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luxaofhesperides · 4 months

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Soulmate AU: First Words + End of the World ; requested by @justwannabecat!

Duke has long since accepted that he doesn’t have great luck. Most things in his life tend to go wrong very quickly, or complicate situations he was already struggling in (see: being a meta and getting his powers in the middle of a fight). Having an incomprehensible soulmark is an unpleasant discovery on the morning of his nineteenth birthday, but not entirely unexpected.

He had been hoping for something simple, a common one like hi it’s nice to meet you or sorry, didn’t mean to bump into you.

What Duke gets instead isn’t even words.

Scrawled across his left hipbone is a string of symbols glowing a faint green. They’re not in a language he recognizes, and the symbols seem to move, shifting ever so slightly so they look different every time he blinks.

“Well,” he says after a solid five minutes of staring into the mirror, unable to rip his eyes off his soulmate’s words, “I hope theirs looks nicer than mine.”

He spends his birthday in a bit of a daze, enjoying time spent with the Waynes and his friends. It’s hard to be fully present when he’s all too aware of the soreness on his hipbone flaring up each time he moves. It’s hard to keep his mind off of it, wanting nothing more than to search for answers, unravel the mystery of his soulmate’s first words.

“Something on your mind?” Jason asks, as the attention shifts off of him for a brief moment as Harper and Cullen get ready to leave and everyone rushes to give their goodbyes,

Duke shrugs, carefully keeping his hands still so they don’t drift to where his soulmark is hidden beneath his clothes. “Yeah. Nothing you need to worry about, though.”

Jason looks him over critically, then nods.

Duke resigns himself to being investigated by the rest of the Bats. If he’s off enough that Jason had to comment on it, then that means everyone’s noticed and are trying to figure out what’s happened. They’re not going to ask him, because they think he needs space to work through whatever’s got him so distracted, but they’re also not going to just do nothing.

This won’t be the first time they’ve done this. Duke expects it. Frankly, it would be stranger and much more concerning if they didn’t try to dig up all his secrets the moment they caught wind of him hiding something.

He’ll tell them about getting his soulmark soon. Soulmarks can appear on any birthday between the ages of thirteen to twenty five; they might suspect he got his, but they won’t be able to confirm.

For now, Duke can keep his soulmate’s first words (whatever that gibberish means) to himself.

He makes the decision then and there, as his birthday party winds down, to tell them in a week.

And because his luck is abysmal, a world ending threat hits five days later and suddenly there is no time for soulmarks and first words.

Duke is the last to arrive at the Fortress of Solitude, hitching a ride from Superboy to get there. The biting cold and the harsh winds keep the place far from the reaches of the rest of humanity, surrounded by nothing but deadly white.

Desolate as the landscape is, it’s still in better shape than the rest of the world.

Things would be better if it was alien invaders. It would be more bearable if some sort of cosmic colossus tried to eat their solar system. At least then there would be something physical that they could fight.

Instead, the world is breaking apart, the sky and earth both fracturing to reveal glowing green faultlines. Timelines are getting mixed up and muddled; just yesterday, Duke had to evacuate a building that had been demolished forty years ago, then stop a gang leader who wouldn’t be born for another eight years from taking over a neighborhood block and holding the residents hostage. Strange creatures are appearing out of nowhere, crawling out of shadows and tide pools and from beneath the roots of trees, all horrible, monstrous things that go after people with teeth and claws.

The Flashes and the rest of the speedsters are nowhere to be found. The last time anyone get communication from them, it had been Impulse sending Red Robin a glitchy, barely audible video chat saying something along the lines of “trying to fix—unstable—keep us here—never been alive before.” All things that are very concerning to hear, made worse by the fact that no one had been able to contact them at all.

The quiet loneliness of the Fortress of Solitude is a welcome change from the constant screaming, death, and destruction that’s taken over Gotham as well as the rest of the world. Last he heard, even Justice League China was at the end of their rope.

“In here,” Superboy instructs, guiding Duke through the halls. There’s no time to look around at Superman’s secret base. All his focus is stuck on staying conscious for another few hours to see if this gathering of heroes is able to find a solution to the world breaking apart.

Batman stands besides Superman. Both nod at Duke when he enters the room. Wonder Woman is watching over John Constantine as he writes something on the floor, muttering under his breath. The rest of the Justice League lean against each other, visibly exhausted as they wait for Constantine to finish up what he’s doing. A few other heroes are here too, and Duke goes to join them where they lean against a wall, fighting to keep their eyes open.

“Hey,” he greets, voice low. “Hanging in there?”

Wonder Girl sighs. “Somehow. I don’t know how much longer we can do this. There’s just too much…”

“We’ll get through this. I mean, even without us out there, plenty of civilians have formed rescue and relief groups to help with keeping things under control,” Speedy says, gently knocking her arm against Wonder Girl’s. “We just gotta keep going. No giving up.”

“What’s this plan, anyways? I just heard that they needed me here to some attempt to fix things.”

“Well, without the speedsters, you’re kind of the only one who can help with time and power related stuff,” Speedy says.

“That’s definitely a stretch. My powers don’t really have anything to do with time. It’s all just light and shadow.”

Speedy shrugs. “Well, you’re here, aren’t you? Too late to complain about it now.”

Duke doesn’t get a chance to say anything else when a loud clap catches his attention. The entire room goes still and silent as Constantine stands up and surveys the circle and symbols he’s written, taking up an entire corner of the large room.

“Alright,” he says. “Time to get started. Remember, let me do the talking. If you have to speak, it’s only to back me up or when a question is directed to you.”

Batman nods to the other Justice Leaguers, and suddenly everyone is falling into formation behind Constantine. Duke hurries to join them with Wonder Girl and Speedy, taking a place on the edge of the group where he’s a little closer to the circle than the others.

Constantine begins chanting. His voice is steady though none of the sounds make any sense, refusing to form themselves into recognizable words, and the air the in the room feels heavier. The chalk circle glows a blinding white and Duke can see magic swirling through the air, his power kicking in the let him watch as reality tears and a glowing star in the shape of a boy comes out of it.

Duke blinks, forcing his power down. The hypnotic swirls of magic fade from sight, but the boy still glows, bright and terrible as he floats above the circle and surveys them all. A crown engulfed in blue flame hovers above his head and the fabric of the cosmos is draped over his shoulders as a cape.

Just from presence alone, Duke can tell that this figure is now the strongest existence in this universe. He hopes this boy king is kind; no one, not even Superman, would be able to beat him in a fight.

The boy king opens his mouth and speaks, but it’s not words than comes out. A strange static like sound emerges, but light and almost melodic.

His left hipbone burns.

Duke gasps, hand flying down to it, and the boy king’s gaze snaps to meet his.

The world stands still. No one moves. No one dares to breathe.

And then the boy king drops to the floor and walks out of the circle.

“I thought you said that would hold him!” Batman hisses at Constantine, who is looking more and more distressed.

“It was supposed to! I wrote it specifically to hold the King of the Infinite Realms!”

The boy king glances at Constantine. This time, when he speaks, it’s in smooth English. “Did you name the king in your circle?”

“Yeah, I named Pariah Dark… Bloody hell, you ain’t him, are ya?”

“No,” the boy king smiles, “I’m Phantom.”

The cape and crown fade away, and suddenly it’s not an all powerful, terrifying king standing before them, but a young man with white hair and green eyes who looks Duke’s age. Like he could be any other new generation hero in the room.

“Phantom,” Duke repeats lightly, just under his breath, but it makes Phantom look at him again.

He walks forward, ignoring the other heroes’ aborted attempts to stop him, coupled with Constantine’s frantic back off motion happening behind him. Phantom leaves the circle and the Justice Leaguers behind to stand before Duke, a soft smile on his face.

“Hi,” he says softly, “I dreamed of you.”

“You—what?”

“I dreamed of you. I have for years now. To think that being summoned was what made us meet—” Phantom breaks off into a breathless laugh.

Duke swallows, then drops his had from where it had been pressed against his hip. “So we’re really—? You have my first words too?”

In the corner of his eye, he sees Batman stiffen up. Maybe he should have just told them the day after his birthday, but in Duke’s defense, this is the definition of extenuation circumstances.

“First words?” Phantom repeats, “Is that… Do we have different soulmate connections?”

“I think so. Here, everyone gets the first words their soulmates say to them appearing somewhere on their body.”

Phantom’s gaze darts down to Duke’s hip, then back up. “Oh. I get dreams. Where I’m from, we dream of our soulmates, and the closer we get to meeting them, the more we remember the dreams.”

“And you dreamed of me.”

“I did.”

“As touching as this is,” Constantine interrupts, and Duke gets to watch as Phantom rolls his eyes, “We summoned you here for a reason. Our world is falling apart at the seams and we need someone powerful, from the Realms, to help us fix it.”

“Okay.”

“...What do you mean ‘okay’?”

“I’ll help,” Phantom says.

“Just like that? No deal to be made, no price to be paid?”

“Just like that. I’m not one for deals anyways. If I can help, then I will. But I do want to see what the problem is with my soulmate by my side, if you don’t mind.”

Batman steps in, fixing Duke with a steady gaze, a barely noticeable tilt of his head. “Signal?”

“Yeah I’ll go with him. Of course I will. The sooner the better, in fact, because everything’s gone to shit.” Duke turns to Phantom, taking hold of one of his hands. “It is really bad out there,” he warns, “If you need help—”

“I’ll ask for help from others in the Realms,” Phantom says. “No offense or anything, but if it’s really that bad, I doubt living mortals will be able to do much to fix things. It’s why I was summoned, right?”

“Right. Let’s get to it, then.”

There’s a flash of mischief in Phantom’s eyes, and cheeky grin stealing across his face for a moment, before he says, “Aye aye, captain!” and picks Duke up like he weighs nothing and flies up through the ceiling.

Duke is able to hear everyone’s surprised, panicked shouts before they’re outside the Fortress of Solitude and Phantom is flying them away. He only needs a few directions from Duke before he finds the first of the large fractures in the sky.

“Yikes,” is all he says, which is not a great thing to hear. “I think I know how to fix it, though. We’ll need to do a little investigating as to who, exactly, started messing around with reality, but once we find the source, it’ll be an easy fix.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all week.”

“Even better than meeting your soulmate?”

“I haven’t slept for more than four hours all week. Knowing there’s an end in sight beats everything else.”

Phantom laughs, throwing his head back and Duke can’t help but drink in the sight of him, so ethereal and bright and full of life. “Fair enough! Got any ideas as to where we should start?”

“I’ve got an entire crew of detective vigilantes,” Duke replies. He’s not taking any more chances. No more waiting to talk about important things; he messed up by keeping his soulmark to himself, so he needs to make sure everyone meets his soulmate before shit goes south again.

“Let’s go find them, then!”

They take off again, soaring through the skies that are barely holding themselves together.

The world is still ending, and every hero is being stretched thin, but held carefully in Phantom’s arms, racing head first into a solution, Duke can’t help but feel that everything’s going to be alright now.

He’s had enough bad luck. Now, his soulmate with him, bearing the title of King with grace, things are finally starting to look up.

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dpxdc #dcxdp #dc x dp fic #prompt fill #my writing #when its the end of the world but youre soulmate is here and ready to help fix it #meanwhile constantine had gone ON and ON about how dangerous summoning realms beings are #and all the precautions they have to take and how to be specific when making deals etc etc #it was supposed to be only the justice league but with the world ending they wanted their proteges and allies with them in case things #went wrong w the summoning. and with the rest of the bats helping out in gotham and around the east coast #signal gets to join batman. plus hes got his meta powers that could help in the worst case scenario #NO ONE predicated signal and the GHOST KING being SOULMATES #batman leaves for gotham immediately. updates the rest of the team w 'ghost king successfully summoned. he's signal's soulmate.'#and does not respond to ANYONE after dropping that bomb on them lol #they do all get to meet phantom when they join forces to find whatever doomsday cult caused all this #and the world gets saved!!#also. semi related to all this. the speedesters are gone bc time went wacky and they tried to fix things. but then the speedforce kinda #came to life and trapped them. so they have been lowkey eaten by the speedforce bc the speedforce is the true eldritch monstrosity here #anyways. thanks for the prompt!!#working on ur other two prompts now :)

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isjasz · 6 months

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[Day 136]

Greyout

#dddaily4sherin #grian #goodtimeswithscar #desert duo #my art #secret life #secret life spoilers #secret life smp #trafficblr #traffic smp #secret life fanart #cant believe i finished this on time actually HJREHNE WE BALL #all the brain fog and anxiety from noxs words. fjsjdjsnsksnekwmmw that episode was insane #that part scar edited during the skizz part has not left my mind #and I imagine that this is what he constantly sees during the session when he's panicked 💥💥💥💥💥#(which is also the reason grian did not end up teaming up with him bc he kept having to run away and was all the over place)#the secret keeper wants us gone #sorry for editing i want to put these in the tags instead and keep the caption clean o7

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turrondeluxe · 8 months

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thinking about 2007 b team today again and how donnie and mikey where literally always with each other one way or another

quite literally just a mention of their names away at all times

AND THE FACT THAT THEY BOTH THINK THAT WAY ("it's only me and donnie now" "it's only me and mikey")EVEN IF RAPH IS STILL LIVING WITH THEM BECAUSE THEIR FAMILY IS JUST GETTING MORE DISTANT EACH PASSING SECOND OF EACH PASSING DAY. THEY TRULY FEEL LIKE THEY ONLY HAVE EACH OTHER. LIKE THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES LEFT.

i can write so many essays about them and how they hang onto each other as much as possible after leo left because they both feel like if they let go in any way they will lose the only brother they have left and they Refuse to do that.

thinking also specifically on how donatello probably looked at mikey, his only little brother, and decided that he was not going to do the same thing his two older brothers did to them both (leave them behind)

#fer silly twt rambling #i honestly didn't write as much this time around #i usually go insane writing whole paragraphs of them but so be it #that is what my twt followers have to deal with every once in a while #2007 truly breaks the pattern of leos that end up staying with mikey after theyve all gone through hell and everyone separates #2007 B TEAM🔛🔝#tmnt 2007

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iero · 2 years

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Being one of the few My Chem blogs that is NOT at Riot Fest right now is really just like:

#personal #Anyone else HAD tickets to Riot and just has not gone?#Thanks work (for not giving me the time off) and being an adult (money..)...#I'm team 'I was supposed to go and had to give my tickets away.'#I'm already like 'Why is the dash so quiet?' and then I'm like 'Wait a minute...'#<- That's how it will be all weekend.

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random-iz-stuff · 1 year

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Theory:

Here’s a small detail about Hobo 13 that explains a lot:

When any trainee is put in genuine, life threatening danger, they’re teleported to a holding cell before any real damage can occur.

So the trainees on Hobo 13 are never in any truly life threatening danger. If they’re ever put in a situation like that they’re automatically teleported to a holding cell (and presumably given medical attention if they have any injuries. Can’t run a successful boot camp if no one ever survives).

But at the same time, there are people betting not on Zim’s injuries, but on his DEATH. With bets on things like whether or not he’ll be blown up, eaten, or even chopped in half.

But the thing is, with the logic of Hobo 13, none of those things can actually happen to Zim because he’ll be teleported to a holding cell before anything major happens.

So in order for these bets to be possible, Zim must be disconnected from the teleporting system. In other words, if Zim is put into life threatening danger on Hobo 13, he won’t be teleported. Zim has no actual protection, unlike every other trainee there.

And there’s a good chance that the Tallest are not just aware of this given how Purple starts the betting, but are probably the reason that Zim won’t be teleported in the first place. They’re royalty. A simple request to Sergeant Hobo 678 or whoever is in charge is all it would take.

And I think Zim is aware of this as well.

This would mean that Zim didn’t just take the position as team commander because he wanted to be in charge or because he didn’t want to have to take orders from people that he doesn’t know or respect (although those were definitely factors), but because it would keep him out of the most danger. The commander can’t decide to leave Zim behind or sacrifice him for the rest of the team (which would most likely kill him because he doesn’t have the teleporter as a failsafe) If Zim IS the commander.

Think about it some more. Zim was a part of the Irken military and his entire race views shorter Irkens as inferior to the taller ones. So following that logic, it would make sense if shorter Irkens in the military were given the most dangerous jobs, even suicide missions if the need arose. After all, they’re considered to be less valuable overall than the taller ones. Shorter Irkens are viewed as expendable. Zim is shorter than average. By cementing himself as the commander, Zim prevents whoever else would have become commander from taking advantage of his shorter height and by that logic “lower value” and sacrificing him for the good of the team.

Hell, we even see proof of shorter and lower value soldiers being seen as expendable in the Irken military in the comics, where Commander Poki sends Zim, the shortest Irken there, on a suicide mission:

Think about what Poki just said. They want Zim to sneak to the opposite side of an enemy base and set off a small explosion to lure the enemies in the area to the back while the Irkens attack the (now unprotected) front. After those explosives go off, person that goes and sets off these explosives will be surrounded and swarmed by enemy forces alone while also being completely cut off from the other irkens because they’re on the opposite side of the battlefield with enemy forces in between their current location and the Irken military camp.

In other words, whoever sets off those explosives is going to die. And Poki picks the shortest Irken there to do it because he’s seen as expendable.

So Zim has EXPERIENCED being used as an expendable soldier, and he knows that his shorter height makes him a target for that sort of thing. So he’d probably believe that it works the same way on Hobo 13 while also knowing that if he’s ever in danger, the teleporter won’t save him.

It’s just a shame that not counting Zim, there was only one other Irken in the entire team, so Zim never actually needed to take any of this into consideration. His paranoia would have been completely justified in an all-Irken environment, ie: the type of environment he’s used to, but isn’t needed in this particular scenario.

#invader zim #headcanons #analysis #Zim #hobo 13 #this also goes to show how badass Skoodge is because he faced down not just the Hogulus #but every other challenge of Hobo 13 SOLO #without ever being put in life threatening danger or being teleported to a holding cell #and he was making good time as well #right behind Zim’s full team by just a few minutes #somehow Zim pushing Skoodge to the Hogulus was actually the best possible option #because it resulted in zero casualties or mistakes and the only reason Skoodge wasn’t there for all of Hobo 13 #was because the entire team didn’t bother to wait for him #no other Hogulus plan could have gone that well

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mattodore · 7 months

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guy whose childhood drags behind him like a dead body

#river dipping #simblr #ts4 #ts4 edit #theodore doe #echthroi #i forgot to post this after sharing theo's birthday edit last night... listen i was so tired i just hit post and passed out #but so far today i've just been looking through character page themes for a bit and messing around with codes while watching dropout tv #i still need to get to my activity feed sometime today or tomorrow and then i want to set aside some time to just hang out on here #and catch up on things like i keep disappearing and missing out on posts jgkhjfnkh so i gotta do that...#but i'm actually fighting off the world's biggest nap rn..... my meds work really well but lord i'm still so tired all the time woof #so i'll probably end up caving soon lmao #but!!! anyway!! THEO!!! there was nothing i could do abt the proportions on theo as a kid like i couldn't make his head any smaller...#the sims team actually hate me so bad and are trying to force the huge cartoonishly big heads onto my sims </3 #also when i aged him down to a kid like all of his presets were gone so i just had to try and replicate them to the best of my abilities #his lip preset actually has a much deeper cupid's bow but thanks to the liquify tool <33333 it looks like his regular preset #i've actually posted teen theo on here before but i've made a ton of changes to him since then so this version is pretty different compared #to the older version of him at sixteen #he's definitely got more baby fat than he did before like his cheeks are pretty round #um. also i have these closeups i took of adult theo from the pose i made for his birthday edit that i gotta edit a lil and then post!!!#bc you really didn't get to see his expression or the actual pose that well and EYEEEE personally am really in love with the details #of the pose itself like ugh.......... theo is so.......................... yeah.#holds him

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thisisadonaldduckblognow · 1 year

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me thinking about the moment in the movie where leo is fighting krangified raph and he is feeling so much pressure and so much stress and guilt and he is so so scared for his family and for raph especially because he just wants to get raph out safely, he just wants his brother with him and their family unharmed and in one piece, but he can’t get through why won’t raph HEAR him why isn’t raph LISTENING he just wants to SAVE HIM why is he making things SO HARD--

and that is the moment where it finally fully clicks for leo, after all this, where raph was coming from at the start of the movie. that it wasn’t about being stubborn or wanting to call all the shots and be the boss, it wasn’t pettiness or raph being hard on them for no reason. it was always just raph wanting them to be safe, and getting scared and frustrated when doing that was difficult. or when, perhaps, certain stinker lil brothers seemed to be going out of their way to make it difficult.

like he really has that hard stop moment of realization while he’s looking directly at raph... at his own reflection u could say... love that

#rottmnt #rottmnt leo #rottmnt raph #rise raph #rise leo #rise of the tmnt #ive seen the interpretation that leo yelling about raph making things so hard is also him sharing his own POV about their dynamic lately?#and i dig that too!#another notch in the ways that honestly they are very similar in motivation tbh #the OH moment!#OH this is why it's been so tense OH this is why raph has been so hardline and irritated when i fly off solo #like after raph was captured leo spent a lot of time kinda bullheadedly larping what he thought raph would do?#bc leo was angry (bc leo was feeling guilty and absolutely terrified)#all the way up to the roof scene where he finally learned his listen to the team lesson (a lesson raph also had to learn in the series)#like it was such a genuine misunderstanding and miscommunication leo is over here doing his best raph but what he THOUGHT raph was doing #and like raph is a great leader while raph is leader! does very well learns and grows ive gone on about that before but #like for all their similarities they are still different people with different strengths so the double whammy of trying to do a raph AND #sincerely not GETTING where raph had been coming from #was a recipe for disaster #and like leo's leadership strengths come through more after the roof scene but this scene is about his relationship to raph #this little moment where he stops himself and has this what am i DOING moment has this no wait i finally GET IT moment #like that's just all i can see when i see that scene; the final breakthrough for leo that makes him able to reach for raph properly #bc he WAS just fighting him before that; and maybe in raphs zombie mind hell that carried over idk

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goldensunset · 1 year

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pla was like hey what if you got sent back in time to a world where a bunch of people hate you for existing and think you must be evil and force you to perform herculean tasks daily just to be tolerated except there’s this one guy who seems to genuinely like you and he thinks it’s really cool that you’re an outsider from another world and he’s there for you in your worst moment when no one else is brave enough to help and then later after it’s all been resolved you find out that this entire mess was his fault in the first place he’s the reason that you’re here he’s the reason that the world was ending and you got blamed for all of that and he turns on you suddenly and reveals he was just using you to achieve his own selfish goal and after you put a stop to him he curses you for being an outsider sent here just to stop him and now suddenly he genuinely hates you more than anyone else because it has dawned on him that you are the epitome of all that he wishes he could be

#see it’s not just about the ‘oh he pretended to be friendly and then betrayed you! oh no!’#you can get a betrayal trope in any old media #it’s about specifically the setup here #like what if he went from being one of the few people to tolerate you in this world #and the only one who can really keep up with you and travel the world and help you as your friend #the only one who’s really genuinely happy that you’re in this world #to suddenly the person who wants you gone most of all #it hits harder than the friendly people in the galaxy team who never hate you but just kinda sit back most of the time #it hits harder than the people who openly express their distrust for you from the beginning and slowly warm up #nah this is the one guy who actually liked you at the start until he realized your reason for being in this world #and it is antithetical to his (perceived) purpose #like ok i gotta be honest i don’t think volo was planning on backstabbing you from the start #bc he didn’t know you were arceus’s champion yet right #you were just some random kid #like i think once you started gathering plates he was like hmmm maybe i can use them…#idk #thoughts for today #pokémon #legends arceus #volo

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radioves · 1 year

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its quite shrimple actually

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ajdrawshq · 3 months

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update on building isat characters teams btw. siffrin has 11 pokemon and counting (help)

#thats including the 2 that the creator drew w them that one time but. still #and i Refuse to get rid of any of them bc theyre all too good. theoretically i could move one to a different character #but. i dont want to <3 #they can have doubles #if they must.#and thats still like . im so tempted to give them another bc it would be neat for them to have a water type #probably a lapras.. but it could be smth else too..#also the teams are NOT based on what they realistically would get their hands on theyre almost purely theme-based #tho i still dont give anyone legendaries or mythicals bc that feels too weird and obvious #i might give em seperate teams that would actually make sense for what they Would have..#creator seems to have actually gone that route which is epic of them tbh #much to think about.#isat #pkmn

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amethystpath-writes · 1 year

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Could you do something with team having to lock up stoic team member. They expect him to be fine and they don't want him going on a particularly dangerous mission and getting hurt further. They don't expect him to spiral into panick behind locked doors and are guilt-ridden when they return.

He's Gone

NOT A PR0MPT

The mission went flawlessly; Team anticipated every backfire at Villain's base: alarm systems, security cameras, standing guards, Villain. They avoided each almost perfectly, which was a surprise to them. As confident as they felt, it was their first mission without Leader. After seeing the state he was in, it was easy to say the team was terrified; it aided their thorough preparation, to say the least.

There was no ease in the thought of escaping, but the Team felt better once they were on their way to base. Leader was there, and he would be so proud of them for orchestrating this mission on their own, and for carrying it out. They had all they needed to defeat Villain. All the trauma Leader had gone through could be laid to rest.

Arriving to the base, everything seemed normal. Of course, Leader had been left in the medical room, but they were sure he had ventured out.

Walking into the kitchen, they noticed otherwise. There was a cake in the fridge they had left for Leader, when he was ready to leave his bed. It was a celebratory cake, for Leader's return.

"Do you think he's still asleep?" Hero asked.

"Could be. He was in pretty rough shape when we left him. He must have taken the painkillers we left for the wounds." Other Hero shrugged it off, a little less concerned than she probably should have been.

Hero put a finger to her lips. Just on the way home, she had chewed every nail down to the quick. "I think we should check on him."

"You regret leaving him alone, don't you?" Other Hero sighed. "He said he would be fine. We were right to trust him; it's what he would have wanted-"

"But he was wrong," Hero argued.

"We don't know that yet."

But Hero did know. Otherwise, Leader would have been out here. He would have dove into the cake and hugged Hero and Other Hero when they walked through the door. Then, he would have offered a dinner with a team briefing. The house shouldn't have been this silent.

As Hero made her way to the medical room, she felt her palms sweating. "Leader? Leader, are you in here?" She didn't wait to open the door, and as she did, she drew in a quick breath. Her eyes burned with tears. "Leader, oh my god. Other Hero, come here- hurry!"

Leader was crumpled against the wall, clothes torn at the seams, skin scratched in frantic, zig-zagging lines- Hero couldn't believe her eyes. "Leader, talk to me, okay? What's going on? What happened?"

Of course, Leader was in no fit shape to respond.

"I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead. I killed you. I let you go by yourselves. You were dead. You were dead."

"Leader, I'm here! We're- we're both here. Other Hero, tell him you're here." And they did. They repeated it over and over again if only to stop the panic rising from Leader.

"Villain is dead!" Hero finally screamed, and although it wasn't true, and although Other Hero looked at her like she was insane, Leader stopped.

"But he killed you."

"He didn't kill us," Hero said. "We killed him. We are all safe, Leader. He's gone." Leader took heavy breaths, and staring into space, he leaned against Hero. "He's gone. It's okay," she assured. "He's gone."

Even though he wasn't gone at all.

#not a pr0mpt #He's Gone #i wonder if the term goosebumps is universal #you guys all know what those are right?#do we pull out the whump tags?#those have been retired for quite some time #leader whump #team whump #hero whumpee #leader whumpee #villain whumper #this one has been in my drafts for so long and I totally forgot about it. I apologize many times.#How is everyone?!#I've regained my motivation to write so I'm hoping to write more often.

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