#I would be down to write more in this universe but also I have no interest in writing casefic so I will probably never touch it again

[brainrot-of-a-thot]

Hello! Could I request some fluff?

If you would, could you write this for Suo, Umemyia and Togame?

What is something that their crush does that makes them short circuit? Like something that makes fall even hard, that makes them exe.stopped moment please?

Thank you!

cuteness overload.

or, sometimes you’re just too cute, featuring: jo togame, hajime umemiya, suo hayato

a/n: uwu fluff i love fluff~ makes me feel so giddy when I write it. suo’s is actually kinda long wtf it’s a blurb damnit

c/w: fem!reader, crushes, fluff, pining?, headcanon blurb format, language, soft!boys, lovey dovey~

note: also, thank y’all so so much for 150+ followers. like that’s just insane, gwaaaaah. it’s like my blog grew overnight and I just ToT!! thank you thank you thank you!!! it’s all thanks to you sexy babes!!

jo togame is absolutely enamored by the way you have to look up at him to talk to him.

it’s a consistent thing you do — you pretty much have to, considering the height difference between you two. but it never fails to make his heart skip a beat.

but, of course, you have to make it a thousand times cuter by adding your own little quirks to it; such as bouncing on the balls of your feet, or standing up on your tippy toes to ‘reach him better’, or the cute little head tilts you do when you ask a question or couldn’t quite catch his words.

but what stalled his engines, killed his brain process, and completely rewired his chemical balance was the day you surged your hands up to pull him down into a chaste kiss. even with him slightly bent to reach you, you still stood on your very tippy toes to slot your lips to his in the most comfortable way.

it lasted all of two seconds, but it was enough to leave togame feeling giddy about it for months after — and even after experiencing it hundreds of times within those few months, it still made his brain short circuit when it happened.

hajime umemiya simply adores the way you try to keep up with him.

he’s got long legs, and it’s all too easy for him to scale many feet with just a few steps — but for you, it’s an endurance battle. even umemiya’s casual strides seem more like a dash, and your legs have to work overtime to keep up with him.

he doesn’t mean to be cruel or unsympathetic; he just can’t hold back his urges at times. umemiya always feels warm when he ‘accidentally’ leaves you in the dust and you scramble to catch up to him, a pout on your lips as you loop your arms around his and force him to match your pace. it makes him feel wanted and needed — and when he’s wanted and needed by you, it’s a feeling akin to heaven.

but the day that all came to a stop was the same day that you caused him to short circuit.

umemiya was doing the same thing he normally did (usually at least once each day) and you reacted in the same way that you had each and every time; except when you looked up at him, you weren’t wearing your signature pout — instead, your brows were scrunched up and your eyes welled with fat tears.

“ume, don’t leave me behind again…” you whisper-croaked, and umemiya was torn in half by the sudden onslaught of ‘oh, no’ and ‘too cute’ that ravaged his brain.

it was cute because you were so distraught by the idea of him leaving you behind, but it was also terrible because you were so distraught by the idea of him leaving you behind.

after that, umemiya never walked ahead of you — he always walked beside you, or behind you; but never ahead.

suo hayato had never entertained the idea of falling in love. it wasn’t that he was objective to it; he figured that at some point it would happen, and he’d just roll with it when it did. but he certainly didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

suo couldn’t quite help it, though. you were a magnetic force, bubbly and sweet and outgoing. you didn’t know a stranger, and showing affection was just second nature to you. you had this (slightly irritating) ability to make someone feel like they were the center of the universe when you interacted with them — and left them feeling incredibly jealous when you did so with another person (or maybe that was just suo who felt that way.)

but what suo loved the most about you was your enthusiastic optimism towards the future. your views on that were a near contrast to suo’s; suo preferred to live in the present, leave the past behind, and simply wait for the future. he felt that focusing too much on the past or the future would take away the sensation of being in the present, so he blocked both of them out in order to fully immerse himself into where he was now.

but you… you talked about the future constantly. passionately. and, contrary to most people who daydreamed about the future, you strived in your present to secure that future you were so passionate about. suo would listen to you ramble for hours on end, never losing interest or falling tired — your voice was simply magnificent.

and that was what he was doing on that particular day, sitting across from you in a quaint little resto-cafe, chin in palm and slowly stirring his quickly cooling coffee as you rambled. you were talking about interior design, something you were highly fervid about, when you said the words that made his heart skip a beat.

“…and I think we should open a tea-house together. I mean, your tea-steeping skills are amazing, and with my eye for design, we could get really popular!”

you were still rambling, but suo had stopped listening. not that he wanted to stop listening — but his mind was stuck on a loop right now.

we. we. we.

you’d spoke of the future many times, but that was the first time you’d included him in it. suo’s heart was completely palpitating in his chest, snippets of a future with you crashing into one another while that little word repeated itself in his mind — courting — we — dates, — we —, buying a house, marriage, kids…

it all splayed across his mind like a movie reel, and before suo could put much conscious thought behind it, he was smiling at you and whole-heartedly agreeing to your idea.

#wind breaker #wind breaker x reader #windbreaker #windbreaker x reader #jo togame x reader #hajime umemiya x reader #hayato suo x reader

[strwbrythoughts]

time's up | dr. veritas ratio

The doctor - also known as your husband - has come to refine your problem-solving skills, particularly in mathematics.

A/N: This man is insufferable but I simp because smart + muscles = hot!!! Also can you see me projecting onto this and wdym i don't like triangles, ngl i accidentally switched to first person pov at the ending 💀 this is why i need to find time to write in my busy busy schedule

Divider by @/osqrie

"You have 15 minutes to solve these questions. You may begin."

The soft click of the digital stopwatch in his right hand sounded louder than ever to your ears. Your eyes went from his soft, smiling face - which in itself, was a rarity - towards the questions printed on the single sheet of white, A4-sized paper on your desk. They were all mathematics equations. Every single one was an integration-related question.

You always thought that you could escape the topics you didn't like after finishing your studies in the undergraduate level. Life had been pretty smooth-sailing after graduation; you opened a cute and cozy bakery, you married a genius, lived in a comfortable home, have and maintain a loving relationship...but this. This was the least of what you would expect. Being tutored and tested on the one subject you refused to take back in university.

Or perhaps it was your mistake when you told him your weak points in the academic aspect of yourself. That was a side effect of marrying a genius, you supposed...or a 'Mundanite' as he would use to refer to himself.

But you couldn't think of that now. You had a test to complete, and you didn't want to receive his punishment for not being able to do so within the given timeframe. His eyes could be felt on you, as if burning into your body and directly gazing at the very essence of your soul. The rise in your heartbeat and downturned gaze highlighted how nervous you felt to answer this paper.

After taking a deep breath to clear your head, you observed the questions carefully. There were 3 questions, and all of them were pretty easy to solve (or at least, that was what the instructions said). The first two questions were fine; only including polynomials and exponents respectively. As you got to the third question though...you couldn't say it was 'fine'.

It included one of your most disliked topics...trigonometry.

Granted, the trigonometry was pretty simple, but you never seemed to be able to wrap your head around how so many formulas could be derived from them. When Veritas explained it to you in one of your tutoring sessions, you asked for more breaks than usual since you had put a barrier in your mind; 'I will never understand this'; which in turn, made the topic seemed harder than it actually was.

The soft 'ding!' of the bell on my desk reminded you that you had five minutes left for this last question. You gulped, hoping your nervousness would be swallowed away as well. His eyes were glued to the back of your head; not that you dared to look behind my shoulder at the moment.

Every second counts after all, even if you had no clue what steps you should take to solve the problem on the paper.

Your brain seemed to malfunction and your memorisation skills failed you right this moment. You didn't remember the basic formulas, and you didn't know how to derive them from the triangles either. With no viable options left, you decided to unleash your expertise; cooking up your own theories.

'Ah, he's definitely punishing me for this...' was the only thought floating in your brain. Autopilot mode was switched on, and your hand glided across the paper, writing down whatever nonsense that seemed to be related to trigonometry, regardless whether they were correct or not.

The digital stopwatch in Veritas' hand had reached its last minute; the fifteenth minute. "Time's up," his voice bounced off the white walls right into your ears. "Put down your pen and stop writing."

Although reluctant, you did not wish for a heavier punishment. His words were followed by the sound of the pen being put onto the wooden desk. Within seconds, he was stood right next to your desk, using his index finger and thumb to pick up the piece of paper.

His eyes scanned my answers, going from left to right as he inspected each line of working. There was a faint smile on his lips...until it was gone.

Gulp.

He had definitely seen the absolute mess you made on the last question.

A slam onto the wooden desk; you swore you heard the wood crack a little bit. "Did I not teach you this last question?" You could barely reply. His tone was dripping with condescension, but you didn't take offence from it. Both you and him knew he had the right intentions, but his ways wouldn't be able to satisfy everyone.

"You did! I...I just didn't like it."

Veritas let out a 'tsk' thrice, seeming almost animated as he did so. "You do know what you have to do now, right? So come on, what are you waiting for? Is time not ticking?" He took a seat on his chair, eyes looking straight into mine.

You sighed, preparing your facial muscles...as you climbed into his lap. Ah yes, the 'one hundred kisses or you're not leaving this room' punishment. A classic, really. Your lips peppered his face, landing on each part like the first snow of winter; gentle and heartwarming.

"Lunchtime is nearing, so you better carry out your responsibility quickly and dutifully, dear. You'd hate to have lunch at 4 PM again, hm?"

Ah, crap! He was right! Better get to work now!

Thank you for reading!

#berry writes #honkai star rail #honkai star rail x reader #star rail #star rail x reader #dr ratio #dr ratio x reader #veritas ratio #veritas ratio x reader #hsr veritas

[luvvsoft]

ᰔᩚ lucifer (obey me) x mc! reader, angst, unspoken words + hidden feelings, unrequited feelings (or are they), possibly ooc lucifer but i think he’s secretly soft

word count: 714

i’ve been playing obey me for about 3 years now and this is the first time i’m writing for it .. just diabolical

Loving Lucifer was complicated.

All of Lucifer was complicated, as a matter of fact. He was for one, a demon. A demon who had a tendency of hiding his emotions. Who kept his siblings on a leash and acted as if he could care less, when his actions showed otherwise.

Love was complicated; it threatened to engulf you like the ocean would a defenseless seal pup. You loved more than you could show, loved more than there were observable stars in the universe. You also fell too easily, that was always your Achilles heel.

You were cursed. Cursed to quickly fall, but never to take the time to ease into it. You knew you could, you should, but you wouldn’t.

It just so happened Lucifer was the one you fell for now. How couldn’t you? He was rough around the edges, yet sweet. He was aloof yet he cared much more than he let on. That drew you to him. How couldn’t you fall for someone like him? Someone who loved his siblings so much that he sacrificed himself daily.

Of course, you knew Lucifer didn’t feel the way you did. Your feelings were silly, an unreciprocated school girl crush on someone like him. But that didn’t stop them from festering. They grew in your heart and crept up on all your being, closing up your throat whenever he was near and making your heart palpitate.

You sighed (perhaps for the 50th time today), you were just a human from a human world, brought here to help Diavolo bring the 3 realms together. You had no place in a relationship with Lucifer, someone beyond your scope, beyond your reach. You weren’t nearly enough for a demon of his status, yet you entertained these silly feelings. Maybe it was because of the way he acted around you.

You knocked on Lucifer’s study, determined to deliver Barbatos’ tea. You knew Lucifer was stressed out about all the paperwork you had — you could feel it within your pact. So, you asked Barbatos for his most calming tea.

You inhaled and exhaled, convincing yourself it wasn’t a big deal, nothing to be nervous about.

“Come in,” you heard Lucifer reply moments after you knocked.

You turned the knob, and of course, weren’t surprised by the sight. Lucifer’s study was always clean and neat, despite being under so much pressure.

Lucifer’s eyes were glued onto your figure as he talked, “Yes?”

You took another breath, nothing to be nervous about right, “I brought you some tea. I asked Barbatos about it, don’t worry.”

Lucifer’s lips curved up into a small smile, “Thank you, you can set it down here.”

You smiled back softly before turning around and heading towards the door.

Lucifer called out after you, “Would you like to stay?”

Your face contorted into something between shock and bewilderment before it settled into a wide smile, “Of course.”

You thought about that moment often. It made you feel warm all over, feeding your delusions about what ifs you knew wouldn’t happen. They wouldn’t because of Lucifer.

Despite loving every part of him — from his perfectly combed black hair to his polished brown shining shoes, you were able to admit his aloofness was a major downfall. How he didn’t seem to care hurt sometimes. It hurt to think that maybe, he just didn’t care for you. You knew otherwise, even if he didn’t say it outright, but that didn’t stop your mind from wondering.

You wondered, why did he always run?Why, instead of facing his emotions, did he avoid them, as if they were a plague on his being?

You wondered if he could even stand your very being.

You fell asleep before Lucifer could finish his work.

He sighed, he should have expected this. Of course his workload would finally be finished around midnight.

Lucifer grimanced at your position on the study couch, shifting you into a more comfortable one and covering you with a blanket.

He pressed a soft kiss on your forehead before sitting at the foot of the couch.

You’d never really know how much Lucifer loved you.

#ofc i had to write lucifer first #lowkey surprised i havent dropped off the face of the earth for like 7 months again #x reader #x reader angst #angst #obey me x reader #obey me #lucifer x reader #obey me lucifer #obey me lucifer x reader #obey me shall we date #omswd lucifer

[stratocumulusperlucidus]

WIP REC

I love love love reading WIPs, the anticipation, the excitement of getting the notification for a new chapter, even sometimes the cliffhangers... So here are some of the lovely fics I'm currently reading!

Oh and if you read these, please consider taking a minute to leave a comment, let the author know you appreciate their work 💖

This Is More of a Comment Than a Question by @caterpills

Rating: Mature | Chapters: 3/10

Three weeks before Henry Fox's tour for his fourth, highly anticipated, awards-bait novel A Brief War in December begins, his publicist Janella breaks her foot on a bunny slope at Windham. Alex can't be mad at her, even though he kind of is. Saying it out loud would be like kicking her when she was down, and she already went down a literal mountain in the worst way possible. Now crammed in Rafael Luna's corner office, Janella is shooting Alex extremely apologetic looks while slumped on her crutches, wearing a bright orange cast. The conversation about who is going to be joining Henry Fox on his multi-city trek across the U.S. is also going downhill. Alex is feeling the same sort of free fall while standing still. Because out of all the publicists available in their tiny underfunded department, the only one left to escort their company's best-selling author is regrettably him. The problem is, well, Alex absolutely hates Henry Fox.

Or: Alex is the publicist for Mountchristen Publishers, and is stuck on a two-week tour with their best-selling, but frustrating, author Henry Fox.

Her Royal Highness by @tailsbeth-writes

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 5/?

'Shaan, can you please put an appointment in my diary?' 'Certainly sir, what is it for?' 'A reminder to kill Alex for getting me into this mess.' Shaan tried to hold back a smirk as he stepped back, tapping away on his tablet. 'Personally I think the blue glitter really brings out your eyes, sir.' This terrible idea had started like most of Alex’s did, a seedling planted by the most chaotic of the chaos demons; Nora.

or How Prince Henry ended up as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

the full spectrum of human emotion by @firenati0n

Rating: Mature | Chapters: 3/6

Alex grips his hand tighter. They’re going to need to have a long, hard conversation in the next five minutes, or else Alex is going to combust right here in Pez’s fancy office. Explode for all of Midtown Manhattan to see. Here lies what remains of Alex, for all the world to witness—taken out by a rogue marriage proposal from his evil boss-turned-fiancé.

Or: Working under editor Henry Fox-Mountchristen was only supposed to be Step One in Alex’s plan of achieving his big dreams—but when his boss winds up facing an even bigger problem, potential deportation, Alex finds he isn’t just a beleaguered assistant anymore. He’s the solution.

It’s fine. They only have to fool his friends, his family, the United States Government…and themselves.

Life Is Not A Movie (But We Can Have The Fairytale) by @lfg1986-2

Rating: Explicit | Chapters: 3/?

Three years after the smashing success of the first Red, White and Royal Blue film, Nicholas and Taylor are preparing to return to their roles as Henry and Alex to film the sequel. After a late night of catching up with each other and reestablishing their close bond just before rehearsals begin, they wake up to find themselves in a crazy twist of fate, where fiction blends with reality and the lines between fictional characters and the actors who portray them become irrevocably blurred.

Or

What happens when Taylor is transported into the movie universe and comes face to face with Prince Henry, while Nick wakes up to find Alex Claremont-Diaz in his living room in the place of his friend and costar? Both pairs must work together to figure out how to get themselves back where they belong, and along the way they discover some things about themselves and each other that has the potential to alter their relationships forever.

take me back to San Francisco by headabovethewater / @getmehighonmagic

Rating: Explicit | Chapters: 2/8

“You don’t look like you’re having a very good time,” a soft voice suddenly startles him from his thoughts. Henry’s entire body jerks and he spills some of his drink down the front of his shirt.

“Oh, bloody-” He leans over to put his drink on the table and starts wiping at his shirt. “No, I’m- It’s not that, it’s-” He glances fleetingly at the stranger and then down at his shirt again, before his brain finally registers that oh, glasses, dark curls, white smile, exposed chest. Henry’s head snaps back up and his lips part in astonishment. Handsome doesn’t even begin to cover it. Him.

“Hi,” the man says, then chuckles. He hands Henry a napkin and gestures towards one of the other chairs at the table. “Would you mind?”

or, Henry and Alex meet on vacation in San Francisco and an instant spark between them has both of them unable to let the other go. With only two weeks to spend together and the knowledge that it can't last beyond that, it's just a massive, insurmountable recipe for disaster.

Or is it?

Unattended / Unsent mails by amnesia_on_ice / @amnesiaa-on-ice

Rating: General Audiences | Chapters: 4/?

Alex is a Singer Songwriter, henry is his arch nemesis Actor but also secretively writer. There is a long running feud between Henry and Alex. Now they are meeting for the first time in person in a vanity after party and the stan twitter have lots to digest of the meeting.

The story of Unattended/ unsent mails.

the drag of your lips by rizcriz

Rating: Mature | Chapter 2/3

Alex isn’t sure how he got here.

Here being pressed into the couch, his roommate straddling his lap and warm against every point they’re touching, soft lips moving against his own in the most sensual, leisurely pattern that Alex’s fingers instinctively flex where they’re clinging into his lower back. He’s hard in his pants, straining towards Henry, but there’s no desperate hands grasping, no drive to take this any further.

Or, Alex just really wants to make out with someone. Henry helpfully volunteers.

Foxden Park by myheartalive / @myheartalivewrites

Rating: Explicit | Chapters: 4/9

“Yes, Alex, what a terrible destiny,” Nora says. “To be hosted for a week by all these charming rich people, who have bent over backwards to accommodate us, including sending their own carriage into town to fetch us. How very dare we drag you into their nefarious scheme.”

—

Invited to a week-long house party at the Duke of Windsor’s country residence, Alex Claremont-Diaz does not expect to find anything to enjoy about his time there. What he does find is Lord Henry, the duke’s younger brother—and a boatload of things to learn about himself.

Seven days in the country in a duke's house. What could possibly happen?

#fic rec #red white and royal blue #rwrb fic #rwrb #firstprince #wip rec #fanfiction #ao3 #first prince #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor

[imthepunchlord]

Which animals would fit the Creation-Destruction duality better in Miraculous?

Ok this is a little funny as I was just ranting away on Discord about how, through all my research on various animals covering myth, folklore, symbolism, ect.; in comparison to all I found, Ladybug was really kinda boring to pick as an important animal to follow and to be so major in the narrative.

At the core of it, it comes down to love, luck, and divinity (either as God's servant or God's cow). Through divinity you could tie LB to Creation, as God's often a creator, but even then, more often it's more divine intervention that actually creating. So between the two, Ladybug is the easier one to push out as the Miraculous Creator.

There's a few Miraculous in canon that could've worked for Creation.

Bee can easily fit out of the 5.

Bees are heavily tied to life. They help plants grow and thrive, which in turn helps with our survival, they build up their hive and community, and create honey that has healing qualities. Why, in Greek myth, honey is tied to Ambrosia, the nectar of the gods. And while bees are tied to order, they're also known to be adaptable. Alongside cats, bees are one of the animals that recognize there's a gain to working with humans (I believe they're the only animal that will straight up unionize if with an unfit beekeeper, straight up leaving them to go elsewhere).

Bees are also tied to the artistic side of creation, not just builders and crafting honey, but through their ties to Apollo, specifically the music aspect of him, where you have bees that hum and they waggle (dance). Creation you can also tie to interconnection with life that bees also echo, their whole thing is about being a big community that works together; they're also thought to be tied to the souls of the deceased, in Greece bees are thought to escort souls to the afterlife (and have made beehive tombs), and in Celtic culture, I've read they'll tell bees about their day and bees will deliver messages to passed on loved ones to keep them updated.

Bee probably really is my top pick for the alternative for Creation, cause so much clicks, so canon's direction with it made me very disappointed.

Of the Zodiac, that's Dragon and Rabbit.

The Chinese dragon is the opposite of the western, not just being a source of benevolence, but also being a creator, source of life, wisdom, bringers of fortune, and protection. There's a myth that dragons created paper and taught humans how to read and write, dragons would bring rain to water crops and feed life, and they will clash with the chaos bringing tiger to keep order, cresting a yin-yang balance in their fight, making equilibrium between order and chaos.

Rabbit in turn is tied to artistry and life. There is the Moon Rabbit who crafts the Elixir of Life; Celts tied rabbits to Eostre the goddess of spring, which potentially inspired the Easter Bunny, a bringer of food, fun, and new beginnings. And of course, rabbits are tied to creating a lot of life.

Of my OC Miraculous, that'd be Spider.

Spiders are the artisans of the animal world, creating webs, and inspiring weavers. They heavily represent interconnection and life (Indra's Web is the most iconic), and are tied to various creation myths and gods, like the Egyptian goddess Neith (creation, fate, weaving, destiny; mother of Ra, creator of the universe); and Grandmother Spider from Native American culture.

Honorable mentions, not having as much to them to really fit Creation:

Peafowl is tied to the Hindu goddess Saraswati who is tied to: knowledge, music, flowing water, abundance and wealth, art, speech, wisdom, and learning

Bull/Ox was thought to help teach humans how to farm and feed themselves, and helped ever since

The World Turtle who supports all life

Snake is a dual symbol of life and death, and thought to be a bringer of rain in some cultures; they're also tied to a Chinese creator deity Nuwa; snakes are also tied to various trees of life

For Destruction, Cat does work fine. Over all, cats are more tied to protection, magic, and love (especially maternal). But cats are efficient hunters, are chaotic, destructive, and unpredictable. So it's not a stretch for Cat to be Destruction, and Cataclysm does work for the pun too.

But there are other options that can work too.

Of the 5, Fox wouldn't be a stretch for it at all. While iconic for it's trickery, foxes are destroyers of order, control, and security, and some can lead to destruction of life. Tricking their enemies to death, devastating livestock; there are myths of eastern foxes possessing others and destroying livelihoods, devouring their life energy; foxes are also often tied to fire, which can be a devastating element.

Of the Zodiac...

Tiger is easily can fit, it has a more destructive association than Cat, being tied to danger, aggression, chaos, and war.

If Dragon is meant to represent all dragons, then it can apply for Destruction as well.

Snake can apply as it can be a devastating animal through venom, they're tied to death and vengeance, also snakes inspired a lot of villainous dragons (Python, Hydra, Nidhogg, sea serpents, wyverns, wyrms, cockatrice, basilisk); there's the devastating Medusa, and Ouroboros is tied to cycles of self-destruction.

Of the OC Miraculous...

There's Owl and Raven which are often a harbingers of death and are an ominous symbol. They're also tied to war.

Wolf is another promising one, as most myth and folklore ties it to villainy and destruction, the iconic Big Bad Wolf, who devastates livestock, and are known to be hungry and devouring.

#ask Punchie #ml salt #miraculous alternatives

[dalesramblingsblog]

In honour of an episode that seems consciously about the construction of narratives around fundamentally meaningless aspects of the universe, a Twitter conversation with one of my last remaining mutuals to survive the Muskening, lightly repurposed to serve as a singular, narrativised Tumblr post in a way it was never designed for.

Who says art is dead?

73 Yards was strange and haunting and not entirely comprehensible in a way that Doctor Who seldom manages.

I suspect it's one where personal tolerance for that sort of thing will make or break the episode, but I certainly think that, knowing this was Gibson's first filmed episode, she did a phenomenal job.

It was also, for me at least, a more generally successful invocation of the kind of eldritch horror implied by the Toymaker or the Maestro, largely by virtue of it giving itself room to be ambiguous.

I've seen the complaints about stuff like the PM being a blank slate, but I do rather feel like that might be the point. It's an episode all about perception and projection and narrativisation of a universe that can be cold and hostile and incomprehensible.

(And frankly, I'm starting to suspect that the whole of RTD2 might be about that on some level. "We see something incomprehensible and invent the rules to make it work" and all that. It's audacious and bold in a way that Doctor Who hasn't been in half a decade.)

And as someone for whom those themes really hit home a lot of the time, yeah, I loved it. I know I probably sound like a broken record but I am genuinely just having a blast with this latest series.

The worst thing Doctor Who can ever feel like for me is an obligation that I only keep up with out of a need to stay relatively current in writing about it, and that was what the Chibnall Era often boiled down to for me.

Part of the reason, in hindsight, I poured so much of myself into my book reviews was that the show itself was simply failing to excite me with the level of regularity necessary to keep me engaged.

Knowing that I can put on Doctor Who on a Saturday night and be reasonably well-entertained and intrigued is, frankly, enough for me, but I do think there are enough aspects of genuine quality that I'm not just blindly worshipping at the altar of a false idol or w/e.

I dunno, I think at the end of the day I'm just a big sucker for TV that makes sense to me on an emotional rather than logical level. It's why I'm a big fan of Twin Peaks, or the second season of Millennium, or hell even Masks over on TNG.

The episode had the general feel of one that will be quite important to the overall themes of the season, so I can't imagine it will linger in *complete* ambiguity forever (though honestly if it did I would kind of love that).

Like I wouldn't be surprised if we're building up to a similar time loop reveal wrt Ruby's general existence. The fact that we've now got at least three instances of her timeline being haunted by mysterious old women cannot possibly be coincidence.

(Well, it can be, but that way lies goblins, as we know.)

IDK, there's a strangeness to Davies' acknowledgments of mediality here that goes even beyond Moffat's usual tricks. Casting a recurring actress by the name of Susan Twist while conspicuously mentioning Susan for the first time in forever feels so on the nose that while I initially suspected we might be building to the return of Susan, I now feel like we're instead headed for something much weirder.

There is so much going on and so much to unpack and frankly I don't have any idea how it could possibly tie together but I'm fascinated.

And again, the fact that this episode was almost explicitly about the process of fans theorising as to what the hell is going on with the season makes me further suspect a rebuttal of theory-focused cult fandom is in the offing.

When I first watched Once, Upon Time in 2021, I commented that it felt like Chris Chibnall's attempt to do a big, bold, incomprehensible piece of television, something almost in the vein of Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 8 but for Doctor Who.

But it's revealing that the only thing he could really think to do was dump a bunch of Doctor Who lore and simply edit things out. He's a mystery writer in the most tediously literal sense of the phrase, creating gaps that feel like they were made with a hacksaw rather than feeling like any sort of deliberate lacuna.

And I'm sorry Chibnall fans, there are some Thirteen episodes that I do like, but when I look at an episode like 73 Yards... whatever its faults may be, and I'm pretty confident I don't actually believe it to be perfect, it is bolder and weirder than anything Chibnall ever wrote. This is the kind of television I want to watch, and I make no apologies for that.

It's a rare piece of Doctor Who which comes close to capturing that sheer, terrible splendour I felt watching a slow zoom into an atom bomb explosion while being serenaded by the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. And sure, it's still very far out from being quite that strange, but it retains a curious power nevertheless.

What a show.

#doctor who #dale's ramblings #s40e4: 73 yards #ruby sunday #millie gibson

[puhpandas]

Decennial

(2,396 words)

Evan and Gregory, now age twenty-two, celebrate the tenth anniversary of their meeting in the comfort of their shared apartment.

Its already the afternoon when Evan meets Gregory at the couch in their shared apartment, smartphone in hand. Gregory glances up from whatever he was watching on TV, quickly grabbing the remote to pause the channel.

He doesn't even have a chance to greet him before he notices Evan's face. Worry quickly creases his brows, and he moves to get off of the couch. "Evan? Hey, what's wron--"

Evan tries to convey that everything's fine with no words. Because it's true. He just can't muster any up right now. When Gregory seems to understand enough, that's when Evan thrusts his phone into Gregory's line of sight.

Gregory shifts on the couch, taking the phone and studying the screen to no avail. Hes pulled up the calendar on his phone, the date reading March 4th, 2045. Gregorys brows furrow, then, "Uh. I dont understand."

Evan would have rolled his eyes if he weren't so emotional right now. He scoffs, tapping the screen and mumbling "The date. Look at the date."

It only takes another moment for Gregory to understand. Evan can almost see the gears turning in his friends head in the moments before he gasps sharply. "Oh!"

Gregory doesn't look away immediately, just taking it in as if it surpises him. "Its ten years since we met today."

Evan nods at that. A small smile stretching on his face when Gregory finally turns to look at him.

But he should know by now -really, it's been ten years after all- that Gregory knows him. Probably better than Evan himself.

"What's with that look?" Gregory questions, seemingly noticing how Evans smile doesnt quite reach his eyes. "You look sad."

Evan shakes his head immediately. "No-- that's not it." He replies, feeling a bit more fit to speak. "Its just..."

"Ten years?" Gregory prompts, and Evan nods. Gregory seems to get it. He sighs a bit, and Evan can tell hes not alone in reminiscing. "Jeez. Thats..."

"...A long time ago." "A big number." They say at the same time.

Evan joins Gregory on the couch, taking his phone back. Ten years. Ten years since he met Gregory. Ten years since Evan had been that little ball of anxiety. Ten years since the best thing that ever happened to him.

Nine years since their first holidays together. Eight years since they started high school. Four since they graduated. Three since they started college.

One year since they got their first apartment together.

Evan chuckles all of the sudden, loud as a jet engine in the seemingly silent room. "Do you remember what we always wanted to do as kids?"

Gregory only has to think for a moment. "You mean what we made a reality?"

"Yeah." Evan replies. "We got that apartment. Not exactly the college dorm we imagined, though."

"Psh. Are you kidding? Our apartment is way better than any dorm we could have gotten." Gregory scoffs. "We would have like. One room to our name, and we would have to share."

Its Evan's turn to scoff, this time. He smiles, the memories coming back easily. "You're acting like we didnt basically share your room when we were thirteen."

"You were always there." Gregory agrees, but Evan knows by now that Gregory doesn't mean it in a bad way. Never. That's one of the things that have changed since they met. Evan doesnt assume the worst first, and ask questions later anymore. "You got that right."

"Thank god we had Vanessa to tell us what to do." Evan says. "We would be lost without her."

Gregory snorts, shuffling on the couch. Evan glances over, and strangely, being here, in this moment, even though its nothing differnet from what he and Gregory do every day, reminds him so much of when he and Gregory would just hang out together on his bed. Drawing, watching videos, talking and laughing... all of it.

"Its a good thing she told us to get an apartment while we still could." Gregory says. "We would have burned down the entire dorm."

Evan giggles at the thought. It wouldn't be the first time he and Gregory would make a mess in the kitchen. He still remembers how scared he was as a fourteen year old, when he had burned some of the food meant for Vanessa's 'Welcome Home' dinner Gregory insisted they make. The Fazbears house had stunk of char and smoke for days afterwards.

He was terrified at the time. If he had ever done anything like that at his old house...

He shakes that thought away. He does that often. Thinking back to his time alone with his father and brother. His biological ones. It's been a challenge, shutting down his brain when it tries to recall the memories.

Its another thing that's changed. As a kid, he knew nothing about helping himself and his anxiety. He didnt want to. He never saw himself as worthy of deserving relief, and it was so subconscious, little Evan never even realized it.

Now, it couldn't be more different. Hes never been healthier.

Who knew all it took was a best friend for life?

He looks over at Gregory. Who's still recounting some of their old childhood memories. Evan doesnt talk to Michael anymore. The damage he caused is too much to ignore. Evan... Evan doesnt want to see him anymore. Despite Michaels wake up call, it had been all too late. The damage had been done.

Michael missed his chance. Evan had decided that a long time ago. Maybe he should have had his change if heart earlier if he didnt want Evan to find the brother he always wanted in someone else.

Because that's what Gregory is. Its nothing new, they were having these revelations when they were only teenagers. Probably even earlier for Evan. But Evan never stops thinking about how much Gregory truly is his family.

That suprise and shock of the kindness hed received from Gregory from little Evan ten years ago is hard to shake when all hed been taught his whole life is how to hate himself. How he deserved to be treated badly, because if he hadn't been the way he was, he could have made himself worthy. A respectable man. Tough. An immovable rock. Real men dont show their emotions, or even experience them. Real men can defend themselves. Real men start to toughen up at the ripe age of twelve.

Evan is twenty two, now. So is Gregory. This life they'd built for themselves, with such a bright future... little Evan never would have even dreamed of. Little Evan had thought there was nothing there for him. Little Evan had thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel. That he had been doomed from the start. That his nature nipped his figure at the bud before it could begin.

This life theyve built for themselves. When Evan had ran to the Fazbears as soon as he'd turned eighteen with only a bag of clothes, a binder full of drawings, and yellow bear to his name. When he'd shared the room that felt like his own as well growing up with Gregory. When they'd spent those few months together until getting into the same college and choosing an apartment.

This life theyve built for themselves. That Evan would have only seen as a fantasy when he was eleven.

Theyve changed so much. It always shocks Evan every time he sees an old photo, or really remembers what it had been like pre-Gregory. Evan is growing out his hair, now. Before, all hed ever had was a months overgrown generic slickback. But he gets to choose now. Like how he paints his nails. Gregory has never really cared about his appearance, but he saw a photo of his Dad as a college student and immediately went to go replicate the blue streaks in his hair when it was time for himself to go off to college.

Evan almost laughs sometimes when he thinks about how much Gregory really is just an older version of who he was when he was twelve. He's different, like Evan is, but he's the same as well. A constant.

He knows hes the same, as well. Just with longer hair, bolder clothes, and the power of experimentation. Gregory has never been one to care much about his clothes, but to Evan, its everything. To be able to wear what he always wanted as a kid. To not be confined to whatever annual clothes his Father would buy him from the back to school section. Its freeing.

It's in that moment that he thinks back, really thinks back to his life pre-Gregory, and the contrast of the before and after.

It's all too much, in that moment. The memories and the sentiments and the nostalgia. In true Evan fashion, he cries about it.

Gregory has long since learned how to differentiate Evan's tears between his emotionality and a genuine issue. So when Evan begins wiping silent tears away, he just smiles one of those smiles he does, and pats him on the shoulder, pulling him in for a side hug.

Its digging a hole in Evan's chest, this feeling. It's not bad. But it's not exactly good either. It's some kind of a loss, but a hope as well. Remembering how much he loved back then. As much as he loves right now.

"I--" Evan stutters, sniffling. Gregory hands him one of the many boxes of tissues they always have on hand in their apartment. "It... It feels like we need to celebrate, somehow. I mean... ten years is big."

Evans mind floats to a cake. Or a two person party. Or a collaborated drawing. Evan's mind floats to many things. Many options. Ten years is big, right? Something that big needs a big party. Something big to commemorate it.

But Gregory just hums, and lays eyes on the thick shelf of DVDs they have tucked by the wall right by their TV. "How about a movie night?"

Evan's about to interrupt, say something about the milestone, but Gregory continues. "Do you remember all our favorites as a kid?"

Evan stops himself short, almost scoffing, because of couse he does. How could he not, when he and Gregory had stayed up so many times to watch them together, alongside stifled giggles and ice cream straight out of the carton? "Of course I do."

Gregory gets off the couch, crouching by the bookshelf and picking out a select few movies. Evan catches the titles on the packaging from all the way were hes sitting. Every single one of them is special to him.

Gregory deposits the movies on their coffee table, three DVDs spilling out onto the glass surface. "Then I can't think of a better way to spend the night."

Despite Evan's attempts, he cant either. Despite watching these movies almost regularly with Gregory even now, opening the casing feels different in this moment. It feels special. Evan feels like hes thirteen again.

Before starting their marathon, they make a huge bowl of popcorn, pouring caramel on it just how they liked it as kids. As they continue to now. Evan gets the carton of ice cream out of the fridge, handing Gregory his spoon and taking his own.

All they need is a throw blanket and they're ready. It's the exact setup they've done for years. Starting ten years ago today. This tradition has lasted this long, and it will outlive the milestone.

It feels so familiar, Evan cant stop thinking. His emotions are dialed up to eleven tonight. It only increases when the sky darkens outside their windows. He remembers coming home from school with Gregory and just. Immediately piling onto his bed with snacks and pillows and turning the lights off before they'd dive into another movie. Only going to bed when Freddy forced them to.

Because that's what it was. Thats what it still is. Home. All Evan feels right now is home.

They laugh at all the same parts. They cry as well. They cheer. They point out the same things. Nothing has changed.

Sure, ten years is big. But Evan can't think of a better way of spending the anniversary than continuing to do what hes loved to do with Gregory throughout the years. This doesnt mark the end of an era, or a big change. It marks how long hes had the gift of his brother. His family. His real family. The fifteenth mark will, as well. So will the twentieth.

All the tenth mark says is hes had ten years worth of joy and growth. and He'll continue to do just that.

After the third movie, Evan takes a quick look at his phone. The numbers 12:03 look back at him from his lockscreen, a picture of him and Gregory. The date has switched to the 5th.

"You're my brother." Evan says suddenly to Gregory at the beginning of the fourth movie. Gregory pauses in stuffing his face with popcorn to look over at Evan's earnest face. "You know that?"

Gregory chuckles wetly. It seems Evan isn't alone in the sentimentality tonight. "Only since we were preteens."

Gregory pulls him into that same side hug he always does. "You're my family." Gregory tells him sincerely. "You always will be, too. Hell would freeze over before our family would ever say you aren't one of theirs."

Evan chuckles, eyes misty, because he knows its true. He can imagine his family's reactions so vividly. "I know."

They only sink further into the hug after that, the movie continuing on. Theyve long since stopped with the thank yous. Not since they got it through Evan's thick skull that they arent doing him a favor. They just love him.

It's in that moment that Evan realizes that tomorrow is another day. And there are more after that and after that. Theres more milestones to reach, more years to spend with his brother and their family, and he cant wait to experience them.

But right now, he's content continuing a ten year long tradition as a mundane celebration for a non-mundane achievement.

It's not mundane to him at all, anyway. It means the world to him.

Besides, he can't imagine a world where his family doesn't throw a suprise party for him when he and Gregory visit them tomorrow.

ao3 link

#after writing so much about how gregory affects evan in the present i wanted to do something different. #especially since this is the 10th work in the series! #so this fic takes place in the future. in my little universe gregory and evan continue to live together for a very very long time. #i imagine after so long of in their heads adopting evan #and also gregory and evans mutual feelings of being family and eachothers siblings they would just. #not beat around the bush any longer. i think everyone knew in their minds #but when evan hightailed it to the fazbears when he turned 18 they all actually sat down and were like #okay so we agree that evan is ours now. #anyway their lives continue to be good and they have eachother and experience life with one another. #they feel emotional in this fic over it being a decade since they met but there are no hard feelings over their current life. #just reminiscing over their childhoods :) especially since its so special to evan specifically as a turning point in his life #he feels more intensely over it #i wanted to write somethinf different with them and here we are #i make myself emotional over my own incredibly specific au #pandas writes #flashlight duo #flashlight duo modern au #flashlight duo oneshots #gregory and evan #this is classified as the future with them being kids as the present in the universe btw #oneshot #nostalgia #the fazbears #fnaf gregory #evan afton #au

[kunstkombi]

MP100 Fallout AU

I wrote down some headcanons for this AU (& others) in February & well, come April there's suddenly a Fallout TV series? (& there are Magic the Gathering Fallout cards since earlier this year, too??) Well Fallout brainrot is revived, here's long-ass worldbuilding/background ramblings.

Vault Tec & Claw

Claw existed before the Great War as an organization researching psychic abilities; though in this universe powers initially don't nearly reach the levels of MP100 canon

Toichiro & his wife start working with Vault Tec overseas & are assigned Vault 100, that is just being constructed

They are to conduct experiments with FEV-variants on promising psychics to try & enhance their abilities by new means the vaults offer in the future

Mob is born in 2058

Several years later Toichiro starts to "collect" mostly young espers to populate the vault with; of course the plan of direct & experimentation with yet unknown risks is left out

Parents of the kids he's interested in are offered contracts that promise a safe place for them to survive with the downside of being taken away to 'monitor', but the desperation over the worsening state of the world makes it easy to agree

The Kageyamas even beg for them to take both their sons, not only the one with some innate abilities - and succeed

Toichiro's wife leaves him over the increasingly unethical plans for the vault, but to her dismay their own son stays with his father

Vault Occupancy

In 2072 the contracts take effect & Vault 100 is populated and sealed (with mostly kids from JP & USA families)

Toichiro & the Ultimate 5 are in charge and oversee the vault and experiments

For about two years the vault is operated with its young residents living a pretty standard vault life, they have restricted permission to be in contact with their families

As the experiments so far show no effect & the young population is getting harder to control, the decision is made to make them enter cryosleep early & continue with different lines of experimentation while in this state

In 2074 all residents except the six in charge enter cryosleep, including Toichiro's own son

Correspondence with parents of the kids is fabricated from here on

Many of the kids die in the next few years while supplemented with barely tested substances to increase their affinities

In 2077 on the day of the Great War, Toichiro & the Ultimate 5 enter cryosleep themselves, joining their own experiments as subjects now that the fatality rates have reached 0 & brain scans look promising

They set their own systems to awake at a scheduled point in the future

Post-Apocalypse

It goes as planned; the 6 of them wake up & find themselves enhanced with never before seen psychic powers, marking their final experiments a success

Vault 100 is unsealed & Toichiro wakes only Sho from the remaining children, to take him with him

Sho is initially too weak to fight back but doesn't take to it kindly; as soon as he is able he goes back

He wakes Ritsu first, of course

Together they start waking the remaining kids - some of them, including Ritsu, don't seem to see any changes in their abilities, several of them are incredibly disoriented

However, Mob's cryopod malfunctions and won't release him - they could break it, but can't guarantee his survival should they forcibly remove him

They can only try to look for someone to help, so even if Ritsu has a hard time leaving he and Sho start their wasteland journey with that mission, while Teru stays back to watch over the others and Mob

Unfortunately Toichirou comes back in search of Sho and they are forced to flee, leaving Mob unattended

Reigen & Mob

Not too long after everyone's gone, Reigen instead finds the vault - it looks newly opened which could promise a fortune (& he isn't so wrong about that)

Despite, or because, not knowing what he's doing, he ends up accidentally releasing the single kid left

Mob is fine but overwhelmed & immediately starts frantically looking for Ritsu

Reigen's words don't get through to Mob - he gets some reaction when he talks to him in Japanese, but ultimate can just follow while Mob scours the whole vault

Soon he gets a showcase of Mob's new powers & in their strongest form, while Mob reaches 100% despair

In the explosion, most of the vault is destroyed

Reigen is shocked but fascinated and he stays with Mob and calms him

His initial plan to bring the kid somewhere safe asap change with the idea of taking him with him to profit from these powers - Reigen himself is not the strongest & survives mainly on charisma & luck out there

Reigen lies to him about knowing more than he does & possibly being able to help him find his brother

Throughout Mob's traumatic awakening into an entirely unknown world alone Reigen is his only company & guidance, so Mob trusts him quickly - & Reigen gets attached quickly

Reigen continues lying but his own gains aside, he soon genuinely tries to help Mob find Ritsu as well as the truth

Somewhere along on their journey they meet Dimple, an intelligent super mutant & he tags along, initially also out of interest in Mob's powers

#i have not decided yet in which year their awaking is set #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #reigen arataka #arataka reigen #kageyama shigeo #shigeo kageyama #kageyama ritsu #ritsu kageyama #reimob #mobrei #ok this gotta be enough tags #& yes ofc this is reimob there's no universe for me where these two aren't destined for eachother fight me #this is also definitely shorit #probably shoritteru #maybe terumob shared some kisses during the vault years #even more likely shimateru had a thing but I am not yet sure if it might have been a horrible one (sorry Teru I adore you so) #either way I wanna write some vault years hcs down at some point too #how the esper kids relationships evolved & all #and I think it would be interesting for Mob to meet the claw members first before reigen #even with lesser impact because nobody has strong powers yet at that point #and yeah Reigen needs a backstory I couldn't decide on yet. If he was born in the wasteland or in a vault or if he might be from pre-war to #headcanon #mine #my writing

[vaniliens]

I do wanna post about my ocs here a little. Other than reblogs. But i wanna change the whole story and everything so bad firstt

#its all connected and in the same universe yes it makes things easy no this isnt good for me #because on one hand this gives me an excuse to not have to build that many worlds (Easier) #BUT ALSO. CLENCHING MY FISTS. I DONT KNOW. #I havent really started properly writing or plotting anything its literally just vibes and what the ending of it & the middles kinda like #I have all the important stuff laid out but everything else ? 🥰🥰 I DUNNO #its still missing so many things like okayy the worlds detailed i know what im gonna do next but witjout the filler this is all kinda. #you know #it doesnt have any fat in it #nillas #also like i said I wanna redesign all of them so bad #I need to practice anatomy and making fat people more it gets on my nerves whenever i try to draw someone whos supposed to be fat #but i end up with a guy who has slightly thicker limbs a belly and a double chin!!! i need to get good!!!!!! #I get that these people are color coded too and all but i really need to tone it down a little #some of the important stuff thats gonna happen might not make it because it doesnt really fit the theme #or i prolly wouldn't know where to put it once I start on it #whatever point is I need a complete re-do or at least review everything first and pick and discard stuff #my ocs #whats funny though is that its really. Really. obvious that ive been inspired by the stuff i ramble about constantly. #but i wonder if anyone would be able to pick it up or not since its niche stuff

[amee-racle-ofmyown]

the heist!mark brainrot is consuming me…, just imagine mark n the viewer meeting for the first time as little kids to shoplift candy or smth together ╥﹏╥

the (brain)rot consumes!! I can relate

my dear anon... LISTEN. I am a big advocate for childhood friends captaineer, it's one of my favourite headcanons, but a childhood friends AU for the heist partners? that's something I hadn't considered until now. and it's adorable. I had to write something for it asap because I was INSPIRED. I hope you enjoy💖 thanks for sparking the idea!

Heist!Mark x reader (not explicitly romantic at all it's more about the friendship in this one) | Words: 1,317

You are in the kitchen of your shared home base, unloading the groceries your heist partner has just bought, when you pick up a bag of sour candies, smiling quietly to yourself. He's always been a fan of them.

Turning the packet in your hands, an old memory drifts to the surface of your mind:

You don't remember exactly how long ago it was, but you couldn't have been much older than maybe ten.

Your father was busy working, and had reluctantly sent you to the store with a small list after you insisted you could handle it on your own.

You slipped the folded piece of paper out of your school bag and scanned the list of items. At the bottom was a note that read, ‘Remember to stay hydrated, kiddo! :)’

You walked around the supermarket collecting the few things on your list and placed them in your trolley. On your way to the checkout, you passed through the candy aisle and slowed to eye the products on display.

‘Aren't you going to get anything?’

Your head perked up, shocked at the sudden voice addressing you.

There was a boy next to you with dark hair, looking at you inquisitively. He seemed to be about your age. He might have even been slightly shorter than you.

You must have been standing here for longer than you realised if it had prompted him to ask you about it.

You shook your head.

‘Why not?’

‘Oh, um. My dad only gave me enough money for what we need,’ you said timidly, showing him the list.

‘Ohh, that's too bad.’ Then, a small yet undeniably mischievous smile appeared on his face. He glanced discreetly up and down the aisle. ‘You know you can just — ’ and he took one of the small packets of candy off the shelf and slipped it swiftly into his pocket.

Your eyes went wide, stunned. Both from the fact that he was suggesting you steal, and at the speed and subtly with which he'd enacted the crime, as if he'd done it dozens of times before, if not more.

‘What are you doing?’ you spoke in a harsh whisper.

‘It's no big deal,’ he said in a lower voice than before, but one that still felt entirely too loud. He slipped another bag into his pocket.

You did not want to associate with this boy any longer.

You pushed your trolley away and towards the checkout, handing your items to the cashier.

You were unhappy to find the boy waiting for you when you exited the store, shopping bag in your hand.

‘What do you want?’ you asked, a little standoffishly, frowning at him.

‘There's no need to be rude,’ he said with a small pout. ‘Y'know, I think I might have seen you at school a few times.’

To your dismay, he followed along as you started walking home. When you pressed him, he simply said, ‘Hey, I'm not following you! I live down this way too, I promise!’

As the two of you walked, he chatted annoyingly by your side. What was more annoying was that you found you didn't mind his presence. You were a quiet kid and you didn't have many friends. Having someone to walk home with you was kind of a nice change of pace.

Just as you thought this, though, you immediately chided yourself mentally. You and him were not friends. You weren't going to be friends. This boy was a criminal and he wasn't even sorry about it.

You frowned in thought.

Oh no, what if he got caught? What if you went to juvenile jail for being an accomplice to theft? What would Dad say? What would Mom say? What if—’

‘Hey, are you listening to me? You haven't responded to anything I'm saying.’

You simply sighed as he pulled you out of your thoughts.

‘Are you still mad about the candy? I told you it's not a big deal.’

You stopped as you realised you were approaching your front door. The journey seemed to have gone a little faster than usual.

‘Really?’ you finally replied in an exasperated tone. ‘That was no big deal for you? That was stealing. Stealing is wrong.’ You couldn't believe you had to spell it out to him.

‘They won't notice a couple tiny bags of candy are gone. My mom says big companies that own supermarkets are greedy. They make loads of money anyway and don't pay enough taxes.’

‘Does your mom know you're a thief?’

‘W- well, no, but-’

‘That’s what I thought.’

He looked a little disheartened.

‘Please don't tell anyone. I'm sorry if I upset you,’ he said quietly, looking down.

You hadn't really expected an apology from someone like him. You sighed again.

‘I won't tell, but don't expect me to just go along with it. And don't act like we're best buds all of a sudden. We don't know each other. You don't even know my name!’

‘Well, what's your name?’

You gave him a slightly surprised look before telling him your name, albeit hesitantly.

‘Look, I have to get going now…’

You fumbled with the shopping bag as you reached into your coat pocket, feeling for the house key, when you suddenly felt something that wasn't there before. It made a crinkling sound beneath your touch.

‘You didn't.’ You pulled the candy out of your pocket. ‘When did you—?’

The boy grinned at you.

‘I thought you could have one of mine.’

‘I don't want your stolen candy!’

‘Judging by how you looked at it earlier, I think you do. And besides, stolen treats taste better!’ he called out, already walking away.

‘Wh- SHH!’ You hoped none of your neighbours had heard.

‘I'm Mark by the way! See ya, buddy!’

You stood outside the front door, dumbfounded.

Finally you let yourself in. Your dad wouldn't be home yet for a while.

You put the shopping away and sat down at your kitchen table, staring at the stolen goods in front of you.

You could try to put it back but… that would be more suspicious.

You figured, the deed had been done. There was nothing you could do now, so you may as well make the most of it.

You tore the edge of the packet and popped one of the candies in your mouth, savouring the sweet and sour combination on your tongue.

Maybe Mark was right. It did taste extra good. But maybe it was just because you'd been craving it.

What a weird kid.

‘Stealing is wrong, huh…?’ you mumble under your breath. You look down at the candy in your hands. It's not the same brand as the one from back then, but you imagine it tastes more or less the same, from what you remember.

Present day Mark is the one to pull you out of your musings.

‘Hey, what's with that face you're making? I know that look, buddy. Are you contemplating your life choices??’

You chuckle softly.

‘Just… got reminded of something. I suppose I got lost in nostalgia for a moment.’

‘Oh yeah? Penny for your thoughts?’

You turn and smile at him.

‘This just made me think of an annoying little boy stealing candy from a supermarket. And his reluctant acquaintance who ended up getting dragged into his antics for the foreseeable future.’

It takes a second for it to click.

‘Ohhhhh.’ You watch as realisation turns to him smiling fondly at the memories, which turns to him snapping his attention to you with a fake-offended look.

You laugh at his expression.

‘Wait, hey! Annoying?!’

‘Mhm.’

‘Excuse you, I was a wonderful, sweet and positively charming child.’

Your laughter rings out in the kitchen, full of mirth, and he shakes his head at you with a familiar lopsided grin, and you are so grateful for the cheeky little boy who approached you that day.

#feels kinda weird calling it candy instead of sweets. but I did it bc they presumably live in america #I'm working on at least two other fics rn but I had to stop everything to write this #I finally submitted a uni thing I've been doing for a while so I felt like I deserved a break #and I sat down and wrote majority of this in one sitting lmao #lmao it ended up being my longest fic to date??? WHAT THE HECK?! #BTW AGAIN. NOT ENCOURAGING STEALING THAT'S BAD DON'T DO IT #also yes y/n's dad is the one the only stan the water man #I hc stan to have been the captain's actual dad so I just went 'wth why not in this universe too?' #I really enjoyed this one #thank you again anon #also. I looked up pictures of young markiplier out of curiosity and to get into the headspace Ig/get a mental image for this #and guys. I highly encourage you to do the same. #HE WAS SUCH A LITTLE GUY🥺 #and he looked as cheeky and mischievous as he often does now lolol #that also inspired parts of this haha #I tried to write a young heist!mark in a way that I think? would make sense for him #bit of a kleptomaniac maybe lol #and possibly more seemingly extroverted than I wanted but I had to kick off the interaction somehow #amee writes #a heist with markiplier #ahwm #partners in crime #heist mark x y/n #heist mark x reader #heist mark #markiplier egos #markiplier cu #asks #anonymous #requests

[obstinatecondolement]

My sister was saying "You should write that idea for a novel about [REDACTED] that you had a while ago for NaNo. I think that could be really fun" and I was like oh yeah! I remember we got a kick out of that one. And then, after a pause, had be like... could you remind me what the plot was again? Because litearlly all I could remember was that it had been funny At The Time and involved [REDACTED].

It was like when my mum reads a book and strongly recommends it to me the day after she finishes it, but can't remember any of the characters names or what happened, but it was definitely very good and I should read it so we can talk about it!

Except this was a story I made up myself and devoted not an insignificant amount of thought to, and then never committed any of what I came up with to the page because it was still early stages and I would "remember" what my initial ideas were 🙄

#fortunately my sister did remember enough that it kickstarted my brain and I remembered #but jesus christ... #how many perfectly good ideas have I squandered because I didn't think I would forget about them? #it's one thing not ever writing stuff I had ideas for because of y'know *gestures towards my general inability to follow through on things* #but actually forgetting ideas entirely feels much worse #I miss having an eidetic memory :( #but also I kind of wish I'd never had it because I never developed the habit of writing things down to remember them #until WELL into adulthood #because I'd ever needed to for most of my life #I just remembered every single word I had ever read or heard and almost every idea I'd given more than passing thought to in perfect detail #as a child I'd get so angry about people getting single words of quotations wrong or misremembering minute details of conversations we'd ha #because I *did not understand* that they weren't just being sloppy and inexact #and that they really couldn't remember things the same way I could #I really did not understand that other people experienced the world differently to me at that age #when they contradicted what I believed to be universal truths I thought they were trying to upset me or make me feel bad about myself #like when my friend agreed with my parents that apple juice was nicer than orange juice (when no one could *really* believe that) #I fully felt that as a betrayal #and thought she was implicitly co-signing my parents to hurt me #and that the subtext of the criticism was that I was evil and self indulgent for not resisting the wicked temptations of orange juice #and never even trying to be virtuous and subject myself to apple juice #which was obviously not as nice but was the more moral and 'healthy' (which was the same things as moral) choice #oh christ this has gotten away from me... #I hate being triggered by dumb bullshit that brings me back to weird esoteric traumas from my youth #can I please stop being triggered by such embarrassingly trivial bullshit for five minutes???

[sophieswundergarten]

People talk about SQ going on a villain arc, but personally I've always thought he'd be more likely to just shut himself away for a while

He'd fall off the map, become a recluse not because he's trying to hide from his father, or his uncle for that matter, but because he's so confused and mixed up and lost he isn't thinking clearly

He finds an empty old house, one in a little town somewhere in the middle of nowhere, that he can live in. It's in much worse condition than Mr. Benedict's, and he gets to stay because he does farm chores for the nearby people who own the property

A quiet town. No one questions why this boy appeared, and as he keeps to himself no one bothers him

He comes into the general store sometimes, or maybe the hardware store. Buying basic necessities, repair materials, and asking sometimes strange questions with obvious answers in an embarrassed way

Every now and again, he stops by the pet store. Buying a small bird or two and an obscene amount of birdseed

He becomes known as a lonely artist, a mysterious figure the adults ignore for the most part and the children whisper about. He doesn't pay either reaction any mind

SQ's house is full of art

Colour splashed across the floor, tiny vines and butterflies covering the shutters, vibrant shades all over the fan blades. He etches painstakingly accurate bird footprints on every windowsill, sketches large diagrams of feathers and bird wings across most of the walls, because, who's there to tell him no?

He tries to teach himself to whittle, and there are many mishapen lumps of woods that vaguely resemble birds lined up on the back porch. (He knows they're terrible, but he can't bring himself to throw them away. He feels too guilty, after all, he's the one who brought them into existence. If he won't love them, who will?)

And he has a lot of birds. Some were wild ones he befriended, leaving food and nesting material out until they felt comfortable enough to rest in the rafters, flying in and out of the near-always open windows. Some were bird he saw, either sitting in a cage when they had no business to be, or wandering the park looking half frightened and confused. Birds that people had captured from their natural homes and probably smuggled, hoping to pass them off in a small enough town where no one would notice. Some were birds that had been "released" by their previous owners; left to wander an environment that was not their own and to fend for themselves when they'd been raised domesticated

It's these last few he feels for the most. It's not fair, he thinks. There's no one to take care of them, and it isn't their fault they were forced into a situation like this. At some point, someone had hurt them. Had taken advantage of their innocent nature, and it left some scarred.l

Some physically, like the ones who needed their wings splinted, or had lasting limps, or sometimes were even half blind. And sometimes mentally, like those that still shrank back from his touch after months of rehabilitation, or had missing patches of feathers, or would hiss instead of sing

And so he became known as sort of a wild artist. Someone who seemed to know everything about art and birds and the forest, but occasionally could be seen asking how microwaves worked or whether he would have to pay for checking books out of the small local library (He always returned them in perfect condition)

And, eventually, after he's had some time to think, he calls his uncle. He isn't sure how to contact his dad, but he isn't really surprised to hear the two are living together again. They're twins, after all

And so he tells them where he is, tells them that he wants to talk, wants to understand. And to his surprise, they come to him. And they offer apologies, and answers both

While the kids marvel at the birds and his art and the small collection of poetry and naturalist books he's been slowly building up as he shows them around, the adults confer on what it best to do

And he thinks that, if it's offered, he'd like to go back with them. But he isn't sure. And he's still caught off guard when they ask

#I don't know #Rambly stuff that would definitely not be legal but it's MBS Universe and I am having a really good time imagining the legal systems #Sometimes they're super strict #And sometimes I just pretend they don't exist #But really #I don't think SQ would get angry #And I'm not saying you guys who give him a villain arc are bad!!!! #(Connie you KNOW I love your AU) #But personally #I've kind of thought he'd be the kind of person to just quietly shut down and process #Whether that's on his own or with Mr. Benedict #And I think the big thing would be teaching him not to internalize all of that as his fault somehow #Maybe that's me projecting #Also I was thinking about Big Fish and Benny and Joon and IQ and those kinds of movies while writing this out #Specifically about the type of house I was imagining I guess #Except it backs up to a huge forest #(They're all good movies by the way I think they're very interesting) #But #Yeah #Enjoy more garbage from my brain #the mysterious benedict society #mbs #sq pedalian

[weekend-conspiracy-theorist]

A needlessly self-indulgent Tim and Steph role swap AU. Sort of.

"There's definitely something hinky going on here," Barbara told Jason. She was down in the cave for the night rather than across town in her Clocktower; Alfred had requested her presence for dinner earlier that night. He'd requested Jason's, too, and having Barb around to sweeten the pot had almost tempted him. There had been genuine regret in his voice when he declined.

Her red hair wasn't bright under the lights near the Batcomputer, not exactly, but it was vibrant, and the screens flashed over her glasses in an intimidating show of blankness. What the rest of them needed kevlar and voice modulators to achieve, Oracle needed only sheer presence. Jason fucking loved her.

"Told you," he grunted. His helmet was tucked under his arm, domino already tossed aside for the night. He stepped up next to her, dropping a hand to squeeze her shoulder briefly, and he could feel the smug satisfaction rolling off of her as she deliberately didn't glance over towards Bruce, who was hunched over grappling gun repairs at the main table and trying very hard to pretend he wasn't jealous of their easy comaradarie.

Up on the screen in front of them were two pictures--the young, pale face of the private-investigator-in-training who'd been bugging the shit out of the Red Hood for the last few nights, hounding him about help on a case, and the neutrally attractive, mid-fifties PI who was supposedly responsible for the kid. Newspaper clippings, police files, birth certificates, and a copy of both the PI's investigator's license and the intern's training contract surrounded the pictures.

"The kid's barely old enough to be out of high school," Jason said, darkly. "I dunno what the fuck this guy is thinking letting him run around unsupervised."

Unsupervised, and with a fucking attitude. The kid clearly didn't have a very high opinion of the Red Hood, despite his uncompromising assertions that whatever he was working on was going to require his assistance, and still, somehow, he couldn't seem to catch the hint that Jason wasn't interested.

(Actually, that wasn't quite true. Jason knew the kid had caught the hint. He just didn't seem inclined to let the hint stop him, and he was both annoyingly sneaky and frighteningly good at guessing where Jason was going to pop up each night. It was fucking annoying.)

Barbara hummed neutrally, rather pointedly not saying anything about the number of teenagers they'd had running solo around the Gotham underworld over the years, and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That's just the tip of the iceberg," she informed him, and she sounded much more interested now than she had when Jason had initially asked her to dig up information on the PI firm.

She flicked quickly through several police reports, her green eyes sharp as she studied them. "First of all, the kid seems to be pretty much the only one doing any real leg work for Red Bird Investigators. Draper's the one who handles digital communications with the police, and he's handled the press whenever their cases get enough attention to require it, but every time Red Bird shows up in an actual police report, it always seems to be Drake that they've run into."

Barbara paused rather than compete with the roar of a motorcycle as Batgirl came racing into the cave after her patrol, and she dropped a hand to the wheel of her chair so she could turn slightly, fixing a critical eye on her protegé.

Stephanie was rolling her eyes even as she pushed back the cowl. "Not a scratch on me," she yelled, hand cupped around her mouth, and flatly ignored the disapproving look that Bruce shot her. She'd been even more of an independent operator than either of the Robins that had proceeded her, and Jason knew it rankled for Bruce that she submitted so much more willingly to Barb's authority than his own.

"Just some nasty bruises then," Barbara said sardonically, voice pitched only a little louder than normal. The cave was quiet enough that that was all it took; Stephanie definitely heard her, but all she did was grin. It involved a lot of teeth.

Jason liked Stephanie, a lot. It was easier with her than it was with Dick or Bruce or even Barb, without any baggage between them from his previous life--despite the fact that there was plenty of baggage from this one. Luckily, Stephanie seemed to have decided against holding a grudge over his murder attempt at about the same moment as she'd fought through broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder to bash his face in with one of the steel chairs in the Titans' dining room.

They'd both laid there panting for a moment, Jason's vision swimming with the nastiest concussion he'd ever received, and called something of a truce. It was the last time he'd made the mistake of thinking Stephanie Brown was any less of a threat just because she'd lost a grip on her bo staff.

Jason shot her a lazy, two-fingered wave, and Stephanie fluttered her fingers back as she headed for the lockers. She was wasting no time, halfway to the door and already shedding her armor to reveal a sweat-soaked white tank top and a Green Arrow sports bra.

Bruce looked even more sour than he had a minute ago. Stephanie's reflection in the locker room door, just before she yanked it open, was bright with mischief.

Jason shook his head, trying not to look as amused as he felt, and turned back to the screen. "Okay, so Draper's... what? Riding his intern's coattails? Seems like a risky gamble to put a private investigation firm in the hands of a twelve year old."

"Drake's twenty," Barbara informed him.

"No fucking way," Jason said, flatly. Twelve was a joke, obviously, but--

"His identity, I can confirm," Barbara said, a delicate stress on the first word, and Jason's attention sharpened. So did Bruce's, over in Jason's periphery. Jason could tell by the sudden tension in his shoulders, even if his hands didn't falter as they fiddled with the retraction mechanism of the grappling gun.

"Mind your own business, old man," Jason shot over his shoulder, and Bruce just grunted.

Barbara turned fully back to the Batcomputer, and her long fingers flew across the keyboard as she pulled up a bunch of seemingly unimportant bits of paperwork. "Whoever put Draper's identity together did a good job. They covered their bases--school records, hospital records, employment records, even a social media presence, and all of it pretty convincingly done."

"Unless you're Oracle," Jason said.

Barb's lips twitched. "Unless you're me," she agreed. "Draper's identity would pass muster for most every legal entity that went poking around, but there's some small evidence of it all being faked."

"Is Red Bird some kind of front?" Jason asked, frowning. His eyes flicked over all of the records Barbara had pulled up, more for the sake of having something to do as his mind churned than out of the expectation of spotting something in just a few seconds that Barbara hadn't already seen. "Money laundering, maybe a blackmail operation?"

"I'm not sure yet," Barbara admitted. "Their hourly rates as a firm are shockingly low; it's pulling a lot of attention from your end of the city, attracting the kinds of clients who can't usually afford to hire a private investigator, and they seem to be doing good work. Tracking down missing kids, recovering stolen items, turning evidence over to the cops-- notably only to reputable ones-- when they turn up anything especially nasty or organized." She rolled her eyes. "Not to mention catching plenty of cheating husbands. But that can pretty much all be attributed to Drake; whatever else his boss may be caught up in, I'm confident he's not aware of it.

"I haven't done a deep dive yet. Right now," Barb said, as Batgirl reemerged from the locker room in a pair of sweats, chugging a bottle of water as she took the stairs two at a time up to the platform where Jason and Barbara were talking, "all I can tell you with certainty is that Alvin Draper isn't who he says he is."

Stephanie choked on her water, the bottle crashing to the floor as she spluttered and pounded on her own chest. "Did you just say Alvin Draper?" she managed to grind out, those dark blue eyes of hers wide with surprise, and Jason snapped around to look at her.

So did Barbara and Bruce.

"You know him?" Jason asked sharply.

Stephanie was staring up at the screen, her eyes darting over the information Barbara had pulled up, and then she made a strangled noise. For a second, Jason thought she was choking again--

Except then she was laughing so hard that she had to drop to a crouch, one hand on the railing to keep herself from tipping over completely when her foot slipped in the puddle of water still leaking from her bottle.

"Oh my god," she wheezed. "This is--Oh my god. I can't believe him--"

"Stephanie, if you wouldn't mind sharing the joke, please," Barbara said, a warning note in her voice, and Stephanie hiccuped, wiping tears off of her face.

"Yeah," she managed after a moment, pulling herself to her feet and breaking off in another choked off laugh. "Yeah, you could say I'm a little familiar with--yeah." She snickered, swiping at her cheeks again. "Uh, so, Tim Drake's the annoying creep who's been bothering you the last couple of nights, huh?" she asked Jason. Her voice sounded like Christmas, Hanukkah, and her birthday had all come at once.

"You know Drake, too?" Barbara asked. Her expression was flinty. "You never mentioned anything about working with any PIs."

Stephanie subsumed another giggling fit, talking more to herself than to them. "I should've fucking--oh my god, I should've known it was him as soon as Jason said he was a bit of a stalker." She took a deep breath, managing to get her voice more or less back to normal, and gestured dismissively at Babs. "I've mentioned him, just not by name. A lot falls under the category of 'trusted contacts.'" She wiped her eyes again, calming down even further. "Red Bird isn't some kind of criminal front," she promised. "And Alvin Draper is just-- well, okay, Tim is--"

She seemed suddenly cagey, her chin turning as if to glance over her shoulder at Bruce before she aborted the motion. "Okay," she said, and it was that casual, placating tone of voice that all of the Robins had perfected at one time or another. The "Really, Batsy, it's not that big of a deal" voice. Jason had never actually heard her use it before--by the time he'd reentered the scene, Stephanie wasn't the least bit shy about flaunting her disregard for Bruce's opinions.

"Okay, if I hadn't been caught so off guard I totally would not have handled this conversation this way," Stephanie told Barbara. "If I'm going to be honest, I did not intend to ever have this conversation. Tim would have given me away at my theoretical future wedding without a single one of you having any idea how we even knew each other. He'd probably have done it wearing a stupid wig and calling himself Maurice."

Barbara raised an eyebrow. Bruce was no longer pretending to be focused on anything else, a frown line etched firmly across his forehead.

Jason had no idea where this was going.

"Absolutely no chance you can just take my word for it and drop your suspicions about Red Bird?" Stephanie asked hopefully.

"Not in the fucking slightest," Jason told her.

Stephanie pressed her palms together and leaned her fingers against her lips for a moment, thinking, and then she dropped them, still far too casual to actually be casual. "I should set the stage for a second, because none of what I'm about to say is going to make sense if I just dive into it," she admitted, hands on her hips. "Jason, you know what what everyone-- what Bruce, specifically-- says about my reputation as Robin, right?"

"Ferocious," Jason said immediately. "Clever. Scrappy. Compassionate."

A smile twitched at the corners of Stephanie's eyes, but she told him, dryly, "Actually, the word I was thinking of was 'insubordinate.'"

Barbara rubbed at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, suddenly looking exhausted. Bruce, in the background, looked vaguely like he wanted to argue, but didn't actually have much of an argument to make.

"I mean, I've always been the master of back talk to the B-man," Stephanie said, and her expression-- her tone-- was somewhere between pride and guilt. "And I frequently ignored any and all instructions to keep my nose out of certain cases, unless I was given really, really thorough and convincing reasons why I should leave them alone. So yeah, my time as Robin was characterized by a lot of flaunting the rules."

She took a breath. "But the thing is that even with all of that," she said delicately, "Bruce does not actually know even a third of what I got up to as Robin."

Bruce finally spoke up. "I know more than you think I do," he said, with just a hint of amusement in his tone. "You found a lot of counsel in Barbara, thinking it was behind my back. She handled plenty of mishaps for you, but she certainly didn't keep as many of your secrets as you might have hoped. I didn't mind, since you were confiding in someone."

"Sorry, kid," Barb said.

"Yeah," Stephanie said impatiently, "I know Babs was ratting on me. I knew it then, too. Which is why I leaned on the fact that you all saw me as just a little bit silly when it came to boys, and I fed Oracle a number of thrillingly believable lies about sneaking around on patrol to make out with Boyfriend, without ever mentioning that Boyfriend was also a detective savant with a corkboard conspiracy map of the city and a freakazoid obsession with stalking mobsters and crime lords with his insanely expensive long distance night vision camera."

Jason blinked.

Bruce said, "What."

Stephanie shrugged. "I mean, we did also do a lot of making out, it was just usually on top of a rooftop across the street from some dudes whose noses I was about to break. Which, before you say anything about endangering civilians, I did all the muscle work; I never let Boyfriend anywhere near the fighting, even though he's been taking a bunch of martial arts lessons since middle school.

"And," she added sharply, cutting off Bruce's response, "before you say anything about endangering myself, I'd like you to remember that it's only been two weeks since the Ex-Robins Union collectively negotiated for amnesty regarding cases that occured during our days in the pixie boots, and if you break the terms of the contract in under a month then the Extreme Penalty Subclause is activated and Dick, Jay, and I get to decide on our response. Suggestions have included an official Titans Gotham team and the Outlaws getting open season on the Joker."

Stephanie and Jason high-fived as Bruce's mouth slowly shut.

"I told you that signing that contract without reading it was a bad idea," Barbara sighed. "Dick was being way too nonchalant about the whole thing."

Stephanie turned back to Jason and Barbara and waved a hand at the Batcomputer. "This is relevant because Tim Drake is Boyfriend, if this room full of detectives hadn't already made that leap," she told them. "Alvin Draper's one of his favorite aliases. He did not tell me about this because he knows how much fun I am going to make of him, but I know how that batshit little brain of his works, and that guy--" She jerked her chin at the alleged picture of Alvin Draper-- "is definitely an actor Boyfriend hired to pretend to be his boss. Hacking the New Jersey PI database and issuing himself a license is easy enough, but convincing anyone he's actually old enough to be in possession of it is literally impossible with that baby face of his." Stephanie mimed squinching his cheeks together.

"Which, for the record, fucking classic Boyfriend move, right here," she added, grinning. "He once hired a fake uncle to be his legal guardian when his parents died and he was too young for the judge to consider emancipating him."

Jason had no idea what was going on in Bruce or Barb's brains because they both appeared to be blue screening a bit, but all he could think was that it was official: Stephanie was hands down Jason's favorite Bat.

"You hid a whole ass vigilante from Batman for like six years," he said wonderingly.

Stephanie snorted. "Not a vigilante," she corrected dryly. "Boyfriend has no interest in dressing up in tights or kicking people's teeth in; he just likes detective work and hates cops. He mostly just does a lot of sitting on rooftops taking surveillance photos." She obviously couldn't resist adding, smugly, "But yeah, more or less. Cass couldn't even kiss Superboy without Bruce knowing about it, meanwhile I practically had Boyfriend hidden under my cape on every solo stakeout for a year straight, and no one ever noticed." She tapped a finger on the side of her nose, raising her eyebrows. "No small part of why I've refused to ever live in the Manor or the Clocktower."

"This is the first and only time I will ever acknowledge that the people who call you the greatest Robin have even a single leg to stand on," Jason told her.

She gave him a nod, lips twitching.

"That's probably why Boyfriend's being such a little bitch about working with you, by the way." Stephanie leaned back against the railing and crossed her arms over her chest. Her scars stood out, stark, over the bulge of her biceps. "You used to be his favorite Robin, but then you came back from the dead and tried to kill his ex. He took it pretty personal." She made scare quotes, rolling her eyes and pitching her voice up an octave mockingly. "'It's my responsibility to hold a grudge since you have no intentions of doing it yourself, Stephanie.'"

She shook her head, her tone suddenly serious as she added, "I couldn't begin to guess his motivations in trying to drag you of all people into one of his cases, but it's gotta be something important. I'd hear him out next time he approaches you."

"You trust him? Trust his judgement?" Jason knew she did, she'd pretty much just admitted that Drake was aware of her identity, but it still seemed prudent to ask.

"As implicitly as I trust Cass," Stephanie told him immediately.

High praise, Jason knew, but he could tell it wasn't all she had to say on the matter.

Stephanie was very still for a moment, her gaze flicking to meet Bruce's in the reflection of the metallic plating at the edge of the Batcomputer, and then she met Jason's once more. Her voice was quiet but steady as she told him, "You weren't here for it, but I know you know the gist of what happened during War Games, and that I've always been vague about how I got away from Black Mask. Nobody ever pushed because they thought it was just the trauma fogging my memory, and yeah, that's part of it, but keeping Boyfriend safe from the fallout was the other part. I didn't somehow manage to break myself out after Mask left me for dead; Tim tracked me down. He got me to Leslie."

Barbara sucked in a breath, sharp, through her nose. A muscle ticked in Stephanie's jaw. And Jason had never before seen that expression on Bruce's face when the subject of conversation had nothing to do with an explosion in Ethiopia.

Jason whistled, low and slow.

"So, yeah," Stephanie managed, a little stiff. "I trust him. He's an obsessive, scheming little weirdo as I'm sure you noticed, Jay, but it's all part of the charm. He's a brilliant detective, and he cares so much about everything. We've always make a good team; he's good at seeing the whole picture, I'm good at seeing the people in it." She grinned, wicked. "Plus, he taught me how to skateboard."

Barbara snorted at that, then immediately looked annoyed at herself, but Stephanie was already fist-pumping.

"I'm not gonna lie, despite my years long efforts to keep all of this a secret, I'm excited to finally talk about Boyfriend as something other than the abstract concept of my best friend who none of you except Cass were completely certain existed," she said cheerfully.

"Cassandra knew about this?" Bruce asked.

Jason was pretty certain that the threat of invoking the ERU contract was the only reason the Bat was managing to stay so calm. Collective bargaining worked, people.

"I have never successfully kept a secret from Cass in my life," Stephanie said, ruefully. "I'm fucked when she takes over Batman."

"And everyday of interacting with you pushes Bruce closer to that retirement," Barbara told her dryly. "I'm still processing this, Stephanie, so I'm not going to get on your case tonight, but you know that your union will not protect you from me. We will be having a conversation about what other secrets you've been keeping."

"Considering that your vigilante career began and ended entirely outside of--well, anyone's supervision, not sure you have a leg here, Barb," Jason pointed out.

"There's a reason I'm your protegé now," Stephanie said cheerfully, as her voice cracked on a yawn. "Anyway, I need to scoot. I can text you Tim's number if you want it, Jay."

"Yeah," Jason sighed. "Sure. I guess I'm probably never getting rid of him if even your annoying personality hasn't managed to drive him off sometime in the last six years."

Stephanie flipped him off, rolling her eyes, but she was laughing under breath as she leaned down to pick up her water bottle. "Oh," she said, far too casual once more, as she found some papertowels to use to dry up the puddle. "There is one more thing I should probably tell you guys about Tim."

"He's a vampire," Jason guessed, just as casual. He kept her in his periphery, sensing immediately that this was something that the Ex-Robins Union contract was not going to cover.

"Nope." She bundled up the dripping paper towels and walked over to toss them in the trash. The movement took her closer to the stairs up to the Manor.

Neither Bruce nor Babs had apparently gotten any better at recognizing the signs of a shifty Robin than they had been before the revelations of the last ten minutes, so it's up to Jason to abruptly dart between her and the stairs, cutting off her escape route.

"What do we need to know about Tim, Replacement?" he asked, pleasantly, as he loomed over her. Batgirl was a bad ass, undoubtedly, but Jason had three inches and at least fifty pounds of muscle on her. Plus, he was still in his body armor.

"Ah," Stephanie said, clapping her hands together, and Bruce finally seemed to clue in to the fact that he was really not going to like the next words that came out of her mouth.

"What did you do?" he asked flatly.

"I did not do anything," Stephanie fired back immediately. "It was Dick, actually, and the thing he did was a quadruple somersault that only three people in the world can do, or whatever. Notably," she said, thumb and forefinger pinched together as she took a step forward, away from Jason and away from the stairs, "Dick Grayson, of the Flying Graysons, can do that somersault. And, my, what did a nine-year-old Timothy Jackson Drake see on the news one morning, except Robin the Boy Wonder doing that exact same somersault."

"You're fucking kidding," Barbara said.

"Yeah," Steph said. "Tim knows the secret identities of literally every single vigilante in Gotham, even the ones not connected to us. It's a hobby of his."

And then she pivoted, the space she'd gained from that step forward giving her enough room to dive under Jason's arm and come up sprinting as she took the stairs three at a time.

now continued

#tim drake #stephanie brown #I wrote this #I think that was my tag? whatever #this is pretty much just wildly self-indulgent musings about what it might look like #if Steph became Robin III and Tim therefore had no motivation to join the batfamily #and I thought this would be the funniest way to explain it #also ft. the truly hilarious concept of an ex-robins union #also war games definitely didn't go down exactly as it did in the comics but I'm i no mood to hash out details #I would be down to write more in this universe but also I have no interest in writing casefic so I will probably never touch it again #I just had this scene in my head and needed to get it out

[ectonurites]

I don't have fully formed thoughts on the matter but my brain has just been rotating these two images around next to each other for days. interpret that as you will

(Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, published December 1985/cover date March 1986)

(Stranger Things S4E9, takes place in March 1986)

#something something the anti-matter universe=the upside down. #im not suuuuper up to date on/aware of the numerous -gates and theories people have about the show BUT #ive def seen talk abt alternate timelines/universes and well. tht could line up with the positive matter multiverse #things from one earth bleeding into another as the earths start to overlap... #its also the fact that this comic would still be on shelves at the time of S4. it was a very current thing. tht timing stands out to me #our characters are nerds who talk abt comics in the actual show more than once! Crisis on Infinite Earths was a big deal! #it is very likely at least *some* of them read this. and i'd find it hard to believe showrunners are unaware of it #If you're researching 'comics stuff from the 80's' which. when writing nerds in the 80s feels likely... COIE would ABSOLUTELY come up #+ the multiple references to the idea of a 'superhero' this season + specifically Superman & Supergirl—both relevant to this event... #idk. idk where im going with this but i guess my tldr is i would NOT be surprised if a character namedropped this event in s5 #stranger things #grandpa max is god? i go to church now

[its--ali]

Hm. HM.

#me at totk after finishing the regional phenomena and bonus dungeon bullshit #specifically the riju and mineru bits #idk man IDK call me. a stickler for tradition #but the usurption of spirit sage #creation of lightning sage #and outright erasure of shadow sage #does not. quite. sit right with me #not only bc now i have to reconcile even more crap with my series rewrite #but also bc like. the gerudo have always been associated with spirit for me #and tbqh i was 100% ready to write off lightning abilities as a power they could have #i had ideas on how to work it anyways #but also just the blatant sheikah disrespect too im. hh. #categorically one of the most important tribes/cultures in the zelda universe #historically associated with the shadow sage and the colour PURPLE (COUGH). #and yet nah fam just a tiny piece for impa in this one quest to kickstart your bullshit #and some minor contribution from paya thats just. kinda there #LIKE. i could have even forgiven it if like mineru was the sage of s h a d o w instead of spirit bc i already thought of a way to make that #work with her abilities and shit #and then it could have led to her passing the torch (or stone if u will) down to paya to take her place and help link and co #AND IT WOULD MAKE FUCKING SENSE TOO BC OF HOW/WHEN/WHAT PAYA CONTRIBUTES IN THE ONE QUEST #could explore that and go back to the one theory/idea some ppl had before release that the zonai were a third offshoot tribe of the sheikah #the tech similarities and shit would make more sense then too #as well as certain shrine locales in botw being in zonai places #im just. im salty i guess lmao #just some more random bullshit for me to work out in my writing ig #i might. try to work in the inclusion of sage of lightning separate from sage of spirit #like i have with forest/wind and water/earth #we'll see idk #totk spoilers #it idk ill be as vague as possible i spose

[aquapede]

that tweet from crowsx3 saying tsp was in the same universe as scp has made me so very insane since i read it. literally so real though almost all of the stanley parable could be seamlessly put in the scp database. and i intend to do what others are too cowardly to and make fake articles for it

#talk tag #mimicking the database's grammar is tricky but rewarding to get right #at first i thought stanley would be considered safe but then i realized theres no way in hell he would be ok with containment #if he got out of the office to even be in scp facility presence he sure as hell would do his best to break out of there too #the narrator. im waffling very hard between keter and euclid #it feels odd to put him in keter bc he is so silly and goofy but at the same time #he is untrackable and able to manipulate his environment seemingly at will and could very easily make enemies with people #trying to trap him and stanley #idk!! maybe i'll just make him two classes . as a treat #i think both stanley and the narrator would freak the staff out a lot #since so much abt them is in limbo #they cant write down absolutes #its 'either/or's. its lists upon lists. its them scrambling to put this unknowability in a box they can understand #debating on including 432 as well. unsure atm #he would be keter for sure. hes literally the fabric of the universe. you cant contain or predict that shit. he has absolute control #i would put in the curator but i feel like her position of power is more supposed to mimic our own #she isnt an scp shes making the equivalent of a yt video abt this silly little video game. and also the foundation would never find her #ok wow tag ramble alert </3 happy pride have a slice of my insanity #tsp #if this goes in the tag im going to attack someone