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chief-of-restless-hearts · 3 years

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Chapter 2: Indentured

. . .

“HA,” Robin crowed, with one fist planted firmly on his hip while the other pointed down at his conquered foe. “HA HA HA!”

“Heh...” Joker whined from the floor, on his back, grinning blankly at the ceiling, “hh...”

Batman, tied onto the conveyor belt that would have fed him feet-first into the chomping jaws of a giant set of fake teeth, was staring with what Dick hoped was approval. Winning a laughing contest on a bet to save your partner wasn’t as effortless as he made it look.

“Robin the boy wonder, that laughing daredevil, reigns as champion! Y’see, pasty, a real clown mighta actually given me a run for my money, but y--” He broke off into a hacking cough and staggered over to untie Bruce. “Ack, B,” he wheezed, “'m done now.”

. . .

“You shoulda seen it Alfie, Joker was all like, ‘bet you can’t dodge bullets, boy blunder’, an’ then I went, ‘well I bet you can’t out-laugh me you pasty faker,’ and the--” he coughed, breaking off with a grimace. The cookie, warm butterscotch--one of his favorites, stuck dry in his raw throat. He choked it down anyway.

Bruce was still ignoring the tray Alfred had laid out by the batcomputer. Still ignoring both of them. Dick leaned closer to Alfred. “I think you should check B for a concussion,” he stage whispered. “I saved his neck using nothin’ but wit an’ derring-do and I’m still waitin’ on my thank you.”

“Perhaps he is tired, Master Dick, as you both should be at this unconscionably early hour.” Alfred directed a heated glance at Bruce’s still-turned back.

Dick rolled his eyes and wobbled toward the showers, letting the disappointment roll off his shoulders as he unclipped his cape.

“Dick. Listen to me.” Interrupted mid-yawn, Dick turned to see Bruce standing and taking a step closer; his unmasked face looked hard and stern. “Do not ever, under any circumstance, place your life on the line for mine again.”

Dick’s laugh came out as sharp and painful as the confused sting of hurt in his chest. “Gee, you’re welcome, B.”

“The same applies for any hostage,” Bruce continued, unfazed.

Dick’s brow furrowed incredulously. “But just last week you--”

“Listen!” Bruce barked. Dick blinked; Bruce never raised his voice at him--but Bruce’s expression, though strained and intense, didn’t even look angry. “Your life is not a bargaining chip,” he continued, his tone lower but still wire-tight. “In any crisis situation you are to get away as fast as possible, and if you can’t do that I want you to buy time for me to reach you.”

The finality and command ingrained in Bruce’s tone enraged him as rapidly as it always did.

“Wha--what are you even--” he broke off furiously. “Bruce, are you seriously asking me to walk away and leave you to die? Let anyone die?” His voice, high and hoarse and furious, cracked against his will; Bruce was approaching, about to shut him down, and Dick shook his head fiercely. “Cuz ‘m not gonna let you die. I’m not--”

His throat gave out, broke into coughing from deep in his chest, and he groaned, shaking his head again, not looking at Bruce. “...‘m not,” he choked.

Bruce was crouching before him, saying nothing. Dick couldn’t have said more if he’d wanted to.

“Alfred,” Bruce said quietly.

“I’ll prepare the young master some tea and honey,” Alfred replied, equally subdued. Dick had forgotten he was there.

Dick felt Bruce’s eyes lingering on him, studying, but Dick still couldn’t meet his gaze. “It’s late,” Bruce said at last. “Do you have homework, or...” He trailed off. Maybe his internal clock was kicking in too.

“School’s in like, three hours,” Dick mumbled, shrugging, and suddenly his eyes felt heavy. “Don’t think homework’s gonna be the issue.”

“This has been happening far too frequently of late,” Alfred said, with that disapproving tone in his voice again. “I am frankly shocked that his grades have not yet suffered.”

“I can handle it,” Dick croaked earnestly, “I can sleep later, it’s fine.”

“We will...discuss your patrol schedule,” Bruce said, haltingly, his expression pinched strangely as though he were hurt, but Dick had checked him over on the way back to the batmobile and he’d seemed fine-- “But not now,” he continued, and reached out to gently squeeze Dick’s shoulder. “You should get to bed.”

Swallowing the dread that was losing Robin, his only way of really doing anything worthwhile and the most time he ever got to spend with Bruce, Dick turned back to the showers. He’d have more fight in him later, but...just now he felt more tired than he’d ever been.

“Dick,” Bruce said. Dick didn’t turn this time. “I’ll meet you and Alfred upstairs in a minute. I could use some of that tea, too.”

Dick hesitated, but as he headed on to the showers the weight in his chest lightened just a little, and when at last he was upstairs on the sitting room couch with a hot mug cradled between his pajama clad legs and chest, Bruce was beside him, staring at yesterday’s half-finished chess game as though it held the answer to every question in the universe. The windows were pale, Dick still hadn’t slept, and he took another long hot sip of the drink and closed his eyes as it slid down his aching throat.

“I...need you to understand, Dick,” Bruce said, after some thirty minutes of honeyed tea silence. His tone, low and grave, told Dick what he was about to say. Dick raised his mug to disguise his scowl. Bruce cleared his throat, and now he was looking at him. “My life will never be worth the sacrifice of yours. And if...I ever allowed you to bring harm to yourself, I--” he broke off, covering his mouth, and as Dick saw the pinched look returning around Bruce’s eyes his anger slipped away. “You’re my responsibility,” Bruce said, his voice as rough as Dick’s. “If anything happened to you...”

You don’t get it, Dick didn’t say, what’s the point of me going out there to watch your back and make a difference if I can’t give it my all.

“Patrol’s gonna be a lot quieter without me,” he mumbled into his mug.

Bruce paused, and then his mug settled on the coffee table with a decisive clink. “Then we’ll work on making the upstairs louder. Starting tomorrow. You’ve earned a sick day or two--after all, it’s not every day that someone manages to take the Joker down without a single blow.”

A broad, toothy grin stretched across Dick’s face, and as Bruce met his gaze the barest hint of a smile formed on his face too. “If your teachers ask we’ll just say you have a frog in your throat.”

Dick laughed, quiet and sore but from deep in his stomach, and leaned into the sturdy warmth of Bruce’s arm. Golden light trickled in through the tall windows to join the light from the flickering hearth, and at last he let his eyes fall closed.

. . .

The clicking latch was enough. Dick snapped awake and had already flipped backward into a defensive stance on the bed when the door opened. He took in Deathstro--no, ‘Slade’s’ silhouette in the doorway, with his heart thumping in his ears.

Slade was in costume, but unmasked. “Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen down the hall,” he said.

And he left.

Dick stared blankly at the empty doorway for a moment before collapsing back on the bed with a groan. It was embarrassing to have fallen asleep and left himself vulnerable in enemy territory, but already his aching body told him that he hadn’t slept anywhere near long enough to recover from the day before.

He had spent most of the night staring at the camera built into the opposite wall. Slade hadn’t even bothered disguising it. The room was little more than a frigid cell with bare whitewashed halls, unfurnished beyond the camera and the bed he lay on--though there was a door that led to an even tinier adjoining bathroom.

The bathroom contained a shower stall, a toilet, and a sink. It was not equipped with a lock.

The door to the hall was equipped with one...from the outside. Slade hadn’t locked it.

Dick wouldn’t have expected that to make him feel less safe.

He couldn’t remember much of his nightmare, but he did remember Kory’s face, and the way she had looked at him when he--

Dick pressed his icy hands over his face and waited for his breathing to slow. He would...make it up to her. Just as soon as he got out.

He still owed her a movie night. It wasn’t going to be a date, just a movie--but she’d never been to one before, and after the whole Red X mess he had owed it to her--he had promised it to her, and...they would miss the showing if he didn’t get out soon. Of course that was assuming that she wouldn’t still hate him even after he explained everything. He wouldn’t blame her if she did--he couldn’t, not after what he’d done to her, both before and after what Slade had made him do, but...

it couldn’t end like this.

He wouldn’t let it.

Shrill beeping sent him jumping out of his skin again. It was coming from what looked like a comm build into the wall beside his bed--an alarm, then. It continued screeching into his ears as he, very bitterly, rolled out of bed.

. . .

He found Slade leaning against the kitchen counter, unmasked but still in costume with coffee in one hand and a clipboard in the other. Dick halted in the doorway and waited there stiffly until Slade’s gaze fixed on him.

“If you managed to get lost in a hall lined with locked doors, that is pretty impressive,” Slade said. He paused before taking a sip from his mug, and arched an eyebrow at him. “And in case you missed any, I did lock all of them.”

Dick only glared at him.

He had taken his time going down the hall, counting the cameras and defiantly staring into each of them as he tried every door in turn. And they had all been locked, including the unmarked door to the main room.

“Eat,” Slade said more brusquely, and tossed a small clipboard onto the counter island between them, beside the plate of food that Dick had been making a concentrated effort not to look at. “You’ll make up for the wasted time later.”

Eyeing the food hungrily but suspiciously, Dick didn’t even approach the table. Slade snorted impatiently. “If I wanted to drug you I wouldn’t use your food to do it. Eat now or go hungry.”

Dick hadn’t eaten since the previous morning, and was starved enough to risk taking Slade at his word. He held a distrustful eye on Slade as he gulped down the chokingly strong coffee and protein-rich but bland food that Slade apparently considered a breakfast.

Slade began describing the contents of the clipboard that Dick had yet to look at. Slade was outlining the day’s regimen of workouts and training down to the last minute of the day...and talked as though he were introducing Dick to the new norm, his new life.

Dick’s appetite dried up completely (but still, somehow, left his gnawing hunger completely intact).

But he had no reason to start thinking so fatalistically. Even if he didn’t find his own way out of this mess, the Titans or Batman would figure everything out before Slade took things too far. Not that Dick intended to wait around for them to clean up his mess.

Bruce didn’t need to hear about this.

If Dick was going to see him again--and now, suddenly and forcefully, he wanted to--he didn’t want to go through the humiliation of seeing Bruce proven right. What happened to Jay was...it wasn’t going to happen again. And he didn’t need Bruce to protect him.

He chewed robotically, kept his eye on Slade and maintained the appearance of listening, but his mind was already wandering the mental map of the base that he was trying to assemble. So far he had counted two possible escape routes. The front way (obviously), and the oversized fan he’d glimpsed stars through the night before during that little game of hide and seek with Slade on the gears. But his search wasn’t finished. A place this large had to have multiple vents leading to the surface. It was just a matter of finding them, and he had time, even if he did want nothing more than to get as far away from Slade as possible.

But he needed to do something first. He needed to undo all the damage he had done, all the ways that he had betrayed some of the best friends he’d ever had.

. . .

“I don’t know about you, but I am totally capable of subduing someone without crushing their windpipe.” Dick was still poised before the training dummy, gripping the staff with both sweat-slick palms and trying to ignore the fatigue tremors working their way through his body.

But he had made the grave error of turning his back on Slade, who was just behind his shoulder--and moving. Dick wheeled only for Slade to grab him by the shoulders and steer him toward the dummy again.

“For me that won’t be enough. Resume your position.”

Dick shifted his grip on the staff and stiffly resumed his stance.

“No,” Slade said curtly. He reached over Dick’s shoulder to grab his forearm. Dick jerked violently in the hold, which only tightened. “You are going to enter the proper offensive stance,” Slade said, his voice dripping condescension.

“I don’t need to--”

“Twelve point five million dollars...” Slade said slowly, deliberately. “That was the offer from the HIVE that I refused in favor of sparing the Titans, and that is what you owe me. I really am asking very little in return.” Slade’s hands moved to adjust Dick’s rigid grip on the staff. This time, Dick let him. “Now, this time complete the maneuver correctly.”

Cold spread from Dick’s heart to his fingertips.

The price placed on his friends’ lives was, somehow, at the same time too much and far too little.

He jabbed the end of his staff under the dummy’s chin in a sharp, sudden strike. The neck snapped in two, the detached head toppling to the floor with a single morbid bounce.

“Adequate,” Slade said, then added, “for a self-taught amateur.”

Dick went very still. Slade should have had no way of knowing that.

Slade was moving away, and Dick risked a look at his face while the blind side was facing him. But his expression appeared perfectly neutral, and in the few (but still too many) hours that Dick had known Slade he had grown no better at reading him.

“Now,” Slade continued, and he touched his own throat just above the armored plate. “Strike me here with that same maneuver. Just that one, no improvisation--but try to hit me.”

After an uncertain beat, Dick struck out. Slade edged sideways just before the staff would have touched him, but he was frowning. “Again,” he instructed, and Dick did. But something inside him twisted with every lunge. By the fourth time he realized what he was doing just as Slade grabbed the staff mid-strike.

“You’re faltering,” he snapped. “Try again, and this time try to hit me. Hold back again and I will show you what those attacks should look like firsthand.”

A flush spread across Dick’s face, but he moved again. Just as he had before, Slade evaded effortlessly--but by a much narrower margin. Dick hadn’t even realized that he had been tilting his strikes off-center at the last instant, and his cheeks stung with embarrassment. He had been holding back from hurting Deathstroke.

Deathstroke.

“Better,” Slade said, but had him continue anyway.

Again, and again, and again.

But Slade should not have known about that.

. . .

Dick couldn’t stop thinking about the attack on Wayne Tower.

Slade had known about his staff training, and he shouldn’t have, and if he knew about that, he hadn’t just been spying on Titans Tower where Robin had taken to keeping his mask on even around his new teammates. The possibilities were ugly. All of them.

His hands and knees were on the mat, one arm cradling his chest as he gasped for breath and tried uselessly to get his focus back. He was nowhere near in the headspace for combat training, but what only made it worse was that Slade was holding back. Those hits, if thrown with the full force that Slade had given him before, would have laid him out flat and likely crushed his ribs.

--But Dick had told Slade he already had a father and then Slade had sent him to sabotage Wayne Tower. Dick was supposed to be a detective. What was he supposed to deduce from that? And if he was right, if Slade knew, then even if Slade didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to take out his current most dangerous opponent he could just as easily destroy Batman’s crusade for good. That would prove a deathblow for Gotham, and if Dick knew Bruce--and he did--it would be one for him too.

And it would be all Dick’s fault.

A rod cracked against his ear. He reeled backward in shock, his head ringing from the blow, and his attention snapping back to Slade who was looming over him with staff in hand, masked, but there was no disguising his dark expression.

“Are you ignoring me, Renegade?”

Dick stared up at him blankly for a moment before it sank in that he had zoned out mid-sparring session. And...had Slade been speaking?

Slade continued staring down at him while Dick scrounged desperately for some kind of excuse that wasn’t an apology, when Slade exhaled and angled his head slightly. “You’ve been quiet.” he said at last.

Was that a question? As moments ticked by, Dick realized that it was. Hastily he hefted the staff that had been forgotten in his hand and resumed a defensive sparring position. He held it, swallowing anxiously as he waited.

At last Slade raised his own staff. “Very well,” he said, and lunged at him.

. . .

Slade straightened, reattached his staff to his belt, dismissed him, and the last training session of the night was over.

Dick turned away and braced himself to keep his weary shoulders squared and his posture straight until he reached the room he never would have expected to actually want to return to. But where else was there to go to escape Slade and the constriction around his throat and chest that only barely managed to trap every desperate question behind his teeth.

“Is there something on your mind?” Slade’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“No,” Dick said hastily, his eyes only darting to and away from Slade’s.

“Renegade.” The word had an edge to it. A warning.

Dick gritted his teeth and pretended to misunderstand its meaning. “No, ‘sir’.”

The word tasted like acid on his tongue.

. . .

The alarm woke him with all the subtlety of an electric jolt. Sluggishly, he winced. The noise was weirdly abrasive, and why did the air taste like metal and his bed feel so...

His fingers curled tight around the blanket that wasn’t his and reality slammed into his chest like a hammer.

He wasn’t in Titans Tower. Wasn’t in the manor. He was buried under layers of lead-lined asphalt in Deathstroke’s secret base, and yesterday was going to happen again and then keep happening, over and over and--

No.

No, it wouldn’t.

He made himself get up, wash, dress into the uniform again, and as he made his way down to the kitchen he tried his best not to think too deeply about the spirit gum that he had found conveniently left on the sink to use for his mask.

. . .

Dick pivoted midair and caught the bar again as he fell, letting the swing of his own weight carry him up into the air again.

The bars were icy in his grip, not too different from the bars he’d spent half his life practicing on. They helped enhance the illusion, if he closed his eyes and pretended that he was surrounded by the damp but comfortable recesses of the batcave.

Slade would still be watching him from below, but Dick wanted to close his eyes and forget that. He didn’t need to look to catch the next bar and then let it carry him up again into a double somersault.

“Are you planning to spend the day up there, Renegade?”

Dick flinched, his eyes flying open to see the bar racing up toward him. He grasped out quickly--only barely hooking his fingers around it, the grip too loose to do anything but slow his descent. He tucked and landed in a roll that jarred every bone in his body, but he was still aware enough to snap into alertness as Slade approached him where he was still crouched on the floor.

He scrambled to his feet, but he hadn’t even caught his breath.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt you, since you were so clearly enjoying yourself, but that isn’t what you’re here for, is it?”

Dick just stared at Slade’s masked face. He couldn’t read him, not a single inch of him.

After a prolonged period of silence Slade crossed his arms. “Whatever’s distracting you, you need to be more careful. I wouldn’t have caught you this time.”

Dick scowled at the allusion to their fight the week before. Dick had gotten careless, Deathstroke had landed a blow to his gut that sent him toppling over the edge of the building--and then a hand had caught him by the wrist.

‘I’m not through with you.’

And now, of course, Dick knew what that meant.

Swallowing back another wave of dread at the reminder of how long Slade must have been planning for this, Dick turned and reached for the schedule he had left on the nearby desk.

“That’s it? Nothing?” The voice behind him almost sneered. Dick’s hand froze an inch away from the papers. “It used to be impossible to shut you up.”

This time expectancy hung stagnant in the air without any disguise of friendliness. And Dick couldn’t have held it in a single moment longer.

“Do you know who I am?” he burst out. Slade surveyed him for a moment, and Dick rephrased the question, this time trying to suppress the urgency in his tone. “Do you...know my civilian name.”

Slade laughed. Dick flinched at the short, harsh sound. “Kid, you have more than enough to worry about without wasting time worrying about your former mentor’s secrets.”

Dick nearly yelled the question at him again, and just barely bit it back. But the anger was working its way into his face. It was burning, twisting into something ugly, and he barely wheeled away in time to hide it.

“Renegade!” A heavy hand clapped over his shoulder and Slade’s voice dropped to a growl. “You do not walk away when I am speaking to you.”

Dick whirled and ripped Slade’s hand away. “You’re a monster, you know that?” he snarled at Slade’s face, and when the visible eye narrowed he didn’t stop. “You’re doing the same thing to the Titans that you always do, you do the same thing again and again and--you can’t just put price tags on people’s lives. You can’t!”

He stopped, and he was nearly shaking with rage. Slade’s face was still twisted under the mask, but the reaction Dick was braced for never came.

“Maybe not,” Slade said lowly, with steel backing each measured word. “But I’ll take what I can get.”

Dick was about to snap back, but Slade was looking at him. And then, suddenly, Slade’s meaning clicked in his mind. Dick remembered, and he went very still.

Slade turned away.

“Isn’t there somewhere you need to be?” His voice was deadly quiet. Dick stared at Slade’s back, hesitating, cold to the bone. “Go,” Slade hissed.

Finally, Dick turned to leave. Lunch break had been listed next on the schedule.

“Renegade.” Dick halted. Slade had spoken without turning, his voice flatter than before. “Remember that debt.”

. . .

A horrifically vivid image of Bruce collapsing, his skin pulsing with lethal nanotech, sliced viciously through Dick’s mind. He lurched to a stop halfway down the hall, leaning against the wall with still-tacky paint that peeled away in places all over the base to reveal plates of lead--lead, and if Slade knew enough to repel Superman, what did he have waiting for Batman--and breathe, and breathe.

He needed to move quickly. Because he couldn’t run and he couldn’t afford to wait for a rescue that might never come. Couldn’t count on them discovering the probes and saving themselves, because apparently he had some kind of stupid talent for endangering the lives of everyone he’d ever touched and he was not about to let Slade take Batman down too.

Bruce would be angry when he found out, but Dick had already gone and played himself as a bargaining chip and all those promises Bruce had Dick make all those years ago--that was just Bruce being an idiot. He always acted like his own life was expendable, like seeing him get hurt didn’t tear Dick apart. Maybe he had been Bruce’s responsibility once upon a time, but Batman was still Robin’s responsibility and he always would be. Maybe, someday, Bruce would understand. Dick knew Kory would understand--of all of them she would, because as much as none of them liked to talk about it, she understood what it was like to have your life traded away for the greater good. Willingly or not.

He could fix this in one go. He could act quickly, so suddenly that Slade wouldn’t reach him until it was already done, and then whatever happened next would be worth it. He’d try to run. He probably wouldn’t get far, and he didn’t especially want to die for anyone, but...there were worse things.

What he really wanted was a second chance. He didn’t even want to think about the serious possibility that he might have cried wolf one too many times. He had so much to make up for, to so many, and...there were some things he needed to tell Bruce, too. He’d meant what he told Slade earlier. He did have a father--a living one. And even if Bruce didn’t feel the same...Dick wanted a chance to tell him that.

And that meant that he couldn’t afford to wait on this any longer.

He just needed to reach the central computer.

. . .

The thundering in his chest drowned out the echoing clank of gears, measuring the precious seconds as they passed. Dick grabbed a fistful of wires under the computer console and slashed through them with the knife he’d managed to smuggle out of the training room in his boot to use as a lockpick.

The computers from the end of the main room overlaid with the massive display screens were wired directly into the device that triggered the probes. He just needed to penetrate the initial defense system to tap into the system’s inner workings and then he’d be on his own turf, doing a simple job that he’d done a hundred times before. He would short-circuit the devices, rendering them completely harmless just so long as he did this correctly, and carefully…

The screen flickered with static, and as soon as it cleared his eager fingers were racing across the keyboard.

It took an instant too long to notice that new images had flickered onto the screen. Familiar ones. Layouts that displayed his friends’ vascular systems flooded with the mechanical infection.

At the bottom of each screen pulsed a single word that made his heart drop like a stone into the pit of his stomach:

[[Activated]]

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Dick whirled to see Deathstroke standing in the doorway. His arms were crossed almost casually, but his gaze through the mask was hard as stone.

Dick glanced desperately at the screen again. At the flashing activation alerts.

“You seem to have made a mistake, Renegade.” Deathstroke’s eye narrowed to a slit. “Need any help?”

“You need to...stop it,” Dick faltered, eyes darting again between the screen and Deathstroke’s face, “I...it...”

Deathstroke didn’t budge an inch, not in his posture leaning against the doorframe, and not in his gaze that remained unshifting from Dick’s face.

Deathstroke had known. He had known everything, and suddenly it sank in that he must have expected him to try this from the very beginning. He’d wired the computers with a failsafe to kill the Titans, and now he was waiting for something and Dick had no idea what more he wanted.

“Please,” he forced out, the word high and desperate and painfully unnatural, “Just make it stop!”

For an excruciating moment Dick could almost feel his own flesh crawling with the same nanotech that could be eating away at his friends from the inside out while he just stood there doing nothing and it was all his fault he was so stupid--

Deathstroke was pushing away from the door to approach the computer.

“I suppose,” he said dryly, typing rapidly until the pulsing lights faded to blank screens, “that there are other ways to deal with you.”

Dick was hemmed into the dusty corner beside the computer, with only Deathstroke standing between him and the broad space where he would have a fighting chance at running.

The instant Deathstroke’s fingers stilled over the keyboard, he bolted.

Deathstroke whipped around, sweeping out a leg that grazed Dick’s shins as he leapt back out of range. The evasion forced him to give ground and then sheer survival instinct consigned his entire being to blocking, dodging, and evading even while knowing that he was being herded ever further back into the corner.

He needed more space to avoid those lightning-quick reflexes that kept pace with his speed in a way that Batman never had--space that he didn’t have--and his resistance, restricted to the defensive by Deathstroke’s rapid-fire attacks, bought him less than a minute. He fell for a feint and Deathstroke’s grip closed around his wrist, twisted, and threw him.

The wall slammed into his back. It might have forced his lungs up his throat for the way his chest constricted. He gaped uselessly for air he couldn’t take in until the tightness receded into all-encompassing burning in...his ribs...

“Honestly,” Deathstroke’s voice was saying, and approaching, “how far did you think you would get. This place is as rigged over as you are.”

He wheezed, and couldn’t breathe--and his spotty vision cleared only just in time to raise his arms to absorb the brunt of Deathstroke’s kick. He had barely managed his first fresh breath before the next blow came--a fist to the gut that knocked the air out all over again. He barely felt the blow to his jaw that followed.

A knee rammed into his middle, and that was it, he was gagging, on his side, his entire body convulsing helplessly. Blood coated his teeth, his tongue, bubbling over his lips, claws were digging into his chest and he couldn’t breathe.

“So, Renegade,” Deathstroke was bending down; Dick wanted to move, his fingers twitched instead, “you don’t want this apprenticeship?” Fingers curled over his chest, twisting around kevlar till it ripped, dragging him off the floor; his eyes cracked open and Deathstroke’s mask was an inch from his face, twisted with undisguisable fury. “Well,” he hissed, “I want my son back. So it sounds like neither of us are about to get what we want.”

Deathstroke was straightening. He was hauling Dick toward the open doorway, Dick’s feet were skidding uselessly under him, and his eyes widened with alarmed realization. Grabbing Deathstroke’s wrist with both hands he struggled against the clamped iron fingers--and then Deathstroke let go.

Dick’s back slammed into the floor. He gagged a desperate, garbled cough, blinking at new stars spotting the shadowed ceiling. And then Deathstroke was grabbing his ankle. Pulling. He was being dragged.

Just aware enough to be alarmed, he flailed weakly in an attempt to right himself. Deathstroke just gave his ankle a yank that sent him flopping back down again. Cement dragged against his ribs, left them screaming with searing pain; he tried twisting sideways off the floor. Dizzying exhaustion dropped him before Deathstroke could do it himself. Blinking through swimming vision, he barely recognized his own door before Deathstroke yanked him through the opening.

The vicious motion might as well have broken his ribs all over again from the way the breath stole out of him. His teeth were clenched so tightly he thought they might break too.

He turned his head slightly, just enough to glimpse Deathstroke’s silhouette towering in the doorway.

“Enjoy the quiet,” it said, and the slamming door’s impact against the doorframe echoed across the floor and his ribs. The room drowned in complete darkness, and a soft click told him that the room would remain in that state indefinitely.

Slowly, he rolled onto his side, gritting his teeth to hold back the keen building up in the back of his throat. He touched his mask to activate night vision, and let his arm slump back onto the floor.

For now, there was no point in moving. He could just...rest here. Close his eyes, and try to choke down the acidic cocktail of blood, bile, and shame that coated his throat and gripped it like a vise.

#here's the next one!#and the laughing contest is canon btw #bad company #dick grayson #bruce wayne #slade wilson #the apprentice #teen titans #batfam #batman #deathstroke #alfred #bat family #fanfic #fanfiction #batman fanfiction #bad company ch 2 #ta #my writing

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tf2-hellhole · 3 years

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can we get some fluffy tf2 headcannons? giving you full creative liberty over this one! :)

Idk if you meant tf2 x reader headcanons or just general head canons, so I did two sections for each merc; the first point is a general headcanon, the second is X Reader.

sorry this took forEEEEEEEEVER, I was just experiencing burnout and working on a prize for a contest on my server (BTW WE HAVE A NEW DRAWING CONTEST GO CHECK IT OUT)

Scout:

Scout is actually really self-concious about his intelligence. He’s not very bright and he knows it, and it makes him feel horrible. He had flunked out of high school and struggled in most of his core classes. He honestly feels really stupid and he hates when people point it out. But luckily for him, a lot of the other mercs understand what it’s like to be looked down upon and empathize with him. Quite a few of them help him relearn the skills he never mastered in school. Engie helps him with math, Spy sometimes helps him with writing, and even Pyro has him read children’s books to them to improve his reading.

Scout absolutely loves little casual dates. Stuff like going out to eat lunch, going to the movies, maybe just cuddling up in his quarters and watching a movie. He tries to plan one every week. His dream date is taking you back to Boston to meet his family and go to a Red Sox game. But obviously, since you’re both in New Mexico at the time, he’s going to have to shelve that dream for a few years.

Soldier:

Soldier is an excellent raccoon dad. At first, the other mercenaries thought they’d all end up dead by the end of the month when he first found them. But surprisingly, they are are very well cared for. They’re all fed regularly and basically have his entire assigned quarters to themselves. He loves every single one of them dearly, even the ones that hiss and scratch him every time. The raccoons, at least some of them, are kind of like weird, quiet dogs, and actually get along pretty well with most of the other mercenaries.

Soldier is a surprisingly very physically affectionate partner, and he’s not at all opposed to PDA. He loves hand holding, cheek kisses, cuddles, the whole nine yards. Whenever he’s particularly excited, he loves to run up to you, scoop you up into his arms, and press a hard, sloppy kiss to your lips. Of course, he’s careful to not hurt you, but he’s a very intense, emotional guy and he needs to express all that love he has for you!

Pyro:

Pyro is and excellent listener, so they’re a person a lot of the other mercenaries depend on to vent. Demo often comes to them to vent about his emotions, Scout, Sniper, or Medic will rant about what’s bothering them, and even Engineer will talk about his stress. And of course, Pyro doesn’t understand a lot of what is told to them, but they’re still happy to help them feel a little better, and they would happily do it a hundred times over to make their friends feel better.

Pyro has a hobby of baking and making candy/treats, and they love sharing everything they make with you. When they first gave you a treat, you honestly thought it’d be burnt or bad in some other way. But to your surprise, it was amazing! They’re actually and excellent cook, but they just love making sweet things the best. They’ll make you just about anything you could ask for without hesitation, but they’re best at making anything sweet.

Demo:

Demo obviously has the potential to pretty emotional when he’s drunk, there’s no doubt about that. But on the off-chance that he’s sober, he’s actually pretty sweet and considerate. Though he still is a rough-housing joker, he’s much more considerate of his friends’ feelings and has deeper and more meaningful conversations with them. He often likes to go to bars with his friends and co-workers on ceasefire weekends, having lots of fun conversation, drinking together, and generally causing chaos around town.

Demo, to put it simply, doesn’t like himself. He’s critical of everything, from his skills to race, because people have always put him down about them. His mother told him he’s lazy and unskilled too many times to count, just everyone makes fun of his eye, and many have made fun of his skin color. But you make him feel so much better about himself. Just the fact that someone so kind and gorgeous is actually with him makes him feel like he’s not as horrible as he thought. There’s been a couple of times where you’ve accidentally almost brought him to tears with a sweet compliment or show of affection, because he never thought in a million years that someone would love him and care for him like you do. He feels so blessed that he has someone like you.

Heavy:

I know the fandom’s decided that Engie is the Team Mom and makes the food, but I also think that Heavy cooks a lot too. He makes all of his own food, so he often makes a lot of extras to feed the team because a lot of them just eat junk food and Medic’s always complaining about their eating habits. Heavy often takes like half the food for himself (he does have a huge appetite and loves food, so he likes to take a lot) and just boxes up the leftover portions and leaves them in the fridge for the team to take. He says he’s only doing it because they can’t work properly if they’re unhealthy, but he also does it because he cares about their health. A little bit.

At first, you wouldn’t think Heavy’s the most cuddly guy. But surprise, he actually loves giving and receiving physical affection. He just doesn’t show it often out of respect for your boundaries, and doesn’t do it around others. His absolute favorite thing is to cuddle you against his chest. Sometimes it’s when going to sleep, or cuddling on the couch, or maybe just a quick hug. He just loves the feeling of your head resting against his chest and your arms trying (and failing) to wrap around his torso. It makes him feel like you’re safe. Nobody could ever get you when you’re wrapped up in his arms.

Engie:

You’d think Sniper’s the only nature nerd on the team, but Engie absolutely loves the outdoors, as well as animals. It’s because his father would often take him out camping every couple of months. It was often the only time he would get 1-on-1 time with his usually very busy father. So he does love the great outdoors, especially that of his home state. He especially loves animals. He was raised on a farm and helped take care of lots of injured wild animals with his mother. He absolutely loves pets and would like to have many when he retires. His dream is to have is own ranch, with horses and cows and a bunch of dogs and the whole shebang.

Engie absolutely loves playing the guitar, so of course he loves playing for you. He learns all sorts of sweet love songs to sing to you. He’s an excellent player and actually has a pretty decent singing voice (think Johnny Cash, he kinda has that singing style). I hope you like country music, because that’s all he’s going to sing to you until you give him some requests or he finds out your favorite artists or genres. You can tell how happy he is every time he gets to surprise you with a new song he learned, and he’d be a giddy, laughing mess if you sang along with him.

Medic:

You’d think this guy takes horrible care of his birds because of the environment he keeps them in, but his birds are actually exceptionally well cared for. He buys them only the best and most expensive bird food, gives them super high-quality water with vitamins n stuff in it, takes them to the vet regularly, the whole shebang. Yeah they get a little dirty from sitting around in his lab, but he always gives them a little bath at the end of the day to get all the blood and guts off.

Medic is honestly such a playful partner. Of course, around his co-workers he’s a little more professional; he still gives you soft touches, a kiss on the cheek, or a big smile, but that’s about it. In private, however, he’s such a sweetheart. He’s always sweeping you up into big hugs, kissing all over your face, and calling you all sorts of adorable nicknames in a variety of languages. It comes as a surprise, because you’d think he’d be a little more formal, but that’s really only for special occasions. It honestly brings him so much joy to have someone like you by his side, and every day he’s going to make sure you know just how grateful he is to have you in his life.

Sniper:

Sniper is an incredibly independent and self-sufficient man, but he’s also secretly a real mama’s boy. He loves his parents dearly and has a particularly close relationship with his mother. As well as sending them money every month, he sends them all sorts of gifts, letters, postcards, and souvenirs. He also makes sure to call them regularly. He goes home every couple of months to visit them, and one could see that he loves helping around the house and chatting with his parents. His mother loved gardening, so his number-1 favorite thing to do is help her in the garden.

Despite Sniper’s obvious lack of knowledge on self-care, he takes a lot of time out of his day to make sure you are happy, healthy, clean, and well-fed. He doesn’t hound you like a helicopter parent but he likes to ask how you’re feeling, if you’re hungry, stuff like that. It feels nice to know you’re taken care of or take care of you himself. If you switch it around and try to take care of him, however, he’s honestly baffled as to why you would care so much as to make sure he’s doing well. He does absolutely love the affection and attention he gets out of it though, it makes him feel loved.

Spy:

I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a head canon that Spy has a dog. Her name is Charlotte, and she’s an elderly Chihuahua. One would think he’d buy a French breed, but he found her out in the pouring rain one day and fell in love with her fluffy ears and spunky personality. She’s now 17 years old, extremely frail, missing most of her teeth, and extremely aggressive to anyone other than Spy, but he loves her dearly and pays for all of her medical expenses without batting an eye. And of course, she expresses her thanks with lots of kisses.

Spy loves dancing, and knows all kinds of dances, from flamenco to ballroom dancing to the Charleston to, canonically, disco. So of course, he’s dying to share all of the most romantic dances he knows with you. He’d love to actually teach you how to dance, rewarding you with kisses every time you finally get a move right and laughing softly when you make mistakes. But in reality, he just wants to use it as an excuse to dance with you against his chest and smother you in affection.

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 x reader #tf2 x s/o #tf2 x y/n #tf2 x you #tf2 imagines #tf2 headcanons #tf2 scout #tf2 soldier #tf2 pyro #tf2 demoman #tf2 heavy #tf2 engineer #tf2 medic #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy

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feralaot · 3 years

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do you think you can do Levi and Hange head cannons? Platonic and/or Romance, you can chose. I just love those two. I love your Head Canons Btw!!

absolutely!! I love their dynamic both as friends and as partners, they’re just so good either way

Levi + Hange headcanons 💖

no warnings

mix of canon setting and modern setting

hange is a big bad conniving bastard and levi is the poor sod that realizes he’s in trouble in every possible sense of the word whenever hange comes at him with a new idea

we already know that levi is a clean freak and hange is a walking mess so he will often clean hange’s room out of nowhere and hange loses their fucking mind because they can’t find any of their stuff, it’s all organized, too organized

mike can smell the mutual pining from a mile away, literally

levi steals hange’s jackets because he likes baggy clothes and hange always go bonkers and hugs him (if he allows it) because they think it’s adorable

levi has sensory issues and pressure stims calm him down a lot, if he’s visibly agitated hange will squeeze his arm, lean against him, hug him if he’s okay with it, etc. it’s very soothing and keeps him grounded

when hange is having restless nights where their mind is racing they’ll go to see levi because they know he’s always awake late into the night. levi and hange will just lay down and face each other, talking about things for a while until one or both manages to fall asleep.

hange is one of only two people that has seen levi cry, the other being erwin

they have random staring contests usually initiated by hange that will just go on for several minutes at a time until hange starts laughing

levi adjusts hange’s clothes a lot because their sleeves are always uneven, their collar is hanging off one shoulder, etc and he knows they do it on purpose but will go bonkers if he doesn’t fix it

hange will hug levi from behind and rest their head on top of his then just sway back and forth like that for a bit. it’s very relaxing to both of them and there has been at least one instance where they both fell asleep like that while sitting

their love language is very physical rather than verbal and they tend to hug, cuddle, or hold hands more than declare their feelings for each other in words. levi is the little spoon, of course

levi has to trim hange’s hair himself because they tried to do it themselves one time and ended up with an uneven shag haircut. he also has to force them to wash their hair because it’s always greasy

their favorite thing to watch together on netflix is nature documentaries but levi often falls asleep during them because he lays his head in hange’s lap and they stroke his hair which makes him fall asleep within minutes

for that matter hange is the only one that is allowed to touch levi’s hair

they have two massive labradors named sawney and beane and hange baby-talks them constantly. when they adopted them levi said the dogs aren’t allowed to sleep on the bed but it got to the point where he couldn’t stop them so now levi and hange let their dogs sleep with them

levi is really good at cooking and will often make dinner for both of them because on the other hand hange can and will blow something up if they try to cook. they manage to burn toast

they have matching crocs that hange forced levi to wear as a joke one time but he actually likes them and will wear them to walk the dogs, go shopping, etc. the rest of the gang makes fun of him for it but he doesn’t see the problem

#head empty just levihan #shingeki no kyoujin #snk #attack on titan #headcanons #levi ackerman #hange zoe #hanji zoe #hans zoe #levihan #levi x hange #requests #anon #feralshcs

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slutforgoodliterature · 4 years

Text

Draco Malfoy x Original Female Character - Devil In Me (part I)

DID SOMEBODY SAY DRACO MALFOY?!?! *cheering erupts as I arise from the grave*

Trying something a little different with this one! should be about 3-5 parts, lots of nice smut but also a pinch of character development, a smattering of fluff, a sprinkle of angst and (shock horror) an original female character??

Let me know how y’all feel about this, should be fun!

BTW IT IS SET IN THEIR FIFTH YEAR (GOF) TIME BUT IS NOT CANON OK? OK.

“Hufflepuff!”

The shout echoes off the stone walls of the great hall and I slide off the chair, praying I didn’t leave any sweat marks behind me; it would be just my luck. Walking over to the table of cheering Hufflepuffs all wrapped up in their yellow scarves, I try not to let my prejudices get the better of me.

But seriously, Hufflepuff is the worst house, everyone knows that. It’s for the kids who don’t belong anywhere else: the rejects. We’re basically just a band of outcasts with a reputation for being overly friendly. Maybe it is the perfect house for me.

“Welcome to Hufflepuff! My name’s Phillip, I’m head boy. Come take a seat next to all the other first years.” A heavyset boy with an upturned nose and big eyes welcomes me warmly. I shake his pudgy hand and slide in next to an asian girl with jet black hair. She smiles awkwardly at me.

“Hi, I’m Joe.” She says over the uproar coming come Gryffindor table; a lanky kid with fire-truck red hair slinks over to them.

“I’m Marnie. Nice to meet you.” I smile back, hoping to god I’ve just made my first friend.

“Draco Malfoy!” The voice of the hat booms out and a pale kid with white blonde hair saunters up to the chair. He has an unmistakable air of confidence and he smirks as the hat hover above his head for a second before declaring loudly: “SLYTHERIN!”

“God, he looks like a twat.” Joe says to me. I laugh in agreement, something about his eyes reminds me of a snake slowly constricting around its prey and watching them closely with sick fascination, waiting for them to notice that the end is nigh.

“Too right. I tell you what, I’d rather be in Hufflepuff than in Slytherin.” We both turn up our noses at the raucous table full of green scarves and sly smiles.

“I’m with you on that one mate, bunch of lunatics over there. No wonder they keep them in the dungeons.” I laugh loudly at Joe’s remark and the silver haired boy, Draco I think, looks up at me. Our eyes meet and my laugh dies off, quickly turning into an awkward stare down which he wins without contest. I look away quickly and study the engravings on my fork.

“Don’t look now, but Mister Albino just caught me laughing at him.” I whisper to Joe. She very obviously whips her head up and stares back at him.

“Oh yeah. He just saw me look as well. Awkward.” She goes red and we both duck our heads down.

“That’s why I told you not to look, dumbo!” I whisper yell at her, giving her a side-eye through the curtain of my brown hair.

“Well sorry! There’s a reason I’m in Hufflepuff, not Ravenclaw!” She whisper yells back, and we both burst into uncontrolled laughter.

Yep, I’ve definitely made my first friend.

FOUR YEARS LATER

“Ugh, you’d think they didn’t know what a shower was in Romania.” Joe turns up her nose as some exceedingly smelly Durmstrang students skulk pas.

“Is that where they’re from?” I ask absentmindedly, flicking lazily though the pages of The Quibbler. My head is resting on Joe’s back and we lounge in the sun, enjoying the final days of summery weather. Joe picks at the grass, her feet kicking in the air behind her.

“What are you two losers doing?” A gleeful voice calls out across the grounds. Our friend Reggie makes his way over, not without gawking at some Beauxbatons girls strutting past.

“Something that requires more than your one braincell, sorry Reg.” I quip back as he nears us.

“Yeah, sorry mate! You don’t meet the requirements for our exclusive club.” Joe squints up at Reggie as he towers over us, which he doesn’t do often. The five-foot eight blondie with cherubic features is cute, in like a coochie-coochie-coo way. A shame, really, as Reggie has the biggest crush on Joe, who I’m pretty sure has no idea.

“Damn, and all this time I thought you were too threatened by my knack for comedic timing to be my friends.” He pouts playfully and splays on the grass next to us.

“I think an owl shat down your back.” Joe points out, sending Reggie into a fit; rolling all over the grass.

“What?! Get it off me! Where??” He squeals, trying to tug his robes around to see the back.

“There’s no owl shit, is there.” I mutter to Joe, not trying to hide my smile.

“Of course not.” She whispers back before pointing to an unreachable spot on Reggie’s back. “Just there, Reg! You’re so close!”

He rolls towards us with unexpected speed and begins to steamroll on top of Joe, which I guess has more to do with an excuse to be near her than any imagined owl shit.

“And this is my cue, see you lovebirds back in the common room later.” I laugh as I heave myself off the ground, slinging my book bag over my shoulder.

“What! Where you going?” Joe looks up at me from under a writhing blonde.

“I need to return some books to the library and give Professor McGonagall her copy of trans-fig four back. I spilt ink on mine, remember?”

“Okay Marnie! See ya later!” Reggie has no problem waving me goodbye and pretty soon, Joe is back to laughing in fits as he continues to roll around.

I walk back into the school and start making my way towards the library. I see a flash of silver and green disappear into an empty classroom as I turn into a deserted hallway. Draco Malfoy.

Curious, I creep quietly towards the door. As I near it, I begin to hear sniffles and shuddering breaths. Is he... crying?!

Not wanting to intrude on an obviously private moment, I back away slowly. Before I can make it two steps, however, the door swings open and there stands an incredibly pissed Draco Malfoy.

I freeze in my place, looking up at him startled. I didn’t mean for him to know that I knew that he was crying, but now, as he stares down at me with his cold blue eyes and permanent scowl, I know that he knows that I know that he was crying.

Good god.

“I’m... I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.” I straighten up, looking up at his towering figure sincerely.

“Eavesdropping a habit for you, is it?” He spits at me.

“No, it isn’t. I heard crying and just wanted to make sure that whoever it was was ok.” I explain, holding my hands out in a pacifying way.

“You’re a stupid little busy body, go stick you nose elsewhere.” His anger only rises as I stand my ground.

“Well that was unnecessarily rude, wasn’t it?” I raise an eyebrow at him, crossing my arms. He looks taken aback.

“Who do you think you are? You’re just a stupid Hufflepuff.” He laughs devilishly down at me, taking a step forward towards me.

“And you’re an emotionally fragile little boy who can’t see a helping hand if it slapped him.” I shoot back. “Apparently.” I add, unsure as to why he was crying and not wanting to jump to any conclusions.

“Help?” He scoffs, laughing sarcastically. “Does it look like I need help?” He spreads his arms out to apparently show all the great things he has going for him, but all I see is a sullen, silver haired boy with red rimmed eyes, wet eyelashes and dark circles as deep as tartarus,

“I don’t know, Draco, I’m not the one crying in empty classrooms. Do you need help?” I ask him sincerely, taking a step towards him. My mother always said that too much of anything was a bad thing, including compassion. That was always going to be the death of me. I’d likely get stabbed by someone and hope it made them feel better.

“Not from the likes of you.” He seethes

“Well, no accounting for bad taste. See you around.” I shrug, turning my back on Draco and continuing down the hall. Silence stretches out and the only sound is the clop of my shoes on the concrete.

“I know who you are, Marnie Millicent.” He calls out after me, and the way he says my name has the hair on my neck standing up. “You’re on my radar now.” Although it sounds like a threat, I’m not too sure what being on Draco’s ‘radar’ entails.

“Like I said, see you around.” I call back just before rounding the hallway and attempting to wipe any trace of Draco from my mind.

But just like a red wine stain on white leather, he won’t leave.

#draco fanfiction #draco malfoy

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facepalming-since-chernobyl · 4 years

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My dear assholes, I’m wheezing. RachelBerry of SC fandom called us LITTLE GANG OF MERRY HOMOPHOBES.

All because of this conversation on twitter (x)

This brings my ass to some salty thoughts.

First of all, something controversial. Have you realized how we are called homophobes all the time, because we don’t like or support a white privileged bitch, who tortured, kidnapped, experimented on people without their consent, put nanobots in people’s brains and made them slaves, fucked entire world and tried to lobotomize whole humanity, who is xenophobe/alienphobe, murderer and supporter of corruped alienphobic president and neo-nazis, a bitch who has never face consequcences of her shit, ENJOYS RIDING DICKS and is not even confirmed LGBT character?

Also, a lot of us are lgbt members, many of us support and love Alex, Kelly, Maggie and Nia or ship Kara with other females. Yet, here we are.

Secondly, if we are homophobes, because we don’t like Lena, then I don’t know how to call people who happily hated on REAL life POC actors and other cast members, writers and producers (sent them death threats!!!!), and support Lena Luthor who is all I have mentioned above. How to call people who blindly stan her?

Thirdly, the RachelBerry of SC fandom *applause!* said we don’t understand a “troubled woman”. Yes, Lena Luthor is that troubled woman what gives her, I guess, all rights to do whatever she wants, because you know ,dramatic past. Like Kara, J’onn, M’gann, Oliver, Barry, Sarah and basically EVERY hero in DC universe didn’t have bad past and experienced. But Lena, for some reason, has a free pass and can do whatever she wants. It sounds like shit made by brainwashed fans to excuse some celebrity that was exposed as problematic.

Next, I think that SC shippers and Lena stans don’t get something very obvious. That we don’t like Lena and don’t ship her with Kara, not because we hate the idea of Kara being with a woman, but because Lena Luthor is a FUCKING ABUSIVE TOXIC HUMAN TRASH THAT DESERVES TO ROT IN JAIL. She hurt Kara like no one else, in every possible way, mentally and physicallly and they say they are fucking SOULMATES.

And that’s the main problem why it’s impossible to talk with SCs and Lena stans. As long as they don’t admit that Lena Luthor has done horrible shit and stop EXCUSING her countless shit we can’t have a real conversation with them. But, we all know they don’t want to discuss shit, all they want is to trash others, hide behind so called representation and look like they have some better rights to get what they want.

Let’s come back to the RachelBerry of SC fandom.

Aside of the fact she already:

1. Send her minions after SG writers to demand making SC canon when the pandemia started, because you know, writers, when they are afraid of losing jobs and having financial problems, and when people die in general, should focus on what SC want.

2.She claims she is the writer aka part of the group and she still she keeps throwing shit at her OWN people.

3.She keeps criticising actors who post things on social media. All. The. Time.

But the tweets above? Fucking hilarious. Perfect example of manipulating and twisting reality.

What people? Basically, only SC/Lena stans hate on the actors. Btw, suddenly she says why do people hate on the actors - so what? Did she just admit MANY PEOPLE hate on actors? So there IS a problem?

When the actors did all what RachelBerry of SC fandom mentioned? WHEN? On SDCC17? When they sang a song? I guess Melissa, Katie and Sam, who were laughing their asses off mocked the people too? WHEN any of them said something about SCs being DELUSIONAL? And yeah, Staz was happy because SupergirlRadio asked people to write fics for CHARITY contest, where William is the horse Comet (from comic books) and RachelBerry of SC fandom immediatelly figured out they were asking for Kara x William fics. Boy, the REACHING.

The RachelBerry of Sc fandom knows the actors personally and knows they are not bad people. And ironically, all she sais about the fands applies to SC/Lena fandom.

But you know what is the saddest shit here? A person who claims is fighting for minorities, representation etc. is constantly shitting on POC actors and characters, excuses the hate scs have been sending to everyone who thinks differently for years, person who happily calls people homophobes without any valid reason, this person thinks she has any rights to sound and act high and mighty.

Dear God, someone should unpack it.

Anyway, I’m disgusted.

Her whole tumblr post under the cut.

#anti sc fandom #toxicorps #my shit #na pohybel skurwysynom #veni vidi vici

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gale-gentlepenguin · 5 years

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ML AU: Childhood Soulmates: The Queen’s Battle arc

Style Queen

-Marinette won the design contest just like in canon and her design gets to be seen in Gabriel’s fashion show for Fashion week.

-Marinette didn’t need reminding about Adrien’s allergy. (In fact it was something Marinette knew and got a synthetic feather during Mr.Pigeon).

-Sabrina tagged along with Chloé this time because Chloé wanted to seem more commanding. Sabrina complied, but is not amused by it.

-Marinette is super excited about it, and also incredibly nervous. ( Audrey Bourgeious is a rather vicious Fashion critic) plus she is Chloé’s Mother. Of course Chloé would try to sabotage her.

-When Marinette bumps into Chloé, Chloé is more vicious mocking the hat. Audrey remaining silent as she looks at it. Marinette doesn’t deny that it’s her hat. She simply appologizes for bumping into them and leaves with that hat with Nathalie. The assistant gives the girl a piece of advice on not letting these critics faze her. “Everyone’s a critic it doesn’t make her special that she is a harsh one.”

-Marinette arrives and Adrien happily greets his friend. “I assume I’ll be modeling more of your designs in the future.” He gives a playful wink, helping ease the nervous designers nerves.

-Adrien assuring her that her hat is awesome and that he isn’t biased just because he is her future husband.

-Marinette laughs and tells him to be serious. Marinette kisses her friend’s cheek as a thanks for cheering her up. Adrien is positively glowing.

-The seat fiasco with Audrey happens and Nathalie is even colder about it. Which gets Audrey to get akumatized.

-Adrien gets statueified like in canon.

-Chloé not being close with Adrien as in canon has little information to give to her akumatized mother. It’s Sabrina who tells the information because Chloé has Sabrina research Adrien to get information to Impress the blond model, (that failed btw)

-Sabrina is ‘Hired’ as Style queen’s assistant, Chloé almost got turned into a statue but Sabrina insisted that two assistants are better then one. Style queen agreed.

-Sabrina is also the one that convinces Audrey to leave ladybug. She and Chloé guide her to the Agreste mansion.

-Marinette actually tries to give the bee miraculous to Sabrina after she failed to give it to alya but Style queen intervened.

-After that The akuma battle goes identical to canon, including Marinette losing the bee miraculous which Chloé finds.

-Gabriel feeling worse about his failure, because Nathalie calls him out more.

-Ladybug giving Adrien a lift back to the fashion show. She offered Sabrina, but the girl declines, saying she should stay with Chloé.

-Sabrina is the one that finds the box, but Chloé snags it, saying she will look at it later. Sabrina thought it looked really familar, but Chloé took it before she could recognize it. (She only saw the box for a second when Ladybug tried to offer it to her, so it didn’t leave a ton of impact, Ladybug didn’t even get to say what was in the box)

-Pollen meets Chloé just like in canon

Queen Wasp

-Gabriel does everything from renouncing Nooru to hugging his son later at the show. Sabine comments that Gabriel is finally acting more like a father for once. Marinette is happy for Adrien.

-Audrey seeing Marinette’s hat again and absolutely loving it. Adrien encouraging Marinette to take credit for the hat like in canon. Audrey Offering her the New York position. Chloé is even more angry about this.

-Audrey is just as cold with her dismissal of Chloé as in canon. Sabrina however steps up and defends Chloé. Chloé however tells Sabrina to shut up, much to her surprise. Chloé says that exceptional people don’t need unexceptional ones to defend them. Sabrina was very hurt by the statement. And runs off crying. Gabriel having a mental reflex of wanting to run off and akumatize Sabrina but holds off.

-Chloé reveals herself as Queen bee just like in canon. And everyone dismisses it just like in canon.

- Chloé/Queen bee causes the Fiasco with the subway.

-Ladybug and Chat noir have to fix it. And they both call out Queen bee. Chat noir finds out that Ladybug lost a miraculous. He pulls her aside for a moment to ask what Happened.

-Ladybug telling him it was a mistake and that he also lost his before. Chat noir concedes because he can’t really say anything regarding that.

-The ask her to return the miraculous.

-Hawkmoth back at it again with them akumatization because Chloé/Queen bee.

- The fight with Queen Wasp is identical to the one in the show.

-It’s after the fight that things change.

-Chloé refuses to return the miraculous at first after Audrey reaffirms her statement about Chloé. Sabrina shows up again this time not taking crap from Chloé or Audrey.

-“You claim she is unexceptional, well then you must be even worse because only an unexceptional person would make their daughter feel like garbage.”

-This causes Audrey to get mad. Sabrina turns to Chloé. “I know you can be exceptional. Show ladybug and Chat noir too.”

-Chloé smiles at Sabrina and decides to give back the bee miraculous. She appologizes to the two heroes.

-Ladybug and Chat noir smile back before leaving.

-The helicopter scene plays out the same.

- Audrey takes back her comments and hugs her daughter.

-Adrien joined Tom, alya and Marinette as they played video games. Marinette comments that she couldn’t leave her best friends. Giving a wink to Tikki to.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml au #childhood soulmates au #adrienette #adrinette #ladrien #sabrina raincomprix #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #chloé bourgeois #audrey bouette #style queen #queen wasp #the queen's battle arc #chat noir #ladybug #queen bee

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secret-engima · 4 years

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OH BUT as long as we've got the whole canon-meets-au thing fresh in mind, imagine Regis meeting Regina. Or Regina!Noctis casually breaking everyone's minds when he tells them his mom is Queen Regina and it's really weird seeing her counterpart as a man -

*screeches in* YOOOOOO DID NOT MEAN TO FOGRET I HADN’T ANSWERED THIS BECAUSE IT’S AN AWESOME IDEA. BUT I’M HERE NOW SO LETS RAMBLE (note that I shall refer to the canon counterparts of everyone but Regis as C!Name to differentiate from Regina’s crew):

-It’s C!Cid that encounters them first. Because of course he is. They trickled into Hammerhead after an Encounter with Solheim magic, and C!Cid gets this ... feeling of confused doom when he sees the Regalia plus like- two motorcycles trundle into Hammerhead.

-The feeling of doom multiplies when out of the Regalia climbs a lot of familiar faces, plus three not-so-familiar faces and one face that should be familiar except its FEMALE.

-Regina gets off her motorcycle (that Cor is perched on the back of btw) looks around this larger, busier Hammerhead with fascinated eyes, then turns and grins at her Sun, “Found civilization!”

-Cid and C!Cid are already staring at each other, and Cid just- SIGHS heavily at Regina’s chipper mood, “Ah blame ya for everything about this, ‘Gina.”

-Regina just laughs and C!Cid can feel a headache coming on.

-C!Cid, after hearing their jumbled story and learning why the group is both bigger and younger than it was in his timeline (TIMELINES. FRAGGIT REGGIE THIS IS YOUR FAULT SOMEHOW HE KNOWS IT), grumbles and herds them all off to Insomnia. Because this is Reggie’s problem and he’s going to deal with it. Not C!Cid thank you.

-Needless to say, this was NOT how Regis expected his afternoon to go. A servant comes to inform him that Cid Sophiar is waiting in one of the guest lounges with a sizable group of young adults and teens, Regis and C!Clarus exchanged baffled looks before rounding up C!Cor and trundling down to greet their old friend and his apparent gaggle of strange young ones.

-They walk in right as Cor tries, yet again, to best Regina in combat as per their deal for his coming along with them on this trip. Regina doesn’t even blink as she disarms the feral Bby Cloud and pins him to the floor with her boot on his neck, still casually chatting with Ardyn and Titus the entire time.

-Regis and the C!Co all stare. Because What.

-Seeing the goggle eyed king, C!Cid greets his old friends, then immediately yeets them under the bus by calling over Clarus and saying, “Clarus, this is Clarus. His Reggie did something stupid in them old Solheim ruins and now they’re here. Ah figured they’d have a better chance getting home here than in Hammerhead.”

-While C!Clarus gapes and younger Clarus eyes his older counterpart with some wariness, C!Cid takes possibly too much glee in introducing the rest of Regina’s motley cast of misfits (Cor is still struggling under Regina’s shoe, turning slightly blue in the face because of his refusal to yield). Weskham is all polite manners and mischievous smirks as he greets the C!cast and ... admittedly stares in worried fascination at Regis (a MALE Regina, that must have been an interesting change to their childhoods, he’s so ... off balance too, Regina hadn’t even blinked at the dimensional travel problem, yet this counterpart looks like he needs a good sit down and a glass of water, and is that a CANE he’s using? Whatever for? He’s not that old-).

-C!Cid, because he is a troll at heart, introduces Regina LAST. Admittedly, Regis and C!Co should have been expecting it by the time they were introduced to the counterpart of Sylva and C!Cid had pointed out the wheezing, snarling Corling on the floor, and YET-.

-Regina looks up with perfect timing from where she’d been trying to talk Cor into just yielding already before he passed out, smiles a smile that is positively Fae and introduces herself, “Regina Lucis Caelum, Crown Princess of Lucis, daughter of King Mors and current runaway fugitive from said father.” She tilts her head as Regis makes a faint dying whale noise, her grin still in place as she muses, “Somehow I thought I’d be ... taller if I was male. But we’re about the same height actually.”

-C!Clarus manages to stay upright himself long enough to help Regis to a chair. Then they both sit down hard. Weskham calmly begins pulling a tea set out of armiger out of sympathy while Titus just- sighs and Ardyn shyly points out to Regina that she could have broken the news a little more gently and also Corling is eighty percent passed out so she might want to let him up now.

-”Not until he yields,” Regina retorts cheerfully, then looks down at the twitching Cor and comments, “You know that if you pass out, I’m going to do something embarrassing to you. So pick your poison, Murder Child, the embarrassment of yielding? Or letting me do whatever I want while you’re unconscious?”

-Glaring pure murder and hate, Corling slaps the floor three times with a hand. Regina takes her boot off his neck and lets his wheeze curses into the floor as she turns and examines the C!cast with a critical eye. She spots adult C!Cor, who has been drifting steadily closer with a feral fascination in his gaze, and smiles like the sun, “Murder Child! You grow up into such a lovely Murder Adult!”

-Cor wheezes something profane from the floor while C!Cor raises an eyebrow and Cid sighs heavily as he helps Cor up from the floor and gives him a canteen of water to help his throat.

-In the midst of watching this ... entire Thing play out, something finally clicks into place in Regis’s brain and he manages a strangled, “Runaway fugitive?”

-Regina casually flops onto the arm of the chair Regis is sitting in, kicking her legs almost like a child as she chirps, “Yep! Ran away at fourteen because Prophecies, but Daddy Dearest,” there is a definite sneer when she says that and a flash of almost murderous magic in her eyes, “didn’t believe me. So I’m a fugitive from his Crownsguard. Have been for a few years now. Murder Child over there was the latest attempt to bring me back to the Citadel, but it didn’t work and now he’s my Cloudy Murder Child.”

-”Stop calling me Murder Child!”

-”It’s that or Baby Cloud, Murder Child, take your pick.”

-Cor snarls at her while Titus snickers and Clarus looks to the heavens in exasperation. Regina continues her story to an increasingly horrified Regis, “Anyway, ran away at fourteen, was not believed that I was on a Holy Quest, or that I had good reasons for asking the Oracle Princess to come with me on my quest.”

-Sylva, from where she is loyally lurking next to Ardyn and sipping on Weskham’s tea, points out, “You broke into my room in the middle of the night and we left before dawn. I’m fairly certain the world thinks you kidnapped me, ‘Gina, my mother’s proclamations to the contrary or no.”

-”Kidnapped, asked, semantics,” retorts Regina, blatantly not caring when C!Clarus makes a garbled noise of protest at that (and HOW is Regis’s counterpart this ... blasé and insane? Seriously being a different gender should NOT make this much a difference right? RIGHT?)

-C!Cor who is the only canon member coping with this well (C!Cid is already drinking the whiskey Cid passed him in sympathy), asks, “And the Chancellor of Niflheim is with you because....?”

-Regina tilts her head at C!Cor with genuine confusion, “Who? Ardyn? He’s not Niflheim’s anything. I broke him out of Angelgard.”

-In the horrified silence that follows that proclamation, C!Cid dryly comments, “Does yer pa think yer planning a coup or something, cause it sure sounds like ya are.”

-He Regrets™ opening his mouth an instant later when Regina spaces out at the wall with a LOOK in her violet-tinted eyes. Clarus’s head snaps around from where he was holding a staring contest with C!Cor and goes very pale, “Regina no.”

-Regina curls her lips into something too inhuman and cruel to be a smile as she whines, “But my Storm-Shield....”

-Clarus stomps over to physically collar her, as if that will stop the idea from taking root, “No. We’re in enough trouble as it is.” He narrows his eyes at her and growls, “If you plot a coup against Mors so help me I am NEVER doing paperwork for you again. Ever. You’ll have to deal with every scrap of paper your mess generates from now until the end of time. Besides,” he adds with a hint of hysteria in his tone that indicates he is well and truly trying to talk Regina out of an idea (that indicates that Regina is taking C!Cid’s sarcastic comment SERIOUSLY), “Ardyn’s already lived through one royal coup, you’re not going to make him live through one again are you?”

-Regina’s expression falls into a pout as she glances at the suddenly very subdued Ardyn, “....Fine. No royal coups.”

-Cor makes a noise of vague disappointment that makes C!Cor stare at his younger self in alarm, and in the various strangled noises from the C!Cast, Weskham calmly begins passing out cups of tea to soothe the nerves. Weskham sees Regis’s wide-eyed look and smiles a little ruefully, “I would like to say, Your Majesty, that she isn’t usually like this, but I’m afraid I would be lying.” Weskham looks innocently over at C!Clarus, who looks a half-step away from having some kind of heart attack, and asks, “Your Regis wasn’t like this as a teenager?”

-The resounding, scandalized NO from C!Cid, C!Clarus, and Regis himself makes Regina cackle.

#SE asks #hamelin-born asks #Forged in Fury verse #Melodies and Manuscripts #Secret Engima Rambles #Regina meets Regis #Regis is not prepared #no one is prepared #all of the canon cast are two steps from a heart attack #except Cor #because Cor #and yes #Regina calls her Cor 'Murder Child'#because it fits and she finds it funny #Cor tolerates only because the alternative #is Baby Cloud #and his ego cannot deal with that

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franeridart · 6 years

Note

Hi hello love ur art is amazing and inspiring! Sorry I'm hyper. Also I have question! Been wondering for a while actually but like Diamond Bakugou right? Like how tall is he? Cause I know the diamonds have different heights so I was wondering exactly (actually both him and Kirishima) if he is like Blue and Yellow or like Pink?? Ily💜

Thank you so so much!!! And I guess more around Pink’s height? But to be honest with you while doodling those sketches I was like “...it’s su no one will get on my case if I go off-model” lmao so I can’t say I have any set height in mind, he’s just... tol lol

Anon said:it took me two straight days to hit the bottom of your blog in just the bakushima tag- then I realized in the tags for it you said "I promised myself I wouldn't draw for this fandom" - hmm, your art is amazing btw

LMAO anon you don’t get it, the fact that since then I spent two whole years doing little less aside from drawing bnha is exactly the reason why I didn’t want to start hahaha I could feel this was how it was going to end r i p

Anon said:I pre-ordered TMH zine and I'm super excited cause there's so many amazing content creators involved and just... Kiri and Baku you know? What's not to love! Anyway just wanted to say I'm most excited for your comic! Since I absolutely adore all your art and comics and from your preview it looks awesome!! So yeah! Thank you for all the amazing things you've created so far and I'm really looking forward to whatever you feel like making in the future too!! Oh also I love your OCs!

OH MAN thank you SO MUCH for buying it!!!! I really hope youre gonna like the comic, I worked so hard on it !! ;^;

Anon said:i'm sorry that i'm throwing this at you but concept: bakusquad goes to an amusement park ft. spinning teacup rides where baku and kiri spin it so fast it breaks while kaminari's crying, sero's laughing, and mina's recording it

hAH the only way you can get Bakugou in a spinning teacup is to allow him to turn them into an extreme ride there’s no doubts about that hahaha

Anon said:hey! I know you don't allowed respots but, can I use your art as icon? like for tumblr and twitter? if I can't I'll understand and respect. thank you for your time ❤️

It’s cool as long as you credit!! Thank u for liking my stuff enough to want to use it like that!!

Anon said:I love all your art!!! And ahhhhh your new costume sketches are so freaking good!!! First, thank you for being amazing!! And second, I was wondering if you'd be ok with it if I used one of them as my phone background? Totally understand if not! Thanks!

NO PROBS AT ALL thank you SO MUCH for liking them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:What do you think of BKDK?

Don’t ship, but I’m highly invested in their canon relationship and its development!

Anon said:I am way more invested in Luca and Nico than I should be. XD I really love Luca a lot, your ocs are really interesting and the art is so pretty.

Thank you so muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch ;O;

Anon said:The only thing I can think on Kiri's hero costume on winter, is Bakugou getting extremely flustered and yelling that Kiri is gonna poke someones eye out. 'Cause them nipples hard baby.

That seems to be the general feeling of the whole fandom, doesn’t it hahahaha it’s real tho, Kiri it’s winter pls don’t die

Anon said:Ever heard of Bo Burnham? In one of his sketches, he says "The issue is, I got my father's temper and I'm emotionally inarticulate, so rather than being honest and vulnerable I did a quick switch because I'm hurting inside and I'm trying to hide it, so eat a d[u]ck man"; swap "father" with "mother", and isn't that the best description of Bakugou anyone could have ever offered?

Never heard of him before, but this is pretty damn accurate haha

Anon said:You said you think Katsuki's ticklish (which is just too much fun to imagine), but what about Kiri? Does he take advantage of it? Do they strike you as a couple that would engage in tickle fights, which maybe start as sparring? or the opposite, a tickle fight becomes a full-blown grappling contest?

Kiri definitely takes advantage of it and the worst thing is that it’s not even a fight cause with Kirishima’s quirk he’s completely immune to tickling (and also attempts at other types of attacks in general - explosions - to make him stop) so once he manages to get a hold of Bakugou and start tickling him all Bakugo can do is yell and cry-laugh and hate him a lot hahaha

Anon said:Date-Dave Anon here. Since Dave isn't really the date type, do /you/ wanna go on a date? Somewhere classy. Like the cheesecake factory or something.

A n o n ple a s e ................... !!!!!!!!!! (a cheesecake factory does sound pretty neat tho :O )

Anon said:Could you draw Momojirou cuddling please? Thank you! ♡

Yes I could! I’m not taking requests nor commissions right now tho so I’d ask you to wait till I got a moment to spare I don’t wanna waste on the usual krbk de-stressing doodles haha

Anon said:i bought the tmh zine just so i could have a physical version of your art :3 and krbk of course

;;;;;;;;; omg thank you so much!! I really hope you’ll like the whole zine, it’s such a good one imho !!!

Anon said:Do you know what mbti/16 personality test is? And if so do you know what yours is?

Seems like I’m an INFJ :0

Anon said:Im so happy you shared the names of your ocs because i absolutely love them! There one of my favorite things on your posts! I was really interested in Tony and Ila so it was nice to finally know there names!!! Keep up the good work your amazing!!!

SOB I’M SO GLAD YOU LIKE THEM THEY’RE MY SOFT KIDS specifically Ila and Tony they’re very very soft and I’m very very happy you’re interested in them ;^;

Anon said:hi I like ur art and ur awesome ❤

THANK YOU!!!!

Anon said:Do you have any other ships that are as strong as kiribaku for you?

They’re my otp so no lol in the past I’ve had ships just as strong as them, but currently they’re my main source of entertainment and strong feelings - I do have other ships that make me go !!!!!!!!!!!!!! a lot, both in bnha and in general, but none as strong as krbk are :D

Anon said:that drawing of nico with his hair up i wanna cry. i am now thoroughly invested in luca and nico both as a pair and individually and i really hope to see more of them in the future because THEY BRIGHTEN MY DAY AND FUEL MY SOUL AND YOU ARE A LOVELY HUMAN.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really hope to draw more about them, so thank you SO MUCH for being interested!!!! ;O;

Anon said:do you have an opinion on the ship ocha*mina (ashido and uraruka)??

I guess they’re cute? But I don’t have any strong opinion about them, I have a lot of mina ships I like better and generally I’m at best lukewarm about ura ships ngl

#fran answers #more answers in less than a week!!#i feel so productive my guys #*wipes tear* go me #anonymous

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positivelyamazonian · 7 years

Note

Asky Lulu back again! How much space is given to Lara's and Kurtis' approach to alcohol in your headcon? Core planned to make Lara an alcoholic after the events in Egypt. It's one of the few things I don't agree with them about. Yes, she's deeply depressed/hurt and a bottle of sth may seem to be the only solution; and she's too proud to seek professional help. BUT Lara is smart enough to know it's only temporary. I see your Kurtis more prone to alcoholism than Lara, to be honest...Thank you💗

Hi Lulu! :) Well, it’s always a pleasure to answer your well-thought, researched asks. Though you’ve already read chapter 2 from The Legacy and a glimpse of my idea concerning this is hinted here, it will be a honor to develop this a little more for you! :)

First time I read about Core’s idea of making Lara an alcoholic after the events of Egypt, I rejected it immediately. I didn’t like it. Lara had been always to me like the prototype of strong woman, and - in general, this is not an universal statement - people who drinks excessively tries to drown their sorrows in alcohol to avoid facing their reality. They are weak, and Lara’s not weak.

Then, after a while, I realized it wasn’t totally a bad idea. I like to see human beings in all their perfection and flaws, the complexity of the human psyche. I just love that. They were trying to make her more human - tho I think she was already human in some ways - so that’s why I don’t think people who have called her an “ice queen” have the slighest idea of what they’re talking about.

In the end, Core discarded the idea and I’m glad they did, for it was too extreme. For her, I mean, not for other kind of character. But she’s always been strong, she’s always being in-control of herself, and ok, I might accept she can take a drink or two when feeling a bit down, but not to the point of becoming an alcoholic. That marks a person per-life - even if you overcame the addiction, it will always be a delicate matter to you. You’ll try to avoid it forever. Seeing a glass or a bottle with alcohol will be always a painful memory, a constant temptation.

Not very Croftish. I’m glad they throw aside that idea, and that’s why I threw it aside too. My Lara’s not an alcoholic, she’s never been that. She might have drunk a little after Egypt, but not to the point of developing an addiction. If she didn’t drink after crashing into the Himalaya’s and being the only survivor, while would she do that now? Just, nah. Her way of escaping things is adventuring, and after Egypt, she might have drink more than usual, and hide herself from the world in her home, but nothing more. The Lara we met in TRAOD is not a drunk. She’s perfectly fine, she even trades with alcohol bottles through the Parisian guetto without taking a sip - correct me if I’m mistaken, but you can’t become an alcoholic and then in only two years grab a bottle and not feeling the slighest temptation of taking a sip. At least, it doesn’t sound logical to me, much less in Lara’s case.

And I can’t agree you more concerning the fact she’s too proud for seeking professional help. She wouldn’t. This is 100% Croft. Bravo. Thats why I laughed my ass when seeing Laraboot going to that psychiatrist btw

Other idea was hinted is that, in a rage or amidst a drunk crisis, she sets fire to Croft Manor. I hated this idea even more than the first one, and I’m glad they discarded it, and so I did. My Lara has never set fire to Croft Manor. It’s her home. She’s not uncomfortable there - “Welcome back to my humble abode” -, tho she prefers, obviously, to be somewhere else, adventuring.

It’s also Winston’s home, and the home of each one of her friends that might need to stop by for a while - and in my universe, it’s also Anna’s home, and even Kurtis’ home tho he doesn’t feel like he belongs there. Lara would never do that, specially for Winston, who’s taking care of the place while she’s travelling. Setting her aunt’s inheritance and Winston’s daily hard work on fire… no, just no. She won’t reach that limit. I rather see her injuring herself before injuring others, specially those who worried about her when her parents disowned her.

So in the end, Lara might have drunk a bit more than usual in her past, but she’s not an alcoholic and she’s not enthusiastic about alcohol. And here comes the headcanon: she will pretty much despise alcoholics - when not directly pity them. For her, alcohol is a resource for cowards, for people who doesn’t know how to face their problems. It’s a cruel approach, but I think seriously it will be hers. It’s Lara Croft. She can be really cruel and merciless, and in this case, she is.

Not that she thinks she is better for not being dependant of alcohol, of course. Not that she totally rejects it. It’s just, it’s not a healthy habit and she prefers to avoid unhealthy habits, tho she’ll drink in certain occasions if the circumstances requires it. But not against her own will or desire, of course.

Shelooked down at the champagne glass, still half full. In Dubai shariawas strict: no alcohol, but these laws weren’t made for foreigners andcertainly not for the hotels where they were entertained. Still, she had nodesire to drink. In fact, all she wanted was to get out of there.

- MR. VANCE RENNER, Tomb Raider One-shot 3

Now, what about Kurtis? He’s absolutely different to Lara. He’s been through serious shit during all his life - that doesn’t mean Lara hasn’t, but she has a different way to face things. Not Kurtis. He’ll drink. A lot.

Murti never mentioned something like this but he describes him as a “tough customer”. After knowing a little about his biography - the son of a Lux Veritatis and a Navajo woman, harshly trained in the ways of the Order - you can only imagine how much suffering that training could have meant to him, and how sick he got of the Shadow War, so that he decides to betray his people and run away… to seek refuge in the Foreign Legion. The freaking Foreing Legion, which is reputed to be one of the harshest armies in the world, with a really brutal training, composed by ex-convicts and criminals who seek to have their reports expunged, turning their former crimes into military services. A living hell. And he went in there being only 19 years old. Wow.

Of course he only stays there until he achieves French citizenship, then he quits. But even in there he’s chased by demons, to the point his own partners nickname him Demon Hunter after he fights a defeats a djinn in the Arabian desert. This is all Murti’s canon, not mine. It is there when my own headcanon starts.

Taking into account his background story - a warrior, a soldier, a Legionnaire, a hardened fighter - I wanted to develop Kurtis as a tragic character, a tortured soul. Being alcoholic suited him perfectly after that. My idea is that he drank - and drank a lot - during his years in the Legion, together with his partners, and he even won drinking competitions. It’s there when Kurtis develops a tolerance for alcohol. He might haven been punished by his superiors for drinking too much and not be in top form for the military service - and hell, in the Foreing Legion punishments are harsh, even to the point of physical injure, but, what’s that compared with his Lux Veritatis training?

He can take it, and he takes it. After winning several drinking contest, instead of dying of alcohol intoxication or turning his liver into a can of foie gras, he develops an extreme tolerance for alcohol. Just like Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark, by the way.

This is one of my earliest headcanons, if you remember :) He even uses his alcohol tolerance as a resource to get information, according to his will of always keeping a low profile, his past as a double agent and his choice of not using violence is he can achieve something in a more discreet way.

In fact, Kurtis still had his first glass half full while his partnerwas on his twelfth. He’d only wet his lips twice. “I can’t overdo.” He replied with a calm smile.“I recently had stomach surgery and shouldn’t be playing with this.”

At least, that wasn’t a lie. In fact, he had really good alcohol tolerance - when the fellow right there wouldbe on the floor Kurtis would feel onlya slight tingling; but it wasn’t time to get drunk, not even to sound moreconvincing.

- THE GOLDEN SEAL, chapter 17, This man will survive

So, we can say Kurtis does not become a drunk in the strict sense of the word - he could have not survived too long to that, no matter the Gift - but he obviously will drink without problem most of the time, and of course, he’ll totally drink when feeling down and depressed.

And I mean, really down and really depressed, for he will need a lot of alcohol to really lost conciousness. And he won’t achieve it most of the times - unless he intends to make his own liver explode. And as we said previosuly, he has not a suicide impulse. He just wants to fade away. For a while. To drown his sorrows with alcohol.

That’s why he has a different approach of alcohol that Lara has - he’s no problem with it, and he doesn’t exactly despise drunk people - he pities them at most, and they will remind him of himself most of the time.

Of course, I’ve always meaning high-grade beverages, and he will only resource to them in extreme situations. If you recall Café Metro, what was he drinking in there?

Exactly. He’s drinking red wine, as far as I know, provided he’d ordered it and it’s not just a tempation dropped there by Pierre, lmao.

I am not an expert in alcoholic beverages - you know I don’t usually drink and when I do, I easily get drunk at the first shot lmao - but I think it takes a bit of taste to prefer red wine over whisky - for example. He’s just there enjoying a glass of French red wine - isn’t that cute, please - because it’s duty day. He’s not renouncing to a bit of alcohol, but definitely he’s not drinking bourbon or something like that.

Ok, this answer is again long af, isn’t it? Time to shut up. Just, long story short: no, Lara’s not and has never been an alcoholic, she might have drink a little more than usual in the past, but definitely that didn’t leave a mark in her. She’ll pretty much despise alcohol as a way of solving things. She’ll have her own ways to deal with problems.

Kurtis, on the opposite, while not being a drunk in the strict sense of the word, has drunk a lot in the past, to he point of developing alcohol tolerance. Most of the time, he’s in control, except when having a disturbing experience or feeling particularly weak, down and depressed.

But, what is a disturbing experience for a war hero, a lonely wolf who has dealt all his life with disturbing, disgusting and unpleasant situations? Obviously, every person, no matter how tough, has their limits and their buttons to be pushed. And he’ll react badly if having his feelings hurt or his soft spots touched. That’s why he used to conceal those feelings from everyone.

Of course, there’s a single exception for that rule, and this person can really push his buttons. And this is all I can say, for now.

Enough of this. Ana out

#what the hells going on around here #i just write and write and write #lmao #i hope this was useful #ok i'll be answering the other ask later ok? :)#my answers #headcanons #tomb raider #lara croft #kurtis trent #alcohol headcanon #fanfiction #traod sequel #tomb raider: the golden seal #tomb raider: the legacy

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