#emerald writes ✧

[emeraldelysian]

Choi San ✧ The Jealousy Game

■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■

Pairing: Choi San x Reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut

Synopsis: "The Jealousy Game." A game in which you and your boyfriend Choi San flirt with other people to see who will break first. However, when San missteps on a day when you just want his love and attention, he realizes that he has to find a way to make it up to you.

Wordcount: 1.8K

Warnings: Reader has F. Anatomy; Make-Up Sex, Wall Sex, Kitchen Sex, Oral (F. Receiving); Stand and Carry Position; Kind of exhibitionist?; Protected (Wrap it before you tap it)

Note: Hi loves, long time no see!! I'm sorry I haven't been able to write that much this year, it's been a lot of ups and downs. But I wanted to get one more story out at least before the end of the year. I hope you all enjoy!!

♡︎ follow, provide feedback, or reblog if you enjoyed but please don't repost or translate!♡︎

MDNI, 18+ CONTENT

■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■

You and Choi San had a peculiar way of finding amusement. Whenever you both attended parties, you would engage in a wild game of jealousy, each one flirting with other people, determined to see who would break first. It was a wicked dance of passion and insecurity, the push and pull of emotions that heightened the intensity of your connection.

But on this particular day, a cloud of vulnerability loomed over you, casting a shadow on your usually confident demeanor.

The sun set, casting a warm golden glow over the garden where the party was held. The air smelled of blooming roses and anticipation, mingling with the lively chatter and tinkling glasses. As always, Choi San's eyes danced mischievously, a glint of excitement lighting them up. You shared a knowing smile, acknowledging the game that was about to commence.

To an outsider, it may have seemed as though you both walked through the crowd with poise and charm, effortlessly captivated by your temporary flings. Yet beneath your facade of indifference, a subtle undercurrent of worry gnawed away at your heart. Doubt seeped into your thoughts, staining them with unease.

'Why does San seem so distant today? Is it my fault?' Questions like these peppered your mind, leaving you feeling untethered in a sea of people.

The music began, its rhythmic pulse guiding the fluid movements of the crowd. Your gaze locked with San's, feeling an electric pull that only the two of you could understand. A woman with flowing auburn hair approached, her smile captivating him instantly. You observed with a clenched chest as she whispered something in San's ear, her laughter filling the air like a sweet melody. They moved together, their bodies in tune with the vibrant melody that filled the atmosphere.

Watching San dance with the woman sent a surge of unfamiliar emotions coursing through your veins. Jealousy clawed at your chest, its tendrils wrapping around your heart, squeezing with a relentless grasp. Doubt echoed in your mind, causing you to question your own self-worth. The laughter that had once brightened your eyes dimmed, replaced by a flicker of insecurity. You desperately craved his love and attention, yet it felt as though the world around you had receded, leaving you stranded upon an island of your own apprehension.

Eventually, the song came to an end, and San and the woman parted ways. You couldn't help but feel hurt by his behavior, and rather than taking a step back from the noise. He turned towards you just as you turned away. His stormy eyes betrayed a hint of remorse as he watched you walk away from the party, into the house.

Feeling a mix of emotions, you went inside the house to seek solace. As you closed the door behind you, you desperately tried to stop yourself from overthinking as you grabbed yourself a glass of water, but the thoughts continued to swirl around in your head. The hurt from San's behavior pierced deep, and you couldn't help but question where things went wrong. The sound of the party outside seemed distant now, but it wasn't enough to break you away from the incessant thoughts that plagued your mind. Just as you were drowning in a sea of self-doubt, a gentle knock at the door startled you.

It was San. He softly gazed at your lost expression, closing the door behind him as he entered the house.

As he reached out to touch your trembling hand, his voice was a tender caress against your ear, "I'm sorry, love. I've taken the game too far today. I didn't realize how much I hurt you, how vulnerable you've been feeling."

Tentatively, you met his gaze, seeing the genuine concern etched in each of his features. In that moment, the walls you had carefully constructed to protect yourself began to crumble. "I just needed you, San," you whispered, your voice threaded with aching vulnerability.

His arms wrapped around your trembling frame, pulling you into an embrace where all the pain and insecurity dissolved. He tenderly kissed you. With each gentle touch held his vow to mend the wounds he had unintentionally inflicted upon your heart. In that embrace, you realized that love is not a game to be played, but a tender dance where trust and understanding are the true partners.

"Please let me make it up to you," he whispered softly as he pulled away.

Your gaze flickered between his lips and his eyes before you nodded and kissed him again, soft lips smiling into each other.

He pushed you softly against the wall, deepening the kisses between you both.

Looking into your eyes, your hand gracefully past his belt buckle and into the intimate space of his cotton briefs. He was hard and ready, and you moved it between your fingers slowly, savoring his obvious eagerness. Suddenly, his hands were tenderly gripping your wrists, raising them above your head.

"Please don't move," he whispered as he lowered himself onto his knees. With his face directly between your legs, he unhurriedly unclasped the button on your jeans, undid the zipper, and meticulously slid your pants off.

His lips were just an inch away from your black silk panties. He traced your inner thigh with gentle, delicate kisses. He then moved his mouth to your stomach, nibbling at the bottom of your cashmere sweater. As he rose again, he skillfully used only his teeth to lift up the fabric.

You could feel the warmth of his breath hovering over your breasts. The anticipation and desire within you grew as he started to tease you.

In that moment, all the doubts and insecurities that had plagued you throughout the night melted away. The game of jealousy, once an exhilarating dance, now seemed trivial in comparison to the deep connection you both cherished. What had begun as a test of emotions had ultimately revealed the depth of your love and the fragility of your hearts.

"God I love you so much."

His face popped up from between your legs. His lips glistened with the juices of your almost-orgasm while your legs still trembled from his tongue’s teasing.

He gently rubbed his finger along your clit, rousing you back to reality. Your entire body was on high alert. You hadn’t made it to the bed, or even to the sofa. Instead, you both leaned against the wall completely naked by the kitchen table, clothes strewn about haphazardly.

Let’s just say that if any of the partygoers decided to come inside, they would have gotten quite the show.

You couldn’t help but admire the grin on his face and the excitement in his eyes as he stared and stared into you. His hands continued to work their magic, and you spread your legs wider, inviting him to take in more of me.

“I love you too.” The words came out as two moans. As his fingers slipped and dipped inside of me, the pleasure continued to build, kickstarting the shaking and gasping again.

“I could live down here forever," he moaned into you.

“I wish you could, baby.” You tugged on his locks and brought his face towards you. You could taste yourself, sweet and pungent, on his lips. You broke apart and you caught his eyes with yours, mirroring his desire. It was clear that the need you felt to cherish this moment together was mutual.

You wrapped your arms around each other, your bodies heaving towards one another like magnets. The heat from his skin sent shivers down your spine as you feeling of him pressing into you excited you. You kissed for what seemed like an eternity, hands gently grazing skin, tongues tenderly touching - losing yourselves in each other. It was a moment of softness, of utmost sincerity.

But you needed him inside you before you risked being interrupted.

“I’ll be right back,” You said. You sauntered over to your purse that had been forgotten on the kitchen counter where you kept the condoms.

“You're so beautiful,” he groaned.

You turned around to see him watching your every nude move, leaning against the wall in awe. You grabbed the condom from your purse and came back over to him. He took the condom and quickly put in on. He held your hips steadily as he entered you.

You could feel him all the way to your belly button. You screamed out with pleasure, your hands taking the heat as he thrusted fast and deep. The movement pushed your body all the way forward, causing a consistent banging on the wall you were leaning against. He placed his palms on your ass as he lifts you up, your legs wrapped around him as he bounces you up and down. You take more and more of him as he brands your body with his hands.

"I think everyone outside is going to hear us if you keep moaning like that." His words came out low and throaty.

Your breath was shallow as you got closer to reaching your limit. Nothing existed outside of this moment - the sensation of his hands holding you up, how deeply satisfied this closeness made you feel. You kissed him, holding his mouth on yours for a long time. You breathed in his breaths as you began to tremble and gasp, your orgasms melting into each other, ecstasy swimming through your veins as you finished together.

You had never experienced anything like that before, that insane and electric synchrony. Your limbs vibrated in the fading exhilaration. You leaned back against the fall as he gently let you down. Your knees are weak as you slip down to sit. He kneels down with you, as you both exhale slowly and deeply.

You both sat there catching your breath as you looked out the glass door to the back. From your viewpoint, you could only see the trees as they were cast with the overwhelmingly beautiful pink and purple tie-dyed afternoon sky. People were still laughing and enjoying themselves outside, and you were grateful that you guys had been just shy of their viewpoint into the house.

You turned towards San who had opted to gaze at you isntead of the world outside. He moved his hand to brush some of the hair out of your face.

"Listen," he began, his tone softer once again, dripping with sincerity. "Please, believe me when I say that despite everything, my heart has always been yours. These games were never about finding someone else; they were about making sure you were the one who wanted me."

Words escaped you, overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotions coursing through your veins. You both were in the wrong, having chosen to play a game that would play on both of your insecurities. But you squeezed his hand, conveying volumes in that simple gesture. The truth was, despite the hurt you both had caused through these game, your love for eachother remained unshaken.

You gently kissed him once more before giving him a smile, "Let's just agree not to play that silly game anymore and get dressed, okay?"

He nodded and smiled, a flicker of hope now dancing within the depths of his eyes.

"From this moment forward, there will be no more games, no more tests. Just you and me, fighting for our love."

#ateez #atz #ateez imagines #ateez reactions #ateez fanfic #ateez scenarios #ateez angst #ateez fluff #ateez smut #choi san #san #ateez san #choi san smut #kpop smut #san hard hours #ateez hard hours #san smut #san x reader #emerald writes ✧

[emeraldgreaves]

[thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about characters] [thinks about--

#emerald speaks #writing some fic. as one is apt to do. #and my dialogue is truly awful but the vibes you guys. the goddamn vibes

[genevawren38]

Phil picturing Techno standing behind Chay during the enderpookie battle and giving him tips based on knowing Phil's battle stance and styles after eras of fighting together....well I was thinking of writing something like that eventually but now that you just canonized it 👀

[Like an hour 20ish into today's VOD March 4, 2024]

Edit: Apparently he helped shield the duckling boy from injuries, trying to find a clip now bit haven't had any luck yet.

Clip;

[Clip from Twitter & transcript courtesy of @foryouthegays ]

#wrenrambles #qsmp #mcyt fanfiction #technoblade #emerald duo forever #emerald duo #techno would have loved chayanne #enderking #im coming back to this #i have to write something #i must #qsmp philza #philza #philza minecraft

[spacecasehobbit]

It makes me so happy that Emerald Fennell has said outright that Felix was doing something shitty in every scene. He's pretty, he's wealthy, he's charming; he's so spoiled with privilege that he can get away with casual cruelty underlying everything he does and still think of himself as a good person.

The fact that so many people can watch Saltburn and come away thinking that Felix is a nice person is both a testament to the quality of Emerald Fennell's writing, and it is a perfect example of how Oliver himself got drawn in by the facade of kindness that Felix presents.

I want her to write so many more things, and I want to watch all of them.

#saltburn #emerald fennell #felix catton #between saltburn and pyw #i've been really impressed so far with her character writing #and the themes that she chooses to explore #felix WAS doing something shitty in every scene #but i'm not used to characters like that being written as such awful people *on purpose* without also feeling clunky #so kudos to emerald fennell for that

[elizabethemerald]

Summoning the Cat

DP X DC prompt by @im-totally-not-an-alien-2

Danny attempts to summon his sister via a ghostly spell circle as a prank but instead keeps accidentally summoning the bat boys of Gotham instead. He even accidentally summons Bat-cow instead when he tries to summon Cujo. Annoyed and confused, Danny disconnects the summoning quickly each time. Finally, when Plasmius takes an attack a little too far, Danny attempts to summon his mom to snap some sense into him. Instead of summoning Maddie Fenton he summons Selina Kyle who had a lost a child that was hers and Bruce’s when the child was baby. Turns out Danny is a SelinaxBruce baby. 4812 words

***

Selina Kyle, known in certain small circles as the infamous thief Catwoman lept from one building to another. She landed in a neat roll that was almost completely silent. From there it was but the work of a moment to crack open the sky light and lower herself down into the apartment below her. Now usually she would enter her apartment through either the front door if she was out of costume or through the balcony door if she was. Of course, this wasn’t Her apartment. 

Some rich tool, regular attendee of both the galas hosted by the Waynes and the Iceberg Lounge owned by Penguin. The owner was a gambler, a sleazeball and utterly corrupt. More than all that though, he was a braggart. He made the great misfortune of bragging at one of the Wayne’s Galas about illegally importing a rare Egyptian statuette. The statuette, predating the pyramids, was beyond priceless. Not that Selina planned to sell it. It was just something far too pretty to gather dust in some prick’s private display when it could be in her own display instead. 

She bypassed the security almost effortlessly. She didn’t even need to break a sweat as she broke in, stole the precious cat statue (and numerous other valuables, no sense wasting an opportunity after all) then broke out and retreated to the neighboring tower. She was just about ready to gloat over her victory when she felt a presence join her on the roof. She dodged on instinct as a batarang whizzed past her head. 

“Catwoman, that doesn’t belong to you.” A gruff voice said from the direction the bat shaped blade had come from. 

“Well it does now, handsome.” She replied far sweeter as she turned to face Batman. 

He emerged from the shadows, his customary glare firmly affixed to his face. She smiled at him and playfully adjusted the zipper on her skin tight suit. Despite all of his iron will power he still couldn’t help a glance at her generous cleavage. 

“Mom?”

Her eyebrows pulled down in confusion and she glanced around the rooftop. Batman strode toward her, his usual imposing figure ruined by the fact that she had seen him completely naked and that she wasn’t paying attention to his attempts at intimidating her. 

“Catwoman, you need to return what you’ve stolen. And come in for questioning about the missing diamonds from Starlabs.” 

“Mom! I need you!”

She whirled around. There was a tugging sensation on her heart as she heard those words she had desperately wanted to hear for so long. Fifteen years had passed since she had last had hope of actually hearing someone call her that. 

“Selina? What-?”

“Can it Bats.” Selina snapped as she tried to follow the tugging on her heart, but she couldn’t find any source for the voice. 

Green mist began seeping out from around her feet, forming a circle on the rooftop and the tugging grew stronger. The mist was rising up and obscuring everything around her. She could only barely make out Bruce’s growing look of concern. 

“Mom! He’s going to kill me!”

“Alan?!” Selina all but shrieked the name of the boy that had been taken from her. (Name borrowed from BatCat Spectre on AO3, Check it out!)

“Selina!” Bruce shouted just as the toxic green mist fully filled her vision and the tugging sensation grew to encompass her entire body. In the seconds she had she adjusted her costume for combat and bared the claws built into her gloves. If Alan was calling her for help, he would find her ready and willing. 

“Mom, please hurry!” The voice that had sounded distant and distorted suddenly grew close and clear as the mist began to vanish from her sight. 

Selina spun on her heel quickly taking in the boy cowering in the corner wearing an oversized NASA hoodie and the vampire? that was standing over his huddled form. Years of thieving and going toe to toe with the Bats had left Selina with incredible instincts and she used them now as she reacted. She raked her claws across the figure that towered over her son multiple times, drawing blood across his back, chest and face. She didn’t know if the sedative laced in her claws would affect this kind of creature, but the slash certainly got its attention. 

The being immediately spun, faster than any human could move to grab her around the throat. She dug her claws into his hand and wrist, digging for his tendons even as she was lifted off her feet with one hand. 

“Ah. The infamous Catwoman. This is who you summon for help? And here I thought you were calling your mother. You know very well, Little Badger, that Maddie has better things to do than come to your rescue.” The vampire said, seemingly unaffected by her ripping his hand to ribbons. “But I must thank you for delivering her. When I overshadow her I will have the best thief in the world under my control.” 

Through her fading vision she could see his eyes glowing with a red light and could feel some strange force pressing down on her mind, even as she went through all the exercises Bruce had taught in how to resist mind control. 

“You don’t get to touch her!” The same young voice that had called for her before shouted out. 

Then her vision was once again filled with overwhelming, toxic green light. She fell to the ground released from the hold on her throat and the pressure on her mind disappeared in the same instant. She gasped for air then stood and braced herself for combat. 

“Oh, Ancients! I’m so sorry!” The boy, who looked so much like Bruce cried as he jumped to her side to make sure she was alright. 

Selina looked around for their assailant but all she could see was a smoking hole dug through the building. She couldn’t help but let her eyes widen at the clear power Alan possessed. 

“I was trying to summon my mom to come and help me, but for some reason you came instead. It’s like when I tried to summon my sister and I kept getting all the different bat boys from Gotham. Like I got Nightwing and Red Robin. I even got a cow once when I tried to summon my pet!” 

The boy kept talking at a rapid pace as he checked her for injuries. If it weren’t for having been around Dick when he was Robin she might have been able to understand Alan as he was speaking. Selina felt a chill around her neck that eased the pain in her throat. Something in his words stuck out to her. 

“Did you try to summon your sister or your sibling?”  She asked, looking over the boy curiously. 

Warning bells were ringing in her head as she examined him. He was far too thin and for how tall she and Bruce were he should be much taller at fifteen, almost sixteen. He had dark bags under his eyes and cuts on his face. When he came to her side he moved with a noticeable limp, and he held one of his arms awkwardly close to his body. 

“Uh. Sibling I think. Ghost Speak applies more weight to title than gender. Wait, why are we discussing summing semantics when Plasmius is still out there?”

“Plasmius?” Selina growled the name out even as her mind was racing at his words. 

He had tried to summon his sibling and had gotten Dick and Tim. He tried to summon his pet and had gotten Bruce’s pet. He had tried to summon his mother and he got her. She  mentally preened as the thought occurred to her. Whatever summoning ritual he had used clearly knew he was her family. But she still had the current problem to deal with before she could celebrate finding her son. 

“Yeah Plasmius. Vlad Plasmius, floating vampire wanna-be, with the terrible dress code of someone who slept through the last century even though I know he was born in the eighties at the latest. He’s way more angry than he usually is but he’s obsessed with my mom, er, my uh, adopted mom. So I thought she would snap him out of it. Now come on, I need to break the ritual connection and send you back before you get hurt again.” 

Alan dragged her back towards the glowing green sigil on the ground, but Selina dug her heels in and stopped him. He looked past her, desperation on his face, but he must have hit this Plasmius harder than he thought because he still wasn’t back. 

“Alan, you called for help. Do you really think you’re going to just send me away?”

“Wait, Alan? Why are you calling me-? Never mind. I promise I can handle him myself. He’s never beaten me before no matter how close it’s gotten and I’m sure I can handle him now even as angry and nuts as he is now.”

“Absolutely not! I lost you fourteen years ago, I’m not going to turn my back on you now!” 

The poor boy seemed frozen by her declaration. He had stopped trying to pull her towards the sigil, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. Worst to her was the anguish on his face and the tears starting to shine in his eyes. What was wrong with Alan’s life that he had never had someone to protect him before. 

“Now, tell me how to fight this guy, and quickly!”

He looked at her for another second, seemingly trying to read her very soul before he nodded. He stepped back from her and a blinding ring of light covered his body. Selina panicked for a moment before the flash of light vanished and Alan reappeared. He was floating, and all of the color had been bleached from his appearance other than his previously blue eyes turning a bright toxic green, but she could still tell that he was her Alan, just like she had been able to tell from the moment she set eyes on him. 

“Ok. I didn’t want to show you my powers, but I can’t risk you getting hurt because I’m not doing my best.” He quickly floated over to a backpack in the corner and dug something out and tossed it to her. “Put that on! It will protect you from getting overshadowed. Er, humans call it getting possessed.” 

Selina briefly examined what she now saw was a quite frankly hideous bracelet. This is exactly the type of trap someone who had never been bossed around by Batman would fall into, just slip on the bracelet that is said to protect you from mind control and immediately open yourself to actual mind control. Bruce would never put the bracelet on without a hundred questions. It was exactly the type of trap Selina was going to jump into. She had to trust the feeling in her heart and the look in Alan’s eyes that he wasn’t going to hurt her. She snapped the bracelet around her wrist. 

“Oh perfect.” Alan was visibly relaxed seeing her protected, and he immediately stood back up and grabbed her hand to examine her claws. “So Vlad Plasmius is a ghost. He can phase through materials and turn invisible. If he disappears be careful but he should still be visible on thermal vision as a warm patch. He has a flame core. Your weapons and armor aren’t going to do anything, you only got those early attacks off because he was surprised.” 

Alan examined her claws for a moment then nodded to himself a smirk on his face. Another chill spread across her hands, even colder than what she had felt on her neck. Ice formed around each of her fingers and spread up her wrist to her elbow. Her usual claws were now covered with massive talons that were supported all the way down to bracers that formed on each wrist. Selina couldn’t help but feel proud at Alan’s clear skill with his powers. She wasn’t sure where or how he had gotten powers, but now wasn’t the time to ask. 

“Phantom!!!” A voice growled from the smoking hole in the wall. Alan turned to look, fear clear on his face before he returned to examining the rest of her body suit. Ice continued to flow from his hands in blue waves until almost every part of her was covered. “Phfffffffaaaaannntooommm!!!”

The lingering call seemed to be coming from every direction. Catwoman looked down at herself and was even more impressed at the ice armor her son had crafted for her. The ice was still light enough that her usual, very acrobatic, combat style wouldn’t be affected, yet covered her with leg and shin guards, arm guards and pauldrons and a flowing almost mech like armor on her torso. 

“Daniel! This is enough. You just need to listen to me and do what I say!” Plasmius shouted. 

Selina flexed her claws then darted to the side of the hole just before a pair of glowing red eyes shone into the room they were in. She looked over at Alan and now saw him standing almost fearlessly as his enemy entered the room. 

“I heard dear Maddie and that oaf, Jack had you down in their lab recently!” Selina decided to let Plasmius monologue as she navigated directly behind him. “And yet you’re still loyal to them and not to me!” 

Alan, Selina guessed he was known as Daniel here, grimaced at Plasmius’ words and she scowled, furious at him taking that tone with her son. She crouched, ready to pounce, waiting for the perfect moment. 

“Maybe all you need to learn your true place is to spend some time in my lab. I could do it too, fill jars with your organs and blood and leave you to rot on my lab table, just like your parents did!” 

Selina’s horrified shriek was the only warning Plasmius had before her claws were in his back and her weight was bearing him down to the floor. She rent his back as she pummeled him with her knees. Plasmius tried to buck her off but Alan, or Daniel grappled with him from the front. The ice on her claws and on her knee pads allowed her to tear into him. She tried to ignore the green that now covered her claws. She and Alan fought side by side keeping Plasmius on his toes and unable to use his more significant powers. 

Plasmius blasted Selina back and fired another blast at Alan. Selina shrugged the blast off with her armor, but cried out as she watched her son fall. A metallic cylinder flew through the air having been knocked from Alan’s grasp by the Plasmius. Selina caught the cylinder out of the air, a brief glance told her it was some kind of mechanical… thermos? 

“Mom! Use it!” Alan’s desperate cry snapped her back to reality even as Plasmius slammed into her son. Selina had not mourned her son for the past fourteen years for him to get hurt on her watch. It only took a moment for her to figure out the “ON” switch for the thermos and she aimed it at the man attacking her son. With a scream of rage and a flash of light he was sucked into the thermos and Selina was left alone with her son. She immediately fell to her knees at his side where she could see he was holding a burn at his side. 

“Alan? Or do you prefer Daniel?” She asked, trying to keep her voice soft and gentle. 

“Uh, Danny actually.” He said with a smile that could have been from her own high school yearbook. “Though, Alan… might not be so bad, eventually.” 

“Ok, Danny, are you ok? Do we need to get to a hospital?” 

“No!” His shout startled her, but she didn’t let herself pull back from his side. “I can’t go to a hospital, they’ll turn me in, they’ll tear me apart.” 

His voice fell away in a broken whine and she immediately curled her body around his, holding him tight. He started to shiver against her and she could feel sobs start to rack his too tiny body. 

“That will never happen again, do you hear me? You were taken from me when you were a baby and I thought you were dead. But you managed to find me, you’re so smart, so clever, you found me and I’m here now and I-”

Her words cut off as a green mist began to again swirl around her. Danny looked at her with sad eyes. 

“I’m exhausted. I can’t maintain the connection anymore.” He hesitated, looking away from her for a moment, before he looked back at her with an earnestness that startled her. “Are you really my mom? My birth mom?” 

“I am.” Selina spoke with more confidence than truth, but she didn’t care about truth, or DNA checks or anything the Bat would insist on. She felt it in her heart. This was her baby. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.” The mist was swirling around her faster and faster, she did everything she could to stay focused on Danny’s face. “I’ll find you. I promise you, I’ll find you!” 

The green mist filled her vision and for just a moment she could feel skinny arms wrap tightly around her before the sensation faded along with the mist. Far too soon she was back on a rooftop in Gotham, breathing in the smog, still holding a thermos filled with someone who had threatened to disembowel her son. Selina threw her head back and howled her grief and rage at the sky that Danny wasn’t here any longer. She pulled the cowl of her costume off her head so she could dash tears from her eyes. 

“Selina? What happened?” Bruce’s gruff voice made her whirl around and he almost got a face full of ice covered claws. 

“Take me to the cave.” She stood on slightly shaky legs, clutching Danny’s enemy to her chest. 

“Catwoman, you’re not acting like yourself.” He tried to stonewall her, but she was not having it. Danny was out there, exhausted, injured and was being abused by the people who should have loved him. 

“Take me to the cave Bruce!” Selina snapped at him, already moving towards where he had parked the Batmobile. “And get your little listeners on the line, our son is out there, alive but in an abusive situation and I won’t allow him to get hurt any more.” 

The ride back to the Batcave was spent with Bruce mostly in a paranoid and sullen silence. She didn’t care. She just didn’t care. She loved Bruce, he was one of the most important people in her life, but their son, the baby they had made together, was even more important to her. Instead she spent the ride filling in Oracle with everything she knew. 

“His name is Danny, short for Daniel. His adoptive parents are named Jack and Maddie. They own a lab. A lab they held my son prisoner in.” Her voice broke and Batman almost drove off the road. Selina took a moment to gather herself, fiddling idly with the bracelet Danny had given her to keep her safe. Surprisingly it was still with her and the icy armor she was wearing wasn’t melting at all. The cold from the armor didn’t even feel uncomfortable. “He has wavy black hair, Bruce’s eyes, and my jaw. He’s about 5’3”, interested in NASA.” She leaned over to grab Bruce’s arm. “He’s too skinny, our kitten is too skinny.” 

The Batmobile thundered into the Batcave where to Bruce’s surprise most of the rest of his kids were waiting. Alan’s siblings in another life. The knowing look they sent her made her think that Oracle must have been keeping the rest of them updated as she spoke. Red Robin was typing away at the Batcomputer while Robin leaned over his shoulder looking at the screen. Signal was probably still in bed. The two Batgirls, Black Bat and Spoiler leaned casually against each other nearby.  Selina was surprised Nightwing wasn’t here. He, Red Hood and Oracle were the only ones who had really known that Alan had existed, much less that he had been taken from her and Bruce. 

Selina struggled with the armor Danny had made for her for a few minutes while Red Robin and Oracle searched for anyone who matched the description she had given in their systems. Eventually Cass and Steph joined her to help her shed the armor. They were both curious about it even as they helped her out of it. They, like her, ignored Bruce trying to integrate her about what she went through and check her for known mind control elements. It’s Cassandra who notices the bracelet on her wrist, something she would normally not be caught dead in. She examines it then lifts her eyebrows in surprise. She twists Selina’s wrist so she can see the bracelet where a logo is placed. 

“Fenton… Works. Fentonworks. Fentonworks!” Selina cheers as she reads the name out loud. Surely that could help them find Danny. “Search Fentonworks!”

There is a flurry of typing after her announcement both from Red Robin and from Oracle over the coms. It only takes a few more minutes of keys clacking, the noise grating against her already frayed nerves for Tim to cheer. She is at his side in a moment, looking at a hideously designed website for Fentonworks. Were these people incapable of actual aesthetically pleasing designs? The heavily modulated voice of Oracle began reading out information and coordinates of a city called Amity Park. 

They were getting more and more information, images flying across the screen of the Batcomputer. The Drs. Fenton. Their research and experiments on Ecto-entities. Their children, one biological Jasmine Fenton, one adopted true age and name unknown, renamed as Daniel Fenton. His social media was pulled up, where it was clear he went by Danny, his close friends Samantha and Tucker. More and more information, but Selina was staring at the picture of Danny like a man in a desert staring at an oasis. That was her boy. That was her son. He had called her for help, she had told him, promised him that she would find him again and she had. 

Suddenly the screen went dark. From the cries of anger and annoyance from the two boys it was clear it was not because of them. She looked over and saw Bruce near the power button for the screen, his cowl pulled back so she could see the suspicion in his eyes. 

“Selina, you’re not acting like yourself.” He said slowly, calmly. As if he were talking to a wild animal. “I think it would be best if you lied down, and I can call Martian Manhunter to check your mind. Our son vanished fourteen years ago. Survival rates for kidnapped children are miniscule for that length of time. Also our son couldn’t be a meta, neither of us have the meta gene. This person is manipulating your emotions. Probably to extract information from you.” 

Selina couldn’t help a sneer crossing her face. She regretted taking off her ice claws and armor. She would like to see how well the new attachments fared against the armor Batman wore. 

“You can be a paranoid bastard all you want. I’m taking one of your planes to Amity Park tonight.” 

Bruce tapped at something on his wrist computer. Her sneer curled up into a snarl, presumably he had just locked the planes. How dare he treat her like one of his Robins that he could just ground whenever he wanted to. Especially when their son was trapped in another state, injured and exhausted. 

“No.” Bruce’s curt answer cut into Selina’s already thin patience. She was about to start screaming when another voice cut in. 

“It may not be up to your decision any more, father.” Robin said, looking closely at his own wrist computer. “It looks like Richard rendezvoused with Todd at the secondary Batplane immediately after finding out about this person. As soon as they had coordinates they took off.” 

Bruce turned the monitor back on to reveal one of the locator beacons from one of the other Batplanes already leaving Gotham airspace. 

“Oracle. Shut the plane down remotely.” 

There is a long moment of silence of the coms before Oracle hesitantly rejoins the conversation. 

“I’m not going to do that.” Bruce looks like he wants to angrily reply but he is cut off as Barbara continues. “Catwoman knows enough about the risks of mind control to know when she’s being influenced. If there’s even a chance that there’s a child trapped in an abusive situation like she described, blood relative or not, meta or not, that child deserves to be freed from that situation. Red Hood and Nightwing are capable. They can retrieve the boy on their own.” 

Jason’s own modulated voice came through the coms next. 

“Don’t worry B, I’m here to restrain Dickiebird’s murderous impulses. We’re going to rescue our little brother, we’ll bring him home, Selina.” 

Selina walked up to the computer and pressed the com button there. 

“Be careful boys. His adoptive parents aren’t good people.” She hesitates, the desire so strong to tell them to make the Fentons pay, in blood if necessary. But she can’t do that. She can’t ask them to go against their code for her. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.” 

“Understood, Selina.” Dick’s voice came through next. There was none of his usual cheer in his voice. “We’re switching to stealth mode now that we’re away from Gotham. We’ll be radio silent until either we have him safe and secure or something goes badly.”

Red Robin responds to the sign off. Selina can’t hear any more. She paces. Alfred convinces her to change into her civilian attire. She even showers on his recommendation. Then she’s back pacing the floor of the Batcave, her hair still damp. Red Robin eventually retires for some much needed sleep. Cassandra and Stephanie fall asleep cuddled together in their civies in the cave. Bruce the miserable, paranoid bastard just watches her. Every turn of her pacing she has to look at him. He’s still glaring at her, still thinking she’s been brainwashed or some such nonsense. 

Hours pass. 

Long hours of pacing. Long hours of flight over the midwest towards Amity Park. Long hours where Danny is hopefully safe and resting from his fight with Plasmius. Long hours where she could only pace and hold the thermos that held Danny’s enemy. The man who wanted to cut her baby open. 

The passing hours strained every last iota of her self restraint. She wanted to slap Bruce and scream at him for his pigheadedness. She wanted to let Plasmius free and shred him to pieces under her claws. She wanted to pull up the flight data for the Batplane and track it across the country, even though that would be useless while it was in stealth mode. 

Finally, just have dawn had broken, when Selina herself was starting to feel a little broken there came a crackle on the coms before a voice joined them. 

“Nightwing to Batcave, come in Batcave.” Dick’s voice came in loud and clear, startling both of the Batgirls awake. Selina immediately dashed to the computer, pressing the com button herself. 

“We can hear you, Nightwing. Do you have him?” Selina couldn’t keep the desperation out of her voice even if she tried. 

“Red Hood and I recovered one Daniel James Fenton, born Alan Thomas Kyle.” Selina could have jumped for joy, even as she wanted to laugh at his subtle dig at Bruce. The actual last name on Alan’s original birth certificate was Wayne. “We’ve also managed to recover his adopted sister, Jasmine, he wouldn’t leave Amity Park without her.” 

Selina could feel the tension from the night draining out of her and she collapsed into the computer chair in front of the Bat computer. Bruce stepped up to the consol next. 

“What of their parents?” He growled the question out. There was another long silence. Far longer than previous silences before Red Hood’s modulated voice came through the comms. 

“They’ll live.” A brief pause then, “Though I did burn down their house. Both of the children insisted and I needed to destroy something after everything we saw.” 

“They’ve been in a rough place for who even knows how many years. We’re going to bring the Batplane into the cave, have Agent A on stand-by.” Dick also hesitated for a moment. “Selina, we’re bringing him home.” 

Selina could almost sob in relief. 

This was not my intention to write something this long. I just hope you enjoy. If you like my writing, hang around! I’m going to be sharing some fully original pieces at the end of the month. 

@memecow1, @andaspoonfulofangst-whoops , @colornotes23, @theamazingfox , @spectralstardustandphantomnights , @alcorbearson , @talafairy , @hnymp , @ironicvixen , @dangnoodles, @satoshy12 , @suppengott, @samgirl98 , @skulld3mort-1fan , 

That’s a lot of tags. Hopefully this works. And don’t forget to share!

#dp x dc #Danny Phantom #selina kyle #bruce wayne #batman #vlad plasmius #Writing Emerald #danny fenton #dc x dp

[pilot-boi]

Jaune’s friends throw him a birthday party only to find out he has long forgotten his own birthday in the Ever After, never mind how old he technically is.

Jaune’s friends have been acting weird all week.

Of course, he’s not a very good judge of what counts as weird anymore. Living for decades in a world where the brooks would literally babble and time was literally money would do that to you.

But he feels pretty sure that they’re being weird.

They keep huddling in groups whispering to each other, only to see him coming and abruptly change the subject, or just straight up walk away. He might be out of practice reading social cues (and he was pretty abysmal to begin with, let’s be honest here) but even he can notice that.

Are they mad at him? He’s been trying his best to hold himself together since getting back. He’s been talking to Ren and Nora and Ruby when he’s spiring. Oscar has been a HUGE help adjusting to feeling out of place in his own skin. Heck, this morning he didn’t even wake up freaking out about being late! All things considered he thinks he’s been doing pretty okay.

So why are they all avoiding him?

“Do you have…”

“No, Ren’s taking care…”

“Oh good, then you can-”

Ruby and Weiss are lurking outside of an unused classroom, whispering intently to each other over an open notebook. Jaune perks up. “Hey guys! What’re you-”

They both look up at him, immediately cutting off their conversation. Weiss shuts her notebook with a snap. Jaune’s greeting trails off and his smile slips from his face as they stare at him.

“What uh… what are you guys up to?” Jaune asks.

Ruby and Weiss glance at each other. “Nothing you need to worry about,” Weiss responds eventually, Ruby shifting awkwardly behind her

“Are you sure? I could… maybe I could help!” he offers, hating how over-eager he must sound.

“I’m sure,” Weiss replies firmly, and Jaune wilts further. “Besides, we were just going, right Ruby?”

“We were? I mean, yeah! Yeah we were,” Ruby nods, already edging away. Can she really not even stand to be around him? “See ya later, I guess!” And the two of them hurry off down the hallway, already whispering to each other.

Jaune slumps. He thought he was doing better, but if Weiss and Ruby beat that hasty of a retreat at his mere presence? And not even the first one this week? Yeah, they’re definitely mad at him. He just wishes he knows what he did.

He shuffles his way back to the JNPER dorm. The whole time, he’s replaying the conversation in his head, nitpicking every over-exuberance, every awkward moment. He knows he’s out of practice, but he’s trying, really he is. Maybe they’re just finally getting tired of his lackluster performance? Tired of playing nice in the face of his bumbling?

The door is ajar when he returns, and he can hear Oscar and Nora’s voices inside.

“...just hard seeing him this way.”

“I know, it hurts me, too.”

He hesitates, hand hovering over the doorknob. He can’t help it. And yeah, eavesdropping is bad. But they’re talking about him, and if they don’t know he’s there, they will continue to do so. Of course, he might not like what he hears, but at least he’ll have answers. And since when does he do what’s good for him?

“...having trouble adjusting.”

“Yeah. But hopefully this will help!”

“I hope so. It’s been a while, but if we all work together we can make sure he stays away while we-”

Yeah. He’s heard enough.

Jaune shuts the door with a quiet click. Well, he was wrong at least. His friends aren’t mad at him. 

No. No, they hate him.

He lets his steps carry him away. He doesn’t much care where he ends up, he knows his friends won’t be there.

If they want him to stay away, he can do that. It was selfish of him (stupid of him) to want to immediately insert himself back into the team dynamic. They spent months grieving him while he was living in fairytale land, and then he shows back up and what? Just slots back in like nothing happened? Like they didn’t just spend the last few months of their lives thinking he was dead?

“Having trouble adjusting” Nora had said, and she’s right of course. It’s no secret that he’s been taking to Remnant like a fish to the desert.

But he’s been trying, gods he’s been trying!

Jaune knows he’s awkward and too loud and too big. Too used to stiffness in his limbs that would slow his movements, too used to a creak and a crack in his voice that would lower his tone. Too used to being alone to fit, like he’s a puzzle piece from a different set thrown in a box it doesn’t belong.

He knows he’s not okay, he’s not right. He knows that as well as he knows his name. (His name or his title? Which one is he anymore?) But to hear it spoken so plainly from a friend’s mouth…

Jaune doesn’t realize he’s crying until his vision blurs with tears.

Weiss and Ruby whispering to themselves about Ren (his teammate, his brother, he doesn’t even know what his brother is doing), saying they don’t need him, and leaving abruptly when he approaches. Nora and Oscar talking quietly about how badly he’s adjusting and how they need him to stay away.

He just wanted to be less alone, but he’s just pushing everyone away again. Too loud, too big, too much. Just like Alyx.

“Hey Arc, what’s with the moping?” Jaune jumps, whirls around, and blinks back into awareness. He’s in a courtyard dappled with the warm tones of sunset (Wasn’t it midday? How much time did he lose?), one of the few places in the city with plantlife. And there, glaring at him from under a palm tree, is Emerald.

He stares at her. She stares back. He can’t tell if she’s giving him time to calm down (stupid crying, stupid trauma, why won’t his lungs just work right) or if she just refuses to ask the question again.

Eventually his breathing steadies as much as it’s going to, and his panic begins to ebb. She’s still just staring at him.

His brain catches up. Right, she asked him a question.

“I’m not-” He swallows. No more bottling things up. He tried that already, and look where it got him. A bowl full of poison and a lake full of tattered paper. “I think everyone is mad at me. I think… I think they’re all just psyching themselves up to tell me that they’re… that they hate me.” Jaune admits, voice getting more quiet as he goes. And wow, he really must be hard up for people to talk to if he’s telling Emerald this.

She scoffs, rolling her eyes. “What? No. No they’re not.”

Jaune blinks, taken aback by her immediate response. “They’re not? But… but they’ve been avoiding me all week! Saying they don’t need me and that they want me to stay away! I just heard Nora, and she said-”

“They don’t hate you, trust me,” Emerald assures, cutting off his increasingly panicked rambling. And somehow, she sounds so sure of herself that he can’t help but trust her. “I don’t think they can hate you. Believe me, I’ve tried, and you’re annoyingly likeable. It sucks.”

“But if they don’t hate me then…” The words won’t come. Why are they avoiding him? Why are they working on something while deliberately not including him? Why do they want him to stay away?

The bewilderment must be plain on his face because Emerald sighs and stands. She mutters something under her breath that sounds like “those idiots can’t even…” but he doesn’t catch the rest.

“Gods damn puppy eyes. They’re just planning a… wait. Actually-” Emerald pulls out her Scroll. Jaune can’t see who she dials, but whoever it is picks up immediately. “Hey it’s me. Yeah. Yeah I know you’re busy but- Yeah I know you’re almost out of time-”

At this, Emerald glances at the sky for some reason and Jaune automatically follows her gaze. The sun is dipping behind the roof of the building, sending cool shadows across the courtyard. Jaune winces, reminded of the time he lost. How long was he wandering around the halls of Shade before he stumbled across Emerald?

“Yeah I know, I KNOW! Listen, Arc’s-” She gets cut off again, clearly growing more and more irritated. It’s probably Yang then, or Ruby. “Will you just shut up and listen?! Arc’s here! He’s here with me, so you can tell the rest of the idiot squad to stop worrying! He’s right here!” Jaune perks up. They were worried about him? But…

“He wandered past me after overhearing one of you… No he still doesn’t know, somehow, but he showed up freaking out and VERY disassociating and I had to calm him down! So if you don’t want a full meltdown on your hands, one of you get over here and get this show on the road, because I swear I am not equipped to deal with Jaune crying.”

Jaune. She called him Jaune. 

And earlier she said she doesn’t hate him.

And if she doesn’t hate him then… then maybe she wasn’t lying about the rest of his friends not hating him. It feels like there’s a happy balloon swelling in his chest, and gods dammit he’s starting to cry again.

Stupid high strung emotions, stupid post-meltdown crying, stupid heart caring so stupid much.

Emerald catches his eye and she winces. “Ah shit um… No everything’s fine, Arc’s just crying again. No I think it’s good tears this time, he’s got this big dopey smile on his face. Yeah. Yeah that’s the one. Can one of you get over here now? We’re in the garden off of our room. No the other one. See ya.”

She sighs and tucks her Scroll back in her pocket. “Ruby should be here any second.” Jaune beams at her. She squints at him. “What.”

He shrugs. “You’re a good friend.”

Emerald scoffs, folding her arms and looking away. “Yeah, whatever.”

There’s a burst of rose petals and Ruby materializes next to them. She’s speaking before her feet touch the ground! “-so sorry! Jaune! Oh gods we’ve been looking for you everywhere! Come on, the others are waiting-”

“You have? They are?? Wait what are-” Before he knows what’s happening, Ruby has wrapped herself, himself, and a reluctant Emerald up in her cape. “-you talking about?” Jaune says as soon as they land. And then the nausea hits.

“Oh crap, I forgot! Sorry…” Ruby apologizes, patting his back as he doubles over, breathing shallowly and leaning heavily on hands resting on shaky knees. “You okay?”

“Better than ever,” Jaune replies, chuckling weakly. “Just warn me next time. Please. Airships are bad enough but that was…”

“Horrible??!” Emerald interrupts, looking thoroughly ruffled.

“Intense,” he concludes, straightening with a shudder. They’re standing outside of an unused classroom, the same one as before. But then… why did Weiss and Ruby leave?

“Well? Go inside!” Ruby prods, bouncing next to the door.

Again, weird. But again, he’s no longer a great judge of what’s weird. So Jaune just opens the door and-

-and is immediately hit with a wall of sound comparable to a bomb going off.

They’re all lucky his sword is back in the dorm, or they’d all be nursing a few gashes. As it is, it takes an embarrassingly long amount of time for Jaune to realize he’s not under attack, and that all the yelling is just…

Birthday wishes? Is this a surprise party?

“Is this… for me?” Jaune asks, once his voice finds its way back to his throat.

“Of course it is, we’ve been planning this all week!” Yang hollers, from where she’s standing next to Blake and a pile of haphazardly wrapped presents.

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” Blake shrugs, looking sheepish. “Guess we took the secrecy a bit too far.”

“We didn’t mean to make you worry!” Nora apologizes, from beside the biggest cake Jaune’s ever seen. “I think you might’ve overheard me and Oscar talking earlier and-”

Everything slots into place. The whispering, the planning, wanting to keep him away, not including him in the process, Ren’s key involvement (That cake could only have been made by him), wanting to help him adjust. It was all just them doing… this.

There’s a pile of presents, each wrapped individually and labeled with Yang’s scrawl and Blake’s tidy printing. A banner hangs overhead with “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” written on it in block letters, and the last few letters of birthday are all smushed at the end. The cake is iced yellow with the double crescents of the Arc crest emblazoned at the top.

And his friends. His friends. All working together for a week to do this, for him, and he can feel his heart tight in his chest, and gods dammit here come the water works. How could ever think they hate him while they were doing this for him??

His friends are alls taring at him anxiously, and he realizes they think he doesn’t like it.

“I love you guys,” he sobs, and holds his arms out for a hug.

They all surge forward and sink to the floor. Oscar tucks himself under one arm, Ruby under the other. Weiss, Blake, and Ren curl around his sides. And on top of it all he can feel Yang and Nora’s exuberance.

They don’t hate him. They don’t hate him. Gods, how could he ever think they hate him?

In the middle of the hug huddle (Hud? Huggle?) Jaune frowns. “Wait… is it my birthday?” he asks nobody in particular.

He can feel someone adjust against his chest. “Course it is,” he feels Oscar’s voice hum through him. The pod loosens so his baby brother can look up at him, and Jaune ducks to avoid his discerning gaze. 

“I…” Jaune swallows, and finds that he’s looking right at Ruby. She looks gentle, understanding, and when he glances around he sees the same warmth on all of his friends’ faces. He swallows. No more bottling things up. “I forgot,” he admits.

“You forgot it’s today?” Emerald asks, and of course, she’s sitting cross-legged just outside of the slowly detaching hug pile.

“I forgot it entirely,” he says quietly, and he feels Oscar tuck into his side, and Jaune wraps an arm around him without even looking. “There wasn’t any reliable way to count days after so long, and even if there was… the days just weren’t consistent.” Time flowing away like sand in a shattered hourglass. Days that last minutes, nights that last days, days that last months, nights that last seconds. He shrugs. “So I just… forgot. I forgot a lot of things.”

“You didn’t forget us,” Nora reminds him, thudding her head down on his shoulder.

“I couldn’t let myself,” he says. “You guys…” Jaune takes the time to look them all in the eye. “Knowing I’d eventually get back to you all is all that kept me going.”

“Well, if you forget again, if you fall again… we’ll catch you,” Ruby says simply. “Me, Ren, Nora, all of us. And if that’s not enough, and you forget, and you lose yourself…” She swallows, and Jaune’s suddenly quite certain that he’s not the only one on the verge of tears. “Then we’ll just find you and show you who you are.”

“A million bajillion times,” Nora agrees, muffled against his chest.

“As many times as it takes,” Ren nods, and the others all murmur their assent. And Jaune’s heart swells with love for these people who have walked through hell, and who he would walk through hell for, and who would walk through hell for him.

The presents could be bricks and the cake could be sawdust and he wouldn’t care. This, these friends holding him in their arms… this is the only thing he could have ever wanted for a birthday he forgot but they remembered.

Love.

#rwby #jaune arc #ruby rose #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #emerald sustrai #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #mine #asks #my writing #anonymous

[candied-heartss]

got another banger cookin up in my drafts lol

this one goes out to the farleigh girlies, i see you, and i hear you 😮‍💨

#farleigh start #farleigh start x reader #farleigh start smut #emerald fennell #felix catton #oliver quick #saltburn #is he hella sub in this? find out on the next episode of: bee writes sexy shii 4 shits and gigs!

[aquickstart]

ok sure i'll talk about farleigh start. i'll talk about his tragedy of never being enough as it were and then having to deal with fucking oliver. sure. disclaimer: it's about class (and race) and the horrible reality of the rich. the horrible reality of living as farleigh.

another disclaimer: i'm white! and poc definitely pick up on everything i'm talking about here as it is, and better. i was and am specifically interested in farleigh vs. oliver but it's impossible to examine without considering race. definitely let me know if anything abt this sucks!

farleigh and oliver are similar. it's annoying because every intruder that is not himself is annoying, partly because felix's attention swaying from farleigh is dangerous; there is always a threat of being discarded, even if no precedent existed. the potential is terrifying.

but you'd think he's seen this before, every summer (if venetia is telling the truth) or at least often enough to learn to recognize it fast, so he should know this will pass. part of it is i think still the deep anxiety, and i think he hated every boy that was there before, and it is sort of routine.

but definitely a huge factor in farleigh's annoyance is the fact that he's a biracial (black for cattons, that's all they see) man in a white rich household. he's alert and exhausted all the time. of course he's angry at oliver, regardless of whether he's the first to crash at saltburn for the summer or the fifty-first.

but the important thing is this.

farleigh is very jealous of and angry and pissed at oliver because farleigh sees all the similarities between them. outsider, in financial trouble, whatever it is, in need of cattons; and yet oliver is preferred. and farleigh seems to be the only one to really consider it. felix does not pick up on the hint when farleigh brings up the birthday party vs. his mother. felix's clumsy "different or... anything like that" is as much about race as it is about class, of course. the "we've done all that we can" bit is felix absolving himself of guilt because surely they had, surely the mysterious collective cattons that he's not really part of had tried all they could do. to him, farleigh is different from oliver, because farleigh has been helped. felix is rich and white and twofold uncomfortable with farleigh, even if he's nice about it, even if he genuinely enjoys his company; he doesn't look too close at farleigh because he feels too guilty to come too close. and farleigh can't do anything about it. he can't nice himself into it. the fucking tragedy of him is that he's never enough in the world of the ultra-rich white, even if (especially because!) he's born into it.

farleigh is very pissed at oliver because farleigh also sees all the differences between them. you know who can be nice poor white enough to fit in? fucking oliver. felix says "just be yourself, they'll love you" when oliver first moves in. farleigh was also probably told the same thing, and felix also probably believed that farleigh could just be himself, but even if the cattons were magically not racist at all (impossible), it wouldn't make a difference to farleigh. he would still self-censor, keep in check, be in dangerous waters (because racism is not just about the individual, but about the system). we see that he'd won himself leeway by years of trial and error by the way he speaks to the family, but it's still within the boundaries of acceptable, built by the cattons. he's part of them because they allow it, and farleigh is very, very aware.

the annoying thing is oliver can be himself. like, truly, genuinely, he can just be. and farleigh can't help but envy that.

as a side note, oliver is obviously jealous of farleigh in the beginning as well, because regardless of the reality of farleigh's situation, he was born into it, and hence, at least in oliver's mind, has his position solidified. oliver's whole thing is unquenchable thirst and hunger for whatever and everything the cattons have (including themselves!). he wishes to have been a catton from birth. to oliver, at first, there's nothing farleigh can really do to lose it. and until he figures out the cattons completely, he can't help but envy that.

but i think farleigh senses something different about oliver early on. at least on the level of the text, we have "you're almost passing [for] a real, human boy", which is so important because farleigh is the first to point out oliver's weirdness. the next to do so is venetia in the bath scene calling him a freak, but it's too late. farleigh is too early.

and i like to think he clocks oliver too early because he sees the jagged edges that he recognizes in himself. i think that one other thing that farleigh envies is oliver's freedom to let go. freedom to let go is very similar to freedom to be, but not quite the same.

to be is about perception: farleigh knows he cannot fall out of line, but would like to, and oliver does not have to worry about it at all (i mean, he does, because oliver also performs for felix, but farleigh doesn't know that).

to let go is about the self: farleigh is too scared to even want what oliver eventually does, to even consider the possibility. oliver can let himself want. oliver can let himself act. oliver just can do things and want things. i'm not sure farleigh can.

and so in this scene, when oliver's wants and actions have landed him nowhere with farleigh, felix, venetia, the cattons, of course farleigh gloats. he can let himself do that, because if the cattons are slowly discarding him, farleigh can allow himself this one small victory. he's relieved because despite the dangerous similarities, oliver is, thankfully, not really the same as farleigh, right?

but like. this movie is a love letter to all things gothic. oliver is a white man. he prevails. the brief performance that oliver put on did eventually end up more effective than farleigh's lifetime of constraint. my heart fucking breaks for him to be honest.

the issue that remains is the fact of farleigh's survival. i like to think that oliver came to respect him. oliver is smart, but farleigh is clever. he picks up on everything oliver does (to refer back to the karaoke scene, farleigh immediately retaliates in the cleverest way, in the moment), and he's the only one to do so consistently (venetia, again, for example, comes close, but too late; oliver doesn't like that, there's nothing to work with). hence, stay with me for a little longer, the paradox: farleigh survives because he was never enough for the cattons, but he is very worthy of oliver's attention. in his own freaky way, oliver wants him. look at that.

so. farleigh. farleigh might come back. he always comes back. and i think oliver wants to try harder next time.

#saltburn #farleigh start #i think someone mentioned how the race commentary was fleeting in that scene abt his mom but i disagree #it runs thru the whole movie #because oliver is white and because they're pitted against each other #im not saying its the best commentary ever and also like the movie is not about it at all #but it's there and it's pretty prominent #also on a completely different note can we talk about how oliver correctly assumed everyone at saltburn desires him carnally #dude pulled all the bitches by being strange and off-putting. i mean i completely get it. completely get it. i'd fold so fast you've no ide #also while i was writing i realized that yes indeed both farleigh and oliver perform for felix and its so fascinating #and it works for oliver because of course it does because hes white #anyway! again! let me know if this sucks #in like any way at all #i needed a masterpost of all and every thought i have about farleigh #i think this pretty much covers it so i'll let it go now #HES SO. like do you UNDERSTAND #the DEFINITION of doomed by the narrative but i LOVE that he survives #as he SHOULD #emerald is so right. he does come back and quickstart just torture each other in that house forever. besties for life #god im gonna shut up now this is so horrendously long #mine #saltburn journaling

[reverie-quotes]

Men often described the girl as having hair the color of wheat. Others called it the color of caramel, or occasionally the color of honey. The girl wondered why men so often used food to describe women's features. There was a hunger to such men that was best avoided.

— Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea

#tress of the emerald sea #brandon sanderson #quotes #literary quotes #literature #romance #fantasy #yafantasy #cosmere #writing #books #spilled ink #thoughts #lit #pretty quotes #quote of the day #reverie #reverie quotes #quote #book quote #book quotes #inspiring quote #inspiring quotes #beautiful quote #beautiful quotes

[digitalsnail]

since disability pride month is wrapping up i decided to draw some disabled dex holders :')

#pokespe #trainer schilly #trainer wally #trainer emerald #trainer x #trainer lacktwo #for as much as i like to rag on pksp sometimes... #i really do like how they write disabled characters #sfw #clem art

[emeraldelysian]

Hey I justyour post about the blurbs.

If i`m not too late, could I request a most to least jealous for the Mamamoo girls?

♡︎ Hello love! Oh my gosh of course it's not too late. That's such a great recommendation, the Mamamoo girls always hold such a special place in my heart and I absolutely love writing for them. This one was so fun to write and I honestly think they all have a little bit of a jealous streak, haha. I hope you enjoy! ♡︎

■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■

.·:*¨༺ Most ༻¨*:·

Kim Yongsun

Jung Wheein

Moon Byulyi

Ahn Hyejin

.·:*¨༺ Least ༻¨*:·

■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■

Solar is very possessive of those she loves, and you're no different. She respects your boundaries but she also really just wants your attention on her when you're in public. She is very shy when it comes to PDA done in public, but she's also the type of person to leave marks on your collarbone just so people know you're hers indirectly. She's also the type of person to put her hand on your cheek and turn your face towards her every time you look away for too long.

Wheein is less obvious about her jealousy but it's there. She isn't afraid to be the type of person to say "ay, she's mine!" out loud, leaving you a blushing mess. Very openly possessive of you but not one to get jealous easily.

So at first, I had Moonbyul higher on the list. But then I realized, she is equally as much of a flirt. She doesn't ever get jealous seriously unless you're purposely trying to make her jealous. You know her trigger points, and you know what'll make her stare at you.

Hwasa is very jealous but not as much as the other three. You both have major power couple energy so there are not very many people that dare to try to flirt with either of you anyway. But she will not hesitate to glare at anyone that explicitly tries to go after you. Very much a "let me take a sip of my wine very slowly and seductively before a murder a bitch in one sentence" when she's jealous. Very much in control of the situation and knows it, essentially.

#mamamoo #mamamoo reactions #mamamoo scenarios #mamamoo headcanons #mamamoo fluff #mamamoo mtl #solar #moonbyul #wheein #hwasa #kim yongsun #moon byulyi #jung wheein #ahn hyejin #kpop girls #girl groups #girl groups reactions #mamamoo x reader #emerald writes ✧ #emerald asks ✧

[thirstyvampyr]

#saltburn #meme #emerald pls go write some fics anonymously i beg #im actually sleep deprived i wish it was because of smut smh

[little-emerald-snake]

Smutmas Day 31!

“Let’s show you what happens to brats who don’t follow the rules.” - Sebastian Sallow + Ominis Gaunt + Garreth Weasley X F!MC

🔥 NSFW 🔞 MDNI

Warnings: mmmf foursome, spanking with a belt, name calling, subspace, oral m receiving, unprotected p-in-v, anal sex

1,240k words

She was distracted, watering her plants while humming softly. So distracted in fact that when Sebastian came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pressing a kiss to her cheek, it surprised her thoroughly.

She spun to face him, only a bit surprised to see two other boys standing on either side of him. Garreth’s arms were crossed, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off his freckled arms as he watched the scene unfold.

Ominis on the other side of Sebastian, looked pissed. Her cheeks went red and she laughed nervously. “H-hey guys, w-what’s going on? I thought I was just supposed to meet Seb today…”

Sebastian gave ‘humph’ before taking a step around her to lean against her planing tables. “Well you see, that was before Ominis told me about you breaking a little rule he made last night, isn’t that right, Om?”

Ominis nodded, stepping up and placing a single finger under her chin, causing her to look up at him. “That’s right, Sebastian. She’s been a naughty little rule breaker and she needs to be punished for it.”

Garreth, arms still crossed, stepped forward, making her swallow nervously. It wasn’t often her three boyfriends worked together. If anything it was usually Sebastian and Ominis. Garreth usually kept separate unless something big happened or they needed to discuss the dynamic.

She shrunk in on herself, wishing she could disappear at this very moment with no consequences. “W-whatever do you mean?”

Ominis smirked and dropped her chin, sliding around her to join Seb in leaning against the potting tables. “Why don't you try again? Tell them what rule you broke last night. Think really hard before you choose to play dumb again, my dear.”

She went red immediately, knowing right away what rule she’d broken. “Um…well…last night while we were together, O-Ominis made a suggestion that I-“

Ominis clicked his tongue and shook his head with a smirk painted on his lips. She averted her eyes to anything but the three of them as he spoke. “Last chance to be honest, Darling.”

She swallowed harshly, eyes meeting her shoes. “H-he made a rule…t-that I wasn’t to touch myself till my date with Sebastian today.”

Ominis nodded in agreement, toying with his wand between his fingers. “And? Did you follow that rule?”

She hesitated but shook her head and Ominis pushed off the potting table with a sigh. “Do you see, gentlemen, why I need help tonight. She had one simple task and she couldn’t even follow through with that.”

Garreth smirked, he for some reason looked the most pissed, likely because it wasn’t often that he was pulled into the other boys games with her. He ate up the distance between them, gripping her neck in his palm. “Let’s show you what happens to brats who don’t follow the rules.”

She swallowed as Garreth gripped tighter, backing her up towards the room where a large four poster bed resided. He had grinned when the bed grew in size as the other boys entered. The room of requirement always catered to the needs of its users.

Garreth pushed her down onto the bed and the other two boys flanked around him, joining on either side of her. Sebastian undid her garments while Ominis pulled them off of her, gently setting her things to the side of the bed.

Once fully undressed they helped her into a kneeling position. She couldn’t help but look back at Garreth who still stood at the side of the bed. “Don’t worry love, he’s going to help. He’s mentioned you two engage in spanking sometimes and he offered to help us teach you a lesson.”

Her eyes widened when Garreth’s smirked, his hands went for his belt, pulling it smoothly from the loops of his pants. “That right darling, told them how good you are when you’re spanked to stay in line.”

She flushed from her neck all the way to the tips of her ears and looked away, keeping her back arched and looking at Sebastian who’s eyes trailed hotly over her naked body. “I can’t wait to see how fucking hot you look when you’re getting spanked with Weasley’s belt.”

She tried her best to relax, taking a shaky breath that turned to a gasp just as the folded leather of Garreth’s belt met her bare skin with a resounding slap. She softly whimpered but didn’t yelp. “O-One.”

Sebastian’s eyes widen as he realized she was counting the spanks that Garreth is doling for her. Ominis leaned over, seemingly intrigued. “Oh, you have her trained so well that she even counts her punishments.”

Garreth made a sound of agreement before bringing the belt down on her ass again. She counts the slap quietly. “How many do you think you deserve, love? Not following Ominis’ one very simple rule.”

She shuddered but not in fear, more out of excitement as she grew wet between her thighs. “T-twenty?”

Garreth gives a thoughtful sound before he chuckles and spanks her again. “I don’t think that’s enough darling, close but you need to take accountability.”

She counted the spank obediently and nodded. “Twenty five…o-or thirty?”

Garreth chuckled and nodded, spanking her again which she dutifully counted. “That’s better. Show the boys how good you take it, love.”

He proceeded to dole out the rest, deciding to meet her half way and give her twenty seven spanks. When he was done she sighed shakily, allowing herself to sag against Ominis.

Ominis held her, petting her hair gently as Garreth smoothed his palm over her glowing red ass. She whimpered and pushed her face into the crook on Ominis’ arm.

Sebastian sat up, eyes trained on Garreth. “You better not have hurt her Weasley.”

Garreth shook his head, preparing to defend himself but she quickly lifted her head and cuddled up to Sebastian. “N-not hurt.”

Sebastian looked surprised as Garreth chuckled. “She’s just being good. She’s in a needy sub space mood now.”

She looked up at Sebastian with big round eyes and bit her lip. Sebastian groaned, reaching between her legs and feeling how wet she was, dripping down her thighs. “Fuck, you’re soaked.”

Garreth stripped off his clothes, sliding down onto the bed on his knees. “Come on darling, come suck this cock like a good slut.”

She looked back at Garreth, getting to her knees in front of him, opening her mouth for him. He grinned, sliding his cock inside her mouth with a groan. “It’s technically your day with her Sallow, why don’t you get underneath her and take her pussy.”

Sebastian nodded, undressing and sliding underneath her. He lowered her down onto his cock and she moaned around Garreth in her mouth. Ominis stripped his own clothes before lining up behind her. “Alright beautiful, I guess that leaves me to fuck your perfect ass.”

She moaned and whimpered as Garreth fucked her mouth. Sebastian held her hips, fucking her pussy from under her. And Ominis behind her, slowly working his cock inside of her, smoothing his hands over her reddened ass.

The boys spent the rest of the night bringing her to multiple shaking orgasms, one after the other and only letting her rest, curled up on Sebastian in the ROR after they’d left her filled in every hole and so satisfied all she wanted was a good long sleep on her boy.

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy smut #hogwarts legacy fanfiction #writing challenge #smutmas 2023 #smutmas #sebastian sallow fanfiction #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow smut #ominis gaunt #ominis gaunt fanfiction #ominis gaunt smut #garreth weasley fanfiction #garreth weasley smut #garreth weasley #little emerald snake

[cosmerelists]

My Dream/Nightmare Blunt Rotation From Various Cosmere Series

Dream/Nightmare blunt rotation list requested by @waywardtoxotes

1. Stormlight Archive

Dream Rotation: Eshonai, Adolin, Rock, Shallan

Eshonai for delight and wonder, Adolin for good vibes and a sense of safety, Rock for excellent food and joviality, and Shallan for puns and good conversation.

Nightmare Rotation: Amaram, Nale, Lezian, Gavilar

Amaram is simply the worst, of course. Nale is the worst and ALSO a cop, so no one is having fun with him there. Lezian is an unstable murderer, so that's probably self-explanatory. Gavilar is like the Elon Musk of the Cosmere, thinking that he's cool and that his ideas are fire when neither of those things are true, and I do not want to hang out with him.

2. Elantris

Dream Rotation: Sarene, Raoden, and Kiin

I think Sarene & Raoden would be fun to smoke with, but I need someone else there so I don't feel like an awkward third wheel. Kiin would be jolly I think--and like with Rock, the snacks will be good.

Nightmare Rotation: Dilaf.

Doesn't matter who else is there. If Dilaf is there, the vibes are rancid.

3. Mistborn: Era 1

Dream Rotation: Vin, Allrianne, Tindwyl

Listen I just want to smoke weed with the ladies of Mistborn Era 1 and I will not apologize for it.

Nightmare Rotation: Elend's Philosophy Circle

I'm so sorry to this man, but I feel like they would just talk endlessly about politics and the Ideal State and I personally would find it annoying and insufferable. I still love you, Elend!

4. Mistborn: Era 2

Dream Rotation: Wayne, MeLaan, Marasi

Wayne & MeLaan: lots of ridiculous fun. They definitely know their drugs and want the vibe to be good. Marasi is there to make sure that Wayne & MeLaan don't take anything too far and/or don't just spend the whole time making out. I know Marasi is also a cop but I like her vibe with Wayne.

Nightmare Rotation: Wax, Telsin, Edwarn

Wax is not the problem here. But I just got chills imagining somehow being in a blunt rotation with Wax and his immediate family. It's all of the icy, rancid vibes of an awkward holiday dinner only everyone is smoking and it is not helping anyone relax.

5. Warbreaker

Dream Rotation: Lightsong, Blushweaver, Siri, Susebron

It's a Cosmere setting, so it will probably not turn into a weird orgy. But seriously, everyone of these characters would be fun to hang out with on their own, and all together it is a party.

Nightmare Rotation: Vasher, Vivenna, Parlin

Listen, Warbreaker Vivenna would be largely insufferable and would be determined to prove that she is not being affected by the weed even though she definitely is. That could maybe be okay on its own, but add Vasher for doom & gloom and Parlin for sitting quietly while Vivenna is vaguely mean to him, and you got a bad time.

6. Tress of the Emerald Sea

Dream Rotation: The whole damn ship (after Crow leaves; sorry Crow)

Give me a ship-wide party where everyone has just had dinner and now they're kicking back and passing around hopefully more than one blunt because there are a lot of Dougs.

Nightmare Rotation: The whole damn ship (but Crow is there)

Nothing destroys a party like the presence of that one person (who is actively trying to turn you into a murderer in order to control you; you know how it is)

7. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Dream Rotation: The Akane Squad

Akane, Tojin, Masaka, and Izzy? Lots of fun to smoke with, I have to imagine. Yumi will hopefully be there as well, and Nikaro can come post-reconciliation. Wait...let's have Design come too because she would LOVE experiencing weed. Hoid is there too but in coatrack form. I guess I just want to hang out with ALL of the Yumi characters!

Nightmare Rotation: Liyun.

Except Liyun. Fuck Liyun.

#this post was so hard for me to write I hope I did okay ha ha #Cosmere #cosmerelists #Stormlight Archive #Mistborn #Yumi and the Nightmare Painter #Tress of the Emerald Sea #Warbreaker

[overleftdown]

deranged post-canon farleigh speculation

so. archie madekwe said something that makes me question a lot of the other post-canon speculation (often quickstart dynamic post-canon fics, speculation, etc.). Basically, he was talking about how tired Farleigh was getting, in the point in time that the movie is set. This is depicted through his confrontation with Felix, which Archie confirmed was the first conversation Farleigh has had with the cattons about the issue of bias.

a review by hilton als briefly touched on farleigh's possible future, as well. it was a very negative and... honestly understandable idea of what farleigh would grow up to become. aka, someone who exploited and tokenized their race for "brownie points," pun not intended. i see a lot of people crafting stories of farleigh finding different ways to rejoin the ultra-rich class. and i kinda wanna say that i... don't like that. here's an anecdote: my cousin and i had a conversation about his experience moving from a white-dominated, suburban environment. he argues that although racism is still prevalent where he now lives, the racism he experienced in his hometown was so painfully, covertly delivered. it's this sort of "could you just call me a slur or something" mentality.

although farleigh is terrified of change, although farleigh is terrified of losing what he believes is an accommodation for his marginalization (it isn't; you can't buy your way out of racism), although farleigh learned to be materialistic through the ways in which he was raised, although farleigh is constantly running away from something--i think he was reaching a point of genuine hatred for the ways in which racism is delivered to him in this environment. i would also go insane. so freakishly insane. i think his conversation with felix made him understand that maybe the cattons will never even try to change. that the cattons couldn't even acknowledge the problem in the first place. that you can't really win, with people like the cattons. it's always a game of when, and never if. when will they finally, politely discard me?

this leaves a couple options. the first, farleigh learns to be financially independent and very much successful. he would never rely on other people again, especially not white people. this leaves room for hilton als' interpretation, but the fact that farleigh was cognizant of and willing to mention racial bias to felix is evidence for me to assume that farleigh is beyond belittling himself like that. farleigh already experienced so much shame from catering towards the cattons and their whiteness... i don't think he'd keep going with that. not with the way it ended. not after he had the horrible wake-up call that was both his cousins dying. so, maybe farleigh does find his way back to wealth. maybe through fashion, through modeling like his mother, through another form of art, through business, whatever.

the other option is that farleigh just... doesn't acquire that level or even close to that level of wealth again. i kinda like this idea. i kinda like imagining farleigh in a city flat or smaller suburban house, finding a significant other and probably never ever having kids. that, of course, still leaves room for farleigh to go and brutalize oliver out of saltburn. but i'd like to think he wouldn't take saltburn back. as i've said before, farleigh was never greedy. he never wanted to replace or succeed the cattons, nor did he want any form of dominance over them. to be their equal, yes. to be seen and heard and given attention, yes. but never did he play his games to knock felix or venetia down. i feel like farleigh would be the "eat the rich" that saltburn didn't have. not in the corny way, because farleigh is no robin hood, nor is he an innocent and selfless person.

my ideal "sequel" type situation would be farleigh returning to saltburn after living comfortably and humbly for the last 20 years. he's not here out of moral obligation. he's not here to steal back the catton wealth. he's here selfishly, and out of burning hatred. he's here because oliver stole any sense of closure farleigh could've ever had. he's here because oliver never gave farleigh the opportunity to forgive his family, nor to mourn them, nor to visit those memories, nor to make new ones. farleigh is here to wreck oliver's shit. it's not healthy, it's not pretty, it's not clean. i'd imagine 40-year-old farleigh, having matured, returning to saltburn and regressing to the same games he always used to play. lying, people pleasing, pretending, sex, drugs, sass, etc. ahhh. my ideal sequel. a man who found peace without closure and finds closure through a significant lack of peace. and, also, oliver dead as hell.

#farleigh start #i have class in 6 hours and i need sleep #saltburn #i threw this down in 15 minutes #it's not good and is in fact deranged #do u guys get me tho #i'm sure if emerald fennell were to write this sequel then maybe the quickstarters would b right #but i kinda hope she would maybe like #she does talk about quickstart as like a #idek #i love emerald #but i have Thoughts on this movie #and this character. #and these fans. #and arghgdjflds #i just want oliver to be CRUSHED #LIKE A WORM #i wouldn't care if emerald added in the hate sex that you freaks so DESPERATELY crave #like I KNOW I KNOW THEY'RE HOT?? #whateverrrr i care more about angst #guys angst mmmmmmmmmm #being asexual is so funny sometimes #i feel like i'm watching penguins in their little enclosure #deprived of freedom #sliding around and feral and slapping each other because they're in an enclosure #i'm so tired help me #i just mean that #you guys are funny like i cannot imagine living life with this craving that u guys r being crushed by #“cmon guys where is the farleigh x reader fanfiction cmon guys” like hello? hello hi? #i'm flipping the script actually

[elizabethemerald]

5+1 Meeting the Nightingales

5 Times the Bat family met Jazz Nightingale and her son Danny, + 1 Time the Nightingales met the rest of the Batfamily

AO3

The first time Jason met Jazz and Danny he was actually dressed in civvies. He had run out of a few staples and knew at least one of his siblings would drop by unannounced hoping he would cook for them this weekend while Alfred was out of town, so he was in the little corner store in Crime Alley that always had the freshest fruit. Red Hood personally marked the place as off limits because it provided food for half the alley. 

As he searched the shelves for what he needed he was surprised to hear a midwest accent in the next aisle. It was rare enough that out of towners moved to Gotham, much less moved into Crime Alley. A quick glance, caught between the shelves, showed him exactly why this person had come to Gotham. 

In the next aisle was a tall red head, with a young child holding her hand. Jason would be a fool and a liar if he said she wasn’t beautiful, but it was clear she wouldn’t be in the mood for any flirting. Her flaming red hair was messily and crookedly cut short, like she had done it herself in a truckstop bathroom. She had a split lip and a black eye, and wore long sleeves that fully covered the rest of her body, and if they way she winced and flinched said anything, hid many more bruises. 

Even the little boy she had with her was covered in injuries. He had his own black eye, and what looked like a fucking handprint on his fucking throat. He also shook slightly and seemed terrified of being out in public if the comforting whispers of his mother were anything to go by. Jason’s rage at the kid’s injuries wasn’t helped by the fact that he looked like adoption bait. 

Jason had to force himself to leave as the green filled his vision. He doubted a mother and her toddler who recently escaped whatever hell they had come from would be receptive to a guy his height and size confronting them in the grocery store. More than that, he needed to get a firm handle on his anger before he spoke to them so he didn’t scare them off. They were in Red Hood’s turf now and they needed to know he would protect them. 

He found them later that week when he was out as Red Hood. He had already used his information network to find which apartment building they were living in and waited for them on a neighboring stoop in his armor and helmet. Still creepy, and he wouldn’t blame them at all for being afraid of him, but he had to at least offer them his protection. 

“Danny, we’ve only got a little farther to go, then we’ll be safe at home and we can have dinner, ok?” Jason would recognize that midwest accent anywhere. 

He kept his body loose and relaxed as they approached so he didn’t startle them. Little Danny looked like he was barely keeping on his feet, except his mom’s arms were full with bags. He gave her a small wave when she passed, still plenty of room between him and them, so they wouldn’t be afraid of him grabbing one of them. 

“It's not everyday someone new moves into the neighborhood.” Jason said, his voice coming out softer and monotone with his helmet’s modulator. 

The woman stiffened and put herself between him and Danny, not that Jason would ever allow a child to be hurt in his presence, but he didn’t begrudge her the action. He kept himself relaxed against the stairs. He waited a moment for her to reply, but didn’t hold his breath. 

“You’re in Crime Alley now, this is Red Hood turf.” Jason said. “I make sure people who live here are as safe as they can be. If anyone ever messes with you, or the little one, you tell me or one of my guys, and I’ll make sure they don’t do it again. And if you ever, ever need anything to make your stay safer or more comfortable, reach out. I take care of my own.” 

His message passed on, he looked away, willing to let her return to her home without any word from her. However his attention snapped back to the pair as Danny stepped away from his mother closer to him. He kneeled down to be at the kid’s level as Danny reached up towards his helmet. 

“Danny!” His mom hissed, panic in her voice, but that didn’t stop the kid from approaching. 

The kid tapped his hands on Jason’s Red Hood helmet curiously as he looked at him with wide eyes. Jason stayed absolutely still, though he could see the boy’s mother relaxing minutely. 

“You protect?” The kid said, nearly breaking Jason’s poor dead heart. 

“Yeah, buddy, I protect.” Jason said, even as something inside him seemed to sing. He slowly reached into one of the pockets on the front of his vest and pulled out a Wonder Woman sticker that he handed over to the kid. There wasn’t much Red Hood merch on the market, more’s the shame. 

Danny returned to his mom’s side to show her the sticker with a wide smile on his face. His mom shot him a small smile, clearly relieved to have her son back by her side. She also gave Jason a thoughtful look. 

“My name’s Jazz. Jazz Nightingale. Thanks for the welcome.” She said. 

Jason gave her a nod and let her go on her way. Maybe once she knew him better and trusted him more he would offer to help her carry her groceries, but for now he let her go with her son to her apartment and disappear within. 

.

Tim was crouching on a rooftop a month later the first time he saw Jazz and Danny. He didn’t know their names, all he knew was a mom and her kid were walking alone late at night in a bad part of town. He kept a silent watch over them from the top of a nearby building. It had been a slow night and the major players were all either in Arkham or licking their wounds and preparing for their next big show, so Tim felt he could forgive himself for paying extra attention to this one small family. 

He was worried because they were in Crime Alley, it was even riskier for the pair to be traveling, and it was risky for Tim to be here. While things were better with Jason and the family he still took offense any time any of the Bats wandered into his turf without his permission. He really wanted to get through tonight without getting shot, he didn’t think this calm would last and he needed to be ready to help the family when things inevitably went wrong. 

The small family moved quickly down the street, the mom keeping a close eye out. She actually noticed the first thug before even Tim with his height advantage did. The big guy, clearly not actually from the Alley, moved in front of them, forcing her to deviate course. Unfortunately she didn’t see the second thug Tim could see, who moved behind to close off her escape. They were herding her into a narrow alley where they could act unhindered. 

He prepared himself to swoop into the alley to intervene, except the little boy grabbed his mom’s hand and they both vanished before his eyes. He didn’t have any time to look for where they had vanished to, or to try other filters built into his domino when the two thugs entered the alley and loudly began exclaiming their confusion and annoyance that their quarry had vanished. Tim couldn’t find it in him to feel bad for them. 

Tim was just debating whether it would be worth it to still drop into the alley and remind the thugs about proper behavior or if he was just asking to get hurt now that the victim had escaped, when he heard the sound of a kicked can. The thugs were complaining too loudly to hear the noise, but Tim followed along the alley from the rooftop until he reached the other street. 

There he saw the pair reappear just as suddenly as they had disappeared. Except the boy collapsed down to his knees, almost dragging his mom down with him. She lifted him into her arms, and in a feat of strength that could only be from the adrenaline fueled desperation of a mother, ran down the street with him in her arms, seemingly desperate to get him home. 

Tim once again considered following to make sure they were home safe, or to investigate them more, but he could see some of Hood’s lieutenants down the street, they would make sure she was safe, and they were even more likely to take a shot at him than Jason was. He thinks the lieutenants had some kind of personal scoreboard on hitting members of the family. 

Instead of following, Tim leaned back and let his hand rise to his comm. 

“Confirming the presence of a new meta in Gotham.” He said, interrupting the family’s chatter. 

“Powers?” Bruce said, even his questions sounded like an order. 

“Short interval invisibility.” That was the only power that made sense with what he had seen. 

“Do one of us need to make contact?” Bruce asked. 

Make contact was such a polite way to refer to Bruce’s usual tactic. Research and investigate every possible connection a person had, lay their entire history bare. Anything that could be exploited by the criminal element of the city was brought to the forefront during a face to face confrontation. Then a list of contingencies in case they joined that criminal element, willingly or not. In theory it was all for the protection of the meta. With people like Scarecrow, Ivy, and Joker who were more than willing to use mind controlling or altering substances to get what they want, and the mobs and gangs who had much more violent methods of control or influence, it was easy to see how on paper, this was for the best for everyone. 

In practice however, it gave Batman a reputation for hating metas, and violently expelling them from his city. When the meta already had a desire to commit crimes, they just became a problem for some other hero, when they didn’t they became terrified that they would be beaten if they stayed. Duke had sat down each member of the family and coached how it looked and felt to him as a meta, and how to use better methods rather than a blanket hammer. He had tried multiple times to break Bruce of the habit, but even Alfred couldn’t break Bruce of his paranoia. 

“No. They made it less than sixty feet and almost collapsed. I don’t think they are a concern to the safety of the city.” Tim declared. 

Normally he was just as paranoid as Bruce, and just as quick to judge, but a kid desperately trying to protect his mother at the cost of his own health was no risk to the city. Any mob or criminal wouldn’t even get any use out of the kid’s abilities. There was no reason to turn someone’s life upside down for no reason. Especially when they were clearly living in Crime Alley for a reason. 

“Hm.” Tim could feel Bruce’s disapproval in his voice, but he wouldn’t voice it over the comms. “Description?” 

Tim rolled his eyes. And here was the worst part of his paranoia. He couldn’t trust his own family, so he was going to keep an eye on the family even if everyone else agreed not to bother them. Still it was better to give Bruce a little before he lost his mind and started stalking people, again. 

“Looked like a mom and child. Mom was tall with short red hair, kid looked like adoption bait and seemed sickly. They’re not a threat B.” 

“What the fuck are you doing so close to Crime Alley, Replacement?!” Jason’s voice interrupted before Bruce could demand further information. Tim started in surprise, he wasn’t even aware Jason was listening in. 

“Are these people known to you, Red Hood?” Bruce growled. 

“Yeah the fuck they are. They are under my protection and you will leave them the fuck alone or the next cape that crosses into my turf is going to get pumped full of holes!” Jason snapped into the comm before immediately dropping off the line. 

Tim wisely decided to move on and patrol another section of the city, he had no desire to get between Jason and Bruce when they were like this. 

.

There were a lot of strange things that were unique to Gotham that Duke had noticed. A single mom and her kid wouldn’t usually hold too much of his attention, except when they were connected to one of the other weird things. 

Ever since Duke’s powers developed, he started to notice small green blobs in the air. They didn’t let anyone get too close, and no one else seemed to notice them. And they were so rare at first that he had thought that it was just his powers tripping up, especially since he had never seen them outside of Gotham at first. It wasn’t until the first time he saw one outside of the city that he realized what they were, and where they came from. 

Ghosts. Or something like that. They formed in old battle grounds and cemeteries. When he joined the family he brought it up and they had an investigation that eventually required them bring in members of Justice League Dark. They were the energy of death, wrapped in the emotions of the dying, and operated solely on instinct. No intelligence to speak of. Not a threat, better to just ignore them, they had been told. 

Duke wasn’t certain he believed the dismissive tone of John Constantine who had to cast spells in order to even see the little green blobs. He didn’t watch the blobs form little swarms or schools, almost like fish, or the way they froze and shook when held by his spells then fled immediately once they were free. So he kept an eye on the little green blobs, and just like with any metas in the city kept any changes on them to himself. 

One day while he was watching over Gotham’s day shift from one of the local towers, he noticed that there was a larger than normal cloud of blobs about. He was worried that there had been a new serial killer around and that was why there were more blobs. Then a beacon split the sky, like the Bat signal an emerald beam of light flashed out from Robinson Park. 

None of the people reacted to the beacon, so Duke didn’t think there was a new supervillain attack, however all of the local blobs started to excitedly swim and fly towards the parks. It reminded him of the koi in Alfred’s pond following after Damian when he brought out the feed bag. Curious, but not too concerned, Duke followed the blobs into the park towards where the beacon had disappeared. 

Most of the blobs have disappeared, but a few are trailing behind by the time he gets to the park. They lead him to a sheltered area, hidden by enormous roots that Ivy had grown the  last time she was free, and safe there among the trees was a young woman with short cropped red hair, though it looked like her hair had grown out since Tim had last seen her and a little boy who would have looked right at home at the Wayne family dinner. He could only be the same meta kid that Jason was protecting that Bruce had been struggling to find any information on in the last four months. 

To Duke’s vision, the kid had a glowing green aura, which wasn’t so unusual, most metas had some kind of glowing aura, what was strange was that the kid’s aura almost seemed to be restrained. There were sections that were brighter and striated sections that were dimmer, like the bars on a cage. He hated to see a young kid in a cage, even if it was some kind of meta aura cage. 

Especially because the kid looked so happy. He was dancing and laughing with the blobs as they floated and swam around him. They darted in and out of the bright patches of his aura like ducks in a bird bath, Bruce could shove his uptight anti meta rules up his cape, this kid wasn’t causing any problems. 

Duke stepped a little closer into the clearing and the boy’s mom gasped and whirled around. She grabbed her son’s shoulders and held him tight, fear clear on her face. They looked like they were about to bolt, and even though he was a Bat he didn’t want to terrorize them. 

He leaned back against one of the trees and called a small ball of light to his hand. He tossed the ball hand to hand for a moment before he started on his usual routine to help kids feel more relaxed. He had gotten really good at yo-yoing once to win a bet with Dick and he started yoing the little light ball up and down, and making it walk the dog and other silly little tricks. 

The kid watched him with wide eyes before calling a little bit of green light to his hands and trying to recreate the tricks. Duke smiled and showed him the trick again slower, drawing the kid closer. His mom stayed close, keeping a wary eye on both him and her son. Duke smiled at both of them. 

“I know some of the other Bats aren’t chill with metas, but you don’t have to worry about me.” Duke said softly, still showing his tricks off. “I’m just like you, I’ve been where you are, I won’t let anyone hurt you, ok?” 

The kid smiled back at him, and kept trying to mimic Duke’s powers with his little green balls of light. Eventually the kid’s mom gave him a little smile too. 

“Thanks Signal, I appreciate what you do.” 

Duke shot her a wider smile and spent the next couple of minutes playing light tag with the kid until he had to leave. 

.

Cass and Steph met Jazz and Danny during a city wide riot six months later. A prison convoy from Arkham to Black Gate was interrupted, with all the prisoners getting free and fleeing into the city. Three bus loads of convicts decided to make the city into their personal playground. There were multiple fires spread across the city and the full extended Bat family was out trying to put out the fires, recapture the escapees, and protect the people of Gotham. 

The two Batgirls were working together in one of the worse hit neighborhoods. Cass as the best fighter in the family was quick to knock out and restrain those taking advantage of the trouble and the escapees. Steph was quick to comfort any victims and direct them towards the shelters set up across the city. They had both been fighting and flying across the city for hours and were exhausted, when they heard shouting from the next street over. 

“Quickly! Follow me!” A feminine voice shouted. 

“Hey, you bitch! I’m going to fuc-” 

*CLANG*

They glanced at each other then dashed across the roof and jumped over the alley onto the next building. Steph got to the far roof edge first to look down and see a tall redhead, with her hair tightly tied back away from her face, waving an elderly couple into the opposite alleyway. She had a green painted bat in her hand and there was an unconscious thug in the street. It didn’t take two vigilantes trained by the “World’s Greatest Detective” to piece together what had happened. They watched as the couple disappeared into the alleyway and were about to move on when they heard someone call out for them. 

“Hey! Down here!” The red head shouted, waving up at them. “I need your help!” 

While they had just seen she could handle a thug by herself they still swooped down to meet her on the street level. Up close they could both see just how fit she was. She was easily as tall as an Amazon and built like a gymnast. Her muscular arms were on display in her short sleeve shirt. Cass couldn’t help a raised eyebrow at how Steph checked out her body up and down, her girlfriend was so predictable in her tastes. 

“We’ve got several injured inside, they need more care than I can provide and Danny told me that there is a big crowd of thugs heading our way, I don’t think I can keep them all out on my own.” 

With the name Danny, they now knew this woman was the mysterious Jazz. Duke had told them about his encounter with the mother and child in their Bruce-free chat. After that Tim and Jason had weighed in, though they both insisted, and Duke agreed that they weren’t a threat and should be left alone. None of the bat kids felt that the small family deserved to have Batman haunting their lives. 

Jazz led the two into the alley and past a broken door into one of the buildings. They found most of the surrounding neighbors sheltering there. There were older folks, people who were sick or injured and a bunch of the local street kids all huddled together. Steph immediately put her in progress nursing degree to use to start treating those who were injured while Cass stayed near the door with Jazz. 

“Here’s more” A young voice called right before Danny the meta boy swooped in, hovering a few feet off the ground, a couple of street kids followed right behind him. Jazz opened her arms and the little boy flew into her embrace. Cass was relieved to see Jazz checking over Danny for injuries but she was surprised the incredibly protective mother let her son out of her sight during the crisis. 

“Are there any more people in danger?” Jazz asked, her voice tight, but her little boy shook his head. “Ok, I want you to stay here.”

“But bad guys coming!” Danny protested, his eyes glowing green. He looked like he wanted to float out of her arms, but she kept a tight hold on him. 

“That’s why I need you to stay here. You need to protect Spoiler, OK?” Jazz said, gesturing to where Steph was wrapping a bleeding wound. “She’s helping the hurt people and you have to keep her safe!” 

Danny gave as serious a nod as a toddler could. Steph waved the little boy over and he floated through the air to her side. Cass arched an eyebrow as Jazz’s shoulders dropped in relief. Apparently the little kid was doing much better than Jason, Tim or Duke reported. Though she was surprised his powers had developed so quickly, going from barely able to maintain invisibility for a block to effortlessly floating in the air. 

However before either Batgirl could question that interaction the sound of approaching shouting drew their attention. Jazz and Cass stepped out of the hiding hole and snuck to the mouth of the alley. The escaped convicts had apparently assembled something of a mob as they pushed through the city. The two women could possibly stay hidden and let the riot go past, but Cass itched at the idea of letting these criminals go. If anyone was harmed by them after she let them go, that guilt would eat at her. 

Jazz looked the crowd over closely, then turned to give Cass a careful look over. Cass could see Jazz examining her just as Cass often did to others. Eventually Jazz nodded and marched to the mouth of the alley, smacking her bat against a drain pipe. 

“Hey you fucks!” She shouted, catching the attention of the mob. “Why don’t you try me on for size?” 

Cass grinned under her mask, and she could feel an almost magnetic pull towards Jazz. She examined the approaching thugs with keen eyes, and could see how they all focused on Jazz and ignored her. She presumed Jazz was also some kind of meta, though still not worth bringing Batman’s particular brand of invasive investigations into her life. 

Jazz funneled the mob into the narrow mouth of the alley so they could only approach her two or three at a time. Cass stayed right behind her, ensuring no one could catch her backside. She thinned the numbers with precise Batarangs and bolos and stepped forward to cover if Jazz tripped or needed a moment to catch her breath. 

Cass examined Jazz’s fight style using her own unique skill with reading body language as the two worked their way through the mob. Her fighting style was an eclectic mix. She had the foundations of someone who was trained by an expert, though most of the improvements on that foundation seemed to be largely self taught. What was the most interesting was the roughness of a self-taught fighter was polished into a style that almost matched that of the Amazons of Themyscira. 

The two women finished knocking out the last thug, leaving the pile unconscious and groaning. They turned to see Danny smiling at his mom, and Steph smiling for a completely different reason. Cass rolled her eyes at her girlfriend, before giving her a small nod. Danny flew to Jazz’s arms and gave her a tight hug. Steph walked up as well and threw her arm over Cass’s shoulder. 

“Hey, my girlfriend and I saw you from across the bar, and we really liked your vibe.” Steph said, with a coy smile. 

“Are you really flirting with me in costume?” Jazz asked, though she didn’t seem to mind. 

“Yeah, is it working?” 

Jazz gave them both a searching look, including running her eyes up and down their costumed forms. Cass noticed a red blush climb up Jazz’s cheeks to slightly pointed ears with a grin. Finally she hitched Danny up higher in her arms and gave them a nod. 

“You have to know that Danny’s safety and happiness are always going to be my top priority.” When both of the bats nodded she continued. “But if you want to try…

.

Batman finally met the two metas more than a full year after they had arrived in Gotham. He knew multiple of his children had met them and were for some reason purposely keeping their whereabouts and information from him. He had searched for them on his own, but with the vague descriptions and his own children obfuscating the case, they just weren’t a high enough priority, though he hated having an unknown meta with unknown abilities in his city. 

However when he found out that Orphan and Spoiler were apparently meeting the mom for clandestine rendezvous, the metas rose sharpley on his priority list. He still couldn't convince any of his children to tell him about them. 

Red Robin had stayed stubbornly silent, even the threat of benching him did nothing except ensure he slept at his Nest for two weeks. Red Hood had threatened to go back to trying to kill the Bats if Bruce tried to push him. Signal had been furious, perhaps even angrier than Hood, when Bruce mentioned them to him. 

“You claim this city as yours but it doesn't actually belong to you.” Signal had snapped. “It belongs to the people, and they deserve to live their lives without your interrogations.”

That left Batman no choice but to go behind their backs and search on his own. Trackers placed on their gear were ineffective and attempting to hack into the family group chat was only marginally less so. He tripped one of Oracle's alarms and got shut out immediately. No doubt any information was then immediately purged, and they had treated him with suspicion after that, ensuring he had to do the leg-work the more intensive way. 

He had gone back to when Red Robin first reported the sighting of the pair of metas. He had followed Red’s patrol on cams and with the tracking data until he found the suspects on the street cameras. There were fewer cameras in Crime Alley, but eventually he was able to create a pattern from the pair’s movements and sightings on the cameras that did exist. Then he meticulously hacked into the records of the apartments in the Alley. He found a few other criminals hiding in Hood’s territory and flagged them in his system to ensure he could keep an eye on them. He did eventually find a pair who had moved in during a time that matched up with the profile he had created. 

Then he did what he did best. He dug and he dug. 

He found the Nightingales, Jasmine and Daniel. He determined quickly that their surname was falsified. He dug further and found a Jasmine Fenton who matched the profile he had created. He found it highly suspicious that Jasmine had a brother named Daniel who had been declared dead right before they had arrived in Gotham and no history of a pregnancy that could have resulted in her son. In a world with time travel, invading aliens and metas attacking in the city streets, a simple de-aging wasn’t that farfetched. 

When he dug further into the Fentons he knew his suspicions were correct. The elder Fentons would have easily fit in with the rogues of Gotham. They were clearly mad-scientists, though their studies did inform him of a new threat to keep an eye on, and plenty of weapons to use as contingencies. Though they favored guns and blasters more than Batman thought was appropriate. 

In one of their reports Batman was able to determine exactly where Daniel the younger had come from, and what exactly he was. An experiment on their own son deaged him and Jasmine took her brother and ran, claiming him as her son as they started their new life in Batman’s city. 

If the elder Fentons were correct about even half the powers the two metas could have at their disposal then they were currently two of the biggest threats in Gotham, especially since they were manipulating his kids. 

He compiled the information into a folio to give to the two most affected by Jasmine's manipulations, Orphan and Spoiler. He held them back after a long patrol when he knew their aggression against his arguments would be at its lowest. They were both exhausted, still in their uniforms. 

Orphan refused to take the folio he tried to hand her. She just stared at him, her full face mask hiding any possible micro expressions. Spoiler took both folios from him and he thought for once she would be the voice of reason, except she then turned and tossed both of the folios into the dark abyss that bordered that section of the cave. 

They left him standing there and by the time he entered the Manor proper they had departed. Batman stayed up late into the morning furious and on edge that the metas had managed to coax away his best fighter. Even with all of his contingencies he didn't believe he could defeat Orphan in a fight. Batman knew he would have to confront the threats personally and that he wouldn't be able to count on any assistance from his children. 

The first thing he needed to do was ensure his kids, especially Orphan and Spoiler, wouldn’t be able to stop him. So he gave them orders that sent them all over the city, each would be busy until long after the metas were out of his city. Next on his list was to have the proper preparations. He used a series of shell companies to order a Fenton Ghost Collar which should contain Daniel’s powers. Just like he always carried Kryptonite on him as a worst case solution against Superman, he prepared a nuclear option, a single button primed to send a report to the Ghost Investigation Ward, to ensure that the threats would leave. 

With all of the other Bats scattered to the winds, Batman silently slipped into the window in one of the bedrooms of the meta’s apartment. He landed next to a child’s bed and quickly slipped the collar from his belt; he needed to contain the meta threat before the kid could wake up. Just as he reached down, the door to the room burst open and Jasmine rushed in. 

“Get away from him!” She shouted, a green glowing bat in her hand. 

Batman stood between her and her supposed son, he hadn’t expected her to be able to hear him enter, but he would still get his point across. 

“Hello Ms. Nightingale. Or should I say Ms. Fenton.” He growled at her. “You and your son are not welcome in my city.” 

He watched her face pale in fear before she tightened her grip on the bat. 

“You may be Bruce Wayne but even you don’t own the whole city.” 

Batman let his eyes widen slightly. Of course she had manipulated Orphan and Spoiler into giving up the family’s secret identities, he should have realized, but two could play that game. He flicked the button into view. 

“If I press this button, an automatic notification will be sent to the GIW bringing them here. You remember them right?” He was pleased to see her grip on the bat slacken as she stepped back, her breaths coming faster in her panic. 

“You- you wouldn’t.” She took another breathless step back, almost falling against the boy’s bedroom wall. “They would come for everyone, Hood, Cass, Steph, there are so many people who would be in danger.” What was she talking about? His kids weren’t ghosts. “How could you support an organization that wants to commit genocide against an entire parallel realm?”

What. 

“Oh daddy bats focusing too much on a perceived threat and ignoring the obvious implications. Who could have guessed?” 

Batman spun on his heel to see Spoiler stepping out from the closet, Orphan right behind her. In Spoiler’s arms was none other than the meta, Daniel. He completed his turn to see the sleeping child in the bed melt away to nothing. 

“Danny!” Jasmine ran to her son and scooped him up in her arms, Orphan immediately stepped in front of her, putting herself between the Batman and the metas. 

“Do you think we’re stupid, Bruce?” Spoiler continued. “Do you think we didn’t see your stupid plan to try and confront Jazz and drive her out of the city a mile away?” 

“She is controlling your mind.” Batman growled out, furious that his greatest secret was out in the open being bandied around. 

“No she is not.” Batman wasn’t sure he could be more surprised when Martian Manhunter floated through the wall. “Neither of the Nightingales are exhibiting any form of mental manipulation I recognize.” 

“Yeah, Bats, for someone who always likes to pretend to be the smartest in the room, you really stuck your dick in it this time.” John Constantine said as he walked into the room. 

“We called back up. And unlike you we actually listened to the experts.” Spoiler continued as Batman scowled more and more. “At this moment, Babs and Tim are scrubbing your files of everything related to Jazz and Danny.” 

Orphan stepped forward and signed aggressively. “We will protect Jazz and Danny, even from you.”

Batman looked around, surrounded on all sides by people who should be his allies, his subordinates, his soldiers and he did something rash. He pressed the button still in his hand. 

He knew he shouldn't have even as soon as he pressed it. There were facts here he hadn't been aware of. He knew he could get tunnel vision before a perceived threat and this many people couldn't all be controlled. 

Batman knew he had made an irreparable mistake as Jasmine wailed in despair and Orphan and Spoiler both stepped up as if to stop him. He knew it as Martian Manhunter flinched and Constantine scowled. He looked down at the button he had so carefully created, the nuclear option, and felt shame and guilt curl inside him. 

“You really are predictable, B.” The heavily modulated voice of Red Hood was heard as the man himself climbed into the room from the window. “Oracle wiped that thing out as soon as you had created it, we won’t let those scum get called here.” 

Jasmine sobbed in relief, holding Daniel tight to her chest. Oracle and Spoiler wrapped her their arms, Daniel happily babbling to the three women, now that they were relieved. Red Hood pressed forward, pushing Batman back away from the small family. Constantine and Manhunter approached as well. 

“Come on Bats, let’s have a conversation on the Watchtower. Wonder Woman and the Boyscout have some words for you on knowing about an organization like this and not bringing up to League attention.” Constantine muttered as the two escorted him from the room. 

Batman glanced back at the metas, at Jasmine and Daniel, at the tears in her eyes and the way he held onto her as tightly as he could, at the loving way Steph looked at them and the glare in Cass’s eye directed at himself. He let the others lead him away without a fuss. 

.

Jazz reflected on the chaotic last year and a half as she walked up the long drive to the manor that loomed down over her. In the past 18 months so much had happened. Her parents had caught Danny mid transformation and attacked him. She had managed to escape the basement with a heavily injured and rapidly shrinking Danny. They had run from the GIW, moving constantly until they found themselves in the most crime ridden city in the US if not the world, Gotham. 

She had been terrified and basically alone in the city, with only Danny who was now for whatever reason an actual toddler. He didn’t remember anything from before, and his powers were wildly out of control and hurt him to use them. She felt the only place she could feel safe with Danny was in Crime Alley, where no one would rat them out to government goons. 

Running into Red Hood had been a miracle, a terrifying miracle but a miracle nonetheless. He offered her protection and what help he could provide. When Jazz saw a few GIW agents sniffing around, she told one of Hood’s lieutenants and the Red Hood Gang targeted the agents with extreme prejudice whenever they were sighted in the city. For once she felt like she could actually relax and focus on raising Danny. 

The rest of the vigilantes in the city were strange. She was passingly aware of one of the Robins keeping an eye on her as she made her way through the city on occasion. It seemed like most of the rest avoided Red Hood’s territory, which was a relief. She didn’t need anyone else aware of what Danny could do. 

Meeting Signal had been nice. He was kind and had played with Danny and showed him some training exercises to help him practice his powers in a safe way. If he assumed incorrectly that Danny was a meta instead of a ghost, then that wasn’t her business. By that point, Danny’s powers were starting to recover, and he was finally healed from what Jack and Maddie had done to him, though he didn’t return to his previous age. 

Jazz had been in the midst of a panic attack while Danny napped, terrified that she wouldn’t be a good enough mother for her brother, when time had frozen around her. Clockwork himself appeared. She wanted to rage at the Time Ghost, she wanted to scream and hit him and see how he enjoyed experiencing everything Danny had gone through at the hands of her former parents. It was the palpable grief in his expression that stayed her hand. He mourned Danny’s loss, and the childhood Jazz had sacrificed not once but twice to raise him. 

Clockwork said that Observants had bound him and prevented him from interfering and it had taken until now to be able to assist. He couldn’t undo what had happened to Danny without him experiencing all the pain afresh. But the two of them could take this as an opportunity. He had every confidence in Jazz’s ability to raise Danny to his full potential. As King. His full potential as High King of Ghosts. 

Jazz politely asked to schedule another Time-Out for that evening to freak out properly about that. 

As the person raising Phantom, even if Danny couldn’t take on his ghost form at this time, that gave Jazz power and privileges. She was effectively the Queen Regent until Danny was able to take the crown for his own. She couldn’t make too many decrees as Regent, other than for the protection of the King, nor could she be challenged for the crown. 

The first decree she made as Regent was for the Observant Council to be punished for their interference, which allowed the King to come to harm. Fright Knight personally oversaw their punishment; his fury at the harm to his King was extraordinary. Eventually they would be able to return to their duties, monitoring the time stream and recording the history of the cosmos, their ability to restrain Clockwork significantly reduced. 

The spectral crown that now hovered invisibly over her head as a sign of her Regency granted her some additional benefits as well. The crown had its own aura of pure ectoplasm, allowing Danny to heal faster and for his powers to recover almost back to what they were, which presented its own challenges considering he was still a child. Fortunately as Regent she was able to restrain his more explosive powers, like his Wail, though she promised him that she would allow him to protect her if he needed to. 

The flood of pure ectoplasm also enhanced Jazz’s own liminal powers and abilities. She was stronger, faster and had enhanced senses. Not quite Superman level, but well above any baseline human. Which certainly helped when she needed to defend herself. Her latent empathic abilities were now incredibly powerful, she could read the intentions and emotions of those around her as well as manipulate them to a degree, either drawing their attention to her, or forcing them to ignore her, both of which were very useful for a Queen Regent with a young king. 

In addition to healing Danny and boosting Jazz’s powers, it also seemed to filter the ambient ectoplasm in the air, which led to Red Hood’s territory feeling a lot less bitter and angry. Honestly the whole city of Gotham seemed less smog filled and hostile after a few months of living there as Regent. Once Danny was older she would have to investigate why that was, she presumed a city like this was cursed up to the sky scrapers, and maybe the crown helped clear some of those curses out? 

If Jazz was being honest with herself, running into Cass and Steph in costume as Orphan and Spoiler, had been a life saver, an absolute life saver. They saved not just her life but Danny’s as well. 

Of course, on the day of the riot Stephanie’s help with the injured folks they had recovered was invaluable. And Cass’s help with fighting the rioters saved her very directly, though she always could have called on Fright Knight to take care of things. 

She would have much rather sheltered in their little apartment until the riot was over. The problem was that along with Danny’s reemerging powers, came his reemerging obsessions. She had painted the ceiling for the whole apartment with different space themes, including an accurate map of the night sky. She had borrowed almost every book in the Gotham Library on space at some point and had them reserved months out. 

However his protection obsession was more difficult to sate. She managed to focus it most of the time toward him keeping her safe, but during the riot so many people were in danger and hurting that it would have torn him apart to ignore all the calls for help he could feel. Just like he could feel the exact positions of the stars day or night, he could feel every person who needed help around them. 

Jazz had mobilized as well as she was able. She ordered the local blob ghosts to find her a place where she could bring people who were hurt or in danger and ordered Fright Knight to follow Danny invisibly as he sought out the people to bring to the safe house. Unfortunately, despite her skills with patching Danny back together after fights, she was still only one person and couldn't treat those Danny brought to her and keep them safe at the same time, so the two bats showing up was a huge relief. 

Their help after the riot was what made them lifesavers and she didn’t mean just the dates, though they were nice. She hadn’t expected the two very attractive heroes to flirt with her, any more than she expected to take them up on it, but it was nice to have someone in the city who had her back. Of course the dates and… dates… were very nice. Especially the… dates… with both Cass and Steph at the same time. That was an especially mind-blowing night the first time. 

Predicting and intercepting Bruce’s paranoia had been a huge help, delaying him in his pursuit of her and Danny. And then when they couldn’t delay him any more, they were there to stop him from hurting Danny. She had been furious at first that they hadn’t told her about convincing her son to create a sleeping clone to distract Bruce, but they had taken her words when they first met as Law. Danny’s safety and happiness was her first priority, even over her own mental health. 

With the two girls and Cass’s siblings working together they stopped anything bad from happening that night. Then they set to work. A reporter from Metropolis, Lois Lane, started releasing articles roasting the GIW and the lawmakers that allowed the law through. Jack and Maddie were arrested and their designs and weapons seized by the Justice League. Young Justice and the Teen Titans made a competition of hunting down the GIW agents once the laws were revoked. So far YJ had the lead, but the Titans were planning a raid on a GIW facility that would even the score. 

Jazz had even been able to make a deal in the following month as Regent with Constantine that had him and the other JL magic users going after Vlad. He was arrested and tried for his crimes against Danny, bound to his human form and unable to create duplicates. Then he was tried for his even more numerous corporate crimes. In the end he was imprisoned, penniless and destitute. Once Danny was King he would have the authority to collect the various pieces of the Laughing Magicians soul so he wouldn’t spend eternity getting torn apart. 

Now with the ghost hunters taken care of, and the ghosts safe once again, it was time to meet the rest of Cass’s family. She had Danny on her hip as she walked up to the massive manor, and Jazz couldn’t help but feel trepidation. This was more than meeting her girlfriends’ family, which would have been scary enough on its own. This was meeting her girlfriends’ family and that family was the defenders of the city. The defenders who had worked to make her and Danny so much safer than they had been basically… ever. Certainly safer than they had been growing up under the roof of Fentonworks. 

She took a deep breath and held onto Danny just a little tighter. Danny giggled and squirmed a little in her grasp and she set him on the ground before knocking on the door. The door opened immediately as Alfred had been waiting for them. 

“Grampy!” Danny squealed and ran forward to hug Alfred’s legs. He was still a little too young to understand the difference between a grandpa (Bruce) and a great-grandpa (Alfred) so he had given Cass’s grandfather that name. Fortunately Cass and Steph had already ensured that Bruce would be away from the Manor for the day. Jazz couldn’t help the blush that rose in her cheeks at Danny assuming her girlfriend’s grandfather was also his grandfather. Maybe one day. 

“Ah, hello young master.” Alfred said with a small smile. Cass had insisted that she and Danny meet Alfred before they met the rest of the family. Even though he tried to hide behind his mask of professionalism, Jazz could see that Alfred was deeply touched by Danny’s excitement. “And hello to you Ms. Jazz. Please come in, the family is waiting for you in the media room.” 

“Hello, Alfred.” Jazz said with a smile, as she followed him into the manor. Danny excitedly jogged alongside Alfred’s longer strides. He quickly out paced the older man as he took to the air, practically vibrating with excitement as he flew. 

“Cass!!” Danny screamed as he rocketed into the media room and tackled Jazz’s girlfriend. 

Cass had a brilliant smile that made Jazz’s heart race as she held Danny and peppered his head and cheeks with kisses. Jazz stepped up to her girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the cheek of her own. Steph jumped up out of her seat and ran to squeeze Jazz against Cass’s shoulder and both women turned and gave Jazz simultaneous cheek kisses while Danny laughed his little head off as his two favorite ladies and his mom were around him. 

“Well you two! Are you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?” A cheery voice called from one of the couches. 

The rest of her girlfriends’ family were scattered around the media room. Jazz recognized them all just by description. Dick was the one who had stood up and spoke out. Sitting on one of the couches was Jason, Red Hood, out of costume and shooting them a small smile. Tim who had watched over them and destroyed Bruce’s files on them. Damian scowled with his arms crossed even as he stepped up behind Dick to introduce himself next. Duke was there, once again playing with a little ball of light. Barbara turned her wheelchair around so she could smile at them as well. 

This was her girlfriends’ family, the protectors of Gotham City. Jazz smiled and wiped a few tears from her eyes at how happy she was and Danny was literally glowing with unrestrained joy.

Join me on my discord!

#writing emerald #danny fenton #danny phantom #jason todd #jazz fenton #cassandra cain #de aged danny #dp x dc