#5.5k words

[awhitehead17]

Turnabout is fair play

TimKon, Body Swap, Awkwardness, Humour, Pining, Getting Together, First Kiss.

Summary: When they get body swapped during a mission, Tim and Kon’s friendship is tested as new revelations come to light.

Enjoy! :D

Tim knew something was wrong from the moment he gained consciousness and that’s even before he’s opened his eyes. A quick body scan only confirms that feeling more so.

As he examines himself Tim notices how his body feels heavier than normal, and bigger too, it’s like his mass has unexpectedly grown overnight and now he feels disproportionate. Another thing that clues him in on the fact that something isn’t right is when he does finally open his eyes, he opens them to find himself looking at his body.

Lying on the ground next to him, still unconscious, is his body. He's wearing his Robin suit, he’s battered, bloody and bruised but on the most part seems to be okay. Tim blinks and looks around and finds he’s currently inside an old musty warehouse. Other than his body and the one he's in there’s no one else around.

Since his body is opposite him, Tim curiously looks down at himself and finds a very familiar looking symbol on his chest and familiar pair of jeans and boots on his legs and feet. After that it doesn’t take much to work out what’s going on. While processing what’s happened Tim takes a long deep breath and lets it out in an attempt to calm himself down and not freak out.

When he looks up again something catches the corner of his eye and turning to it Tim finds a piece of white paper folded in half down by his feet. Sitting up, immediately having to balance himself because everything feels so off, he reaches for the paper and opens it up to reveal black cursive writing.

Since you’re more focused on each other than me, let’s make this more interesting! Turnabout’s fair play after all. Have fun! :D

Tim barely refrains from scrunching up the piece of paper in a fit of anger after reading the words. The audacity that asshole has is unreal and to top it off he signed it off with a smiley face! When Tim next sees him he’s going to punch him so hard he’ll be thrown into next week.

Seeing the note has allowed everything to click into place, he can recall everything that happened now. He and Kon had been fighting against Klarion the Witch Boy and trying to retain him, however as they fought against Klarion they were also fighting with each other. Not liking that their whole attention wasn’t on him, the bastard decided to curse them for it, he knocked them out and here they are now swapped in each other’s bodies while Klarion is who knows where.

Deciding they were nothing but sitting ducks here on the floor Tim starts making a plan of action. They need to get back to the Tower as soon as possible just so they were both safe while stuck in this predicament and at the same time so they can liaison with the team and start tracking Klarion. It was hard enough the first time round, god knows how long it’ll take them to find him this time.

Embarrassingly it takes Tim a couple attempts to climb up to his feet. He’s thankful Kon is still unconscious so he couldn’t have seen Tim get up only to fall down immediately afterwards because of how uncoordinated he is in a body that is both bulkier and taller than his own. Once he's standing on two feet he steps next to his body and nudges his side with his boot repeatedly.

“Kon. Kon. C’mon, wake up!” With each nudge Tim puts a little more force behind each one until Kon starts stirring with a grumble.

Tim gives Kon his space to wake up and come to terms with what he’s going to soon discover. He knows the exact moment when Kon works it out because of the way his body jerks and his head rapidly goes side to side with his hands clenching and unclenching. It’s when Kon scrambles to get up to his knees and gets caught in his cape and causes himself to panic further that Tim finally intervenes.

“Kon, hey Kon, easy! You’re okay, calm down.”

At the sound of his voice Kon stills and looks around until he spots Tim standing nearby. Tim watches as Kon takes in what he's seeing, that being his own body staring at him while he’s stuck in a different body.

“Tim? Is that you?”

Tim nods, “yeah it’s me. We’re in quite the predicament.”

“No shit. What the fuck happened?”

Ignoring how weird it is to see himself speak and hear his voice from a different perspective, Tim shrugs uselessly. “We lost a fight with Klarion and now he’s playing a game with us.” Tim hands over the piece of paper he found and lets Kon read it.

After a moment Kon looks up at him and for the first time he understands how off putting the mask on his face can be. Normally he doesn’t think about it, as he’s used to everyone in his family wearing a mask, but he can see why it’s unsettling in not being able to see any facial expressions from an outsider’s perspective, he has no idea what Kon is thinking.

“So we’re stuck in each other’s body until we find Klarion again and make him switch us back? He did this because we were arguing with each other?”

Tim runs a hand through his hair, pausing a moment after when he realises how weird it is to have a different haircut and even different hair. This whole situation is weird. He looks back at Kon who is still on the floor blanketed by his cape.

“Finding Klarion is probably our best bet,” Tim says thoughtfully, “however I think first we need to get back to the Tower and get somewhere safe. We can work with the team to find the asshole again and get him to change us back.”

Kon nods his agreement and makes a move to stand however he doesn’t get far before he’s getting tangled up again. Tim gives him space to sort it out himself but when it becomes clear that Kon’s going to need some help moving around the cape he steps in and helps his best friend up to his feet. Once they’re standing side by side Tim blinks when he notices their height difference for the first time. There's only a few inches between them but now being taller it seems so much more than that. He's looking down at himself and he can’t get over this is how Kon constantly views him.

“I am so tiny.” He ends up blurting out.

Next to him a small smirk appears on Kon’s face and even though he can’t see it he knows an eyebrow is raised in amusement. “Yeah I know, I’ve been telling you that for years. I didn’t realise how tall I was compared to you. Does it feel weird being taller?”

“Just a bit.” Tim admits, “it’s not fully sunk in yet. How’s it feel to be smaller?”

Kon’s now taken to playing around with Tim’s cape. Tim watches unimpressed as his best friend grabs it and dramatically cover his body with it and then how he lifts an arm up and ducks his head so only his eyes peer over it. He looks like one of those terribly acted vampires.

“Could you not!” Tim snaps. “I don’t act like that!”

Kon drops the cape and straightens up smirking. “You totally do. And in answer to your question I feel so much more… lighter? Like I know you have muscle dude but do you have any weight?”

Tim scowls. “Now that’s just rude.”

Before Kon could reply a sharp ringing sounds out and it takes a second for the two of them to realise it’s Kon’s phone going off. It takes another beat and a pointed look from Kon for Tim to realise it’s technically his phone going off, so quickly patting around he finds Kon’s phone in his back pocket and grabs the device to find Cassie’s name on the front, answering it he puts her on speaker.

She’s quick to speak up, her tone clearly holding worry in it. “Where the hell are you two? It was supposed to be a quick mission to retain Klarion and bring him back to the Tower. It’s been hours! What have you two knuckleheads gotten yourselves into.”

Cassie’s worked with them for too long if she instantly knows something’s up with the pair of them because they’ve taken longer than usual on a mission, that or because she knows them so well to make that guess. Probably both.

“We’re fine.” Tim starts, he sends a look at Kon who’s stood beside him, the two of them knowing she’s not going to react well to the news. “There was a mishap with retaining Klarion but Kon and I are fine, we’re just caught in a little bit of a predicament that’s all.”

“A predicament? What’s that supposed to mean? You two better get your asses back here so we can sort this predicament out! I’m assuming Klarion’s in the wind then.”

“We’ll see you at the Tower.” Kon cuts in, he reaches over and ends the call before she could reply.

“That went well.” Kon comments sarcastically. “We better get going, it’ll be easier to explain in person what’s going on that over the phone.”

Tim runs a hand over his face and nods in agreement. Instinctively he steps towards Kon and holds a hand up waiting to be picked up but there’s an awkward moment when the two of them uncoordinatedly bump into one another and stumble backwards, Tim sends Kon a baffled look while Kon glares at him. Once again it takes them a few beats to realise what’s going on.

“Oh shit.”

They’ve swapped bodies, meaning they’ve swapped positions and powers. And for the first time since waking up it hits Tim that he's got all of Kon’s powers. He’s currently in an indestructible superhuman body with powers which replicate Superman’s.

Kon seems to work this out at the same time too because he’s already talking to Tim about it. “Tim don’t freak out over it, while my control over my powers has grown significantly I don’t know if that same level of control will automatically transfer to you. If you freak out the powers will freak out.”

He turns to Kon wide eyed and very much trying his best to not freak out. Yes he knows all about the powers and the idea behind them and how to control them, however having knowledge of how they work can’t compare to actually having the powers!

“Take a deep breath and stay calm. We’re obviously not getting to the Tower by our usual means meaning we’ll have to ask Bart and Cassie to come and get us. When they arrive we can explain what’s going on here instead.”

Tim can’t believe Kon’s being the sensible one right now. Maybe that’s because he’s in Tim’s body, Tim’s strategic mind is helping to focus Kon. Not answering his best friend he simply thrusts his phone out to Kon and lets him handle the call back to Cassie.

----

“Are you two stupid?” There’s a pause and Tim purses his lips in order to stop himself from making a comment. “Don’t answer that! What the hell were you guys thinking, couldn’t you keep the domestics until after you dealt with Klarion. What were you even arguing about?”

Tim watches as Cassie paces across the room in front of him. Her scolding makes him feel like he's a high school student being told off by the teacher for bad behaviour. Glancing at Kon who is sat next to him, Kon (or himself in fact) looks rather passive to the whole thing and he’s not sure on what to make of that.

Across the room, Bart stands there grinning at them finding the whole thing funny.

Looking back Tim can’t even remember what they had been arguing about, probably something to do with Kon’s recklessness and Tim’s inability to switch work mode off. They often clash about those topics, they’re best friends so of course naturally they would be concerned about the other’s wellbeing and sometimes it comes out in the wrong way at the worst of times.

Neither Tim nor Kon respond to Cassie’s questions, opting to stay quiet instead.

Cassie isn’t impressed and stops her pacing to glare at them both sat together on the couch. “It’s rather obvious but I’ll say it anyway, you’re both benched until this mess is over. You can help with the search and anything else but actually going out and apprehending Klarion isn’t happening.” As much as Tim wants to protest against that he knows it’s the right choice to make.  

After that Cassie makes her leave but not before sending a glare at the two of them before leaving the room. Bart takes a little while longer to leave them alone, their best friend bursting at the seams with curiosity and quick fires them a set of questions, most of which Tim and Kon have no idea how to answer or feel too awkward to do so. It’s not exactly a common occurrence to swap bodies with your best friend and there’s no textbook guide to what the protocols are to handle this situation.

The reality of what’s happened hits Tim again when he’s in his bedroom sat on his bed finally alone for the first time since the swap happened. Tim stares in horror at his reflection, he’s in Kon’s body. He’s in his best friend’s body. The very person who’s he’s been harbouring an uncontrollable crush on the last few years.

Well shit.

Letting his eyes wonder over Kon’s body in the reflection Tim observes the t-shirt covered chest and torso, he allows his eyes to trail down and follow the length of his bare arms followed by his denim covered legs and socked feet. Using the mirror, Tim watches himself as he reaches up and touches Kon’s face, feeling his fingers touch his skin, he smooths them over the soft and unblemished skin that covers Kon’s face and neck. He knows Kon is good looking, he’s certainly spent plenty of time staring (discreetly of course) but seeing it from this perspective is something else.

Finally looking away from the mirror Tim glances down to look at his hands. He observes them, taking in how large they are compared to his own, how much power and strength they hold and how unmarked they are. There are no scars on his skin, not much of anything really, there’s a slight roughness to them which shows Kon’s labouring work from being on Kent Farm but nothing else.

Sighing Tim runs a hand through his hair, of course noting the different feel and style of it, before flopping backwards onto his bed. He hopes they can find Klarion soon because Tim has no idea on how much of this he’s going to be able to handle. What if his family starts to sniff around, asking why he hasn’t returned back to the Manor? What if Kon’s family start to ask questions? What if Kon’s powers start to act up and Tim’s going to have to learn how to control them immediately!

A repetitive buzzing noise gets his attention and Tim sits back up to start searching for his phone. Finding it behind him on the pillows he grabs it and looks at the caller ID to find Kon calling him. Instantly worried Tim is quick to answer it.

“Is everything okay?” Tim rushes to ask. Oh god, what if Kon’s broken a bone or something? The meta not used to being in a simple mortal’s body mean he may forget how fragile Tim actually is compared to him.

“What? Yeah everything’s fine, well except y’know….” Kon trails off and Tim works hard on trying to ignore the fact he's listening to his own voice speaking.

Tim pauses and waits for Kon to elaborate, he didn’t call him for no reason so there must be something his best friend wants.

“Right well so…” Kon starts again after a moment, “so this is going to be awkward I just didn’t know what to do because we’ve never been in this situation before and after all we’re both guys, we’re best friends and I thought-”

“Kon you’re rambling.” Tim cuts him off. “Just ask whatever it is.”

Tim would rather him just rip the band aid off than go the roundabout way of asking whatever it is. Unless it’s something personal, oh god what if Kon’s discovered something wrong with his body or something worse? With that horrifying thought Tim almost takes back what he said. Unfortunately he doesn’t get the chance to because Kon is already asking his question.

“You’re, I mean I am, well your body, whatever, is really dirty and smelling so I wanted to ask can I take a shower?”

Tim’s mind shuts down. While he processes the question Kon is tense and silent on the other side of the phone waiting for his answer. Several beats go by and Tim is still coming to terms with what that question implies. He must take too long to answer because Kon is speaking up again.

“I mean if it’s a real issue then of course I won’t! It not like I was planning on looking at anything anyway! We’re friends I trust you and I know you trust me too but I completely understand that this is crossing boundaries even to our degree. You can shower in my body if that makes it easier-”

“Kon shut up.” Tim finally finds his words and at them Kon snaps his mouth closed. Taking a deep breath Tim closes his eyes and answers Kon’s burning question. “It’s fine, you can shower. I guess thanks for asking? I don’t know what the fuck the rules are here Kon.”

Kon hums from the other side of the line. “Yeah I know, there’s a lot of grey at the moment. I promise I won’t do anything inappropriate.”

“You better bloody not!” Tim exclaims.

His exclamation gets him a laugh and having had enough of the conversation Tim hangs up. Of course he trusts Kon, there’s no one else he trusts more but this situation is a bizarre one and he's unsure on what to make of it all.

He sits on the bed for a while longer before deciding to also take a shower. After all if Kon’s taking one in his body then it may be less awkward or weird if he also takes one, that and because he wants to feel clean, at least that’s what he’s telling himself.

Using every skill he had picked up throughout his training about self-restraint is used when Tim strips off his clothing. He doesn’t look. Not even a glance in the mirror as he passes by it to get into the shower. While showering Tim simply looks up and keeps his eyes closed, since he's in his own bathroom he has no problems locating his toiletries. It’s a quick shower and he certainly does feel better once he’s finished however that good feeling lasts only for a moment until he realises he has no clothes that would fit Kon in his room.

Wrapping a towel around his waist, and once again Tim doesn’t look, he heads back into his bedroom and goes for his phone. Bringing up Kon’s contacts he gives his best friend a call, waiting impatiently for him to answer. Tim curses when it goes to voice mail and immediately tries again. It’s on the third ring that Kon picks up.

“I bet you’re calling me for the same reason on why I was about to call you right?”

“That I have no clothes for you in my room? Yeah that's why.”

Kon barks out a laugh and Tim blinks in surprise at the sound, still not used to hearing his voice from a different perspective. “I’ll come over to you, at least I can throw on some clothes that’ll cover your body even if they are a few sizes too big.”

Tim was about to argue that but he quickly stops himself from doing so realising that Kon has a point. “Okay,” he agrees, “see you in a bit.”

Sitting on the edge of his bed in nothing but a towel Tim waits for Kon to come to his room. It only takes the meta a couple minutes to appear and Tim is once again thrown off by the sight of his own body moving and functioning without him controlling it.

Kon seems to freeze once he's shut the door and catches the sight of him, his best friend must be experiencing the same weirded out feeling Tim is. The two of them are silent as they stare at one another and there’s a charge in the air that Tim couldn’t describe, it’s more than just the sense of being body swapped but it’s like the two of them have unresolved tension between them and this situation is just bringing it all to light.

After several beats Kon shakes his head and steps forward, breaking the moment between them, and holds out a pile of clothes to Tim. Tim silently takes them and makes his way to the bathroom to change but not before grabbing some of his own clothes for Kon to change into, he doesn’t want to be seeing what he looks like dressed up in Kon’s clothes, it’s giving him more ideas than what’s appropriate.

Once they’re changed the two of them sit side by side on Tim’s bed leaning back against the headboard with their legs stretched out in front of them.

“I’m sorry.” Kon speaks up softly, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. Before Tim could question the apology Kon continues speaking. “I’m sorry about the fight, us arguing. It shouldn’t have gotten out of hand as it did.”

Tim takes a breath and considers his response before speaking. “I’m sorry too. You’re right, it did get out of hand and we both acted childishly.”

Kon laughs quietly and Tim sees a wisp of a smile on his face. “I would promise that it wouldn’t happen again but we both know that would be a pointless promise, it wouldn’t be long until it gets broken.”

Tim makes a face before nodding. “Well if you stop acting like a reckless idiot then I’m sure it wouldn’t get broken.”

Kon snorts and sends Tim a look of disbelief his way. “It also wouldn’t get broken if you stop being a hard ass all the time.”

Scowling Tim looks away. After all Kon is kinda right, at times Tim gets too invested in cases and tends to be rather aloof to his team, it’s unintentional but it happens more often than not.

It falls silent between them once again and after a moment Tim turns his head to get a look at Kon and startles when he finds Kon already staring at him. Despite the fact he's looking at himself Tim recognises the intense stare of his best friend, it’s the look Kon gets when he’s thinking hard about something. Even though he could fantom a guess, Tim wonders what he’s thinking about.

Minutes tick by and not once do they look away from each other, instead it seems like they’re being drawn to one another. Tim doesn’t know who moved first or when it actually started but before he knows it he and Kon are leaning towards one another, their foreheads centimetres apart, they’re sharing the same air and their lips and noses ghost against the other.

Tim closes his eyes before they could make contact. All he would have to do is turn his head in the smallest angle then they would be kissing. It’s the physical brush of Kon’s nose against his that snaps him out of the moment. His eyes shoot open and his hand coming up and pushing Kon’s chest away from him to create space between them.

The reality of what is happening finally kicks in. He blinks and finds Kon in a similar state of shock and confusion opposite him, his own hand having come up and wrapped around Tim’s wrist.

“I uh, we, um…” Tim stutters unsure on what to even say. What does one say to their best friend who they nearly kissed? Not only is that a bizarre enough situation but the fact that they’re body swapped and would only be kissing themselves makes the whole thing even more complicated!

Kon lets go of his wrist and stands up, he runs a hand through his hair and makes an agitated sound. He turns to Tim with an almost desperate expression on his face. “I’m not the only one who feels this thing between us am I? You feel it too right? And not only just because of this whole body situation.”

This can’t be happening. Tim must be hallucinating this whole conversation. Instead of body swapping Klarion actually knocked him unconscious and is messing with his mind. Tim watches as Kon begins to pace the length of his room.

“I – I don’t know Kon. What is this thing between us?” Tim asks with uncertainty. He doesn’t know what is happening right now.

Kon abruptly stops his pacing and stands in front of him with a determined look on his face. It seems like he’s made a decision on something, he stands tall and crosses his arms over his chest in what is either a defensive or a grounding position.

“I like you Tim. I have done so for a while now. And I know you like me too. I mean more than in a friendly way. We’re best friends of course but there’s something more between us and I know you feel it as well.”

Kon’s bold statement leaves Tim speechless. He never expected to hear those words come from Kon’s mouth (technically his but that’s not the point). At first he struggles to comprehend what they mean. Kon likes him. His best friend and crush likes him. He likes him back.

“I do.” Tim finds his voices and says his admission quietly, still in shock with the whole situation. “I do like you, have done for a long time.”

At his words Kon comes forward and steps between his legs from where Tim had moved to the edge of the bed when Kon started his pacing. Kon reaches up and cups Tim’s face with his hands and in that moment Tim wanted nothing more than for them to be in their own bodies, for this to be the other way around.

Kon’s thumb strokes his cheek, a soft smile on his face. “Once we’re back to normal we’re going to talk about this right? Properly and maybe something more?” Unable to form words Tim nods. That’s when Kon steps back and Tim misses his heat instantly. “I should go, we both need the rest and it’s been a long day.”

Tim’s able to get himself to wish Kon a goodnight before he leaves and then he’s left alone in his room with nothing but his thoughts which were running a mile a minute. He doesn’t know what to focus on or what had happened, he’s got a lot to process and he highly doubts he’ll be able to sleep that night.

----

It takes several days to locate Klarion and apprehend him. Cassie and Bart do an amazing job of making sure the mission is quick, clean and swift. Once back at the Tower they demand the Witch Boy to reverse the spell he had casted on Tim and Kon, creatively threatening him if he dares try doing anything else.

Once the spell is casted, a weird tingling sensation spreads through him and suddenly the world goes black. When Tim regains consciousness it’s a relief to find he’s back in his own body, he takes the time to check through making sure everything feels as it should and for the first time in days he feels settled and comfortable.

A couple more days go by after Tim and Kon swap back in which they were busy making sure Klarion is dealt with properly and making sure everything is as it should be, once that is all done Tim makes it his mission to go and find and talk to Kon.

They haven’t spoken to another since that night in Tim’s room, in the days leading up to Klarion’s capture they avoided one another like they had the plague, the air between them when they had been in the same room was tense and awkward and it was enough for both Bart and Cassie to comment on it, questioning about what happened. Tim and Kon refused to speak about it.

However now they’re back in their own bodies Tim knows it’s time they have a chat, about everything. That night left him with more questions than answers and Tim’s had enough of guessing, worrying and wondering about what’s going to happen between them. Are they still friends? Could they be more? Was it all because of the body swap?

Tim ends up outside Kon’s bedroom door and before he could overthink it he knocks loudly on the wood and anxiously waits for his best friend to answer. It takes another two knocks before Kon finally responds and as soon as he sees it’s Tim on the other side Kon tries to slam the door shut on him. Not having that Tim lunges forward and stops the door from closing and it’s thanks to Kon’s surprise that he’s able to barge his way into the meta’s room.

Tim turns and waits in the middle of Kon’s room, watching as Kon defeatedly shuts the door and stubbornly keeps his back to Tim, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Kon.” When no response comes Tim huffs. “Conner. Enough is enough we need to talk about what happened.”

A disbelieving laugh reaches Tim’s ears and he sees Kon shake his head. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

Getting riled up by Kon’s answer, Tim stalks forward and grabs Kon’s arm to force him to turn around before placing a hand on his chest to push him back against the door, between them he forces Kon to meet his eyes. There’s a pause as they stare at one another in the way it’s always been, Kon taller than Tim and looking down at him as Tim looks up having to tilt his head back just slightly in order to do so. This is how it should be Tim tells himself, this feels right.

Since he’s staring at Kon he notices instantly when Kon’s gaze drops down to his lips before returning to his eyes. Unable to help it Tim copies the action and spies Kon’s own lips, now more than ever wanting to know how they feel against his.

Maybe it isn’t words that are needed between them but instead actions? Knowing there’s no coming back after this, Tim takes a risk, going up on his tiptoes he leans forward and presses his lips against Kon’s. There's a moment of doubt in his mind but it quickly vanishes as Kon starts to kiss him back.

From there it’s easy to get lost in the sensation of their kissing. At first it’s a couple light pecks, a chance to get a feel for the other, before it quickly moves into something deeper and more passionate. As Kon presses against him Tim moans, his eyes are squeezed shut as his hands cling onto Kon’s biceps and he tilts his head to the side to accommodate Kon’s. It’s the best feeling he’s ever had.

Kon’s hands had been resting on his hips as they kiss but then Tim feels a strong pressure from Kon’s hands and suddenly he’s being lifted up and spun around. He's distinctively aware of his back hitting the door as his legs wrap around Kon to help secure his position. His arms easily rest over Kon’s shoulder’s as the meta’s hands hold up his thighs.

They make out for a moment longer before they break apart breathing deeply. Once he's caught his breath Tim opens his eyes up and finds Kon’s looking back and appearing rather debauched. Unable to help Tim lets out a delighted laugh and opposite him Kon cocks a grin.

“I know actions speak louder than words,” he says sounding breathless, “but we still need to talk about this.”

Kon rolls his eyes but there’s still a smile on his face. “Yeah yeah, whatever. I want this, I want you.”

Still smiling Tim reaches up to cup Kon’s face and tenderly strokes the skin of his cheek. “I want you too.”

Suddenly looking bold, Kon smirks seductively, “Well now that's out the way, there’s a bed behind us y’know? Fancy becoming acquittanced with it?”

Despite how terrible the line was Tim couldn’t help but find it endearing. He doesn’t know how far they’ll go but he finds himself wanting to go with the flow, whether they simply make out or do more, he’ll be happy with either.

Tim raises an eyebrow. “I think that's a great idea. Lead the way Superboy.”

Kon’s breath hitches and Tim laughs although the sound turns into a startles yelp when Kon suddenly heaves him over towards the bed, not letting go of him until he's on top of the mattress. Powerless to stop him Tim lets Kon do as he pleases knowing he's not going to mind the end result either way.

#timkon #TimKon Week 2022 #Body Swap #Awkwardness #humour #pining #getting together #first kiss #petty arguments #shenanigans #miscommunication #these two are idiots #5.5k words #t rated #fanfiction #Tim Drake #Kon-El

[atmilliways]

Wrong On The Money (16)

part 16 of ?? | 706 words | Teen+

Blackmail fic on Ao3 | on tumblr

Summary:

“Harrington,” Eddie hisses, playing hopscotch over evil vines in hell trying to catch up. “Hey, Harring—Steve! Hold up a second.”

I've got 12k of this story so far, but I think this was my favorite part to write because what the fuck Steve. 😂

16.

“Harrington,” Eddie hisses, playing hopscotch over evil vines in hell trying to catch up. “Hey, Harring—Steve! Hold up a second.”

Maybe it’s the use of his first name, but the guy does slow down a bit. Enough for Eddie to pull up even with him, get a good look at his face in the barely-there light of the Upside Down filtering through the trees.

And by face, he means chest. But, shit, the guy is wearing his battle vest and Eddie is a healthy young gay man in the presence of a bloodied superhero.

It actually does very little for his modesty. He’d thrown it to Steve more for covering up any bleed-through on the make-shift bandages, especially over his sides where the bites are deepest. Mostly because Harrington . . . Steve had seemed more resigned than accepting of Nancy’s fussing when she’d tended to him earlier. Only a little bit because of the irrational stab of jealousy Eddie had felt watching it happen.

Which is stupid, so so stupid, because this is a hero he has been blackmailing for the past four months. 

The nod of acknowledgement Steve gives him is far more neutral than that fact should allow. “Eddie, hey. Uh, look—” and he makes this self-deprecating little grimace that Eddie must be reading wrong “—thanks for saving my ass back there.”

“For—” Eddie nearly trips over a vine, catches himself, and steps over it with exaggerated care. “First of all, you saved your own ass, and pulled a real Ozzy move doing it.”

Steve blinks at him as they walk together. “Ozzy?”

“Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat’s head off onstage?” Seeing absolutely no recognition in that stupidly handsome face, Eddie shakes his head. “You know, doesn’t matter. Second of all, why the fuck are you helping me, man? Dustin and the others I get, but you have an active and very straightforward reason to tell me to fuck off.”

The question is met with a long silence, made worse by the complete lack of wind or normal wildlife sounds in this dark mockery of Hawkins’ woods. Steve scratches at his jaw, working it a little bit like he’s trying to pop his ears or something.

Finally, he says, “Right before the second round of this shit happened, Nancy told me that our relationship and everything about me was complete bullshit while blackout drunk. The next day she left with Jonathan Byers to take on the government, slept with him, came back, and let me tell her it was okay for her to just go be with him already without really knowing what all I was calling okay.”

Eddie, completely unprepared for . . . whatever the hell is happening, doesn’t realize he’s standing stock still until Steve stops too. 

“I only found out because Jonathan felt bad and came by to clear the air after a while,” Steve continues. He sounds almost calm, angled to face Eddie but not quite meeting his eyes. “Pretty sure she has no idea that I know that, and she’s never said a word about it to me. And now. . . .” He sighs. “Now shit is happening again, and she’s in charge because she’s good at coming up with plans. And I’m here too, because there’s too much riding on this to walk away just because my ex is involved. This is the team whether we like it or not.”

Which. Okay. 

What the fuck.

“We should keep going,” Steve tells him, and starts walking again. 

Again, Eddie has to scramble to catch up. “What about Robin?” he asks, still reeling from that mental avalanche. (He’d had no idea that sweet little Nancy Wheeler could be so cold—the same way he’d never expected her to have guns, plural, in her bedroom.)

Steve sighs. “You’re going to find out sooner or later. . . . She’s not my girlfriend, man. We’ve never dated, she’s like my sister. Totally platonic.”

Eddie had been wrong. This is the avalanche, the thing that stops him in his tracks again, even though they have to keep moving. He’d assumed—

“Then why did you give me money?” he blurts out. 

But Steve doesn’t stop for him this time, and all he gets in reply is a shrug in the darkness.

#steddie blackmail fic #steddie #steddie fic #stranger things fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve harrington can have a little trauma dump. as a treat. #don't worry eddie will call him out for deflecting in approximately... 5.5k words

[lothcatthree]

“I really can’t,” Fox whispers again, but he finds he’s meaning it less and less.

Quinlan turns his face to nose into Fox’s neck, brushing his lips over the spot behind his ear. Fox feels a subconscious shiver go through his spine and it bleeds some more tension from his back. Goosebumps follow the softness of Quinlan’s lips and Fox’s breath hitches when a gentle kiss is placed on the thin skin.

“Let me take care of you, baby,” Quinlan murmurs into his ear, the sound waves vibrating Fox’s skull.

A small noise that sounds suspiciously like a whimper escapes Fox’s lips and it’s then they both know that Quinlan has won.

-

Fox works himself to the bone again and Quinlan takes that personally.

#tfw you spent 6 hours on nye writing 5.5k words....... the power of quinfox #needed fox to get babied #did what I had to do #quinfox #vox #my writing

[number5theboy]

Five being the founder of the commission is a horrible, horrible writing decision. Everything about it is just terrible.

Oh boy, let's get into this.

I’ve been writing on this on and off for the past month, and this is as clear and structured as I feel I can be. This has become a gigantic 5.5k monstrosity, but I wanted to have all my thoughts somewhere together. It starts off as an ‘actually, the idea here was not that bad’ and turns into ‘but the execution in the show sucked, so let me tell you exactly why this did not work’. Dedicating this to @sohoseance, @sharkneto, @kaleidoscopegirl and @nachtare because it really gave me the final push to finish this to hear that you would be interested in reading it.

First of all, I want to say that I don’t think that Five being the founder of the Commission was the point of that scene, or something that the show really wanted to engage in, from the way the rest of the season plays out. Five has no thoughts on the fact that he founded an organisation that existed to bring about the event that ruined his life; in the same vein, Lila says nothing about the reveal that he was, after all, behind the organisation that ruined her life. What it felt like to me, watching the season, was that the reveal and subsequent “Don’t save the world.”-shtick was there to keep Five away from the plot, and more specifically, Allison’s storyline. Without the detour to the Commission, Five would have had a vested interest in fixing the timeline, and Allison would have had someone working on the same goal, which was not what the writers wanted the storyline to be, so Five had to have something happen to him that kept him from intervening in the main plot (you know, like the shrapnel wound or the paradox psychosis in earlier seasons – same plot devices). Point is, the whole reveal doesn’t seem to have been intended as an actual character exploration and functions more like a badly conceived plot device. They needed Five to not do the thing that he has been established to be doing for the past two seasons, and he’s been written in such a way that the only authority he trusts is himself, so they had to crowbar a version of himself that tells him to do the opposite of what he would naturally do.

Second thing to mention is that even if it was intended to be a genuine character moment, I don’t think it was meant to be completely bad, for the simple reason that Steve Blackman, the showrunner and head writer, genuinely doesn’t think that the Commission is a bad or evil organisation (no, really). Which. Has been obvious since the writing of S2, but that doesn’t erase the writing and establishing of the Commission in S1. Someone get the man someone who checks the implications of his writing ideas, the show is in dire need for that. Why I bring this is up is that it a) explains why neither Five nor Lila really seem to react and realise what ‘Five founded the Commission’ implies, what he would be responsible for, and b) I don’t think that Blackman realised that a lot of viewers would look at how the Commission and Five as a character has been established, see that apparently Five founded the Commission and go ‘yeah, this is not compelling and makes very little sense’. Put a pin in that, we’ll get back to it shortly.

The thing is, theoretically, I don’t think this is a horrible writing decision. It could have genuinely been so interesting, a very compelling character exploration. And then it just was the most underwhelming thing. When I watched S3 for the first time and Five said the word ‘founder’, I immediately clocked what they were doing. I knew exactly who the founder was going to be, I didn’t even need the paradox psychosis mannerisms to clue me in, because I love it when time travel is used in stories to confront a protagonist with an older version of themselves who is an antagonist in the story. When well done, that story beat can be so fun and so interesting. Dark (2017-2020) and Looper (2012) are a show and film respectively that I love that tackle this kind of story. As a kid, I was obsessed with Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, a book which subverts this story beat in a way that blew my little child mind. Five being the founder could and should have worked. It’s a concept deeply ingrained in what makes this character tick.

The hook of Five being the founder should have been the intrigue of how he ended up becoming the exact opposite of what he stood for so far. That’s the crux of this trope, contrasting the same person at different points in their life, having to confront something you loathe that is something you will become. And it would have been interesting and satisfying, in a way, to see everything time-travel-related lead right back to Five, that it really was only him and his powers that shifted the timeline, something about the full realisation of his potential as the most powerful man in the space-time-continuum. And also as someone who despite all that power failed. How great it would have been if the show actually took the time to explore this. I don’t think the idea of ‘Five founded the Commission’ was doomed from the start, it could have been so very compelling.

Instead, we got an incredibly muddled storyline that was more confusing than intriguing, had no clearly defined stakes and resolved (?) in such an unsatisfactory way that I still don’t know how I really feel about it. In my head, there’s two ways this storyline plays out:

Five did the correct thing. He headed the warning of his old self, did not save the world, and everything got reset, staving off the founding of the Commission and him ever going down the path of becoming the founder. It is badly written and really majorly serves so Five has something to do that does not really impact the plot, but at least it is done with and I won’t have to think about it again, should this show get renewed for S4.

Five did not do the correct thing. The world was saved/reset, and there are many, many opportunities to lose that arm and go down the path to found the Commission in his future. This lame storyline continues into a hypothetical S4 as the ultimate proof that the writers have no idea what to do with him.

Under the cut, I’ll first talk about why the whole ‘Five founded the Commission’-shebang doesn’t work the way it was written into the show, and then I’ll talk about why I have an inkling that it could continue into S4 even though I think it’s a terrible idea. Also, major spoilers for the show Dark (2017-2020), if you have not seen that, do yourself a favour, watch it, come back to this later. It feels like the thing they were trying to do with Five in S3 but actually good. Do check the trigger warnings though, it's a show that can be rough in places.

There’s this show. In it, there is a boy whose father committed suicide for an unknown reason. When the boy is still young, an apocalypse happens, wiping out life as he knows it. He learns how to survive in the apocalyptic wasteland, all the while thinking about how to prevent it. He knows time travel is possible. If only he could harness its power to work in his favour. As he is trying to get to the bottom of how time works, there is interference by a shadowy organisation with assassins that want to manipulate the timestream so that the apocalypse does happen, but the boy, who is now a man, keeps getting in the way of that. One day, he meets the man who founded the shadowy organisation. He is old and withered and time travel has left its mark on him. And the penny drops. The old man is the young man is the boy, and he will turn into him, eventually. The old man who once was the boy needs the apocalypse to happen, because it is the only way to figure out a way to  prevent it, because pinning down the origin of it all is muddled and complicated and marred in personal, familial connections for the man. He is trapped in an endless loop of repeating and alternating time, at a point branching into several different timelines, the apocalypse always happens, and he is always fated to become what he loathes most until he can find a way to break the cycle.

That’s, in the most simplified way possible, a part of the plot of the show Dark (2017-2020). It does this plot a surprising amount of justice, it really explores themes of family and time paradoxes and consequences of one’s actions through the focus on its main character, Jonas Kahnwald. I also think that the above is kind of, sort of the ballpark they were trying to hit with the whole ‘Five is the founder of the Commission’-storyline. That time was going to wear down Five until he decided to take the timestream into his own hands, founding the Commission to get himself out of the apocalyptic wasteland and give himself a chance to save the world. The thing is that it doesn’t work with the way that the Commission has been set up to work in previous seasons.

The thing with Dark’s story is that it is contained to one single town in Germany, and the families that live therein. The entire plot revolves around the time paradox and the apocalypse and how everyone fits into it. TUA does not work like that. The implications are for the whole world and the whole of human history – those are the things the Commission meddles in. Where the shadowy organisation in Dark only has very few people and very little, sometimes backfiring technology, the Commission in TUA has essentially been established to be all-knowing, all-powerful. They can travel through time precisely with the briefcases, and even have the ability to stop time altogether. They can modify bodies to their liking, repair them beyond everything imaginable, extending their employees lives. They have the Infinite Switchboard, a plot device that allows them to see not only what is happening in the timeline, but also in alternative timelines (it is singularly the worst plot device in this show, I hate it beyond words). They have technology to shield themselves from paradoxes, which Five himself built, with the implication that most of the tech at the Commission’s disposal has its origin with Five and his powers.

In Dark, the origin of the time paradox that causes the apocalypse, the thing that needs resolving, is a very complicated, tangled mess that tracks through interpersonal relationships and complicated feelings on family. It is not as easy as just removing one person from the timeline, or even one person at all, but rather a culmination of decisions that created walking paradoxes, which then snowballed to make other situations more complicated. In contrast, in TUA, solving the apocalypse – the first one - is pretty simple. What lead up to it is complex, but in the end, it is Viktor, egged on by Harold Jenkins due to something that is ultimately Reginald’s fault.

The point being is that since Five was the founder of the Commission, he had access to all that technology and knowledge, and he knew exactly how the apocalypse came to be. To prevent it, all he needed to do was travel to outside the prison and knock Harold out the second he stepped out. Or even better, go back and prevent Reginald from ever suppressing Viktor’s powers in the first place. Five has long been established as a smart man, when he founded the Commission, he had everything at his disposal to turn the world around for good with little problem.

Instead, the show tells us he somehow set up an ineffectual, all-powerful bureaucracy that goes fiddling about in the past so that everything happens to lead up to the 2019 apocalypse. There is no reasoning given as to why Founder Five would want the apocalypse to happen. We know nothing about his motivations. He exists to be cryptic to Five, tell him not to save the world, and then he dies. He’s not an antagonist, he’s a plot device, despite standing for the very opposite of what Five stands for. This is part of a larger problem where the Commission actually has no fixed characteristics or ethos, it is just what the show needs it to be, even though all of that keeps contradicting each other and creating a woefully muddled picture that makes trying to understand what is going on a headache and a half.

Because that is another fundamental difference between Dark and TUA is that Dark had one head writer, Jantje Friese, who was fully involved in the writing of every single episode and had a complete three-season-plan of how this show was going to play out. Meanwhile, Steve Blackman is playing it by ear, does not have a throughline or a plan as to where TUA is going, and is adapting and changing established things (like the Commission) depending on what the story needs in the moment, leading to a bigger picture that makes no sense.

The reveal of Five being the Founder doesn’t work because based on everything that has been established before, the power that Five would have had, Five could have and should have done other things. Even if he needed to found the Commission to find other people to help him develop things like the briefcases or the thrice-damned Infinite Switchboard, once he had those, what was his motivation to keep the apocalypse going? What was his motivation to meddle with the past? Why was any of it necessary? In Dark, the old man was backed into a corner, he had exhausted every other possibility. That show gave him motivations and really delved into why he became what he was; he was a character in his own right, the Big Bad of the show that explored why he became that.

TUA, on the other hand, is not interested enough in Founder Five to give us a compelling reason as to why he exists. Founder Five is not a character, he is a plot device masquerading as a character.  Unfortunately, that character is one that the viewers are very familiar with, so of course they would try to connect the Five that is by this point very established and has a reasonably strong characterisation going for him to Founder Five, who is just there, I guess. And people come up empty, because there is not enough to Founder Five to make sense why Five would become him, and the Commission is such a flaming dumpster fire of contradictory writing that it is barely possible to make sense of it, so connecting the two Fives through that is also not really possible.

The thing is, Dark also only gave the viewer the motivations of the old man after he had gotten introduced, the writing fleshed him out afterwards. But what they had done beforehand was built him up as a threat, as a shadowy figure with goals, and he was introduced as a character several episodes before the reveal of who he really was, so the viewers actually already knew him. In contrast, the concept of Founder Five and the character himself get introduced and killed off in the same episode.

And Dark allowed their old man to actually be an antagonist, to be the Big Bad, to really sharpen the difference between him and his young self as an interesting clash of characters. However, due to the inconsistent writing of the Commission (which was the Big Bad in S1 and then got written into a really misguided ‘actually the whole concept of the Commission isn’t bad despite them indiscriminately killing innocent people based on something they think should happen - the end of times – there was just one bad apple, the Handler, the Commission is neat as heck uwu’) and Steve Blackman’s inexplicable idea that the Commission isn’t bad, Founder Five isn’t allowed to be the Big Bad despite that being a much more compelling take. Instead he’s just a guy who’s there to get Five to act a certain way. Cool.

The reason I brough Dark up as a comparison is that it is well-written and well thought-out, and it really takes its time with character exploration so that every version of this one character makes sense to the viewer. Knowing how a similar plot plays out in Dark made my experience watching S3 actively worse, because I had seen how compelling and fun and gut-wrenching this exact take on a character could be. I was genuinely hyped when I realised that Five was the founder, I thought they were going to take the opportunity and meaningfully explore the character, and then Founder Five was not a character, not an antagonist, just a mouthpiece for the writers to get Five to not do the thing he’s been relentlessly doing for two seasons. And TUA’s take on this doesn’t have to be like Dark. It wouldn’t really fit with how the tone of the show has been going (sidenote: it would absolutely have fit S1 though), and just because Dark did it one way doesn’t mean that is the only right way. I’m just saying it was a compelling way, and they did a lot more interesting things with it than TUA did, which could easily have found its own fun and off-the-wall spin on having Five found the Commission, but they didn’t.

Alright. Okay. Founder Five as a character is a dud. So what about him as a plot device? Was the pay-off to the whole ‘don’t save the world’-thing worth the headache of trying to reconcile Five with Founder Five? Not really. I’m still in the dark – pun not intended – about what exactly they were trying to do with Five in the latter part of the season. Intellectually, I know the answer is ‘keep him out of Allison’s storyline so that their motivations don’t align and they don’t team up’ (which is a shame, if Five had kept wanting to save the world, we could have had some really interesting collaboration and fighting with Allison about whether or not to trust Reginald with the reset, but alas it was not to be). Practically? Who knows.

There were three key take-aways from that godforsaken paradox-safe bunker: the words ‘Don’t save the world.’, the tattoo, and the cut-off arm. The first one was an instruction from Founder Five to Five, the other two were markers of Founder Five. Back at Hotel Obsidian, Five puzzles over them, thinking that it might be Founder Five’s attempt to discourage him from becoming him, thinking about how he could try to break the cycle, all of it with – or rather at – Klaus. It’s, I think, the one really good scene coming out of this weird storyline, because we actually get to see Five’s thoughts and that it fucked him up seeing himself die, and the fact that it makes no sense (we all feel you, buddy). And I’ll give praise where it’s due, I think Aidan Gallagher did a great job with the odd material he was given, his acting in the bunker and at the bar with Klaus genuinely is top-notch, I wish they would reward this performance with the writing it deserves.

The talk with Klaus leads him to this season’s most pointless side tangent, the Mothers of Agony. After bringing up the idea of trying to break the cycle and expressing disgust at potentially dying with an old-man-tramp-stamp, any reluctance Five has had is promptly shoved out the window, never to be seen again. He talks to Pogo, gets some plot information because that’s what Five is usually for, and he gets the tattoo that he didn’t want with no discernible reasoning as to why. He talks some about how destiny doesn’t care whether he is sure about getting it or not, which is odd, because Five, as previously established in this show, doesn’t care about destiny (you know how que sera sera is bullshit in any language? That was a key part of his characterisation in S1 and seems to have been forgotten here.). So here he is still following Founder Five’s path for no established reason except that the plot tells him to and it’s supposed to keep us on tenterhooks on whether he will make the right decision. The tattoo, with that, fulfils its plot obligations and is never seen again.

He then helps a tiny bit to save the world real quick, with the whole ‘Christopher imprisons the kugelblitz’-thing that doesn’t stick, so it barely matters except for the fact that it makes him give up. Which I genuinely think is perfectly natural and understandable, he has been at this for a month straight and everything he’s been doing has made things worse, so maybe giving up and giving in doesn’t seem so bad anymore. It’s devastating in his arc, I think, that he finally is at the end of his rope after a lifetime of stubbornly clinging to life, to the belief that he can change things. The show does not particularly indulge that framing though, instead having him be funny drunk for an episode. Woo. Remember when Five’s alcoholism was something genuinely devastating from his time in the apocalypse in S1? Good fucking times. Anyway. He pivots his position from saving the world to not saving it, which is only solidified once Reginald shows up and suddenly he wants to save the world, which Five doesn’t trust him about because he knows he is hiding something from them. He then doubles down on not saving the world with the vote, swinging it so that they don’t go and save the world. Reginald then does some murdering and strong-arms them into a position where they do have to go and save it anyway.

This is where things get really muddled and I don’t understand Five’s thinking anymore. He knows that Reginald is up to no good. He knows that there is information he isn’t privy to that Reginald knows. He knows Reginald is using them, putting their lives on the line, and there was this deal with Allison that Five doesn’t know the terms of. And of course Five figures out where the sigils are. He is observant and aware of his surroundings, this has been well-established.

He gets summarily interrupted by one of the guardians cutting off his arm. So now we have what I think is supposed to be tension but when I watched, I was mostly confused. He has the tattoo, he has lost an arm and gained the knowledge on how to save the world. The pumps are primed for him to go down the path to founding the Commission, it all depends on the choices he makes now.

Inexplicably, he tells Reginald (who, again, he does not trust and does not like) where the sigils are. Is he saving the world here? I genuinely don’t know, but I don’t think it’s meant to be that. Maybe. Again, we are in muddled territory because I am very confused on his decision-making in this last episode.

What I think is supposed to be his pivotal choice is when it comes down between him and Allison to step on the last sigil. There were supposed to only be seven of them, Reginald meant for all of them to be incapacitated when he reset the world, but now there is a choice. And Five, somehow, does what Reginald tells him to and steps on the sigil. He doesn’t know it will incapacitate him, but it does, and so he can’t act anymore. What he can do is talk to Allison, and what he says convinces her to kill Reginald before he can kill her siblings, but only after Reginald has already locked in his new version of the world, his reset, honouring the terms he set with Allison. She pushes the button and resets (saves?) the world, with her conditions intact (she gets back all her siblings, Luther and Klaus included, and Ray and Claire), but because it was a deal with the devil, the siblings are stripped of their powers, and Reginald gets his wife back and more power than he’s ever had. It remains to be seen how this will play out, should this show get a fourth season.

More importantly, and tying this back to Founder Five The Plot Device, is that Five gets his arm back, so does this mean he averted going down the path of becoming the Commission’s founder? I think that’s how the show is set up to be, although I’m not 100% sure, put a pin in it, I’ll get back to it shortly. What I interpret is that Five did make the right choice by taking his spot on the sigil. If he had not and Allison, desperate to save the world and get her family back, had stepped onto the sigil, it would have left Five and Reginald. And Five, who did not have a deal with Reginald and would have seen his beloved siblings in pain, would have had a lot less qualms about putting that axe through Reginald’s brain, but then Reginald would not have had the time to reprogram the world. What I think the implication is is that Five would have ended up with the reconfiguration screen and somehow, I don’t know, used it to, you know, save the world. And he would have fucked it up somehow because that’s what Five tends to do – make things worse – and this would somehow, at some point, led to him founding the Commission to right his mistakes. Maybe. I don’t know. This is the best I can do and I am not certain that’s how I’m supposed to understand the finale in relation to the whole Commission-founding-business.

So, to recap, how did the Founder Five Plot Device work out? It created some kind of tension on whether or not Five was going to turn it around and decide to break the cycle. Kind of. Sort of. It was not particularly well-written and genuinely confused me more than it intrigued me. And I understand that it can’t be clear-cut, it’s supposed to be difficult for both the viewer and Five as a character to see what the right course of action is, I just don’t think it was particularly effective in building tension and I hated the thing the writing did where it would have Five state that he would not do a thing (get the tattoo, work with Reginald) and then he would turn around and do the thing with no real thing happening in-between that convinced him to act otherwise. Like. He volunteered that info on the sigils before he knew that could stop the guardian. And I think a part of the point was that in order to not become Founder Five, Five would have to act against his instincts and do what Reginald says, but it really was not conveyed well and his willingness to help Reginald along after his whole shebang about the deal with Allison was mostly confusing. Was he pressed to extremes? Yes. Was it the last resort the show portrayed it to be? Not really.

I also think this all would have worked better if Allison and Five had had any kind of established relationship beforehand. They barely talked for two seasons and basically only sniped at each other for the third. Maybe there was a point there that despite all the fighting, Five loves her enough to put her over himself, but they barely let them interact despite it having the biggest potential, especially this season, but who knows.

So, to sum up, even disregarding Founder Five as a character, what he brought as a plot device was also mostly muddled and confusing, and even in retrospect I’m still trying to figure out what exactly they were going for. I think it could’ve been made substantially better if there had been more than just the one scene of Five reflecting on what he witnessed in that bunker, but as it is, it just feels unsatisfactory in a way that I can’t really put my finger on. But at least it’s over and done with, Five will not go on to found the Commission, it’s a new day, it’s a new dawn. I think. Maybe. Potentially.

Okay.

The thing is that once I thought about the cliffhanger ending and what world Reginald has created, Five in that position looks to me way, WAY more likely to found the Commission than anything he did before the reset.

For the first time, I think we see a world that he would actively object to. He doesn’t like Reginald, he doesn’t trust Reginald, and with all that has happened, Reginald now seemingly has more power than ever, having shaped the world in the image he deems ideal and having depowered his former children in the process. They are still alive, because no matter how conniving, he upheld his part of the deal with Allison. What I’m saying is, this world is the first world where I could see Five going ‘this should all burn’, the ultimate act of defiance, rather ending the world than let Reginald have it.

But to do that, Five would need his powers, and Five doesn’t have his powers. What he does have is a reasonably good understanding of them, of the math behind them. This seems, to me, like a good set of circumstances for him to reverse-engineer his powers and put them, just as an example, into a briefcase, to use them to stop his father from taking over the world, even if it costs him said world.

He’s gotten his arm back, sure, but he is physically 13 and Founder Five died at a hundred years, there’s a good 87 years for Five to get his arm chopped off again. The only thing that could definitely tell us that Five made the right decision, did not save the world, is the absence of the tattoo, but we haven’t seen that, so the prospect of him actually having saved the world after all and still somehow founding the Commission is not completely discarded.

But by God, do I hope it is. I don’t have much interest in a potential S4 where we see Five pursue that because a) there’s this rule that every season only spans 10 days, and you can’t cram that kind of development into 10 days and b) it’s just. Five is such an interesting character to me. He is so fun and the performance is endlessly entertaining to me, and I don’t want to watch him become a bureaucrat. It’s literally the least interesting thing I can imagine him doing, and comic!Five got into the stock market. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see him reverse-engineer his powers, but not if it leads down to him becoming a non-character.

If you made it this far, 5k in, I congratulate and thank you for keeping with my thoughts for this long. The TL;DR is that Five founding the Commission is not the worst idea ever, theoretically, but this show does not have the writing and continuity necessary to pull it off into an interesting twist. Founder Five was not a character, he mostly felt like a plot device that was barely used to explore Five’s character, and even the plot devised for him was not particularly compelling or well-written and led more to confusion than anything else, exacerbated by the fact that the writing made Five say certain things and then do contradictory things with nothing in-between really indicating why he would have changed his mind. It is not particularly good at creating tension around his decisions and the pay-off, if it can even be called that, is more confusing than satisfactory with the weird decision-making Five has got going on in the season finale. There is the small but hopefully unfounded dread that this ‘Five founded the Commission’-storyline might extend into a potential S4, as the circumstances where the siblings left off at the end of S3 seem to me much more favourable to make Five found the Commission than anything else that came before, but I really, really hope I am wrong, because this show does not have the writing to make this kind of storyline as compelling as it deserves to be. If you want this storyline pulled off in a much better thought-out and satisfactory way, I can warmly recommend Netflix’s Dark (2017-2020).

#Replies #Anonymous #my meta #this is 5.5k of words it's going into the tag #Five Hargreeves #The Umbrella Academy

[thebiggestfuckgiven]

How I DIDN’T Become a Villain Official Update!

#1

Chap 1 word count: 5,198

one-sentence summary: This one guy has the absolute worst vibe.

Chap 2 word count: 5,243

one-sentence summary: Out of towner has an ongoing life crisis and gets stuck with local flaker.

Chap 3 word count: ????

one-sentence summary: Beloved Crime Lord gets his sights on out of towner, who gets an unexpected nighttime visitor~

Edit—

Estimated fic length: 110k words

#i have taken the LONGEST writing these chapters #it’s a slow race but i’m getting there #expect most chapters to range between 4-5.5k words #so far chap 2 is my fave but #hoping the 3rd is even better once i’m done with it #i reaaallyy hope it doesnt seem rushed by the end #based on the summary and other hints what do we think is happening #and what are we most excited about? #can’t fully say mine cuz spoilers but it should be around chapters 5-10 :) #dpxdc #how i DIDN’T become a villain #hidbv

[sprout-fics]

So in order to avoid a dreadfully 10k long chapter, Little Mouse will be having a surprise update today. Next chapter will be a little more exciting as we get to the third and final installment of this rescue arc.

#Instead today you all get 5.5k words of enemies to lovers mutual pining #you're welcome

[ssreeder]

Hello! :D

Chapter 14 was so AHHHHH!!!! *sobs* It was adorable, sad, and fun!

Honestly, I want to see how much chaos you can add to the following chapters! :D Hopefully something Red would like! 👀

Having Ara show up at some point is going to be very painful. So much unstableness will happen, oof. Also, wonder what will happen to Jet? :D Watch him sacrifice himself again! :p

ALSO! WHERE THE HELL ARE THE DAI LI AND LONG FENG!?!?!? Maybe at some point they will "team up" with The Girls®. Well that will turn out

chaotic I wonder what is in the shadows? Why is it lurking? What is it watching? Oh the suffering you will bring to them. Don't tear them apart too much or they will fall.

It's fun to see the choices that are being made.

-Pain Anon

-Red Anon

HIIIIII you’re amaziiiiinngggg how’s my favorite double anon.

I think it’s funny you are looking forward to the chaos because some of it makes me cringe just thinking about haha.

As much as it would be fun to see Jet back in action I don’t think he will be recovered enough by the time Azula arrives to be of any use. He has a lot of mental and physical hurdles to jump still and he’s obviously not in the best mindset right now.

Haha Long Feng was arrested in canon & escaped with the Dai Li so… haha it’s not surprising the same happened here. Who knows where they went but the The Girls is a good guess hehe.

As always, you’re the best <3

#it’s funny how many people said the thought the men in the shadows were the dai li #it’s just the royal guard keeping shit safe #im 90% sure they’ve left the building lol #but 10% unclear haha #Ara might be in this chapter she might not #depends on word count #azula is at 5.5k #we have a scene & a half left… but i assumed she would dominate half the chapter #assuming the chaoters 20k #which it won’t be!!! #because it’ll be less #*finger guns* #alriiigjttttt byyyeeeee #liab #pain anon #red anon #the fantastic duo #ask

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Spider-Verse (Sony Animated Movies), Spider-Man (Comicverse) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hobie Brown & Miles Morales, Hobie Brown & Gwen Stacy | Spider-Gwen Characters: Hobie Brown, Gwen Stacy | Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, Miguel O'Hara Additional Tags: the spider society is not very flammable :(, it's not even relevant for longer than one (1) line but it's important to me, i'm so bad at tagging please give me suggestions, Any Pronouns for Hobie Brown Series: Part 10 of When Multiverses Meet Summary:

Shit hits the fan. Hobie, with different connections than in the film, makes different decisions--except when he doesn't. Things don't change as much as they should. Everything has changed. It's a bloody shame that the Spider Society's layout makes arson pretty much impossible.

#hobie brown #spider punk #gwen stacy #miles morales #miguel o'hara #spiderman atsv #atsv fanfic #my fics #my writing #wmm #when multiverses meet #i sincerely hope this is not disappointing lol #hobie is tired bc i'm tired and while writing i've begun to just fuckin merge with him #5.5k words jesus christ lmao #but TAKE THAT WRITER'S BLOCK #also this is indeed still the next day after my 3am writing spree. maybe its past midnight here but i have not gone to sleep so take that ha #there is disappointingly little arson (including mentions of arson) in this #actually now that i think about it the hobies will get to commit arson soon #ill make it happen

[a-flux-uchiha]

Shisui and Momo having a chat!

This is for my Epoch au, a three way crossover with Naruto, MHA, and Miraculous. The general idea is that it’s very post post ghibli-esque apocalypse, where a long time in the past, something happened(probably something akin to Jurassic park) and dinosaurs were released across the globe. Humans managed to collect in protected cities in glass pods, which eventually evolved into their current form, still cities in glass pods, but now arranged in pod groups with a protected area in the middle for farming and raising domesticated animals without the threat of dinosaurs. Or as much threat anyway. The cities are protected by magical girls(not actually always girls, that’s just the job title, like fireman).

Shisui is a magical girl, and if you check his eyes, they have multiple white eyeshines in them while my typical eye style only calls for one, like in Momo’s eyes. This is because his eyes are actually augmented, the name for robotic parts. His hands up to his forearms and legs up to just above his knee are also augmented, but those aren’t visible because they’re pretty good at mimicking human skin. It’s much harder to mimic eyes, they always are a little oddly shiny. The wings are also augments, hooked into a spinal augment. They’re whats referred to as a bonus augment, something outside human standard. The red part of the wings is pure energy, which he can make look however he wishes. The red glowy thing in his chest is what powers all of this, a gem taken from a dinosaur and carefully chipped and carved into the right size and shape. It provides the magic to power all augments. It normally would just look like a red gem implanted on his sternum, but he is currently using it to make his outfit look like that. He’s actually wearing a simple protective bodysuit, which is standard for magical girls. They just generally like to make their outfits look more fun with magic. It’s manipulating light and energy. It does have an actual function, in that it can help shield them a bit better, and makes it easier to actively use the magic and shift it into other forms. Shisui specializes in what you would expect an Uchiha to expect in, making fire. He’s also quite skilled at boosting his own physical performance to make him significantly faster, as well as forming hard energy weapons using a similar technique to the outfit thing. Most magical girls cannot do all three methods of magic use with anywhere near as much skill as Shisui can, he’s just special like that. As one would expect from Shisui.

Now onto Momo! This also heavily involves Shisui, whoops, as you may note she is wearing an Uchiha symbol, and her clothes are also Uchiha colored. The navy in her shirt and pants matches Shisui’s navy. She is still a Yaoyorozu, for now anyway, her family is a small but powerful family in the noble class, the Uchiha clan, who leads the pod city they both live in are very fond of the Yaoyorozus. As such, Momo’s been promised her pick of the three heirs, Shisui(Mikoto’s nephew), Itachi, and Sasuke(sons of the current leaders) basically since she was born. She’s grown up with the three of them as well, so they’re all pretty good friends. She is closest with Shisui though. Technically Shisui should be out of the running as he is technically cast out from the noble class, but well, if Momo really wants to marry him, then nothing’s going to stop her.

To clarify on the Shisui is technically cast out, I have to mention a special tick of the noble class. Namely, that they consider augmentations to be a lower class thing. I’ll expand on the fashion bit in a second when I cover Momo’s outfit, but the thing with Shisui is that he ended up with an infection or something similarly bad in his eyes, they had to be removed. He didn’t want to be blind, so he elected to get augmentated eyes(they look like the sharingan right now, but he can turn that effect off and just make them normal black). The ‘correct thing’ according to the noble class would have been to just be blind and adapt to the new situation. Shisui said screw that, he wanted to see. So he was cast out. Which left him free to become a magical girl, something nobles are generally forbidden from being, as the nature of the job requires augments. He is over here living his second best life, it is only second best because Fugaku forbade him from becoming a courier magical girl, which would have been his best life. That would have been too risky though, cast out or not, he is still technically third in line and the only one left from his family line.

Now Momo’s outfit, so I don’t keep infodumping on the structure of noble society and how augments work. The big cut out on the chest of her shirt is deliberately exposing the sternum, the only place a gem can be placed. It’s basically a flaunt of not having augments. The noble class is more likely to have cut outs, while the commoners tend to just prefer plunging necklines to show off the gems, which come in a variety of pretty colors. There are clothes without the plunging necklines or cut outs, but they’re fairly uncommon, and usually if someone feels like covering that part of their chest they just wear an undershirt under their top shirt. Cut outs are less common in men’s clothing, but just because an entirely open shirt is more common. You do still see cut outs though, usually on married or engaged men to match their partner. The low slung belt is also pretty common, as is attaching feathers to it like Momo did. Feathers are a little more common on hats or in hairstyles, but Momo likes just wearing them either in the outfits, or on a belt. The feathers are red and blue for Uchiha colors again, although much brighter. They are dinosaur feathers, which are almost exclusively something for the noble class. They’re generally the only ones that can afford to have them. Some common families will have them, but they are either involved with dinosaur meat smugglers and the underground market for that stuff or they’re the families of magical girls, who can get dinosaur feathers very easily due to the fact that they come into conflict with them regularly.

The majority of dinosaurs are feathered, are all brightly colored, and males are usually sparkly when sexually mature. Yes the blue feather is sparkly, I’m sad its barely visible. The brighter colored a dinosaur is the stronger their magic is going to be, and in territorial and non-family based groups the shiniest and brightest dinosaur leads. Male or female, they tend to be equally bright even if males have more chance of being sparkly, iridescent, or another over-top effect.

Also can I say that Momo looks like a spaceship captain in that outfit. I swear that’s not the only vibes of the fashion of this au.

The other fashion vibes are pirate. It works better then you’d think.

#epoch au #yaoyorozu momo #uchiha shisui #dinosaurs #i love them dearly #was all of the info i added absolutely necessary? #of course #i would never over share i #am a perfect bastion of not over sharing #you should just be glad I didn’t add all 5.5k current words of notes on this au #i have…..so much #i love it all #naruto and mha crossovers #naruto #mha #shisui and Momo don’t have that big of an age gap #they’re within 3 years #she’s almost a year older then Sasuke #itachi and shisui got scooted down for this to work #itachi and shisui are within a year of each other and her #so yeah about 2 years #probably more like 2 and s half #please ask me to expand more on this #i might draw the other two character sets that get dedicated fics #i havent started shisui and momo’s yet #but i will at some point #flux-art

[ronanception]

yeah this gon be a fucking fat ass last chapter

#5.5k words so far #still so much to cover

[flippedorbit]

oh <- just remembered something he did between 2 and 3am that is most certainly not a normal thing

#Rasp Rambles #its nothing bad. i just happened to write a long text to a friend explaining a game i beat relatively recently and dear god. it was over #5.5k characters long including spaces. idk how many words exactly but dear god

[thompsborn]

YES Omg I see so often that the “resolution” to Peter’s fears of hurting people he loved is those fear being proven wrong. When really, it’s a valid fear. It could and likely WILL happen but that doesn’t mean that having those people in his life is controllable or should be avoided.

(also I’m a massive sucker for Harley!whump so this is very good news to me)

not to be like spoiler-y but a heads up for the rest of the series: it gets a LOT more harley centric. like. like i said, the second fic introduces harley’s pov (the first chapter is literally a recap of the first fic entirely from harley’s pov with key moments from the first fic plus extra bits and such) and like it expands every fic (by the last fic all of the spidey squad will have scenes in their pov) but while homeward bound is definitely peter’s story post no way home, the second fic is Peter And Harley. it’s THEIR story post homeward bound.

and with harley’s pov comes a lot more with his character, INCLUDING plenty plenty PLENTY of harley whump. harley angry. harley upset. harley jealous. harley in a large range of emotions and situations that the first fic only hints at through peter’s pov.

bc like… harley is not necessarily hiding things but he also in this series is one to put on his best face around the people he cares about because he wants to take care of the people he cares about. so with his pov comes a lot more transparency and a lot more insight.

i’ll stop there before i start actually spoiling anything but !! you said it perfectly and this approach is one that i’ve wanted to have in the homeward bound series since like the second or third chapter (when i originally started piecing together an actual plot lmao) and it’s one i am VERY excited to finally establish and explore!!

#reached 5.5k words btw!! the goal for chp 16 is 10.5k so technically i am over halfway there!! #i have a feeling this is gonna be another one that exceeds my word count goal by like 1k+ words tho lmao #parkner #homeward bound fic

[theloveinc]

ummmmmmm is there anyone somewhat experienced w/ beta reading who would mind looking at this fic for me peas... 👉🏻👈🏻

#5.5k words as of right now ... dabi x reader #just wanna make sure the dialogue reads okay and it's not boring #and if u think it needs more whatever or other #not fully finished but i wanna know if it seems close to done too #anyway #caitie blabs

[seekerstone]

i also have so many words trapped inside me i want them out. what if i started another project. no i’m not done with my current 3 (thousand) but what if i started another one

#technically like….. i wrote 5.5k yesterday so i’d have less to do the rest of nano #but that does free up mental energy for more words…. #i want this idea OUT it’s been rattling around for a month now #the moon speaks #update: *6.4k i forgot i did more afterwards

[fatuismooches]

Hello, how have you been? I hope you are doing well 🙏🙏

Its been a while since i saw u active, i miss your rambling and i also worried about u. I hope you dont push yourself too hard there 😔

-🥝

Haha, you may be a psychic 🥝 anon, because I was planning to actually post a request later tonight😌 It's almost done, long af and a part 2 to the fragile reader post

I'm sorry about the inactivity and I miss rambling too 😭💔😭💔😭💔 But don't worry, I'm planning to make a post with a whole compilation of anon asks and answer them all because I have a lot of rambling I want to do! I'm doing fine over here, I hope you are too 🥝anon and everyone else💓💓

#smooches talks #🥝 anon #the request is 5.5k words so far and I ain't even done... #im been grinding it so hard lol #guys ive been gone for like a week but don't let it flop ok #posting TONIGHT dont miss it lol #i just finished this shit is 14 pages on google docs lol

[kareenvorbarra]

i don’t have much to say except that i’m extremely fucked-up over the timing of these scenes!!! and how different the exact same phrase feels coming from someone Kamet likes and trusts vs. the person who injured him!!! there’s a brief moment of comfort and camraderie in the scenes with Laela, and then it all comes crashing down again as soon as Nahuseresh opens his mouth 

(also i think Laela is the only person we see Kamet joke with until he starts to get more comfortable with Costis) 

#queen's thief #laela #kamet #nahuseresh #i don't have character tags for this series on my blog but maybe i should start doing character tags #posting to distract myself from the fact that i've written 5.5k words of this queen's thief fanfic and i feel no closer to finishing it