#buuuuuut you can take it different directions i suppose

[incoherentbabblings]

Here's a theory:

What if Tim was resurrected in a Lazarus Pit by Ra's when he was stabbed by the Widower in the desert?

What would his triggers be?

Dick? Damian? Steph? Probably all the Batfam to be honest, except like Bruce and maybe Cass, though I think with Cass it may be bitter resentment for leaving him.

I know Captain Boomerang would be one, and he'd probably be sliced within five minutes of Tim returning to Gotham.

I would just like to see an evil Tim, who isn't from the future 'cos that's boring, who just gets to go beast mode essentially, since we never get to see that.

Or maybe, I don't know, Tim overcomes his rage because of his love for Stephanie or something.

Just a thought.

This became too big again I'm sorry. Half canon meta, half fanon just going off the rails. Partial fic idea. Blergh. It's going under the cut because it's too long.

Again.

But okay you wanna talk evil Tim do you? I am always down for that, although pit madness isn't actually a thing in canon. I mean you do typically come out a bit BLRIGDSSHFGJRNES but you calm down soon enough. Cass and Connor and Kate and Dinah has been in there enough times to be proof of that. Remember Jason literally says to Bruce not to pin his actions on being BLRIGDSSHFGJRNES from the pit in Under the Red Hood. He's perfectly rational and in control of his actions. So I don't think Tim actually going for a dip would be the inciting incident.

I dunno. I like characters who do morally awful things to be utterly aware that they did an awful thing and justifying of their actions as a result. I think in Tim's case he would do absolutely massive leaps of logic to justify to - more than anyone - himself that what he did was not wrong. Or that he even actually did the morally awful thing to begin with. I didn't do that - they did that to themselves kind of jumps of logic.

Okay, so. We look elsewhere for Timbo to go off the rails. Luckily, I think we have a pretty good basis a bit later on in Red Robin.

The end of Red Robin is so... dark? Like it's kind of ridiculous compared the second half of the series, where we spend like half the series breaking Tim down, only for him to realise this, do a u-turn and take positive steps to rebuild some bridges. They bring back Harkness to taunt Tim, and he glares angrily through the glass, but no more. And then the last issue happens. And Tim's an actual mess in it.

He spends the entire issue trying to justify the eventuality of Harkness dying. He sets up this stupidly elaborate plan to have Harkness, get offed by the powers that be or another villain, before finally, just ensuring that he would fall and die. He gets angry at Bruce - who is totally not wrong - in calling out that line of thinking. Tim metaphorically set up the gun, put in the bullets, held it in his hand... then didn't shoot. Dick praises him for it, because Dick has been there and empathises. Bruce chides him for it, because Bruce has also been there and empathises. It's an interesting look actually in Tim's two mentors.

Anways, I think Tim was still wrong to do all that. And Tim thinks it too. He admits it. He knows his dad wouldn't have wanted it. He knows Dick and Bruce don't want it. He doesn't care. He stops himself... because he knows it's wrong.

But he tries and tries to justify the death as something that was totally out of his hands. As if it would have happened anyway. As if Tim didn't engineer the entire scenario. The mental gymnastics Tim does in that issue is frankly astounding.

So! I think if Tim had let Harkness fall to his death, he would and continue to do said mental gymnastics to try and a) remove any culpability from his decisions and b) twist and twist and twist until its was justified or 'accidental'.

I don't think Bruce is wrong in UTRH when he tells Jason that, if Bruce killed the Joker, it would be very difficult to redraw the new line of what is and isn't justified murder. I think it's true for Bruce, and I think it would be true for Tim.

And thus off he jumps the slippery slope.

The batfam is very forgiving when it comes to murder if said perpetrator is remorseful or wants to do and be better. Easier to count who hasn't attempted/been complicit/gleefully committed murder at this point. It's a thing of the genre I suppose. If Tim is at the stage of just flat out denying he did anything wrong, I genuinely can't see any of them standing with him. Like no-one lead him to that, he made his own choice... He's utterly delusional, and that's sad and mournful and painful, but he chose this. He keeps chosing this.

I think therein there's a lot of overlap with Jason at this point, but perhaps there's a distinction in that Jason at this time would and was quite gleefully running around killing entire prison populations. I don't think Tim would ever be that trigger happy. And I don't think Tim would be particularly power hungry in his own right. Controlling, yes. We can see he's very much like Bruce and Jason who have a weird paternalistic view of their relationship to the city. The words 'my city' and it 'belonging' to them - the three of them have that in common. It would be interesting to talk about where the three views come from and how they understand it I suppose. Babs does this too sometimes. Oracle is a heady thing.

Side but also kind of important note going forward: Interesting that the one other Gotham native is exempt from this line of thinking during this time huh? Steph doesn't have a sense of ownership about the city itself; just the people within it. Interesting interesting interesting I wonder if it pops up elsewhere in other runs huh like I wonder if it could be stretched into an actual piece of storytelling meta by someone with too much time on their hands...

Anyway - how far do you want to push Tim's controlling nature regarding the city? How far do you take him just flat out denying the reality of his actions? How much does he let that anger grow hotter and hotter? How much does those violent fantasies he has grow until he's creating ways for them to be real? How and where and when do you personify and objectify that obsession with Gotham and put it onto people. A group of people. A [blond] person. Cough. Cough.

He doesn't stop loving his family very, very much. He thinks their naive, and ragging on him when he's doing nothing wrong. That frustration will only grow.

Mmm. Thoughts thoughts thoughts...

#dc #tim drake #there's so much overlap there with early back from dead jason i have to say #buuuuuut you can take it different directions i suppose #anything is possible in the land of fanfic after all~ #batfam meta #sorta #ask and i'll babble

[the-recusants-sigil]

Hey again!! Thank you again for the brilliant request- I’ve been editing while I work all day, so sorry for the delay! BUUUUUUT here is Part 2, with Xaldin~

Enjoy! <3

Xaldin

Words: 2784

-It didn't happen often, but at this particular moment, Xaldin was in deep shit.

-His mission was straightforward, and in an ideal situation, there wouldn't have been any danger to begin with. How a simple reconnaissance mission could go so horribly wrong was beyond him.

-In a rush to get out the door that morning, he had skipped eating and hadn't bothered to prepare. No potions, no ethers, not even a packed lunch.Nothing. Though he hadn’t eaten much the day before, either, he wasn't going to bother going back for anything. After all, it was just a pithy little recon mission; what could possibly go wrong?

-A lot, as it turns out.

-He was just supposed to be surveying the land around Beast's Castle. That was all. He was to report back with details about the landscape, the foliage, the climate and anything else that stuck out to him as noteworthy; basically, he was scouting for possible synthesis materials and nothing more. He was not to engage in combat of any sort with anything unless it became entirely necessary.

-An hour in, and what had happened? Wolves. Wolves happened. 

-He noticed them following him at a distance, first. Just a few, with jet black fur, watching him for a few moments and then darting off into the cover of the thick underbrush. They weren’t aggressive, or so he thought. But after the sun went down, he noticed more and more sets of yellow eyes peering at him. Surrounding him.

-It was a large pack, larger than he'd ever seen. Normally, dealing with them would be a cakewalk. In terms of firepower, Xaldin was certainly at an advantage with several lances and power over wind. But these wolves were different. He hadn't seen it at first, but after impaling one  of the beasts, it occurred to him that these were, in fact, Heartless. They hadn't immediately seemed like it, but as the first few burst into clouds of shadow, he was certain that these weren't actually run-of-the-mill timberwolves. Three more of them charged him head-on while the rest of the pack closed in on him. As soon as he dealt with those three, another two leapt at him from behind. Every time he dealt with one, it seemed two more were there to take its place.

-It was more than he could keep up with; the swarm of Heartless was faster and stronger than he'd anticipated, and they were starting to chip away at him. They lunged as soon as he turned his back, gnashing teeth and razor claws tearing at his cloak and ripping  through his flesh. 

-At this point, tired and hungry with nothing to heal himself, Xaldin knew he had to find a way out. With a shout and a strong gust of wind, he propelled himself over the ring of Heartless and towards, what he hoped, was safety. He had hardly any energy to use his powers, though, and barely any energy left to run. And where would he go, he wondered? He had gotten soft. This would have been nothing for him to deal with before.

-Exhausted, hungry, and resigned to failure, the Whirlwind Lancer raised his right hand and summoned a corridor of  darkness to take him home. Something heavy crashed into him from behind; the set of jaws clamping down on his forearm and the Heartless sending him tumbling through the corridor were the last things he remembered.

-At least, from that world, anyway. He could tell right away that something was off. This was, decidedly, not The World That Never Was, because he'd never seen a damn cornfield anywhere in that world. There was also no moon in the sky, whereas back home, the faintest beginnings of a heart-shaped moon hung low in the sky. Something had gone wrong. He knew another corridor just wasn't possible right now, and he briefly wondered what he could do.

-The opportunity to grab a bite to eat had presented itself, though, and he plucked an ear of corn from a stalk before peeling it and biting down. He spit it out immediately- raw corn was tough to chew and, frankly, disgusting.

-He could hear the occasional roaring, whooshing sound not far from him, though, and an acrid smell hung in the air like something had been burning. But it was something, and anything was better than standing around this field with who knows what kind of Heartless. He pushed his way through the stalks as he marched towards the sounds, lifting his boots high to keep them from getting stuck in the loamy soil. It couldn't have been a strawberry patch, oh no. It just had to be fucking corn.

-And suddenly, as he shoved aside the last few cornstalks, he was out in the open. Back on a paved road, just like the roads in the World That Never Was. There was that rumbling noise again--

-A truck horn blared at him and he jumped out of the way just in time as the massive thing went barreling past. Up close, he felt the roar of its engine in his chest, and as it passed, he counted his blessings he hadn't ended up plastered onto the front of it. He watched the eighteen-wheeler thunder down the road and disappear into the night. Apart from the near-death experience, the place didn’t seem too bad. The stars were very visible here, unlike the World That Never Was, and it seemed... peaceful. If he squinted, Xaldin could make out a cluster of lights shimmering in the distance. City lights.

-He looked down the road to see another pair of lights coming, this time from the opposite direction, and he summoned what energy he had left to wave vigorously at the oncoming car.

-You hadn't expected any surprises on your trip back to college. That morning, you'd said a tearful goodbye to your family several hundred miles away, and now you were on the home stretch- five more miles of corn and alfalfa, over the bridge, and back to business. So when a tall man in a torn black coat jumped in front of your Jeep and began flailing wildly, to say you were a little offput would be putting it mildly. As you slammed on your brakes and brought your car to a screeching halt, the man collapsed, falling face first onto the asphalt.

-You were dead tired and not in the mood to deal with any of this, if you were perfectly honest, but what were you going to do- leave him to be vulture fodder? He was still breathing, that much you could see, but you'd want someone to help if you were in his position. You flicked on your hazards and got out, examining the man carefully, one hand on a small pocketknife just in case.

-...............

-How you managed to smuggle him into your apartment without your roommates asking questions was a goddamn miracle. It was also fortunate that you had the unit right next to your elevator, so loading him onto one of the move-in day dollies and getting him up to the fifth floor was a cakewalk.

-In no time, you'd laid out some towels and dumped him unceremoniously onto the couch. He was covered in large gashes, bruises, scrapes, and dirt. You were able to get a closer look at him now: he was tall and broad-chested, with muscles that visibly strained the fabric of his coat. He had long, black hair twisted into braids and prominent sideburns. He looked like some kind of... warrior. While you gathered some supplies to at least clean and dress the wounds you could see, you wondered briefly if he was an actor or something.

-So what had left him this badly hurt? Whoever did this could, and hopefully would, catch a battery and assault charge at the very lightest for what they'd done. 

-The second you touched his arm with a cloth wet with peroxide, his eyes flew open and he looked around wildly. They were an intense violet- mesmerizing, totally unique, like tanzanite.

-”What are you doing? Stop that.”

-You certainly hadn't expected him to be so rude. “Excuse me? I'm trying to help you!”

-”You don't know what you're doing, lass,” he growled, taking the cloth from your hands and undoing the zipper of his coat. The black undershirt he wore was also in tatters, making it even easier for you to see the definition of his abs. It occurred to you, then, that this guy was fucking ripped, and it might not be a great idea to piss him off. “Why did you stop to help me?”

-”Couldn't just leave you. So... do you remember what happened to you? Can you tell me your name?”

-”...Xaldin.”

-”Come again?”

-”My name is Xaldin.”

-”Ah.” The two of you sat in silence for a while. He continued cleaning and dressing his wounds, and you contemplated the whole scenario. Either he remembered everything and wasn't talking, or he remembered perfectly and didn't want to say. Whatever the case, you decided not to press the issue. 

-After a long pause, you finally spoke. “I'm Y/N. I forgot to ask, do you want some water? Something to eat?”

-He looked up, eyebrows raised. “Tea would be lovely if you have any, lass. And anything to eat, really. Very hospitable of you.” He was gruff, straight to the point, yet... something about the way he held himself betrayed that rough exterior. And he hadn't tried to murder you or steal any of your things, which he would have had no trouble doing. That thought made you feel a bit better.

-It dawned on you, though, that there was no food in the apartment because you'd been gone for three months, so you carefully helped him down to the car and drove across town in search of a drive thru open at two in the morning. Finally, you settled on a local burger joint, and as you pulled in front of the menu, you began rattling off recommendations. He wasn't clueless, though- he'd seen these things before, once.

-Those went out the window, though, because Xaldin leaned past you, out the car window, and started ordering. “I'd like two large Number Fives with extra bacon, curly fries with both, and two chicken sandwiches with a side order of chicken tenders. And-”

-You cut him off furiously. “Xaldin! I don't have that much money!” you hissed. He shrugged lightly.

-”I do,” he replied, producing a heaping handful of little yellow... somethings. They were sparkly, sure, but you doubted very much that they would let you pay with what resembled a handful of D&D dice.

-”$48.20, please pull forward.”

-”Shit!” You cried. “Dude, what the hell?”

-”Don't worry about it,” Xaldin said as you pulled forward to the cashier.

-Of course, when Xaldin said “don't worry about it”, what he really meant was, “I'm going to intimidate the cashier into giving us that food”. The young man took one look at Xaldin and decided it wasn't worth the trouble; you sped off towards your apartment with two massive bags of food. Maybe picking this guy up was a mistake?

-But over the next few days, you became accustomed to each other. He stayed in the apartment, for the most part, resting and reading the books on your shelves. You watched him glance through Romeo and Juliet before bitterly flinging it to the side. In your conversations, you were quick to note that Xaldin was a pretty angry guy. Or, at least, it seemed that way. Other times, he was almost eerily placid, like he wasn't quite aware that he should be feeling or acting a certain way. He mentioned heartbreak and a past lover offhandedly once, and it made you wonder just how much this poor man had been through.

-He talked a bit about work, too, and how exhausting it had been. After a surprise termination at his old job, with no severance package or anything, the new job had worked him to the bone from day one. He worked with most of the same coworkers, which was both a positive and a negative according to him. Xaldin noted that this was his first proper “weekend” off in years, and of course it would be spent covered in lacerations.

-At this point, you produced a tall glass and a bottle of red wine from your wine rack. You  uncorked it for him and filled his glass about halfway.

-”Drink up,” you offered. “Sounds like you need it.”

-You spent more time together than you intended to, ditching syllabus week in favor of taking care of Xaldin. There was just something about him that drew you to him. It could have been his voice, the way he worded things, watching his walls come down bit by bit... 

-And just as you enjoyed being with him, you were starting to grow on him, too. He dared not smile in front of you, goodness no, but he showed his growing affection in different ways. When he picked up a package of sausages in Target and tore it open right then and there to get to the good stuff, you panicked and told him that it needed to be paid for first. He listened.

-He picked up on the hints of sadness in your voice when you talked about home, about the family you'd left behind, about all of the pressure on you to strive for greatness when, really, you just wanted to find happiness. Xaldin understood, and for the first time in a long time, he was genuinely sympathetic.

-It was at precisely that point that alarm bells started going off in his head and he knew he had to RTC. 

-He didn't plan on telling you he was leaving. He'd already caused enough turmoil in the past week. But whatever it was about you that he found so comforting, so relaxing- it was so easy to drop the warrior act and just be himself--

-That night, the two of you were mixing drinks and watching The Bachelor, thoroughly enjoying tearing the contestants apart. Even that part of you, he liked- you could be just as vicious as he was and he didn't have to pull punches or mind his manners. You could keep up with him. He hadn't had a connection like that since--

-Since--

-Xaldin's brain short-circuited and the next thing you knew, the man had turned to face you, gripping both of your arms gently yet firmly in either hand, gazing at you with those gorgeous tanzanite eyes. Your breath hitched in your throat as you realized what was happening.

-His eyes snapped shut as your lips collided with his. You pulled yourself into his lap and grabbed a fistful of hair as he deepened the kiss. He wasn't as rough as you imagined he would be; on the contrary, he moved slowly, precisely, enjoying every moment with you. When he nibbled at your lower lip, you obliged, and his tongue swept inside your mouth to explore.

-Five minutes turned into fifteen. Fifteen minutes turned into an hour. It wasn't until the doorknob on the front door rattled that the two of you scrambled off of the couch and darted to your room for a little more privacy.

-..............

-It killed Xaldin to leave the note. It really did. But there were too many liabilities, including his growing affections for you, and he needed to get back to the Castle. With a dull ache in his chest, one that he had long since forgotten, he placed the note on your nightstand and opened a corridor to take him home.

-You awoke the next morning, groggy and sore, with thoughts of cooking a big breakfast for the man. Your heart sank, however, when you noticed the empty spot next to you where Xaldin had been only the night before. Part of you expected this to happen, but it didn't make the hurt any less real: there was no way he was in the bathroom or something, he was just gone.

-A folded piece of notebook paper rested on your nightstand. You knew exactly what it was the moment you spotted it. Slowly, tears welling in your eyes, you unfolded it tenderly and read the neat cursive handwriting:

Y/N,

Sincerest apologies for leaving unannounced, my dear. It was the easiest way for us both. Thank you for showing me kindness, hospitality and warmth; thank you for offering me reprieve from an unforgiving world, however short; and thank you for being a ray of light in a sea of darkness. Until our next meeting.

Yours,

X ~~

#considermeafriend #kh imagine #xaldin x reader #xaldin #organization xiii #kh #modern!reader #i just had the mental image of xaldin tearing open like a costco sized package of pre-cooked sausages and snarling at employees #the man is feral #and yet somehow refined?? #i dont know???? #anyway.... #i fixed the weird formatting sorryyy

[jojobeaner]

This was supposed to become Raunch Pike... But it became Soft Pike instead...

Wrote this a few days ago but never posted it because I suck. That and I wonder how many people really care.

I love my soft dark boys...

This was supposed to become trashy raunch... Buuuuuut... Mike ruined the moment...

----------

‘You’re fucking kidding me…’ Pete muttered under his breath, staring at the screen of his cellphone. Staring at the heart emojis and stupid idiotic sticker of a sparkling bat.

Why.

-Fine then- he replied back eventually. -Meet out back after you’re done your stupid class and we'll--

He didn't want to finish typing out that respond and just quickly hit ‘send’. He could feel his stomach lurch, and shook himself.

All he got sent back was a handful of heart emojis that started to take up his screen.

This better be fucking worth it.

‘Has it really been that long? You're that desperate?’ A voice inside Pete's head was snide and full of distaste. Another voice was more practical. ‘Just… do this. Have some mediocre sex. Get it out of your system. And move on.’

That was the plan.

---

After classes ended for the day, Mike found Pete out back smoking in the alley between the trades building and the main building, hunched over in on himself with a hand in his pocket and the other fidgeting with the cigarette.

The vampire smiled, hefting his backpack further up his shoulder and reached out a fingerless gloved hand to pluck the cigarette from the redhead's lips.

That got the goths attention and he glared up at the taller boy. “Excuse me?!”

“Hello! I hope you weren’t waiting too long for me Peter!”

Violet eyes narrowed. Too happy, this boy's smile was too wide and his voice was too loud. He snatched the cigarette back from the stupid dumb vampire before he did something stupid like throw it out. “Give that back.” Another long drag of nicotine. “And shut the hell up. Come with me.”

With that he turned and started heading off the school property. He didn't need to look behind him to know the other was trailing after him like a puppy. That's just what had been happening lately.

“Sorry I didn't skip last class with you Peter… but I really need to ace that midterm per se… You know how it is…” was he still rambling?

Pete sneered. “I dont actually. Aren't you like top of your class already anyway?”

“Maybe? But… I study. I do my best.”

“Waste of time…” like this conversation was. “Thought I told you to be quiet.”

“S-sorry…! I'm just… nervous?” Mike’s laugh was stilted, definitely full of nervous energy, but cute. Pete groaned.

He hated this.

Mike's long legs had no problems catching up to Pete and in no time they were walking side by side in an almost uncomfortable stifling silence. A quick glance over at the dark haired boy confirmed that he was nervously chewing on his bottom lip and holding onto the straps of his backpack tightly… as if trying to hold himself back from doing something.

Something stupid he bet.

“C'mon” Pete's voice was quiet, but he jerked his head over in the direction of where he lived. “It's just a few more minutes this way…”

Green eyes and violet eyes met, and Pete suddenly felt those butterflies again. And he tried his best to squish every single one of them with the heel of his shoe.

“O-okay.” Mike's voice was equally soft, and Pete watched his throat as he swallowed. He wanted to just close the gap, kiss that stupid fanged mouth that was already a little swollen…

Instead Pete pulled another cigarette from the carton in his pocket.

---

“Nobody's home? Your parents…?”

Pete scoffed as he unlocked the door of the trailer and reached out a hand to pull Mike into his home. He didnt think about how warm the leather of the gloves Mike wore was, or how their fingers instantly slotted together perfectly. He swallowed back everything and tugged the boy forward. “No one's ever home. It's fine. We have the place to ourselves. C’mon. Eyes forward.”

He pulled the vampire along the small space towards the back of the trailer where his bedroom was and slid the door open, almost pushing the other boy inside.

Mike stumbled inside, reaching out to try and find something to grab onto to halt his fall. The room was dark, illuminated only by the natural light in the hallway. The one small window in the room was blacked out with a heavy black sheet.

“Stay here. I'll be right back. Don't… touch anything.”

And Pete was gone.

---

In the darkness Mike started to panic. What was he doing?? Annie told him right away that this was a baaaad idea… He remembered that clearly.

*

“He wants to what? No. No way. This is so bad.”

Mike didn't really understand what was so bad. Sure it was… sudden? And… they were barely even a thing. Just a speck of what might be a relationship if given time but…

Pete had propositioned him. For sex. Bluntly… in true Pete fashion, over a text message.

“This is classic ‘he just wants to bang you and leave you’ territory you know that right?” Annie's voice was a loud whisper. They were in class after all, and she didn't want anyone to overhear.

Luckily the lecture was over and they were just working on their assignments… that's why he checked his phone in the first place, it made a bell chime noise that was just for Pete's messages…

Bang him and leave him? “Peter can't get rid of me that easily.” He was confident in that. Pete may try and push him away, but he also knew that it was the goths defensive reflexes that did that. He was well aware of the walls the other built up. But he was also learning how to slowly take them down.

Mike was patient. He was resilient. He could bide his time. He wouldn't give up.

Annie looked skeptical. “You're really going to do this? It's so sketchy.”

"I'll think about it.” Mike gave a noncommittal shrug, smiling mysteriously, but inside his heart was racing. There was no way he was going to let this chance slip through his fingers… He'd been fantasizing about something like this for so long… and now that it was in front of him… he felt like being a little reckless with his heart.

Pete was worth it.

*

The light from the hallway helped him find the bed, and he sat down on the low mattress, feeling the coarse texture of the wool blanket under him. Mike frowned. That would have to go.

Twisting his body, he pulled the rough blanket off. The blanket underneath that was still… less than his ideal, but passable… he knew he was used to his own bed with its silk sheets…

He made a plan of getting Pete something nice and soft as a gift. The boy deserved something luxurious.

That was when he saw the little bulbs of christmas lights stapled to the wall… a whole string of them… the plug over near the pillows. He reached over to plug them in and the small space erupted in a warm red, blue, green glow… Mike gasped. It felt magical.

With more light he picked out more of the room: a small desk that was mostly covered in books, cds and notebooks, probably filled with Pete's handwriting… an acoustic guitar was propped against the wall, and there was some small different piles of grey and black clothing on the floor. Mike smiled warmly. This was a place where Pete could be himself… and in the warm glow of the little lights, he fell back onto the mattress, and couldn't help but inhale the musky, smokey scent that could only belong to Pete. He could die happily in this place.

--

And that was the image Pete came back to… his bedroom illuminated by his soft lights… and Mike almost just curled up on his bed, booted feet still respectfully hanging off the edge onto the floor.

This isn't turning out how he had planned at all. Pete wanted to scream. But he also wanted to curl up right beside that boy laying so peacefully on his bed… dark hair splayed on the pillow, smile gracing those soft soft looking lips.

The door to his bedroom slid shut with a ‘whumpth’ and Mike startled, opening his eyes. He didn't realize he had drifted off and started his apology but suddenly there was a ‘thump’ and a warm body curling up beside his.

“We're not cuddling. We're just taking a nap. You better not say a goddamn thing Skittle Factory.”

Mike could only nod. Pete's violet eyes were intense and he couldn't help but get lost in the way they glowed in the multicoloured light.

Pete's stare softened and he closed his eyes. “I told you not to touch anything…”

"C-can I touch you?”

A soft sigh filled the quiet of the small room, “stop asking already and just… just do it.”

Long arms slid around Pete's waist then, pulling his body up closer to Mike's and though he half-heartedly grumbled… it wasn't long before the two dozed off in each others arms

#south park pike #south park pete #south park mike #south park fanfiction #south park #pete/mike #vampires/goths #vampir x pete #vampir makowski #mike x pete #sp pete #pete x mike #pete thelman #mike 'vampir' makowski #mike makowski #mike/pete #small fandom #fanfiction #fanfic #rare pair #such softness #such soft #soft boys

[inbarfink]

A List of Big Misconceptions about D&D Alignment that I See All the Time and Now I’m Salty Enough to Rant About All of Them

So! Aligmments! They sure are a tricky subject, aren’t they? Source of many discussions and flame wars and nitpicks, made all the worse by it’s flaws and it’s bumpy start (this post is a good read about it and there are plenty of other posts complaining and discussing what’s wrong with it), but I’m not here spesifically to take the nine-point system to task, but more to point out stuff about it that people CONSTANTLY GET WRONG. Because I’m salty and petty and I like wasting my time

1.  First things first, what ARE aligmments? the Alignment System, as it exists in the game, seems for me to have a very specific role - it’s an extreme simplication of a character’s moral code for the sake of gameplay mechanics (as in “This spell will only let those with a good heart enter the sanctum” “Well, can my character come in?” “Check your aligmment”), if a DM wants to throw away “Detect Evil” spells and other stuff that implies objective good and evil in their game - I’d say it’s perfectly justified to throw away the Aligmment System as a whole as well, since it will serve very little purpose in their game. Many of the criticisms of the Aligmment system AND the annoying misconceptions about it comes from thinking it should do stuff other then quickly telll you how badly the Sword of Ultimate Evil injured your half-elf mage by quickly glancing at your character sheet.

2. Aligmments are not the end-all-by-all of philosophical and moral disagreement: There’s this idea that if two people have the same sort of  Alignment that they must be agreeing on everything and are basically the same (more on THAT later), because, well, they are on the same side on the scales of good versus evil and chaos versus law, right? Well, no! Because like I said, Alignmment are a simplication - under the banner of “Lawful Good” there could be a THOUSAND disagreements and different ways to “perform” the alignmment. You can have a whole adventuring party of LG people who can’t stop arguing. Batman and Superman have plenty of moral disgreements all the time, but I think most versions of those characters are both LG - just in different ways

3. Alignments Are NOT the Character Archetypes This Character is Associated With: Or “Alignments don’t define personality”, that also works. There are certain character types and personalities people associate with spesific Alignments: the LG Pure Knight in Shining Armor, CG Trickster, LN Strict Super Boring Guy, LE Honrable Well-Intentioned Villain, CE PURE EVUL MUAHAHAHHAHA, and well...it’s not like those archetypes don’t have a GRAIN of truth to them - you’ll probably find more eccentric tricksters who are CG then LN, it’s easier to do. The problem comes for me when people ONLY look to those archetypes to match character aligmments and don’t actually look at that character’s morals and ideals - just assume that if that character’s personality matched the personality of a stereotypical archetype of an aligmment, that must mean that they are of this aligmment.  A long long time ago (back when the StrexCorp arc of WTNV was really only starting to kick into gear, IIRC), Cecil Baldwin posted his thoughts of what would be the aligmments of the WTNV characters - I can’t find the post now because Tumblr’s search function is a piece of shit - but I had a lot of grievances with his choices, espacially of Cecil Palmer being CHAOTIC GOOD out of all things. Cecil Palmer, at the time that the tweets were made, was Lawful Neutral (i’m seriously behind on WTNV but I heard he’s started doing more Chaotic things recently, which is good! That’s character development! But LN was still his starting point). He cares a lot for the people who are close to him, but not for, like strangers, or the greater good in any sort of cosmic scale - he’s moral in the way a normal person is moral, that’s neutral. And Cecil is VERY adamant about following the strict rules and tyrannical govermment and terrible traditions of Night Vale. Sure he rebelled agaisnt StrexCorp, because they were a different horrible dystopia then what he was used to living under (this whole thing ties into other misconceptions I haven’t talked about yet maybe I should’ve organized that differently) Cecil IS the guy who hated his brother in law for YEARS for speaking Forbidden Truths and not following in line, he’s very lawful. And yet people feel weird about placing LN as Cecil’s aligmnemt - because he doesn’t behave like a LN archetype: he’s not a monk or a Knight Templer or a Super Serious Super Boring Guy, he is sort of an eccentric trickster and that’s why people, even his own ACTOR (who probably got a better grasp on the character then I’ll ever will) can fall into this hole of placing him in there - it’s about misunderstanding the alignment more then misunderstanding the character. This is just one example but I can think of others, such as people refusing to admit Chaotic characters as Chaotic because they think being a moralizing asshole is a strictly Lawful thing

4. Chaotic Evil and Lawful Good mean more then just “Ultimate Evil” and “Ultimate Good”: This is a subset of #3, but one that is so prevalent and common I feel it kinda need it’s own category. Because so many people see “Lawful Good” as meaning nothing but “the most good alignmment” and “Chaotic Evil” as meaning nothing but “the most evil alignmment”, it’s undoubtly a result of the archetype problem - with the most iconic archetypes for them being “Pure Paragon” and “PURE EVIL MUHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA”, and so people assume that’s the only sort of people who would have this aligmment - which leads to the idea that LG and CE are nothing but being “more good” or “more evil” then other alignments - which in turn makes people view the alignemnt chart (consiously or subconsiously) as less

And more of just a direct line of good\less good that’s like LG > NG > CG > LN > TN > CN > LE > NE >CE. Which is not true! Like I mentioned in 2 alignmment are very general and can be preformed in a number of ways and every good alignmment can be less or more good and every evil aligmment can be less or more evil. LG suffers from it LESS because there’s also the “Asshole Knight Templer Paladin” Archetype to show people how a LG character can also be morally ambigious, but only in this one really narrow way and they still generally have that self image of being bright and shiny. That’s why Batman is rarely listed as LG even though I think it’s the best alignment for him, Batman is not the “correct” kind of morally ambigious LG and he’s too dark and sneaky to fit the Paragon archetype. But CE has it MUCH worse, poor poor CE... Do you have any idea how many alignnment analysis posts I’ve seen that explained every alignmment’s moral basis perfectly, and then fucking fucked it up in the CE segment by doing it nothing but DESTORY EVERYTHING MUHAHAHHAHA. Or for an alternative example, take this post, What Does the Fox Say is listed as LE and Fox News as CE because CE is seen as the ultimate evil aligmment and LE seems as the “Lesser Evil” aligmment as a result of it - but one can argue that Fox News, and maybe american right wing politics in general, are more Lawful then Chaotic: due to their support of oppression, harmful tradionlism, pandering to “that’s the way it’s ALWAYS been” and attempts to push back against positive change - while memes like WDTFS are inheriently a more Chaotic force.... BUUUUUUT we thing of CE as Ultimate Evil so if we wanna insult Fox News THAT’S WHAT WE HAVE TO DO. Same goes with listing characters like... the Lich from Adventure Time as CE, even though I don’t think he’s EVER shown are prefrence for Chaosness, but being the ultimate evil of the show we have to label him as CE. Again, EVERY EVIL ALIGMMENT CAN BE THE MISUNDERSTOOD KINDA OKAY BADDIE OR THE WORSE THING EVER, LE doesn’t have a monopoly on one and CE doesn’t have a monopoly on the other. A character who’s big into change and personal freedom and hates tradition but is JUST enough of an asshole to count for Evil, will be Chaotic Evil, but I feel a lot people feel weird putting that label on sympathetic characters and will probably label them as CN or even fucking LAWFUL Evil because they’re not Ultimate Evil

5. Lawful doesn’t mean blindly follow the rules all the time and Chaotic doesn’t mean LOL RANDOM: I think you’ve noticed that so far, many of the misconceptions have to do with the Lawful-Chaotic spectrum rather then the Good-Evil spectrum - for well... OBVIOUS reasons. Good and Evil are rather self explantory, everyone knows what Good and Evil is - Chaos and Law are...often a lot harder to define. The fact that D&D’s Law and Chaos’ origins are so different then what the aligmment system ended up being and that the sourcebooks often explain it poorly really doesn’t help... I’m really not suprised this got so common. So, what do I feel Lawful versus Chaotic means? Well, just like everything else about D&D aligment it’s supposed to be VERY general and simplified guideline about what you feel regarding Laws, rulers, traditions, change, The System, self-discipline, personal codes and stuff like that. Lawful does NOT mean you have to obey and follow the rules of whatever horrible oppresive place you fall into, it just means that you as a general rule thinks rules and order and traditions are a good thing to have (for your personal goals, for the greater good of the people...whatever...), while being Chaotic means you DON’T think those things are good and istead values freedom and change and lack of restriction. A Lawful Good person stuck in a Lawful Evil country that allows slavery or some shit, wouldn’t have to just stand around and accept it because it’s the law\tradition of the place - they could very well agree to rebel, but want to install a “Legitimate Ruler” afterward, or to make sure a lot of the political system remains intact after they clean out the evil bits because they believe a stable political system is better for the people, or want to destory slavery via legitimate legal means or... you know... there’s a whole bunch of options, like I said, there’s a lot of ways to be Lawful Good - but none of them include agreeing to obey obviously evil laws because being “Lawful” means more then just “blindly follow the rules”. And on the same page a Chaotic person doesn’t have to always break the rules or do something weird, they just have to believe that in general, having less rules and less traditions and more change are a positive thing. And if someone says your character can’t follow\rebel against the rules because they’re chaotic\lawful, they’re seriously missing the point, but also-

6. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT, YOU’RE [ALIGMMENT]” is a bullshit statment: Aligmments are, again, a general simplification of a character morals for the purpose of gameplay, they should not be restrictions. Unless you’re playing as an Angel or a Demon or some other shit, everyone go against their aligmment in some ways some times - because your aligmment describes you as a general overview, not every single individual action. If a player feels this or that action is 100% what their character would do in this situation, the DM and other players shouldn’t stop them based on friggin aligmment. If the action is extremely egregious (like a non-evil character buring down an orphanage for a laugh) or if it happens repeadly) then the solution should be to just change the aligmment on the sheet and that’s it? I know that here I’m talking to the makers of the games just as much as I’m talking to the fandom, but giving XP penalties for going against aligmment is more often then not just punishing your players for complex characters or character development. You see the effects of those lines of thoughts when figuring out alignments for fictional characters. Those Aligmment charts demonstrating all the Aligmment with one character are COOL and all, but they’re less cool when people are all “Oh I just can’t tell which aligmment Princess Bubblegum is because she did stuff of all aligmments at least once!”: because, yeah, she did - BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT EVERYONE DOES! Aligmments are about the general moral philosphies and not every individual action is gonna follow that. Everyone slips from their aligmment from time to time! Just because Princess Bubblegum did a Chaotic Thing once, doesn’t distract from the fact that as a general, big picture view of her character, she’s Lawful Good-leaning on Lawful Neutral. 

[quake-me-up]

Take me to a concert

“buuuuuut weiiiiiiiisssss” the brunette whined. “YOU HAVE TO GOOOO” she half shouted in her ear. “And why is that?” the heiress questioned her team leader. “Because I cant go to the concert without someone who’s eighteen!” she explained. Weiss, who was very frustrated asked the obvious question. “Why cant Yang or Blake go?” Ruby sighed, and explained “Because their one month anniversary is today and they’re going out to eat.” Weiss then proceded to mumble something incoherent under her breath. “Huh?” ruby asked. “Nothing dolt, just go get dressed, I’ll go.” Ruby all but squealed. “YAY” she launched herself at Weiss wrapping her in a tight hug, oblivious to the slight blush on her partners face. She then sped out of the room to go get ready. Weiss sighed, since she was already ready to go she figured she would look up the band performing. “Pierce the veil I think it was” she stated. And started to listen to music

About an hour and a half later ruby rose stepped out of her room “are you ready?” she asked weiss. “Yeah let’s go.” she replied dully. Weiss pulled up the directions to the concert and within 20 minutes they were standing in line. When it came time to buy the tickets ruby out out the money. But weiss gave her money back. “I’ve got this!” Weiss told the younger girl. Ruby pouted, but she did as she did as she was told. Weiss smiled. “Two VIP first row passes with meet the band backstage.” Weiss demanded. The man laughed. “ so you have any idea how expensive they are” Weiss scoffed “ I am Weiss schnee! Heiress to the schnee energy company! Thrusting her i.d in his face. His jaw dropped. "I am so sorry ma'am I’ll get that right away!” Weiss smirked. While she liked having power, it wasnt always desirable. When the man came back with thier passes they were escorted to the front row, ruby gasped when she saw how close they would be to the band. “Oh my god!!!!” she squealed “I can’t believe this is happening!!” Weiss smiled, glad that she made her happy. Yeah, Weiss was cold to ruby. But she secretly really liked her. It was no secret that Weiss was bisexual, ruby was pan. Honestly the amount of gay jokes that ruby made could light a church on fire. It didn’t take long for the band to come out. When Weiss heard the drums she knew it was almost time. The lead singer walked in front of the audience “ ARE YOU READY TO PARTY?!” he screamed. He was greeted with instant roars and cheers. When the cheering dyed down the first song started “I’m mastering the aaart~ of miracles and flawless trageties” the singer belted out. Weiss was actually enjoying herself. The night continued without trouble. As the show was coming to an end the lead singer stepped forward. “As we wake up in your room, your face is the first thing I see.” soft guitar accompanied him. Weiss was liking the song, until out of the corner of her eye she saw ruby acting differently. She nudged her. “Are you okay?” the young girl looked down. It was then that the singer said “find the one you love, tell them how much you mean to them. Kiss them, hold them. Make them feel loved.” it happened in less than a second the girl turned and enveloped her in an embrace. Then, she pressed her lips softly to the other girls. Weiss eyes opened wide. Instead of pulling away, she pulled her closer. And when they pull apart, ruby bareley whispers. “Weiss, I love you.” the spot lights are fixed on them and everyone is cheering. And it’s with a slight blush that Weiss answers back. “I love you too”.

A/N: I am very sorry this is a day late. I did this for my rwby secret Santa @tinygayangrylaura it wasn’t supposed to be this short, but something happened where half of it got deleted and since I was already late I decided to publish it. Since its short you can request a fic and I’ll write it for you.

#rwbysecretsanta