#the coding is intentional and real and obnoxious really

[venusiinfurss]

it explains so much about the gang's dynamic in it's always sunny that these people have known each other since they were fourteen, and inhabited the same relative space (with the exception of dennis & dee at penn) for that entire time. what's more, mac and charlie have known each other since elementary school and dennis and dee have known each other forever (obviously). it's no wonder they all exhibit such arrested development- imagine spending most of your waking hours with your high school friend group as someone pushing fifty! even worse, most of the people they know in their everyday lives- cricket, the ponderosas, the waitress, the mcpoyles- they have also known for thirty-plus years. philadelphia is a big city, but they make little effort to seek new people out- and when they do, it typically has disastrous results. there are so few new people being introduced into their lives (even frank, the 'newcomer' in season two, is the twins' legal father who they all likely knew in some capacity, even though he was largely absent) that they can't really progress beyond their high school selves. none of them have serious or long-term relationships- the one that could be considered at all close was maureen ponderosa, who dennis dated in high school. it's no wonder none of the gang matures when they are staying in the same place they have lived all their lives, with the same people they have known all their lives. there is little to no room for novelty or growth. as long as they stay together, they will remain horrible people.

[venusiinfurss]

dennis is so interesting to me as a character like it would have been so easy to make him the one-sided sociopath ladykiller character but that man has layers of issues and trauma and it’s so blatantly transparent that he’s incredibly unstable… one thing gone wrong will have him screaming or crying or crashing out again

everyone knows about the dennis dick makeup from the self help book, right.

[prince-liest]

What kind of murderer do you fancy Alastor as back on earth? (Forgive me this is a bit long, I started to ramble dkdkgk)

I tend to see it get handwaved once we're in hell, since anyone Alastor tenderizes just comes back later anyways, but there's a couple of different Flavors I'll see people give Alastor specifically for his serial killing back on earth.

The one I see most often is people giving him a moral code he uses to conduct Wholesome™ murders back on earth. Abusers, racists, door-to-door salesmen. If the law wasn't doing its job (or more accurately, working as intended), then Alastor provided REAL justice. This flavor tends to frame it less as Alastor killing cuz he wants to and more like a hero using the power of incredible violence out of necessity. Though sometimes I'll see him killing as a hobby, he just keeps to this strict moral code about it

Just as common, though slightly less I think, he's definitely killing for funsies, but has a moral code telling him who's off limits. He avoids women and children, and hilariously good people are often safe, but everyone else is fair game. If you're a regular dude who's like, fine I guess, you are DEFINITELY still on the menu

Least common flavor is the "if you're in reach of a sticky hand and I can get away with it, you're on the hit list." This I've observed tends to be saved for fics where Alastor's the antagonist or we're going full villain-mode and reveling in the moral bankruptcy XD

There's definitely all sorts of in-between flavors, but these are the ones I see pop up most often lol. SO! I was curious if you had any headcanons or preferences over what kind of serial killing Alastor did topside :3

I can definitely understand the appeal of the vigilante justice route, but I absolutely have an affinity for an Alastor who killed for shits and giggles and wasn't TOO concerned with who's on the other side of that knife. Love me a bitch who's done some unethical shit for absolutely no reason (⁠人⁠ ⁠•‌⁠ᴗ⁠•‌⁠) adds SPICE, y'know XD

I like to go for a fourth option! >:D I like to think that Alastor does have a moral code for killing, but that it basically amounts to "people I don't like."

There are so many stories out there of serial killers targeting women who look like their mom because they have mommy issues; I think Alastor should get to have the opposite. He kills wealthy, powerful, probably-white men because he has daddy issues and as a result that is the exact kind of man that, just, pisses him off to a murderous extent. He would never hurt a lady! Not because women can do no wrong in his eyes, but because he has a particular image of himself and that would be ungentlemanly. Any Vox-alike, however...

At the same time, I don't think he in any way acted with the intent of being a vigilante for any true justice. Like, maybe he does go out of his way sometimes to find a particularly heinous individual, but that's not really for the greater good. It's an excuse to satisfy his desire to put a wealthy man in his place - on the wrong side of the grass. And if it's a week when he sees that someone was being a little sleazy around Mimzy, or an obnoxious guest on his radio show spoke to him with that particular tone... you don't have to be a rapist to be worthy of Alastor blowing off some steam.

Anyway, tl;dr, I like to think murder was his tension release and so he generally went for people he found annoying (aka. people like his father) under a thin veil of "the world is better off without them anyway." He probably had a lot of revenge fantasies about his dad and the next closest thing was grabbing a shotgun and chasing some sleazy suit-and-tie through the woods barefoot.

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Futaba Sakura from Persona 5 the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

Futaba-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a screenshot of Futaba in the bottom left corner. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"She’s a hikkikomori and a hacker genius. She initially has bad social anxiety due to trauma and does not leave her room."

"She's just like me fr fr (im autistic girlie)"

"Generally described as being incredibly introverted and socially anxious, however having no problem opening up if the conversation is about something that interests her. She also has a deep interest in hacking and computers (if the protagonist claims to have built his own PC, she asks for the specific details on it, such as GPU, CPU, RAM, ect.) There are more details I feel are autistic but I'm not sure how to word them !!"

"Talks in Video Game references and wired expressions. At one point she leaves a conversation because an Anime she wanted to watch was on. Helped me come to terms with my own Autism. Covered her face with a weird mask and a towel (separate events) because she didn't want to show her face in Public. Gets pissed off that someone messes with the her Neo Featherman Figure (basically the Persona equivalent of Power Rangers or Super Sentai). Overall just a massive nerd."

"First of all: The way she sits . little gremlin girl. Second of all. Social awkwardness (she has SO MUCH). Third. She's 15 years old and an international hacker, i mean come on, you cant DO THAt unless youre at least a little autistic. 4. Constantly tries to wear things over her head to avoid being looked at. Five. Her room is the dirtiest place on the planet, filled with snacks and figurines etc. Sixth. Look come on please shes autistic"

"She has social anxiety, doesn't really understand social norms and relates a lot of her real life experiences to video games. She also hyperfixates on the things she's working on and says a lot of strange things without thinking about it."

"Futaba is intensely afraid of social interaction (living in her room for years, unable to exit the house without a meltdown), including her almost constantly wearing headphones (which, to be, read as sensory comfort items). She's only really comfortable around her close friends and family, around who she becomes a lot more excitable and energetic. She has deep and passionate interests in the things she loves, and tends to become hyper focused on whatever shes tasked herself with, even neglecting her own health during which. It's very easy to equate her love of video games to a special interest, as it influences the way she sees the world, to the point where she calls the main character her "key item", since he helps her agoraphobia, saying she needs to "level up" to improve her social skills. To top it all off, her voice actress, Erica Lindbeck, has stated that she played Futaba as if she was autistic."

"Girl had so much autism stored in her body."

"It is very obvious in nearly everything she does that they intended for her to be autistic. Literally just watch almost any cutscene with her and you'll see it (well. Ideally after her palace is taken care of since she's going through stuff and the 'tism is less obvious as a result)"

"she is soooo autism girlswag coded. When you first befriend her and hang out, the characters all have trouble sort of connecting with her, but once they realize they are being way too obnoxiously formal/normal they start asking her about stuff she is interested in, which then she talks very excitedly about. Im sort of passively watching someone play persona 5 so i might have gotten something wrong but eee she is so coded to me <3 and not in a bad way imo ik sometimes things can be TOO stereotypical but yknow yknow"

"Struggles with social interactions, special interest in computers and video games, her English voice actor intentionally played her with the idea that she's autistic."

"She's obsessed with and so good with computers she was a world reknowned hacker before the story even began, she struggles with interacting with people and was bullied through out her entire childhood for being "weird" and being able to memorize books and other things. Her outfits almost always include her wearing headphones (which i personally hc to be to reduce sounds) and there are scenes where she experiences sensory overload that turns into panic attacks. A lot of her character arc is about how after a personal tragedy she completely isolated herself from the outside world and now shes trying to ease back into interacting with people with the support of her family and new friends. When trying to connect with her, the quickest way they got her to relax and open up was when one character got her talking about an in universe sentai show she loves. Also her English voice actor said in interviews that she performed Futaba with her being autistic in mind because everything abt her character just reads as autistic and seeing someone struggle w the same issues I did was super important to me when i got into p5."

"Futaba is incredibly autistic-coded. She couldn’t leave her room or speak to strangers due to trauma, but she also was “quirky” before the trauma. She’s a computer genius and can get so obsessed with her work that she doesn’t hear or acknowledge other people. She wears headphones almost all the time and sits with her knees up (odd posture). Lastly, her mother was known to also be “odd” and was also very absorbed in her work. Autism is often inherited, so my personal read is that both of them are autistic. I’m missing lots of things I’m sure but she’s the best."

"All of her interests are special <3, major social anxiety, partially nonverbal (just like me fr), one of the only people she's constantly jokingly mean to is also very autistic coded which idk if that's a me experience but i can only be joke mean to other autistic people. allistics wouldn't understand. She cannot sit properly!!! Very important she has that autistic ball sitting position"

"She’s a genius hacker nerd who up until certain events in the game never left her room or her house due to trauma. She’s gets nervous and overwhelmed very easily once she starts expanding her comfort zone, but she doesn’t let that stop her. At certain points when she has to interact with people she isn’t comfortable with she puts on a disturbing doll head mask. At one point she has a miniature meltdown in the middle of a crowded store, because she tried pushing her boundaries a little too fast and got overwhelmed until the protagonist was able to find her. She loves anime and collects figurines and gets annoyed when her display of them is messed with. Her personality is socially awkward and kind of bratty when she’s comfortable and I don’t mean that in a negative way at all, she’s great!"

"very bad with people, obsessed with programing and Nerd Shit, i love her and she is very cool"

"she has a massive special interest in technology, her entire character arc is helping her learn to socialize, she sits like a GREMLIN"

"she is a epic hacker gamer girl so we are within the margins for trans and autism, she has a hard time with eye contact, she has intense social anxiety and wahooooooo she has the special interests !! on a side note she has chronic fatigue so damn just like me fr!! and shes so fun!! ack!!!" End ID.]

[andromebaa]

Despair's Legacy

A Danganronpa AU

Part 3 - More Legacy Students

Here are the younger Legacy students!

Lolita

Lolita only exists because my brother forced me to make her and I am so glad he did because she's so fun and silly. Another stupid mish-mash idea cuz she's basically a younger and more obnoxious version of Tsumugi (she's a cosplaying otaku-ass nerd). My only wish is that I was a better character designer because her clothes would look more flashy and ridiculous. I just based her main outfit on something I used to wear when I was younger lmao.

Yes, she's also supposed to kind of look like Princess Piggles that was intentional.

Jin

Our protagonist, everyone! His main personality trait is that he's a little wussy baby. He's spent most of his life thinking he's been watched in the shadows and uh, he wasn't really wrong actually. I think the whole story was supposed to be kind of a coming of age/test of bravery for him. Overcoming his fears and all that. Apart from that he is a little bland. Sorry Jin.

Yes yes I did the stupid cringe Albus Severus thing to him I'm sorry I'm sorry. I didin't mention it before but Kyoko's dad actually died during the whole purging Junko thing at the start of the AU. So yeah we got the carrying on the name thing from that. Fun fact the first name I gave him I ended up using as Daiya's actual name. Funny how that kind of stuff happens.

Naomi

Everyone, our deuteragonist!

She's just a small version of Kyoko. No, but yeah, she likes being a little detective and getting into mischief. Kyoko sets up little crimes for her to solve. She's definitely a lot braver than her older brother and will ask the questions everyone else is afraid to say. I think they make a cute crime-solving duo.

I only realised fairly recently that she's very autistic-coded so I'll definitely canonize that.

Haruhi

Second youngest Legacy student! So young that she doesn't have a card yet totally did not make one for her because I didn't get far enough in the play-by-post to do it.

She's kid-sized, her birthday is on the 5th of June, she likes tending gardens and fantasizes about playing outside (where the real sun shines!!). She dislikes sitting still. Her parents are, according to her records, Leon and Sayaka. I like to imagine that Sayaka dressed her up like this against her will. The wings were a compromise.

Shion

This little asshole doesn't have a card either. Baby sized; August 8th; likes drumming; dislikes not having object permanence. You're never gonna fucking guess who his parents are. I think me and my brother made a joke that in this AU Monokuma poked holes in all the condoms.

Now I know what you're thinking - you didn't seriously put a baby into a killing game. Why? I dunno, it's funny.

His only personality trait is that he's wicked good on drums. It's played off as a joke to go with the whole family band stupid dumb fucking schtick I made. Haruhi was going to be part of it too but she kind of evolved into having her own personality and I'm so happy for her that she did.

And that's all of them! Looking back I kind of wish I made maybe one or two more kids cuz it's a pretty small roster but I managed to roll with it. As before, I have an embarrassing amount of lore about all of them so please feel free to ask if you want!

Part 2 - - - Part 4

[katatonicimpression]

One of the things I love about Shinobi objectively being stupid and weak and lazy and ineffectual is that I feel so many abuse narratives focus on showing the victim ISN'T the things the abuser said and THAT'S why they shouldn't have been abused, whereas with Shin yeah he IS these things and guess what STILL DOESN'T DESERVE ABUSE. I don't think that was the authorial intent, the text is rarely at all sympathtic to Shin, but it's how I choose to handle it. That yeah, he is a big stupid screwup and vain and obnoxious and objectively not a good person and still 110% worthy of sympathy and compassion and should never have been hurt because there's never any justification for that. SORRY FOR THE RAMBLE just I in general love Shin being dumb bc it's funny but also this!

YOU'RE SO RIGHT! I enjoy making fun of him but it's worth saying this!

I'd also add that, if we set aside the times he's written as (or coded as) perv-y - those moments are 100% there for racist and biphobic reasons - his other character flaws are clearly there as a result of Sebastian. They're not the "reason" for the abuse, it's the exact opposite.

And yeah the framing is weird because it's not at all actually sympathetic to him, but also very reluctant to have him actually be the biggest baddie in the room at any point and will constantly have shit things happen to him while he achieves no real villainy.

I think it's mostly coming from a (racist) desire to emasculate the character at every turn, but it winds up making him just not seem that bad and oh my god this got out of hand have a "keep reading"

OK right by my reckoning there are only 2 shin appearances where he's actually the main villain. The one where he kidnaps Warren and Betsy, and the x-force one that is a blatant rehash of it.

The betsy and Warren issue dedicates itself to just listing his damage and, while firmly not on his side, its still a pretty sympathetic take... or is it?

Maybe this was supposed to be an own and they just failed at that.

The x-force one is much more simplistic. He doesn't really get pathos, kidnaps some children and actually murders someone directly with his powers (for I think the first and only time?). It's genuinely ooc how he's actually a straight forward, mostly competent villain here.

So thats TWO issues where he's actually the main bad guy and one of them is a deep exploration of his trauma.

His other appearances are either a story where he's in opposition to other villains, or he's just fucking about (e.g. marauders). With the former, it's that desire to emasculate him again. He's almost always shown as a complete mess next to these other, scarier villains.

Shout out to this very brief cameo where he apparently does some behind the scenes scheming with the Mandarin. Apparently he can be a competent villain so long as he's off the page.

But the rest of the time he's:

Failing at being a super villain in japan

Ignoring Cordelia Frost's weird plans

Being ghosted by the British hellfire club

Failing at being an Upstart

Playing chess with some guy

et alia...

None of this makes me hate him I'm sorry.

The absolute weirdest one framing wise is the storm thing. Shin is coded as a predator. He invites ororo for dinner and drugs her drink. Coding-wise, they're not being subtle here.

But then we immediately find out that it's Candra's plan AND that she's also drugging/otherwise manipulating Shinobi. AND it's implied that they have a physical relationship. So... that's not consensual. It literally can't be.

So, in an issue where he's unambiguously coded as a date r*pist, he's implicitly being sexually abused.

And like..... um???? What am I supposed to take from that?

My best guess it's that it's a 90s "haha man under a woman's control how pathetic of him" but like.. I am incapable of reading it like that.

It's just throughout: this character is intended to be seen as bad but for toxic, racist and queer-phobic reasons, but if you read him without that lens, it's just: "Oh, he's kind of a dumb jerk I guess. He should probably quit drinking."

Basically, if you think a man being weak and ineffectual makes him worthy of scorn, then he'll come across as villainous.... which is kind of ironic I guess.

...........................

..um so this got off topic from the original ask. I just started typing about how his characters framed and it became a whole thing sorry.

[tippytopdays]

Just a Typical Morning

literally slapped a fresh coat of paint on this little thing and did some proofreading, posting here because it's not really a story i feel like belongs on my Ao3

_____________________________________________________________

A snap. A small flare of light. A hiss. The light goes out with a brief spike of pain. The scent of nicotine filling his lungs, sitting there for a moment before being lazily huffed back out. He rolled the cig between his teeth, canines catching the paper.

For once, it was a slow day. Quiet too, if the silent city ruins said anything about it. No howling of some crazy Zed in the alleyways, no rushing of cars; nothing. Then again it’s probably something like, 6AM if he thought about it, since the sun wasn’t high enough yet to count as day.

Well as close to day as it could get, he assumed. It wasn’t like he knew anything else, anyways.

Deimos gripped the cig between his fingers, watching the flecks of tobacco sprinkle over the railing. The balcony was small, granted, but it was enough. Throw on a piece of metal or two along the railing and it even made for some quick cover if there was an attack. Overhead assault was harder to avoid, especially from so high up.

The end of the cigarette glowed dimly as he inhaled, smoke trailing into the air.

He didn’t like being up this early. It was too quiet.

Normally by now he would probably be going downstairs to fetch some grub from the cafeteria with Ford, talk about their evenings or whatever else would come up. Sometimes he’d be scrambling to get his gear on to check whatever combusted in the lower levels. Of course if it was the mercs just screwing around and breaking whatever had gotten mixed up with their roughhousing then he’d get upset. Fixing that shit isn’t easy you know, but it wasn’t worth straining his voice anyways; Ford could do that for him in spades.

He sighed in a soft plume of smoke. Really, what else can you do when the hired help has to be a bunch of knuckleheads, anyways?

Whatever it was, he definitely wasn’t throwing any parties for them that’s for sure. Last thing anyone needed was those guys keeping everyone up all night by being loud as fuck.

Another drag, a slight shake in his fingers as they met his lips.

His arms hurt like Hell from having to spend so long rewiring that at this point he was surprised they were even remotely steady at all. And when he thought about it him waking up at the ass end of dawn because the comms had crashed again was probably a good reason as to why he was up so early. Digging around in cramped crawl spaces was not how he wanted to spend his day; and being tossed into a late night mission on top of it was even lower on that list.

Damn his bed seemed real inviting, early morning or not.

When was the last time he’d slept in? Or just had a day off? Sure they’d had low days along with the high ones, but when did they get an actual break where they could relax? The last time there wasn’t some kind of emergency or chaos outside their doors was at least a decade ago at this point, maybe less. He didn’t really have it in him to care much, since he didn’t keep track of the days anymore. No point to it.

More smoke filled his lungs. He really should just get some extra shut eye, rest until he felt better.

But, for some reason, he couldn’t.

He’d snapped to awareness with a cold feeling of dread weighing down his stomach. It had been so strong he’d shot up, halfway reaching for the pistol at his bedside thinking someone was there. But there wasn’t. It was dead quiet, like the moments after a bad mission.

Maybe that’s why he was outside right now. The casual air helped to mask the intent in his eyes as he scanned the skyline.

A glint of reflected light from a nearby rooftop nearly made him crush the cig in his hands as he tensed. Eyes snapping upwards he focused, but relaxed when all he found was a few familiar faces among one of the many teams patrolling the area. He snorted, smoke curling around his face.

Another pull, the cold wash of nicotine a nice cleanse to the tension in the air.

He was overthinking this.

And after all they’d been through, who could blame him really? Being constantly on the run would make anyone look over their shoulder or keep a gun within reach. Still, it wasn’t like the Agency knew where they were this time. To add to it nothing could get through the blast doors even if it tried. They’d tested those well enough for him to be certain.

It was just a very quiet night and he wasn’t used to it. That had to be it.

The cig smoldered between his lips in one last drag before he flicked the used butt over the railing. Arms raising over his head he stretched with a groan, “Damn,” He muttered, wincing at the series of pops going up his spine, “Ya’d think I’m getting old with how I crack like a handful of spaghetti.”

He was done with his morning smoke anyways.

Mobility returned to his spine Deimos rubbed at his neck he turned his back to the city, meandering back inside. Hitting the switch beside the glass door to slide it shut behind him he glanced at the clock on the comically cluttered bedside table he owned. Yep, too early for him to be this awake, if the glaring red 7:37 was anything to go by. Well mostly glaring, since his cap was haphazardly draped over it when he’d tossed it there yesterday. Or last night, he didn’t look at it then because he was too busy flopping face first into bed.

A healthy gurgling from his stomach brought him out of his thoughts.

That’s right. He didn’t eat last night either. Not really any time to when you’re face first into the ugly end of some bastardized wiring job done nearly half a decade ago. He hummed under his breath.

Was it too early to get something from the cafeteria? It was still morning he supposed; maybe some breakfast sausage would be left this time since he’d be able to get there first for once. The thought alone was tantalizing despite the exhaustion tugging at the edge of his conscious.

Did he even change after all that sweatshop work yesterday?

Pulling at the hem of his tank top he took a whiff. Yep, stunk of old sweat and probably a hint of grease; he didn’t. Pants probably didn’t smell too great either but who would check those and not come off like a weirdo? A quick sweep of the cargo pants half hanging off his hips proved them to be good enough with no obvious stains or rips.

Deimos shrugged. It was good enough. At least he didn’t stink of blood or anything, otherwise Doc would be on his ass hard. Though it wasn’t like anyone would be able to tell the difference in this sausage fest anyways. He’d be fine for a quick early morning bite.

Just needed to grab his jacket and boots and he’d be good to go.

Deimos scratched the stubble lining his jawline while he scanned the room. He’d taken off his jacket somewhere mid collapse but he couldn’t place where. He wasn’t one to lose things—most of the time at least—but sometimes it felt like they just up and disappeared. With his luck it would probably end up in a really obnoxious place like behind the bed or something. Not like that would happen since the thing was braced up against the wall in the corner so it had to be somewhere around here.

He paused when he noticed the distinctly leather looking lump laying on the floor beside said furniture.

Oh. There it is.

Approaching the bed he picked up his jacket off the floor. It still had some dust from when he’d been crawling through the vents last night as he swiped a hand over the shoulder. He grimaced at the sticky webbing that stuck to his fingers; a few cobwebs, too. Gross. Shaking it to clear out any excess dust he threw it on haphazardly, adjusting his pants once it was snugly over his shoulders. Belt tightened up again he’d turned towards the table and nearly tripped over his own boots.

Welp, at least those weren’t far either. Glad he’d had half the mind to take those off before crashing.

Cursing a bit under his breath he snatched his cap off the clock. With a quick sweep of his hand through his hair to straighten it a bit he put his hat on and sat on the bed, scooting his boots closer with a foot. Once they were laced up and buckled he got to his feet, ready for the day—or at least, the really early morning.

He glanced at the clock again. It blinked lazily at 8AM.

Eh, early enough. But the call of some sweet breakfast sausage was not to be ignored.

The moment he turned towards the door there was a series of firm knocks. He jumped, nearly tripping again as he cracked out, “Uh, yeah?” Damn that cig wasn’t enough apparently because his nerves must still be fried from that morning.

“Deimos, it’s me.”

His lips quirked a bit, confused. Normally, Doc only went after him when something broke or got jammed up again but a glance at the tablet resting on the table face up didn’t reveal a blinking light for a missed message. Unless something went wrong in the handful of seconds he’d been standing there then why was he trying to talk to him now of all times, “Hang on.” Tromping across the room he swiped his code in, the door opening with a hiss.

Doc was standing in front of his room, arms behind his back and head turned away as he kept his focus down the hall before turning to face him. He scanned him head to foot, “You look like shit.”

Deimos rolled his eyes with a huff, “Good morning to you too, Doc.” Leave it to him to state the obvious. Not like he didn’t already feel like crap in more than a few ways. He propped an arm against the door as he nodded towards him, “What’s up?”

2B stood a bit straighter, and just by his posture alone he had a feeling that whatever he was going to say wasn’t good, “Boss called in this morning, we have another assignment.”

Well he wasn’t wrong.

Deimos sighed, traces of smoke licking at his tongue as he tossed his head back, “Seriously? Now? Doc I haven’t eaten yet.” As if to prove his point his stomach made yet another unhappy glug. Both men glanced down, the tech sweeping a hand towards it with brows raised.

“I can tell.” Doc merely returned his gaze placidly, “Have you seen Sanford yet?”

He shook his head, “Nah. Haven’t left until now.” Though if he were to take a guess, he’d say the demolition’s expert would be working out somewhere.

It seemed they shared the same thought as 2B nodded, “I assume he might be downstairs at this hour. I did hear some commotion from one of the training decks.”

He chuckled a bit. Typical Ford.

“I want you to be ready within the hour, Deimos. You’ll get to eat when you get back. I’ll tell the staff in the kitchen to keep something in the oven for you.” He turned around, fully intending to leave before adding, “And also, get some washing done when you get back. You smell like a corpse.” With that he took his leave while Deimos scowled at his back.

Great. Of course it would be doc who’d notice.

Still he only sighed, punching the code into the panel to lock the door behind him. Getting his gear from the locker he had downstairs would only take a couple of minutes, and Ford should already be up if he was taking up a training room.

Just another day in Nevada, per the usual.

Things never really change.

[icebloomed]

there’s so much i could say when it comes to chie’s problems with herself, and i’ll start by saying: she barely has any at all. compared to the rest of the IT, chie has the least amount of issues. people constantly discuss how chie struggles with her femininity because she’s jealous of yukiko. i find this... wrong? i see this entire scene as code of a misunderstanding of her inner feelings that are bloated by her shadow coming forward. when chie’s shadow goes on about how yukiko has perfect skin, beautiful hair, guys just adore her, and is totally perfect, this feels actually romantically coded. chie’s been yukiko’s friend since their childhood where they met at the riverbank because yukiko’s parents told her she couldn’t keep a puppy and she ran away. they’re so connected to each other. the idea that yukiko could one day leave her is terrifying -- chie doesn’t seem to realize that she could leave too and still be with yukiko wherever she goes. where yukiko goes, chie will go. she likes that yukiko is dependent on her. she likes feeling needed by her and seen. yukiko sees chie as her prince charming. there’s SUCH romantic subtext here on both their sides. i really think chie’s shadow points out all these things because chie’s actually in love with her best friend and wasn’t aware that was what she felt. chie’s shown she’s the worst when it comes to understanding other’s emotions. she’s not very understanding and she’s crass and callous. she’s, to put bluntly, obnoxious, and she knows it and that doesn’t seem to bother her. her lack of empathy would make sense back onto herself.

i feel she saw saki’s shadow and said “wait, my soulmate is a girl?” up until that moment she never realized she could actually like women. the midnight channel rumor begins by chie telling her friends to watch it at midnight on a rainy night because you’ll catch a glimpse of your soulmate. she’s invested by the notion it’s real. i know chie shows attraction to yu right away. but, who doesn’t? literally every single girl has had a crush on yu at one point. it’s canonly shown he makes you question your sexuality. when you’re bought up under the idea you’re only allowed to like men, of course you’re going to think the mysterious and attractive transfer student from the city who is tall, has striking features, intense eyes, and doesn’t say much catches your eye -- he also caught everyone else’s. i don’t think this makes chie bisexual. characters catch feelings for yu, and they discover a deeper part of themselves through those feelings. sexuality is a fluid concept. it can change overtime. yu is never shown to really return anyone’s affections either. he’s downright savage in his rejections. he leaves yumi standing alone in the drama club. chie basically forgot all about yu the moment she heard yukiko was kidnapped and these feelings aren’t shown ever again outside of her link -- which, by the way, is entirely centered around her relationship with yukiko. 

chie is actually a very feminine character. i’m not sure where the idea she’s a tomboy came from when she dresses feminine? skirts, cute styles, pins on her clothes. her hair is short, but that’s a ridiculous notion because if she was THAT insecure with her femininity she would grow her hair out. long hair is often revered as a feminine trait.

being athletic does not suddenly make you a tomboy. chie just likes training and working out. she lifts weights, has workout gear and equipment, she’s into clubs, and i think the girls soccer club would be up her alley with how hard she can kick. chie really has a perfect blend of masculine and feminine qualities. she doesn’t strike me as someone who knows how to apply makeup, but that doesn’t mean she’s against wearing it. she make yosuke look like a joke in drag. i feel that’s half intentional and half unintentional considering it looks pretty sloppy. her room is shown to have cute stickers, plushies, movie posters on her wall -- very teenager. she’s just a girl who likes kung-fu. that’s one of her titles even. the parts of her link that express the idea she isn’t feminine are once with a grasshopper landing on her back and nanako picking it off. she has a positive reaction when yu tells her she’s feminine. it’s almost like: hell yeah i am, i’m a girl aren’t i? and the other times are with the one guy who wants to ask yukiko out. chie often gets jealous of guys giving yukiko attention because, i believe, she just wants yukiko’s attention for herself and doesn’t like the idea of competition. many don’t have the nerve to approach yukiko because they either strike out or chie’s right around the corner coming to yell at them to back off. this isn’t really picking at chie’s insecurities. it’s picking at how he’s someone who doesn’t know or understand yukiko. he even insults yukiko’s laugh and said that’s chie rubbing off on her and she was better off depressed. chie gets angry and protective over this and tells him flat out to back off and to stay away from yukiko. i really fail to see where people get the tomboy ideology from. none of these things will make you a stereotypical tomboy. the notion is INCREDIBLY insulting that she’s boxed in by this when she’s shown to have characteristics of the opposite. she’s rough around the edges, but she’s soft inside. ice is her element, it makes sense. she has many male friends, too. but she also has female friends. chie’s popular. she isn’t all that graceful, she’s outspoken and blunt. but i can’t see her objecting to doing more girl-ish things or ever refusing to hang out with the other girls in the group either. they’re all shown to be close.

chie’s probably the only IT member i can see who wouldn’t have a dungeon manifested. we all know it’d be a bruce lee inspired movie type deal based off her favorite trial of the dragon movie. her insecurities are so normal. she is the most normal character in the group. she works great for an early shadow fight because, after saving yukiko, her problems are worked out. yosuke says they seem closer than ever now and they both seem happier. yukiko’s link is understanding her place in the world and the importance of it. and chie’s is just wanting to be with yukiko and protect those she cares about.

Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.

i don’t believe for one second tomoe’s aesthetics are based on chie’s want to be more feminine. as, stated above, the insecurity isn’t even there tbh. it’s only there as chie’s afraid to lose yukiko, with deep implications she has romantic interest in yukiko. i believe tomoe’s features are entirely based off of her affections for yukiko. her shadow puts such heavy weight on the exact traits that tomoe has in likeness to her. exceptionally beautiful with porcelain skin, long dark hair, and charming features. yukiko’s character, even in the concept art, was always going to be based off of a traditional asian beauty. tomoe has both yukiko and chie’s traits. tomoe also wears red lipstick on her visor, and who’s signature color do we know happens to be red? yukiko.

tomoe has concepts of chie as well. she’s a blend of the both of them. yukiko inspires chie to be who she is. chie looks up to yukiko as her hero. tomoe having muscles and abs are a show of strength and masculinity that play on chie’s will to protect those she loves and her athleticism. her outfit looks like the kill-bill jumpsuit. bruce lee also wore one just like this. it’s where the idea originated from to give the bride hers.

[prettyboongi]

BTS Reaction - They React To You Giving Them a Gift

[Note: Hello readers! This is my first BTS fanfic with actual dialogue. I’ve been working on this for awhile and I feel pretty proud of the results. I really hope you all enjoy. Bye!}

Seokjin 

“I’m home!,” Seokjin yells as he walks into the living room of the apartment you two share. He has had a long and stressful day at the studio so seeing the sight of you walking towards him wiped away any tiredness he’s been feeling. 

“Hey baby,” you greet him. You wrap your arms around his neck and give him a tender kiss. “How was your day?”

“Super exhausting,” he sighs, “I’m just glad I’m finally home though”. Before he goes in for another kiss, you stop his mouth with your manicured hand. 

“Wait,” you said as you released yourself from his embrace. “I got something for you. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

“Oh honey, you didn’t have to give me anything,” he says as he complies with your instructions.  

“No peeking!,” you playfully exclaim. You lightly jog to the next room to grab his present and once you return you place the present in Jin’s hands. “Okay, open.” 

Jin opens his eyes to see a paperback book in his hands. He lets out a lighthearted laugh as he reads the title: 101 Jokes That Will Make Anyone Laugh Out Loud. “What’s this?” 

“I found it when I was out running errands today. It made me think of you, my little comedian”. 

To the average person, this gift would come off as weird and cheesy but you knew that how perfect it was for Jin since he was the embodiment of weird and cheesy. And best of all, you loved putting a huge smile on his face. 

Jin leans in and lovingly kisses your cheek. “I absolutely love it. Thanks darling, now I can’t wait to unleash these genius jokes on the guys.” 

You knew that the guys will come to hate Jin for constantly belting out awful jokes from the book and will hate you for giving Jin the cursed book. Hey, maybe deep down inside, annoying the boys was your intention. But at the end, putting a smile on your man’s face was the true icing on the cake. 

Yoongi

Yoongi was held up in his studio, diligently working on some tracks for his mixtape when he got a call from you. 

“Hey,” he flatly answers. 

“Hey, Yoongi,” you reply in a chipper voice. “I’m heading toward your studio right now. You still working on the mix-tape?” 

“Yeah, still working. Why’re you coming over? Did you leave something here?” 

“Can’t I just pay my loving and hardworking boyfriend a visit?” you cooed. 

On the other side you could hear suck the air through his teeth. “I dunno (Y/N). I still have a lot to work on.” 

“I won’t stay for long, just five minutes tops. I promise,” you say reassuringly. 

Yoongi hesitates at first but soon agrees to the quick visit. “Sure, come over. You remember the code, right?”

Fifteen minutes later, you finally arrive at Yoongi’s studio. Before punching in the room’s code, you took a moment to make sure you have everything together. Even though it was just going to be a quick visit, you still wanted to look cute for your industrious boyfriend. And most importantly, you made sure that you had the one thing that was the whole point of the visit, which was safely in your tote bag. 

You walk into a slightly dim yet warmly lit room. Besides the several energy drink cans and empty Starbucks cups, the studio wasn’t terribly messy. Once he notices your presence, Yoongi swivels his chair to face you. 

  “Jeez,” you start, “you look like absolute shit.” And you weren’t exaggerating. With his ruffled bleached hair, his bags under his eyes and his skin paler than usual, he looked like a zombie. 

Yoongi gives you a tired smile. “You’d look like this if you’ve been working 16 hours straight.” He gets up to give you a quick peck on the lips. “Wish I looked as good as you right now.” 

‘Oh I bet,” you respond as you cheekily flip your hair. “Got something for you.” Excitedly, you slip off the tote bag from your shoulder and hand it to Yoongi. 

Yoongi takes the bag, utterly surprised and a bit flustered. “Babe, you really shouldn’t have.” 

“Go ahead, open it, “ you insisted. 

Yoongi gives you a quick smile before looking into the bag. “What?,” he says with his left mouth agape. He pulls out a black fleece blanket, perfectly folded and tied with a silver ribbon. 

With glee, you exclaim, “It’s a blanket! I know you’ve been taking nap breaks here and even spend some nights here during times like this. Well, I thought if you’re locking yourself in your studio, you might as well stay nice and cozy. Do you like it?” 

“Like it? I absolutely love it,” he answers, showing off his gummy smiles that you adored so much. After setting the blanket down, he gently places his hands on your hips and pulls you into a big hug. “Whenever I get to use it, I’ll always think of you.” 

“Hope you’ll let me use the blanket whenever I visit you” you say into his ear. 

With a mischievous smile, his says to you, “Well, since you are cute and thoughtful… maybe.” 

Hoseok

“Hey, Hobi! Guess what I found?,” you yelled as you barge into your living room. Hoseok was sitting at the kitchen island, scrolling through Twitter, when you surprised him with your abrupt arrival. 

“What?” he asks. 

“This!”. You pulled out what was behind you and revealed a tall and kitschy pink flamingo lawn stand. It was as if the thing was pulled from a 1950s shopping catalog. 

Hoseok smiled but honestly didn’t know how to react. “Uh, why do you have that?”

You set the flamingo between you two, bright pink and standing on one leg with all its glory. “On my way back from my walk, someone in our neighborhood was having a yard sale. And you know me, I don’t pass out on any yard sale I stumble across. And while I was looking at all of the so corny shit they had there, this eventually came to my sight and it called to me: Buy me (Y/N).” You gave the 3ft tall flamingo a friendly slap. 

Hoseok couldn’t help but laugh at your spontaneity, one of the reasons he fell for you. “ So I’m guessing you wanna put it out on our front lawn for all to see." 

"Nope,” you pushed the pink plastic beauty towards Hoseok. “This is my gift to you and you only." 

"Really? Why’s that?”. 

“Well when I first noticed this thing, it instantly made me think of you.” Hoseok raises one of his eyebrows as you continue. “I mean, flamingos -this one and real ones- are cool, lively and flamboyant, exactly like you.”

Hoseok quietly examines the flamingo. “This thing,” he thought, “was gaudy as all hell”. It was half your size, the color of it was an obnoxious shade of pink and it was plainly super cheesy. But seeing how happy it made his loving girlfriend and it’s a gift just for him, Hobi had no choice but to love this monstrosity. 

He picks up the flamingo and gives you a warm, heart shaped smile. “This is such an awesome gift. I love it, and you, so much." 

Namjoon 

"Okay no peeking!" 

You were leading your boyfriend Namjoon towards the front yard of your home. 

"Please don’t tell me you bought me a car,” said Namjoon, trying to his excitement. 

You scoff. “Please, on my salary? But I promise it’s just as good and fancy as a car, maybe even better.” Once you reached where you placed his gift, you stopped him with your hands still covering his eyes. “Okay, are you ready?” When he nods his head, you take your hands off. “Open!,” you shout. 

Namjoon opens his eyes to see a light gray tandem bike about two feet away from him. He turned to you, with a puzzled look on his face. “A tandem bike?” He’s flashing a huge smile, his adorable dimples included, but is still perplexed over such a random gift. “It isn’t my birthday and I’m definitely certain it isn’t your anniversary either." 

You walk over to him and wrap your arms around his waist. "I know but I’ve always wanted to ride a tandem bike with someone and luckily you already like going out on bike rides. I thought it was perfect, something we can share together." 

Namjoon had to admit that the gift was super thoughtful and that he was lucky to have someone to share his interests with. He can already anticipate the stares and silent judgment from strangers the moment they take a load of the bike, but he didn’t care. A gift from you,  even something as eccentric as this, is something to be cherished. 

Namjoon held you from your behind and kissed you on top of your head. He then tilts your head back so you can look up at him, simply to ask, "You wanna go for a ride?" 

Jimin

It was Valentine’s Day, your favorite holiday for two reasons. One, because you have always been a sucker for anything romantic and sentimental. And two, because you get to spend it with your sweet boyfriend Jimin. Ever since you two started dating, Valentine’s Day was one of the few holidays where you two splurge and get something special for each other. It wasn’t about whose present was more expensive, it was more about the gesture of buying something with your true love in mind. 

And this year, you’re feeling pretty proud of yourself with what you’ve gotten for Jimin. You knew him like the back of your hand, which made gift shopping for him even more easy. 

This year, Jimin planned out date night for you two: just a quiet and sensual dinner at home. With candles, rose petals, champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, the works. He even took the time to make a delicious meal for two, something he normally doesn’t do. With all of his hard work, you couldn’t help but fall in love with him all over again. 

After dinner and a few glasses of champagne, you two found yourselves passionately kissing on the couch in your dimly lit living room. You were so busy distracted by his soft lips and his strong arms, you had almost forgotten about his gift. You playfully push him away from you and say to him, "Before this escalates to something else, I wanna give you your Valentine’s day gift." 

"Come on, baby, can we wait until a little be later?” he says in a husky voice as he tries to pull you back in. 

You push his chest again. “No, I really wanna give it to you now,” you pout. 

“Well me as well but you’re exactly helping." 

You give him a look, "Jimin…" 

He lets out a quiet laugh all the while cupping your face. "I’m just teasing, honey. Of course you can give your gift." 

You then leaned towards the glass coffee table in front of where you two were sitting, grasping at the rectangular box with box hands. The box was plain white that was tied by a dark red ribbon. "Here, Happy Valentine’s Day,” you cheerfully say, placing the gift in on his lap. 

With great anticipation, Jimin untied the ribbon and opened the box. He took out and held up what was inside: an extremely soft, cream colored cashmere sweater. Jimin couldn’t help but break out a huge smile on his face, you knew him so well. “Thank you, baby, this is such a sweet gift.” He was about to try it on when you stop him. 

“Maybe you should wait until later to try it on,” you say as a confused look appeared on his face. “I mean why put something on when you’re just gonna take it off in the next couple of minutes. 

With biting your bottom lips and giving him hungry looks, it was good of an invitation Jimin could take. 

Taehyung 

It was late afternoon by the time you got to Taehyung’s apartment. Three weeks since the last time you two were together ever since the incident. As you stood in front of Taehyung’s door, memories from that very day flood your mind, as vivid as it happened the other day…

"Hey (Y/N) please put that down!,” Taehyung pleads to you as you picked up his most prized possession: his very first camera, given by his great aunt when he was a child. 

You ignore him as you walk around his bedroom, examining the object as if it was your first time seeing it. “Relax Tae, I just wanna take a look at it.”

“You’ve seen it a million times before. I’m not messing around!”

Out of annoyance, you sighed and walked over to hand it to him. However, on your way to Taehyung, you trip over your own shoes like the moron that you are, losing your balance with the camera flying out of your hands. As you fall to the ground, you hear the sound of the camera hitting the wood flooring with a sickening crash. While not totally shattering to pieces, several parts were broken off and scattered across the ground. There’s a brief silence as Taehyung got up then crouched down to his broken camera. He examined his precious gift while you finally stood up. 

“Tae, I-,” you opened before Taehyung stopped you with a raised hand. 

“I told you to not mess with this. You knew how important this camera is to me,” he says with a steady yet clearly angry tone. He looks at you, his expression looks like he’s about to explode. 

“I know, I’m so sorry,” you attempt to help him pick up the scattered pieces but it stops you again. 

“Just… please leave." 

"Tae-" 

"Leave! I mean it!" 

You grimace as you remember him raising his voice at you, something he has never done with you. You and Taehyung have been best friends for years, and sure there’s been plenty of times when your foolishness has caused him grief, you knew that you really fucked up this time. Seeing him so angry and hurt broke your heart and him icing you out ever since hasn’t helped at all. You tried calling and texting him a hundred times but of course he hasn’t responded to any. The only reason you knew that he was home was because you wouldn’t quit badgering Jimin for information. 

"I really hope it works out, (Y/N),” Jimin said to you earlier today. 

I hope so as well, you thought to yourself. You gave a few loud knocks on his door and waited patiently. On the other side, Taehyung looked through the eye hole and sighed. Once you opened the door, you were instantly happy to see his face but that quickly changes when you notice the stoic look on his own.  

“What are you doing here, (Y/N)?, he asks with his arms crossed in front of his chest. 

You nervously chuckled. "Just came to pay a visit to my best friend.” You see him raise his eyebrow in disbelief and sighed. “Can I please come in? I just wanna talk”. 

Taehyung was still furious at you and frankly wasn’t ready to see you, let alone speak to you. But the sad but hopeful look in your eyes weakened him inside. He moves aside and gestures to you to come inside his apartment. 

As you both sit down on his sofa, you anxiously try to avoid Taehyung eye contact. He was staring right into you, waiting for you to speak. “Well?" 

You clear your throat before you begin to speak. "First things first, I just wanna say that I’m so sorry for not listening to you and breaking your camera. I’ve been feeling terrible ever since then-" 

"Yeah, imagine how I felt,” he interjected. 

“Right,” you gave out a nervous chuckle. Wow he is not gonna make this easy for me, you thought to yourself.“ 

"Also,” you began again, “this time apart has got me thinking. About how much our friendship truly means to me. And that I’m truly lost without you.” Taehyung’s eyes widened a bit while you felt your face getting hot from embarrassment. It was true; Taehyung was the sunshine of your life. You loved how comfortable you were with him. Every text and phone called lifted your spirits. He was alway available whenever you needed a shoulder to cry on. You loved how much of a  caring and friendly guy he was. You, in every sense of the word, loved him. "Um I got your something,” you said as you reached in your bag. 

Taehyung, whose expression has softened, wasn’t expecting you to get you anything. Or to say you were lost without. “You really didn’t need to buy anything…” He stops once you take out his present from your bag. A camera, nothing like the vintage one his great aunt gave him but rather one of those cute mini instant cameras you’d see on some Tumblr aesthetic blog. Okay, Taehyung really wasn’t expecting that. 

“I know it isn’t the same camera your aunt gave you and I can’t afford to buy a fancier one,” you said in a rush, “but I hope this makes up for what I did. Even by a little bit”. 

Taehyung takes the package and takes a look at it. After a moment, he burst into a fit of laughter. 

Flustered again, you said, “Yeah I know its dumb but I thought it was kinda cool, so…” You trailed off as you couldn’t find the words to finish. It was only when Taehyung finally stopped laughing he took your hand and tenderly held it in his. Jolting a bit, you looked up at him. He was smiling at you. 

“Thank you, (Y/N). This really means a lot." 

You couldn’t help but break out a happy smile. "So, you’re not angry at me anymore?,” you ask. 

Taehyung caresses the back of your hand before answering. “After getting a present like this, from someone like you, how can I be?”

Jungkook

It was Jungkook’s birthday and tonight you, him and the boys were spending an intimate dinner party at your home. Even though you two have been together for only 4 months, you knew you were hopelessly in love with Jungkook and wanted to throw an amazing birthday dinner. You spent the entire day cleaning up your home, running last minute errands, cooking up a fabulous (or at least edible meal), and made sure you looked drop dead gorgeous by the time everyone arrived. 

Dinner was heartily eaten, drinks were drank, jokes were made, everyone was having a great time. And to make things even better, Jungkook looked like he was having a fantastic time. He’d give you quick, loving glances throughout and occasionally squeezed your thigh from time to time. “You look so good tonight, babe” he whispered to you at one point, “I can’t wait when these fools leave and we move this party to the bedroom.” While not the most romantic thing to say but honestly what’s not to love about that? 

Once dinner and dessert was finished, it was time for the finale to this shindig. “Time to open presents!”, you squealed enthusiastically. You suggested that the order of the present giving should go from oldest of the group and ended with you being last. You anxiously wait as each person presented their gifts to Jungkook. You even had to rush some people who decided to break out in a speech (looking at you Jin and Namjoon). Once Taehyung’s turn was over, you were finally up. 

“Wow, you really are excited, (Y/N),” says Jimin

“I actually can’t wait to see myself,” Hoseok follows with.

You hand a perfectly wrapped box to your boyfriend, “I hope you love it, Kookiepants.” You give him a quick peck on his cheek as he carefully unwraps his gift. The whole room is silent in anticipation once Jungkook opens the box and looks inside. He holds up a black t-shirt while studying the front side. 

“A plain t-shirt?” Namjoon asks quizzically, “Doesn’t he already have enough of those?”

Jungkook silently shakes his head and turns the front side of the shirt to face the boys. It turns out to be not just a shirt but a shirt with the picture from their dates early in their relationship; a day spent at Disneyland. The picture showed Jungkook holding by the waist as you take a selfie of the both of you. 

“How…” Taehyung begins

“Nauseatingly cheesy,” Yoongi finishes. 

“Come on, Yoongi,” Jin says, “I think it’s pretty adorable”. 

“Coming from the king of cheesiness himself,” Yoongi fires back. 

You ignore the other’s banter and turn to Jungkook. “So,” you start, “do you like it?" 

Jungkook stares at the image on the shirt before turning his eyes to you. Suddenly, he cups your face and crashes his lips to yours. This abrupt action surprises you initially but you soon relaxed into his embrace, passionately kissing him back. 

This was such a very romantic moment for the two of you that you two haven’t noticed the awkwardness you two caused amongst the members. 

Jin tried to loudly clear their throat to break your heavy makeout session but you two wouldn’t budge. 

Namjoon then says quietly, "I guess it’s our time to leave”. The others silently filled out of the apartment, all the while you and Jungkook were lost in your own little world. What the boys didn’t know was that after they left, two finally broke away from each other. Still holding on to you, Jungkook tells you he loves you for the first time. And of course, you said it back to him. 

[chartedrights]

Golden Age AU Masterpost

For everyone lacking context, the Golden Age AU is just me riffing on every piece of comic book media I’ve ever consumed. Here are some single-paragraph rundowns I’ve made to keep track of things as I start to write!

The Board of Directors is analogous to the Justice League- they’re pretty much entirely people with superpowers (with the exception of Carol, at first), they’re very prestigious, and they come together to ward off larger threats like the impressive super powered task force they are. Or they used to. Membership’s sort of dropped, and people with powers are getting harder to find and recruit, and the big headliner who ran it left it in the hands of some nurse, which is like. So not sexy.

PEIP is PEIP- they fit right in where they were. In the shadows, in the dark, fighting the threats that the “special people” won’t, protecting people on a lower level than “oh god, the apocalypse,” because apparently the superheroes aren’t concerned with espionage or alien meteors anymore. The pricks. Mostly run by people without superpowers- as far as they know- and deeply concerned with keeping heroes responsible for their own actions. They would be oversight, if they were allowed to be.

CCRP Technical is an interesting place. Charlotte and Ted work there, for Sam, though neither of them is quite sure what it actually does. Paul was recruited in hopes he’d grow into upper management, but he didn’t have the ambition for it. Bill has been there for a decade or two now, ever since he started attending those meetings with Becky and Mrs. Davidson. Melissa... Melissa is their rising star. Mr. Davidson isn’t sure what they found in her, but he’s glad to see her succeed! Good for her! Four for you Melissa, you go Melissa!

Hatchetfield.... is Hatchetfield. It’s small, it’s insular, it’s full of gossip and weirdness and people with eccentric ideas of morality. It might be easier to admit that superheroes and supervillains exist, but let nobody say that the citizens of Hatchetfield ever took the easy road. They will walk uphill, in the snow, denying the supernatural both ways.

Paul is a real sweetheart. He’s autistic, he’s quiet, he likes his routine and the simple pleasures in life... and he just happens to be unkillable and he maybe possibly sort of has the ability to fly. He could be an excellent addition to either team, but he refuses to be a proper superhero, making him Hatchetfield’s most obvious target. Which in turn means that he often ends up acting like a proper superhero against his own will. He thinks Emma is perfectly lovely and still hasn’t noticed her committing crimes.

Emma is Hidgens’ Lab Assistant, which is code for “committing crimes for college credit,” and she does a lot of the footwork for him. Being a henchman definitely tops food service, lets put it that way. She also gets to follow in the family business- a long line of Perkins supervillains ended when Jane broke free and became a real hero for Tom’s sake. She always wanted to be a good person, but Emma is not as opposed to violence. She also cannot wait for Hidgens to level Hatchetfield, which is made complicated by the fact that she likes Paul rather a lot, and he likes Hatchetfield.

Hidgens is a supervillain. He never leaves his house, orchestrates incidents of immense damage to the civic infrastructure, and refuses to acknowledge that just maybe putting children into the path of radioactive chemicals is not a valid scientific experiment. He’s not necessarily a bad person, it’s just that his morals refute even the idea of black and white. More like blue and red. Orange and green. He is of the opinion that world peace can only be achieved by world domination, and therefore has begun a track to world domination. He and Sam have a blood feud of indeterminate origin.

Becky Barnes, low-level healer and walking anesthetic, somehow ended up in charge of the Board of Directors. The last leader disappeared three days after handing off control, and Becky is still looking for them. Becky is very conspicuously not looking for her ex-husband, however. It makes some people suspicious, and nobody more than Sam, who is Stanley’s most obnoxious cousin. Apparently, ruining Becky’s life runs in the family. Despite these troubling events, Becky does her best to keep the city standing and the world turning- she and Bill manage what they can, Carol and PEIP manage what they can’t. She’s still in a precarious place, however, and she’s looking for help.

Frank Pricely supplies everyone with gadgets. Hero and villain alike, everyone pays. Not always the same price, but everyone pays. He’s a neutral party, and he acts the part, but everybody likes to debate his loyalties. There’s no such thing as truly neutral, right? Everyone has their price- even him. It’s just a matter of what that price is.

Lex is his cashier, which means that she learned early on in her career in retail that the panic button is not half as good a first resort as the paralysis darts Frank keeps in the cash drawer. She has the ability to manifest objects, as long as she knows where they are. She needs a concrete location to pull them away from, which means that she snoops in every house she visits, checks the staff rooms of every store she enters. She can, on command, find you just about anything you need. For a price. She’s learning a lot lately, though, and what she learns about her powers might put her at risk.

Bill is one of the few members of the Board of Directors still standing. He and Becky get coffee all the time, and commiserate about the lack of help in Hatchetfield. He has telepathy, and certain illusionary abilities, which come in especially handy when he’s talking people down or trying to sneak hostages out of hostage situations. A gentle, well-intentioned man, Bill is not outwardly very intimidating, but he’s strong. Much stronger than most people would like to think. Becky keeps trying to hand off leadership to him, and he gently hands it back every time- he’s got other problems to deal with right now.

Formerly married to the infamous Perkins family heiress, Tom tries to live a nice, quiet life. He used to be a hero- and a damn good one- but Jane defected for him, and then died for it, and he carries more guilt than he probably should. Tom never thought of himself as special, really, and he still doesn’t. He can warp matter- twist it into shape, turn it from one thing to another, and he’s a fine craftsman when he wants to be. But it’s a dangerous thing to have on hand when you’re angry or frightened, and Tom still has an awful case of PTSD hanging around his neck. He’s doing his best to wrangle with it, but he’s going to need some help.

Ethan is just a teenager. Really, he promises. He absolutely swears. Nothing special about him! He’s just real intuitive! He and Lex have been looking into that whole “experimentation” thing they did at CCRP back when they were babies and it wasn’t even interesting! He’s just a mechanic, honestly. He’s a straight C student! He hasn’t even joined the cult off the coast on that houseboat!! He’s a good kid. No reason to be concerned at all.

Ted is also Hidgens’ henchman, but definitely the lower-ranked of the two. He applied hoping he’d make some friends, but thus far all he’s managed to do is fall in love with Charlotte, who is Sam’s henchman. It’s not going badly for him, but it’s not going well, either. He and Paul still work together. Every time Hidgens asks, Ted is like “Paul? Nah. He’s totally normal.”

Gary is a mob lawyer. He used to work for Emma’s family, but now he works for Sherman and Linda. They’re technically competition, and if they ever find out that he’s playing both sides he’ll absolutely die, but in the meantime he is racking up that cash. He is so rich. He is capable of great evil, and occasionally does terrible things, but overall he’s an affable guy. He and Charlotte had an unfortunate tryst once that ended with her tying him to the Welcome to Hatchetfield sign with his own scarf, but he still pines for her. She’s the one that got away. And continues to get away. cops hate her: local woman refuses to go to jail.

MacNamara still works for PEIP, which is only slightly a different job, on account of there being very public superheroes in this world. He and Xander have been married for ten years, but they are both under the (mistaken) impression that it wasn’t a real marriage because it was done undercover. He thinks about that and is very sad about it sometimes. But they’re partners, and that’s good enough that he can be content with it. For now. He has the ability to intensify or nullify other people’s superpowers, and he does his best to keep it quiet. He thinks there’s something noble about living without superpowers, and vaguely wishes that he and Chad’s roles were swapped- until he remembers that Chad has one (1) brain cell to his name.

Xander has the ability to speak to computers. It’s not flashy, at first glance. It doesn’t have the pizzazz of Paul’s gifts or the subtle mind fuckery of John and Bill’s. But he can know whatever he wants, can hear anything, tap any phone call, look through any webcam. He doesn’t, because he’s not a fucking creep, but he can. PEIP was lucky to find him before CCRP- and so was everyone else in the world. Xander’s not flashy in general- he keeps a lot to himself. He and John have been partners for a long time, and they still haven’t said they love each other. He still hasn’t told John that he’s a member of the Board. He still hasn’t told John that he and Paul are in the same book club.

Schaffer doesn’t need powers. You think she needs powers? Her power is that she breathes and death turns away. PEIP was built by good people like Schaffer, people with principles and strong hearts and ice cold spines of steel. Normal, human people, unremarkable except that they chose to be better. She’s fourth-generation PEIP, born and raised to believe in the service they do, the protection they provide. Some of the more bitter agents will say that Schaffer benefitted from nepotism. They will never say this in front of her, because deep down they know she did not and they know that she will prove it by kicking their asses. She and Carol used to date, but the strain of crossing enemy lines in what was, essentially, a Cold War between PEIP and the Board got to them both. Schaffer is the person Hidgens called after he got struck by lightning.

Charlotte is Sam’s henchman and quietly in the running for longest con ever pulled. One day she is going to off him and take his place as the leading supervillain in Hatchetfield, but that day is not today. She likes Ted, but Sam keeps telling her to kill him, so their relationship amounts to “the inherent eroticism of trying to murder each other”. Nobody is entirely certain how she does what she does, but she’s very, very good at her job. Emma looks up to her just a little. She had a therapist once. He tried to sleep with her. She no longer has a therapist. She does have a very lovely goldfish, however.

Mr. Davidson is MacNamara’s twin brother and Hidgens’ ex. His wife is a genuine bona fide Batman-level hero in a bigger city, so he occasionally gets kidnapped or tortured. Hidgens still writes him bitter and mildly threatening love ballads that he genuinely treasures and sends very heartfelt thank you notes for. His life is so messy. There’s so much drama. He’s also completely powerless and cheerful about it. (Re: the Working Boys.... he’s Chad. Chad MacNamara Davidson.)

Alice is developing absolutely no superpowers and she’s really really annoyed about it. She used to take this out on Lex, as teenagers will, but after Lex dropped out she began to regret that. Too little and much too late, but regret is regret. She keeps trying to mend that bridge, but it’s not working. Unfortunately for her, she’s still been seen with Lex and Ethan, and that’s enough. Imminent danger perceives no difference between friend and foe. Alice is full of a very different kind of potential, however, and sooner or later all that bottled-up anger and stress will lash out.

Deb, on the other hand, is an intern at the Board of Directors’ headquarters, which is now St. Damien’s given that Becky is in charge. Interns for heroes are much less common than henchmen working for villains, but Deb has a keen interest in coordination and overseeing operations. Bill hates having her on comms for missions, but she’s just... so good at her job. She can brew a pot of Red Bull twice-steeped coffee, arrange a date with Alice, avoid an international incident, redirect PEIP and talk Bill through defusing a bomb in the same ten-minute stretch. Lesbians can do anything. This is a fact. They are the backbone of our society.

Hot Chocolate Boy is full of secrets. And hot chocolate.

And speaking of St. Damien’s, do you recall poor Bridgette, who lost her eyesight in a horrible accident? I’m not saying Hatchetfield is going to have it’s very own Matt Murdock expy, but I am saying that. She’s blind, she’s Catholic, and she’s coming for your kneecaps.

Linda is a very low-level villain who operates out of her husband’s office and sics her Boating Club on people. Gerald should technically be a threat, given that it’s the Monroe family prerogative to slaughter rising heroes with an alacrity that distinguished them from all the other families in Hatchetfield. He is not. He’s barely even a henchman. Linda got all the bloodlust between the two of them, and she is out for blood from the start. Though initially quickly defeated, she grows in seriousness over the course of time and ends up a formidable threat with a weighty grudge against Becky and Lex. She’s not much in a physical fight, Linda, but she is deeply, deeply vindictive, and she’s willing to make any deals she has to to bring Becky down. Any deals. With anyone. Anything.

Sherman Young is a mob boss, and you know it. He’s a real creep and he’s got some sick hobbies, even for a man in his line of work, but somehow the 80s jacket and the comb-over mullet make it all worse. He’s the richest man in town, and that’s saying something, but if Linda has a say in things he won’t be for long. The Youngs, the Monroes, and the Perkins have been at war since the founding of the town, and Sherman is cutting down his competition. He might have even arranged for Jane’s accident to happen, but nobody is sure. Nobody living, anyway.

Sam is a villain. He’s not super or anything. He’s just a villain. He’s top-tier Joker-level normie, but he still goes toe-to-toe with all kinds of heroes. Notable for being pretty much exactly the same as his show counterpart in regards to his proclivity for threats and violence. He once told Paul to “talk to his fucking gun” only to find that Paul is, despite all outward appearances, fucking immortal. He is still very embarrassed about it. He’s up and coming in the Hatchetfield Villain circuit, but he’s definitely a threat. To who? Who can say. Somebody, somewhere.

Papa Ed is a PEIP informant, and he has the ability to speak to animals. He’s raising Peanuts to be a very small, very enthusiastic little squirrel spy.

Man in a Hurry is a former speedster who lost his powers and compensates for it by Being In A Hurry at all times.

Homeless Man is a CCRP agent. He specializes in camouflage and compassion. He doesn’t remember what came before, but he knows something did, and finding out what it was is all he has left to hope for.

Howard Goodman does not have superpowers, but he’s got gumption. Okay, I lied. He doesn’t have gumption. But he’s a very nice man.

[chancellormatt]

Just Another Orbit of the Sun

(Not Voltron. Just something I whipped up with last night, based off a dream I had. Might turn into a series)

New Years Eve - 2021

Miles didn’t care much for parties. They were loud, obnoxious and tended to keep him up on work nights. And of course, no awful party was complete without fireworks.

    That characteristic hiss followed by a sharp crackle and burst of light had been a regular occurrence throughout the evening. It was starting to grate on his nerves. And if that wasn’t doing it the music of the non-stop parade sure was. 

    Floats, marching bands, the works were active in the street. As a result, the sidewalks were crowded. Some watched the display, cheering. Others stumbled in and out of bars or simply drank on the street in obvious displays of intoxication. No one minded. They were all too excited.

    Miles weaved between and around these ones, not hiding his disdain, but not dwelling on it either. He, regretfully, had somewhere to be tonight.

    No, Miles didn’t care much for parties, and New Years Eve was the worst party of all. Practically the whole world decided to forgo such luxuries as sleep for one night to celebrate the arbitrary end and beginning of a unit of time. Just another orbit of the sun. What was so special about that? 

He'd hoped for a more reserved celebration this year. With the Covid pandemic of the year prior having neutered partying in much of the world, he’d been hopeful that this year would have been a repeat. But they’d had to go and make a vaccine. Even still he’d hoped people would’ve at least learned and recognized parties for the writhing, disgusting, virus-breeding cesspools that they were. 

    But then it happened.

    He sighed, letting his gaze finally tilt up to the sky above. More fireworks crackled, but beyond those, distant lights burned in the sky. They weren’t stars. Light pollution from the city made most stars invisible. These lights were varied in color. Some were stationary. Others zipped up and down the skyline, earning oohs and aahs from watching pedestrians. 

    They were alien ships.

    It had begun six months prior. Messages broadcasted from outside the solar system with insistent regularity. It had taken some time to decipher the messages, not on account of their complexity, but actually because of the lack thereof. Everyone was so busy trying to decode an alien message, that it was some time before anyone checked if it was actually something we already understood. English, at least at first, written in binary code. The message was three simple words:

    We Are Coming.

    Eventually it’d changed to Mandarin Chinese. Then Spanish, French, Russian and so on.

The governments of the world had naturally tried to hide this fact. They’d done their best. But the message had been spread too wide. Corporations had discovered it before long. And before even they could figure out how to monetize the discovery, the scientific community seized a rare bout of expediency.  Astronomers wrote, reviewed and published journals on the monumental discovery in record time.

    Gag orders had been circumvented, the internet had done its work, and before long the whole world had known the truth: 

    Humans were not alone in the universe. Aliens were real, and they were on their way. 

Panic had naturally followed. There was the usual rioting and fear mongering, but the world had gotten used to that sort of reaction with disturbing efficiency.

    Miles didn’t really mind fear mongering itself that much. A healthy amount of paranoia was good, so long as it was well balanced and didn’t end with you tossing molotov cocktails into department stores. 

    The next development had helped calm the masses. The alien’s messages had grown in complexity. They explained that they’d been observing humanity for some time. They’d seen our various trials and weaknesses, but also our strengths and victories. They’d decided to share some of their knowledge with us. Everyone needed help from time to time. Once, long ago, another species had helped them just as they now helped us. 

    A layer of cautious optimism settled after that. Many still didn’t fully believe. There was the usual round of conspiracies, like that it’d all been made up by the government and was a cover for satellite mind control devices. And there were also fears that the aliens were flat out lying and would pull a War of the Worlds soon as they were close enough to do so. 

When their ships had first appeared in the solar system, real communications had begun. Back and forth between aliens and representatives of Earth. They answered all questions posed to them. Even started an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. Explained what their home planet was like, aspects of their culture, and gave very general explanations of their technological capabilities. They even told jokes and shared memes. 

That’d won most people over.

The aliens had come off downright personable. These aliens were no longer a theoretical presence. They were real, communicating people. This was no conspiracy, you could see their ships with a good enough telescope for crying out loud. 

    And Miles had. He’d needed to see for himself. He’d never forget the chill down his spine when he’d first seen one of those ships hanging in the night sky.

    As the months grew on the aliens had inched closer, only of course, after clearing everything with all suitable officials, be them governmental, scientific and even religious. They’d ended up setting up shop in earth’s orbit, with promises to come down and visit soon. However, they’d decided to wait until humans had completed their ‘celebratory solar rotation.’ The Chinese government hadn’t much cared for that reason for delay, but hey, they were still trying to hide the aliens from their masses so who cared what they thought?

    So here they were, giving a light show to the whole world on New Year's Eve. Floats with little green men and every other depiction of aliens in fiction. The actual  aliens had pointed out that most of these were wildly off the mark, but also didn’t mind the association. One of them even had ET as his profile picture.

    That wasn’t to say the whole world had decided to simply trust the aliens. Contrasting the revelers were the classic doom and gloom types. Signs declaring: “End is Nigh!” “Alien Overlords Here!” “Nuke Them Before They Eat Us!” and so on and so forth. 

    They were loons, of course. And yet...some part of Miles found more kinship with the crazies than the people that simply bought all this. It seemed too...perfect. Aliens, it turned out, were kind of boring. Or so they wanted to seem.

    Miles finally found the place he was looking for. A bar by the name of Terry’s Tap. Miles let out a sigh and walked inside.

    The debautercy continued within. Drunk sang songs welcoming our new “Friends from the Stars”

    Miles scanned the booths and spotted the architects of his annoyance: His two friends and roommates, Jack and Harper. They spotted him and waved excitedly. He rolled his eyes and walked over to take a seat beside Jack.

Jack was a six-foot, two-hundred pound, muscle-bound welder who couldn’t hold his liquor as well as his size would suggest.

    Harper was a five foot two, ninety-pound blonde who worked in insurance and lived by the phrase ‘dance like nobody’s watching.’

    They were tragically his two best friends in the world.

    “You made It!” Harper exclaimed.

    “Against my better judgement, I did.” Miles nodded.

    “You’ve been missing a great night, dude. Did you see the parade?”

    “I don’t see how I could have missed it.”

    “Nah, don’t listen to him, the Parade is lame. In here is where it's at!” Harper declared raising her pint to the rest of the bar who cheered in reply. 

    “She was dancing on the bar earlier.” Jack informed “It was wild!”

    “Now that I actually would have liked to see.”

    “Well don’t worry, the night is still young!” Harper shook her arm, waving one of the waitresses over. 

    “Whatcha having?” The perky woman said, far more lively than anyone working on New Years ought to be.

    “Just a beer.” 

    “Awe, come on man,” Jack shook his head. “Try something a little harder for once.”

    “When’s the next time we’re gonna party like this!? It's New Years Eve and there are aliens above our heads!” Harper argued.

    “Yeah…there sure are...” I said, eyes drifting out the window towards the lights in the sky above. 

    They noticed my hesitance and both sighed.

    “Why the long face, hon?” The waitress inquired.

    “He’s just suspicious of the aliens.”  Harper said conspiratorially. “Thinks they’re all gonna probe us.”

    “Ah.” The server said, understanding.

    “I have a healthy amount of caution, that’s all. And I will be having a beer.”

    The waitress nodded and walked off. 

    “You’re gonna have to come around to the aliens sooner or later.” Harper said pointedly.

    “That’s what I’m worried about…”

    “Here he goes again.” Jack let out a sigh.

    “I’m just saying that I think they’re trying a little too hard to get us to put our guard down.”

    Harper shook her head. “Look, why would aliens come thousands of light years, overcoming the very laws of physics just to try and pull an Independence Day? We’ve got no resources that you couldn’t find all over the galaxy. They’d benefit nothing from an interstellar war. It makes no sense. You’re just programmed by movies.”

    “Maybe.” 

    Her arguments made sense. Harper was an intelligent woman. It really didn’t make logical sense why aliens from such an advanced society would harbor any malicious intent for what to them would be a primitive and relatively harmless civilization. That didn’t make the uneasy in Miles gut go away.

    Mainly for the simple fact that human beings had accomplished an astonishing amount in their time on the planet and had still managed to be real pieces of crap when it suited them. Advanced technology didn’t equal and advanced people.

    But there was really nothing he could do anything about it. In a few years China would control their economy, the ice caps would be melted, and everyone would have chips in their brain. Change, good or bad came. And there was little that one man like Miles could do about that.

    The waitress came back with his beer. So he settled into the booth and started drinking.

    “Alright,” Jack finally said. “I’m gonna see if any of these guys want to play a drinking game. Everytime a firework goes off, take a drink!” 

    Miles shared a look with Harper. It seemed they’d be carrying him home once again. She only shook a head and put down her own drink. She started bouncing to the song that came on on the radio.

    “Welp, I’m gonna see if anyone wants to dance! I love this song!”

    The night wore on and everyone kept partying. Even Miles wasn’t immune. That was perhaps the biggest problem with parties: They were contagious. He even found himself singing along with some of the drunks at one point.

    But later, when 12 o'clock was approaching, things were really heating up. Fireworks blastest with little pause, and few in the bar were truly sober anymore, Miles being a notable exception. The nonstop partying of the night was fast-approaching its zenith.

    And then it happened. Harper was singing along with a group of partiers, their words slurred and broken, when one of them swayed something awful. A young guy, that Miles would have described as extraordinarily ordinary looking, suddenly doubled over and vomited on the floor. It was a violent retch that made everyone around scatter. Some of it, tragically, got on Harper’s dress. She’d be moping about that later. But there were a few laughs and some even ignored it all together. But then the man fell to his knees quivering.

    “What’s wrong? Just found your limit, buddy?” Harper asked, leading in to touch him on the shoulder comfortingly. She was too nice sometimes. 

    Then the man looked up, eyes hazy. The skin on his face had bled to shades of indigo in patches. People around him scattered backwards. His eyes focused and he seemed to notice that he’d become the subject of some attention. He looked down at his hands which were fast bleeding to indigo as well. His eyes twitched in a strange expression.   

    “Xfildrq’Hnin!”

    With that peculiar non-word, the man sprinted out the door. Distantly, Miles heard the fireworks crescendo and a collective cheer outside. It was a new year. No one in Terry’s Tap joined in the cheer or kissed each other. They all stared at the door. Harper who’d actually touched the man and still had his vomit on her dress looked petrified.

    Miles then did the only thing he could think of, and ran after the man. 

He heard Jack curse behind him and chase after. Miles quickly caught sight of the man outside. It wasn’t hard. He was indigo after all. He was also one of the few people not gazing upwards to appreciate the conclusion of the fireworks show. Miles sprinted down the street, shoving people out of the way when necessary. The Indigo Man darted down an alley and Miles was hot on his heels. Jack might have been able to bench press an obscene amount of weight, but Miles had always been more of a track and field man. 

    Above, the crackle of fireworks light up what would have otherwise been a dark alley.

    A fence split the alleyway halfway down. The indigo man didn’t waste a moment scaling it like a spider. Miles was fast after, but couldn’t quite launch himself right over the barrier as easily, so he lost some time.    

    They broke out onto a street parallel with the waterway. The Indigo Man was trying to put some distance between them. Miles redoubled his efforts. He wanted answers. Needed answers!

    He was close, closer, just a little more...

    Miles tackled the Indigo Man to the ground, sending them both tumbling across the pavement. But the Indigo Man kicked Miles off him in an instant and shot to his feet. Miles was up almost as quick. The Indigo Man had turned around to run in the direction they’d just come, but found Jack standing there, cutting off his escape.

    “Nowhere...to run, buddy.” Jack panted out, spreading out meaty arms.

    The Indigo Man looked back and between them, seeming to weigh his options.

    “Now, how about you explain just what-”

The Indigo Man spun around and dove into the river. Miles cursed. They ran over the edge but there was no sign of the man. Just dark waters.

“...good job blocking him, we almost had him.” Miles eventually said. 

“And what exactly was ‘him?’”

Miles looked up, past where the fireworks were beginning to die down, to scattered lights of the spaceships beyond. 

“You can’t think…”

“I can and I do. Let’s get back to Harper.”

The walk back to Terry’s Tap was quiet. They found Harper crouched down near the pile of vomit. Miles approached, thinking she might have been in shock when she suddenly stood up and handed him a bottle. Jack Daniels.

    “The guys over there-” She stuck a thumb over her shoulder indicating a group of drunks. “-said he was hitting this stuff pretty hard. Put it down like it was water. Bartenders hadn’t seen him around here before. No one else I asked had either.”

    Miles nodded, taking the bottle. Harper always was good about getting the facts. Part of her job, Miles supposed.

    “...I don’t think he realized he was essentially drinking poison.” Miles finally said.

    “Really? But don’t uh...” Jack said, glancing over one shoulder, “...they know all about us?”

    “It sure seems that way.” Miles said, distantly. “But if you pay close enough attention, they make plenty of mistakes and misconceptions all the time on their media accounts. I’d be willing to bet the bulk of their more ‘friendly’ material is auto-generated based on our internet patterns.”

    “What, you mean like those generated memes?”

    “Something like that.”

    “What...does all this mean?” Harper finally asked.

    “It means they lied. They aren’t going to be here soon. They’re already on the planet.” Miles finally looked up from the bottle, meeting the gazes of his two friends. 

“We should get out of the city. Tonight.”

    The entire bar seems to chew on that. Jack and Harper both nodded. The trio moved out of the bar, as inconspicuous as possible. Outside, those oblivious to the revelation continued to party. Miles decided he needed to make some calls. There were some other people besides just Jack and Harper that he wanted to have around in case...in case what? Miles looked up once more at those glowing lights.

    They were up to something, after all. He really hated being right.

    Ten minutes into the new year, and things were already far too interesting.

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine the Batkids hanging out at like....the food court of a mall or something, Jason keeping paparazzi at bay with finger guns that manage to be wildly ominous even if the gulping paparazzo have no true idea WHY that particular motion from this particular man has cold beads of sweat breaking out on the backs of their necks. Damian loudly proclaiming he hates everything and everyone even though he only half means it, well at least until Tim asks if he needs them to go get him a booster seat. To which Jason stops long enough to cackle about Tim finally finding someone he can actually literally look down on, it must be like Christmas for him, and meanwhile, Duke idly says to no one in particular that he can never decide if he accidentally got adopted into the Addams family, the Manson family or the Kardashians.

“I would be great at being a Kardashian,” Jason muses.

“Well you’re already 90% ass, so you’ve got that going for you,” Steph chirps brightly.

“Die, but for real this time,” Jason volleys back, equally pleasantly.

“I can’t believe the English major is suggesting I plagiarize him,” Steph says with eyes wide in mock bewilderment. Jason scoffs.

“What English major? In case you’ve forgotten, I never even finished high school, I was busy being de - “

He cuts off as Cass holds out her palm and Dick and Duke both slide ten dollar bills across the table to her, accompanied by groans. Tim jabs a finger at her with a scowl, half rising out of his seat in outrage.

“That doesn’t count, he didn’t even finish saying it!”

“Also, you’re cheating,” Damian adds on hotly, too incensed to notice he’s literally standing in solidarity with his most hated enemy. Though Tim catches it, if the slightly constipated look on his face is anything to go by. “Do you really think us so blind we can’t tell that Brown blatantly set that one up for you?”

“Don’t hate the players, hate the game,” Steph says sagely, as she and Cass split the take.

“What the hell just happened?” Jason asks. No one looks anywhere near the zip code of apologetic.

“Well we definitely didn’t all get together once a majority of us had done the knock knock knocking on death’s door thing ourselves and wound up making a long-standing bet about how long you can go without bringing that up and where the clock restarts each time you do,” Steph says thoughtfully, eyes intent even as she stares off into the distance, like it’s an actual mystery and she’s really trying quite hard to scry out the answer.

“What?” Jason says flatly.

“In my defense, they were doing it long before I came along and they said it was like, a family tradition,” Duke offers.

“I mean, it’s not like we lied,” Tim shrugs. “Besides, it was Cass’ idea and she’s died twice, so it’s allowed.”

Jason redirects his ire on their sister. “Why are you the worst.”

She shrugs. “I died.”

“I used to think having a sister would be cool. I can’t believe you ruined sisters for me.”

“Bite me, little brother,” she says sweetly. His face flames. Detonation imminent.

“I’m older than you!”

“Not if you don’t count the six months you were dead,” she sing-songs. “Besides, Tim’s lying. It was his idea.”

Jason’s head swivels like a turret-mounted missile launcher. Tim chokes on his French fry.

“What the hell! That’s not tr - .” He trails off then, frowning slightly. “Wait, was it? Oh. Right.”

Jason’s eyes narrow, tension on the trigger, but Tim rallies and just shrugs unrepentantly.

“Eh. You’ve tried to kill me like three times. Suck it up.”

“Next time, I’ll be sure to try harder,” Jason growls. Tim smiles serenely and takes an extra obnoxious slurp of his milkshake.

“See? You’ve learned something new today. You’re welcome.”

“Why am I not live-tweeting this,” Steph wonders, yanking out her phone and sending digits swiftly flying across its keys. Dick leans over on her left to view her screen.

“Are you tweeting as Batgirl about her fellow vigilantes, or the random blond stranger always seen out with the Waynes but that no one can determine their connection to?”

“First off, I’m the EXOTIC blond stranger, excuse you. Get it right. And second...idk. Either. Both. Does it really matter?”

“Well, it might if you actually do tweet the same content from both accounts and someone somehow manages to spot some kind of connection,” Tim says dryly. Steph scowls without looking up from her phone.

“Stop oppressing my shenanigans with your logic, Timbleton.”

“Timbleton?”

“It’s my new name for you. For it is both pretentious and douchey, as are you.”

Tim glowers. “Sometimes I honestly can’t remember why I went out with you.”

She shrugs. “You were a fifteen year old virgin and I have a killer rack. It wasn’t that deep.”

“Hey, you are still just the exotic blond stranger seen with us all the time, right?” Dick says suddenly, seemingly lost in thought. “Like, B didn’t adopt you since I last saw you or anything.”

“No, and you know you don’t ACTUALLY have to ask me that every time you see me.”

He shrugs. “I mean I kinda do. You are always here, and it is Bruce. It’s not like he ever tells me when he adopts someone new so like, you could be my sister for four years before I even realized it if I didn’t ask.”

“Ooh. A sighting of Dick angst, spotted in the wild. Those are rare,” Jason snickers. Dick just eyes him.

“FYI, I still have footage of a certain Robin, age fourteen, singing Backstreet Boys. And I have Roy on speed dial. Tread lightly, Little Wing.”

“You said you deleted that!”

“I lied. I do that sometimes. I’m terribly problematic.” Dick beams beatifically.

“Why have I not seen this footage?” Steph shrieks.

“Make me an offer,” Dick says as leans back smugly.

She wastes no time, fingers dancing across her keyboard again, and moments later Dick pulls out his own phone and reads her incoming text. One eyebrow arches significantly.

“That’s an offer, alright.” He frowns. “You came up with that quick. I’m either impressed or disturbed.”

Steph shrugs. “I get bored on stakeouts sometimes.”

“You can be dispressed,” Cass pipes up helpfully. Dick nods solemnly.

“An excellent suggestion, Cassandra, thank you. Just for that, I’ll send it to you too.”

“I will stab you,” Jason says dangerously.

“Just think, Jay, if you didn’t try and stab me all the time already, that might actually be incentive not to....oh whoops, finger slipped, just hit send, how terrible, much regret.”

“I feel like there’s supposed to be a life lesson in there somewhere,” Duke murmurs.

“Stay out of this, new kid on the block.”

“Does that make you Marky Mark or like, Donnie?” Tim wonders idly. He shakes his head at himself then, baffled. “Why do I know the names of the New Kids on the Block?”

Stephanie meanwhile is watching her phone with what can only be described as naked glee. It’s muted - she’s never one to share her spoils freely after all - but apparently that is more than good enough for now as far as she’s concerned. Beside her, Cass intently stares at her own screen, shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

“I will kill you all someday, and when I do the courts will rule it justifiable homicide and I shall be vindicated.”

“Please, Todd. As if I don’t have contingencies in place to ensure you receive my vengeance even from beyond the grave, should I ever perish at your hands.”

Silence falls across the table as they all stare at Damian.

“See, now I’m dispressed,” Tim says. “Sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to take a guided tour of your brain, but then I think why not wait til Halloween and sell tickets too.”

Damian glares at him, but to the surprise of everyone, Tim included, he reacts no further than that. A few seconds later though, Duke bolts upright in his chair across from him, directing his own baleful glare at the smaller boy. Damian just stares at him meaningfully and jerks his head in Tim’s direction. Duke rolls his eyes and sighs.

“Shut your facehole, Drake, you blithering dolt,” Duke says robotically. “Also, you are excessively diminutive for your age and nobody likes you. Allegedly.”

Once more silence reigns supreme.

“Oh fuck, can he possess people now?” Jason asks.

Dick waves them all down, gesturing for quiet before he takes the lead, studying Duke with an intent focus. “I think I speak for all of us here, when I say: no, but seriously, what the actual fuck.”

Cass nods gravely. “What he said.”

Duke shrugs a half-hearted apology. “It’s nothing personal Tim. It’s just that Damian and I have an alliance, and part of the terms are I have to defend his honor, since - and I quote - ‘tt, the very notion I need assistance defending my actual person is laughable, Thomas, don’t be daft.’”

“Wait, we’re doing alliances now?” Steph asks, because of course that would be the part that catches her attention. “I want an alliance. Cass, make an alliance with me.”

“Kay.”

“Whose idea was this alliance, anyway?” Jason asks. Duke just shrugs again, this time defensively.

“Hey don’t look at me, Dick’s the one who apparently thought it was a good idea to introduce Damian to Survivor reruns.”

All eyes turn to the eldest. In a particularly accusatory fashion.

Well, with the exception of Damian, as he has returned to his meal and is quite contentedly dining with a distinct air of smugness about him. (Even more so than usual.)

“What? I couldn’t get him to agree to watching anything else on TV, and then we came across some reruns and I thought it might appeal to him.”

“And you saw no potential drawbacks to him seeing appeal in the basic premise of voting people off the island?” Jason asks skeptically. Dick picks up a fry and studies it with clear deliberation and an equally clear attempt at avoidance. Subtlety, thy name is not Grayson.

“In hindsight, it’s possible mistakes were made.”

“I mean, at least now Dami’s attempts at casting undesirables out of the family are rooted in democracy instead of totalitarianism. That’s progress, right?” Steph asks. Heavy on the uncertainty.

“Right, and I have some beachfront property in Kansas to sell you,” Tim says sardonically.

“Nah, you keep it. I’ll just get it in the divorce when we get back together in ten years, marry, and I abscond with half of your fortune.”

“Wait, what?”

“Shh, just let it happen.”

“Hang on, back to this alliance,” Jason says, turning back to Duke. “So what are you getting out of it?”

“Oh, he has to do my calc homework for the rest of the semester,” Duke replies.

“Duke, you should have just told one of us you needed some help with your homework,” Dick says with an unmistakable note of concern in his voice. Duke shoots him a quizzical look.

“I don’t. I just don’t want to do it.”

“This is why Duke is the most valid,” Steph nods knowingly. Cass nods in agreement.

“Hey, did nobody else notice that in essence, Damian implicitly admitted he needed help protecting his feelings from getting boo-boos,” Tim pipes up oh so casually. The youngest among them narrows his eyes.

“In my spare time, I peruse the occult tomes recommended by Raven and the Zatara brat in search of a ritual that will make it so you never existed in the first place,” he says, matching his tone to Tim’s conversational one. Not deterred in the slightest, Tim just adopts an expression of over the top faux sympathy.

“Sucks you can’t just ask me for help. I already know where one of those is.”

“Dami, no!” Dick speaks up sharply. Their little brother slumps back in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest.

“I wasn’t actually going to do anything, Grayson,” he sulks. Dick snorts.

“You were absolutely about to jump on top of the table and kick Tim in the face. Don’t even try and pretend I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I was an only child once,” Jason muses. “I should have appreciated it more.”

“But then you couldn’t form an alliance with me, little brother,” Cass points out, equal parts sweetness and wickedness. He hesitates, visibly torn between wanting to protect his vaunted older brother status and agreeing to an alliance with the most feared of them all.

“You’re evil.”

She shrugs but doesn’t contest the point.

“I’ll form an alliance with you, Cass,” Tim says, smirking at Jason.

“No thanks.”

Tim’s mouth falls open and he looks between her and his now cackling older brother. “What the hell? You’ll form an alliance with Steph and Jason but not with me? Why not?”

“I’m chaotic neutral,” their sister explains sunnily, as she steals some more of Dick’s fries.

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Zero-One Episode 22

I really like shiny things.

Last week this show gave me hope, today I'm not sure anymore. This post is a rewrite of my original post for this episode because after I watched it I had the feeling that I absolutely hated this episode, but as I was writing my post and let the bad feelings come out I realized there were a whole bunch of cool things happening and that I was being dumb so I deleted everything and started over again.

So, I think what hurts this episode the most is the fact that it had to share space with the trial plot from last week because it was pretty much irrelevant for this episode, it just happened because they had to wrap up last weeks story, proof of that is the bullshit way it happened where the show didn't give us a single clue that the detective was a dirty cop and pulled this resolution out of nowhere. Honestly, even though they gave Fuwa something to do - which I appreciate since him and Yua have been on the backseat for quite a while so it's good to have them on screen for more than a few seconds - this was a very dumb and cheap way to conclude this case.

But taking about the good things, to begin the action and the special effects in this episode were incredible, that fighting scene at the beginning that was a continuation from last week was perfect. Another scene I really liked was that one where Horobi went crazy mad because Gai was using The Ark, that was very cool, I wasn't expecting it, and it somehow made me excited for the future, I really hope this means we're about to see him go back to the story on a more active role.

I think the most interesting thing in this episode was the power-up for the main Rider coming directly from the antagonist. Like, Gai technically made his new progrise key and that's pretty awesome. Though I have a looooot of questions about it. When they said this was a progrise key to lock down Zero-One's powers I expected it would be something that either got in the way of the keys or the belt working so was it made since the beginning to act as a new suit for Zero-One with different powers? Or did he made it with the intention of sealing his powers and is just the way the key works that is different? Or was this just a side effect thing? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it this point wasn't very clear. Regardless, I'm just happy this new form didn't fall from the sky given by the mighty Zea Ex Machina for once, if Zero-Ones gets another final form I hope it happens on a creative way like this rather than just Zea doing its thing.

Oh, another great thing about this fight was seeing Thouser taunting Zero-One when he was there all angry at him, it was kind of a "becoming the monster I'm fighting against" moment, it was really cool and I hope they have more moments like that, you know? Despite me hating on the "Aruto that looks at the distance with a frown on his face" (I came to realize this is more a problem I have with his actor and the way they direct him rather than a problem with the character), I think this show needs to have more quiet moments for Aruto, I know he's an obnoxious comedian, but we gotta see him developing his character and he needs to get serious from time to time. Though seeing how this episode ended I'm afraid they won't ever let him calm down because apparently we really need those horrible comedy scenes. Honesty, I'd love to ask a Japanese person directly to see if that style of comedy really works and if Aruto's jokes are any good because I think I never laughed at a single one of them. Wow, I went on a tangent.

Talking about Metal Cluster Hopper, this is definitively the best suit of this show, it's very cool, very sleek, very powerful, I know I haven't watched a whole lot of Kamen Rider but this is definitely getting in my favorite suits list for sure. I also like that its a "deadly" power-up but it's not like it's so deadly for Aruto, I feel, and is more deadly for everyone else around it. And I hope that his deadliness makes this form be less used, at least for now. I know that at some point he'll find a way to use the full powers of this form without wreaking havoc around but I really hope it doesn't happen very soon and that he'll have to struggle quite a bit before he can fully take advantage of the new form. Or at least if they gonna make him use this form again because they have toys to sell make it happen on wa way where it'll have consequences for him. I really don't want them to come with something like "Zea cracked the code you're free to use this form again" (as you can see I really hate the fact Zea is a thing in this show).

And I believe that's pretty much it for today. Next week will be a woman trying to marry a humagear and that sounds kinda ridiculous, I hope it's just a thrown away plot and it's not a real part of the job competition, I feel like that could be very messy, though I guess wedding planners can have a very huge ego and having a competition around that could be interesting so if this ends up being the fourth battle I hope they follow this path and nothing very weird and that can ruin a person's live. Anyway, let me know what you think of this episode in the comments. I'll talk to y'all later. o/

[blindbatalex]

@abellyofjellywrites okay this didn't fit in a reply but to respond to your comment re the mob ice cream drabble, setting in an ice cream parlor was 100% intentional because it let me play with ideas around masculinity and how it affects one's self of sense.

The mob has a code of conduct, an idea as to what a man is supposed to be and what he is supposed to do that is unspoken, but v much so real and Charlie subscribed to it before without questioning it pre Jake. Jake on the other hand--as a gay man he was bad at adhering to the toxic masculinity of his own period let alone that of 1920s gangsters. So he deals with it the only way he can which is to be as flamboyant and obnoxious as possible. He flirts with the guys with no shame because he likes how uncomfortable it makes them. He asks for ice cream because he likes ice cream but he also knows it won't fly. Terrible sense of self preservation if he was with people who were a little less good but you know, that's Jake.

And Charlie has no idea what to do with it or with him. Because Jake is an antithesis of everything he was raised to hold "honorable" or proper. Charlie knows what kind of a man he is and that is not the kind of man who goes to ice cream parlors to eat decadent sundaes. (Side note I did some research and apparently ice cream parlors proliferated in the 1920s during the Prohibition and replaced bars as "clean" and "nice" places to meet. But Charlie alongside the rest of the guys scoffs at that sanitized goody good shoes ideals of civilized society. That is not who he is.)

At the same time though, he surprises Jake because he still takes Jake out for ice cream. He has to rationalize it as "this man saved my brothers life and it's honorable to express thanks". And he buys Jake a second cup when he is done under the same guise but he does it.

And that's why I'm really interested in exploring their dynamic because it's this whole song and dance with teasing and grumbling and a whole lot of rationalization, between two people who really don't belong in the same world, but who are learning to care for each other even if they can't express it. 🍨

[chasingthecosmos]

A Hand to Hold

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: G Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler Chapters: 9/12 Read on AO3 here.

“The Doctor realized - far, far too late - that this hand-holding thing might be becoming a problem …”

A (sort of) season re-write centering around the Doctor’s touch telepathy and the many inconvenient ways that it gets in the way between him and his new companion, Rose Tyler. First half will be centered around Season 1 with Nine and the second half will be centered around Season 2 with Ten. Chapters will vary in length. Rating may go up as the story continues. Tags will be updated as I go.

Chapter Nine: The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances (Part One)

The two of them certainly got more from wartime London. In fact, they gained a whole new crewmate in Jack Harkness (the Doctor absolutely refused to call him "captain", no matter what Jack and Rose had to say on the matter).

And suddenly, attempting to put any sort of distance between himself and Rose was no longer a problem because his own foolish, childish jealousy made the whole issue a moot point. Now, instead of trying to push her away, he was suddenly fighting just to keep up with her and Jack. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt like such a third wheel, despite the fact that he had traveled with actual couples on multiple occasions.

So when Rose finally offered her hand to him and asked him to "show her his moves" he couldn't exactly say no. He was pulled to her side like a moon coming into alignment with its planet. He couldn't have fought the laws of gravity in that moment even if he had tried.

Still, this was a new step for both of them in their coy little game and he found that he wasn't quite sure of what the next move was meant to be. And (though he would never admit it - especially not to Rose) it had been quite a while since he had last danced - both in the physical sense, and in the sly, cheeky way that she was currently insinuating.

His nervousness made him play his cards close to his chest, and when he first took her hands in his it was for examination, and not to pull her into his arms and send her twirling about the room.

"Barrage balloon ...?" he asked pointedly.

"What ...?" she murmured, caught off guard.

"You were hanging from a barrage balloon," he reminded her simply.

He pretended that his examination of her hands was detached and medical in nature, but the wild beating of his hearts told a different story. After all the trouble that they'd had lately with telepathy, he half-expected Rose to snatch her hands out of his grasp and rescind her offer to dance, but instead she just continued to needle him - teasing him relentlessly until he had no choice but to take her hand in his again and draw her close.

He was distantly aware of how ridiculous he probably looked and was suddenly extremely grateful that they were alone in this small, abandoned hospital room. Rose didn't seem to be too bothered by it, though - and she shifted her weight closer as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Her charming smile and playful words were like a spell and before he knew it, his mental shields were lowering just the tiniest fraction and her slight projection was just powerful enough to allow him a glimpse into her mind. It was only for a moment - the barest slip of a second - but in that moment, he was able to understand without the faintest doubt that her flirtatious, joking words had all just been set in place in an effort to cover up the truth.

Because his fantastic, beautiful (yes, he had to admit it openly to himself, now - no qualifiers needed), infuriating companion was most certainly not talking about dancing in the most innocent form of the verb. In fact, she never had been. It was all just another game of words - just like the ones that they had been using ever since he first carted her off in the TARDIS - which allowed them to hint at the things that they didn't dare say.

But before he had the chance to reason out that extremely sensitive and dangerous bit of information, they were interrupted once more by a certain obnoxious rogue time agent and it was all back to business as usual.

Still, he couldn't easily shake the small, shining moment when he had sensed Rose's true intentions and all of the promise and hope that they carried.

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

The Doctor saved Jack because it was the right thing to do, but he only let him onboard the TARDIS because Rose had asked. He would have been much happier to have the entirety of the ship to themselves that night. There was certainly no shortage of things to discuss, after all.

But those plans had to be put on hold as they spent the rest of the evening instead twirling about the console room to 1940s Earth swing music. He did his best to be fair and allow Rose to have her equal share of dances between him and Jack, but after all of their discussion about dancing added to the fact that he had always been a bit ridiculously possessive made it difficult.

He didn't do any more peeking into her personal thoughts that night, though there was plenty of opportunity considering they suddenly seemed quite happy to invade one another's personal space - a new (and strange) development to their relationship. But he kept his thoughts to himself and let her keep hers, content to simply have her hand in his and an excuse to keep her close.

During one particular slow song he was focused so intently on the feel of Rose's head on his shoulder and the smell of her shampoo in his nose that he nearly jumped out of his skin when he suddenly felt something brush up against the back of his mind. His steps faltered and he squeezed Rose's hand reflexively as he immediately stiffened in defense of the person currently attempting to breach his mental shields.

"Doctor?" she asked in concern, stepping back to look up at him in confusion.

He realized as soon as he looked down into her captivating brown eyes that it hadn't been just anyone tip-toeing around the edges of his thoughts - it had been her.

"Rose?" he asked, watching her with an expression torn between awe and fear. She really, really shouldn't be able to do this. Did she even realize what she was doing?

He was about to open his mouth and ask, but he was overwhelmed once more by the thoughts that she projected directly into his mind, as easily as though she had been practicing telepathy her entire life.

She was filled to overflowing with happiness, contentment, and some great, big emotion that he was trying very hard not to call love.

"Rose, what ...?" he tried again, blinking very hard and trying not to stumble under the sheer weight of it all in his head.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, I just ... I wanted to let you know how happy I am, and ... I just couldn't put it into words," she explained haltingly. She looked up at him shyly through her dark eyelashes as she added, "Is ... that alright?"

"Y-yeah," he replied, instantly hating the way that his voice caught and stuttered but not being able to stop it.

Rose flashed him a small, pleased smile before she ducked her head back down to his shoulder. They weren't moving anymore, and the sudden numbness in his legs prevented him from attempting to continue their dance.

"I could do with a warning next time, though," he continued, doing his best to sound lighthearted and teasing despite the wild beating of his hearts. "Not really used to ... that."

"Hmmm," Rose hummed thoughtfully against his chest. "Are you saying you're out of practice, then? I seem to remember that was your same excuse about dancing."

And oh, it should really be illegal for her to tease him like that when his defenses were already so shaken. Did she know how thoroughly she was testing his resolve? He had an idea that she might, but that certainly didn't help things.

"Really, though, you should tell me about it sometime," she went on casually, as though he weren't frozen in place and completely tongue-tied by her bold flirtation. "It sounds like there are a lot of rules surrounding this telepathy stuff. I don't want to accidentally breach some sort of code of conduct or something just because I don't know exactly how it works."

That, finally, broke the tension in his chest and he let out a small huff of laughter as he tightened his arm around her back and began swaying gently to the music once more.

"Oh, Rose," he sighed wistfully. "Trust me, this is breaking every rule already."

"Should I ... not do that, then?" she asked, sounding suddenly uncertain.

He squeezed her hand reassuringly and buried his pleased smile in her soft blonde hair.

"No," he whispered against her scalp, knowing that he was digging his own grave and doing it anyway. "I like feeling your presence. Makes everything seem less ... empty."

And, before he could talk himself out of it, he placed a hard, lingering kiss to her forehead and then spun her out and away from his arms. He welcomed the cold, lonely feeling that filled the space near his hearts that Rose had previously occupied. It felt like a bracing rush of cool water being thrown over the flames, dousing them before they could grow too large and destroy everything in their wake.

He tried not to look her in the eye, but he caught her surprised, confused expression nonetheless as she stood there, staring after him.

"Go on, let Jack have another go," he told her, keeping his tone as light and cheerful as possible as he motioned towards the rogue time agent who was leaning against the far wall and smiling at him with a look that he really didn't appreciate right at this moment. "Can't have you going and picking favorites, now."

"Yeah, alright," Rose agreed, turning to motion Jack forward as the slow song ended and another took its place. Her back was to him now, so the Doctor couldn't tell if the note of regret in her voice was real or just part of his imagination.

"I don't know, I think the preferences are pretty clear," Jack commented wryly as he stepped up and swept Rose easily into his arms. "But who am I to say no to a dance with a pretty girl?"

[fidemcanem]

Remus never borrows the jacket when Sirius is around.

  (‘Stealing’ is too much like an admission, and besides, he always returns it.)

If nothing else, there’s no need. Sirius has always had a sort of magnetism—a heady gravity that’s almost impossible to evade, sending the rest of them reeling in his orbit like stars snagged by a passing heavenly body, too vast and too beautiful to avoid—and it makes his presence almost electric. There’s no ignoring him, and there’s certainly no missing him. It’s in the constancy of his touch and the easy of his glances, the quirk of his lips just for his friends even when he’s face-to-face with someone else entirely. To be noticed by Sirius Black is a powerful drug.

Even right after he’s gone, his absence feels unreal. The lingering warmth of an arm slung around shoulders doesn’t fade as quickly as it ought, and the brush of his fingers against bare neck feels sometimes like it’s left a welt, raised and red and obvious, for everyone to see. Occasionally, Remus finds himself wanting to examine his skin in the mirror, to furtively check that Sirius’ skin hasn’t somehow branded his.

It’s only when Sirius has been gone for a while that his echoes settle and his absence spreads, heavy silence like oil on water. That’s when it’s all too easy to miss him, and the effortless way he fills up a room, chases all the shadows from the corners with teasing laughter and broad smiles and the way he flicks his hair from his eyes with a shake of his head.

The jacket smells like him. It’s a poor imitation, of course, of the real thing, but it eases that ache.

More than once, Remus wonders if he’s pathetic, as he runs his fingers along the worn cuffs, breathes in the smell of real leather (of course Sirius can afford it), and Sirius, lingering in the lining.

The first time he slips it on, it’s just to feel the weight of it around him. Sirius wears the jacket big, sleeves pushed up—he bought it second hand, Remus knows, from a poky little shop in muggle London that had racks and racks of the things, all sorts, and which had delighted Sirius so much he’d told them about it a dozen times or more. Once it’s on, Remus realises that there’s the barest tension that he’s been carrying in his shoulders that eases out. It smells like Sirius, and home. He keeps it on.

It’s a semi-regular thing, after that. Only when Sirius is gone, and Remus is alone and quiet and missing him with a visceral solidity that makes something in the region of his gut feel like it’s too full, or perhaps so empty he can barely stand it. The long days, where Sirius is out on Order business with James, and Remus folds quiet worry against his ribs and cradles it because he’s got nothing else to hold on to.

One day, he stands in front of the mirror and wonders why he doesn’t look more ridiculous. It’s not like he’s a leather jacket sort of person: he’s a tea-in-a-plain mug sort of person, a darn-your-own-jumper sort of person. He doesn’t carry an ounce of the style that Sirius exudes regardless of outfit. But for all that, he’d admit—if pressed—that it doesn’t look terrible. He looks almost… cool.

Almost.

He still doesn’t wear it outside the mess of Sirius’ sprawling flat, or his cramped and tidy one, depending where it’s been left in Sirius’ absence.

And really, it’s the jacket’s presence that ought to have tipped him off. Sirius loves this jacket, and there’s no reason for him to gallivanting off without it so often, not when he looks so good and knows it, too. But gallivant he does, in a denim jacket he nicked from James, or no jacket at all.

“Surprise!”

Remus nearly chokes as the door flies open and Sirius, with all the subtlety of a bludger to the face, flings himself in. Remus is thoroughly surprised and utterly relieved, and it’s a potent mixture of emotions that means the realisation and embarrassment are slow to filter through. Sirius had supposed he’d be gone for a few more days, at least, and here’s Remus, all wrapped up in missing him, jacket on over his ratty t-shirt.

Sirius’ grin is, frankly, obscene. Remus feels the overpowering need to close the curtains, just on the off-chance that an impressionable child might be in the vicinity of the third-floor windows. He can feel the tips of his ears burning.

“Erm,” he says.

“Eloquent as ever, Moony,” Sirius observes, and kicks the door closed behind him—another dusty boot print joining those on the faded paint, despite Remus’ constant disapproval. It’s a mere two-and-a-half steps from the door to the sofa (three if you’re Sirius), and for some reason Remus wishes it were more. But it’s too late to run, and Sirius arrives in his personal space without so much as as a by-your-leave.

Sirius tugs on the lapels of the jacket.

“Wow,” Sirius says, after a long moment. “And I thought my imaginings of this got me all hot under the collar.”

“Imaginings?” Remus repeats, weakly. “You knew?”

“ ‘Course.” Sirius taps his nose, and Remus thinks about Sirius’ habit of curling up dog after he’s had a few to drink, nestling into the corner of the sofa or sprawling himself across Remus’ legs and obnoxiously demanding affections (not all that different from the norm). “Where have you been hiding all this cool, Moony? Tucked under your knitted jumpers, no doubt. Stashed in your neatly paired-up socks.”

“Yes, well,” Remus manages, desperately trying to regain control of himself, or the situation, or something. “One of us has to look respectable.”

“Agree to disagree,” Sirius hums, and he’s running his hands down the front of the jacket, and sliding one inside it to curve across Remus’ waist, and there’s a dark, wicked glint in his eyes that Remus knows all too well because it’s the same one he wore right after the first time they kissed—the only warning he’d had for the next kiss, which had been altogether filthier than the one before.

“I think you should keep this, you know,” Sirius says, murmuring the words half into the juncture of Remus’ neck and shoulder, and pulling a full-body shudder from the sleeve of Remus’ spine. “I like it better on you.”

It’s a ridiculous statement, that it might suit Remus better than Sirius, with his bike and his fingerless gloves and his devil-may-care dishevelment that manages to somehow embody grace and elegance at the same time. But the way Sirius says it—with such intent frankness and an edge of desire—makes it entirely convincing, in the moment.

“Then it won’t smell like you,” Remus admits, and curls a hand at the small of Sirius’ back.

“We’ll have a schedule, then,” Sirius suggests, and they’re whiplash-sudden back to teasing. Remus feels like he can’t catch his breath. “You can write it out and stick it on the fridge. Reckon you’ll find that all sexy and whatnot. Colour-coding.”

Remus laughs, and gives up the notion of controlling anything where Sirius is involved.

“If that’s what you think gets me hot and bothered, we need to have a serious talk.” Sirius pulls back, and he’s grinning, and Remus is already groaning his regret at his choice of words as Sirius waggles his eyebrows.

“A serious talk about what gets you hot and bothered? Why, Remus, you dirty boy.”

“Shut up,” Remus says, not-quite-pleading, and there’s laughter tucked between their lips as they kiss.