure they were needed in Gotham, you were too worried for your son’s safety to want them involved ! 

And so the obvious next step was...To go to Wayne Manor, and beg for their help. Deep down, you were pretty sure you wouldn’t have to beg that much anyway, knowing how Bruce had been a few days before, when Viggo skipped school to bring back his birthday present to the Manor. 

They had ice cream. They played together. They talked. They...They bonded. You knew Bruce really liked Viggo. And really liked you. You knew he would help. But it’s still very nervous that you drove to there. 

************

A few minutes before Red Hood saves Viggo : 

It was rather late, when you arrived at the Manor and rung the bell. To your surprise, Alfred didn’t answer the door. Bruce did (it was rather late at night, and Gotham had been quiet. He came home early that day, taking advantage of the quietness to take care of Wayne Inc business). 

“Wait wait, (Y/N) calm down, calm down. I don’t understand anything you say. Please breathe, and start over.” 

He listened to you, a serious face on. Asking you questions sometimes, to have more details. He listened to your entire story, and he felt his blood boil. 

That Jess...How dare he ?! Bruce felt an intense urge to hurt him. To make him regret, to make him suffer, for what he did to you and Viggo. It kind of surprised him, to realize how strongly he felt about this entire issue. 

It made him realize, in that moment, that you and your son were already holding a special place in his heart. That all he was waiting for up until now, was for his son to wake up and get back together with you ! 

It made him realize, as some of his worst side surface, thinking of all the ways he could make Jess suffer, that you two were already family to him. And the would do anything to protect you. So when he listened to you, hearing that Jess gave Viggo to the Falcones’ to pay off his debt, int he hope that your tie to the Wayne family would be enough...His blood boiled. 

He, of course, did not hesitate one second to accompany you to the address Jess gave you, “taking his checkbook” with him...Though he had no intention of letting that sleazy ball off the hook that easily. 

************

The present : 

It was infuriating, to see Jess smile as he opened the door to see you and Bruce Wayne himself. 

The little shit was so sure he’d won...it drove you crazy, that he actually did. Because you were here, with Bruce Wayne himself. So of course he won. Bruce was going to give him money to get Viggo back, and Jess would get away with it (again). 

The man was actually pretty proud of himself. He handled the situation perfectly, he thought. He came a long way, since having his head shoved in a puddle of water huh ? 

Ugh. But he was so obviously proud of himself, it made you furious. And if you weren’t so worried about your son’s safety, you would have already punched him and told Bruce it was time to go. 

However, Viggo’s life was on the line. You could feel your son being in genuine danger. And so you did not do anything when he said : 

“Please, come on in.” 

You followed him in the living room, noticing that your boy’s luggage hadn’t even been unpacked...Your poor baby must have been so scared. Must still be so scared right now, surrounded with strangers ! 

You hoped to everything you held holly that he was ok. That you’d be able to take him in your arms soon. That things would go back to normal. 

And your heart bled at the mere thought of your son all alone, with strangers, and scared. You wanted to hold him against you, you wanted to-wanted to...Bruce’s gaze was fixed on you, and his jaw visibly clenched as he saw tears starting to well up in your eyes. 

It was fairly easy to know what was running through your brain right now. He had been in somewhat similar situations than yours before, with his own children. Each and everyone of them had been in danger at some point, and everything had relied on his shoulder to save them. 

More than once, he failed to...Jason suffered the consequences of him not being fast enough...The anger this entire situation provoked in Bruce came rushing back, and he turned to Jess, glaring at him. 

All of a sudden, the man lost his color, as the famous Bruce Wayne gave him a threatening look. Yo. What was up with that guy ? He always seemed so charming on Tv ? Now sure the situation wasn’t really one to be happy about, of course, but everything would go well if Bruce signed that check. Like chill, it was fine, the situation was handled perfectly well ! 

You were about to say something, but Bruce didn’t let you. Because there, right now, faced with Jess’ infuriating satisfied smile, Bruce took a decision. And so he says : 

“(Y/N) wait for me outside. This is a business transaction between Mister...I do not know your last name. Mister Jess here, and I.”

You look at him, surprise, and starts to say a  “But-” but he cuts you off instantly : 

“I insist, please.” 

You don’t know what made you listen to him, but you can’t find the energy inside you not to. Usually, you would have argued. Say that there was no way, and that you were gonna stay. But...

Bruce had a tone of voice that was hard to resist to. 

Plus, you realized that you were completely and utterly trusting him, and if he said you should wait outside, there must be a reason. So without arguing further, you gave him a knowing look and exited the house, going back to the car. 

Bruce turns to Jess, and smiles. A dangerous, scary smile. A “Batman” smile. Jess takes an unsure step back, and says : 

“So um...are you writing that check or what ? The soonest we’re done with it, the soonest we can get Viggo back.” 

That was the straw that broke the camel. The moment Jess should have shut up. Too bad for him now. In a swift move, not letting Jess the time to even know what was happening, Bruce caught him by the collar of his shirt and brought him up to his face. 

Bruce was much taller than Jess, and quickly, Jess’ feet left the ground. 

“Oh what the fuck man ? What are you-”

“How dare you ? Your own son ?! How dare you use him like that ?!” 

“Put me down man ok ? I’m sorry but I didn’t have a choice, I-” 

Bruce did not want to hear it. He knew what was going to happen, if he let go. Jess was going to find himself excuses. He was going to justify his disgusting actions. And he was going to stall, and not tell him where Viggo truly was. 

And Bruce didn’t want to hear any of it. He was about to cut to the chase. No beating around the bush on that one. “Beating”, what an interesting word...

Bruce threw Jess against his fridge, and the man fell on his ass, the wind knocked out of his lungs. Maybe a few cracked ribs. Definitely lots of bruises.

But Bruce wasn’t finished yet, oh no. He took hold of the man’s collar again, and dragged him to the kitchen’s table, where he smashed his back on said table and head butted him. Hard. Pretty sure he broke his nose. 

Jess yelled in pain and fear, and tried to squirm his way out of Bruce’s grasp, but he clearly had no idea who he was facing. 

“Where is Viggo ?” 

Bruce asked, holding Jess against the table with even more force. 

“I don’t know ok ! They took him and I-” 

Bruce rolled his eyes and straightened Jess back up, before punching him in the face. Not using his full force, of course. After all, he needed the man conscious for his interrogation... 

“Enough bullshit, where is he ?” 

“I don’t-” 

“Tell me you don’t know one more time, lie to me one more time, and I’ll break your knee cap.” 

Bruce says, setting Jess on the floor in front of him and taking hold of one of his leg. Bruce laid a foot on Jess’ chest, making sure the man couldn’t move, and slowly twisted his knee. 

“Outch outch outch please, please stop !” 

“Tell me where the boy is.” 

“Stop ! Please stop !” 

But Bruce had no intention to stop. He was sure (gut feelings) that Jess knew where Viggo was, and he wasn’t about to let that asshole get away with all this.

Punching him felt incredibly satisfying. And right now ? Crushing his ribs cage under his foot so he wouldn’t move, and slowly twisting his leg as to give him as much pain as possible ? Well, Bruce didn’t know he could feel such pleasure hurting others. 

But when someone touched his family, he tended to lose control... 

“Alright fine fine !! Ok ok stop ! I know where he is ! I know where he is ! I’ll tell you everything ok ? I’ll tell you everything !” 

But Bruce doesn’t quite let go of the leg yet, instead, he raises an eyebrow and says : 

“Start talking.” 

And Jess indeed started to talk. He gave all the informations Bruce needed, and there, laid on the floor of his kitchen, looking miserable and pitiable, face bloodied and bruised...Bruce couldn’t help himself. 

As soon as he got the informations, he made a quick snapping motion and broke Jess’ leg. And he would have done more, if it wasn’t for you waiting, impatiently in his car. 

He was worried that you’d worry too much. He wanted this to be over quick, but he also wanted to give Jess something to think about. 

Jess’ scream resonated inside the house, and he grabbed at his limped leg screaming : 

“WHAT THE FUCK YOU FUCKING PSYCHO !!??” 

But Bruce only looked at him with hatred in his eyes, scoffing once more and saying : 

“I’m the psycho ? Maybe. But I never sold my own children to the mafia. I never ran away from taking care of my kids once. Sure I have many flaws, I might have liked a bit too much snapping your leg like a twig, but at least I’m not a piece of shit like you who doesn’t even care in the least about his own son.” 

Ah. So that was it. More than Jess attacking his family, it was the fact that he dared to give away his son that easily, that infuriated Bruce. Now he realized it. And of course, to Bruce, his children were everything. 

So seeing a man as despicable as Jess, never even wanting to meet his son up until he owed money, and used him...It drove him mad. 

“What does it matter to you anyway ? I never even wanted kids ! She forced it on me you know !” 

Jess whined, and he immediately realized once again, he should have shut up. Because now Bruce, who was about to leave, was kneeling down next to him and grabbing him by the collar again : 

“She forced it on you ? Please, tell me the story. I heard her side, I’m sure you have a lot to say about yours.” 

Never in his life would Jess have think that the charming and smiling Bruce Wayne he saw on TV could be that scary, but there he was, staring at him with dead eyes and talking in that creepy voice... 

“I mean I...She didn’t quite force it it’s just...Ok maybe when she got pregnant I said we should keep it, and maybe I acted like I was excited but it’s because of the...pressure, you know ? Of the...um...I...” 

“Say you’re sorry.” 

“You just broke my leg and you want me to-outch outch outch SORRY !”

Bruce was pushing down on Jess’ broken legs, pressing exactly where the bones broke, and got what he wanted out of him. With a last look full of disgust, Bruce stood back up and started to leave, saying : 

“You don’t deserve to have a child like Viggo. Or a girl like (Y/N) in your life. I suggest you never enter in contact with them again, or I’ll come back. Better yet, my son, Jason, who’s dating (Y/N) ? He’ll come back. And believe me when I say he’s much less patient than I am.” 

Bruce was about to leave but Jess desperately threw himself in his legs and grabbed at the bottom of his pants. Whining, in pain, he managed to say : 

“Wait man, you can’t-You can’t just leave like that ! If they know I told you anything, they’re going to kill me ! You hear, kill me !” 

Bruce looked down upon Jess with great disdain, and scoffed. 

“And how is that my problem ?” 

He said, before leaving the room. 

Now, of course, his “no killing” rule applied to “not letting someone kill another person”. If he could avoid any death, Bruce would do it, and most likely, he’ll set up a surveillance of some sort to make sure Jess wouldn’t get killed. 

Well, to be honest, Bruce was actually planing on getting Jess behind bars. It would be somewhat easier to make sure he wouldn’t die that way, plus he deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison. He was pretty sure that the charge of kidnapping, and in a way attempted murder would be enough to let him rot in prison for a long time. Plus if he had ties with the Falcones...

Yes. Bruce obviously wouldn’t let Jess die, no matter how scummy he was. But hey, Jess himself didn’t know that, did he ? He had no idea that Bruce Wayne was the famous Batman. 

And you know what ? It was utterly satisfying, to see a bloodied Jess weeping on his floor, scared to death, so sure he was going to die...Very satisfying indeed. 

************

When Bruce came back in the car, the first thing you noticed was his bruised knuckles. But you didn’t say anything. 

You listened to him filling you in, listening to him saying that they were holding your son in an old warehouse and that was the rendezvous point, and didn’t mention the bloodied hands. 

You could only imagine Jess’ state, by the look of Bruce’s damaged knuckles. And so you just smiled lowly, knowing that at least for this once, justice was somewhat served...

************

Bruce goes in the warehouse alone, leaving you in the car. He convinced you that it was better if he went alone, as they would expect him anyway more than you...But the truth was, he didn’t want to put your life in danger. 

He wasn’t about to come in from the front door, if Falcone’s guys were involved, they were most certainly armed and dangerous. He couldn’t risk an entrance obvious like that, Viggo’s life could be in jeopardy. 

Bruce noticed a window open on the first floor, and made his way up there quick, lifting himself up thanks to his arms’ strength and agility. He raised his turtle neck all the way to his eyes, so they wouldn’t recognize his face, and slip into the warehouse...

To discover that someone came here before. 

Viggo was nowhere to be seen, and three men were laying on the floor, definitely not in a great shape. 

Bruce let himself fall on the ground, and went to check the men. 

They were definitely Falcone’s. He recognized their guns, no other used this specific build. The two men had been roughed up pretty bad, and were unconscious. Not much infos to get out of them. 

But a bit further, was a third man. He was soaked from head to toe, and barely breathing. A batarang was stuck in his shoulder. 

Bruce knelt down and made sure the man was actually still alive. He was, but he was definitely weak. Bruce quickly made an anonymous call to the closest hospital and to the police, and gave them the address to the warehouse. 

But the men didn’t interest Bruce further. No. What interested him was those water marks, there, near the unconscious-batarang-to-the-shoulder-man. It was shape like someone kneeling next to a small person. 

Or rather. A child. Viggo. 

Bruce felt his heart beating faster, what happened ? Was he too late ? Did the worst happen ? 

Next to the water marks, he found a little piece of fabric...Brown leather...

“Jason...” 

Bruce said out loud, recognizing from where this piece of fabric came from. His son’s leather Red Hood jacket. Ah. So he got here first. But how did he know ? 

Suddenly however, Bruce felt more at ease. 

Because of Jason managed to get here and Viggo wasn’t around anymore, it surely meant that...He saved him, right ? The fact that there was water everywhere was a bit alarming, but Jason would never give up on that little boy...Just like Bruce would never give up on his son. 

He stood up, and went straight to the exit of the warehouse and to his car, where you were waiting. 

“What happened ? Where is Viggo ?!” 

You asked, full of panic. But strangely, Bruce’s words calmed you down (even though he was freaking out internally as well, he hid it well) : 

“He’s with Jason.” 

“What ?” 

“I’ll explain on the way, ok ? And please...bear with me.” 

************

Viggo couldn’t believe it. Wow. WOW ! So THIS was the Batcave huh ? 

That was crazy. There were so many things, Viggo just didn’t know where to look ! Was that a dinosaur ? AN ACTUAL FUCKING DINOSAUR ?! And what was up with that giant coins anyway ? 

Jason had brought him here a few minutes ago, and sat him up on the infirmary table. And though at first Viggo felt very sleepy (he slept most of the way, curled up against Jason even as Jay was driving back to the bat cave), being there, in the middle of this amazing place (the infirmary was where there was most lights, in the center of the cave) woke him up instantly ! 

But when it seemed like Jason was leaving, Viggo had clutched to his sleeve, scared to be alone again, but Jason reassured him that he was just going to fetch some clothes for him. 

At the same time, Jason took advantage of this to fill his brothers in on what was happening. The night had indeed been calm for them, and they were all already home. 

Their father had gone earlier, without telling them where, which was surprising but...he could tell him everything later. He knew that he wouldn’t be mad that he brought Viggo back to the cave.

Once everyone knew what was up, they surrounded Viggo and gave him words of support and encouragement, making him feel like he was...part of the family. 

Like they really were his super cool and dedicated uncles and aunt. 

Damian especially, tried to cheer the little boy up, knowing how traumatic this kind of experience could be. Cassandra was the only one that didn’t say much, but she clutched his hand and Viggo felt instantly better just with this. 

A few minutes later, Jason came back with some of his old clothes (that every single kid after him wore, including Cassandra) and gave them to Viggo. They were still a bit too big for the boy, but it was good enough. 

A red hoodie (of course), some sweatpants they all wore during training (they were in remarkable condition really), and socks. He couldn’t find shoes that would fit him, so he just brought some slippers that were too big but with which he could still walk. 

However, right now, Jason forbid the boy to walk, as he still had to get over the shock of almost drowning...Well to be honest, Jason had to get over the shock of almost losing his boy. Because Viggo ? 

He kept gawking at everything in the cave, and asking hundreds of questions to everyone, and seemed completely fine. Jason however needed to-

“MOM !” 

Viggo jumped from the table he was sitting on, and started running towards the entrance of the cave. The entrance coming from the house. 

Confused, Jason turned back and...his heart clenched. 

There you were. With his father ? 

The hell just happened ? Wait, doesn’t matter, because you were there. And Jason found himself, despite how awful those past few days had been, smiling like an idiot just by seeing you. 

But...Were you going to forgive him for leaving you like he did ? 

Viggo was almost to you now. On the way, he lost both his slippers but it didn’t matter. You closed up the rest of the way, running to him, and grabbed him in your arms, clutching him against your heart as he returned your embrace. 

You took a good look at him, looking at his face, arms, legs, making sure he wasn’t hurt. But the only thing he seemed to have was a few bad bruise on his face, and a swollen eye. Other than that, he seemed perfectly healthy. 

The batfamily gave you and your son time to hug each other, kiss each other and whisper promises that you’ll never leave each others again. And then, slowly, you turned to Jason. 

The man was pretty sure that he heard Viggo say “be nice” to you as you walked towards him. 

Jason saw Viggo go to Bruce, but he barely register how cute it was that Bruce just instantly picked up the kid as if it was normal, as if he had always been his grandkid, and mentioned something about...ice cream ?

Because you were in front of him now, and he couldn’t read your face at all. Were you happy ? Relieved ? Mad ? Sad ? Furious ? 

It seems like you’re about to reach for him, but then, at the last second, your hand bunch up in a fist and you punch him in the guts instead. With all your might. 

In the background, you’re pretty sure you heard Damian exclaiming : “Haha yeah ! Serves him right !” and his siblings half-heartedly telling him to not say such things, even if they kinda agreed. 

Ok. So you were definitely mad. Jason was straightening back up and ready to apologize profusely to you, when you grabbed him by the back of his neck and crashed your mouth against his. 

Savagely. Fiercely. Whole heartedly. 

Passed the first few seconds of surprise, Jason kissed you back. 

With all his heart too, passionately, fervently. 

The world around you dissolved slowly, as there was just you and Jason now. Just his lips moving against yours. Just his tongue licking your mouth open, and then tangling with yours ardently. 

You don’t even hear your son asking Bruce to take him away to get some ice cream because this was getting gross, and everyone slowly leaving to go upstairs, in the Manor to leave you two alone to...Figure things out. 

The kiss dragged for long minutes, his arms were now tightly wrapped around your waist, as yours were around his neck. 

Days of heartbreak, of regrets, of sadness and frustration...vanished in the force of this beautiful kiss. 

When finally you separated from each other, you whispered : 

“Don’t ever decide something for me like that again, Jason...” 

Ah. Of course, just like your son, you figured out why he left. Jason figured that his father probably told you about this all...”Batman/vigilante” thing while driving you here. Eh, he’ll ask him about details later, right now, it wasn’t important, as he answers : 

“I thought you’d be safer without me. That you deserved better.”

“I decide what I deserve.” 

The way you sound so sure of yourself, so adamant...it makes him feel lightheaded once again. Just like when Viggo touched his cheek, wiping his tears again. 

It makes him feel so utterly happy, that he doesn’t know how to react. And he finds himself kissing you again, his lips reluctant to let go of yours. His arms definitely not letting go of you. 

“I decide what I deserve.”...Yes, yes you do. How foolish was he, to think he could ever stay away from you anyway ? When you were so strong and...Everything he ever wanted ? 

He pulls away from the kiss, and says : 

“I have to tell you, (Y/N)-”

“If you’re about to tell me how dangerous it is for me to stay with you, or some bullshit like that, I’ll punch you again. I’ll have you know that as soon as you left us, that’s when we started to be in danger...” 

The exact same words your son used. Well, like mother like son. After all, your boy had to inherit all his greatness from someone. And it was certainly not from Jess. ...Jess, whatever happened to him ? 

Jason figured that if you were with his dad, it probably meant you went to see Jess and retraced Viggo’s whereabouts and...It didn’t matter for now. He’ll ask his dad later. And he’ll pay a little visit to Jess later, too. 

“No, I wasn’t about to say that.” 

“Oh. Sorry. Ok, well go on then.”  

“Ok - deep breath - I...I want you to know. That this. You and I. I’m in. I’m all in. I’ve always been all in, but I was also an idiot. But now ? Tonight has been eye opening. And from now on, I’ll be there. I won’t leave, unless you want me to. Ever. I’ll never even think, of leaving. I love you. I love you so much. And I know now that I...I can’t live without you. And without Viggo. You two, are my life. I realized that when dumbass me broke up with you, it felt like dying...And I would know how that feels like, believe me. I...I just love you. And you’ll never be “too much” for me, never. In fact, every seconds with you aren’t enough. I love you.”

Wow. You were...certainly not expecting such a love confession. You found yourself speechless, while you wished you could tell him so much. But right now, the shock and joy you felt stopped you from saying anything. 

And so you kissed him again, whispering a “I love you” against his lips. And he smiled in the kiss, dragging you with him to the elevator leading up to Wayne Manor. 

That night, maybe you were unable to tell him how much you truly loved him, but you definitely showed it to him, rolling around with him in his sheets all night long...

All the while, Bruce and his other kids were having ice cream with Viggo, living their best life binge watching fails video on YouTube. Bruce figured he should give you and Jason some private time...Plus, he really didn’t mind at all spending time with that little boy. 

On the contrary... 

************

Two years later : 

“Dada !” 

The little girl exclaims excitedly, moving her arms and legs around and grabbing at the man’s face lovingly. She repeats the word a few times, almost singing it, and then giggles happily.

“No Laura, granddada ! I’m GRAND-dada, not dada !” 

Bruce says for the hundred times, as Jason’s daughter is sitting on his lap, facing him and now apparently very interested in his eyebrows. 

She stands clumsily on his lap, and reaches up, giggling to herself, and Bruce can’t help but give her a fond look full of love, letting her pulling his eyebrows even if it’s painful. Ah, he’d let that little girl do anything really. The joy of being a grandfather. You could spoil rotten the kids, without fear of any consequences ! 

Except maybe for a few mis-plucked eyebrows...

“Don’t bother dad, Except for her mom whom she calls “mama” and for Viggo that she calls “ ‘igo”, she calls everyone she likes “Dada.””

Jason says sadly, plopping down in the couch next to his dad. 

You, Jason, Viggo and little Laura were visiting the mansion today, to the rest of the family’s greatest pleasure. Dick came by too, just to see everyone, and it quickly became a very pleasant family day. 

“How is it fair that she calls her and only her mama ? But then as soon as she kind of like someone she calls them “dada” ? I swear Roy is annoying the hell out of me with that, and he’s telling her that he is indeed, her dada !” 

Jason continues, a bit of frustration in his voice. Bruce laughs, unable to stop himself at how sweet it is to see his son get upset at such a trivial thing. Happy, too, that his son can get upset at such a trivial, normal thing, and that his worries aren’t always related to his...”night life”.

“But isn’t it good, dad, that she calls everyone she likes “dada” ? It means that she decided that your name fitted the best the people she loves, because you know, you’re someone she loves very much !” 

Jason turns to his son’s voice, and Viggo smiles at him brightly. 

Sometimes, like right now, Jason couldn’t quite believe that this was real life. That he really had a family now, and that they were just so...so...So perfect. 

You’re walking behind Viggo, and you smile mischievously as you see how upset Jason is that your daughter calls basically everyone nice to her “dada”, and go to him. He grabs you by the waist and drag you on top of his lap, to then kiss you. 

Viggo immediately looks away, and goes to his grandfather to hide both his sister’s AND Bruce’s eyes, that sweet little man. He then says : 

“Ew, I try to cheer you up and you answer with a sneak kiss attack on mom. So gross !” 

Once again, Bruce chuckles. He never laughed so much than in the presence of his grandchildren...But both Viggo and tiny little Laura were extremely funny and sweet, he couldn’t help but smile and laugh when with them ! 

Damian was coming in now, with a plate full of cookies (made specifically by Alfred so that a one year old little girl could eat them without any danger), and set it on the coffee table in front of the couch, before going to seat in-between his father and Jason, making the latter growl because it meant that he had to shift you in his lap and damn, the little sucker couldn’t sit elsewhere ? 

But Damian wanted to sit next to his beloved niece. He had a cookie in his hand, and with a fond smile that appeared on his face only when in the presence of his niece and nephew (like father, like son), Damian gave the cookie to Laura. 

The little girl reached for it cheerfully, and patted Damian on the head as a “thank you” (and if it was anyone else but her, Damian would have been furious), and raised the cookie up in the air. She pointed at it and, with a voice full joy and excitement said : 

“DADA !” 

Everyone in the room burst into laughter, as Jason’s smile was replaced with a vexed frown when he realized his daughter was calling a damn cookie “dada”...

The End (?). 

________________________________________________

AND BAM ! The end. I hope you liked it ? Don’t hesitate to leave a feedback and/or reblog ! It’s always very appreciated and encouraging <3 ! Also, I’m thinking of making a little “epilogue” to this story, just fluffiness and cuteness with Jason’s new little family. I mean, I’m convinced he’d be a great dad, so...kinda wanna write more about him with Viggo, and his little girl :). Anyway. Tell me what ya think about that too, and thanks for reading ! This was a blast to write.

Oh and I hope that all Jess story isn't confusing. I didn’t want to go into details about his backstory, so I hope it’s clear enough that he just basically owes money to the wrong people, and bam. That he had been living in Gotham all those years, just avoiding to see reader or Viggo. And that he did some stupid shit...Which prompted him to use reader and his own son ! And bam. Piece of shit alright. I just hope it’s not confusing and was clear enough, as I tried to make it understandable without going into boring details cause the story definitely isn’t about that asshole.  

[that-is-where-they-wait]

That is Where They Wait Ch 14: The Letter

previous / next all chapters AO3 FFN

[so funny story I actually posted this on FFN and ao3 forever ago but not here. oops. but posting here is a hassle, in my defense. hope everyone is doing okay? also check the notes for some Haha Funny Jokes because I don't want to add them to the. actual post.]

Perhaps the way to answer the present is with the past.

The metal of the hinge was cool under his finger, intricate design branching onto the actual door. It should've been smooth, but instead it was rough and red.

Rust.

Kai frowned. Rusty metal was usually brittle — but the door hadn't come down, even when he and Karlof rammed into it repeatedly. That plan of ripping at its hinges and hoping it came down was starting to look flimsy.

Ech. Well, they had to keep trying and hope for the best. It wasn't like they could stay in the small, dark room much longer. Kai had cobbled together a makeshift flame with pieces of rope and cloth from his gi, but it would definitely not last much longer.

Plus, he was getting really antsy, and it'd be just plain stupid to be so isolated when they weren't safe. When he'd asked about Lloyd and found out he was, in fact, both inside the mansion and unaccounted for, he had been about ready to knock Karlof's helmet off of his head.

… In hindsight, maybe he'd been a little forceful.

But hey, in return, he'd informed Karlof about everything they knew on the mansion and the spirit so far. So he didn't feel too bad about it.

"Psst." He went over to where he'd left Karlof and poked. "We gotta go."

No response.

Ohhhh, perfect. The guy had to go and fall asleep on him. They'd already spent so much time staying put! He was itching to get moving again, and Lloyd and Skylor were still out there, who knew where! Not to mention, if the others woke up and noticed him missing … (It occurred to him, a little belatedly, that they might blame Jay for that. Another twinge of guilt. But he could apologize for that when they went back.)

But it had been an exhausting trek just to get here. Karlof had endured that, and no sleep to recharge afterwards …

Kai sighed, seating himself next to him. Yeah, they weren't going anywhere until Karlof finished his beauty sleep. But then there came the issue of having nothing to distract himself with. Already he could just feel himself tiredly debating whether to indulge the pessimistic trains of thought forming in his head in all their bleak glory.

Abruptly, something slammed against him. Okay, so it didn't slam into him, but it definitely felt that way, because oof! It was heavy. Kai squirmed briefly, but a moment later, he realized he shouldn't even bother. Instead, he hissed an irritated puff of air through his teeth and tried to pull an overly-cuddly Karlof off of him. Why in the name of the First Spinjitzu Master was he—

An exposed part of his bandaged arm made contact with Karlof's for a second, before Kai drew it away and grimaced at how cold it was.

… Oh.

The way Karlof's arm was draped on him, Kai couldn't reach his face with his hand. He settled for a drawn-out groan instead. Just because he was the human toaster … and now he couldn't move!

Oh well. If nothing else, he could totally hold it over Karlof's head later. Blackmail material or something. But what was he supposed to do now?

A bleary yawn escaped his mouth.

There was one idea.

Nope, he thought to himself immediately. No way, José, someone had to stay awake, and he'd already bailed out on that once. But the door was locked, and the whole day and the effects of staying up so long were finally catching up to him …

Kai tried to debate the point a little longer, but as it turned out, he was pretty tired. Too tired to properly argue with himself, and before he could, he'd already fallen asleep.

The tiny flame winked out and left the room engulfed in black.

Lloyd wrapped up a summary of the search he'd just gotten back from.

Considering that depressingly little had changed since the last time they'd looked, it didn't take very long. The ever-encroaching cocktail of panic and despair clawed at his guts and his chest, made his throat tight, and he could feel it radiating off of Jay and Cole near him, optimistic as they tried to remain. At least Skylor had gotten some work in on fixing her bow while they'd been gone, although she hopefully wouldn't be needing it anytime soon.

The light trickling from the windows had become thin, silvery moonlight and long, fragmented shadows streaking across the floor and cutting into each other. Cole glanced at everyone in the room and declared that it was probably about time they slept; both searches had taken quite a while, even with how much of the mansion was still closed off to them. It didn't seem likely that much more would happen that day.

Zane took in everything they said solemnly, then pulled something out from beside him.

"It's disheartening to know that the two of them are still missing. But perhaps I can offer something else to think about before we rest for tonight?"

On closer inspection, it appeared to be a faded eggplant-colored satchel.

"I found this on the mantle while you were investigating in the tunnels. I didn't want to look through it without you …"

"Can I?" Lloyd reached out, opening the bag and peering into it for a moment. Then, as the rest of them watched, he stuck his hand in and, one by one, set its contents onto the floor for better examination.

On the carpet, there currently sat a small black inkwell, a quill stand, a bound book, a faded set of folded purple clothes, an assortment of large and small weapons, and a few loose pieces of parchment with writing on them. Maybe it all belonged to the person that owned the place, ages ago?

Evidently, they were all wondering a similar thing.

Lloyd set aside the empty bag and stared at the various items he'd placed down. "Hm. They were carrying weapons …"

"Whose stuff is all this?" Skylor finally voiced the question.

"It likely dates back to the Serpentine war," Zane said. "The antiquity of all the items would fit."

"Well, then, we should find out, shouldn't we?" Jay grabbed the book, slowly teasing open the binding and riffling through the pages. Lloyd caught a glimpse of inky letters over paper lightly yellowed with time; all things considered, it was pretty well-preserved.

"Careful, Jay, that looks heavy. Wouldn't wanna pull a muscle lifting that thing." Cole's mouth twitched up in a smirk, Jay briefly peering over the book with narrow eyes.

"… I mishandle an empty packing crate one time."

"Yeah, well," Lloyd huffed. "You nearly dropped it right on my foot. I still get splinters from that crate when I'm not watching my step."

"Thanks, Lloyd!" Jay looked supremely offended. "I didn't ask!" Still a little sullen from the disappointing results of the day, Lloyd didn't bother sassing him back. He scoffed when he noticed Jay looking helplessly at Zane — they all knew full well that never worked, so when the nindroid minutely shook his head there was hardly any surprise.

"Silly zaptrap," Cole shook his head and tsked. "Once is all it takes on this team. You of all people should know better."

Jay hmphed and nearly went back to skimming the book he'd picked up, but his head popped up curiously when Skylor spoke.

"Isn't it kind of late? If we're going to look at anything, maybe we should read one of the loose sheets instead. I feel like trying to get into something that long when we need to sleep isn't the best idea. I want to stay in-the-know, but I'm not sure how much longer I can pay attention to anything right now …" She shrugged, looking a little self-conscious. "Sorry."

Oh, right. It was usually Lloyd's job to be one of the voices of reason.

Looking around, he was certain that last sentence didn't pertain to just Skylor, though. The banter was being tossed rather lazily and there was a sluggishness to everyone's movements, even Zane's. As for himself, the temptation to just plonk onto the next piece of bedding he picked up while cleaning up the aftermath of the pillow-and-assorted-accessories fight and sleep on it right there had been overwhelming.

"It's quite alright," Zane reassured her. "You have a point, at that. Perhaps something like this would suffice for tonight?" He held up a messily rolled piece of paper, and pulled it open. Lloyd eyed it and nodded; seemed interesting enough. Most likely, they could learn a thing or two, discuss, and then go to bed without too much further ado.

"Looks good to me," Cole said. "Let's see about this person, then."

Zane's eyes fell to the paper for a few seconds before freezing, glowing ever so faintly brighter, and doing a funny skip between Lloyd and the paper before settling back on the paper. Lloyd frowned, unsure he liked the new furrow in Zane's brow.

"What is it, buddy?"

Zane coughed awkwardly. Amazing how even nindroids did that when they were nervous.

"This appears to be a letter addressed to Garmadon."

Lloyd's eyes widened, breath hitching. Abruptly his heart felt less like it was beating and more like it was trying to break itself out of his chest.

Dad.

It had been, safe to say, a little while since he'd thought about his father. The same father he'd gone through hell and back to finally have by his side, only to banish and then drown for good.

He'd kept himself good and busy, helping the team move base to the abandoned Temple of Airjitzu. Warded off the lingering pain from remembering, during the Day of the Departed, pretty well with dusting and heavy lifting and organizing what needed to be packed.

Lloyd had always done his best to draw strength from his father's memory. Like he'd told his mother during Day of the Departed: "Sometimes it feels like he's still with me."

It sure didn't feel like he was with Lloyd now.

"Lloyd?"

He blinked.

"Lloyd, you good?"

He looked over. Cole and the others were all watching him with concern, trying to gauge his reaction.

Quietly, he took a deep breath. He was supposed to have gotten past this. It wasn't supposed to still sting so much when he'd moved onto something healthier, more bittersweet than the more raw, consuming pain he'd known for a while.

Maybe the mansion's atmosphere was digging deeper than he'd thought, ripping open old wounds on top of slashing new ones.

"Yeah." Then, to ensure they couldn't press him about it, "Are you sure, Zane? Lemme see." Zane obliged, handing him the letter. Lloyd took it and held it up to the firelight, careful not to wrinkle the aged parchment, and skimmed it silently, feeling everyone's eyes still on him.

Having caught his reaction to Garmadon's name, they were probably a little surprised when he chuckled.

"What is it?" Skylor tilted her head. "What did they say?"

"It's just the first paragraph. Listen to this!" Clearing his throat, all too glad to focus on the letter, he read it, the ninja going from attentive listening to confused snickering as he did.

"My dearest friend, Garmadon, it seems fitting to start with the most important subject here—thanks a lot for letting me blunder into that whole mess, you absolute withered honeysuckle. I was delayed two whole days trying to firstly explain how I accidentally deposed a chieftess, and then restore some semblance of normalcy to the village. I don't," Lloyd had to catch his breath, barely managing to stop snickering long enough to finish the sentence, "I don't even know why we're still friends." "What in the world is this talking about?" Cole wheezed.

"Absolute withered honeysuckle," Jay mimicked, cracking up himself.

"Well. They were friends, we've learned that much," Skylor stated, desperately trying to regain a straight face.

"Absolute chums, from the sound of it. Just the best of buddies. Like you and me, huh, Cole?"

"If this whole 'accidentally deposed a chieftess' stuff is anything to go by," Cole said, still laughing, "they were even better."

"I wonder what they got up to if this was forty years ago." Zane set about tidying up the remaining letters and the bound book earlier held by Jay, probably figuring he might as well get it over with while they were all distracted. "Or who this was, to be so evidently close to Garmadon."

"Uh, am I the only one wondering what a honeysuckle is?"

Metaphorical crickets, much to Jay's chagrin.

"Just me? Okay."

A sigh. "They're flowers, Jay."

As the room got quiet enough to hear the crackling fireplace again, Lloyd went back to skimming the letter. The little smile that had lingered on his face fell flat again as he took in the words.

"What's the holdup?" Jay complained after a moment.

"Honestly, with the way this is written, if I read it verbatim you'd probably fall asleep," Lloyd muttered over the page. "Shut up and let me summarize."

"I … okay."

Lloyd squinted at the words. "This is an awful lot to take in. What's a … Shhh … Shuuuuravansha?"

"A what?" A confused chorus met his ears; evidently the rest of the room only knew about as much as he did.

"Maybe the word comes from the local language," Cole suggested. "I did hear a lot of the villagers speaking something I didn't recognize."

"Probably. Zane, you wouldn't happen to have that language in your databases or anything, would you?" Jay asked.

"I'm afraid not," Zane said apologetically. "What is the rest of the sentence, Lloyd? Perhaps the proper context will make it easier to guess."

"'I spoke with the Shuravansha and revised the contingency plans based on the information I got from them, as well as reports from you and our spies on the Serpentine's movement.' How do you even say that?"

"I guess the jury stays out on that one," Cole replied. "But I don't think that's a person. It says 'the Shuravansha'. I don't call Jay 'the Jay'; it'd be weird."

"So a group of some sort?" Jay suggested. "The word 'the' implies more than one."

"But it could be a title," Skylor pointed out. "Like 'the chief' or 'the sensei'."

"Either way, it reveals little about the nature of this Shuravansha," Zane said. "All that sentence gave us is that they had information about the Serpentine relevant to the author of this letter."

"Whatever it is, it's probably important," Lloyd muttered, rubbing his eyes and going back to the letter. "But maybe we'll find more clues about them later."

"Then we should remember it," Skylor muttered. "How do you spell that?"

He spelled it out and kept reading. The room went back to quiet anticipation, until Lloyd sputtered, squinted at something on the page, then looked up at them.

"What the heck, Cole?"

"Huh?" All eyes were now on a flabbergasted Cole. "Wh-what'd I do?!"

"I, it's not you, it's just — since when was the last master of earth a traitor?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, what?" Jay piped up. "That's kinda a heavy accusation to just bandy around!"

"What is this coming from, Lloyd?" Zane asked.

"It literally says right there, 'Earth went traitor on us'! There's only one way to read that!"

Skylor was scribbling like mad.

"Wha—well, don't look at me!" Cole said. "I don't know anything about this!"

"Maybe that's not all there is to it." It was difficult to see Skylor's eyes behind the shades. "My father turned the Anacondrai and the other tribes against humans to start the whole war in the first place. Then he turned the elemental masters against themselves."

"Maybe that was the case here too. Is there anything else about the master of earth, Lloyd?" Zane spoke up.

"Full sentence is 'The Constrictai among them can burrow, and ever since Earth, the weasel, went traitor on us, we lost our best protection against that tactic.' So they're really still talking about the Serpentine."

"Hmm."

"Mmmaybe we should go back to the rest of the letter?" Jay said tentatively.

"I dunno. I kinda wanna hear about this." Cole curiously poked his head closer, wanting to get a look at the letter. Lloyd drew back and immediately felt bad when Cole regarded him a moment before scooting back, hiding a yawn behind his hand.

Right. It was late.

"I mean, there isn't anything else in the letter about them … just the one sentence."

"Fine. What's the rest of it say, then? We really don't have the rest of the night here."

He had a point. Lloyd was pretty ready to be done with the letter and get some rest, by now.

"Wait a sec," Jay said. "'Went traitor on us.' Who's 'us'?"

"Oh." Cole's eyes widened. "Oh my god, you actually have a point. Yeah, that sounds an awful lot like … they called him 'Earth', not his name."

"How do you know that's not his name? Maybe his mom had a weird taste in names."

"... I'm pretty sure that wasn't his name, Jay."

"The word 'us' does seem to suggest camaraderie," Zane mused. "Given that and their knowledge of elemental power, perhaps they were acquainted with the elemental masters, or worked alongside them in some manner."

"That makes sense," Lloyd agreed, not looking up from the paper he held. "Or maybe they even were a master!"

"There's nothing to confirm it yet …" Skylor pointed out. "I'll just write down that they probably knew about the elemental masters. I think that's a safe conclusion."

"Fair enough," Zane said. "I think we should hear the rest of the letter now, before it gets much later. Lloyd?"

"Okay, so. Basically, my dad sent this person, whoever they are, info about Serpentine movement in the area. There were more loose gangs causing trouble than anything, they were just harder to predict because they weren't associated with the Anacondrai commanders. But according to them, the Southern Woodlands were in too strategic a location to risk—"

"Southern Woodlands?" Jay interrupted.

"That's probably what this forest is called. The villagers called it that on our way here."

"Yeah, I think I remember hearing that from someone," Cole said.

"Anyway. Like I was saying." Lloyd coughed pointedly and continued. "The Woodlands were too risky to leave unprotected because the thick plant life would give the Serpentine a naturally-sheltered base to recover and hide in. And they didn't have a lot of time left because … wait." The loopy handwriting in thick black ink cut off abruptly near the middle of the page, the last sentence never to be finished. "It just cuts off mid-sentence."

"Why did I ever think I'd have an easy time of this." Skylor sounded disappointed. "There wouldn't happen to be a name or anything at the bottom, would there?"

Lloyd shook his head. Of course there wasn't; that'd be too easy for them, now, wouldn't it?

"So why didn't they have time, exactly?" Jay said.

"An abrupt end of that nature would suggest some kind of interruption, would it not?" Zane said. "They never had the chance to finish writing this letter."

"If this is from the same era as everything else we've been seeing, then there was a war on. I imagine that'd do it," Cole said.

"Okay, but there's no signs of a fight in this room," Jay pointed out.

"... Ah. That is. Also true."

If he were a little less tired, Lloyd would've chuckled at Cole being caught off-guard without even a witty defense.

"I wonder what they were expecting not to have a lot of time for …" Lloyd wondered. "There's no signs of a fight here, but it's super messy everywhere else, especially downstairs. Maybe something happened there."

"And maybe it's related to the spirit." Cole ran a hand through his thick, messy hair, eyes dark. "There's no way something like that came out of nowhere."

"Given what we know, it is still impossible to gauge exactly what took place in this mansion," Zane said. "It does seem likely that the Serpentine activity this person mentioned had something to do with it, though. The only way to know for sure would be to find more information"

"So we don't know that, either," Jay muttered. "Write that down as a solid 'maybe', I guess."

Skylor nodded. "Anything else I should put down?"

Lloyd shook his head, and Skylor gratefully flipped the notepad closed and set it aside. Her words had actually begun to slur together with tiredness, so even if there were, he wasn't about to put her through writing it.

"Well, if that's all, then." Cole yawned, again. "Let's call it a day. How long's it been?"

"My internal clock is completely frozen," Zane sighed. "And PIXAL says she can't start it up without any connection to the outside world. But according to my timer, it's been approximately 15 hours since Jay woke me and Cole up to inform us Kai was missing."

Yep. Definitely time to wind down.

The mood dipped briefly at the mention of Kai, but Cole determinedly moved on to the topic of keeping watch, and whether they should do it tonight.

Eventually they decided that it definitely needed to stay, but split it up into two equal shifts. Two of them weren't even options to be considered. Lloyd offered to take shift, but given that he'd gotten out of a tough scrape with the spirit earlier and gone on both search expeditions, everyone else refused to let him, arguing he needed the rest. That left just Cole and Jay, but Cole, having gone through the mansion both times, was tired too. Jay would have to keep watch first.

Then came sleeping arrangements, which also worked themselves out quickly enough. Zane, for whatever reason, stayed in a corner to recharge, Skylor was on one bed, and whoever wasn't on shift would be sharing a bed with Lloyd.

"Alright, Jay, don't do anything stupid this time," Cole ribbed Jay, who was shifting around burnt kindling and trying to keep the little bit of fire left alive.

Jay stuck his tongue out.

"You have sooo much faith in me. Come on, I've learned my lesson here."

"Your timer's working, right? Make sure to wake me in … four hours?"

"Four and a half," Jay corrected him. "And yeah, I will."

"Cool. Night." And with that, Cole left him to his current task: striking a match onto a pile of kindling and hoping for a fire big enough to last.

Soon enough, everyone had bid each other goodnight and settled down.

Lloyd pulled his blanket a little closer to himself, still feeling a residual chill seep into his bones. With nothing to keep preoccupied with, ugly thoughts about the mansion, the horrors of its obscure history, their current conditions, his own utter incompetence, the way he'd just let Karlof get lost, Kai came creeping in far too readily. He tried to push them away.

Not now. Couldn't think about all of those things now or he'd never rest. Even tired, falling asleep was a challenge with sore limbs and unceasing nerves scratching away at him and a bitter resentment towards it all beginning to sink into his bones.

Lloyd closed his eyes regardless, trying to empty his mind. He could faintly hear Jay's breathing under the familiar crackle of the flames that were only too reminiscent of their missing piece.

Shadows twisted and danced on the walls.

Exhaustion won out eventually.

[currentlyreadingmanga]

Toilet-bound Hanako-kun Chapter 13: The 4pm Bookstacks (Part 3)

Previously: we met the fifth mystery of the school, Tsuchigomori, and poor Yashiro and Kou had quite the embarrassing time sharing some of their secrets. We also learned about the possible threat of a traitor among the mysteries and about Hanako’s drastic plan that consists of destroying the yorishiros before any of them have the chance of go on a rampage like it happened with Yako. After some funny moments and some adorable bonding time with our main trio, Tsugochimori agreed to guide them to his yorishiro. Oh! And Tsuchigomori seems like a huge grumpy tease and I already kinda love him. So yeah......

Now onto the next chapter!

Ahhh it’s nice to be back. Not only I was too busy studying but I’m also dealing with a cold at the moment, so I’m really glad that I get to take this weekend off to rest. So what better way to do it than this? I’m so excited!

There’s a lot going on here. I’m not sure who the figure kneeling on the ground could be. (EDIT: Hello, this is future me after reading this chapter and also chapter 14, and: Would this be Tsuchigomori? since everything else here hints at the conversation he had with Hanako in the memory we saw. Also and I could be reaching with this the fact that he’s in this position, kneeling before Hanako who is holding the lunar rock and what I assume to be his own book seems significant. Because I often associate a kneeling position with two main emotions: devotion and defeat. And here I think it could be trying to convey the latter. Like, Tsuchigomori knew that Hanako was clearly going through a lot but didn’t do anything about it because his book said that he would turn up fine, that this child would have a secure and happy future despite it all. But then he died, way too soon, when he still was just a child. And now here he remains at the school, as the seventh mystery, Hanako-san. And idk despite this grumpy attitude Tsuchigomori tries to maintain, he seemed to be obviously distraught by what happened; like, it wouldn’t be weird to me if he felt some degree of guilt because he didn’t try to help more)

Besides that, there seem to be newspaper clippings? also bandages and possibly rubbing alcohol? also tweezers? Quite a few items that one can find in a first aid kit, if that’s the case. 

And then there’s the main focus of the image: Hanako holding a rock of some sort and,... his own book? maybe? that’s my best since it seems to be black. ...........wait, could we possibly find out more about him this chapter??? ohhhhhhh now I’m even more excited. But yeah, there’s also a rope (?) tied to his pinky finger. Could that be a reference to the red string of fate? That’s the only thing that comes to mind. God, I have so many questions and this is barely the first page, I need to move on or we’ll be here forever.

But yeah, we’re right where we left off last time and Tsuchigomori is leading them to his yorishiro.

Update: Still hot

Kou and Hanako are pumped to get this done but oh! it seems like Tsuchigomori is only gonna let Yashiro go with him since she’s the one that will destroy the yorishiro. Also, he calls her “kannagi girl” and: “a medium or shaman, usually female, who acts as a medium between humans and the spirits or gods, helping to communicate between the two and to calm any supernatural or spiritual upset”. That’s interesting. Is that just a general term that is used to refer to humans who have this ability? Yashiro has it because she’s Hanako’s assistant and because of the bond they share, right? Or would there be another reason for it? Like, could she have had this ability even if she didn’t have this connection with Hanako? Because she was still able to see him the first time she went to the bathroom...but I guess she still wasn’t able to touch him there, so maybe she wouldn’t have been able to touch a yorishiro either if they hadn’t been linked together.

Well, Hanako says it just means that she’s his assistant, so I guess we can leave it at that.

Kou is not happy at all with the idea of letting Yashiro go alone with Tsuchigomori (can’t say I really blame him, I mean, even if I don’t think he’s a bad guy, they just learned he’s a supernatural being just a few minutes (?) ago). The man in question just asks Hanako if he can’t trust him to not do anything to Yashiro and Hanako ends up agreeing to let her go but

That’s a warning if I’ve ever seen one. Like, “you better take good care of her or else”, you know? That’s the feeling it gives me.

But yeah, Yashiro ends up going alone with Tsuchigomori. Am I worried about her? I mean, yeah, a bit. Again, he doesn’t give me bad vibes and I don’t think he will try anything, but Yashiro tends to find herself in risky situations way too often so the possibility is always there.

The place looks like a cave of some sort and it seems to be filled with gemstones and ohhh now I understand their presence in that one colour page a couple of chapters ago.

Her sense of self-preservation really is almost non-existent, huh? Yashiro, sweetie, please be careful, please, I beg of y o  u

Oh! They keep walking and he asks her about how Hanako and her are getting along and

First: I love my babies so much, their friendship warms my heart. There’s no denying that Hanako is a little shit sometimes (a lot of the time) but he really has been mostly kind to Yashiro since they’ve met.

Second: not only this man is a big tease, but he’s also a softie on the inside, isn’t he? Like, I kinda got that feeling last chapter when he looked so shocked about Hanako’s expression and when he gave Yashiro and Kou head pats, and this just seems like more evidence. From the way he slowly asked the question and how he didn’t look at her while asking, to his surprise stare and his awkward head scratch when she answered, everything screams “I care about these children but I refuse to show it because I have an image to upkeep gdi”. Please tell me he’s gonna be the reluctant father figure, it would be amazing

It sure looks that way, Yashiro, and I’m so here for it.

She asks him if what’s written in the books can be changed because she doesn’t want to have her heart broken by some douche in the future awwww baby. But that’s a very good question, I hadn’t really thought about it. Tsuchigomori says it is “fundamentally impossible to alter the future”. Huh. Okay, that’s interesting. So, even if you were to read your own book, you still wouldn’t be able to change what’s written there? Like, even if you tried to change things, the outcome would still be the same no matter what? 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh that’s a cool mechanic. By raising the stakes so high, it gives us a better understanding of how some of the rules of this world work. But it also brings up more questions: like, how does he know that he will be erased if he changes the future? is there a higher entity that oversees these kinds of matters? Hanako had mentioned that he had made a deal with “God” so that his sins would be forgiven, after all.

.................you can’t say that and don’t tell us how this person changed their future! Especially when you’ve emphasized how rare it is! C’mon, now I wanna now!! also what he said to Yashiro is really sweet awww i can see behind your grumpy facade, you can’t fool me

Anyway, they’ve arrived at their destination and wow there are so many big gemstones on top of books! Now I really want to see this room animated. It looks really pretty~ 

Like Yashiro, I thought that one of those was his yorishiro but nope, we were wrong and thinking about it I guess it makes sense since it would be kinda weird to have it so obviously displayed; like, this room is hidden already but it’s understandable that he would hide it even within the room itself.

omfg Yashiro please that’s rude! 

But also! “are ones with the strongest feelings connected to them” + that soft look and that slight smile!! There’s obviously a very important story behind it (again, like we saw with Yako and her scissors) and we’ll learn about it, right? We saw Yako’s memories of Misaki when Yashiro destroyed the yorishiro, so something similar should happen when she destroys this rock-.....wait.......

Okay so I went back to look at the first page of this chapter and

Is that the same rock?? What does that mean?? Is it just for artistic reasons or is it connected? Did Hanako give Tsuchigomori that rock? Is that why he was acting worried about our little ghost boy before? But if that’s the case, when would have this happen? And why would he have such strong feelings connected to it? Are we gonna find out? omg adjshfda

Ohhhhhhhh he says that the one who gifted him that rock was the guy that changed his future! And he mentions that he still doesn’t know why the future changed. And that’s very curious, like, if it is as hard as he mentioned, then it would be nearly impossible, right? But also if that rock is related to Hanako does that mean that he’s the one that changed his future?? how??? please?? I need answ e r  s

...................excuse me, what??? um, I have questions, the main one being: how?? 

He says that he got the rock the day after the moon landing and honestly? the timing of that is impressive, considering he says that this guy wasn’t an astronaut 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that my ghost child I see??? Oh my god did they meet when Hanako was still alive???? Are we getting his back story so soon??? Okay, I need to. calm tf down and keep reading so I’ll find out ahhhh

Don’t you dare keep me in the dark after dropping a bomb like that, Tsuchigomori! You may be hot and charming but I’ll hunt you down for the answers I need, mister

Ahhhhhhhhhh okay, so she took the seal off, so that should destroy the yorishiro and the boundary, right?

!!!!!!!!!

So we are getting to see the memories connected to the object like with Yako! And there it says the date: 1969-7-22

Oh boy, oh man, here we go

There’s the school!

!!!!!!!!!

∑(;°Д°) !!!!!!!!!! THERE HE IS!!! WHY IS HE SO HURT OH MY GOD WHAT

jfc he’s covered with bruises and cuts. Who would do something like this??? God, that’s horrible and Tsuchigomori says it’s a daily thing? Is it a bad case of bullying? Where are his parents? Because those are not injures he would be able to hide, there are too many and in very obvious places. Hell, all the possibilities running through my head just get worse and worse. Like, it could be that his parents are dead, or that his parents know and don’t care, or even that his parents are the ones behind it and just. god, that would honestly be heartbreaking

He looks so sad and small here. Just an innocent child ffs who would do this to him??

This has been going on for more than a year???? Does no one care about the state this child is in except for Tsuchigomori??? I- okay, deep breaths, I need to calm down and keep reading

(So. Amane Yugi. So we’ve finally got his real name, huh? Is the translation here last name+first name or did the change the order to first name+last name?)

Sorry, it’s just that. I’m so used to seeing Hanako being goofy and silly that seeing him look so defeated and broken here just makes my heart hurt.

Tsuchigomori says that he wants Hanako, or, well, Amane, to talk to him about who is doing this to him because he’s worried who wouldn’t be and Amane says that it isn’t a problem but no, no, baby, it is, no one should even think about hurting you in such a way! And Tsuchigomori says just that: “just what kind of reason could justify hurting someone this bad?” 

........................... I honestly feel like crying right now. It really is looking like someone close to him is the one behind this and it’s just fucking horrible someone please stop this train of feels I want to get out (ಥ﹏ಥ)

You know, I have heard that this series gets angstier as the chapters go on but I really. really didn’t expect to get this emotional oh boy

(EDIT: I’ve already read and taken notes for chapter 14 but I’m really tired, so I’ll edit it and upload it tomorrow since I also have to crop the images)

[tonystarktogo]

In celebration of my birthday *yay, I’m getting old*, here’s the second part of An Unwise Murder (An Inconvenient Survival). It’s only half of the chapter, but once I’ve finished it (which will hopefully be tonight although no promises cause I’m spending a lot of time with my family today) I’ll post the full version on AO3 as well.

*

Part II

Tony pours himself a glass of lukewarm coca cola on autopilot. It tastes disgusting, but that doesn’t stop him from swallowing it all down in one go. He should probably put the glass down afterwards, except that’s easier said than done when his hands clutch the fragile cup so hard, his fingers ache. Still better than watching them shake and tremble though.

Maybe it’s a remnant of being raised as the heir of the leading company in one of the most cutthroat industries. Maybe it’s just a byproduct of being the son of Maria Carbonell. Either way, Tony has learned the value of good pokerface early in life. It’s going to take more than some stranger appearing out of nowhere with ominous declarations to shake his composure. Particularly considering Mystery Guy has the guts to introduce himself as James. 

James. Of all the fake names he could have picked, seriously. The least he could’ve done is put a bit of effort into the pretense. Tony wants to snort, make a stupid James Bond quip, except—

Steve is dead.

Tony doesn’t know what to do with that information. His mind is racing into five different directions at breakneck speed and simultaneously shies away from the terrible, inevitable conclusion that rests at the center of it all. The implications of what Wannabe-Bond [who, by the way, is glowering suspiciously at Tony from where he’s leaning against the wall on the other side of the kitchen, the best vantage point to keep an eye on all windows and the door, and is apparently incapable of understanding why Tony might need a goddamn minute] has oh so casually announced — and, more tellingly, what he hasn’t said — are staggering. 

"Want some?" Tony gestures jerkily towards the open bottle of coca cola. Never let it be said that his mother didn’t drill some basic manners into him, whether the situation calls for it or not.

00-Copy-Cat shakes his head, which suits Tony just fine. He’s not in the mood to share.

Officially, Tony barely knows Steve Rogers. [And fuck, it’s knew now, isn’t it, no, no, don’t think about it—] They ran into each other twice, once accidentally, once on purpose. Both times they spent more time arguing than agreeing on things. Both times left Tony feeling raw and tired, a little bit like he’d just barely escaped a violent death.

Officially. Such a nice, convenient, little word, isn’t it? The grounds you can cover with that kind of safety blanket are truly astonishing. 

Tony takes a sip from his drink, is reminded that the glass is already empty, and promptly grabs the whole bottle instead. Lukewarm cola is disgusting, but it’s still sugar and caffeine — the magical combination, in this case. Tony has no illusions about his odd visitor: He’s going to need all the energy he can get if he wants to make it through the next forty-eight hours intact. That he’s got what is quite possibly a real-life assassin watching over his shoulder, screaming murderous aggression from his every pore, is doing wonders for Tony’s ability to stay calm and focused.

Not.

Anyone asks about me, don’t trust them. Anyone searches for me, lie. Don’t say anything, don’t admit anything, don’t imply anything. If they don’t think you useless, they’ll convince themselves you’re a threat. Do you understand? Steve’s voice whispers into his ear, low and serious and so irritatingly commanding that Tony wants to turn around and punch him in his stupid, white teeth.

But since he’s currently in the company of a more volatile version of Steve — something Tony didn’t know was possible — who looks like he might eat aspiring serial killers for breakfast, that’s probably not his best idea.

“Alright,” Tony says eventually, mostly to himself. “Steve’s dead. Shit happens.” Move on and adapt, is what is father used to tell him. These circumstances probably aren’t what the old man had in mind, but Tony has underestimated Howard before. The man has his fingers in a lot of pies, some of which the general public doesn’t even know the existence of. If Tony was three years younger and two times more paranoid, he’d suspect this to be another attempt by dear old dad to show him "the error of his way". Although not even Howard Stark would kill off Steve Rogers just to prove a point.

Probably.

Tony turns around and looks Wannabe-Bond straight in the eyes. [He’s lied to Maria Stark’s face, okay. This is nothing.] They’re a very pretty shade of blue, there’s no denying that. That doesn’t change the fact that it would really suck if those eyes were the last thing Tony ever sees though. He’s too young to die. He’s got things to do, people to annoy. Not to mention Pepper would murder him if he got himself killed before the whole mess with his inheritance is sorted out.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re here." As far as questions go, it’s an implied, roundabout way of asking. The kind that raises Tony’s hackles — as well as the spiteful child inside him — and makes him snipe back viciously in response. Despite that Tony can’t bring himself to ask the far more direct 'Why are you here?' out loud.

It helps that he really, really doesn’t want to know.

Wannabe-Bond stares at Tony with a blank expression that gives nothing away. It’s creepy as fuck, Tony’s not gonna lie. Like staring at a lifelike puppet and half-expecting it to start moving any moment now, even though you know damn well it shouldn’t. 

Double-0-Leather takes a measured step towards him. Then another. “How much do you know about Steve?” he asks in that gravely voice that makes Tony want to lecture him on the dangers of smoking. Totally not helpful right now, but it’s always good to know that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Tony has been listening to Pepper’s lectures. 

Not that he actually lectures Mister Tall, Dark and Murderous. Tony has some sense of self-preservation, thank you very much.

“I know seven different Steves. You’re gonna have to be more specific."

Alright, maybe not that much. In all fairness though, everyone who knows Tony knows he doesn't handle fear well. He just doesn’t. His fight or flight response is broken beyond repair — or so Rhodey likes to mutter under his breath when he pretends to be the reasonable adult he definitely isn’t and Tony has done something Improbably Stupid™ again — and it’s moments like these when it shows.

To his surprise, Wannabe-Bond snorts. It might have been a trick of light, but Tony could’ve sworn he sees the beginnings of a grin there for a second. Huh. Are assassins allowed to have a sense of humor?

“Fun as this might be-” Wannabe-Bond takes a hold of both of Tony’s shoulders, looming straight into his face now, and, nope, Tony doesn’t like that at all, he’s fond of his personal space, okay, this totally isn’t cool because he’s made Steve a promise and Tony keeps his damn promises — no matter what stupid, self-righteous Steve might think — and Tony really isn’t sure how well he’s going to hold up under torture, that is so not his specialty.

“Are you even listening?” the Man in Black snaps suddenly, in the middle of what is undoubtedly a lengthy, well-delivered threat. It’s the impatience in his tone more than the words themselves that jerk Tony out of his internal rambling.

“Not really?” he blurts out, then immediately regrets it when Double-0-Lame-o’s expression darkens even more.

“Listen carefully!” the guy grinds out between his teeth with the barely restrained violence of a panther on the prowl. "I don’t have the time or patience to play nice right now. This isn’t the time for games. Because I’m not Steve and no one’s gonna look twice if some mouthy civvie disappears." Tony does not shrink into himself — he’s been trained better than that, and it’s not true anyways, Pepper and Rhodey would raise hell in the wake of his disappearance— but, damn it, he really, really wants to. 

“We’re compromised," Agent McGrizzly continues with glacial calm. "Someone from the inside betrayed Steve. And you���re going to find the rat. I don’t care how, you’re gonna get it done or I’m gonna use you as a demonstration for what will happen to them when I catch them, got it?”

Tony swallows. Wannabe-Bond hasn’t raised his voice even once. Has spoken barely louder than a heated whisper. Somehow that makes him all the more terrifying.

“And how exactly—” Tony croaks, immediately clears his throat and continues without pause, "How exactly am I supposed to do that?"

Because even when he ignores every command Steve has given him — and there’s a certain delight in that knowledge, not gonna lie — even if he believes this stranger with a handsome face and murder instead of tears in his eyes, even if he wanted to — which he doesn’t because Tony Stark doesn’t help people out of the goodness of his cold, black heart — that still leaves him with a grieving madman sprouting conspiracy theories and nothing else to go on.

Tony expects many things in response to his very legitimate question. The USB stick Suit-Without-The-Suit throws at his face isn’t among them. Luckily, he’s got fast reflexes. Evading DUM-E’s claws whenever he’s trying to help because he’s fallen in love with yet another car is one hell of a training exercise.

The stick is unremarkable in all the ways that matter. A black, plastic casing. Nothing to see there, it screams at anyone who might care to listen. Tony stares at the small, outdated piece of technology in the palm of his hand for a long moment. Then, slowly, like a cat stretching before its next nap, he smiles.

"You should’ve led with that."

Sleep is for the weak anyways.

(tbc)

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 121 Review

TFW you’re relying on someone to pull through and they’re failing badly.

Has anyone ever seen JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? SPOILERS

One of the villains is this guy named DIO. He’s an asshole. 

DIO’s whole schtick is that he is obsessed with being dominant. In the clip, he assaults JoJo’s girlfriend to show his dominance over both her and JoJo.

In JoJo’s, people fight using spiritual manifestations of their own life essence. These manifestations are called Stands, and because they are a manifestation of the user’s essence, Stands are revealing in some way as to the nature of the user.

DIO’s stand is the World and it has the power to stop time. Being able to stop time is absolute domination, both physically and temporally. Physically because you can stop the world and fuck around with everything as you please, and temporally because you are no longer subservient to the constant flow of time. The world stops for no man, except you.

Now Eren is fittingly in the same boat, except worse because while DIO could only stop time, Eren can control the course of events. He can see the future and affect the past. His domination over the world is (theoretically) absolute.

I don’t know what Eren’s plan is, but we get a taste of it this chapter. Zeke asks him point blank what he hopes to accomplish and Eren’s response is the most disturbing thing ever.  

“If people try to take my freedom away, I will take theirs away.”

My God.

This statement completely encapsulates Eren as a person. This is the rambling of a deranged lunatic. Worse, even. It’s the thinking of a stupid kid.

“Eren, why did you hit Little Timmy?”

“Because he hit me!”

You cannot hit someone just because they hit you. It doesn’t work that way. You are allowed to hit back in self-defense, but not to exact revenge. Both actions are the same, but the state of mind backing either action is the key difference. The former is the mindset of someone trying to protect themselves. The latter is the mindset of someone trying to hurt someone else.

That’s the faultiness of Eren’s thinking in principle, and it’s even worse in practice.

Eren believes that them trying to kill him gives him license to kill them. Nope, wrong.

Human life is, of course, inviolably valuable, and therefore killing in itself is always wrong. You can kill in self-defense, because the point in that case isn’t the killing itself, but the preservation of your own life. Killing for its own sake is appalling.

Ironically, this deranged narcissist perfectly illustrates why this tit-for-tat way thinking is dangerous. Restraint? Graciousness? Mercy? Can Eren comprehend these concepts?

It’s just so stunning how childish this whole thing is. Eren is opposing a king who would force his will on the future, but since Eren is doing the exact same thing, I can only assume he doesn’t think this is intrinsically wrong.

No, it’s not that Fritz’s vow is wrong, it’s that the same mechanism isn’t being used in service of Eren’s goals. Eren doesn’t think the vow is wrong in itself, he just opposes it because it’s another limit on his freedom.

There is no reason to believe Eren has any boundaries whatsoever. Or any shame for that matter. 

This “me-centric” form of morality is called egoism. It’s an utterly disreputable theory that no one defends. It’s the same with the children he killed in Liberio. Killing is wrong, unless it helps me, in which case it is good. By defining what’s good and bad in these terms, Eren reveals himself as the egomaniac man child that he is.

And yet.

Eren is the one who lectures Zeke in this chapter!

This is what Eren has reduced me to, defending Zeke. Why is this happening to me?

Zeke is supposedly the pathetic one, because he has, you know, an ideology. It’s a stupid AF ideology that is completely indefensible, so it is pathetic, but not the way Eren thinks.

Zeke’s opposition to Grisha is incidental to his ideology. It’s not that Zeke is opposing Grisha out of spite, which would truly be pathetic. Zeke opposes Grisha because their respective worldviews are incompatible.

Meanwhile Eren is saying he should be allowed to do mean things to people because they did mean things to him.

The idea that people can just kill others, simply because they tried to kill you is fundamentally lawless. Not to take the fun out of superheroes, but vigilante justice isn’t actually justice. It’s totally illiberal to have one person hold the power to judge, convict, and sentence another.

But it is also totally in character for Eren to support that idea. With Eren, it’s all about power.

I’ve often compared Eren to our 45th president. Whatever the Eren stans say, that is an apt comparison. Eren’s talk of taking freedom from those who try to take his is not unlike something Trump would say. 

They are both narcissistic man children with an insatiable lust for dominance. Slighting them creates an imbalance that they must make right, and the world is off kilter until that is done. It’s that one itch they must scratch.

Eren fights because, to be blunt, he wants the world to be his bitch and he will not settle for anything less than that. This is second nature to someone who says the things Eren says. If you think killing is justified just because they tried to kill you, then you obviously do not value human life.

At this point, Eren is undeniably similar to Zeke. He wants to bring his dream to fruition and anyone who gets in his way is just a pissant to be stomped on. 

Is Eren redeemed by his (apparent) concern for his friends? 

Nnnnope!

While friends do have certain obligations to each other, it is completely obscene to do the heinous things Eren’s done just for their sake. 

You cannot define the morality of your actions by how much they help a random group of people. Why are the lives of Eren’s friends worth any more than the lives of the people he’s killed?

The answer is that, all else being equal, they aren’t. 

You may care deeply for someone, but that does not justify a killing. 

Who is even the hero of this story anymore?

It can’t be Zeke, because his values are anathema to the series values. He may be the audience surrogate this time around, but I doubt fucking Zeke Jeager is going to be the hero when the final chapter comes around. 

Eren is theoretically the hero because his values broadly align with the story’s, but his actions are depicted in an almost devilish light. I always hoped the series would tackle the notion of fighting too hard for what you believe in, but…it’s too late for that now?

We’re in the final story arc. It’s weird to only just now be dealing with this meaty idea. Over 100 chapters of “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” and we’re just now getting to the “But not too hard.” part? There’s no way. 

Alternatively, this is just one final fake-out in the game of is-he-or-isn’t-he that Isayama has been playing since the Marley Arc. Is Eren evil, or isn’t he? Or maybe they’ll play it as “Can he be redeemed or can’t he?” 

Either way, I bet there’ll be some kind of change of heart from Eren soon. 

This chapter echoes a point made by Yelena about the titans and their relationship to humanity: that the titan powers will be abused by people because that is just the nature of things. So let’s unpack that.

King Fritz, speaking through Frieda, says that the power of the titans must not fall into human hands lest it be abused. This mirrors ongoing debates about how to deal with certain controversial weapons, such as nuclear weapons.

The (very) liberal position is that nuclear weapons should be banned completely because the risk of abuse is too great.  As per usual, the liberal position is taken by King Fritz.

The conservative position, which, once again, is the position the story sides with, is made more implicitly: that the titan powers can be a force for good, it’s just a matter of making sure only good people can access that power.

This conservative position is what underlies US policy towards North Korea and Iran. Those countries are rogue states that the US believes cannot be trusted. (Note, though, that the nuclearization of Iran is supported by Russia, a nuclear power.)

Personally, I believe nuclear weapons should be banned completely. Most countries are at least nominally supportive of the eventual, complete destruction of all nuclear weapons, and international norms have been evolving in that direction.

That is the contradiction of this issue: most people take the liberal position in the long term, but hold the conservative position in the short term.

This is just another reason to think that SNK will end with a ringing endorsement of nuclear weapons, with nary a nod to the need for eventual total disarmament.

See, ungodly amounts of power aren’t inherently bad, we just need special people to wield them for the public good.

Yeah, I get it, we need special people, but you know what? Frodo was special. The One Ring supposedly couldn’t corrupt him, but they still set out to destroy it. Because power on this scale is itself wrong.

Nuclear weapons aren’t the only possible parallel, though. Any controversial weapon will fit. In the United States there is a debate over regulating high powered weapons like the AR-15.

How do you handle such a thing? Do you ban the weapon completely, or just certain people from using it? I won’t wade into something as controversial as that here, though I will point out that the story clearly sides with the position of regulation over a total ban.

The scene in the cave also mirrors Japan’s current nuclear predicament. Japan has many outside rivals and threats, and Japan could build nuclear weapons if they wanted too. They have the technological capability, but in spite of the threat of North Korea, and the tense relations with China, the Japanese government chooses not to.

So, yeah, I’ve had the series pegged as leaning neoconservative and I still think that.

So what does the future hold?

Apparently, an event where Eren… becomes/does something. They both saw the same thing: a future where Eren is this OP chad of chads and a total boss. Grisha looks like he saw the worst thing imaginable. Eren looks like he just had an orgasm.

Since Eren is portrayed in a more sinister way this chapter, I am inclined to believe this future actually is a ghastly one.  

Before this chapter, my guess was that Eren wanted to destroy the world using the wall titans, but would somehow come around to using it the way Armin mentioned: defensively.

Having it be preordained that the future holds a version of Eren that people who aren’t Eren will think is abominable throws a wrench into that.

I wouldn’t bet against Isayama somehow finding a way to make it work though. The only other alternative is that this series ends in the most ironic way possible, with the deranged lunatic having his way and “freedom” finally being established.

[iphoenixrising]

Timmy with a cold please!

It’s that time of year, isn’t it, babe?

**

The second time his phone goes to voicemail, Red Robin knows it’s time to just nope out of Gotham and get a jump start on a really good plan to be away from Mother Hens until cold and flu season is over.

(Oh yeah, he knows how this little sitch is going to play out.)

At some point in the current timeline, he must have been spotted sneaking around Gotham being totally inconspicuous.

(It wouldn’t surprise him Tam engineered the crucial R&D assessment meeting when he’s starting to feel the constant pace the Titans have been running for the last eight weeks. She and Dick are way too good at conspiring against him.

Fucking seriously.)

Next, Brucie Wayne goes out of his way to show up at his meeting just to taunt him. Of course B noticed the ungodly amount of tissues in the trash can, the obvious thermos of soup, the red nose and swollen eyes. It’s only by luck alone he’s able to get out of Wayne Tower going down the hidden entrance while Tam totally has his back and runs interference. 

He stops for coffee at his favorite place just as the sun is going down and the edges of night are on the outskirts of town. He manages not to hack up a lung while watching out the window, slumped down in the seat while he sips lethargically and contemplates what kind of night work he might be able to accomplish while feeling the run-down coming.

(And yes, Alfred, he’s taking care of himself. It doesn’t help anything that the weather is ping-ponging from 20s to upper 50s every other day.)

He’s got the usual amount to analyze, tests to run, numbers to crunch. He could realistically stay in the Perch for the rest of the week and just get caught up on damn vigilante paperwork. Throw some tidbits to the other superhero groups, fuck with the baddies a little, just take it a little easy. 

The waitress brings by a spiced Chai Latte (a guilty pleasure, damn someone knew him) and swipes his half-finished coffee with two shots of espresso away with a cheery smile. 

He waits for a burst of chilly customers through the door to cover his escape, subtly glancing up to place the shifts in the architecture for a cape or stunning leather jacket.

The next is a safehouse where he can hit up a secured network and maybe heat up some soup, binge something on Hulu. 

The first is in a brownstone not far from the Bowery. It’s the nicest, next to his Perch, and has a comfortable couch to drool all over when the antibiotics kick in. 

...

There’s a cardboard box in the middle of the table when he gets there.

It’s full of fresh food, a nebulizer, and a fuzzy blanket.

Fuck.

It looks like escape is not going to be a thing this time.

Which is only punctuated by the polite knock on the door.

Even if he’s feeling the drain, the lethargy, the pressure from things like getting sick sucks, he’s still a vigilante. 

The whirlybird and proverbial can of whoop ass he’s about ready to hand out is just a testament to that.

The slightly annoyed Robin on the other side of the door, however, arches an eyebrow at him and sighs likes he’s carried this weight too many times.

B decided to send in the big guns?

Now that Dami’s outgrown him, he gets a kick out of simply throwing Tim over his shoulder and carrying him around like a sack of potatoes while ranting about Tim’s lack of self-preservation.

He doesn’t get the usual few seconds to try justifying his life choices before Dami just takes a step through the threshold, already bending down to use sheer momentum. Because the youngest vigilante is just that good and has taken Alfred Pennyworth’s life lessons to heart, he has Tim bundled up with hot soup, soothing herbal tea, and an IV drip to rehydrate his tired body.

When Tim starts to try making a run for it, Dami calls in reinforcements without a hitch. He only has to gesture when Dick slides in through a side window, and all of a sudden, he’s covered in affectionate Nightwing, guaranteed not to go anywhere as long as the Octopus Hold is engaged.

The Red Hood drops in with Batgirl and Black Bat to hand off some Robitussin and Vick’s Vapor Rub. They have a few pizzas and it seems like shift change hits at dawn when Steph collapses on one side of him and Cass on the other. Jay strips off the Red Hood and wipes up the kitchen, then settles down in the recliner with some beaten-up copy of Leaves of Grass, some Whitman to lull him to sleep. 

Next shift is B, O, and Alfred breaking into everyone’s daytime usual. It’s the placting part of the whole thing because B slouches beside him in an oversized hoody and sweats, dictating Tim’s usual notes, running analysis, just sleuthing together. 

And until he’s lost the cough, the fever, the bruise-like dark circles under his eyes, they keep knocking on the door, breaking into the misery. It’s nothing shocking when they all hit up for a patrol night his first shift back in the mask, spread out into Gotham like a wave of justice.  

[squidproquoclarice]

Hi squid, I don't know if my ask sent, but I don't think anyone noticed this, but during the row boat scene where you go to rescue John.. Sadie says, "I'll row, you shoot!" Arthur responds by yelling saying; "Seriously?!" Sadie responds by saying "Let me, you...." There's even a "..." in the subtitles before "you" then she says "you're the better shot" so it seems like she says; "Let me, you..." But catches herself instead of telling him something personal, then changes her word to "YOU'RE" P. 1

Part 2. It seems like no coincidence after that row boat scene we later rescue Abigail I believe? That’s when Sadie calls Arthur honey, and before that she says; “Cause you’re the better shot I mean!” In a high pitch tone with her eyes moving to the left as proof she’s lying and Arthur KNOWS she’s lying and calls her out. So, it’s as if Rockstar did this on purpose, so you know her “you’re a better shot” on the boat = lie. Why did she say “Let me, you…” Though? What was she going to say.~~~~~~~(whacks Tumblr Askbox like it’s a 1990′s rabbit ear antennae’d TV to make it work)  Nope, I didn’t see this the first time, so here we go this time!I love those two exchanges between them and the throughline they keep between rescuing John from Sisika and rescuing Abigail from Van Horn.  Keeping the Marston family together is these kids’ mission, because they’ve both lost people dear to them.  Sadie’s lost a husband.  Arthur’s lost a son (and Eliza who I truly believe remained friendly with him), and also had his heart broken by Mary.  So for both of them, keeping this family of a wife, husband, and their son together and alive, and sparing them the pain of the losses they’ve both suffered, is hugely important to them.But in the midst of that there’s still growing intimacy between them too.  When you’re heading out from Sisika at the end of “Visiting Hours”, Arthur’s wheezing and coughing from the effort of the jailbreak.  Lots of running, shooting, and general strain.  Sadie notices this, and she knows he’s utterly exhausted.  She also knows he’d still grab those oars and row like hell given half the chance, because Arthur frankly has no sense of self-preservation or caring for his own well being.  So she tells him she’ll row, and he’ll shoot.  Arthur–so used to being the Big Strong Guy who is expected to Do All The Things–responds, “Seriously?”I think she was going to say something like Let me, you’re exhausted, you need to take a break, but knew he couldn’t accept it in those words.  So she instead switches to claiming he’s the better shot of them and making it into something he can reluctantly accept.  We see it again in Van Horn at the start of “Red Dead Redemption” where she pulls the “I do the thing, you do the shooting” plan, and this time, he openly balks and lets her know he knows what she’s doing.  Insists he can still fight.  She tells him that she knows that, but asks him to do it her way.  Calls him “honey”, in a moment of tenderness.And I think it’s that moment he really realizes what she’s actually doing.  He’d assumed she’d effectively shoved him aside as too weak, too incapable, to get the job done.  Given how he’s based his sense of pride and worth on his capabilities, the things he can accomplish and do, to have her do that probably felt something like Dutch’s snidely contemptuous “Awww, Arthur needs to rest,” at the end of “A Rage Unleashed”, and his turning very visibly to Eagle Flies and calling him “son”.But it’s not that.  She’s not dismissing him and his capabilities.  She’s asked that they ride together, to get this done, because she trusts him above anyone else.  But she’s scared for him.  She knows how much he’s struggling, how he’s burning himself out.  She cares deeply for him and about him.  She wants to keep him safe, to let him spare himself as much as he can.  And if that puts her safety on the line in order to help protect him, she’s willing to pay that price. I’ll take on this risk and put your well-being above my own.  Because your life and safety are worth a lot to me.  You’re worth a lot to me.  She’s the only person I recall in the game to have that kind of openly protective and validating dynamic with him, and I suspect very possibly the only person in his adult life to do so.  And given I headcanon Beatrice having put herself between Lyle and a very young Arthur more than once to spare Arthur some of Lyle’s abuse, he’s not totally unfamiliar with the concept, though I doubt he remembers that clearly.  He’s just never had anyone place that kind of value on him as a person since he was a small child.  

[whetstonefires]

d gray man liveblog part 4! (part 1)(part 2)(part 3)

No but seriously, Cyril Camelot is the English Foreign Minister and just staged an assassination attempt on himself for an excuse to declare war on the people he just spent a while negotiating an agreement with.

Why? In what way does this benefit the Noahs?

(...why is the name of the country censored, I feel like hoshino-san just didn’t want to try to come up with a plausible European country for England to go to war with in 18-mumblety.)

I mean Bookman says tragedy breeds akuma in his analysis, but they took Japan while it was so emphatically not at war that it had zero foreign relations at all; war is clearly not necessary for the Earl’s bargains to go through apace.

Cyril kind of looks like he just does this shit for fun.

...”the evil man who made the world his enemy” is a fascinating choice of words, Tykki Mik, I really wonder very hard about you.

And you’re right, when he’s not wearing his balloon costume, and talking normally, and buying flowers from little girls, he looks normal! Weird how that works.

Question: is that umbrella he declined so he could walk in the rain Lero? Does Lero have to share the Earl with other umbrellas outside of official monster business, or disguise himself as a normal bumpershoot when out in public? Is that servant another disguised akuma, or a normal person who has no idea?

...it’s probably an akuma.

YAY KRORY WAKE UP!

why so many chain. it’s not like he lost track of who his enemies were in that last fight, even when he was made of blood. rude to chain.

aw he cry. he cry! ;_; he cry for his friends!

this is the kind of sad boy i like. he can be annoying but not in, you know, a murdery way.

holy shit creepy ghost girl?! i...logically must have read this part before but i don’t remember it, damn i was bingeing like a mad thing.

where...where did the poison come from. why is Krory’s arm sticking out like that. what is going on.

Why Are The Order So Bad.

aaaaand cut to the kind of random hijinks that seem intended to lift the mood but tbh they’re kind of too grim in their own right.

lmao alternately this is an excuse to draw kanda and lavi as chibis and Allen with long hair.

If it’s not because of structural damage, why are they moving to a new base? No one’s said anything about the new headquarters being any more secure against frickin’ teleportation. Maybe the Pope just wants the Order distracted with moving chores?

(I like referring to the higher-ups at the Vatican as the Pope; I realize we have no actual evidence the actual Pope even knows any of this is happening, but if hoshino is gonna be having people shout that other people are ‘property of the Pope’ i’m gonna use the word Pope as often as I can get away with because

1) it makes the whole thing more ridiculous b) it emphasizes the European Gothic Via Japan vibe going on here which is at least 20% of the entertainment value and thirdly, ‘Pope’ is fun to say.)

Oh, right, Allen’s ongoing identity crisis! (it only gets worse from here, kid)

The bosses were logically correct to make Cross Marian do his ‘report to Vatican and be responsible’ part before giving him the pay-off of ‘allowed to talk to Allen’ because otherwise he’d just fuck off but damn it’s hard on the kid, being left hanging.

I absolutely do not believe for one second this business with Mana’s past and secret motives was planned before the series started, but that’s honestly for the best; it’s more wrenching when we didn’t have any more reason than Allen to suspect something was off.

...i like when nice clowns adopt people tho... :o(

not telling the brass or their stooge about your creepy extra reflection was a Good Call.

yes link really truly allen is a good kid who is not plotting evil shit. sheesh.

more Potion Accident gags, i’m sorry, i can’t keep up with your taste in mood whiplash and i never liked most slapstick anyway. the bunny ears are. strange.

...never mind who made the ‘talk like a cat’ potion, who packed that box Miranda spilled; that is such an absurd chaotic collection of items organize your shit people. eesh.

Lmao everyone’s #1 creepy ghost theory is, Komui Playing A Dumb Prank.

...okay, Allen’s reaction as the Matron gnaws on his arm, and the fact that everyone’s first assumption is that Allen has annoyed this very sensible woman to the point that she is communicating via teeth, manages to be funny but noooooo, why would you, not Awesome Shoes Lady after she made it through the Level 4 Akuma attack unscathed, come onnnnnn.

okay, uhhh...contagious vampirism zombie thing...lmao everyone gets worried about matron when she bites Miranda, everyone is super embarrassed when Miranda bites Noise, this is just some impressive Not Realizing Shit’s Fucked guys.

okay, zombie horde of various survivors of all the recent massacres.

uh, if this weren’t being dropped at a time of total emotional exhaustion, it would work better. it’s already working better the second time around for the fact that i took a break after the last arc.

considering it comes out monthly and we had a Noah interlude, it probably worked in the original context just fine, but daaaaaamn did this storyline piss me off the first time, all i even remember about it is the rage.

:D Lenalee rescued Tiny Kanda. Who for some reason can interpret her ‘nyah’ sounds.

...how is a stimulant drug contagious via biting.

i remember the first time i read this i naturally assumed the biting disease was derived from Krory. that still would have made more sense.

robot eats notebook, lol...bickering...”my pride won’t allow me to become a zombie” yes allen excellent logic you weirdo.

okay i’m done checking back in when slightly less stupid shit starts happening....

okay never mind the robot’s fireworks blew Allen through a wall, where Krory was suffering in chains, and then the blanket spontaneously combusted, and then there was somebody with an axe...

...and then Allen wakes up and is informed he was knocked out and concludes Krory’s situation was a dream oh come on.

krory is at the door! but being creepy! the robot refuses to open the door out of self-preservation! allen seduces the robot into risking its life!

...

‘this is nostalgic’ with the hero face on i can’t.

okay, so it was Krory, who apparently swallowed the entire bottle of poison, lid included? for some reason?

oh great there’s a parasitic zombie ghost thing riding Reever and sticking its face out his stomach. horror! nope, now played for laughs.

aaaand suddenly veering back into pathos. bonus info about evil human experiments!

...aaaaaand touching bonding moment for the Lees. Aww.

Not only is Komui protective and self-sacrificing, when he isn’t being psychopathic, he has absolved Lenalee of his having sacrificed his entire life to watch over her after she was kidnapped into this.

then a stupid gag! and the ghost does a creepy jealous possession thing! and meanwhile everything is on fire.

et cetera, mood whiplash back and forth at least once every other page...komui starts reciting from memory the names of every single person killed in the Order’s human experiments...

...i don’t think the names are intended as an additional gag, but most of them are fairly odd and many downright improbable, though none truly syllable-mashing outrageous. I’m rather fond of Asia Smet and Oona Boelyn.

a page and a half of heart-rending pathos, and then the robot falls off the ceiling with a huge syringe of ‘vaccine’ it synthesized from Krory’s blood because he was the first infected by the...stimulant...egad, that’s not how any of that works.

and then, and then...anyway then everyone was zombies and the boss from China came in off-panel and fixed everything, as you do.

i truly hate you hoshino katsura, all the more for the fact that i genuinely loved about 15% of that parade of neck-wrenching bullshit.

anyway! that’s all over and done with, we are now on a boat being cute, because allen is using the stolen teleportation Ark that only he can drive to open a door between the old Castle headquarters and this...uh...cave? that they’re moving into.

...oh hey Shadow Of Allen (XIV) is now sporting wings remarkably like the ones Krory had during his drugged vampire zombie freak-out. i bet that means nothing whatsoever.

man whenever Leverrierererererer turns up i hallucinate ominous music. smug assholish ominous music. slimier sounding than the Imperial March, you know?

that’s not just my biases, hoshino-san lights the panels very effectively to create that effect. egad, he’s going to be in command??? is that why the move, because it was easier to undermine komui’s authority if he was removed from his entrenched power base?

...we just covered last chapter that that castle was a leverrier family fortress originally tho. huh.

excessively creepy secret Pope police involved in isolating and depowering Allen.

also lol that is very Japanese-style religious magic going on, that is not what a Catholic ritual binding would look like at all. not that they have as much settled precedent, their demon-fighting standards run much more toward ‘make it go away.’

aw shit komui’s right there and he can’t do shit, best he can get is a promise that ‘if Allen is a good child’ he won’t die.

flashback! aw man allen the first lesson mana ever taught you was to make peace with the dead and let them lie. should’ve listened.

...man allen was a grouchy brat. i wonder what color his hair was, before it went white. haha apparently he acquired his adoptive dad by running away from the circus with him.

pfffffft little allen hated clowns, that achieves the level of actual irony...welp, suicide joke.

aw shit mana was too burned out on grief to cry for his dog but allen could, for the doggie that licked his hand once. imma cry now.

whoa actual conversation with Cross Marian! under the supervision of papal ninjas (known as Crow) within a magic cage of paper. and wow! an actual answer to a question! unprecedented!

...it isn’t labeled which of these kids was Mana and which was (the most recent incarnation of??) the Fourteenth but imma hazard a guess that the one with hair that matches little Allen’s is not Mana.

oh also Adam Puddinghead killed the 14th, i don’t think we officially knew that until now? or maybe it came up when he blew up Edo i don’t recall.

oh my god i was definitely bingeing too hard last time; by the time Cross Marian started referring to the 14th in the second person to Allen my capacity to be astonished or distressed was burned right the fuck out. i was just like ‘yeah yeah figured get on with it.’

it’s actually a pretty dramatic scene, but it’s weird to be getting this shit in straightforward exposition after all this absence of any information at all.

wait “the human implanted with” ... “the host for his revival” ... i can’t tell if Cross Marian is referring to whatever the normal noah transfer process is or some way 14 found of circumventing that.

ohhhhhh man this title page has tiny clown Allen and it is the cutest shit ever.

did i ever tell you guys one time when my mom was two and a half, she had her stage debut as the cutest little pigtailed clown? and she ran onstage toward her daddy just like they’d practiced and the whole audience burst into delighted laughter.

and Tiny!Mom turned to look at them in appalled horror, and u-turned right back around and ran offstage again.

no one had successfully communicated to her she was going to be laughed at by a bunch of strangers. possibly they didn’t expect a toddler to mind.

oh sure Cross Marian, tell the kid the horrifying truth about himself and his dad in the most overdramatic way possible, in front of witnesses, and then when he dissociates in horror just beat the shit out of him until he resets.

the amount of playing abuse for laughs in this series is one of the many emotional strains that led me to drop it the first time.

it’s honestly a contest sometimes who i currently hate most, Marian, you or Labradorito or the Earl. Ech.

‘no idea’ tch. but if you’re saying he implanted his memories into Allen before he died, then...the Earl caught up with the 14th really recently, then?! How long were he and Mana on the run? I totally forgot these details, wow. i suspect some of them will turn out to be false.

...why the fuck are you saying it like this? bastard.

wow CM you almost look spooked by the fact that allen cares more about the possibility that his dad never actually loved him than the prospect of having his mind eaten.

maybe he’d care more about the mind-eating if the 14th was the Earl’s ally instead of planning to use allen as a weapon to kill him? allen is already using himself as a weapon to kill the Earl.

oop, way to get him back on target! “what if i told you you’ll kill the people you care about?”

aaaand cut.

that was like ten chapters’ worth of blather, i need to get more efficient.

[scribbles-by-kate]

Thoughts on 7.15 “Sisterhood”

I liked this one a lot. I liked the resolution to Drizella’s arc and all the other little bits on the Hyperion Heights side. The Enchanted Forest side wasn’t brilliant, but it did inform Drizella’s growth in the Hyperion Heights part. Thoughts below.

Drizella and Gretel - so this was ok. The backstory wasn’t as exciting or interesting as some of the others have been, but I can see why it was necessary to fill in story for Ivy in Hyperion Heights. Gretel was kind of interesting with her need to be in the coven. I suppose that was how she wanted to deal with the trauma she and her brother went through - make herself powerful so she could never be hurt like that again. I have to say I was really distracted by Drizella’s lipstick in the flashbacks. That didn’t suit her at all.

Drizella and Anastasia - I liked how she went from wanting to protect her sister to wanting to protect herself to giving herself over to Anastasia to do whatever she felt was right. A little bit of self interest crept in when she realised her life was in danger, and I’m not sure she wouldn’t have gone through with the plan if she hadn’t realised what Gothel was up to, but I’m glad she and Anastasia found each other again and that they get to go off and start again together. I think Drizella had made her apologies and was trying to turn her life around, so I’m happy she’s safe with Anastasia.

Why Gothel wants the Guardian - so, she’s after the dagger too! And, I was right, she wanted to take Anastasia’s magic. It wasn’t about her pure heart: it was about the magic inside her. So, she wants the magic to get the dagger, or do something with the dagger. So, I suppose now we know who the ‘couple of people’ coming after Rumple are - Facilier and Gothel. Though I think they have different intentions. Facilier seemed not to need the Guardian, since he noped out of there when shit was about to go down. I definitely don’t trust that slimy fucker anyway. Regina, girl, you better watch out for him.

Rumple, the cup, and Rogers - I went awwwww! as soon as I saw that he was fixing the cup. I think that’s something a lot of fic writers have written into their stories - Rumple fixing the cup the old fashioned way. It does say a lot about him - that magic isn’t his first recourse any more. Well, he has no magic here anyway, but the fact that he’s fixing it, not waiting till he might have magic again: it says a lot about where he’s at in relation to his relationship with magic now. And I freaking LOVE this friendly banter with Rogers, and Rogers’ little smile as Weaver sees him off with a kind word :) And, ugh, ‘As my wife used to say’ <3 He’s remembering Belle’s wisdom in everything he does. Even if he gets frustrated, he takes a step back and wanders another path for a bit :) I love Rogers repeating that line to Henry later as well! And saying someone ‘smart’ said it. That really shows his respect for Weaver. They’ve come a long way from Rogers not trusting him :)

Drizella and Regina - I really liked the outcome of that story. Driella was definitely a Regina junior, so it was really cool to see Regina understand her and offer her the gift of belief that she could change. It shows the impact people’s belief had on Regina - she became a better person, a hero, even, and she’s now someone Drizella can model herself after. I like that Regina didn’t forgive Drizella, but gave her her understanding and her blessing to go off with her sister and start on a better path.

‘Like Belle did for you’ - often, we get excited about the idea that x character ships our otp, and Regina definitely ships RumBelle (as Lana does also - bless!), but, even more than that, she wants to emulate what they have: she wants to do for Facilier what Belle did for Rumple - she wants to help him become a good man. And that’s so huge. It says so much, both about Regina herself and about her feelings towards Belle. Belle was the chess piece she locked away so she could use against Rumple. Belle was the woman he loved, whose heart she ripped out to hurt him. But all of that is WAS. Clearly, Regina now deeply respects Belle, and wants to be like her. The former Evil Queen wants to be like the optimistic bookworm she once saw as a useful weapon. Whata fucking turnaround! Honestly, Regina has her ideals right. You couldn’t do much better in life than wanting to be like brave, badass Belle!

Regina and Rumple - of course he knows about Facilier! He may have changed, but you can still trust he’s gonna be several steps ahead. Plus, he kind of has the right to be annoyed that she didn’t come to him with that information. I mean, she told her sister before she told him, and it’s his dagger! Also, once he knew witches were being murdered, he went to them with that information, because he knew they needed to know. Hmm, I suspect there’ll be tension about Facilier’s desire for the dagger in their future. This isn’t gonna be smooth sailing.

Glass Believer and fate - it totally is destiny :) That moment when Henry decides to ask out the next woman who walks in, and then her coin landing in the glass…totally destined. As the episode count goes up, I see even more chemistry between these two. It was a little awkward at first, because I think Andrew and Dania were just getting to know each other, but definitely, they’ve overcome any teething problems. Henry and Ella are definitely meant to be. They’re so sweet together. Also, Henry is really starting to believe now. It’s been growing since he read to Lucy from the book, but now you can see he more believes than doesn’t. The Truest Believer is coming back!

Rumple and the Guardian - my assumption was that something would happen that meant the power of the Guardian would move away from Anastasia, but the fact that she’s technically still the Guardian is an even bigger deal, because Rumple had his chance there: he could have been free of the dagger and gone to Belle, BUT he chose to be selfless and let her go away to safety. Her life was in danger, so he put what he wanted aside and looked to what she needed. That was the absolute right thing to do. This is a man who’s often been very selfish, and I said that, in order for his redemption to be truthful, he has to be completely selfless: he had to do something for someone when there was nothing in it for him, or when it went directly counter to what he wanted. This was both those things, and he still fucking did it! Bravo, Rumple! He’s getting there. I believe there’s still a major test coming for him: I’m sure he’s not out of the woods yet, but I do believe he’s changed, and, if he does make a wrong or selfish choice, then he’ll recognise that and course correct/make amends. Also, the idea that when he does good, it brings him closer to Belle is beautiful. He knows he has to be good, and he wants to be good. And I loved Regina’s nod and smile at him, and how he said it was a good day for everyone when a family could reunite and start over together. I’m seriously proud of Rumple this episode.

Facilier and Regina - I don’t trust him: I don’t. Plus, he’s part of her past, a past she’s moved on from. I don’t believe she can be Belle for him. I think he’s manipulating her, trying to isolate her, maybe even stir up trouble between her and Rumple so that they won’t work together. I don’t know whether the magic he gave her is genuine, and I think if Gothel hadn’t shown up, he’d happily take all of Ana’s magic and see her die, and then probably kill Drizella for good measure. No, I don’t like Facilier, at all.

Rumple and Facilier - and shades of the old Rumple come out when he’s talking about his family. I do think the family he’s referring to here is Regina, Henry, Ella, Lucy, and Hook and Alice. Because Facilier can’t get to Belle, and Gideon is safe somewhere else, so Rumple is getting snarly in protection of his extended family. God, he’s really grown. He cares, way more than he ever did before. I love that. It’s also clear there are still shades of the old, dark Rumple there, but that it’s in defence of others, not self preservation, is new. I love it. I love him :) Facilier can rot, seriously.

And the killer is revealed - I’d thought it was Facilier initially, because of the gloves, and he’d just turned up, but, yeah…Nick. I didn’t suspect him. And we were told the killer was awake, so he kissed Jacinda knowing who she was, and that she was married to his best friend! AND he took the proof that he’s not Lucy’s dad. Ugh…

[taegijae-blog]

BREAKFAST DELIVERY 12

pairing: 2jae

genre: fluff, if you squint there’s angst

word count: 3k

description: the school’s hottest boy im jaebum wants to get a certain boy’s number.  but the first problem is: he’s unhappy and not eating.

status: completed

note: this was originally posted on wakaba’s wattpad @/jaeholics

| part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |

"Youngjae..." Jaebum had carried the freezing and shocked Youngjae over to a sunny spot behind the gym, a place where teachers usually never visit. Youngjae's eyes seemed sleepy as he shivered, Jaebum locking his arms around his body to preserve warmth. Both of their backpacks were also there. After Jaebum had burst out of classroom without saying anything to his teacher, he had found Youngjae's backpack thrown in the hallway. Carrying both of them, he’d run straight to the pool. That was his story up to the point where he found Youngjae being pulled dangerously close to the diving pool, and where his anger rose up to impossible levels. At least he was okay now. "Hyung..." Youngjae called out softly, coughing a few times. "You were the one who saved me, weren't you...?" Jaebum nodded. He brought Youngjae closer, leaning against one of the warehouses for sports equipment. "Yeah." Something made Jaebum's eyes blink, glistening ever so brightly. It was Youngjae's smiling face, staring up at the elder. "Thank you. Thank you so much." Shocked frozen for a second, Jaebum eventually returned a smile for the other in his arms. "No problem, Youngjae." He leaned down to nuzzle his face into the other's neck, breathing softly. "I'm sorry for yelling at you and slapping you. I really am," Youngjae said out of nowhere, sighing as he exclaimed so. He shifted his body so that he'd be even closer to Jaebum, feeling the comforting warmth of him. "I was just so... confused. I was scared at myself for being so mad that I guess I...tried to avoid you for a bit." "Mhm," Jaebum murmured, sighing into the soft and slightly wet skin. "I understand. I knew I should've told you earlier, but I was too dense to realize what it was doing to you." "It's okay." Youngjae was staring blankly at the scenery in front of them: cement, tall wire fences, and a few trees. "It really is alright. I've come to realize that I love the person called Def Soul' and that you are Def Soul. and how, by that logic, I love you." Youngjae peered up in order to look at Jaebum. "Jaebummie-hyung. It's always been you, hasn't it?" Although Jaebum was speechless for a second or two, he started to laugh softly. He loved this kid called Choi Youngjae. "I guess so." Jaebum reached over for his backpack and unzipped it, taking out something. "What's that?" Jaebum grinned to himself as he took out the small bag of homemade cookies. He opened it, taking one of the treats out and holding it between two fingers. "Have you eaten breakfast? Did you bring a lunch? If not..." Jaebum said in a singsong tone, pouting his lips in a rather cute way. "...Think about me, and then... eat." He stuffed the cookie into Youngjae's mouth. Chewing on it, the other giggled softly. "Thanks," he said as crumbs fell from his lips. "Hey," he whistled quietly. "Did you know that I used to be called fat constantly by these girls?" Jaebum's happy expression immediately dropped to a frown. "What? Who?" "I don't know." For some reason, the smile on Youngjae's face never faded away. "They just did for fun, I guess. They would come up to me during lunch especially and just whisper 'hey fatso.' So I thought about it a lot and decided that maybe I am fat. I didn't like how they would pick on me so I looked up how to lose weight. My naïve self ended up believing that skipping lunch and breakfast would be the best way to lose weight." Youngjae's chest rose high up and back down, which was something Jaebum's arms felt. "I was pretty unhappy and hungry, but I still kept doing it. My friends nagged me to eat. I wouldn't listen to them, though. So this is the strange part, right? Every piece of food you gave me, I would eat it happily and completely forget about starving myself. I totally forgot about trying to lose weight and whatnot. Which is weird, isn't it? Because I had no idea who you were, but you were still able to persuade me." "You literally cured this bad side of me, I think. You really are an amazing person, hyung," Youngjae finished with a big, wide smile and pat Jaebum, who was on the verge of tears, on the arm. "God... Youngjae...I'm so in love with you," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Are you still cold?" "Nope," Youngjae replied cheerfully, taking the piece of clothing from his torso and handing it back to the other. He went over to where his backpack was and hung it over his shoulder, throwing the other bag to Jaebum. "Do you want to go back to class?" "Not one bit," Jaebum laughed as he said so, also standing on his feet and carrying his backpack. He stood beside Youngjae, crossing his arms. "You should get a new change of clothes or you'll catch a cold." "Hm... yeah..." Peering down at his wet shirt and fanning it, he pursed his lips. "I don't have spare clothes, though." "You do at home." Youngjae grinned. He took ahold of Jaebum's hand, weaving their fingers together. "Come with me." "To ditch school?" "Yeah." The two started taking the back route of the school, planning to leave through the back gates. The gates were locked, they found, but Jaebum was able to help Youngjae jump over them. In Youngjae's free hand was the bag of cookies he received. He had all intentions to finish them once he was back at warm home. Before they took any more steps, Youngjae gave a gentle kiss to Jaebum's lips. He was unbelievably happy; it was like the times he yelled at him and cried because of him had never even happened. After all, those things only happened because of Youngjae's confused, naïve heart. Without the worry of being fat or not clouding his vision, he could clearly see that Jaebum was someone he loved. The only person who even when he was down; someone who would take care of him like he was born to do so. It was always the person he knew as Im Jaebum. Def Soul' was just Jaebum with a pair of sunglasses as a mask. That anonymous food donator and note writer was Jaebum too. He had all sorts of identities that Youngjae misunderstood, but he knew now that they all made up to be the same genuinely kind, benevolent person. "Let's go."

During his first period class, Jaebum's eyes wouldn't look away from his backpack that held a bag of homemade cookies. Would Youngjae still be willing to accept his food? Even after knowing who was behind all of it? He did know that Youngjae continued to not bring himself a lunch to school. Occasionally, he'd something light like a bag of chips (the kind that is 80% air) but that was basically it. He really thought it was amazing how Youngjae was able to control his hunger like that, especially in a cafeteria where a hundred or so students were eating happily. Jaebum felt frustrated at how little he knew about the junior. There were so many things he wanted to know so that he could take better care of Youngjae. What's his favorite food? Drink? What's his ideal type? He slammed his head onto his desk. This wasn't the first time he'd done so, and the teacher didn't bother to look back that time. "I've told you this before, Mr. Im, but please don't break your desk while venting your frustrations." Jaebum played around with his eraser, feeling bored. He was thinking about texting Youngjae before realizing that he had a low chance of getting a reply. what are you doing right now, youngjae? in class? of course you are. right. i want to talk to you. 🍽 Youngjae left his classroom early because of a stomachache. He kept thinking about how odd it was for him to even have a stomachache in general when he'd been doing his best to eat as less as possible. The only thing he’d eaten that morning was a slice of bread accompanied by a cup of water. All he knew was that the stomachache was painful. He couldn't walk very many steps before needing to clutch his belly, crouching over slightly. On one arm was his backpack, hanging by its straps. He’d tried mounting it on his shoulders but it quickly fell, since it actually made his stomach feel even worse. His brows were wrinkled as he stumbled down the hallway, searching for the infirmary. "What's this?" Youngjae's face was drained of its color when he realized that voice was familiar. He remembered it clearly: the voice that had spat at him while he was kicked by its owner. His head hung low as he pretended to not hear, making sure his face wouldn't be shown to the guy. Unfortunately for him, that just made things worse because he couldn't see properly and bumped straight into the voice. Goosebumps spread across his arms when he heard the displeased growl coming from the taller person. "Are you blind? Watch where you're fucking going!" Although Youngjae was scared, he was sure to keep his head down to cover his face. His stomach crippled him with pain but he had to deal with it, just for a bit longer. A horrible sense of doom overwhelmed him, though, when the other grabbed his collar and pulled him up. "That's hilarious. You're that little wimp I beat up before. Looks like you haven't learned your lesson at all, have you?" he scoffed, now grabbing Youngjae's chocolatey hair and tugging him to somewhere. "S-stop, please," Youngjae pleaded. Those were meaningless attempts as the guy only tugged on his hair harder, making him whine in pain. As if his stomachache wasn't enough, now he was dealing with this. In the process, he was forced to drop his backpack and it was left alone in the hallway. He was in far too much pain to even struggle and fight against him. Just as he was about to scream for help, the guy noticed and covered his mouth tightly with his hand. Youngjae really was frightened. His shaking hand reached into his pockets. Thankfully, his phone was in there. Youngjae double checked to see that the guy wasn't looking and, with his quivering fingers, he opened his text messages. He was afraid that his phone would be slapped away when noticed so he opened the first chat. jaybee [c.youngjae]: hyunh [c.youngjae]: hyungg [c.youngjae]: pleesas;; [c.youngjae]: heelp nme theres a; guyy [c.youngjae]: hes dragfing me to somewhere an I cant get away from him [c.youngjae]: help me [c.youngjae]: imm so scared

[jaybee]: tell me exactly where the fuck he's taking you [c.youngjae]: i,,i don't know [c.youngjae]: its,its outdoors [c.youngjae]: tthe field [c.youngjae]: pool [jaybee]: i'm heading there right now [jaybee]: youngjae fight back no matter what he does [jaybee]: youngjae [jaybee]: youngjae?? [jaybee]: i'm running [jaybee]: i'm on my way [jaybee]: oh my god [jaybee]: please be okay By that time, Youngjae had hidden his phone. The guy had dragged him all the way to the outdoor field and was approaching the swimming pool, where no teachers or students lingered at the time. The other grabbed him with both hands and flung him over the little fence surrounding the pool. Youngjae landed on the cement, a few scratches on his arm starting to bleed. He was holding back everything to not bawl in fear. The guy hopped over the fence, staring down at him in anger. "No one ever bumps into me twice. This'll help you learn, faggot," he spat, now pulling the collapsed Youngjae by the hood of his jacket. He was partially choking while being dragged across the cement against his will. The minuscule amount of oxygen he could breathe in wasn't the biggest problem he had at the moment. He could tell that he was being dragged over to the diving pool, measuring staggering meters deep. Youngjae's body locked up and was essentially frozen in fear. He couldn't swim. "Come on, cunt. swim for me." Youngjae was brought so close to the edge of the pool that his shoe grazed against some water. He couldn't do anything except make gasping noises and have his heart beat at unnatural rates. Was this the day he'd die? The metal fence made sudden rattling noises as footsteps stomped furiously to where the two were on the pool deck. Youngjae's eyes were squinting due to difficulty breathing, but he could sort of make out who the person was. "Hyu... ng..." he whispered, his voice raspy. Jaebum ran up to the guy dragging Youngjae and punched him without saying anything. "Get your fucking hands off of him or I'll beat the shit out of you!" he yelled in absolute fury. The other was equally angered and snarled, but only got another punch to his chest. He fell onto the ground in pain, but not before pushing Youngjae into the pool. Jaebum's heart stopped beating when watching him sink deeper into the water. "Youngjae!" he shouted, diving in after the boy, who was silently sinking deeper motionlessly. Jaebum grabbed Youngjae's shirt and pulled him towards him, wrapping an arm around him securely. He swam towards the ladder as quickly as he could, madly calling the other’s name. "Youngjae, Youngjae, Youngjae, oh my god..." Jaebum muttered shakily as he finally pulled him out of the water, still holding him tightly in his arms. Youngjae was unresponsive, his head drooping down with every attempt Jaebum made to wake him up. Jaebum's eyes were suddenly filled with even more rage than ever. he looked around to see where the guy who did this was. By that time, that guy already ran away, knowing that he'd get in major trouble. He'll never forgive that piece of shit for as long as he lives. The coughing sounds coming from Jaebum's arms caused him to quickly peer down. Thank God Youngjae was awake. He coughed up some water, suddenly beginning to shiver. "H-hyung..." he murmured weakly, barely peeking his eyes open. Jaebum's grip only tightened, concerned when feeling exactly how much the other was shivering. "Cold...cold..." "It'll be okay, Youngjae, you're going to okay," Jaebum reassured in a panicked voice as he took off his own hoodie and wrapped it around Youngjae's body. It was true that his skin felt almost ice cold, and that scared the elder. His eyes weakly opened, squinting at the one staring down at him. "Hyung...?" "Y-yeah. It's me, Jaebum." Youngjae wrapped his arms around the other's broader torso and stuffed his face into his chest. he was sobbing silently, his legs curling up unconfidently as he did so. Jaebum embraced him as though that the last time he would ever touch Youngjae, rubbing his back. "Iwas so scared...I can't swim...deep water..." "I get it, Youngjae, you don't have to say anything." Jaebum cooed as soothingly as he could, although that was difficult because he was freaking out too. Youngjae's shoulders quivered as he sniffed. "I'm so glad that you're here... Jaebum-hyung..."

"Youngjae..." Jaebum had carried the freezing and shocked Youngjae over to a sunny spot behind the gym, a place where teachers usually never visit. Youngjae's eyes seemed sleepy as he shivered, Jaebum locking his arms around his body to preserve warmth. Both of their backpacks were also there. After Jaebum had burst out of classroom without saying anything to his teacher, he had found Youngjae's backpack thrown in the hallway. Carrying both of them, he’d run straight to the pool. That was his story up to the point where he found Youngjae being pulled dangerously close to the diving pool, and where his anger rose up to impossible levels. At least he was okay now. "Hyung..." Youngjae called out softly, coughing a few times. "You were the one who saved me, weren't you...?" Jaebum nodded. He brought Youngjae closer, leaning against one of the warehouses for sports equipment. "Yeah." Something made Jaebum's eyes blink, glistening ever so brightly. It was Youngjae's smiling face, staring up at the elder. "Thank you. Thank you so much." Shocked frozen for a second, Jaebum eventually returned a smile for the other in his arms. "No problem, Youngjae." He leaned down to nuzzle his face into the other's neck, breathing softly. "I'm sorry for yelling at you and slapping you. I really am," Youngjae said out of nowhere, sighing as he exclaimed so. He shifted his body so that he'd be even closer to Jaebum, feeling the comforting warmth of him. "I was just so... confused. I was scared at myself for being so mad that I guess I...tried to avoid you for a bit." "Mhm," Jaebum murmured, sighing into the soft and slightly wet skin. "I understand. I knew I should've told you earlier, but I was too dense to realize what it was doing to you." "It's okay." Youngjae was staring blankly at the scenery in front of them: cement, tall wire fences, and a few trees. "It really is alright. I've come to realize that I love the person called Def Soul' and that you are Def Soul. and how, by that logic, I love you." Youngjae peered up in order to look at Jaebum. "Jaebummie-hyung. It's always been you, hasn't it?" Although Jaebum was speechless for a second or two, he started to laugh softly. He loved this kid called Choi Youngjae. "I guess so." Jaebum reached over for his backpack and unzipped it, taking out something. "What's that?" Jaebum grinned to himself as he took out the small bag of homemade cookies. He opened it, taking one of the treats out and holding it between two fingers. "Have you eaten breakfast? Did you bring a lunch? If not..." Jaebum said in a singsong tone, pouting his lips in a rather cute way. "...Think about me, and then... eat." He stuffed the cookie into Youngjae's mouth. Chewing on it, the other giggled softly. "Thanks," he said as crumbs fell from his lips. "Hey," he whistled quietly. "Did you know that I used to be called fat constantly by these girls?" Jaebum's happy expression immediately dropped to a frown. "What? Who?" "I don't know." For some reason, the smile on Youngjae's face never faded away. "They just did for fun, I guess. They would come up to me during lunch especially and just whisper 'hey fatso.' So I thought about it a lot and decided that maybe I am fat. I didn't like how they would pick on me so I looked up how to lose weight. My naïve self ended up believing that skipping lunch and breakfast would be the best way to lose weight." Youngjae's chest rose high up and back down, which was something Jaebum's arms felt. "I was pretty unhappy and hungry, but I still kept doing it. My friends nagged me to eat. I wouldn't listen to them, though. So this is the strange part, right? Every piece of food you gave me, I would eat it happily and completely forget about starving myself. I totally forgot about trying to lose weight and whatnot. Which is weird, isn't it? Because I had no idea who you were, but you were still able to persuade me." "You literally cured this bad side of me, I think. You really are an amazing person, hyung," Youngjae finished with a big, wide smile and pat Jaebum, who was on the verge of tears, on the arm. "God... Youngjae...I'm so in love with you," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Are you still cold?" "Nope," Youngjae replied cheerfully, taking the piece of clothing from his torso and handing it back to the other. He went over to where his backpack was and hung it over his shoulder, throwing the other bag to Jaebum. "Do you want to go back to class?" "Not one bit," Jaebum laughed as he said so, also standing on his feet and carrying his backpack. He stood beside Youngjae, crossing his arms. "You should get a new change of clothes or you'll catch a cold." "Hm... yeah..." Peering down at his wet shirt and fanning it, he pursed his lips. "I don't have spare clothes, though." "You do at home." Youngjae grinned. He took ahold of Jaebum's hand, weaving their fingers together. "Come with me." "To ditch school?" "Yeah." The two started taking the back route of the school, planning to leave through the back gates. The gates were locked, they found, but Jaebum was able to help Youngjae jump over them. In Youngjae's free hand was the bag of cookies he received. He had all intentions to finish them once he was back at warm home. Before they took any more steps, Youngjae gave a gentle kiss to Jaebum's lips. He was unbelievably happy; it was like the times he yelled at him and cried because of him had never even happened. After all, those things only happened because of Youngjae's confused, naïve heart. Without the worry of being fat or not clouding his vision, he could clearly see that Jaebum was someone he loved. The only person who even when he was down; someone who would take care of him like he was born to do so. It was always the person he knew as Im Jaebum. Def Soul' was just Jaebum with a pair of sunglasses as a mask. That anonymous food donator and note writer was Jaebum too. He had all sorts of identities that Youngjae misunderstood, but he knew now that they all made up to be the same genuinely kind, benevolent person. "Let's go."

[bardqueenofgallifrey]

Ficlet prompt on behalf of my fiancée: Something involving Bill and Twelve having a Little Mix rave (which Bill is definitely not into what are you talking about?)

This totally got away from me, both in length and in the general relevance to the prompt because Missy is a fucking spotlight hog, but I’m hoping you still like it!

No one on this Earth can convince me that Missy, for no particular reason, knows the entirety of the Little Mix ‘Touch’ choreography. 

This should really be crack, but it’s Missy, so it’s not really. Whoops. 

Read on AO3

“Doctor, can I use your office for something?”

The Doctor glances up from a book, arching one of his magnificent eyebrows at Bill, who does her best to look as innocuous as possible. “For what, exactly?”

“I need some… practice space,” Bill says. “There’s no room at my place, not really, and it needs to be somewhere where I know I won’t get walked in on by students, or, you know, cute girls who might think I’m the biggest idiot ever.”

“… why would they think that?”

“I dunno, cute girls make me nervous, on principle.”

“Why?”

Bill shrugs. “I guess I just tend to assume they’ll think I’m a dork or something. Anyway, this so isn’t the point.” Although, one of the endgames she is hoping for in this endeavour is being able to impress cute girls, but he doesn’t need to know that. “I need practice space.”

“Yes, but practising for what?”

“None of your business what,” Bill retorts.

He snorts. “It is my business if you want to use my office for whatever you want to practice.”

Bill gets up and slings her bag over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Doctor, I’ll find somewhere else. I should probably get going. Got that essay to finish for you, still need a few more sources.”

“Add some pictures in this time, the pages need some colour!” He calls after her, making her shake her head. “I love a good diagram!”

Bill, of course, is not going to go and finish her essay. She’s on a quest of the utmost importance.

Finding somewhere she’ll have the space to learn the Little Mix ‘Touch’ choreography. (And not be walked in on by strangers while she’s going through the awkward initial stages.)

This is a bad idea. This is, possibly, the most bonkers idea that Bill has had in a very long time.

And yet, here she is, standing outside the vault, her backpack hanging off her shoulder, chest filled with nerves and self-preservation instinct doing some elaborate cartwheels in an attempt to bring her to her senses.

Unsure of how else to proceed, Bill knocks on the large metal door. “Missy?”

Bill remembers how, the first time she had been allowed inside the Vault, the Doctor had commanded Missy to stand inside the containment field before opening the Vault doors. But things seem to have changed a bit since then. She’s allowed out of the Vault now, sometimes. The Doctor seems to trust her enough for that.

“Yes, dear?”

“Okay, this is going to sound totally nuts, probably, but do you like Little Mix?”

There’s a brief silence.

“That girl group with the catchy music? Yes, I’m familiar with their work, and it’s one of the better things to come out of this century. Why do you ask?”

“I’m trying to, uh,” Bill coughs awkwardly. “I want to learn one of the dances. And I need somewhere with room to move, but also somewhere where I’m not going to get walked in on when I’m trying to learn, you know?”

Missy’s voice sounds immensely amused when it next comes through the door. “And you want to use my Vault? As your dance studio?”

“Uh… yeah. Basically. Would that be totally annoying, or-”

“No, no, go ahead, I’ll be glad of the company.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

“No problem, poppet. Now, do you want me inside the containment field? Or do you trust me to behave?” There’s that hint of coy teasing to her voice, the kind that makes Bill swallow and specifically not think about how Missy’s voice is more attractive than is fair, because Bill so far has done a pretty spectacular job of not noticing how attractive Missy is.

“I think the Doctor’s less likely to have my arse if he finds out about this if you’re in the containment field, so yeah, if you don’t mind,” Bill says, making a face.

“Not at all. Perfectly understandable.”

She’s far too reasonable, for someone who is supposed to be a monster. Well, Bill doesn’t doubt that she is one. She watched her talk about throwing a girl in a volcano the same way one might comment on the weather, and that’s not something Bill has been able to forget.

But she’s trying to be good now, supposedly. With how the Doctor has been letting Missy run around lately, he shouldn’t be able to protest too much about this, should he find out.

“Okay, I’m coming in then.”

Bill is pretty proud of herself when it comes to having worked out how to open the Vault. The doors open and she steps inside the strange open space, a bit nervous but tentatively hopeful.

“Hey,” Bill says to Missy, who is perched on the piano stool and watching her intently.

“Hey yourself, Pottsie.”

Bill makes a face. “Do you really have to call me that?”

“Hmm. Yes. I think so.”

Bill isn’t about to argue any further when Missy is allowing her to use her space. Allowing. It’s ridiculous, really, how little this actually feels like a prison now. It had scared Bill a little at first, that the Doctor could keep someone in a Vault, and deprive them of interpersonal contact for six months, but she understands the need for it better now. (Even though, somewhat ironically, it seems less and less relevant with every day that passes.)

Bill gets her speaker set up, gets out her laptop so she can reference the video, and soon the sound of four powerful female voices fills the empty, echoing space of the Vault.

Damn. The acoustics are great.

Bill feels fairly self-conscious about starting making an attempt at the dance moves with Missy watching her so intently, but this doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Don’t mind me, poppet,” Missy says. “Would it help if I turned around?”

“Maybe just until I’ve got a vague idea of what I’m doing?” Bill asks, making a face. “I might make a habit of making a fool of myself in front of attractive women, but that sort of makes me all the more keen to not do it any extra times if I can help it.”

Missy lifts an eyebrow, and Bill curses herself.

“Don’t read anything into that, just because I have eyes doesn’t mean I don’t like my women human and without a body count,” Bill tells her firmly.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Missy assures her, seriously, but there’s a tiny twinkle in her eye.

Missy turns around so that she’s facing the piano, and Bill turns her attention to the video playing on the screen and lifts herself onto her toes just enough to sway to the beat of the music, letting her hips sway in time.

“Okay,” she breathes, and starts properly trying to copy the video.

It’s awkward at first, but as she goes on, she starts getting a feel for it and getting a bit more confident in the movements, even if this kind of dancing really is something completely new to her.

“There you go, you’re getting a feel for it now.”

Bill whips around to see Missy sitting watching her with a little smirk on her face. “Hey, you said you would turn around!”

“I did, didn’t I? I never said anything about not turning back around at some point,” Missy replies, chuckling at Bill’s semi-outraged expression. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. You’re so precious.”

Bill isn’t sure whether it’s a belittling or complimentary description, but she flushes a bit regardless. She isn’t sure what to say, and is both exasperated with herself and annoyed at Missy for rendering her unable to find a response.

The Doctor’s weird evil friend/secret rehabilitation project couldn’t have been a bloke. Nope, that would have only made my life that much simpler. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have liked Little Mix, and I really do need the dance space.

Bill shakes her head and gets back to dancing, trying to ignore the feeling of Missy’s eyes on her.

It’s going well until a couple of minutes later -

“No, no, that’s not it at all,” Missy says, clicking her tongue with disapproval. “You’re doing it wrong. You need to loosen up a bit.”

Bill turns to lift an eyebrow at her skeptically. “I’m sorry, and you’d know better? You can’t even see the screen from there!”

“I don’t need to, I’m familiar with the choreography.”

Bill’s eyebrows nearly disappear into her hair. “You what?”

Missy lets out an impatient huff. “Why don’t I save us both the time and just show you how to do it right?” She gets to her feet and gives Bill a faux-innocent look. “Of course, you’d need to let me out of the containment field.”

“Right, and that doesn’t sound like a trap at all,” Bill says, narrowing her eyes.

“Look, do you want my help, or not?”

Bill knows that it is a bad idea. That, after having actually gotten Missy to get into the containment field in the first place, she should simply appreciate her genius idea to use this as a practice space, and work on getting it right herself.

But also… the idea of this bizarre, entrancing woman knowing the choreography to this song is too ridiculous and quietly appealing for Bill to have the self control to say 'no’.

“Where are the controls?” Bill asks.

Missy smiles, just a fraction. “By the door. You just want the little green button.”

“And this isn’t a trick?”

“Cross my hearts, both of them,” Missy tells her, with a flutter of her eyelashes that Bill is not remotely affected by (something she is quite proud of, actually, all things considered).

“Fine, but if you try anything-”

“You’ll do what, exactly?” Missy asks, cocking an eyebrow. “No offense, poppet, but if I did want to do anything, you wouldn’t have any chance in the world of stopping me. But I’m here. I put myself in here, for you. So you’ll just have to trust me.”

Bill takes a deep breath, and apologises to her mother in her head if her truly terrible life priorities happen to lead to her tragic murder by the hand of her best friend’s weird prisoner/pet/ex-friend/possible lover (the last one is just a suspicion at this point, but it’s a strong suspicion).

She crosses to the controls by the door and hits the green button, and the containment field fizzles out.

Missy beams and clasps her hand together. “Lovely. Now, for something a little more appropriate.” She unclasps her skirt, which makes Bill panic for all of half a second, before it drops to reveal perfectly modest leggings underneath, her blouse hem ending around her hips.

She has rather nice legs.

Oh my god, brain, shut up, Bill thinks hopelessly, fairly sure for at least the tenth time that how gay she is will be the actual cause of her death. Given that part of the reason she wants to learn this choreography is to impress cute girls, if Missy kills her now, it would certainly be true.

“Now then, start the video again, show me what you’ve got,” Missy tells her.

“Quick question: why do you know the choreography to this song?” Bill can’t stop herself from asking, since keeping in questions goes against her entire nature.

“Because it’s art,” Missy replies without missing a beat. “Why do you want to learn it so badly?”

“Same, really,” Bill says, shrugging. “Also, you know, I’m never gayer in my life than when I’m watching this video. Watch it like three times a day. Religiously. It’s genuinely probably my religion.”

Missy tilts her head slightly. “Fair.”

“Okay,” Bill says, letting out a deep breath. “Let’s give this a go.”

She puts the video on, and Missy moves to stand on the side so she can evaluate as Bill begins to move in time with the music. Watching Missy watch her is beyond offputting, so Bill does her best to focus on the moves.

While Bill is no virgin, she’s never considered herself a particularly sexual being before. Or at least, she’s never done anything that’s made her feel this good about herself. But feeling herself get the beat of the song, and move her body in what feels like a similar enough way to the beautiful girls on the screen, it makes her feel strong and sexy in a new way that she loves.

“You need to go a bit deeper, there,” Missy comments, and Bill drops out of the dance to go back to the move she thinks Missy is referencing. The move involves planted, slightly spread feet, and the sinking down into what is essentially a sexy version of a plié in second position, with her hands on her knees.

“Like this?” Bill asks, doing it again, making sure to sink lower even though it puts a slight stretch into her muscles. Missy nods. “Okay, cool.”

She takes the video back a bit, and keeps going.

“Actually, on the note of corrections, go back to the bit where they first dance as the room,” Missy says, interrupting again. “The backwards lean, you’re not quite getting the angle right.”

Bill feels a little disgruntled, but takes it back further, and does the move.

Missy watches her intently, her gaze analytical in nature more than anything else. “May I make a more… hands on correction? Easier to show you.”

“I guess,” Bill says, already uncomfortable from holding the position. Missy moves to stand behind her, and then her hand is on Bill’s back, her other at the top of Bill’s stomach, and Bill realises she might have made a small error in allowing this.

“Here, you need to arch a little further, but not too hard, like this,” Missy tells her, hands surprisingly gentle as they direct Bill’s torso.

Bill directs all of her concentration into following the guidance and instructions and not thinking about soft hands that belong to a now very close very attractive woman and her soft, compelling voice that could probably charm the most asexual being in the universe into doing its will.

And then the hands are gone.

“Much better,” Missy says brightly. “Now, keep going.”

She hits play for Bill, and Bill gets through to near the end of the song, to the part of the routine that’s on the floor, and Missy starts shaking her head again.

“You’re just wonderful when it comes to moving those hips of yours, dear, but the arching seems to be your problem area,” Missy says, moving to join her on the floor. “Here, it’s more like this. Put the music on.”

Missy demonstrates, and whatever part of Bill knows it should be laughing at one of the most evil creatures in the universe doing this kind of choreography is overshadowed by the hopelessly gay part of her, which is always the most prominent.

Missy is so graceful. Even with the fast movements, every single one of them is fluid, and she arches her body with the ease of a cat. When she throws her head back and tips Bill a wink at the same time, Bill feels her mouth go dry.

Oh boy. This was a mistake.

“There, try it like that,” Missy says, getting back to her feet, only to smirk when Bill is frozen. She does that thing again, that miming of closing her jaw, and Bill realises she is staring, and rushes to get back to dancing.

The only thing worse than accidentally being way too gay for your friend’s weird evil frenemy is being caught being gay by said evil frenemy. Bill focuses on the dancing to get over the mortification, and is happy to realise that she’s almost got the whole thing memorised, and feels like she’s doing most of the movements right.

“Not bad, Pottsie, not bad,” Missy comments. “Now, again, from the top.”

Bill starts again, and nearly jumps a mile when she feels hands on her hips about twenty seconds in. She does jump instinctively away from Missy, though.

“Woah, what the hell are you doing?” Bill demands.

Missy holds her hands up defensicely. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re supposed to have backup. Just trying to help.”

“By grinding on me?”

Missy blinks at her, the picture of innocence but for the gleam in her eye. “Just following the choreography, poppet. You’ve got the feel of it all down, but you need to practice moving with another person. If that is in fact, the aim of all this. To impress some pretty thing, yeah?”

Bill blushes. “Maybe.”

“Well then. Come on.”

This is definitely a bad idea. A very, very bad idea. But Missy is making little motions of come on, come on, and she does have a point about the coordination thing, and maybe Bill is just making excuses for herself because she’s not been making quite enough progress in the Penny area, but oh well.

They start the dance again, and this time Missy’s body moves in counterpoint to hers, and it’s astounding how well they work together. Missy really does know the dance.

Bill’s hair is up in her simple, classic bun, meaning that she can feel Missy’s breath on her neck. But that’s nothing compared to when Missy’s arm snakes around Bill’s torso to press her hand to her sternum, holding their bodies that little bit closer together.

Bill’s breath hitches. She makes the mistake of glancing back at Missy over her shoulder as they keep moving together, and meets those intense ice blue eyes.

She looked at you and you perved. Every time, automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion.

Missy seems similarly captivated, holding her gaze while a strange little smile plays on the corner of her lips. But just when Bill is wondering whether she should allow this to continue or get away before Missy gets any more ideas - because while this is a time, she really doesn’t want it to go any further, she isn’t that lacking in self-preservation - the door to the Vault swings open.

Bill and Missy freeze in unison, Missy’s nose still against her neck, her hand still on Bill’s chest, and stare at the Doctor and Nardole, who both look so bewildered it would be hilarious if Bill didn’t know she is about to be in deep, deep trouble.

“Shit,” Bill says, and she jumps out of Missy’s hold, opening her mouth several times to make some kind of excuse, while gesturing vaguely in Missy’s direction a few times. The Time Lady meanwhile just cocks an amused eyebrow at her attempts. “Look, this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Really?” The Doctor replies, looking severely unimpressed now that he seems to have recovered from the shock. “And what do you think it looks like?”

“She was helping me with the choreography.”

Nardole scoffs. “Oh, is that what we’re calling it, now?”

The Doctor, meanwhile, is glaring at Missy. “I told you to stay away from my companions when I’m not around to supervise.”

“She came to me,” Missy says indignantly. “I’ve been nothing but extremely helpful.”

“She’s telling the truth, Doctor, she’s been helping me with learning this dance, that’s all, I swear,” Bill tells him, trying to keep her blush under control. “We just got a bit… carried away. By, you know. Art?”

Nardole rolls his eyes so hard she’s amazed that he doesn’t give himself a concussion somehow.

“Alright then, show me,” the Doctor says, dropping himself into the armchair and looking at them expectantly.

The level of scepticism in his gaze brings up a strange sort of indignance in Bill’s chest. Because, alright, her gay distraction aside, she’s telling him the truth, and nothing actually sordid had been going on.

“Fine,” Bill says, crossing her arms as she looks to Missy, who looks surprised for all of a moment, before her expression turns to one of deep amusement.

“Seriously?” She asks.

“Seriously. You said you know the whole thing. So let’s do it. I’m not gonna let him stand here and accuse me of, well-”

“Your blatant homosexuality and attraction to moi?” Missy asks, lifting an eyebrow.

Bill flushes. “Look, just shut up and let’s do this, yeah?”

So she takes the song back to the start, hits play, and does the most absurd thing she’s ever done in her life - dance the entire choreography of a Little Mix song, with a hot alien villainess as her occasionally handsy backup dancer, while another two aliens watch.

Weirdly, the heated atmosphere that had grown between Bill and Missy doing their rehearsals is entirely gone now. Instead, Bill can’t help but grin; it’s actually super fun. Even Missy seems to be giggling and enjoying herself.

It feels like they’re friends, as they dance together. Which they’re not, and Bill knows that, really, but right in this moment, it’s actually really nice. Of course, perhaps the reason the heat is gone between them is because when she’s not grinning at Bill, Missy is making eyes at the Doctor as she performs the provocative moves.

The Doctor swallows and crosses his legs as the song draws to an end. Several times. Bill tries not to think too much about the implications of that, but her 'lovers’ theory about the two Time Lords is seeming more and more legitimate.

They end the song on the floor, and Missy springs up first, offering Bill a hand up and pulling into a strange half-embrace that really is too close for Bill’s more delicate sensibilities.

“So, tell me, Miss Potts, what sort of girls are you hoping to impress with this routine?” Missy asks, voice low and eyes far too intent.

Bill tries to wiggle out of her grip, but Missy retaliates by twirling them a little so that she’s holding Bill closer, her lips now at Bill’s ear.

“Go on, I’m curious, indulge me,” Missy murmurs, making Bill shiver because holy fuck her voice my god I’m so gay. “What is it that you look for in a woman, exactly?” Thankfully, it only takes half a moment for Bill to collect herself. She manages to spin Missy around so that she has an arm around the Time Lady’s waist, now in control.

“Strong moral compass,” Bill says, smirking, before letting go of her, letting her lose her balance for all of a moment and fall back onto her other foot.

Missy pouts. “Spoilsport.”

Without any music playing, Missy keeps dancing, an odd but undeniably captivating picture of graceful - if erratic - sensuality, and Bill finds herself mesmerised again, because she might have a moral compass strong enough to keep her ovaries in check in dire circumstances, but she’s still so fucking gay and jesus christ how is this woman real and how is her absurdity not a turn off?!

“Are you two alright? You’ve both stopped… functioning,” Nardole says, breaking Bill out of her gay reverie and making her look at the Doctor, who is still watching Missy, whose eyes are locked with his.

Urgh. God. They’re definitely having sex. That’s not something Bill needed to be aware of. That’s fucked up on so many levels, all other things considered. This isn’t just a Vault. This is like… a Sex Vault. Where the Doctor has done things she never ever wanted to think about the Doctor doing.

She looks at Nardole with disgust, and he gives her a yep, I’ve been dealing with this shit for decades sort of look. She feels a new sympathy for her strange little friend, and finds herself a bit impressed he’s kept his sanity this long.

“You’re a very good dancer,” Nardole tells Bill with a little smile. It’s possibly just to undercut the awkward sexual tension near them, but he seems genuine enough.

“You reckon? Thanks, man,” Bill says, blushing a bit, pleased.

“It looked quite fun, actually.”

“Yeah?” Bill laughs. “You want me to show you some moves?”

Nardole considers this, before brightening a little, nodding his head. “Alright then. Could be fun. I’ve been meaning to try a new hobby for ages. A man can’t get by on only knitting, you know.”

He’s so odd, Nardole, but once one warms up to him, there’s something rather nice about him that Bill can’t put her finger on. Something comforting.

Trying to teach Nardole the dance moves proves to be hilarious, even more so when he actually gets the hang of the movements. Missy collapses into giggles, and into the Doctor’s lap, which Bill and Nardole very pointedly do not notice.

“I never want to hear this song again if I live for another 2000 years,” the Doctor says, by the time Nardole knows all the moves and he and Bill are dancing through the routine with perfected timing. (Missy having watched them all the while, and now finally stopped correcting their form.)

“Too bad, I’ve gotten very fond of it,” Nardole tells him, and Bill grins with triumph.

A week later, Bill impresses Penny with her flawless execution of the routine. She makes a note to get Missy a little thank you present.