#two nickels and all that jazz

[notsoterrifyingrenegade]

Absolutely insane of Adventure Time to make Tom Kenny play not one but TWO characters that went insane by magic who later turn normal and spend their time making up for the actions of the person they were when they were infected by the magic and have wives that were taken by Golb and are never coming back.

[bongo-clash]

If I had a nickel for every billionaire that tried to kidnap me, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

DP/DC week prompt: Mistaken Identity

'Look, in Bruce Wayne’s defence, he has a lot of children with black hair and blue eyes, and he’d had a very long day. But in Danny’s defence, he has no idea what’s happening right now and, according to his previous experience in being kidnapped by billionaires, his reaction is incredibly reasonable.'

(No content warnings || fic under cut!!)

-

Danny’s been in Gotham for about a week with his family, and so far it’s honestly been one of their most relaxing vacations to date. Sure, the drive had been long and finding a place to park the RV had been unsurprisingly difficult, but once the initial getting-there-fanfare was over with, everything had been great. The whole ‘not my circus, not my monkeys’ thing had been amazing for his anxiety. The famous Batman was more than capable of dealing with his peanut gallery without some random dead kid intercepting. 

Okay, he was a little bit worried about Batman’s ‘no metas’ thing, but there was no good reason the vigilante would find out that little tidbit. It’s not like he’s even a meta in the first place! Being dead is a medical condition. Regardless, he’s doing the sensible thing and not making a show of himself; he may have flown over the top of the city invisibly on the first night to get some good shots to send to his friends, but no one needed to know about that but Sam and her gothic-architecture-inspo wall. 

The hotel they’re staying at has good breakfast, the buildings in the inner city look cool as Hell, they already have heroes dealing with their issues so Danny doesn’t have to do anything, and there’s no ghosts barging into his room but the constant chaos of the city still feels homey. Overall, a ten out of ten vacation spot. 

Surely, nothing can go wrong. 

“Tim? What are you doing here?”

He’s taking a morning walk away from the hotel after he and Jazz successfully convinced their parents he would be fine on his own, and he’d stopped in front of Wayne Enterprises because Tucker would be frankly offended if he didn’t. He ignores the call at first, because he doesn’t know anyone named Tim, and it’s not his business, but that’s clearly shown to be a mistake when the call comes again but closer, and then again, but with a man putting his hand on Danny’s shoulder. He’s turns around to tell whoever it is to clear off when he actually catches sight of the guy’s face.

Sleek black hair, sky-blue eyes, a healthy tan and a very expensive suit. That’s Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne as in the guy who owns the building in front of them. Bruce Wayne as in the multi-billionaire. 

Okay, don’t get him wrong, Bruce Wayne does some pretty honourable charity work, and his tech is pretty cool and Tucker’s obsessed with it, but Danny has a very sour history with billionaires and even before he’d met Vlad he wasn’t a fan of them; being friends with Sam for long enough does that to a guy. Dealing with the fruitloop had only cemented what he already knew, and that’s that you shouldn’t trust people that rich as far as you can throw them (or, maybe just not at all, since he figures he could actually throw them pretty damn far, considering the ghost powers). 

Plus, Bruce ‘Brucie’ Wayne has this really weird habit of acting like a ditz, and quite frankly, Danny doesn’t buy it. He’s been successfully running a huge company and heading welfare campaigns for years, and if he’s truly as air-headed as he presents himself to be Vlad would’ve snatched up his company and his wealth in a heartbeat. Vlad, who is the other billionaire he knows, who is also pretending to be something he’s not with the whole ‘gentle hermit’ vibe he maintains with the press. No, there’s definitely something weird about Bruce Wayne and he hadn’t particularly wanted to meet the guy to find out what it is. 

However, it’s looking like he doesn’t have much choice, what with the man having a hand on his shoulder and being about ten inches from his face. “Uh.” He blurts eloquently. “Hi?”

“Tim,” He repeats, frowning. “Why are you here? I told you to take the day off- don’t tell me you were just planning on sneaking off to work anyway.”

Danny’s certain Tucker mentioned some co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises called Tim, and he’s fairly certain Tucker mentioned he was the same age as them and also Bruce’s ward, but do they really look similar? No one’s ever said they do to his face, and he thought that was the kind of thing people talked about- the whole ‘who’s your celebrity lookalike’. So why-?

…Tucker also mentioned that almost all of Bruce Wayne’s wards have the same black hair and blue eyes. He’d even joked how Danny ‘fit the bill’. Oh no. What if this is an obsession-with-having-a-son-just-like-him thing? Do all billionaires do that or is that just Vlad? He could really do with someone else to compare the guy to that isn’t the fruitloop right now- it’d be really great to have some kind of gauge amongst general average billionaire behaviour so that he actually knew what to do. 

Staying quiet to gather his thoughts was apparently not his greatest move, though, because the man’s frown only deepens. Bruce Wayne’s hand moves from the top of his shoulder to his arm, giving it a light squeeze that seems like it’s supposed to be comforting but really just makes him more nervous. “I’m taking you back to the manor. You were supposed to take a day off and I really think relaxing would do you some good.”

Now, there are a lot of things Danny could do to absolve this situation, and the smartest of all of them would be to inform him that there’s been a misunderstanding and that he’s just some random tourist who’d been wanting to take some pictures. 

“I— what- can’t you just leave me here? Don’t you need to go in there?” Is what he says instead, because fight, flight, or freeze apparently includes brain freeze too. His mom was right, he never should’ve been allowed out unsupervised. Why didn’t he bring Jazz with him?

“The meeting can wait, you’re more important.” The man soothes, and suddenly the hand on his arm is pulling him away, leading him over to an incredibly expensive car and Danny’s so bewildered by the whole situation he doesn’t even fight back. He stands there, limp, as Bruce Wayne opens the car doors, nudges him inside, starts the engine, and drives further and further away from Danny’s hotel. 

They’ve been driving for about twenty minutes before his stupor finally breaks, and by then they’ve fully left the bustle of the inner city and entered the sparsely populated realm of high society estates— Bristol, he thinks it was called? Doesn’t matter. He needs to get out and he needed to be out yesterday; he can’t believe he ever thought he could have a remotely sensible vacation. Let your guard down one time and you get kidnapped by a man with more money than everyone else in the state combined (though, to be fair, that sounds more normal given his circumstances than it should. Still, the billionaire being Bruce Wayne isn’t normal). 

Now, there are a lot of things Danny could do to absolve this situation, and the smartest of all of them would be tell Bruce Wayne that he’d been too shocked to refute the man, but he wasn’t actually his son, and had finally gathered his bearings to say so and was very sorry for causing him undue stress. 

Instead, Danny jumps out of a moving car. 

Distantly registering the yell of alarm and the screech of the vehicle pulling to a sudden stop, he tanks the roll and springs back up again, taking in his surroundings for all of a second before sprinting in the opposite direction of wherever they’d been going. Bruce Wayne is definitely chasing after him- he can hear the heavy footfalls pounding behind him- but Danny’s been running from his problems for years. There’s no way he’s letting them catch up to him now. 

He rounds a corner and disappears into thin air, because Batman’s not a day time hero so what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him and surely he’d get that Danny was only doing it for the sake of his personal safety. I mean, who’s he to say that Bruce Wayne doesn’t layer on his fortunes with the occasional ransom situation? …Maybe not the best excuse he’s ever come up with, but the damage is done now, and he drifts away for a few more minutes until he figures he’s far enough from his initial launch point that he can drop the invisibility. 

Looking around, he can tell that he’s definitely lost, his surroundings still reeking of big money and the actual meat of the city barely hanging on the horizon. Well, technically he’s not that lost, given that he can still see inner-Gotham from here, but he doesn’t know where the Hell his hotel is in all that grey, and the walk looks far. While he was willing to risk the momentary power-usage to get himself out of the billionaire’s sights, he figures that trying anything else would be pushing his luck a bit further than it was willing to take him. 

He must’ve been thinking about it for a lot longer than he realised, though, because he hears a quiet thud behind him, and there is now a vigilante blocking his exit. Long-ish black hair, an admonishing expression, and a black and blue outfit with a bird decal.

That’s one of the Bats. NIghtwing, he thinks? 

Aren’t they all supposed to be nighttime vigilantes?

As if hearing his questions, the taller man tuts, bringing his hands to his hips like his mom does when he breaks curfew. He hasn’t got out the electric-stick-things that he’s pretty sure the guy owns, so that’s good. “Tim,” He starts, tone starkly disappointed, and- hold on, why is Nightwing on a first name basis with the Wayne Enterprises CEO? “I thought B told you to take today off.”

Hold on, that’s a weird thing for a vigilante to know about the Wayne Enterprises CEO, and- Danny’s assuming B means Bruce Wayne- why is he using such a casual nickname for the billionaire? Do they know each other? He supposes it makes sense if they’re all in cahoots, since the Bats’ stuff does seem pretty expensive-looking, but he’d honestly kind of assumed Batman was just some rich reclusive vampire or something. Like Vlad but morally-reversed. 

Unless Batman is still a billionaire and not just funded by Bruce Wayne. Nightwing knowing the Tim guy would make sense, then, given they might see each other at rich people things. But, actually, would that make sense? Vigilante socialites don’t usually go around telling their other socialite friends that they’re vigilantes, do they?

Unless Batman is Bruce Wayne. But that’s ridiculous. He’d figured the guy was hiding something, and the hoard of children is kind of indicative of a weird guy generally, but the man being some kind of edgy bat-themed hero in his spare time was just too ridiculous. There’s no way. 

…

…Holy shit. Batman is totally Bruce Wayne. 

That means that Nightwing is probably one of Bruce Wayne’s many sons, which means that he’s one of Tim Drake-Wayne’s many brothers, which means Bruce Wayne may have called him to chase him down and bring him back to the manor. Even though they shouldn’t be doing that because he isn’t Tim Drake. 

Now, there are a lot of things Danny could do to absolve this situation, and the smartest of all of them would be tell Nightwing that by some hilarious comedy-of-errors, Bruce Wayne had mistaken him for his son Tim the CEO when he is in fact Danny Fenton the tourist, and he’s very sorry for the fuss he’s caused, but he should probably call his sister to pick him up now, thank you very much. 

Instead, Danny feints left and tries to dash out the corner he’d trapped himself in from Nightwing’s other side. Nightwing grabs him like a small dog with one arm and raises a grappling hook to the nearest roof. Danny feels like this is probably karma for all the property damage he’s caused in Amity as they’re flung violently across roofs higher than his town’s tallest apartment complex. He is quickly discovering that being airborne is actually so much worse when you’re not the one in control. 

He doesn’t have an awful lot of time to ponder this, however, because they reach what Danny assumes is the Wayne residence soon after. Nightwing does an absolutely terrifying set of flips as they careen over to the other side of the ledge the mansion is on, and lets him go when they’re on the ground to put a finger against his hear, presumably to some communication device. 

“I’ve got him, B! We’re outside the Batcave now- yep, all safe- see you in a sec!”

…They’re outside the what now?

Nightwing slings an arm over his shoulder- some mix of friendliness and making sure he doesn’t run away- and leads him into a concealed entrance against the ledge just beneath the Wayne mansion. 

He has to be hallucinating at this point. There are actual bats in here. The whole place is scary and dark and gigantic and—is that a fucking dinosaur?

“Tim!” 

And, as if just to cement how utterly absurd today has been, Bruce Wayne is striding towards them with an expression contorted by worry, and he feels bad right up until the moment the guy cups his face with his calloused hands (calloused because he’s Batman, what the Hell). “Tim, I was so worried,” He croaks. “What happened back there? Why did you jump out the car?”

Now, there are a lot of things Danny could do to absolve this situation, and finally, finally, he-

“What the Hell is happening right now.” He blurts, taking a sharp step back and letting the hand fall from his face, watching as surprise falls over the men next to him like an overcast. 

Okay, maybe not the the smartest thing he could’ve said, but not the worst thing either, and that’s probably the biggest win he’s going to get today, so he’ll take it. “What are you talking about?” Nightwing asks gently, reminding him rather neatly that he is still in an absolutely gigantic pile of shit, seeing as he’s now going to have to explain that they have all made some very big mistakes today. 

“Uh, okay, so funny story- and you have to promise not to like, beat the shit out of me or whatever-“ He ignores the horrified faces they make at that, nervousness leaking out into a hysterical laugh. “But, uh, a very bad thing has happened, and— it’s like, fine! I won’t tell anyone if you won’t tell anyone, it’s totally chill and I’m really great at keeping secrets-!”

Bruce Wayne cuts him off, looking terribly concerned. “Tim, whatever’s going on, we’ll-“

“I’m not Tim!”

The moment the words are out of his mouth, he backs away with his hands raised placatingly, panic heightened by the way the two men freeze in their tracks. “I am so sorry,” Danny chokes, figuring he can’t dig himself into any deeper of a grave than he already has. “I was just- I was outside Wayne Enterprises to take pictures and when you came up to me I had no idea what to do so I just froze, and by the time I came to I was in your car and like, I was kind of scared you were kidnapping me? Because I kind of have a history with billionaires and kidnapping so I just panicked and jumped out the car but that made everything worse ‘cause you chased me and now I’m in the Batcave and you’re Batman and-“

There is a very long pause when Danny’s words fail him. The Batcave is very quiet beyond the chittering of bats on the ceiling. 

“You have a history with billionaires and kidnapping?” Nightwing asks, like literally nothing else he’d said registered. 

Quite frankly, Danny does not want to know what their expressions are like. Averting his eyes, he replies- “That was definitely a weird thing for me to say. Sorry. Uh, yeah.”

“Are you safe?”

What is happening? “Like… right now? I mean, so long as you aren’t gonna feed me to that dinosaur then yeah; I’m just in Gotham for vacation. I don’t- it was a very nice vacation. Until like half an hour ago. Now it’s a stressful vacation.”

Bruce Wayne, to his credit, is not trying to kill him for his knowledge of the man’s secret vigilantism, which already makes him better than the only other billionaire he knows. The man drags a hand down his face, looking stressed beyond belief. “I should’ve known you weren’t Tim,” He breathes. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“Yeah, now that I’m actually hearing you talk, you sound nothing like him. Bruce, were you actually listening when he was talking to you before you shoved him in the car? This guy’s midwestern. What happened to world’s greatest detective, B?” Nightwing snorts and, wow, they’re not taking this half as badly as he thought they would. And, hey, now that he’s thinking about it, these are the first actual vigilantes he’s ever met outside of himself and Valerie, and wouldn’t it be a waste not to ask them for pointers? 

Maybe it’s not the best idea in the world, but he already knows their secret identities and they’re being chill about it, so maybe they’ll be chill with his, too. Screw it, he’s doing it. 

“Again, I promise I won’t tell anyone- I’m, ah, pretty good with secrets like this.” They turn to look at him curiously there, and he tries to talk past the lump in his throat. “I’m kind of, um, also a vigilante as well? Funny coincidence, right? Small town gig, though, nothing like Gotham! And I’ve only been on the scene a few years, so… I don’t know what I’m asking, here. Any good pointers?”

Nightwing looks thoughtful. “Does this have anything to do with the billionaire you mentioned?” He asks.

“It very much has a lot to do with the billionaire. If Vlad Masters ever asks you for anything- I dunno, punch him? He’s got a really punchable face, you’d know if you met him. It’s all creepy and shit.”

Nightwing continues asking questions as Bruce Wayne’s head remains firmly buried in his hands, and sure, maybe letting this well-established team of heroes know about his less-than-legal and more-than-ectoplasmic hobbies might come back to bite him, but right now he can’t help basking in the fact that he gets to bad-mouth Vlad to someone who Vlad will probably care about his reputation with. Everything else comes second. 

“-Hang on, you said you’ve been a vigilante for a few years, right? How old are you?”

Okay, almost everything comes second. Both men are looking at him now with something that’s probably-definitely concern and is getting worse the longer he neglects to answer, and Danny is very suddenly reminded once again that the majority of Bruce’s children fit the same appearance-criteria as he does. 

He’s just doubled his own problem, hasn’t he? It’s not just one anymore-he’s going to have to deal with two billionaires now. 

He’s never going on vacation again. 

[nobrashfestivity]

Personal rambling on Robert Johnson (don't feel you have to read this)

Since last night's song was a Robert Johnson song, I feel like mentioning that I always find it stomach churning how his musical legacy was talked about a large part of the music community.

His name was the subject of two complexly fabricated stories designed to cast him in a musical light that was comfortable to white musicians and writers.

The first one was silliness about him selling his soul to the devil so he could play guitar. It was such an incredibly popular myth (they made movies about it) and when I was a kid it seemed harmless enough until I realized it was to fuel the idea that white culture had about black artists. To whites, black musicians could never be scholarly and learned, doing the difficult task of mastering a musical instrument. Even though so many back musicians were highly educated the trope of the "natural black musician" that didn't have to learn it because they were part of a primitive culture and they were born into music, is a destructive stereotype that lives on today. It's adjacent to the racist "Black people have rhythm" stereotype.

Black people invented so much of American music but it's always been criticized until it is popular enough to be coopted by white artists. I'm not suggesting that white artists refrain from playing and adapting any sort of music, only that there's a lineage from "Jazz is not music" to "Rock and Roll is not music" to "Hip-Hop is not music." I wonder what all these kinds of music have in common!

Fewer people know the more recent Johnson myth that started on the internet, that his recordings were sped up and that's how he sang so high and played difficult things so fast. This had no basis in fact, it was an internet rumor. I felt it was also based on an ingrained racist idea about blues. White musicians had decided it sounded more "Authentic slower despite the fact that Johnson was only 25 years old when he recorded his first records and had ever right to sound like the young man he was. I have been over the "evidence" of this speed changing conspiracy and it was no basis in fact for about 10 reasons I wont bore you with. I just feel it's a lingering and unfortunate cultural picture of the blues that it's a bunch of uneducated black people getting drunk and singing that their baby left them. It can be extremely sophisticated and lyrical music.

I am not accusing everyone of being a racist. Many white musicians genuinely adored, shared the music of and credited Johnson for his genius. Keith Richards famously said when he first heard a record of Johnson paying solo he asked "Who's the guy playing with him?"

The thing I find unfortunate is that endless parade of Blues Hammer bands (Terry Zwigoff KNEW) that have systematically dismantled the elegance of the early rural music. The culture makes it hard for anyone to listen to Johnson and not think of some white hat mustached bar band who thinks they are covering Eric Clapton. And it's just a shame that, in a sense, he will remain this cliche of the guy selling his soul to the devil (so he could play hot licks!) instead of the graceful writer and musician he really was.

And to the poets and writers out there who analyze song lyrics, for me Johnson has some tremendously wry and dense allusions.

I recall reading Stephen Calt (I think) saying that in Johnson's song "Dead Shrimp Blues" "Shrimp" was a 19th century French slang term for a sex worker, long outmoded when he used it. I find these coded aspects to the music really interesting.

In the song last night "Come on in my kitchen" which is all at once mournful and salacious, there's one of Johnson's references to Hoodoo culture:

"Oh, she's gone, I know she won't come back I've taken the last nickel out of her nation sack You better come on in my kitchen It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors"

ethnographer and folklorist Tony Kail writes:

During the 1930’s Anglican minister Harry Middleton Hyatt traveled the United States performing interviews with numerous devotees of Hoodoo and African-American spiritualism. During his stay in Memphis Tennessee Hyatt encountered an informant who shared about a curious artifact known as the ‘nations sack’. Other local terms used for the sack included ‘nations bag’ and probably the most used term the ‘nation sack’.

Hyatt’s informant shared that the sack was worn by females typically around their waist. The sack contained money and objects considered to be ‘lucky’. One practitioner shared with Hyatt that some nation sack owners would place parts of a chicken egg inside the bag while others spoke of adding objects such as roots, snuffboxes and silver dimes. One informant shared that some women utilize materials such as a dollar bill covered in their mate’s urine inside of their nation sacks. Some were used in conjunction with a string that could be tied to ‘tie’ up a man’s ‘nature’ or sexual prowess. The magical principal that appeared frequently was that the ingredients in the nation sack could keep a man faithful and a woman protected. Hyatt’s informant he nicknames the ‘Nation Sack Woman’ advises the minister that the bag is off limits to men and should never be touched by a man.

But a favorite Johnson lyric for me is positively psychedelic for 1937 and is from "Love in vain" which perhaps is popularly known from being covered by The Rolling Stones .

"When the train, it left the station, with two lights on behind the blue light was my blues, and the red light was my mind."

[boymeetswerewolf]

Sterek Week '23 // Day 1, Only Just Begun / @sterekweek-2023

"Coffee Shop" color palette

i love you for sentimental reasons i hope you do believe me i've given you my heart - Natalie Cole, "For Sentimental Reasons"

"Coffee Shop"

As Stiles made his way to the counter with the gentle sounds of jazz drifting through the shop from an antique gramophone, he pulled out three singles from his back pocket to pay for his order. His eyes were trained on Derek, the somewhat distant, non-smiling yet excruciatingly attractive owner of the shop, who went about tidying up the counter and filling up the display jars on the shelf behind him.

Before he knew it, Stiles found himself standing at the counter and quickly put on a casual smile to try and mask the anxiety brewing inside him. He'd played the scenario over in his head a hundred times while sitting in the corner sipping his coffee, yet now that he had to act it out he was all jittery... or maybe that was just the caffeine.

"Hey, Derek," he began, his voice slightly shaky. He held up the three dollars for his order but before Derek could take it, Stiles said, "I was just wondering, uh, if I could buy you a coffee?" He looked up at Derek and immediately felt frozen in place like a deer in headlights as he waited for Derek to react.

"I usually like the five dollar stuff," Derek quipped as he returned two more jars of coffee grounds to the display shelf. 

Stiles, confused for a second, looked at the three dollars in his hand and back at Derek. "Uh... oh! No, this is for you. I mean— for me. To pay for my coffee, my order." The twin flames of mortification began to engulf Stiles' face and he was fully convinced his cheeks were as bright as a lighthouse, broadcasting his embarrassment for anyone within a five mile radius to see. 

Derek, who rarely smiled, offered Stiles a sly grin as he took the three dollars. "I know," he said softly. "You've been coming here every Wednesday - and sometimes Mondays - for the last six months and you always order a caffè misto, tall. It's $2.95 and you always tell me to keep the change, which I then donate on your behalf to the Wolf Preservation Fund." Derek took a nickel from the cash register as he placed Stiles' three dollars inside, then dropped it into the donation jar, Stiles' eyes following his every move. 

Chuckling bashfully, Stiles shifted from foot to foot. Derek's smile had caught him off-guard, but also somehow put him at ease. "Sorry," he said, not sure what he was apologising for but doing it anyway. "What I meant is I'd like to buy you a coffee sometime, if you'd like that. To get to know you better."

"And why would you want to do that?" Derek asked in return, the smile gone from his lips but still very much lingering in his eyes.

The soft music from the record player reaching Stiles' ears suddenly became familiar and he said, "For Sentimental Reasons," as he glanced in the direction of the old gramophone and the song's title sprung to mind. "I want to do it for... sentimental reasons." He looked back at Derek and suddenly the discomfort and anxiety seemed to wash away as his sincerity came through.

A half-smile returned to Derek's lips, this time expressing a softness Stiles hadn't seen before. "Well, you're in luck," Derek replied quietly. "I close up around 7pm. Maybe you should come by then, and we can have that coffee? Bring five dollars."

When Stiles overcame his disbelief that Derek said yes, he could hardly contain his excitement as he watched Derek's eyes meet with his. A moment formed between them, one they'd both remember for a long time to come. With a casual nod, Stiles replied, "Yeah, 7pm sounds perfect! I'll see you then."

The exchange was brief, but left Stiles with a newfound sense of anticipation. As he left the shop, he didn't see Derek's ears turn a bright shade of red, or the broad smile he tried to hide from the other customers. Neither of them knew this would be the start of something new, something wonderful, but it was just the beginning.

[pencilofawesomeness]

So I've been rereading HTRYDS (...again), and thinking about character stuff, and it's occurred to me that Lucy and Mystogan have some really interesting parallels? Like it's mainly backstory stuff, but even just personality wise I feel like they'd play off each other pretty well.

I didn't really have a point to this, but I will say it is so weird to me that canon would give so much good friendship fodder and then never give them a single conversation. (Probably because they wrote Mysogan off in the same arc they told us about his history, but that was just kind of a weak move in general). Anyways, I think a bonding moment would be neat but unfortunately neither of them are big on talking about their feelings so ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

Sorry about rambling in your inbox, I send good writing vibes as an apology.

Dude I love rambling, no need to apologize! (but I will take the good writing vibes, I need them)

And yes you're really onto something with the Lucy and Mystogan parallel. (I even have a moment in my back pocket I am trying to fit in to use the PL arc to nudge Mystogan's forward because it's always easier to recognize abuse and the effects thereof outside of your own family, and all that jazz.)

Because the kicker is that while they both recognize that their dads are trash, but of them have waaaay too much guilt when their dad ends up hurting the rest of the guild. (If I had a nickel for every time a father of a FT mage was an antagonist.....) It's certainly a fun parallel to use for their personal arcs. It would probably come up more in the Edolas arc, now that I think about what I have planned....

Dangit anon all of these potential friendships are so shiny and now I need to make more of an effort to get these two in the same room. (As of now my plan was for a funny oneshot where Lucy is absolutely getting the hang of these new friends until everyone just f o r g o t to mention that Jellal had a twin.)

[smoreboi]

catching up on magnus protocol after I accidentally fell off for like.. seven weeks… dropping my opinion of 6, 7, and 8 before I continue:

6 -> love needles, fantastic character, manic pixie dream girl of my thoughts, he’s glorious, in competition w Michael for THE character ever in my brain rn

7 -> awe, she seems nice, and not at all suspiciously more aware of things I didn’t think would be talked about this soon, not much on the case itself, very Breekon and Hope-esque, it’s all for a good cause is pretty catchy, and I thought they may have been talking about a Gerry similar to our original Gerry there at the end

8 -> where do I even begin. Cool case file, love an other world of cannibals where your only escape is to go through some glass, if I had a nickel for every time, I’d have two, all that jazz (although slamming into a mirror isn’t nearly as bad of an exit as jumping out of the window of a skyscraper, good on the flesh for upping the stakes of escape), meanwhile, in leading-the-plot city, we’ve got an email from a jo(h)n (idk if it’s h or not, haven’t been reading the transcripts, although feel I’ll have to for this one, I think even this scene was in a different ep, I’m just lumping all the plot here), we’ve got Gerry and Gee Gee, or Gertrude, living together and having some attachment to the Magnus institute, and we have Georgie who runs a podcast, so like.. I mean, just a bunch of stuff for my little brain to take in, I thought they’d ease into plot a little more, but no, we’re off to the races it seems, unless the next four slow back down immediately.

In any turn, great eps, will reblog w further thoughts as I continue to listen

[charcoalhawk]

Stuck in Limbo

My Phantom Truce gift for @berry-berry-blu

I ended up going with your third prompt: Being friends with Danny Fenton is really frustrating when he keeps cracking jokes while bleeding out.

Warnings for; gore, description of wounds, blood

wc: 1066

“…297, 298, 299, 300. Ok, tell me another one Danny.”

“If I had a nickel for every time someone I should have trusted stabbed me in the back, I’d have way too many nickels.”

The rasping laughter that bubbles up from ruptured lungs sends more blood leaking out on her makeshift bandages.

The feeling of blood congealing in her hair and on her clothes has to be one of the most vile sensations in the world. And unfortunately Valerie has grown used to it.

At least most times it’s her own blood, scrapes and scratches from not getting out of the way fast enough. But what happened to Danny? She knows she saw a flash of bone and the edge of a spasming lung before she was able to attempt to treat them.

She remembers the moment she broke into the lab. She hadn’t heard any screams, just following the sinking feeling in her gut after Danny had disappeared following a fight between Phantom and Plasmi- Mr. Masters.

Phantom, strapped down to a metal table covered in wounds, while Mr. Masters loomed over him wielding what looked like a cattle prod. Only when he struck Phantom the electricity dancing around it was red, and with an agonized scream and a flash of white light, the boy of the table transformed from her second worst enemy to one of her best friends.

Her brain had needed precious seconds to make sense of what she was witnessing, but luckily after almost three years of fighting ghosts muscle memory had a blaster out and scorching hole in Mr. Masters shoulder before he could react.

How they got out was a bit of a blur. She knows she got at least two more blasts of at Mr. Masters, but she doesn’t know where they hit. Some part of her hopes that one of them was fatal.

She does remember leaving at least one shattered window as they escaped, and probably a hell of a lot of blood.

The cold autumn air meant that she had a flannel on hand to strip and make rudimentary bandages, and she kept a tiny stock of gauze on her glider so she wouldn’t have to go home after some of the nastier fights.

It still hadn’t been enough to stop blood from leaking out onto them both. Blood, and what she knows is ectoplasm. But trying to process that Danny is Phantom is something that’s going to have to wait until after she can get him stabilized.

At least Danny isn’t freaking out more with the realization that Valerie knows. But, given that both Tucker and Sam have to know, and Jazz given how calm she had been on the phone, at least means she isn’t the first person to find out.

Another shudder from Danny causes a fresh wave of gore to come dribbling out on their chests, and after almost an hour of actively bleeding out Valerie doesn’t know how Danny is still conscious.

“Don’t worry.” Danny seems to almost read her thoughts, or maybe he can tell by the way she holds him that much tighter. “You’ve done enough research into ghosts to know what a Core does right? Ectoplasm can replenish itself at a rate where bleeding out is pretty much impossible. Trust me, Vlad already tried that.”

“Hey,” she’s been so horrified for so long that her voice ends up coming out flat, “we agreed on one morbid joke per five minutes.”

“I still can’t believe you’re counting out the seconds,” Danny’s voice sounds far away, for all that his face remains pressed into the crook of her shoulder and collarbone.

“Hey, if you get to use a fucked up sense of humor to cope, I’m allowed to use this.”

Her phone had died about a half hour into their flight. And Danny’s was crushed or lost somewhere in the last five hours of chaos.

At least she’d been able to call Jazz beforehand. The older girl had promised to have the Fenton’s brought up to speed and ready to help the second they arrived at Fenton Works.

Jazz had trusted her to keep Danny conscious. With all the equipment available to them nothing should be able to stop the Fenton parents from helping their son, but none of that would matter if he died on the way back.

…well, died more than he already was.

Danny’s shuddering breaths rattle her own ribcage, each heave spilling more blood to soak into their clothes. She needs to rebandage them, needs to stitch the gaping wound on his chest and abdomen close.

As panic begins to overwhelm her she forces herself to take a deep breath, feeling Danny’s chest against her’s. Feels the slow, low hum of what she knows is a Core. She’d done what she could. In the moment getting him out of that hellscape of a mansion had been her top priority.

At least without any ghosts chasing her it’s a smooth ride on her glider. But even pushing it to its limit it’s taking them almost two hours to fly back to Amity Park. With the limited space on her glider she can’t get a better angle at Danny’s wounds, and if she tried to rebanage them now they’d have to stop their flight so she could concentrate.

At least flying chest to chest, with one arm wrapped securely around him and his flung over her back is keeping pressure on the wound. Maybe riding piggyback would have been more efficient, but then she wouldn’t have been able to see him, and she needed at least one hand free in case something came after them.

She can feel Danny’s legs begin to shake every ten minutes or so. Every time she reaches for that little bit of hope hiding in her chest, and every time she feels Danny take a deep, wet breath and the shaking subsides.

For now.

Everyone in Amity knows about the one sided feud between the Fenton parents and Phantom. She’s heard them vent about wanting to dissect Phantom molecule by molecule.

Hopefully they’ve changed in the last three years like she has, if nothing else Jazz can still help.

There’s nothing else to do but keep flying home. When they arrive at Fenton works they’ll either be treated with an ecto-weapon or with bandages.

She just hopes she’s making the right choice.

[heliopauseentertainments]

Pairing and 2 AUs: Jazz/Megatron (because I am predictable) or Megatron/Nickel (because it would be fun) - you choose.

Either way for AUs:

(a) fae, or

(b) academia (not a college AU, but the sort of thing where all the focus is on the professorial types - Oxbridge SCR/David Lodge style New Uni struggles/whatever)

I have basically zero knowledge of anything fae-related (it's not a cultural feature here), so by default I have to pick option B, but with the disclaimer that I don't recognize any of the the names you mentioned (beyond that Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge).

Also, further disclaimer, as uni admin staff, my feelings towards faculty are... complicated at best.

This one is difficult to assemble.

The trick is finding departments where any of them would come into contact with each other.

I will make the following assumptions:

They are still robots in a Cybertronian cultural context.

We're using a loosely IDW1 continuity.

Academia on Cybertron functions at least somewhat similarly to real-world. I am using the US context because that's what I know, but I realize this is not universal. I.E. I'm using similar positions, academic divisions, fields of study, and issues.

The best I'm coming up with is if Nickel works with some department of Population Health (to keep in line with her medical background) and if Megatron were brought it in from a more statistics-based humanities (what would a Cybertronian equivalent be?) department (demography, social statistics, labor studies, etc.) for a data consult.

Jazz would almost certainly be working with a music and/or dance department. He probably even has a dual appointment.

Finding a department fit for Megatron is very difficult.

The bigger struggle is "who let Megatron into a university? who let him graduate and get a job?" because he would butt right up against the systemic discrimination against working class grad students and likely be forced out via dubiously legal black-balling from faculty not approving projects and/or requiring him to pay for mandatory activities and conferences out of pocket.

In a Cybertronian context, the biases against manual class mechs, even post-Zeta lifting fanatical functionism, would function similarly to the real-world working class bias, along with the black-balling probably actually being more overtly allowed.

I'm also struggling to see him actively choosing to work in academic environments, but the spite of "I am going to go be an asshole and do it anyway" is a good motive for him.

Alright, I've got two options:

Jazz/Megatron - Jazz with his dual appointment and Megatron having a tentative appointment in labor studies doing cross-disciplinary research on music's (and dance's) role in labor movements. This would also allow them to both draw on their strengths and experiences to reach a common ground.

Nickel/Megatron - Nickel requiring outside assistance to set up and account for certain social variables for a new project that is part of a government research grant and the only one available from the appropriate statistical or demographic department is Megatron. The focus would be their struggle to mesh their terse and obstinate personalities to actually work together and complete the project and keep that sweet, sweet grant funding.

Both actually have a lot more potential than I would have thought before noodling it through. It's hard to pick, but I think I'm actually going to choose option 1: Jazz/Megatron.

I think it could be a solid 10k or under one-shot. However, I wouldn't want to actually parallel too many real-world issues, so this is something I wouldn't ever actually write.

Title: Building Bridges

The description is already a good loose summary.

[troublewithvampires]

@skitzo-kero Helping Sal (and you) feel loved and cherished with a little Ari: It had been a few minutes from the time Salvatore had stepped out, and Ari had joined him. She did not speak right away, simply pulling out her own cigarette, lighting it, and taking a slow, long drag from the toxic bliss. Her blue eyes flicked over him before a sigh left her lips. Blocking out the streetlight with her form, she stepped in front of her long-time friend. Her hands smoothly fixed his tie after the "rough-housing" they had endured minutes earlier. "You can breathe easy now, pet." She spoke around the smoke stick that laid between her lips. "The deed is done, and you've earned some much needed rest." The hand that smoothed down his tie came up to gently cup his chin to ensure his face was turned up towards her. "How about I draw you a warm bath, we pour some whiskey, put on some jazz, and have a small dance between the two of us, hm?" Her lips had the faintest upturned hints of a smile that her eyes held all the warmth and softness for. "After all, my pet deserves all the comforts the world can offer. And I will ensure you receive each. And. Every. One." In-between each punctuation, as if to make them count, Ari placed chaste kisses. Four in total. The top of his head. His forehead. His temple. His cheek. Leaving the last, only slightly more lingering kiss to be on his lips. "Now let's get home."

Salvatore hadn't noticed at first that his hands were shaking as he lit his cigarette. His bloodied knuckles ached, but he hardly registered the pain through the haze of adrenaline beginning to seep out of him in waves. The first drag of burning smoke into his lungs relaxed him in increments, his tired eyes slipping closed.

It wasn't long before Ari joined him. His eyes cracked open to look her way, a slow smile spreading across his face. Like Salvatore, she was disheveled, her blond hair out of place and her clothes in disarray. Her knuckles were just as bloody as his, and she had a healing cut on her bottom lip.

"What a night, huh?" he drawled. That was certainly a way to put it. He took another drag from his cigarette, breathing out the smoke with a sigh. For a moment, he and Ari stood in silence, until she turned to him, reaching out to straighten his tie. The gesture was tender, speaking to years of trust and companionship.

Her words, however, prompted a snort. "Yeah, right," he said. "Gonna have to report back to Nickels in the morning--gotta let him know ol' Jimmy ain't gonna be a problem anymore, and then I gotta get to work cleanin' up the rest of his buddies." He peered up at Ari, smiling grimly. "You and I both know I ain't got time to relax, boss."

Still, despite his protests, he leaned into her touch as she cupped his face. Even rough and battered, her hands felt nice against his skin. Her expression was mostly neutral, but he saw the shimmer of affection in her eyes that had his shoulders drooping.

"... Maybe a night in wouldn't hurt," he finally decided, a ragged chuckle escaping him as Ari pressed kisses to his exhausted face. He rested his free hand on her arm, lightly running his fingers across the silky fabric of her shirt. Maybe that's what he needed: a nice bath, some nice booze, and a nice place to let his guard down and sleep. After all, even the most hardworking dog had to rest sometimes.

Salvatore squeezed Ari's arm and shot her a grin. "Yeah, let's get goin'."

[lafiametta]

Olek and Ling Yi in the United States of the 1960/1970s! Hard rock, glam rock, jazz fusion, post-disco, funky soul and grooves... They would dance so much! And Olek taking Ling Yi to drive-in theatre dates in those super cool cars, and they just make out the entire time. By the end of the movie, his face would be smudged with her lipstick and she would love that look on him so much that when they go to the mall to have ice-cream, she would drag him to a photo-booth before he can clean himself just so she can keep a memory of that handsome face and that fantastic date forever with her.

(Sure hope it's alright with you for me to come here and tell you all about the silly little scenarios I think of them sometimes! It's just that I'm obsessed with them you know!)

No, seriously, I love it! There's so much great music from that era — and so many great dances... the Twist, the Mashed Potato, the Watusi, the Limbo... Also, can we just take a minute to imagine them dancing to this Little Richard song (this is one of my favorite videos and I'm so happy to have an excuse to share it!):

The 60s setting is such a vibe, though. I want them in at the soda shop, sharing a milkshake with two straws, Ling Yi feeding nickels into the juke box and squealing when her song finally starts playing. I want Saturday night dances in the gymnasium and cruising around in Olek's car as they looked for a place to park (and make out). And of course I want them at the drive-in, Olek's arm around Ling Yi's shoulder, her jumping in surprise during a scary part of the movie and hiding her face in the crook of his neck (followed by more making out). The photo booth is so iconic, and I love imagining them rearranging themselves every time the flash goes off: one snapshot of puffed cheeks and crossed eyes, another with Ling Yi planting a puckered kiss right on Olek's cheek, the last one with the two of them gazing at the camera, ridiculously happy and young and in love.

[theloniousbach]

PILC/MOUTIN/HOENIG at SMALL’S JAZZ CLUB, 16-17 FEBRUARY 2024

Of course I was going to see all of this special band’s recent run at Small’s. I’m a little surprised that it’s taken me an 8 day week to see all four sets as I am not watching/listening/writing quite so compulsively. But throw in that I watched and wrote about the very first set along with the Marc Copland/Drew Gress/Billy Drummond set that happened at Mezzrow’s at the same time, then I guess I haven’t completely slacked off. Still, with this on my radar, I didn’t closely follow the regular goings on at these clubs for two weeks.

This is a magical and stunning band that intrigues me no end, a sleek sports car that can roar and whisper, floor it and turn on a dime. They de-, un-, re- construct trio dynamics in ways that make The Bad Plus or even (I may blaspheme here) Bill Evans/Scott LaFaro/Paul Motian experimentations with decentralization seem quite tame indeed. They actually hew very closely to standards, so, particularly this time around, I never felt lost which made what they were doing even more astounding. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette also are very very strong and do standards, but they too are tame. Maybe (but I’ll check) they play against expectations as Tony Williams exhorted Miles’ Second Great Quintet to do going into the Plugged Nickel gigs at the end of 1965. The term “anti-music” required lots of counter-intuitive explaining then and doesn’t fit P/M/H either. But it’s bracing and fresh.

I don’t know about how their internal expectations work, but they must have an intuitive sense about where each other is. There is constant mischief and trading instigators. My sense of Friday 7:30 it was FRANCOIS MOUTIN leading from the bass whereas JEAN-MICHEL PILC was Harpo throwing music in the air in the second set. The Saturday opener gave me the insight that the key to ARI HOENIG’s drumming—and I’ve listened to him here and with his own trio and with Billy Childs often and with great delight—is that he is always playing the song, its melody and harmony as well as the rhythm. Elbows into drum heads, tom toms with mallets and sticks and brushes, strategic strikes on cymbals and rims, the bass drum, handwork—all contribute to multidimensional sound as varied as any other instrument. I used to think Hoenig heard rhythms inside of rhythms—and he does—not simply as a drummer but as a horn or bass or piano. Indeed, the closing sets insight was that, although Pilc and Moutin started off tunes and then “led” them, Moutin and Hoenig always were having a conversation inside the discussion.

If Hoenig (with Pilc and Moutin) is always playing the song, what tunes they play. Monk teases and flat out tunes, Ellington (Caravan and a Don’t Mean a Thing tease for the Saturday second set closer), All Blues twice and Someday My Prince Will Come and My Funny Valentine to signal Miles, probably it was Afro Blue to check off the Coltrane box, The Song Is You (the title cut on their new album) immediately followed by On Green Dolphin Street (more Miles) in the Saturday 7:30 set as well as Dear Old Stockholm twice to make me extremely happy with particularly favorite tunes, The Way You Look Tonight, You and the Night and the Music, Someone To Watch Over Me. Chestnuts all but turned inside out and all the way around, but the touch points close enough to keep me oriented.

There will be Ari Hoenig’s trio to catch from time to time until they come back. Very special stuff.

[binenbaumaj]

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[pastelpaperplanes]

You mostly draw Megatron with Crusade in his Cybertronian look but in your canons it was said that while carrying the spark Megs wore his Marauder look. Did Megatron changed bodies or is the Canon changed?

yes! haha so hmm let’s see. So far up until A Little Too Familiar I have tossed Crusade into my Crackship AU—because with the Cybertron’s future AU with a whole lot of my other sparklings, ones that have considered backstories, they wouldn’t exist because of Shamus and Envoy!—and yes in the Crack AU, Megan does sport his Marauder Upgrade.

I’m still 1000% open to keeping Crusade as like,,a cameo for the Crack AU but I will say I’m getting far too attached to their character to better NOT explore them more in a more intricate backstory kind of sense! Many of the asks I’ve answered previously about Crusade’s personality and future are still canon—with the exemption that Crusade has a far more present/loving relationship with their Carrier, who as a literal helicopter parent is near suffocating in his protectiveness and efforts to keep his sparkling away from the hands and influence of the Autobots, even if that means locking them away on the Nemesis far too much to be healthy, and lying straight to their face, and others, about their origins.

Since the TFN 2021 S4 kickoff script reading I’ve been leaning towards guess what—a whole other AU that continues RIGHT after that point, much like where the CF AU would—only certain rescission within the timeline have been changed leading to, in some relationships, a vastly different setting for a next generation! (No, I don’t think I’d create a whole ton of other sparklings in place, for example a planned Strika/Lugnut kiddo wouldn’t happen for obvious reasons, nor would Shmaus or Envoy exist!! Who would remain, THAT I will figure out later down the line.) So Megatron is not in his Marauder form, Optimus is named Magnus, Jazz is with team Prime/Ninja Corps, Sentinel is still a dick figures, Prowl is still dead and so forth.

What I have planned is sort of like where the Deceptions sport a retreat after their bust on Earth when attempting to take over the central line of techno organic energon. The Cons faced losses, high command was scrambled and still very much injured from their cruel, and unusual keeping within Trypticon, heavy sacrifices turned out to NOT reap greater rewards, and the troops are still starving—and starving, scared mecha are far more dangerous than angry ones.

Optimus is still coming to terms that he is due to lead Cybertron, under the title of Optimus Magnus as soon as he’s back, whether he likes it or not as the front lines are still very much on edge with the evermore increasingly violent rouge Con raids.

I made some commentary on the reading as a whole which was PHENOMENAL and I’m still riding the high that is the fanTASTIC work that was put into is, like god. There was a brief but hilarious moment from Rattletrap where he attempted to sell off a crudely photoshopped Megop photograph as dirt—a part of me thought it would be even MORE hilarious if said photo was actually, used and Op was left sputtering after a double take going like how did they find that. HOW.

My poor, poor fanfic loving heart got going on of course the What if the Enemies Were Fraternizing Throughout the Whole of The Show, Morals be Damned in Those Stolen Moments Because I Like YOU For Some Reason trope. Wow is me, be still my beating HEART. It did not stop—so I made another AU :D yayyyyy

Basically the creation of Crusade follows along in this timeline in that sense. They were a product of one too many lonely nights in some far off abandoned cave that never could quite seem to end with a civil conversation, let alone spark apprehension from the other when it came to going toe to toe of the battlefield for the sake of their Causes. A Comfort without Strings relationship, even if they did come to grow fond of each other, not that they’d ever admit it—a confession, in a sense, would only hurt both parties knowing that the two would never give up their motivations in the ‘impossible ‘case that said feelings were mutual.

From the looks of it, the Autobots did not once tend to the Deceptions during their stay at Trypticon. Megs still sported bare struts and tattered armor up to his escape—it would be believable that medics never once ran scans, let alone were ordered to get anywhere near the high command. With already being in such poor shape, battered, humiliated, starved, violated (those minicons?? homage to Trepan??? yikessssss) and sedated—it would be believable that Megatron wouldn’t pay notice to a small flutter in his spark amongst all the pain and anxiety, at least until he finally could gather his bearings under the lockdown of his temporary fortress stuck on Earth.

Megatron, knowing he was alone, now extremely vulnerable, heavily outnumbered and out favored by his remaining struggling troops, called upon his definitely not most favorite sub team to cower behind—the DJD, to meet his blaring distress beacon.

Tarn and his crew, with the help of the rest of high command’s signal dampeners, are able to as covertly as possible—minus the world sweeper size of the Peaceful Tyranny and the paralyzing droning on of the Empyrean Suite that Tarn just loves so dearly—made it off planet save for a few bumps and bruises from the small force of Team Prime. The High & Mighty Megatron was no where to be seen in the action. Probably off in a hurry to lick his wounds in retreat after getting his ass handed to him, many assumed, but Nickel knew better. Tarn knew better. Something was terribly wrong in order to resort to a ‘cowardly’ extraction and evasion mission.

You can see where I’m going w this—so anyways YES that is the general gist of where this AU kicks off!!! Megs and Op, particularly Megs, got unlucky on their last night together—eventually all leading to the introduction of the previously secretive back up weapon that was the DJD. Coming to the rescue of their Fearless, All Powerful, and Resilient Leader?? A strange, but instantly understandable measure to resort to once Megatron reveals himself as a carrying mech, the beholder of a true heir and a testament to the resilience that is the Deceptions though the terrible reign the Autobots have held against them through the eons.

I’ll go into why he keeps Crusade on a tight leash and Op out of the loop entirely for as long as he possibly could—and how the rest of Megaton’s troops behaved around this clearly, half blooded Con sparkling their leader doted on— later!

Needless to say, Crusade’s reputation from the moment they were born was tottering on a fine line between that of pitiable condolences for their leader, and that of true Decepticon pride knowing that the one to lead them to glory some day is none other than one of the Autobots’ very own descendants.

Hope that kinda better explains things! I like Meg’s Cybertronian design, it’s sleek, it’s sexy, it’s easier to draw, and since S4 gave us a fresher design to admire of Optimus, why not have the same for his other half!

YEAHH. so new AU :D AYOOOO I’ll tag this timeline/future mentionings of Crusade and their journey as Cybertron’s Legacy AU

extremely stupid doodle under the cut! I can’t get over the duality of Old Written vs New Written Crusade ahhh 💀💀

I found a horrifically perfect tik tok audio for these two oml

Swapping Megatron stories!

[redrobin-detective]

From a young age, Jack Fenton wanted a life of adventure and excitement. Working on his family’s quiet farm in the middle of nowhere never sat right with him. Late one night, he sees something he can’t explain in the woods which sparks a lifelong passion for the supernatural. He worked day and night at various odd jobs once he was old enough in order to save up money for school. Pa and him had a huge row when he saw how much money Jack had saved over the years. That money could’ve bought new equipment, could have put food in his sisters’ mouths. But Jack held fast, he loved his family but he needed to find his own way and he wouldn’t find it here. As soon as he got his acceptance letter for his college of choice, he left the farm and never looked back.

Rooming with Vlad Masters was a struggle at first but his roommate’s intense desire to prove Jack wrong about ghosts eventually sparked a friendly continuing argument which just became friendly in general. Jack was too loud, too enthusiastic for everyone else, almost always the biggest and broadest guy in the room. Jack first met Maddie during college orientation, or rather he met her bountiful bushy red hair 3 rows up that his eyes kept wandering to. He met her properly when they got into an intense discussion of the use of the supernatural in fiction during literature class. Girls had never registered for Jack before, always seemed less interesting than his research. But Maddie, she like a revelation in and of herself. They continued their debate after class, into the dining hall where Vlad somehow got roped in. They exchanged phone numbers and continued their theories long into the night. They never really stopped.

Maddie was like the campfires Pa used to make when he was young. She was small and contained but with an all-encompassing energy that warmed everyone around her. He finally met his match with her, her enthusiasm encouraged his and vice versa. Her mind thought differently from Jack but in a complementary way, he did his best thinking when she was there to bounce ideas off of. As close as he and Vlad were, sometimes the whole world disappeared when Maddie was around. Vlad proclaimed his desire to date Maddie on a couple of occasions, asking Jack to back him up. Jack never knew how to answer, it should be okay as long as the two of them were happy and he and Maddie could stay friends. But he couldn’t just ignore that chemistry he felt when Jack’s eyes met hers.

 Vlad’s accident occurred not long afterwards, he was stuck in the hospital and forced to drop out of school their last semester. The guilt ate away at Jack but Maddie made things better. He danced with her for their last college dance, kissed her for the first time as they threw their caps into the air for graduation. Being with her was like being whole for the first time in his life. When he got down on his knee and asked her to be his lab partner for life, it was the best thing he’d ever done. They had something of a shotgun wedding, neither of them had two nickels to rub together both coming from poor families and a load of student debt. Jack couldn’t afford to rent a suit so he wore his hazmat suit, figuring Mads would get a kick out of it. When she walked down the aisle with her lab goggles on, he knew he’d found the one.

They moved to Amity Park, a peaceful but still bustling suburb an hour outside Chicago. In their research, they’d discovered several anomalies in and around the area that suggested it was a hot bed of paranormal activity. They bought a house and worked on making it their own. Maddie initially hadn’t wanted children, wanting to focus more on their work. Jack, however, had come from a big family and had wanted kids even when he’d been a kid. Many long discussions and time to settle and soon they had a beautiful daughter. He asked to name her Jasmine. His mother had loved the smell and kept it around the house growing up, even years later, the scent calmed him. Looking at the precious girl in his arms, he knew that she would be his new home.

Danny had been a little bit of a surprise. Him and Mads were content with their chatty, precocious daughter. They hadn’t even discussed having a second when they found out she was pregnant several months in. She hadn’t been symptomatic, Maddie fretted the rest of the pregnancy, worried she’s inadvertently harmed their child by exposing herself to chemicals. But everything turned out alright, Danny was born just fine, if a solid pound smaller than Jasmine. While Jazzy had wailed and wailed, Danny was a quiet baby, instead choosing to look around with wide, curious eyes. When he gripped Jack’s finger and brought it into his little mouth, Jack was smitten.

He loved being a scientist, a husband, but Jack especially loved being a father. Maddie said he never quite grew out of being a kid and he agreed with her. The sound of his daughters delighted screams as he ran around the house with her on his shoulders. The beaming smile Danny gave when Jack held him up high so he could be closer to the night sky. He loved his work, an obsession he was more than willing to admit, but his heart truly lied with his family. Jack could have lived an eternity in those early days when his children looked up at him like he could do no wrong. Of course, it wouldn’t last. Children grew up, socialized and learned that ghost hunting wasn’t the cool, legitimate profession they’d believed. His kids loved them but there was a separation that hadn’t existed before, a disconnect of a passionate farm boy searching for the unknown to modern kids who didn’t understand what it meant to to crave understanding.

Maddie was the one who shopped the idea of working on the portal again. Jack had been skeptical at first, it had been his dream but after what happened with Vlad and with the kids still living in the house... But Vlad was fine now, on his way to being a millionaire the last Jack heard and his thirst for knowledge couldn’t be quenched. It took years to draw up the schematics and begin building. The process was slow, made slower by Maddie going back to school for her second degree in psychics, by losses of funding, taking shady government contracts to put food on the table. When he saw the sad, hungry looks on his kids’ faces when they had discount TV dinners, he finally understood his father’s anger over Jack selfishly hoarding money for college. But years of blood, sweat and tears saw the fruition of their dreams completed.

The portal hadn’t worked right away to his immense disappointment only to miraculous start up when him and Maddie weren’t looking. Danny started acting sick immediately after, enough to scare the hell out of Jack. Visions of Vlad’s ecto-scarred face and the sounds of him vomiting up blood and ectoplasm haunted him. Not his Danny, not his sweet boy. But Danny recovered and things seemingly went back to normal. They say hindsight is 20/20 but Jack will curse himself until the day he died for not seeing the signs until it was spelled out for him. He knew Maddie and him were unconventional but he tried to foster love and trust in their home. The idea that his son didn’t think he could come to them for the dramatic changes the portal had done to him, that he was scared of them. Jack wept heartily at the thought of how he’d failed, that he’d been the sort of prejudiced, uninterested father like his Pa had been.

So he’d gotten down on his knees, making himself smaller and less threatening to his boy - he was so tall now, when had that happened - and asked for another chance. Danny, always too kind for his own good, forgave them. He said it before Jack believed he meant it but it was the biggest relief he’d ever felt in his life to have the opportunity to make things right. It was hard, erasing decades of biases. To not jump when Danny acted a bit too ghostly, to not to correct him when his boy made some comment on ghosts that Jack disagreed with. But he listened and he learned and even though his heart was already fit to burst, he found more love in his heart for his son. His son, who carried a heavy burden with dignity and grown into twice the man Jack was when he hadn’t been looking. Jazz too was paving her own way forward with the same zeal and intelligence that Jack admired so in Maddie. 

His wife, his friend, his lab partner for life stood by his side as their children left home to change the world. When he was young, Jack dreamed of excitement, of never-ending exploration and fearsome battles. He got all of that, and more, but he also found something else. Jack found people who loved him for all his eccentricities, who he felt free to be as loud as silly as he desired. He raised two beautiful children who he loved more every day and who he knew loved in return. He wished he could tell his younger self that while excitement put hair on your chest, his Ma and Pa had been right in that family was something worth investing in. Jack Fenton made staggering advancements to the field of ectology over the years but his greatest accomplishment, should you ask him, would be living his best life with the woman of his dreams and their children.

[suite43]

PS Neither the egg fic nor the vegan freak have anything to do with M/gastar before you try it. That's all pure Starscream stanning, baby. And one of them is St/rop, the supposedly ""good""" ship LOL.

List of female Transformers Main Complete list Following is a thorough list of the various female Transformers in canon thus far. Many of these characters were Japan-exclusive, featured only in fiction, or exist as limited-run exclusive toys. Female characters who had multiple toys are listed only once. Generation 1 (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Chromia (1) Moonracer (2) Firestar (3) Elita One (4) Greenlight (5) Lancer (6) Arcee (7) Beta (8) An Autobot rebel (9) Paradron Medic (11) Nancy (12) Minerva (13) Clipper (14) Karmen (18) Glyph (20) Road Rage (21) Discharge[1] (22) Windy[1] (23) Vibes (24) Roulette (25) Flareup (32) Flip Sides (34) Rosanna (35) Windrazor (38) Thunderblast (46) Cassiopeia (47) Nautica (51) Windblade (52) Victorion (61) Velocity (63) Javelin (62) Proxima (64) Roadmaster (65) Acceleron (66) Override (69) Rust Dust (70) Pyra Magna (71) Skyburst (72) Stormclash (73) Jumpstream (74) Dust Up (75) Scorpia[1] (76) Eos (80) Lifeline (83) Quickslinger (84) Hotwire[2] (98) Strongarm (99) Slide[2] (104) Crush Bull[2] (107) Oiler[2] (108) Broadside[2] (109) Sky High[2] (110) Circuit[2] (116) Pyra Ignatia Spark[2] (118) Scorchfire (122) Orthia (126) Smashdown[2] (128) Esmeral (15) Lyzack (16) Clio (17) Nightracer (19) Shadow Striker (26) Howlback (31) Flamewar (33) Flip Sides (34) Crasher (39) Freezon[1] (44) Nightracer (49) Slipstream (50) Twirl (54) Nickel (60) Swift (77) Killjoy (79) Blackout[2] (81) Spaceshot[2] (82) Crash Test (85) Trickdiamond (92) Moonheart (93) Megaempress (94) Flowspade (95) Lunaclub (96) Megatronia (100) Buckethead[1] (103) Diveplane[1] (112) Seawave[1] (113) Mindgame (114) Tracer[2] (115) Devastator[2] (117) Cindersaur[2] (125) Shadow Striker (127) Nova Storm[2] (129) Termagax (133) Kaskade (135) Heavywait (138) Tyrannocon Rex (139) Cheesecake robot (10) Roulette and Shadow Striker's sister (27) Path Finder (28) Small Foot (29) Devcon's galpal (30) One of Optimus Prime's rescuees (36) Angela (37) Four members of the Kaon upperclass (40-43) Ma-Grrr (45) Red waitress Transformer (48) Windshear (53) Solus Prime (55) Female protester (56) Lightbright (57) Strafe (58) Mistress of Flame (59) Exocet (67) Vertex (68) Aileron (78) Gnash (86) Slice (87) Thrashclaw (88) Shred (89) A pair of Devisen twins (90-91) Maxima (97) Sieg[3] (101) Kari (102) Anode (105) Lug (106) X-Throttle (111) Rum-Maj (119) Praesidia Magna (120) Fastbreak (121) Crash Test (122) Stardrive (123) Magrada (124) Leviathan (130) Codexa (131) Gauge (132) Lodestar (134) Shutter (136) Sharpclaw (137) Cargohold (140) Half-qualifiers: Alana, turned into a Transformer for a short time. Aunty, female Cybertronian intelligent computer. Combination granny and attack-dog-bots, human-sized drones supposedly based on Transformer technology. One of Maccadam's bartenders Nightbird Overlord, has a female side to him. Some of the "Teletraan" computers like 15 and 10 are female. There appears to be a female design among a group of old generics. Bayonet, the fake female Decepticon disguise of Britt. In the French dub of The Transformers: The Movie, Shrapnel and Starscream are considered female. Shrapnel is also female in the Russian dub. Beast Era (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Airazor (2) Kitte Shūshū (5) Rage (6) Botanica (7) Sonar[1] (13) Crystal Widow (14) Crossblades (15) Stiletto (16) Transmutate[1] (18) Binary (19) Wedge Shape[1] (24) Aura (25) Legend Convoy[1] (26) Stockade[2] (28) Rav (29) Hammerstrike[2] (31) Triceradon[2] (35) Skimmer (36) Nyx (44) Blackarachnia (1) Scylla (3) Antagony (4) Strika (8) Manta Ray[1] (17) Ser-Ket (20) Dead-End[2] (27) Jai-Alai (30) Max-B[2] (32) Gaidora (33) Soundbyte/Soundbite (34) Liftoff (37) Freefall (38) Snarl-blast[2] (39) Vertebreak (43) Skold (45) Libras (9) Virgol (10) Cancix[1] (11) Possibly Sagittarii (12) Dipole (21) Vamp (22) Plasma[2] (23) Deep Blue (40) At least two bridge officers of the Terrastar (41-42) Half-qualifiers: NAVI-ko, female Cybertronian intelligent computer NAVI (Yukikaze), female Cybertronian intelligent computer NAVI (Gung Ho), female Cybertronian

intelligent computer DNAVI, female Cybertronian intelligent computer Medusa, an Intruder-built robot modified with Cybertronian technology Robots in Disguise (2001) (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Optimus Prime[2] (1) Nightcruz[1] (3) Scourge[2] (2) Half-qualifiers: T-AI, female Cybertronian intelligent computer. Unicron Trilogy (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Airazor (5) Arcee (9) Autobot nurses (10) Two Velocitronian band members (11-12) Override[4] (13) Joyride[4] (15) Quickslinger (16) Crystal Widow (24) Treadbolt (33) Chromia (34) Thunderblast (14) Spacewarp (30) Sureshock (1) Combusta (2) Falcia (3) Twirl (4) Sunburn (6) Cliffjumper[1] (7) Ironhide[1] (8) Spiral[1] (9) Offshoot[1] (17) Breakage[1] (18) Kickflip[1] (19) Mudbath[1] (20) Heavy Metal[1] (21) "Disco ball" (22) Road Rebel[1] (23) Guardian Speed[1] (25) Mugen[1] (26) Bingo/Triac[1] (27) Wedge Shape[1] (28) Sprite (29) Boom Tube (31) Windrazor (32) Rán (33) Half-qualifiers: A possible scooterformer Dark Nitro Convoy, evil clone of a character whose gender was switched in translation Red Alert, minimally-altered release of a toy that was female in Japan Midnight Express, unaltered release of a toy that was female in Japan Hourglass, a female character who might be a Cybertronian Bombshell, a female character who might be a Cybertronian Carillon, a female character who might be a Cybertronian Vector Prime, the former multiversal entity who was female in some universes Movie continuity family (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Arcee (1) Elita-One (2) Chromia (4) Perihelion (8) HMS Alliance (9) Windblade (13) Fracture (3) Alice (5) Shadow Striker (6) Override[3] (7) Diabla (10) Howlback (11) Shatter (12) Nightbird Airazor Half-qualifiersJetfire claims to have a mother who may or may not have been a Transformer. Animated (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Sari Sumdac (2) Arcee (3) Elita-1 (4) Red Alert (6) Botanica (8) Flareup (10) Rosanna (11) Glyph (12) Lickety-Split (13) Lightbright (14) Chromia (16) Clipper (17) Quickslinger (18) Kappa Supreme (19) Override Prime (20) Windy (21) Road Rage (25) Flashpoint (26) Minerva (27) Sureshock (28) Nightbeat (29) Sunstreaker (30) Blackarachnia (1) Slipstream (5) Strika (7) Flip Sides (9) Antagony (15) Wingthing (22) Beta (23) Drag Strip (24) Half-qualifiers: Teletran-1, female Cybertronian intelligent computer TransTech (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Blackarachnia (5) Strika (3) Unnamed medic (1) Andromeda (2) Cyclis (4) Sonar (6) Hammerstrike (7) Scorpia (8) Proxima (9) Half-qualifiers: Axiom Nexus News Editor, a 'bot with one male and one female personality Shattered Glass (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Crasher (1) Esmeral (6) Howlback (7) Arcee (2) Andromeda (3) Elita-One (4) Strongarm (8) Windblade (9) Nautica (10) Beta (5) Half-qualifiers: Teletraan-X, female Cybertronian intelligent computer. Aligned continuity family (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Akiba Prime Arc Arcee Arcee Blade Assault Star Brushfire Cameo Catapult Chevalier Chromia Deep Blue Ether Walker Firestar Galaxy Flare Galaxy 'Questrian Glow Matronly Docent Quickshadow Rocket Plume Solus Prime Strongarm Tempest Spin Thunderclap Upkeep Windblade Airachnid Astraea Aurora Speeder Balewing Coldstar Crimson Phantom Cyberwarp Cyclone Dancer Diabla Duststorm Fallen Angel Filch Flamewar Flash Runner Glowstrike Hoverbolt Helter-Skelter Hurricane Hunter Ida Lensflare Metal Thunder Nebula Ripper Night Dancer Overhead Retrofit Rollcage Scatterspike Skyjack Slink Slipstream Spiral Zealot Supernova Flame Variable Star Void Pulse Zizza Ser-Ket Ripclaw Azimuth Cogwheel Elita One Mercury Moonracer Nightra Override Bot Shots (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Buzzclaw (1) Kre-O (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Chromia (1) Arcee (3) Strika (4) Minerva (5) Windblade (6) Paradron Medic (10) Strongarm (12) Skimmer[1] (13) Airachnid (2) Thunderblast (7) Blackarachnia (8) Slipstrike (9) Ida (11) Liftoff[1] (14) Freefall[1] (15) Angry Birds Transformers (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Stella as:Arcee

(1) Airachnid (2) Chromia (4) Novastar (10) Moonracer (11) Greenlight (12) Silver as:Windblade (3) Energon Windblade (5) Elita-One (8) Matilda as:Energon Nautica (6) Nautica (7) Strongarm (9) Zeta as:Nightbird (13) Rosanna (15) Zeta as:Slipstream (14) Cyberverse (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Arcee Chromia Clobber Jazz[3] Windblade Alpha Strike Nova Storm Shadow Striker Skywarp Slipstream Blackarachnia Cosmos Operatus Solus Prime Half-qualifiers: In the Japanese dub of Cyberverse, Thrust was female, and went by the name Red Wing. Acid Storm fluctuates between the male and female Seeker body types in show. Mae Catt would explain this on Twitter as this being "just something Acid Storm likes to do" and that pronouns are "up to Acid Storm". This would imply Acid Storm is non-binary gender fluid, thus they semi-qualify for the list. BotBots (Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Aday Angry Cheese Arctic Guzzlerush Bankshot Big Cantuna Bok Bok Bok-O Bonz-Eye Bot-T-Builder Bottocorrect Bratworst Brock Head Chef Nada Clawsome Crabby Grabby Cuddletooth Dingledeedoo Disaster Master Disgusto Desserto DJ Fudgey Fresh Doctor Flicker Drama Sauce Drillit Yaself Face Ace Fail Polish Fit Ness Monster Flare Devil Flood Jug Fomo Frohawk Frostfetti Frostyface Glam Glare Fancy Flare Glitch Face Goggly Spy P.I. Gold Dexter Goldface Goldiebites Goldie Terrortwirl Goldito Favrito Goldpin Baller Gold Punch Grampiano Grandma Crinkles Grave Rave The Great Mumbo Bumblo Greeny Rex Grrr'illa Grimes Halloween Knight Handy Dandy Hashtagz Hawt Diggity Hawt Mess Highroller Hiptoast Ice Sight Javasaurus Rex Jet Setter Knotzel Latte Spice Whirl Leafmeat Alone Loadoutsky Lolly Licks Lolly Mints Miss Mixed Movie Munchster Ms. Take Must Turd Nanny McBag Nomaste Nope Soap Ol' Tic Toc Ollie Bite Outta Order Overpack Pop N. Lock Pop O' Gold Pressure Punk Professor Scope Rebugnant Roarista Sandy Shades Scribby Sheriff Sugarfeet Shifty Gifty Sippyberry Sippy Slurps Skippy Dippy Disc Slappyhappy Smooth Shaker Smore N' More Sour Wing Starscope Sticky McGee Sugar Saddle Super Bubs Sweet Cheat Technotic Sonic Terror Tale Torch Tidy Trunksky Tricitrustops Tropic Guzzlerush Tutu Puffz Twerple Burple Unilla Icequeencone Venus Frogtrap Vigitente Waddlepop Wasabi Breath Whirlderful Whoopsie Cushion Wristocrat

[cscclibrary]

[Horizontal graphic; background yellow streaks on black. Black, blue, and orange text: “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade / ALA American Library Association.” Image courtesy of the American Library Association.]

In 2020, the American Library Association released a list of the 100 most frequently banned and challenged books from 2010-2019. Most of them are for children and young adults, or are commonly assigned in schools. They range from century-old classics to current popular novels. Some were challenged for predictable reasons--swearing, violence, or sex. Many were challenged because they contained LGBTQ+ content. Some were challenged because they critiqued social institutions.

All of them are available either in the Columbus State Library or via the OhioLINK system. Clicking on any of the titles below will tell you where you can find the book; OhioLINK items can be requested and sent to the Columbus State campus. In the case of a series, the link usually leads to the first title in the series. Enjoy your right to read!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Looking for Alaska by John Green

George by Alex Gino

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Internet Girls (series) by Lauren Myracle

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Bone (series) by Jeff Smith

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss

Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg

Alice McKinley (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

It’s a Book by Lane Smith

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer

Bad Kitty (series) by Nick Bruel

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki

A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine

In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Polacco

Lush by Natasha Friend

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Bible

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar

House of Night (series) by P.C. Cast

My Mom’s Having A Baby by Dori Hillestad Butler

Neonomicon by Alan Moore

The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle

Dreaming In Cuban by Cristina Garcia

Fade by Lisa McMann

The Family Book by Todd Parr

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Habibi by Craig Thompson

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah Hoffman

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan

Stuck in the Middle by Ariel Schrag

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

1984 by George Orwell

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesle´a Newman

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Madeline and the Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans

My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis

Prince and Knight by Daniel Haack

Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology by Amy Sonnie

Skippyjon Jones (series) by Judith Schachner

So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

The Color of Earth (series) by Tong-hwa Kim

The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter

The Walking Dead (series) by Robert Kirkman

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S Brannen

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks