#especially the immediate waking up through running into wally

[pipscotch]

Agere regressed barnaby and CG howdy??

Yay! My first Ask, Since there wasn't really any prompt on weather you wanted a Ficlet, Art, Or Headcanons I'm gonna do all 3!

Caregiver Howdy & Little Barnaby!

-He's very much the singer type, he'll sing Barnaby old show tunes to calm him down if he's ever fussy

-Barnaby Regresses around 2-6, He's an energetic little but a very sleepy puppy

-Howdy has a special room in his Bodega that is decked out with everything you'd need to take care of a puppy! From chew rings to squeaky stuffed animals

-Very teethy pup, he bites a lot especially on textures he likes which happens to include Howdy's fuzz! He says it tickle his mouth and it makes him laugh!

-Howdy spoils Barnaby, kisses, snacks and toys! He finds it so precious when his eyes light up at a new toy or a sweet treat!

-Barnaby is very energetic as a little, so much so that Howdy often has to keep a Backpack leash on him when they go out, Barnaby's favorite backpack is a blue's Clues themes bag!

Fussy Puppy!

`Seems Like Barnaby Isn't having a good day`

From waking up to where he was now, Barnaby was definitely not having any sort of a good day. At first it was just the usually fuzziness and inability to focus but it soon progressed as more and more went wrong that day. He couldn't get a trick he'd been working on right, his ball ended up popping, and worst of all he had lost his hat thanks to the wind. Everything was just wrong, all wrong and he wanted it all to stop! The Final straw was during a fun game of catch with his best friend Wally, they where having fun great fun and it was a nice break from everything that happened. That was till Barnaby ended up tripping over a rock while running and landing square in a big muddy puddle, the ball that had been thrown bonking him on the head as a final good riddance.

Barnaby lifted himself from the puddle, barely holding it together. He quickly brushed passed Wally and any of his attempts in consonance, he knew if he stopped now that he wouldn't be able to get to the person who could make all of this better. He quickly B-lined it to Howdy's place, thankfully, Howdy's Bodega wasn't very busy today so he wouldn't have to worry about him being too busy. Not that it would matter since he knows he'd drop everything to help him, he just didn't like doing that while he was very busy. The familiar jingle of the bell that Howdy kept over his door rang out, seemed he was stocking things by his lack of an immediate response. "Howdy Hey! Welcome in, We are currently out of My famous Jams so you'll have to... come back tomorrow? ....Barnaby?".

Howdy had walked over as soon as he heard the bell, ringing a rag around his hands to clean them off from what ever he had been doing prior. Barnaby stood there on the verge of tears, gripping at the edge of his vest, his fur a mess and caked with mud. Howdy looked on in concern, quickly discarding the rag to console the hurt pup. "Hey, Hey, Hey there my little Doodle Dot, Now what in heavens went and happened to you?". Seems that question was what broke the floodgates, tears stream down Barnaby's face as he began to absently babble and whine about the day's wrongness. Howdy let Barnaby talk, while he lead him to a bathroom in the upper part of the building and began to draw a bath for the dirty pup

Barnaby took a seat next to Howdy and leant on his legs, he placed the thumb of his paw into his mouth, his eyes lidded. Guess the crying really tuckered the pup out so Howdy was going to have to be quick with this bath. Howdy Pulled Barnaby up for a second, much to his protest, so he could remove the dirtied vest and tie to be washed later. He guided Barnaby into the bath and sat him down, Normally Barnaby would be splashing and having fun with the water and bubbles, but it really just seemed like the day took its toll on him. "Oh my, why this is no good is it? Day really bit you in the butt?" Howdy said while running his fingers through Barnaby's fur with blueberry shampoo to make sure he was all nice and clean.

Barnaby's head nodded forward, his eyes closing momentarily. Howdy took notice to this and hurried up with scrubbing away all the dirt from his fall. Howdy drained the tub and helped Barnaby out and into a towel, he lead the sleepy puppy into his special room and sat him down on a small mat so Howdy could blow dry him to make sure he dosen't develop any sores or rashes. All dried and suited up onto a nice blue's clues onesie, Howdy cradled Barnaby in his arms and gently rocked him back and fourth, The soft and dulcet symphonies of the song "Living in the sunlight" filled the dimed room. Quickly pulling Barnaby into a sweet sleep.

"Let's try again in the morning Doodle Dot"

#age regressor #pawprints #ducklets #headcannons #sfw agere #welcome home agere #welcome home barnaby #barnaby b beagle #little space #little barnaby b beagle #caregiver howdy pillar #agere blog #agere community

[fantastic-nonsense]

Your list of potential Batfam fics sound so interesting— especially the Bruce, Harvey, and Dick one! If you’d like, I’d love to hear what else is in your miscellaneous ideas doc…

[Referencing this post]

Okay so the thing about the miscellaneous ideas doc is that it's a bullet point-based collection of titles and one sentence thoughts; there's a bunch of stuff in there that will probably never get written, and there's very little substance to literally anything in it.

With that being said, here's a snapshot of a few things in the doc, with a tiny bit of explanation for where I would probably go with them if I ever fleshed them out.

a Cass-focused oneshot that’s basically just me trying to build out her motivations for running off to Hong Kong

League of Batgirls: starring Babs, Cass, and Steph w/secondary stars Nell Little, Tiffany Fox, & Maps Mizoguchi. Yes yes "Maps identifies with the Robins more than the Batgirls" I know, but consider: Cass training Maps on the rooftops of Gotham.

Stephanie comes back to Gotham a bit sooner post-War Games and gets to drop right into the mess that is the immediate aftermath of Under the Red Hood/Infinite Crisis.

Kind of connected to that one was an idea where Bruce leaves Babs and Cass (and by extension the Birds of Prey) in charge of Gotham while he, Dick, and Tim run off on their One Year Later globetrotting trip, completely re-routing the 'Evil!Cass' arc. I had a thought about Steph coming back to Gotham during that year (about halfway through 52)

a Dick-Donna platonic soulmates fic

"the New 52 reboot happened because a villain accidentally stuck the majority of the DCU into a universe-wide collective induced coma (aka, the majority of the DCU is all sharing one very big dream), except some heroes never got put under and when you die in the dream, you wake up in reality." Starring Wally West and Damian Wayne. This idea goes back to this post that I made literally years ago, before Rebirth & Death Metal/Infinite Frontier happened and lowkey stole my thunder. The details of how I would structure the fic have changed a bit since then (hence why it's in the misc ideas folder and not in its own doc), but the basic concept is still the same.

I have several more, but that's a bit of taste into what that doc looks like!

#my writing #writing ideas #dc comics #personal #asks

[youllallriseintheink]

Angel of the Ink Machine, chapter 2: Compromise

The premise of this AU is simple: Sammy leaves the studio instead of Henry, and as a result, Joey needs a new partner in crime. He finds one in Allison. Power struggles, sacrifices, passion, ecstasy and tragedy ensues.

---

Allison’s first few weeks at Joey Drew Studios had been interesting, to say the least. Joey had introduced her to the music room on her first day, and all had seemed to go well. The next day, however, just as she was setting things up in her recording booth, a small, blonde woman who hadn’t been around the day before had come in to interrupt her. Apparently, the last voice actress for the part of Alice Angel- Susie Campbell- had been away the previous day and hadn’t been told that she’d been replaced. The poor woman was heartbroken, and Allison had felt bad for taking a role that was essentially meaningless to her from someone who clearly cared much more about it.

That pity only lasted until Allison realized that half of the music department had taken a disliking to her, seemingly overnight. It was hard to tell how much of that was their loyalty to Susie and how much of that was just their regular standoffish-ness. Either way, Allison didn’t much care for the whole high school-level cattiness of it. Any friends she’d make in this studio would be outside the music department.

Voice acting was fine. Dating Joey was wonderful. She hadn’t gotten to play with the ink machine yet, but they’d done other magic together. She didn’t care for his secretiveness about his plans for the machine worked, though, and after a while she decided to seek out answers on her own.

Her first thought was to ask the man who was building the machine, Thomas Connor. He said that he didn’t know how this thing was supposed to work and didn’t want to, and sure as hell wouldn’t tell some random music department kid if he did. She asked his assistant, Wally Franks, who told her a round-a-bout tale about how he’d drawn up the first blueprint. This was not information Allison could use.

There was one other person she could ask, but it was a long shot. Despite her best efforts, Allison hadn’t fully avoided the high school nonsense of the music room, and she knew the reputation that their projectionist, Norman Polk had as a keeper of unknowable secrets. Allison thought that they were being ridiculous, but it was worth a shot, and he was open enough about meeting with her over lunch one day.

“So, you’re working with Joey Drew on the magical stuff,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“Uh, yes. Does everyone know?”

Norman laughed a little. “Most people here don’t even know that magic is real. Anyhow, I assume that you came to me because you’re interested in knowing some kind of secret?” If he was annoyed about the new girl knowing his reputation, he didn’t show it. If anything, he seemed amused.

“Yes. Honestly, I just want to know as much about Joey as I can. Especially anything that has to do with magic, and the ink machine.”

“Well, I guess telling you can’t be any more dangerous than him keeping it from you. Follow me.”

“You want to know a secret about Joey?” Norman asked as they walked, “he hires people he thinks are vulnerable and down on their luck. So Joey Drew Studios has some teenagers working here, some people with disabilities from the war, and a lot more non-whites and queer people than you’d expect. Not a secret, just a pattern I’ve noticed. But I know that what you want is real secrets.”

Norman took her to a room labelled, “The Archives.” Within it was hundreds of audio logs in locked glass containers. “Joey audio-records us,” Norman explained. “I don’t know his purposes for it, but he clearly does it a whole lot. The glass bins are locked, obviously, but I stole one off his desk a couple days ago. Wanna hear it?” The man’s face had gone from proud and amused to dead-serious.

“Sure...”

Norman pressed the button, and the audio log played. It was Joey Drew speaking to Thomas Connor. They were talking about how to change Bendy from a soulless abomination into a lovable cartoon, and it ended with Joey promising that if these things are soulless, he would get them a soul. After all, I own thousands of them.

“You wanna know what I think? I think that Joey is great at preying upon the desperate. And quite recently, he made a person desperate to be a cartoon character again. So, Allison. I don’t know what your role in this magical business is, but if you can help it, don’t let Joey hurt Susie Campbell- she’s my fiancé. I’ve already told her to be careful around Mr. Joey Drew, but...”

Allison was struggling to take this in. Joey wanted to kill people for this project? That was insane! And yet, some of those pentagrams in the basement had looked awfully large. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean that he wants to murder people. But I’ll talk to him, Norman. I promise. And I do have power over him, so you can count on me!”

---

Allison kept her promise, and brought it up the next time she was at Joey’s house.

“Joey. I need you to tell me right now if this ink machine project involves killing people.”

Joey immediately tensed. He’d been thinking for weeks of a way to break that to Allison that wouldn’t make her run for the hills. “Not... killing. I mean, they’ll still be alive. It’s more like putting them in another body. Yes, the process does involve causing their old body to bleed out, but their consciousness will still be there- probably.”

“Probably?” her face was remarkably calm, given the circumstances.

“I’ve tested the machine on rodents. None of them came out physically resembling a cartoon- only your potion lets me do that. But some of them came out acting like rodents, some of them came out acting like cartoon characters, and some of them went berserk. I’m trying to figure out how to make more of them come out as either rodents or cartoons. If the person retains their personality, they could basically be actors. And if they come out with the cartoon personality, well...”

The more Joey spoke, the more withering Allison’s glare became. “Okay. None of that. I’m not going to destroy people for this. Going forwards, only retaining the consciousness is considered a good outcome. Capisce?”

“Okay,” Joey said, starting to regret letting Allison into the project.

“And I assume that you were going to tell the sacrifices exactly what’s going to happen to them beforehand?”

“Well... Allison, how many people do you think would do this if we were to tell them everything? I was going to tell them that they’d go to sleep and then wake up as the cartoon character they want to be.”

Allison shook her head and appeared to think things over a moment. “You know what, Joey? I’ll do this. But we can’t do it without my potion, so we’re going to do it on my terms. You understand? So, here are my terms: one, we test that machine. We test it on rodents until we have at least 70% of them coming out acting like rodents. Alright? Two, don’t sacrifice anyone without my permission. Ever. And three: I want to be the one who talks people into becoming sacrifices. I have a silver tongue, too, and I don’t trust you to be honest with people. Those are the terms. Take them or leave them.”

“I’ll... I’ll take them. But Allison, if you’re going to have this much power over the project, I need you to show that you’re loyal to it.”

Allison smiled. “Of course. I’m sure that we could work something out!”

---

“What do you think- can you break the lock, Wally? I can’t believe I locked myself out like this.”

“Hmm... Well, Shawn has been tryin' to teach me how to pick a lock. I could try.” Wally got to work on the door and had busted it open within two minutes.

“Alright! Thanks, Wally.” Joey handed Wally the 20$ he’d promised him. They parted ways, and then Joey got to work scouring Allison’s house for that potion recipe.

It was nine weeks and four days after Joey had agreed to Allison’s terms. Six weeks, and only now were they making their first human sacrifice. Worse, they’d wasted hundreds of dollars worth of pet store rodents and a few dozen hours spent altering their ritual. They’d gotten those rodents to turn into toons- mostly perfect toons- that acted like animals at a high enough rate to satisfy Allison, and now Allison was headed to Susie’s apartment to talk her into becoming their sacrifice. Joey wished he could be there, making sure that Allison was doing it right and not scaring Susie away from the idea in the name of honesty. But the one benefit to this situation was knowing that Allison wouldn’t be here, and that after this she would be headed straight to the studio- he wasn’t leaving this place without that potion recipe, and thus full power over the project.

Joey checked all the obvious places like cupboards and drawers, paged through binders full of recipes for various potions and food items, and then checked the obvious “hiding place” places, such as under her bed, under rugs, and so on. It didn’t help that Allison’s house was rather cluttered. For all Joey knew, he could have missed the recipe while sorting through the various papers on the kitchen table. He checked his watch and learned that he’d spent too long here and had supposed to be at the studio an hour ago. Well, he had to give up and leave sometime. Before he left though, he went back to one of Allison’s recipe binders, where Joey had bookmarked a page labelled, “Memory spell? Failed.” He tore out the page. Allison clearly wasn’t the best at creating spells, but seeing it had given Joey an idea of something he could add to the ink machine rituals. It would take at best a few weeks to perfect, but what if he could control what the sacrifices remembered and forgot? There were so many potential uses...

---

Norman had been right about Susie being desperate to be Alice again. Susie had been furious when Allison had showed up at her apartment, but once Allison had said the words, “Joey and I want to make you Alice again. We agreed that you’re the best person for the job,” she’d broken down in tears.

“D-do you mean that?”

“Of course I do! It was the plan from the very beginning. Susie, no one is as well-suited to being Alice Angel than you are. Now, I’ll still be her voice actress, but you’re going to make history- trust me, people will remember you as Alice for decades after this. Joey found an improvised means to bring you closer to Alice than any actress ever has been to a character. The process will seem scary, but Joey will help you, I’ll be there every step of the way. I’m pretty excited myself, honestly! No one’s ever done this before. So, are you with us?”

“Well, that sounds... too good to be true. I mean, even just getting my role back would be nice wonderful, but here you are promising me fame and all of that... But you’re being awfully vague about it. What exactly do you have planned?”

“Come with me to the studio. It has to be seen to be believed.”

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #allison pendle #joey drew #norman polk #susie campbell #my fanfiction #Angel of the Ink Machine AU

[sleuthingenigma]

𝙱𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙰𝚄

𝐉𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲. 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐩'𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐮𝐢𝐭.

Like the true, independent force she was, Betty Cooper was seated in the driver’s seat of her mother’s car, driving  herself to her “prom” — the floor length gown and heels one of the smaller inconveniences she’d had to deal with, not daring to compare to the more pressing obstacles she’d had to face in the last four years of high school.

Unlike some of her closest friends and basically everyone else in her graduating class, Betty wasn’t headed to Riverdale High for the big night. She had been banned from prom, thanks to that slimeball, Bret Weston Wallis — one of the most spineless human beings she’d ever come across, and she’d certainly met her fair share of them. But hey, why change up her totally deranged high school experience now? She may as well continue her streak straying far from the status quo.

As she pulled into the nearly empty parking lot of Pop’s Diner, only taken up by her lover’s motorcycle and Pop Tate’s dark blue van, Betty’s heart was already racing with excitement for whatever Jughead had planned. He’d insisted that she didn’t lift a finger preparing for this night. He wanted to give her a complete night off from everything. Whatever needed their attention could be dealt with after her carriage turns into a pumpkin. The only thing she could think about right now were the lips of her darling prince. Well, now her 𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜.

After putting the car in park, Betty eased herself out of the vehicle, careful to tug the entirety of her dress out of the car so it wouldn’t get caught in the closed door. When she opened the door of the diner, that familiar smell of fresh burgers and fries wafted right into her nostrils— a specific smell no other diner could recreate. Pop’s would always stand out from the crowd, and no diner could even try to compare. She didn’t realize how much she was going to miss this place when she moved out of town, until now… so many memories were made here.

Jughead was already sitting in 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 booth, looking right at her with wide eyes nearly bursting out of his head at the sight of her. He carefully slid out of the booth, holding his hands in front of him politely. As she slowly made her way over to him, her baby blue gown just barely grazed the floor, a mix of lace floral patterns, and modest sparkles filled the entire bodice, the lacy pattern trailing down her arms in off the shoulder straps.

He didn’t waste a second before pressing multiple, eager kisses to her lips. Her hand lingered on his shoulder as he swarmed her face with his lips, a bout of giggles leaving her as she tugged away from him.

“Save some for later, handsome,” she chuckled, shaking her head at her corny darling as she carefully slid into the booth, Jughead holding her hand to steady her as she settled in.

After she was comfortable, Jughead sat across from her, and her hands immediately took his. She stared at him longingly, his thick waves slicked back with just the perfect amount of wild and tame to the look, and he wore a dapper black suit, 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 nicely fitted to his body— Jug’s tie the same soft blue as her dress.

“Jug, are you always going to take away my breath like this?” Betty blushed, caressing his hands with her thumbs.

His eyebrows shot up and a smirk worked its way across his lips. “I hope you still have that mindset when you wake up to my poofy hair and smelly breath every morning in New Haven. Just keep remembering me like this, all spruced up for you.”

Betty rolled her eyes, the smile never leaving her lips as she shook her head. “I don’t care if you’re dressed to the nines or just rolling out of bed… I’m always going to look at you fondly. Your handsomeness hasn’t faltered since the day we met. In fact, I think you somehow keep getting even 𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳. What’s your secret?”

“You know…” Jughead began, a sly look on his face as he looked over her shoulder. Pop Tate would appear a few moments later with their usual orders. “I think I’d have to credit my 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘸 to none other than Pop’s burgers. I’m doomed to wither away once we leave this town and I can’t consume my signature triple burger on the regular. Nobody makes em’ like you do, Pop.”

Pop chuckled, beaming at the compliment, looking at the two of them like he couldn’t be more proud of who they’d become. “Now, don’t you two forget about ole’ Pop… you’d better stop by here when you’re in the area for a visit. Promise me?”

Betty and Jughead gave each other endearing, heart-warmed looks, before nodding at Pop simultaneously. “We’re definitely going to stop here, 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, Pop. You have our word,” Betty said.

The bubbly man smiled ear to ear at the two, before returning behind the counter, leaving the two of them to their meal. Betty and Jughead sat there in that booth where they’d discussed many of their theories for whatever sleuthing ordeals they’d been working on at the time, sharing milkshakes over notes they’d been comparing on cases… A few booths down was their usual spot they’d shared with Veronica and Archie, their meetups with them a reprieve from the intricate, heavy thinking that came with their sleuthing endeavors.

As Betty sat there with Jug, just about finished with her meal, she began to wonder why she didn’t feel the bittersweet feelings that were supposed to come around graduation time. There wasn’t much in this town, let alone at the school, that she was particularly sad about letting go of.

Most of her best, fondest memories were with the man sitting across from her.

A smile formed on her lips as she watched her lover pick at every last bit of food on his plate. Once he’d finished up and his attention was back on her, he gazed at her like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. The same way he looked at her when she and Veronica were sitting in the booth, and he and Archie joined them. A first glance that she had never forgotten.

“You know, Jug,” she started, letting her fingers aimlessly trail up and down his arm. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you by my side all these years. Our lives have been… constantly turned upside down, attacked from all angles… but at the end of the day, it was you that I found my solace, consistency, safety and absolute ease within. I couldn’t have gotten through any of what I did without you, Jughead.”

Jughead immediately shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing in rejection to her statement. He grabbed onto her hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “And 𝘐 couldn’t have stayed sane without you, my little enigma. Even in the darkest, most bleak times in this hellish town, you were constantly that shining light in my life— and I have always held onto that. I will always hold onto you. We have proven time and time again that we can get through anything together. I love you, Betty Cooper.”

Jughead lifted her knuckles to his mouth and peppered gentle kisses upon them, eliciting a small bit of laughter from her, closely followed by glassy eyes.

Before she could say a word, Jughead was already getting up and out of the booth, standing right at her side with his hand held out to her. “None of that, beautiful. Only smiles tonight.”

Betty took his hand and let him guide her out of the booth, and downstairs to La Bonne Nuit, giving a wink to Pop as they walked past him.

It was weird seeing the place completely empty— the chairs were stacked up on all the tables, the stage bare, no one cozied up by the bar. Jughead left her standing in the middle of the wooden dance floor as he made his way over to his laptop, typing away until music came out of the speakers surrounding them. 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐲 by Novo Amor played, as Jughead headed back to her with wide open arms, ready to take her in them.

Betty’s smile hadn’t faltered all night, beaming so much that her cheeks were beginning to hurt. She slinked her arms around his neck and took a step toward him, to close most of the space between them. His warm hands rested on the small of her back, holding her close as they swayed back and forth to the gentle rhythm of the music.

As overjoyed as Betty was, she couldn’t help the pang of pain that registered in her chest, thinking about how the two of them had been robbed of these dear, youthful experiences they should have been able to indulge in way more often than they were able to. She must have let out an audible sigh, because Jughead slowly pulled back so he could look into her eyes.

“What is it, love?” he whispered, tucking a stray, curled hair behind her ear, searching her eyes.

Betty’s shoulders dropped a bit, a frown finding her lips. “I don’t know, Jug— I just hate that some of us in this town were just forced into a nightmarish life that none of us should have had to endure. And, because of that, you and I didn’t get to have moments like this more often. We were always sleuthing, which I loved… I loved so dearly. I just wish we could’ve found a way to escape more often, you know? And not feel so much weight on our shoulders constantly? I don’t know.”

Jughead leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, running his hand down her arm to comfort her.  “I know. Trust me, I know. This town has been unfair and cruel, especially to you. But… soon enough, you and I are going to be worlds away from this seventh circle of hell. You’ll be buried in your Criminal Psych books, discussing cases with me when you’re stumped, and I’ll be sharing my latest stories with you. And in between all that, we’ll indulge in the most authentic college experience we can get our hands on. Junk food, cheap beer, football games, late night wanderings around campus… finding the best pizza place in town, not stopping until we’ve tried them all. We’re going to have it all, Betty. We’re finally going to 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭. And I wouldn’t want this beautiful new beginning with anyone else but you.”

Sliding his hands around each side of her face, Jughead slowly pulled her in for a lasting kiss… which would eventually turn into quite a few opened mouth, euphoric lip locks. When they finally parted, the two nearly collapsed into each other’s arms with how breathless they were, eventually falling back into a sway with the music.

“Jughead, I already have it all… in 𝘺𝘰𝘶. But, trust me when I say that getting out of here and starting our new lives together… this is just the beginning of our adventure. Like Romeo and Juliet, but we live happily ever after instead… well, it looks like we’re on our way to doing just that.”

His lips turned up into a soft smile, chuckling fondly as she repeated the old phrase she’d spoken to him. “Only with you, Betts. It’s only ever been you, and will only ever be you.”

Betty let out a deep, endeared breath, willing herself 𝘯𝘰𝘵 to tear up again. Bringing her lips to his once more, and removing them only when she desperately needed a breath, Betty finally, for the first time in forever, felt like a real teenager.

“As much as I hated this town… I wouldn’t hesitate to do it all again. Everything that happened led us to each other— and that is the one good thing Riverdale has ever done for me,” Betty chuckled, before covering her lover’s face with little pecks.

The two lovestruck teens would spend a couple more songs getting lost in each other’s eyes, relaxing in their embrace as they moved to their own, casual pace, until Jughead’s specially curated playlist ran out. And even then, Betty would ask for just one more. One more song. One more dance. One more beautiful memory.

And just the beginning of the multitude of joyous moments to come for the two lovers. The ones who had beaten all the odds, and came out nothing short of invincible.

But until then, they were content in each other’s arms. No matter where they happened to be in the world, it could never compare to their true home that could only be found within 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.

#bughead #bughead fic #bughead fanfiction #bughead edit #riverdale #fyeahriverdale #bugheadcentral #betty x jughead #jughead x betty #soulmates #prom #riverdalecentral #otp #riverdaleedit #betty cooper #jughead jones #bugheadreams

[bubblytarts]

Bendy and the Inky Musical - Part 3/5

Chapter Four content, which takes us to the end of Act One! Including the obligatory dance number, lots of lost ones, and depression!

Set Us Free - Grant, Shawn, Wally, Ensemble

(Think how haunting this would be if it sounded like Stay, I Pray You; Anastasia)

Henry wakes up on a cot, and asks Wally what happened. Wally explains that his friends helped get Henry out of the elevator. Before Henry can ask who he means, two lost ones enter.

The lost ones introduce themselves as Grant and Shawn, and explain that they both tried to stop Joey but were unable to before being transformed. The group reveals that they are surrounded by lost ones, with “He Will Set Us Free” written on the wall. Henry mentions that Sammy believed that, but the Ink Demon killed him. Wally stops Henry, and tells him that the rest of them don’t meant the Ink Demon. When Henry is still confused, Shawn blurts out that Henry is the one to set them free.

Grant then begins the song, with a slow, depressing beginning about how the situation looked hopeless. Shawn joins in as the song shifts to believing that someone will return and stop Joey, and the lost ones and Wally provide a haunting harmony of voices in the back. The song ends with a final chilling duet between Grant and Shawn, completely a cappella.

Henry isn’t sure if he really can save everyone, but he’s willing to try to at least talk to Joey. But first he has to save Buddy. Unfortunately, none of the lost ones want to travel through the next area. But they know someone who can lead Henry.

Bendyland - Wally, Bertrum, Lacie, Henry, Ensemble

(Think the call and response dance break from King of New York; Newsies)

Enter Lacie. She is also a lost one, but knows the next area well, so Henry and Wally bid farewell to Grant, Shawn, and the others, and continue on.

Wally takes over as narrator again, introducing Bendyland while Henry and Lacie continue on offstage. The lost ones here were practicing to perform in live stage shows before everything went bad, so they’re thrilled to have an audience, and want to perform the song and dance number they’ve been working so hard on!

Lacie is amused at the fact that the chorus keeps trying to drag Henry into their performance, but he’s less than thrilled. Even Bertrum shows up to sing about how great Bendyland is! (Or, well, his head does.)

Henry recovers an axe, and promptly gets it stolen by a lost one. Communicating through dance, the lost one makes the situation clear: Henry leads the dance, and if his performance is good enough, he can have the axe back.

Henry reluctantly does a small tap and spin, but the lost ones choose to mock his moves instead of copying them.

Offended, Henry goes all out, rocking that tap dance! The lost ones, and even Wally and Lacie, join in on Henry’s call and response, ending with a final chorus of Bendyland’s greatness, and one final epic tap dance spin as Henry strikes a pose!

Stop This Madness - Norman, Joey

As the dancers exit stage, (and Henry gets out of his tap shoes,) Norman enters.

Norman has clearly just seen something horrible, and looks terrified. Joey appears from the shadows, and asks him what’s wrong. Norman demands that Joey gets away from him, especially after seeing that thing in his office.

When Joey tells Norman to calm down, Norman gets his very angry song, increasing in intensity as he backs Joey up. Joey has had enough, and counters Norman, backing him up now.

Eventually, Joey seems to have calmed down, and stops singing when he admits to creating the Ink Demon and keeping it in his office. Norman tells Joey he’s going to the police about what he did to Susie, and turns around, only to be whacked upside the head by Sammy. Joey thanks Sammy, and plans to make sure that Norman can’t tell anyone about what he saw.

Back in the present, Lacie informs Henry that just past this room is the haunted house, where he can access more of the studio, and hopefully find Buddy. But this is where her expertise ends, so she bids Henry farewell.

Henry makes his way through the ink, listening to Joey’s propaganda tape. (The one where he reveals his true thoughts about “dreaming”.)

The Projectionist appears before Henry can properly react to the tape, and chases him. Henry trips, and yells “Norman, please, it’s me, Henry!” The Projectionist pauses, and reaches towards Henry, only to be attacked and killed by the Ink Demon. Henry runs away before the demon can finish him off as well.

Dear Susie (Reprise) - Susie

Henry enters the haunted house as Susie sings about her troubles again. The reprise is much sadder, and she seems to finally have acknowledged that she won’t ever be perfect, and she was too naive at the studio. She admits that she shouldn’t have trusted Joey, but she just wanted what was best for her.

The song ends as Susie adds that while she knows she won’t be perfect, she still can’t accept herself, and so she definitely can’t accept anyone being more perfect than her.

Cue the Brute Boris reveal, and subsequent fight.

Make You Proud (Reprise) - Buddy, Henry

(Think the depression level of Stay Alive Reprise; Hamilton)

Get ready for tears, folks. The Brute Boris fight is over relatively quick, and Susie demands to know why Henry can’t ever just die, before going radio silent.

Henry collapses next to Buddy, who quietly apologizes for fighting him. The Brute Boris costume is removed to some extent during the fight, so that Henry can scoop Buddy into his arms for maximum sob. Buddy hopes that Henry can get out, even if he wasn’t much help.

Henry, in tears, tells Buddy that he was so much help. (It isn’t clear if Henry can hear Buddy, or it he’s just talking aloud.)

As Buddy is fading, he tells Henry that he forgives him, and then flips his script, and shakily sings that he’s proud of Henry, before going limp.

There is not a dry eye in the audience as Henry sets Buddy down.

Creators and Traitors - Henry

(Think a much angrier Santa Fe; Newsies)

This is Henry’s turning point. At the first note of this song, even before he starts singing, his expression of despair immediately is replaced by a look of fury.

Henry finally accepts that this is Joey’s fault. All of it. Henry is practically yelling through the whole song, and hitting super high notes while he’s at it.

It’s clear that from now on, Henry isn’t trying to figure out how to find Joey and talk to him. He’s trying to find the fastest way to Joey himself in order to make him pay for what has happened to Sammy, Norman, and now Buddy.

Henry is ready to set them all free.

As Henry holds his final note, the lights on stage zoom in, until only Henry in a spotlight is lit up. The song ends, and holds for applause.

As the applause dies down, Susie reveals herself at the back of the spotlight, behind Henry. Once the applause ends, an ominous chord plays, and Susie screams. Henry whips around and falls as he tries to back away, holding up his hands to try and stop Susie from killing him.

In a direct parallel to the blocking in Dear Susie, a blade shoots out from just out of spotlight behind Susie, slitting her throat yet again. Susie gasps and collapses.

With the music ripped directly from the end of Chapter Four, Henry stands up as Allison walks into spotlight at his side. Tom joins on the other side of Henry, and another blackout, as Act One ends.

#jacksepticeye voice “little miracle stations are for cowards” #also they just wouldn’t translate well on stage #buddy’s dead and I’m sad about it #the Susie symbolism makes me happy tho #also please go listen to the Anastasia song for Grant and Shawn #It’s so hauntingly beautiful #yay done with act one #bendy and the inky musical #batim #bendy and the ink machine #grant cohen #shawn flynn #wally franks #bertrum piedmont #lacie benton #henry stein #norman polk #joey drew #susie campbell #buddy lewek

[brittle-bone-gabe]

Workaholic

Read on AO3! Read here 

It was an unusual setting for Henry and the other employees of Joey Drew Studios to be sleeping on their station in their departments, especially since it was normal to work days on end without leaving or going home. They knew it wasn’t normal, but nobody questioned or fought against Joey due to the fact they were working at the most popular animation studio in the nation, they didn’t want to mess that up. Imagine new employees asking past employers for a reference and Joey Drew Studios gave them a poor reference, yeah, no thanks. It wasn’t like anyone would believe them if they said they were made to work for days on end anyways, so there was no point in fighting against it. 

Henry had been awake for almost forty-eight hours working on two new episodes back to back with only a handful of cups of coffee to keep him going. The deadlines that Joey was putting on him were starting to become impossible to meet, but Joey being Joey, told him that nothing was impossible if you dream hard enough. Right… if only dreaming hard enough would keep Henry awake so he could finish this project. So it was no surprise to anyone when Henry finally crashed, his head down on his desk with his pen still in his hand, snoring softly. 

Joey didn’t like for his employees to waste any time, that’s why he had these ridiculous work rules in place, but there were a handful of times he could turn away from someone literally passing out from exhaustion, even if he was technically losing money. Whatever would give him quality animation… 

Henry had been sleeping for a better part of two hours when Wally poked his head into the animation studio to see if he was still asleep. He would feel bad for waking him up, but he had an urgent phone call he needed to take right now.

“Henry?” Wally called out, “pst, Henry?” When he didn’t wake up, Wally grabbed into the trash bag he had hanging onto, pulling out a balled up piece of paper before throwing it at his friend, who snorted awake, confused on what was going on. “Oh, good! You’re awake!” He said as he walked into the animation department. “Hey, you have a phone call.” 

Henry just stared at him, having no idea what he just said to him due to the fact he just woke up and everything sounded like a jumbled up bunch of nonsense. 

“What?” 

“I said you have a phone call. From Linda.” 

Hearing his wife's name woke Henry up immediately. Was something wrong? Was she hurt? Did someone break into their apartment? The possibilities were running through his mind, all of them the worse case scenario. He stood up from his desk, his legs wobbly from how long he’s been sitting, he ignored it as he went into the office that had the only phone. The phone was resting against the desk so it wouldn’t hang up on Linda, waiting for Henry to come take the call. 

“Hello?” Henry asked urgently as he picked it up.

“Hello, Henry,” Linda said in her usual soft tone, even though he couldn’t see her, he knew she had a small smile on her face. “How are you doing honey? It’s been awhile since you called.” 

Henry let out a sigh, knowing where this conversation was going as he took a seat in the only wooden chair in the small closet-like office. 

“I know… I’m sorry, the deadlines seem to be shorter and shorter…” he began twirling the phone’s cord anxiously, “I’m always tired. Wally woke me up.” He let out a small chuckle. “I’m starting to see Bendy in my sleep, I swear.” 

“Staying at work all the time isn’t good for you, Henry.” She paused for a moment before adding: “I miss you.” 

“I miss you too, hun. I’m going to try to get a day off or something, I promise.” 

“It would be nice if you could come home at night…” 

“I want that too. I’m going to talk to Joey, this isn’t good for us. I’ll be home tonight, I promise.”

“Will you get in trouble?”

“Well… Joey won’t be too happy, but you and I are more important than a stupid deadline. I’ll see you tonight, hun, I love you.” 

“I love you too, Henry.” 

They both hung up, Henry let out a sigh, burying his face into his hands. The only way he was going to be able to go home tonight is if he left the company. Joey wasn’t going to be happy about Henry’s choice, but he’s been thinking about it for a couple of weeks and that phone call was the nail in the coffin. The only person he needs to make happy in his life was Linda, and that’s exactly what he was going to do.

#the ink demonth #bendy and the ink machine #henry stein #linda stein #fanfic #fanfiction #short one shot #to my favorite couple thank you #even though angst is what i'm good at i would never hurt their relationship #my fic

[schweeeppess]

Hi! If you’re still doing the whump prompts, could you maybe do a follow up of the chapter where Jason was sick but still provided cover fire for his brothers? Thank u!

part I

--

Tell me why I'm waiting

Dick was sitting in Jason's hospital room with Tim, holding Jason's limp hand in his.

He flexed his hand, rolling his wrist to relieve some of the ache that had settled in it, and focused on the fact that Jason's hand was warm. It was warm, not cold--Jason was alive.

Jason was alive. He was alive, so he'd get better.

Maybe. Maybe he wouldn't wake up at all.

Comas were funny like that.

For someone

Tim's head was in Dick's lap, and Dick continued running his other hand through his little brother's hair as Tim quietly snored.

What was also funny, in some sort of morbid sense, was that time seemed to pass too fast but not fast enough. Visitation hours would up soon, but Dick was pretty sure they had some rule for family memebers.

He hoped the hospital did, anyways.

That couldn't give a fuck about me

Every time he closed his eyes Dick wasn't in room 103 of Gotham General anymore. He was standing in his little brother's sniper nest, feet in a puddle of Jason's blood, staring down at the Red Hood's--his little brother--body.

The air he breathed was tinted with the metallic scent of blood, that brought along all the horrors Dick had experienced with the sharp iron tang with it, and it was filling his lungs and his mind and he couldn't lose him again, not again, never again.

Dick's hand tightened around Jason's and he forced himself to complete the blink and take a breath, open his eyes and mind to the hospital room and stench of cleaning products, to wake himself out of the reality of his nightmares.

No, oh, it wouldn't--

Tim muttered something in his sleep and his head shifted in Dick's lap, and Dick realized that he'd stopped moving his hand. He resumed carding his hand through Tim's hair mechanically.

Dick's every day was with Jason, lately, ever since that night. Bruce came too, whenever he could, for as long as he could, but Batman couldn't just vanish the way Nightwing could. Dick had friends he could ask for help covering Blüdhaven. Bruce's widely known rule about other heroes in Gotham meant he couldn't just drop patrol the same way, not immediately, and not yet. He'd sworn though. Had sworn that he'd call Green Arrow and both Flashes for help by tomorrow.

It meant tonight was Dick's last night with Jason alone--without Bruce, anyways.

Tell me why I'm waiting

It was a good thing, too, the more Dick thought about it. Dick staying with Jason so much was probably having some effect on his psyche or something. It couldn't be healthy.

Especially since they didn't know if he'd wake up.

For someone

Dick couldn't help but blame himself for this. He tried not to, for Tim's sake and Damian's and Bruce's, but he kept doing it.

He shouldn't have asked Jason for help on that bust. He shouldn't have left Jason alone. He should have noticed Jason's illness. He should have noticed Jason's fatigue. He should have checked up on Jason. He shouldn't have asked him for help.

And it went on and on like that, a horrible spiral nobody was around to drag him out of. His head was dangerous, his self-loathing a whisper in his ear every day he woke up, and he was a hazard to himself. Dick was self-aware enough to know that not feeling anything was dangerous, and that thinking about what it would be like to let himself fall would be setting off major alarms in some therapist's notes if he ever went to see one, so he called Roy and Wally daily just to talk. They stopped by sometimes, and he cried into thier shirts every time, and that's how things were going.

Bruce would be a good support. Co-dependency.

That couldn't give a fuck about me

But Bruce would show up tomorrow.

For now, Dick just had to focus on holding Jason's hand. Running his other one through Tim's hair. Watching Jason's chest rise and fall with his breaths.

Waiting for Jason to wake up.

#ask #anon #anon ask #prompt #anon prompt #writing prompt #angst prompt #angst #whump #Jason Todd #Dick Grayson #Tim Drake #Robin #Robiin #Robiiin

[queenofcats17]

The Benton-Piedmont Baby

@lovelykitten2017 requested I write something with Bertrum and his and Lacie’s daughter, Poppy, who’s their oc.

Here is her origin. Or the end of it. Also mentioned is the NormanxWally relationship Kitten has in their works

-------------------------------------------------------

The day when Bertram and Lacie brought their daughter Poppy in to show the studio was...interesting, to say the least. 

The whole studio was very excited to see the child that had come from Joie’s meddling, especially Joie. They’d been hearing a bit about Poppy’s developing ink powers, (she was half human and half ink due to the spell Joie had used to make Lacie pregnant) and was very curious to see her ink powers in person. They also rather hoped they would be able to mentor her in her ink powers. Whether or not Bertram and Lacie would be alright with this remained to be seen.

Wally had also been boasting about his new baby sister and how cute she was, leaving out the numerous almost heart attacks Bertram and Lacie had had due to Poppy teleporting to random places throughout the house. He thought the teleportation was cool since he hadn’t been given any heart attacks.

When Bertram and Lacie arrived with Poppy, Bertram had Poppy held tightly to his chest. Both Bertram and Lacie looked absolutely exhausted, but Bertram also had a look of concerning determination. Usually, when this expression surfaced, it meant that he was about to dig in his heels on something and no one would be able to make him budge.

Everyone immediately crowded around, eager to see the baby. Bertram was quick in pushing them away, holding Poppy closer as if defending her from a pack of rabid dogs.

“Anyone who wishes to hold my daughter must first wash their hands!” He announced. 

The employees were a bit surprised by this, but it was a reasonable request. So, they all went and washed their hands. But when they returned, Bertram demanded they wash their hands again. 

“And you must use hand sanitizer as well!” He added.

“Isn’t that kind of overkill?” One of the employees asked. 

“We just washed our hands!” Joie whined. “We’re all clean!”

Bertram narrowed his eyes. “I’ve seen the state of this place. I know how filthy you all are.”

“We’re not filthy!” Sammy sputtered. 

“You definitely are,” Lacie said, a small smirk tugging at her lips. 

“Again!” Bertram yelled. 

Everyone grumbled and went off to wash their hands again. They wanted to hold Poppy, after all.

By this point, Poppy had woken up and was looking around. She was still a bit sleepy, holding tight to the Bendy plush Shawn had given her parents as a baby shower present.

“Morning, kiddo,” Lacie murmured, her expression softening as she leaned over.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Bertram cooed, shifting her a bit so he could boop her nose. 

Poppy giggled adorably, her little nose crinkling as a smile lit up her face. 

“Alright, we washed our hands again,” Sammy grumbled as he and the other employees returned. “Can we hold the kid now?”

“Pleeeaaasssseee?” Joie asked, putting on their cutest puppy dog eyes.

“Use this hand sanitizer,” Bertram said. 

Lacie pulled out a large bottle of hand sanitizer from the large diaper bag she had slung across her body. Once again, the employees grumbled, but they did it. 

“I call first dibs!” Joie squealed after rubbing the hand sanitizer into their hands.

“Only if you lower your volume,” Bertram said, giving them a warning glare. 

Joie nodded excitedly, making a motion of zipping their lips. Tentatively, Bertram handed Poppy over. 

“Careful, she’s fussy about how she’s held,” Lacie warned, just as Joie held Poppy up to their face. 

As soon as she was handed off to Joie, Poppy’s smile immediately faded. She was very picky about how she was held, as Bertram was the one who usually held her and she liked how he did it. Joie was not holding her correctly and she was not about to take that. 

As Joie held her up to their face, Poppy began to scream, lashing out with her fists and feet and managing to nail Joie squarely in the eye. Joie shrieked, dropping Poppy and stumbling away. Bertram reacted quickly, catching Poppy in a way that indicated he’d had to do this more than once. 

“What the Hell?!” Sammy yelled, stumbling back as well.

“Yeah, she does that sometimes.” The expression on Lacie’s face could most definitely be qualified as a smirk.

“She’s...definitely got personality,” Joie said weakly. “I’m...I’m going to go get some ice.” They quickly made their exit, quietly vowing to wear some form of armor the next time they tried to hold Poppy.

The employees all took a step back. 

“Anyone else wanna hold her?” Lacie asked, her grin widening. 

“You’d best not drop her too,” Bertram warned, eyes narrowing again.

The employees looked between each other, each now far more cautious about holding the baby. Poppy looked so adorable in Bertram’s, but they now knew what she was capable of. 

“I’d like to hold her.” Norman gently pushed through the crowd. “Could you give me a few pointers so I don’t lose my eye too?”

Bertram lit up. “Gladly.”

.

When Wally managed to make his way up from the lower levels where he’d been cleaning, he found his parents coaching his boyfriend in how to hold his baby sister, who looked perfectly content. 

Wally wasted no time in running up and chattering excitedly to Norman about how cute Poppy was and had he seen her punch? Norman listened quietly as Wally chattered on, carefully holding Poppy. Poppy looked rather intrigued by this strange man, reaching up and trying to grab the dreads that dangled over her. 

Lacie and Bertram observed the scene before them with soft smiles. At least until Poppy pulled too hard on one of Norman’s dreads and had to be removed.

.

At the end of the day, only Norman, Joie, and Wally ended up holding Poppy. No one else wanted to risk getting punched themselves. Especially after seeing the shiner she’d left Joie with. Lacie couldn’t have been prouder.

#bendy and the ink machine #fanfiction #bertrum piedmont #lacie benton #joie drew #joey drew #poppy amelia benton piedmont #sammy lawrence #norman polk #wally franks

[thatbangtanbloom]

all that glitters || bts [3]

all that glitters | bangtan

prologue | chapter one|chapter two|chapter three

Characters: Jungkook, Taehyung, Namjoon, Jimin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Seokjin, Reader

AU(s): 1920s!AU, Mafia!AU, Historical!AU

Word Count: 3,255

Late springs in New York always proved to be grueling. Clouds lined the somewhat aesthetic atmosphere, hiding away the rain that would inevitably fall. There were the rainy days, causing havoc on the shabbily remodeled apartment buildings, with water leaking through thin roofs. Children were often inclined to pull daisies from people’s flowerbeds and said flowerbed owners often found themselves yelling at the aforementioned. The busy hustle and bustle meant daylight rising earlier and people leaving for work to get a head start on life, to achieve the American dream that was allegedly promised to those daring enough to take a risk. For many, spring symbolized new beginnings. For many, every cloud had its own silver lining.

Yet, you could not find your silver lining. Your routine, however habitual it may have been, was welcoming. You liked waking up at five in the morning to catch the bus to the nearest train station and then squeeze into the metro for a thirty-minute commute to downtown New York. You liked stopping at Sears and Roebuck to buy yourself a sandwich and spend ten cents on a strawberry milkshake for your lunch before reporting to the Yankees Stadium to catch any practicing players for interviews. You also liked working overtime at your small cubicle, just to make the same amount as your male counterparts. You liked having a routine. Until you no longer did.

Gone were the days of your usual routine, because it seemed that the Bangtan Boys were squeezing themselves into every crevice of your life. You noticed the raven-haired boy lingering near the metro station with glasses over his face at six-fifteen in the morning on Fifth Avenue. It was hard to ignore the blonde haired man in Sears and Roebuck as you ordered your strawberry milkshake when his eyes never left your figure, ignoring the waitress when she asked him what clubhouse sandwich he would like. And when you attempted to leave from work at the later time, there was an impressionable car at the corner with its lights on, that always turned off the moment your head peaked outside.

To put it simply, you did not see a single silver lining.

Taehyung was inclined to think clouds had their own silver linings too, especially with your monogrammed memo pad burning a hole into his freshly imported Guccio Gucci suit. His hair that once was an ash gray was now dyed black, matching his own busy eyebrows to give him a colloquial look. Though, it be in vain, for his features were not common in the hustle and bustle of New York City.. but it would do.

Ever since your little game of cat and mouse began a week ago in the speakeasy, Taehyung has been working around the clock to plan a way to lure you back to the speakeasy. He had dropped hints purposely, leaving a single flower at your desk with a note tied to it in efforts to draw you back. He had considered the idea of having Jungkook do the honors of returning your memopad, but the younger boy was shyer than he would like to admit and time was money. Every action one of the seven members partook in was a building block for the enterprise.

So here he was, arriving at your place of work only ten minutes before your regularly scheduled lunchtime with a single bouquet of flowers in his hand and a blue box dangling between his fingers as he walks over the steps and smiles prettily at the secretary.

“O-oh,” She is awestruck when her eyes fall over his dark alluring eyes and his masculine features. She can barely breathe when she notices how deep he stares into her, almost as though he could stare through her.

Taehyung knows that she is not the first woman to fall privy to his charms, so he does not hesitate for a moment to use them against hers. He had one objective and one objective alone - to get to you and to find out what information that you knew. “Darling,” He purrs and she swears that he is the devil incarnate himself. “My… my doll works here and I wished to surprise her. Her name’s Y/N L/N… Is it possible for me to go up there and visit her, darling?”

“Y-yes. Of course. Y/N? She should be on the third floor…” She stutters as Taehyung nods at her every word. She wonders if all men are able to stare that intensely and keep a platonic gaze. She thinks that he is one of one. “S-she covers the sports column from time to time, so she should be out-”

Taehyung sends her his prized boxy smile and he knows that she is a goner. “Darling, do you know if she is upstairs or not? I would hate to have come all the way to visit my dollface and she is not here…” His tone is sultry as he caresses each syllable of each word with his tongue. “Can I just.. Can I just go up there to see her?”

“O-of course! Let me just write you a small note…” She is absolute putty in his hands. She practically trips over herself writing down your cubicle number and department before batting her lashes up at him. “And if she is not here… feel free to come back and keep me company.”

Taehyung only winks in reply, not giving a verbal confirmation. As beautiful as she was, Taehyung had bigger fish to fry. You were at the top of his list, and he would be damned if he would let you escape him for a second time.

“For the last time, do you think Miller Huggins would let Chick Autry bat over Wally Schang? He is a seasoned player.” You lament with a frown as you sit down across from your editor of the sports column, Calvin Bush. He was three years your senior and biologically male to the point where he felt that it was quintessential to run everything by him first. At times, you questioned if he actually took anything that you said seriously or if he only disagreed with you because you did not have the same biological makeup as him.

Calvin scoffs in response as he rolls up his sleeves, glancing over the New York Times’ sports statistics and shakes his head. “Look, I get it. You’re trying to commit yourself to the big leagues, but do not let a pretty face fool you. Chick Autry is the present. Wally Schang is the past. Do you think that because Schang has more experience that he has more precision? That doesn’t suggest causation.”

“I could say the same for you,” You murmur under your breath as you sit back down in front of your typewriter. You were certain Wally Schang would be played against the Washington Senators before Chick Autry would. Breakout star or not, Schang had the consistency that Autry lacked. “Autry was just recruited a couple of weeks ago. He may have the tenacity and the ambition, but precision is something he lacks. We’ve seen that in how he can only bat with his right.”

He pauses, as though considering your words. He did have a point. While Autry was a top pick, it was news that he was having trouble adjusting from his school league to the Majors. But who was he to let a woman one-up him that much? “Not everyone can be as skilled as Schang..” He ends up conceding, deciding to focus his attention on the way your shoulders look under your blouse. That was one perk of the job. “Say, so you think that we could discuss Schang’s greatness a bit more at Sears?”

“That is exactly what I was saying,” You reply, thinking that Calvin had reached some sense in his head. You do not even notice the hidden meaning of his words. You sigh as you go back to writing your article, being greeted with the Courier font before you hear the clearing of your throat.

“I do not believe I appreciate you staring at my woman that way.” A voice says from in front of you and your eyes furrow.  A bouquet of roses blocks your view of the man who spoke and you frown. You certainly were not anyone’s woman but your own.

Calvin scoffs in reply as he stands up straight to meet the gaze of the taller man. He almost feels intimidated, observing the tweed suit that the unfamiliar man wears and how deep the timbre of his voice is. “I did not know that she was taken.”

“Well now you do.” The voice quips with a slight scoff before the owner of the voice kneels in front of you to place the bouquet of flowers into your arms. “My doll.. Mon chéri, my Y/N… I have missed you so.” He purrs into your ear while sending daggers to Cavin. You immediately recognize that purr from anywhere and you know that it is none other than the silver-haired man from the bar… well, now the black-haired man at the bar.

“I am not taken.” You deadpan before unwrapping Taehyung’s arms from your body before standing up. Your blood runs cold that he has managed to know where your job is… Well, it was not very hard for him, considering that it was the only other address that your roommates, Elizabeth and Margot, had given him. “Please leave.”

Taehyung forces a tight-lipped smile as he notices Calvin’s lingering interest before pulling you into a tight embrace. His chest is warm and welcoming despite his intimidating aura. He pulls you between the small aisle and places a soft kiss to your forehead before whispering softly into your ear, “Would you rather waste your time with bluenose* over here or would you like to get information on that Bangtan Rouge place you’ve been scoping?” His voice is low enough so that only you could hear it and your heart skips a beat at how close he holds you. “You’re not a damsel in distress, but some of them won’t take a hint.”

You hate how well he reasons with you, but you concede with the agreement that he will give you the information that you want. “It sure is the berries*.” You murmur as you pull away from him and force a smile. “Can we talk about this in private?”

“I thought you would never ask, baby.” Taehyung absorbs himself all too quickly into the role as your quarreling lover and passes you the flowers before sending one last glare to Calvin like any self-respecting actor would before grabbing your jacket and placing it onto your shoulders. “Let’s go.”

The atmosphere is tense as Taehyung immediately sits in the corner of the Sears and Roebuck with your memo pad still burning a hole in his pocket. He is smirking at you as though you hold the key to all of his problems, and quite frankly, you do. The elder members of the group had been ridiculing him from letting you get away in the first place when he had the largest window of opportunity of bumping you off*.

“You promised to tell me about Bangtan Rouge.” You grumble after you have taken three half-hearted bites into your club sandwich. It was unsettling that Taehyung had paid for you when you knew that you were a fully autonomous woman. Sure, it was 1924, but you would be damned by letting this man upend your life without lifting a snap of his figure.

Taehyung smirks, his red lips contouring into the perfect arch to display his amusement. “I did promise to tell you about Bangtan Rouge, but I think that it is necessary that you tell me first what you know. Would it not be a drag if I just rattled off everything that I know?”

“I think you are pulling my leg here.” You retort with another bite of your sandwich. You glance out to the window, noticing the way that the school children begin to file their way in, immediately running to the candy machines to deposit nickels and dimes to attain sugary euphoria. You wish that Taehyung was that easy to satisfy. “Why would we beat around the bush? I am well aware that you came here to ask me what I know, and the truth is, I know nothing.”

Taehyung scoffs as he leans back into the faux leather suits. He looks like a million dollars, seemingly out of place in the small time diner. You notice how his eyes soften at the sight of the kids playing so happily and you almost forget that he is a complete stranger to you who quite possibly has your very existence’s timeline in his hands. “Then you would not mind telling that to my Boss.”

“Your Boss?” You nearly scoff in reply at the idea of meeting someone who one openly referred to as ‘Boss’. That was the classic signature for mafia talk. The very last person that you wished to meet was Boss.

Taehyung smirks before he eyes your sandwich and slides the small ceramic plate in front of him to take an eager bite before letting his arm relax on the back arm rest. “Yes. Don’t worry, we have no intentions of making you a moll*.”  

“Moll?” You yelp in surprise before Taehyung leans forward to cover your mouth with his hand to silence you. The very idea of being called one shook you to your core and you could not even fathom such things. “I am not and nor will I ever--”

Taehyung finds it amusing to see you freak out in such a way. To put it simply, he thought of you as the cat’s meow. He did not know many women who were not as entangled in life in the underground as you, but he did know a self-respecting girl when he saw one. It was not to say that he did not respect the women he often frequented with, but it was less prominent than how he felt it with you. “You’re a regular sheba*, you know?” He replies with a small grin as his brows wiggle suggestively at the way you eagerly drink your milkshake. “It’s a shame that you witnessed such things. Though, I’ve always wanted a girl with a deadline.”

“I am not that girl.” You retort as you force yourself to look away from Taehyung and his evident prowess. Something about him was overwhelming, and you are unsure if it is his attractiveness or his level of conceitedness.  “I am only a girl who wants to be the head editor and bring back the Times to where it should be. If you are not going to give me the information that I desire or patronize me, do not waste my time.” You reply before putting down your milkshake and forking out a couple bills onto the table.

Taehyung chokes on the sandwich at the sudden statement, “I beg your pardon?”

“I do not know who you are, nor what you are capable of… but I will not let that deter me.” You reply adamantly before you swallow your courage and force yourself to walk around the booth and kneel over him. “All my life, men have tried telling me what to do, when to get married, who to marry, how many children I should have, and practically dictate my entire life without my say in it. You will not be one of those men.”

And Taehyung sits there, utterly gobsmacked and surprised that you had the courage to speak to him that way when your fate is dictated by a mere tug of a string from his hands. Yet, he finds himself all the more intrigued in you. It is almost instantaneous, as he watches you leave the Sears and Roebuck and cross the street fiercely through the crowd of businessman and schoolchildren. He almost thinks you look like something off a silver screen, a modern-day woman. And if he did not realize it before, he definitely knows that he will not let you go anywhere now.

The rest of your day remains uneventful as you go through the motions of listening out the latest statistics of the New York Yankees in your all-too familiar best friend of Courier Font until the lights outside have begun to grow dark. You are left even more unsatisfied as you hear the dewdrops crash against the glass window, distorting your margins and forcing you to groan when you have to start over every so often because of your perfectionist tendencies. You curse yourself, knowing that you would have to run to the subway to try to avoid getting pneumonia, much less in the dark.  You had been warned many times about leaving so late, especially alone, but you were a strong woman. A couple years in Chicago had taught you what it meant to grow tough after leaving your original small town.

Though, you are more surprised to find someone waiting for you when you leave the building with a dimpled smile and an umbrella in his hands. You do not recognize him from anywhere, but you can not help but grow weary as you think back to Taehyung’s statement of you needing to meet his boss. Had this been him?

“Y/N L/N?” His voice is softer than you expect, matching the gentle tone of his voice as his deep brown eyes meet yours. You immediately wreck your brain to try to remember him seeing from before but draw nothing.

You swallow hard before nodding slowly. “That would be me, but who is asking?” You ask, a bit nervous to hear his reply.

“Someone who you will be knowing well in the future.” He says with a soft chuckle, as though he has told you the most charming joke in the world before he hands you a small, beige packaged envelope and the umbrella. “I believe this is something that belongs to you, but I have conditions. Review them and get back to me in three days if you want it to be worth your while.”

You do not even have to open it to know what is inside as you awkwardly hold the umbrella in your hand. You are no longer the one being drenched in water, but now it is him, standing six feet tall with his beige trench coat. He looks like he stepped out of a silver screen film. “I do not wish to have any part in this.”

“It is not a choice.” He replies with a smirk on his face before shaking his head. His voice is sweet like velvet, sickeningly sweet to the point where you question if it is stable to have such thoughts cross your mind. “Do you think that we chose this? It chooses you.. And, you, my lovely butterfly, are our latest addition.”

And that was the last words he spoke to you before climbing into his car and disappearing into the night. You almost wish that you would have been alone until you open up the envelope slowly to look into its contents - your lovely monogrammed memopad with a single note attached to it.

Even angels come down to play with demons at times.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1920s Decade Specific Terms:

Bluenose - prude

Berries - something that is attractive of pleasing

To bump off - to murder

Moll - a gangster’s girl

Sheba - a woman with sex appeal

- - - - - - - -

Don’t be a silent reader! Feel free to send your reactions! :) 

#Jungkook fluff #Jungkook angst #Jungkook smut #Jimin fluff #Jimin angst #Jimin smut #Taehyung fluff #taehyung angst #Taehyung smut #Hoseok fluff #Hoseok angast #Hoseok smut #Hoseok angst #Namjoon fluff #Namjoon angst #Yoongi fluff #Yoongi angst #Yoongi smut #Seokjin fluff #Seokjin aganst #Seokjin smut #bangtan x reader #jungkook x reader #taehyung x reader #jimin x reader #hoseok x reader #namjoon x reader #yoongi x reader #seokjin x reader #1920s!au

[daringyounggrayson]

Fate

@birdflashnetwork

DickWally Week 2019 Day 7 Prompt: Soulmates (AO3)

Dick is nine. He loves gymnastics, video games, milkshakes, and being Robin. He loves helping Bruce patrol the streets of Gotham, even if he’s not allowed to get too close just yet. Still, he gets to help—and he does. He’s making Gotham a better place, and it feels good. Right.

He goes to school and he loves getting good grades and showing them to Bruce, who gets this small look of pride in his eyes every time. He’s come to love living at the manor, too, and he loves this new family he’s created inside of it. He loves his friends and the place he’s carved for himself.

He still misses his parents and always will because sometimes, he’s learned, loving hurts. But it’s worth it, Bruce tells him, so he keeps loving. He has a big heart and he’s going to use it. His heart bleeds and feels and loves, and so even when it stings, he’ll keep looking for the good moments.

Gotham loves Robin back. Other kids look up to him; he makes them feel like they have a voice and that they can be an active agent in their lives and community. He makes them feel safe while making the bad guys feel scared. He doesn’t know how he feels about that last bit, or why exactly he’s scary (Bruce tells him it’s because he’s an unexpected enigma; too young and too good), but it does the job whatever it is. They underestimate him, and the fact that he’s a kid makes a few of them go easy on him. But not enough of them, Bruce says, and Dick can’t expect that they’ll continue to do that once Robin starts being seen as less of some kid and more as Batman’s partner.

The hero community doesn’t like Robin, but neither did Batman at first (still doesn’t, Dick knows, especially on nights that go bad). Robin’s going to change their minds, though. He’ll prove that he’s needed. They just don’t understand, but they will.

And soon enough, they do. Mostly. Other kids, other heroes, start popping up. Dick is going to meet them at the next Justice League meeting. Bruce isn’t happy about it, not sure what to expect, but Dick can’t wait.

Except, he never gets to go. 

One night, he goes on patrol and never comes home. He wakes up in a room with Two-Face, Batman and the kidnapped Judge Watkins standing on a platform with nooses around their necks. One coin-flip later—one stupid mistake later—and he’s being beaten to a pulp. It hurts so much more than he thought it would and it’s so much scarier than he ever could’ve imagined, and every second that passes makes him realize that there’s no getting out of this. He realizes all of those people were right: he had no place playing hero. He was too young, too inexperienced. He was a kid, now he’s dead.

There was a whole life planned out for him—a happy, full life. He was going to love and get hurt and love again. He was going to find his soulmate and go through the rest of his life with them, leaning off of each other the whole way. He was supposed to make it out happy. Instead, he died before he even got to think about meeting his soulmate.

And his soulmate felt it. The night Dick Grayson died, Wally West was plagued with nightmares and a feeling of loneliness and loss. His parents would blame his mood for the following week on hormones and nervousness over an upcoming test, but those things had nothing to do with it.

Wally West will spend his teen years feeling like something is missing. He’ll still play hero, and he’ll still try to love, but none of it will feel right and none of it will last. Because while some people have more than one soulmate, Wally West isn’t one of them. Fate had plans to bring him and Dick Grayson together, but something got in the way. Something happened that shouldn’t have and Fate is going to change that.

Dick Grayson doesn’t go to the afterlife. No, his soul is trapped. It stays right next to Fate and watches over Wally West, the beautiful stranger who he looks at and feels an unexplainable yet aching longing for. Because even though Dick doesn’t know Wally, the bare souls do know each other, and not being able to reach out and be close to one another is torment. For the longest time, Dick Grayson thinks he’s in hell.

But one day, a miracle happens: Wally West dies and it’s somehow the best day of Dick Grayson’s life. They meet and there’s this magnetic energy and light and home. They never part, their souls unite and Fate’s job should be done.

Except it’s not. Because while this Fate’s job was to unite the two souls, the two of them were supposed to be on earth. They had work to do together, work that couldn’t be completed in the in-between.

Luckily, Fate had thought of that already. Wally West was in an accident that gave him powers, powers that would later trap his soul in the Speed Force upon his supposed death. Fate and Dick were waiting—watching—in that same force, the place Dick had called the in-between. And maybe that description was still accurate, because he and Wally stay there for a while, running and clinging, seemingly stuck somewhere between realms.

When Wally runs out, he brings them both back.

The timeline will snap back and repair itself soon enough, but there’s a delay. Wally West is back in a twenty-one-year-old body and Dick’s aged, tormented soul in a nine-year-old body. Bruce recognizes the boy immediately, and Dick clings to him. He doesn’t know what happens as his body goes translucent. Bruce is loud and pleading, not even asking questions, just begging for another second with his kid. But time moves around them and Dick becomes solid again, back on that floor from a decade ago. Dying. Except this time, Bruce is holding him—probably then too, but Dick didn’t know it; fresh death was too overwhelming. Bruce gathers him up tightly and starts running, just like Wally had done in the in-between.

This time, Bruce gets him to a doctor in time with the help of Fate. This time, Dick survives. This time, Dick (eventually) meets Wally.

They meet and bond and fall in love and cling. Their souls unite, and Fate’s job is finally, truly complete.

#dickwallyweek2019 #young justice #dick grayson #wally west #robin #kid flash #dickwally #birdflash #elizabeth writes

[mistressoffishnets]

Incomplete

Characters: Zatanna Zatara, Dick Grayson Rating: T for minor sexual content Length: ~2,700 words Prompt: “ No one is supposed to know where he is, save for Batman. So when she shows up at his door looking like a breath of fresh air he's a little more than stunned. (And as much as he wants to, he can't ignore the way his heart beats just a little bit faster in his chest at the sight of her.) ” Notes: largely inspired by “Incomplete” by James Bay. 

He hasn't seen her since that day; the day that haunts him relentlessly. Actually he hasn't really seen anyone, and he knows it isn't for their lack of trying to get in touch with him. He told Kaldur that he needed a break and it was true. It's just that no one thought he also meant a break from them too.

He's been off the grid for a few weeks - took a year sabbatical from the Bludhaven PD, shacked up in a new apartment in Seattle, and has been fighting the good fight on his own. He's made sure to keep out of the public eye as both Dick Grayson, the famous ward of Bruce Wayne, and Nightwing. Though he hasn't donned that suit since he saw Wally pass on his. When he catches a glimpse of the blue and black in the back of his closet one morning, he thinks about loyalty. If Kid Flash couldn't fight, Nightwing wouldn't either. It was time for something new.

No one is supposed to know where he is, save for Batman. And he really only told him because, let's face it, he totally would have found out eventually. Nothing gets past the world's greatest detective. So when she shows up at his door looking like a breath of fresh air he's a little more than stunned. (And as much as he wants to, he can't ignore the way his heart beats just a little bit faster in his chest at the sight of her.)

Zatanna has one hand on the door frame, leaning against it with her arm holding her up and the other perched on her hip. A small smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes crosses her lips as she takes in his surprised expression and confused eyes. "Found you." It reminds him of simpler times of hide and seek.

His mouth must hang open because he feels himself close it and swallow hard. "How did-"

"How do you think?" She opens one palm face up in front of her and a few sparks fly from the center. He should have known she'd find him. But then again, he can't say he's not glad she did. Or that he didn't hope she would eventually. He'd rather see her than anyone else.

She steps into the apartment when he doesn't say anything and instantly notices how bare it is. It's a studio, so it's basically a square with a corner reserved for the kitchen area and the living room doubling as a bedroom with his bed where the couch should be. There's two doors which she assumes is one to a linen closet and the other the bathroom, but other than that, the whole of his living quarters is there before her eyes. Dick's always been a neat person; he thinks it's because it's nice to have control of this one thing at least, even when everything else around him is falling apart. But the state of his apartment isn't just uncluttered - it's desolate. Save for the open closet with a few garments hanging inside and a stray water bottle sitting on the nightstand, no one would know there was actually someone living here.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wonders if he keeps it this way out of habit or to make it easier to leave it all behind. Probably both.

He notices her staring and the clicking of the door as he closes it behind her breaks her of out of her reverie. Sitting herself on a bar stool that faces him, she doesn't need to verbalize what she's thinking because her eyes say it all. With a halfhearted shrug, he replies, "I'm okay."

The truth is, though, he's anything but. Ever since Wally died, he's been running himself ragged. If he stops moving, even just for a moment, he feels like he's reliving the moment Barry broke the news to him, and he gets the wind knocked out of him all over again. It's been days since he's had a decent amount of sleep and it shows under his eyes. He's so tired, but the nightmares are worse than ever so he gets just enough to keep him functioning and focused to where he doesn't die while fighting when he's patrolling. But his lack of sleep also means his sparring is just sloppy enough that when he does get injured they're the worst he's ever had. And the nights when he just can't stay awake anymore and lets himself drift off, he regrets it immediately.

It's his own version of A Nightmare On Elm Street, except Freddy Krueger is an all-too-familiar, speedy redhead who doesn't pull off the hat even a little bit.

Zatanna can see right through him though, the way that she's always been able to, and he knows it. She worries her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment before, "You're not responsible for Wally's death, Dick." And she knows he's heard it all before, but maybe if they're persistent, he'll start to believe it.

"Aren't I?" She doesn't flinch at his wry tone that accompanies his serious expression. She knows how hard he's been taking the loss of his best friend, but what she sees more than others - what she understands from losing her own father as a consequence of her decisions - is how much he's blaming himself for it.

He walks over to the refrigerator, and grabs the water pitcher before pouring her a glass. Wally is never far from his mind, but right now he doesn't know if he can take it after his most recent nightmare, scarier and more real than any of the others. He sets the tumbler in front of her on the bar before turning his back to her and facing the counter. If she can't see his face, she can't see just how scared he is.

"They were happy, Zee. They were content without the Life, and I pulled them back in."

"They chose to-"

"But would they have if I hadn't offered? If I hadn't dangled the fate of the world in front of her eyes, would Artemis have come back? If I hadn't pulled her into our scheme, would Wally have put on the red and yellow again?"

Saying his questions out loud is almost cathartic. It's like maybe with them out in the open air he'll finally get some answers.

Zatanna's lips form into a thin line and her forehead creases in concern as she watches Dick's shoulders sink and bow under the weight of too many years of loss and misplaced blame. He's drowning. She tries softly, "You know he would have. We all know that once he saw the Reach trying to take over the world, he'd be right there fighting with us."

"Maybe not."

She wants to slap him. She wants to wake him up and make him see just how irrational he's being. She wants to end this "pity party" of his because it's helping no one, especially not himself. But she knows this grief, she's lived through it, and when she was drowning in her own guilt he was there to throw her a rope. She loves him too much to watch him plunge deeper under the waves.

"Wally would want you to come back," she says firmly.

And it's like he's already rehearsed every possible reason for him not to because he says without hesitance, "I need a break. I need to grieve."

She knows he does. And she should respect his wishes because everyone heals in their own ways and in their own time. But she also knows him, and he won't stop until he's forgotten everyone he left behind. Or until he's run himself into the ground trying.

"But you're not grieving, Dick. You're running away from it." With a sigh, she tries one last time in vain to make him see sense. "If you really believe you're responsible for his death, then you owe it to him to keep fighting. You owe it to him to believe that it wasn't your fault."

He has half a mind to laugh because what she's saying is a Catch-22 and doesn't make any sense at all. But the heavy tension surrounding them feels suffocating so he stays silent and stoic, like the bat he never wanted to become.

"Zatanna," he warns lowly, his fists clenching at his sides because he can feel his heart start to pound and he knows what's coming. He's at the edge.

"Come home, Dick."

She knows she's pushed him too far when his fists slam down on the counter, clenched with white knuckles. She's still staring at his back and can almost see the tension and stress physically spreading through him, muscles rippling like waves after a storm. "No! I can't." His voice cracks at this and gives out, holding back the urge to scream. His eyes burn with weeks of unshed tears and for the first time since Wally's funeral, they break through the dam and flow freely.

His knees wobble and he feels like he's about to fall, thankful for his grip on the counter to keep him afloat. But before he knows it, Zatanna's squeezing herself between him and the counter, pressing herself against him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders pulling him close; she's always been his lifesaver. He has to hunch a little because he's grown just a bit taller than her (even in her heels) but he clutches her to him and buries his face in her shoulder, body wracked with sobs. His hands fist the back of her shirt, using her as an anchor, too afraid to let go, for fear of another person he loves drifting off without him.

His hair is a bit shaggy and longer than he's used to wearing it and it feels nice when she runs a hand through it soothingly, massaging his scalp. When he feels his neck become damp, he realizes idly that she's crying too. Her scent of lavender invades his nostrils and grounds him to this moment; to her.

She lets him get it all out and after a while the tears start to subside and he feels tired. He pulls back a bit hesitantly, noticing how the shoulder of her blouse is drenched and thinking to himself that if she wants, she can throw it in the dryer. She pulls back as well and looks at him with tears in her own eyes and a sadness he can't quite place. He thinks about when she lost her father and how much it hurt to see her hurt. He wonders if she feels the same looking at him now. His hands are on her hips, his thumb rubbing against the fabric of her shirt soothingly back and forth like if he does it long enough it'll smooth out the pain in his chest.

Some tears still linger on his eyelashes and he blinks so that they run down his cheeks but they're caught on her thumbs as she wipes them away, hands on either side of his face. And the beating of his heart starts to increase again.

Blue eyes he realizes he's missed all along stare back into his own and he can't ignore the pang of longing he feels for things to go back to the way they used to be. With barbecues and lingering stares and that mischievous smirk that always, always got them into trouble. With the red and yellow by his side, infinitely snacking.

He closes his lids and breaks the contact of blue against blue because staring into her eyes too deeply and being reminded of simpler, happier times hurts too much. Letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, he leans forward a little until his forehead rests against hers. He can feel her breath against his face, a bit shaky. He wonders if she feels what he does.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he tries to remember why they broke up in the first place, but stops himself before he can. Instead, he catches her lips with his own and swears a part of him he'd forgotten a long time ago comes back to life. For the first time in weeks, he feels okay. For the first time since he lost his best friend, he feels alive. The kiss is slow and hesitant and nothing like their first that New Year's Eve a million years ago.

For a moment, as he pulls away, eyes still closed, too afraid to face her stare, he wonders if he made a mistake. But she understands him, as always - understands just how much he needs someone to pull him out of the freezing waters; understands just how much he'd missed her warm touch (and she his)- because she leans in and kisses him this time, threads her fingers through his hair and pulls him closer.

His head is swimming and his heart pounds against his ribs, because it isn't just Wally's death that's left Dick feeling empty, but the absence of his first love burrowed deep in his bones for a long while. They'd learned to be incomplete without each other but now with her in his arms, he wonders if he'll ever be able to go back. They'd broken up because it was the right thing to do. But he wonders sometimes if she regrets it as much as he does.

Laying in bed post coital with her head on his chest and his fingers running through her loose curls, she reveals that yes, she does. He hums against her hair as she runs her fingers over his bare chest but neither of them bring up changing their relationship status to something more than good friends. For reasons he'd rather not get into and as much as they love each other, they both know it would never work. She squeals a bit as he rolls them over, pinning her underneath him with his one hand guiding her legs to wrap around his waist and his other clutching her hand above her head. He decides that he'll take what he can get and prolongs his descent back into madness by slowly building up her peak.

Cuddled with his arm over her waist and her back pressed against his chest, he's pretty sure he murmurs an "I love you" as he finally lets himself be pulled under the waves. And he might have just been dreaming it, but he's pretty sure she said it back.

He doesn't get the chance to ask her, though, because he wakes up to an empty bed and can't help the disappointment that pulls at his heartstrings. Her scent still lingers on his sheets and pillows and he lets himself sleep in longer, holding onto what she's left behind for as long as possible. He chuckles wryly to himself. She succeeded in getting his mind off the loss of a certain redhead, but it's only replaced with the absence of her. As he finally resigns to getting up, he notices just how awake he feels.

His duffel is packed by mid-afternoon, any trace of Dick Grayson wiped clean from the city. Hoisting it onto his shoulder, he turns to give his most recent living quarters a curt nod before turning the lock a final time and heading out into the world he'd tried so hard to hide from. He presses speed dial on his cell and holds it to his ear, anxiously waiting for the receiver to click and for someone to answer.

"Hey, it's me. I'm coming home."

#young justice #yj #yjo #young justice outsiders #zatanna zatara #zatanna #dick grayson #chalant #nightwing #here is a fic for you all during my hiatus!

[killervibe]

Distracted 😉🤦🏼‍♀️

Here’s 3k of Killervibe, West-Allen and fluff 

“Hey, what was it that you saw?” Iris asked him as soon as Cisco got to the Cortex.

He shifted his weight, adjusting his daughter so she could continue snoozing with her cheek pressed against his shoulder as he followed Iris to the monitors.

“It was chaos, like, cars piling up and then this giant thing,” Cisco rambled, trying to remember the bits and pieces. “It was green.”

“No location? Nobody you know?”

“No!” Cisco exclaimed. “Nada. I just know it happens tonight.”

Iris flips on a switch for the coms in Barry’s suit. “Bear, you got that?”

“Yeah. I’m going up the North side, Wally the South.”

“Ugh.”

Ralph swung in his seat lazily, removing his eye mask. “I guess we just wait then.”

Cisco walked out to grab his gear just in case they needed to be on the go. He had to sling his jacket over his shoulder, then bent down to get his shoes very carefully as to not jolt the sleeping beauty. He hooked his fingers into the curve of his sneakers then straightened himself back up, and went back to where the rest were.

“And then she told me she felt like I wasn’t reaching my best potential, you know? So I had to try—“

Cisco dumped his stuff on the table, then glanced at the screens again. “Really. Nothing?”

Iris and Ralph shook their heads.

“Cisco,” Iris said, gesturing a bit wildly, like she was desperate for his help. “You’d say Ralph is an excellent detective, right?” Iris sent him a rather pleading look.

Cisco turned to Ralph who was looking kinda glum. “Oh. Sure, I always liked you better than Sherloque. You knew that.”

Ralph made a deep sigh. “My In-Laws don’t agree.”

“Oh,” Cisco said again, rolling his eyes. “In-Laws. Lord. I know.”

“I don’t have any,” Iris said.

There was an awkward silence.

Cisco and Ralph shared a look.

Iris cleared her throat, and returned to watch Barry and Wally run around.

“Listen, you just gotta tell them what they wanna hear, ‘Yes, Dr. T I’ll consider investing in that company, and maybe next year I’ll get my eyes laser corrected, thanks’, and it gets you off their backs until the next time.”

“Actually that sounds pretty decent,” Ralph thanked, then got up to jot that down. He stretched his hand across the room for his pen and Ralph’s Book on Marriage.

“Where’s Caitlin?” Iris asked eventually after more tense silence. It was never fun waiting for danger, especially when they had no idea what they were in for. Team Flash loved their jobs, they did, and none of them saw permanently retiring anytime soon, but now that they were all settled down, with wives and husbands and children, they had to become exceedingly more careful.

“Pharmacy,” Cisco said, knowing his voice was one inflection away from dreamy. He had a particularly bad case of love drunk he hadn’t seem to have shaken since they found out Caitlin was pregnant again. “She needed to refill her prenatal vitamin prescription. She should be back soon.”

Iris looked up, catching his eye, softening at Cisco’s hand tracing soothing patterns along Amalia’s back. “You two are excited, huh?”

Cisco smiled into his daughter’s hair. “Thrilled.”

“You think baby two will be a breacher like Amalia?”

He settled into his chair and rolled his neck over the back of the leather, closing his eyes and let out a drawn out groan.

Cisco loved his daughter and that she had his powers like nothing else in the entire world, but it was exhausting to take care of a metachild who could more or less teleport. The amount of involuntary hide-and-seek and tag Cisco and Caitlin have to play with Amalia hopping into baby breaches around the house is insane. And he doubted it was stopping anytime soon.

Cisco wasn’t sure he could go through that all over again. “Honestly, I don’t even have the energy to think about it. We’ll worry about that when we get there. We need a vacation. We’re already swamped and Caitlin isn’t even in her second trimester.”

“We’d love to take Amalia if you two would like some time off alone,” Iris offered. Cisco tightened his hold on his little girl, feeling stupidly protective.

Amalia, Nora and Don got together like three peas in a pod, all roughly around the same age of three and a half, but Cisco didn’t want to exchange his daughter for a vacation.

“Thanks Iris, but I think we were thinking more like a family getaway.”

“Oooh,” Ralph goes. “Niagara Falls is a good one. They’ve got this crazy log cabin in Canada called Great Wolf Lodge with a giant arcade room and jumbotron animatic animals who talk and sing to children.”

Ralph pauses to look up from Ralph’s Book of Marriage when he was met with silence. He huffed. “I promise it’s not as creepy as it sounds.”  

Cisco tapped against his black leather Vibe pants, thinking.

Iris pulled up an article one of her junior staffers wrote for the homestyle section of the Central City Citizen. “What about Disney World?”

Cisco perked up. “Disney?”

“—GUYS? Are you still there?”

Iris minimized the tab, rolling across the desk back to the monitors. “Just a minute, honey.”

She rolled back, clicking on the article.

“You don’t have to go to California or Florida. There’s also one in France. That seems pretty cool.”

Some cackling came on over the coms.

“Are you guys talking about Disney World?”

Ralph saved iris the trip and flicked on the speaker.

“Yeah. We’re talking vacays. Don’t you think Cisco and Caitlin should go?”

Some wind cut the mic, but then it went still, the woosh of Barry speeding around disappearing. He must’ve stopped.

“I don’t know,” Barry’s voice cut in, giving his two cents. “I think Amalia is too young and it’s kinda pathetic when you can’t go on the rides because of pregnancy. I’d wait a couple more years. Ugh, and the lines.“

Ralph nodded. “Good point.”

“We should all go when our kids are older!” Barry suggested, sounding excited. “Four years from now maybe, when this new baby is no longer too young. 2028?”

They all hummed in agreement, as if they could truly make such a ridiculous plan so far off in the future.

“Whoops. Sorry, gotta check something,” Barry’s line disconnected, but they were all too distracted to pay much attention.

Amalia started to stir.

Cisco checked on her as she grumbled, flexing her curled fingers into Cisco’s skin.

“Hi baby,” he whispered, sitting her upright on his lap. “Good sleep?”

Amalia frowned adorably, taking in her surroundings. She reached up for Cisco’s hair, taking a fistful and yanked.

“Hey now,” he said, jerking his head away and shooting Ralph a half-hearted glare for laughing at him. Cisco grimaced when she smacked her hand over his face.

“She’s being very grabby recently,” he tried to explain, but in all honestly it wasn’t necessary.

He diverted his attention back to her, gently prying her hands off his face.

“Hey mini me. You good?”

She nodded, sucking her thumb. Caitlin tended to give herself an aneurysm trying to stop Amalia’s bad habit, but Cisco didn’t really bother.

“Hey Miss Lia,” Iris cooed, coming over to say hello. She stroked her soft hand. “Is Auntie Iris getting a hi?”

Amalia turned her head, burying her face back into Cisco’s neck.

“Ouch,” said Ralph.

“She’s a grumpy sleepy.” Cisco shrugged. “Don’t take it personally.”

Iris crossed her hands over her chest, pursing her lips. “Mmhmm. I think it just means she needs more toys to remember who’s her favourite aunt.”

“Sue’s her favourite,” Ralph said with pride.

Iris glowered.

Cisco bit his tongue, not wanting to get in the middle of this.

He stood up again and walked around the Cortex, bouncing Amalia a little to wake her up. Amalia’s hair was all mussed, her bangs falling over her eyes, so he gently swept them away, zoning out from the conversation as he focused on being in Daddy mode until—

“I think Sue and I are going to adopt a pig.”

“A pig?”

Amalia immediately burst into giggles, making oinking sounds.

Cisco stared up at the ceiling.

“—Why?” Iris shrilled.

“Okay, first of all, Mrs. West-Allen, I do not appreciate that tone. It’s a thing. Pigs make great additions to a family. Pigs are the new babies.”

“Oink oink oink!”

“And,” Ralph continued stubbornly, “They are very intelligent. You should consider it, Cisco.”

Cisco looked at Amalia, who was very well versed in farm animal noises, which last month he was very proud of but today may get on his very last nerve.

“I’m fine with my baby, thank you.”

Amalia only intensified her pig snorts.

“Is this your idea, or Sue’s idea…?” Iris asked, leaning against the desk with a very amused if not slightly mystified expression on her face.

“Oh it’s my idea but I’m sure Sue would be game. She’s a free spirited woman. I’m sure she’d love a hog.”

“A hog?” Iris repeated faintly.

“A piggie!” Amalia shrieked, beside herself with excitement.

“Yes Amalia!!!” Ralph banged his fist on the table, pumped at his little cheerleader. Amalia only screamed louder, the two egging each other on. Ralph pointed at Cisco. “This kid is going places!”

“Oink! Oink! Oink!”

Cisco and Iris shared a long glance.

“…Uh huh.”

Cisco grimaced at a particularly loud Oink! and held his squirming child out an arm away, trying to set her down. “Okay, Amalia, sweetheart, you’re shrieking in Daddy’s ear.”

She struggled, very opposed to being put down, and climbed up his Vibe pants desperately, digging her nails in trying to latch on, whining when her little socks touched the floor.

Cisco sighed, scooping her back up, feeling a lot like a mother kangaroo. He needed a pouch or something.

“I want a piggie!! I want a piggie like Uncle Ralph!!!”

“You do, huh?”

“I want a piggie!!!!”

Cisco rubbed at his temples with his free hand. “Ralph doesn’t have a pig,” he reasoned.

“—Not yet.”

“I wanna piggie!”

Cisco yanked off Amalia’s right sock, and flung it on the ground in the direction of her little playmat with her abandoned Duplos, tickling her baby toes. “You already have piggies!”

She squealed, wiggling as he played with her, hoping it would divert Amalia’s attention away from demanding a pet that would give her mother a heart attack. Iris stifled her laughter behind her hand watching them two.

Amalia finally wanted to get down, so Cisco let her go and she went running for Ralph.

Ralph met her halfway to him, stretching his arms out to snatch her and pull her onto his lap to chant about pigs as Cisco and Iris slowly backed away—Cisco needing an aspirin—Iris, coffee.

“Hey,” Iris said, “Remind me that I need to leave in fifteen minutes to pick up the twins from my dad’s. Do you think you could breach me there?

“No problem. Think the emergency won’t pop up by then?”

“Probably not,” Iris admitted. “Hmm. Maybe I should call my dad and ask if he could keep Nora and Don overnight.”

They bumped into Caitlin, who had a plastic pharmacy bag twisting from her grip in one hand, and her phone in the other. She was staring down at the device with growing distress, quickening her pace, unaware that they were down the hall.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Cisco said, breaking into a jog to meet up with her. She stopped abruptly when Cisco cupped her face.

Expecting one of her soft glowing smiles, he was very surprised to see her frown deepen, shoving her phone in his face.

“Have you seen the news!?”

“…The news?”

“Barry was kidnapped! Chaos! Pandemonium! All tech was shut down, it was like a Kilg%re 2.0. It caused a pile-up downtown, I was stuck in traffic for a good half hour. Why haven’t you done anything!?”

Iris swore under her breath, grabbing Caitlin’s phone, and sprinted back to the Cortex.

“Are you okay?” Cisco asked automatically. Of course, if the city was in danger he was going to help, but his wife and her safety will always be his number one priority.

Caitlin nodded, leaning into his touch, and he removed his hand from her cheek, to run down her shoulder and arm, then placed them over her stretchy cotton shirt. She was just starting to show.

“You look so beautiful.”

Caitlin put her hand over his on her stomach, her worry disappearing from face as she sighed. “Yeah? I’m finally feeling better. I think the morning sickness is gone for good.”

He leaned forward, lifting her chin to give her a featherlight kiss. She smiled against his lips and wrapped her arms around his neck. The plastic bag with her pills shaking behind him. He pressed their foreheads together. 

“Good trip?” he asked.

“Yes. Where’s the little one?”

Cisco chuckled. “In the Cortex with Ralph. Putting on an excellent rendition of Peppa the Pig. That’s banned now, by the way,” he joked lightly.

Caitlin pulled backwards. “What now?”

He grabbed his wife’s hand and tugged her along, telling her she’ll see soon enough.

Amalia noticed as soon as her mommy was there, ditching Ralph to run into her arms. “Mommy listen! Oink!”

“Wow,” Caitlin praised, her voice sweet like syrup. “Did you and Daddy go to a farm?”

“No!” she giggled. She lifted her arms up and Caitlin sighed, putting down her purse and plastic bag to take her daughter.

Cisco went to join Iris, who was desperately trying to reactivate the suit signals. Cisco scooted her out of the chair, flexing his fingers to take over.

“Should we be opening a breach and just go on? Doesn’t Barry need us?” Ralph asked.

“Mama, I want a piggie!”

Cisco was trying to outhack the virus, but paused enough to lift his eyebrows, filling his wife in. “Ralph wants to adopt a pig and apparently now so does our daughter.”

Caitlin laughed, and pulled off her left sock. “You already have piggies!” She tickled her toes as Amalia shrilled.

“Been there. Done that,” Cisco commented dryly. “Hey, what are your opinions on theme park vacations? Barry says Disney World is fun but are you up for that?”

“Mama, can I have a piggie?”

“Um,” Caitlin shot Cisco a helpless look. Cisco made a noise of equal exasperation as he hooked back half of Central City online.

“I can’t give you a piggie, love, but what about a baby brother or sister? And Cisco—I don’t know, theme parks are a drag when pregnant. My feet will hurt from all the walking.”

“Where is Barry!?”

Amalia considered Caitlin’s proposition, but alas, no.

“Piggie!! Piggie!! Piggie!!”

“Yeah that’s what Ralph said. What about a beach? Also they have Disney cruises!” Cisco hummed as his fingers flied over his keyboard, then smacked the counter. “Done. We’re online.”

“Oh! That sounds nice!”

Iris stood in the middle of the cortex, about to pull out her hair. “Is anyone going to help me find my husband!?!!”

Yellow lightning lit up the room as Wally wooshed in with a disorientated Flash.

“Barry!” Iris exclaimed, running to him as he stumbled.

Wally panted, putting his hands on his knees. “Thanks a lot guys.”

“Oh,” Ralph said dumbly. “We forgot about you.”

“You don’t think I noticed that,” Wally snarked back. 

He flicked on the TV. Every single channel Wally flipped to as he channel-serfed was showcasing breaking news of Kid Flash basking in glory and saving the day.

“How did you not notice our coms went down?” Barry asked, wincing when Iris gave him a bone crushing hug.

Caitlin put down Amalia to check up on him.

“…Uh.” Ralph said.

Amalia started to spin around in circles, barefoot, oinking.

“The satellites, you didn’t use them?”

Cisco cringed and replied truthfully.

“Couldn’t look at satellites if we weren’t looking at all.”

“What,” Wally’s voice went dangerously flat.

Amalia knocked into Wally’s shin. She grinned up at him when he shot his hand down to keep her steady.

“Uncle Wally will you get a piggie with me and Uncle Ralph?”

Wally eyeballed the little girl, at a loss for words.

Ralph stood up, flexing his fingers. “Well as long as nobody’s too hurt…I guess I’ll go home now.”

“Ow!” Barry yelped from the Med Bay where Caitlin was treating him.

“—Would you just—Hold still—“

“Um,” Ralph said.

“What happened here?” Wally griped.

Iris bit her nails, harried, peering into the Med Bay through the glass window.

“Daddy look!”

“Amalia, stop running around you’re going to trip,” Cisco warned her.

“Piggie!!! Piiiiiiiiiiiig!”

Cisco sent Ralph a death glare. “You did this.”

“Oink! Oink! Oink!”

“You made her,” he shot back.

“Piiiiiiiiiiiiiig—Owie.”

“Was that Amalia?” Caitlin called with concern.

Cisco clamoured over. He knew this was going to happen. And now she was crying, but even a bumped chin couldn’t prevent her from whimpering “piggie” between her hiccups.

“She’s fine!”

He sat on the ground and pulled her close, shushing away her tears, and wiping the wetness away from her eyes, pressing kisses to her chubby cheeks.

Eventually Wally stopped crossing his arms, and let go of trying to size them all up, dropping his arms to his sides in bafflement. “Well?!?!”

Iris, Cisco and Ralph looked at each other nervously, scratching their heads as their eyes slid to Amalia, still screaming for a pig.

“We, uh,” Iris said, tersely. “We got…”

“Distracted,” Cisco filled in.

#the flash #killervibe #westallen #the flash fic #fluff #future fic #tkv fic #Amalia ramon #dante stein ramon #suedibny #elongsue

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of May 29th, 2019

Best of this Week: Doomsday Clock #10 - Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson and Rob Leigh

And yet another wrinkle is added to the DC Universe.

Or should I say, “Metaverse” now? Yes, after I think three months since the last issue, Doomsday Clock returns with yet another strong issue that expands upon the mythos of the DC Universe and just how Doctor Manhattan viewed and affected things at the many different positions of time that he has been able to inhabit.

The issue is framed around an actor by the name of Carver Colman, a very huge star in DCs 1954, who has been referenced or used in previous issues. This gives some kind of continuity in the context of the story as Johnny Thunder was seen watching his movie in the retirement home al the way back in issue two or three. Colman, unfortunately, has a secret that gets him killed soon after wrapping up the filming of his biggest hit, The Adjournment and as we make it through the issue and the back and forth of his life, we find the biggest change to Doctor Manhattan’s character and how he has to bend to the rules of this new universe.

Doctor Manhattan actually meets Colman in 1938 when he was a struggling actor who had just lost his job delivering mail to a movie studio after an unfortunate accident and things he saw. Manhattan takes Colman out for some food, attempting to use him as a rod to focus on to look towards the future as he can’t seem to do so on his own after arriving. He does so and is able to see a year into the future, then four and so on. His abilities work again, but then he hears something strange.

A radio report of a man lifting a car into the air. The first appearance of Superman on April 13th, 1938. Suddenly, it was gone, the crowds of people were gone as if they never existed. He follows the path where Superman existed in 1938 and finds the Justice Society, having formed and waiting for Superman to answer their summons. Jay Garrick “Flash”, “Green Lantern” Alan Scott, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and others, waiting for the Man of Steel to join their ranks and suddenly, they too have never heard of him.

Manhattan follows the many arrivals of Superman, from 1956, to 1986 and sees his arrival change again and again, noting the many deaths of Ma and Pa Kent and how this “Universe” seems to use Superman as a focal point, even going to a thousand years from now when Superman was briefly part of the Legion of Superheroes. So to test how things revolve around Superman, he changes the past by moving the Lantern away from Alan Scott, killing him, and drastically changes the future, creating the New 52 Timeline.

Everything is recontextualized as Manhattan sees that this action changes this universe and that it’s constant state of flux affects the wider multiverse. From the parallel worlds, to the anti-matter, to the Dark Multiverse, Earth Prime is a “Metaverse” in his words. The others change to match whatever is going on in the Prime World and once it realizes what he’s done, it begins to fight back. Manhattan sees Wally West trying to fight his way back to the Universe. This one action causes a chain reaction that will lead to his inevitable confrontation with Superman where Superman either kills him or he kills the Metaverse.

Cutting back to 1954, Manhattan is at Carver Colman’s home on the night that he’s murdered. He doesn’t do anything to stop it.

There’s a saying that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In the Watchmen Universe, Doctor Manhattan was allowed to do or not do as he pleased because that world was a little bit more grounded or at worst cynical. Though, one might say that because he refused or didn’t care to use his power at a larger scale, Ozymandias’ “evil” won. Though Ozymandias thought what he did was the right thing, this series proved it it be disastrous in the wake of Rorschach’s journal being published, but initially Veidt’s plan did succeed. Doctor Manhattan escaping to the DC Universe put him into direct conflict with the Metaverse and its Hope. Its innate desire to have the good triumph over evil won’t let Doctor Manhattan get away with inaction and in his words, “To this universe of hope… I have become the villain.”

Words can’t describe how hype I was for this. With each and every issue, a new layer is added and brings us closer and closer to the epic conclusion that only Geoff Johns and Gary Frank can realize. I also love how they’ve expanded on the importance of Earth Prime, seeing as how it has indeed gone through many changes. It’s good to finally have an explanation that implies that even through the many reboots and retcons that if DC wanted to, they could tap into those timelines as main universes at any time. Everyone’s favorite time period matters or will matter again soon.

---------------------------------------------------

"One last adventure together…"

Runner Up: Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 - Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano

Joker's words to describe his and Batman's last run together in the hell that is the world after some unexplained event killed numerous heroes, villains and just about anything else. It also describes what MAY be the last time we see Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo do a big Batman story together and I already feel like we're in for a BIG one.

After a curious case of large scale chalk drawings,  showing a dead Batman, leads the Dark Knight to the Crime Alley he inadvertently sets off a trap laid by an unknown assailant using the decomposing body of a ten year old child. He later wakes up in Arkham Asylum, apparently having been there since KILLING HIS FAMILY in Crime Alley all those years ago. Capullo does a great job of setting atmosphere and making things unsettling as even a small fly buzzing around and "Dr. Redd Hudd" looming over a straight jacketed Bruce Wayne looks creepy.

Arkham appears to be just a regular Asylum with Alfred showing up and trying to convince Bruce that Batman was all in his head, showing him a mock costume they made to keep him calm with a cowl stitched to a straight jacket. Bruce sees through it all and fights his way through Arkham until Alfred reveals the truth. He only wanted to keep his boy safe because half of Gotham was just gone. Years had passed and Batman has no idea what happened.

He later wakes up in a desert and coincidentally finds the head of The Joker. He wakes and immediately begins cracking jokes as Batman takes him and they begin to walk to Coast City. I don't know how much of this is real and that adds to the mystique of the story. We're never given an explanation as to how he got there from Arkham or how Joker is surviving.

They arrive at Coast City and the decayed corpse of Mogo looms over a giant crater and ruins. Joker says that all of the Lanterns fell and rings are just there for the taking. Suddenly the duo are attacked by projections of babies before being saved by Vixen and Poison Ivy. Ivy then knocks Bruce out just in case and he wakes up surrounded by the new Amazons; Vixen, Donna Troy, Poison Ivy, Supergirl and Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman explains that one day, Luthor just… convinced most that they should just take what they deserve. He told them that goodness was a lie and they just ate it up. It echoed the future that Luthor saw back in Justice League/Legion of Doom #5, but given that this is a Black Label book, one wouldn't be wrong if they didn't want to think of this as the explanation of that timeline because they're not in the same canon.

Wonder Woman also tells Batman that the one wielding the Anti-Life Equation may be one of the Boys and pleads with him to join the Amazons in Hades.

But Batman is Batman and he decides that he's going to put a stop to this.

Last Knight on Earth reads like an alternative ending for Scott Snyder's Justice League epic. Even though that story is far from over, not even close, there's this unsettling feeling that, if Scott didn't have to have the heroes win in the end, this should be the absolute endgame. A world, no UNIVERSE possibly, under siege by someone wielding the Anti-Life Equation, hope dead and dying and the ever creeping feeling of dread knowing that somehow life and death have lost enough meaning that Joker as a decapitated head still lives… this story is terrifying.

Honestly, this might be some of Capullos best art to date. With Glapion and Plascencia's help, this book feels so atmospheric and dark. Glapion accentuates Capullos lines and shading well with dark-dark inks, making Batman appear to be shrouded in it even in the sun. It's haunting, especially in the Arkham scenes where things are absolutely not as they seem and dark secrets hide behind and within the walls. Plascencia, on the other hand, can make even light and vibrant colors threatening. The red sand on Jokers jar is intense  and the Green Lantern babies are deadly. Hell, Coast City, Hall Jordan's crown jewel, looks unbelievably desolate, colored like a wasteland. Capullo pulls all of this together with as much detail as he possibly can and his work shows.

Faces are expressive, from Batmans fear, to Alfreds regret to Jokers madness. Body language is utilized greatly as Batman fights like a caged animal. He's taken aback by Jokers head, but still finds his resolve. Wonder Woman is still fierce, but even her edge has dulled with the sheer lack of hope that running away and going underground has given her.

This story is terrifying and I absolutely love it. From the creepy visuals of Capullos art, to the expression of thought because of the mature liberties Black Label books can take, it's all beautiful. This one is absolutely going to match my love for Batman: Damned and every one should go and read this. High recommend!

#comics #dc #dc comics #geoff johns #gary frank #doomsday clock #doctor manhattan #watchmen #the multiverse #superman #alan scott #dc universe #scott snyder #greg capullo #last knight on earth #batman #joker #the joker #dc black label

[smokedstorybara]

I’m compiling a list of all my wips w/ summaries here to remind myself what all I should be working on and keep myself accountable - and if y’all wanna yell at me about them please do

(Also be warned there will be some spoilers in here cause I suck at non spoiler-y summaries)

Fanfics:

Dear Evan Hansen:

(Apprentice) Park Ranger Handsome part 16 (doesn’t even have a name yet I’m so sorry)

Evan and Connor’s first date!! They go to the orchard of course, and have more relationship conversation... and a picnic.

Fae Court AU

Prince Connor of the Winter Court falls in love with a human boy and acts on it, despite his parents having Rules against relationships with humans. The consequences are big but Connor and Evan weather them well.

Flash:

Soulmate AU (I’m thinking ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ for series title)

A series of one-shots following the Arrowverse characters - with a bit of a focus on Team Flash and the Legends - as they find love and happiness , with some bumps along the way, in a world where you share dreams with your soulmate. Timeline is spread out from Stein and Clarissa’s first meeting to some point around mid canon.

endgame ships include Barry/Len, Hartley/Cisco, Wally/Jax, Sara/Ava, Nate/Ollie/Felicity/Lisa(it’ll make sense I promise), Iris/Caitlin/Shawna, and more

Role-reversal AU

In a world where Barry was kept strictly away from the file on his mother’s murder after he becomes a CSI he grows resentful and distrusting of law-enforcement and a little quicker to recognize that he can’t entirely fix the issues with the police from the inside. So when he wakes from a nine month coma with super speed his first thought is how much he can shove the police’s faces in the fact that the system isn’t perfect and needs to change... he becomes the world’s fastest thief - unbeatable. At least until he goes after a certain diamond at the same time as one Leonard Snart, who walks away from the encounter looking to the world like a hero and gets a sweet taste of positive press that he’s not all that eager to give up.

Harry Potter crossover

Snart and Rory go “backpacking across Europe” on a ridiculous challenge to steal one thing in each country. Their last stop is in England and they’ve set their sights on a suburb in Surrey... which leads them to noticing the treatment of the young nephew of their potential target. Being survivors of abuse themselves they decide to remove him from that environment... along with all of Vernon Dursley’s valuables. Raising a kid is hard, raising a magical kid while maintaining positions as master thieves? ...piece of cake...

Check Please:

Moving On

When Jack and Bitty go through a messy breakup their friends are torn and Bitty is uncertain about what to do, especially when he has to go back to Georgia - where he’s firmly in the closet - for summer break. He can’t talk to his family or his friends about all his conflicting feelings about what happened, so he somehow finds himself corresponding with the one person who he knows would understand - Jack’s other ex, Kent Parson. He also finds himself growing closer to the previous year’s freshmen on his college hockey team and the team’s new manager - especially when summer ends and they’re all handling the situation better than the rest of his friends - ie: behaving like nothing happened except that they’re immediately down to fight Jack at a moment’s notice.

The Umbrella Academy:

Ghost Dave (that’s what it’s called in my google docs but it’s definitely not gonna be the title of the final product)

Dave Katz has been haunting the surviving members of his unit for a couple decades when the story about the 43 women comes on the news; a story Dave had heard plenty about before he died from his lover, Klaus Hargreeves. In whose tellings of it he was one of the children born that day. He also had claimed a few times to be from the future so Dave was fairly willing to take this as proof he was telling the truth. Immediately Dave seeks out Reginald Hargreeves and the 7 of the children he adopted. Over the next 29 years Dave follows the young Klaus around, giving him advice and unconditional friendship and protection from the other ghosts the poor kid could see.

Circle Of Magic crossover

When Tris finds herself dropping out of some kind of portal in a strange land it doesn’t take her long to figure out that some mage had decided to get rid of her - and possibly her siblings - by banishing her to another world, one with advanced technology but not much by way of magic - if one didn’t count the six super-powered siblings she appeared in the middle of. At the same time, but also not, Tris’s adopted sister Sandry wound up smack dab in the center of a group calling themself The Commission who’re very interested in adding her to their ranks, she joins up but maintains suspicion. Daja, the third sister, follows a pair of assassins. And their one brother, Briar, falls into the Vietnam War alongside one freshly tortured Klaus Hargreeves. They all find their way back together eventually - with much fewer casualties than if they hadn’t been there

Harry Potter crossover 1

When an eighteen-year-old Klaus Hargreeves gets bored of being lookout on a mission in London and wanders into the bar across the street he isn’t expecting to find a best friend, but that’s exactly what happens. Lily Evans is a couple months into a break-up and still tired of her ex and his idiocy, especially after his most recent letter - a pile of stupid big enough to send her straight to her local bar. The two hit it off instantly via complaining about anything and everything and egging each other into doing the most ridiculous but fun things. Their night of fun turns sour when Klaus finds out his brother Ben died during the mission and at least one of his siblings blame him. Lily takes the broken boy back to her flat and let’s him stay with her until his visa to stay in England runs out. Thirteen years later the apocalypse is interrupted by a tired ex-professor bringing life changing news - Lily was pregnant when Klaus left England(they’d slept together a handful of times but were never more than friends with benefits), also Lily and her husband(the idiot ex who apologized and changed his behavior, Klaus was at their wedding) are dead and Klaus and Lily’s son was placed with his aunt Petunia(who Klaus has met and knows the boy never should’ve been put with) because only five people besides Lily and James knew who Harry’s father really was and the only one capable of doing anything about it had to find the wandering junkie first. Klaus handles all this about as well as a powerful veteran with a traumatic childhood can - fighting tooth and nail for custody and then raising the boy the best he can with help from his siblings and robot mom and shoving his son’s happiness and safety in the faces of everyone who did the boy wrong

Harry Potter crossover 2

Not long after the war ends Harry finds that he can’t stand staying in magical Britain any longer, so he takes his godson and moves to America. Six years later one of the kids who live across the street sneaks out his window, wearing only pjs despite the heavy snow. Harry finds himself staying up waiting for the boy to return to their street and making some hot cocoa - which he offers to the boy as soon as he sees him. It quickly becomes a Thing(tm); Klaus will sneak out his window in the middle of the night, go for a walk, and eventually wind up having hot cocoa in Harry’s kitchen. They form a strange friendship, one where Klaus has someone he knows he can go to when everything becomes too much - even if that means crawling through Harry’s window, collapsing on his floor in tears, and falling asleep on his couch, waking up just in time to get home before his absence is noticed. Three more years have passed when Harry and Teddy are idly watching tv and Harry sees a very familiar face as Reginald Hargreeves introduces ‘the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy.’ When Klaus comes over that night Harry asks how much choice Hargreeves gave him and his siblings in their ‘heroics’. After some thought Klaus remembers how his brother Ben hadn’t wanted anything to do with what happened at the bank but was made to participate anyway. He answers honestly: they weren’t really given any. Thus begins Harry’s campaign to get custody for the kids from Hargreeves.

Original Works:

Four Elements Universe(a collection of stories set along one timeline - very far apart and with no overarching plot, just a shared world):

Sisa:

A secluded young king sneaks out of his castle and gets a job under a false identity in hope for friendship, then gives everything up to help his new friends and the rest of his people when he realizes the extent of his adviser’s corruption. Around the same time, a teenage master thief is hired to steal a specific box from the castle - and then to help another thief break her friend out of the castle dungeon - and uncovers several major secrets that might just change the fate of the kingdom.

Kings:

Bandit King Vakhtang’s life is irrevocably changed when he agrees to lend his men to a rebellion for a hefty amount of gold. Over time he finds himself growing fond of the boy prophesied to be the next king and learning just as much from his new employer about letting himself care and open up as he’s teaching the boy how to protect himself. (His best friend and lover is very proud of this growth and kinda wants to adopt the kid)

The Completely Unrelated Adventures Of Four People Who Had Nothing To Do With Each Other Beforehand:

Four teenagers in rural Texas follow a cipher they found in an old tome and discover that all four of them have magical abilities, and that their town may not be as average as they’d believed. As they delve deeper in this new world they uncover two different secret organizations and find themselves caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict over a powerful artifact - that may or may not be the kid sister of one of them.

Mythicals:

Six kids around the world each find objects - artifacts - that grant them magical transformations and abilities. Seven years later all six of them end up at the same prestigious performing arts school in New York. When they discover that they all have these artifacts and powers - and that New York and possibly the world is in danger - they team up to protect everyone else, and quickly become close friends. Though one of them has a secret that could drastically change how the others view them... and possibly risk the fate of the human race.

Eternity And Forever(this one does have an overarching plot):

Eternity Of Forever:

Back in the early years of humanity a young man goes up a mountain for his Trials of Adulthood - a series of three trials set to test a person on the traits of whichever three gods they’ve been assigned to serve - unfortunately for this boy he’s been chosen for the gods of empathy, loyalty, and love... three traits that do not come easily to him. In his desperation to pass his trials he cheats the system and gets caught. As punishment he’s cursed to live forever just on the cusp of adulthood but never reaching it, the only way to break his curse is to prove - with no possibility of dishonesty - that he’s capable of the three traits. Over the next few millennia he gets caught up in a war for the fate of all life on earth, and also somewhat adopts a maybe-alien and falls in love with a time traveler.

Throughout Eternity:

At some unknown point in the future all that’s left of the human race is a refugee colony on an island floating above the desolate remains of our planet. It’s into this that Quinton is born. But when it’s discovered that he can travel through time with just a thought he’s trained for a very important mission: to go back in time and stop the apocalypse. Shortly into his mission he meets an immortal teenager who claims to have met Quinton’s future self and who offers to help, telling him that first thing he should do is gather a team to help him - he even provides names and years. This little team becomes like a second family to Quinton, especially the pretend-aloof immortal.

Forever And After:

After the death of the closest thing he ever had to a father, Slythus finds himself applying to the superhero school the immortal had founded - despite knowing that even if he were accepted into the student body he’d never be accepted by the student body. Somehow he manages to get in... and even more impossible; manages to make friends. But even as he learns how to be good, his past is lurking on the edges of his new life and quickly becoming impossible to ignore - figuratively and literally.

Shadow Warriors:

After the dragon Svartr gets cursed protecting a village from invaders they offer their children to be trained by him - to take care of him as his condition worsens. Those selected and taught by him become known as the Shadow Warriors. Alexir was born several generations after the tradition began of sending every twelve-year-old up Svartr’s mountain for the selection and she never expected to be chosen, being much more focused on intellectual growth than physical, so when it happens it comes as a bit of a shock. She struggles to keep up with her peers in most of the lessons but refuses to give in, pushing herself to reach their level while also learning the complexities of friendship from them all.

Consequences(originally titled ‘Consequences of War’ until I realized it’s more about just consequences for actions in general - like: don’t piss off the powerful magical Being hiding out in the abandoned building):

After deliberately pissing off what they believed to be a ghost - or a false rumor more likely - a college aged idiot ends up being banished into a strange world... with a distinct change in biology(mostly in the area of hormones and primary sex characteristics). As they travel this new world in search of a way home - and back into their original form - they learn new things about themself and make interesting new friends. They find themself questioning whether they actually want their ‘old body’ back and then, when they begin to fall in love, whether they really want to return to their old world.

#sorry the lengths of the summaries are so inconsistent in the fanfics #(A)PRH #four elements universe #sisa #kings #tcua #mythicals #eaf #shadow warriors #Consequences of War #that's all the tags I have so far for these wips so check them out if you wanna know more #literally only one of the fanfics has a tag sdkjfhluejifsd #I should post more about the fanfics I'm working on I guess

[filmfanatic82]

AO3 Link (HERE)

Chapter 4: Lexa (I)

48 hours.

Technically 47 hours and 35 minutes. But not that Lexa is counting. No. Of course not. She’s not the type that would actively avoid making the most significant decision of the life by counting down the minutes until the ever-looming deadline.

No. She’s not that type of person.

Lexa’s eyes wander over towards the large clock above the classroom door for the 50th time since the start of the period.

47 hours and 34 minutes.

“Miss Woods,” Dr. Kane calls out from the front of the room.

Lexa snaps out of her thoughts, instantly aware that all eyes -- including the pair of crystal blues ones residing beside her -- are focused in on her.

“Sorry. Can you repeat the question?” Lexa asks as she straightens herself up in her chair and attempts to pull herself together.

“I was asking if anyone had any thoughts in regards to whether or not Edward the VII made the right decision to abdicate the throne to marry Wallis Simpson?”

Lexa swallows thickly. Such an ironically poignant question to be asked… especially given her current conundrum. The choice of love versus one’s preordained destiny. Two critically vital components of one’s life that should never have to be pitted against each other.

Future versus happiness.

How is one supposed to make such a weighted decision without never once wondering if they’ve chosen correctly?

Or maybe there isn’t a correct choice at all?

“Lexa?”

Lexa exhales and starts to open her mouth to respond, when suddenly--

The sound of a bell ringing cuts through the silence of the classroom, signifying the end of the period and is immediately followed by a chorus of chairs scraping against tile and notebooks being shoved into backpacks

“Saved by the bell,” Kane says with a hint of a smile. “Remember. Quiz this Friday so I would highly recommend rereading chapters three and four if you haven’t already… Oh, and Lexa? Can you stay back for a moment?”

Lexa freezes upon these words and slowly looks up, catching Kane’s eyes. And instantly…

She knows what the conversation will be about. It’s the same conversation Lexa has been strategically ducking and dodging for the last three weeks now. Ever since the day that the letter arrived and dropped a Hiroshima level bomb into her well mapped out plans for her future.

“Want me to stay with you?” Clarke asks gently reaching out and touching Lexa’s arm.

“No. It’s alright. I’ll meet you in the cafeteria.” Lexa forces a smile that just falls short of her eyes.

Clarke hesitates for a moment or two, almost as if she knows something’s not right, but then lets it go and plants a small but loving kiss on Lexa’s lips. “Okay, baby. See you in a few.”

Lexa nods in response and watches as Clarke gathers up the rest of her belongings and heads out of the classroom with the rest of the students.

“She doesn’t know, does she?” Kane’s voice once again pulls Lexa out of the depths of her own thoughts.

“No,” Lexa exhales as she turns her attention back towards Kane.

“You know, you’re going to want to tell her soon. Regardless of what you end up deciding.”

“I know.” Lexa pauses for a moment, teeth sinking into the flesh of her bottom lip.

Of course, Lexa knows. It’s the one thought that’s been plaguing her every waking moment for the last few weeks now. Every single time her eyes set upon those icy blue orbs and wild mane of blonde curls.

It’s the first -- and only --- secret Lexa has ever willing kept from the girl she’s come to realize is her soulmate and with each and every minute that passes, it eats away at her soul just a little bit more.

“I don’t want to tell you what to do Lexa, but this is truly a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. A full scholarship to Cambridge University by itself is highly impressive. Not to mention, the added offer of spending the next six months studying besides the leading world’s expert in Global Economics.”

“You sound just like my father.”

“Let me guess. He wants you to accept the offer?”

“If it were up to him, I would already be on a plane to London.”

Kane lets out a hint of a laugh as his eyes ever so slightly soften. He moves around his desk, cutting the distance between himself and Lexa, and then places a warm fatherly hand down upon her shoulder. “And if it were truly up to you?”

Lexa takes a moment, mulling over the thousands of conflicting thoughts dancing around the confines of her mind. Her hand subconsciously wanders towards the small emerald green tree shaped pendant hidden just beneath the collar of her t-shirt and wraps her fingers around it.

A tiny but constant reminder of why she has yet to make a decision.

“I don’t know,” Lexa answers in nothing more than a whisper. Kane gives her a light, but caring squeeze on her shoulder speaking volumes without ever uttering a word in response. It isn’t much, but at that very moment, it’s all the reassurance Lexa’s needs.

47 hours and 18 minutes.  

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

10 more minutes.

Just 10 more minutes and then she’ll call it quits.

Lexa’s muscles scream in agony as her feet pounds against the concrete pavement matching the rhythm of the song that blasts through her earbuds beat for beat. It’s her ritual. Every morning at promptly at 6 am, regardless of the weather or how Lexa’s feeling. Run until her legs give away, and her lungs burst into flames.

Run until there’s nowhere left to run.

Lexa rounds the corner and slows down her pace for a brief second, attempting to figure out which way to head next.

Although she’s been back for almost four months now, the majority of her surroundings still feels utterly foreign at best. Not that Lexa hasn’t tried to adjust. She’s more than made it her mission to refamiliarize herself with her new found home, frequently local coffee shops and parks during her precious few hours of downtime in between her long days at the firm. But still…

It doesn’t feel like home.

Then again, nowhere has. Not since Lexa packed her bags and boarded a plane for the other side of the world.

Lexa spots a park in the nearby distance and without another moment's hesitation, picks back up her gruel pace and heads towards it. As she approaches the entrance, though, she can’t help but notice two teenage girls tucked away within the shade of a large palm tree. One blonde and one brunette. Their limbs are seamlessly entwined with one another, like two conjoining puzzle pieces, while they exchange a series of stolen glances as they each busy themselves in their phones.  

The moment isn’t anything special and yet…

The all too familiar sense of guilt wraps itself around Lexa’s chest with a vise-like grip, growing tighter and tighter with each and every passing second.

God, she hates this feeling.

It isn’t the first time this has happened. No. During Lexa’s first year at Cambridge, it would happen at least ten times a week. And would be triggered by anything. Anything at all that reminded her of--

Lexa needs to run… And now.   

As if compelled by some invisible force, Lexa’s legs go from zero to sixty, beating against the pavement at an almost unbearable pace. She drives her body to move faster… harder… blindly heading forwards with no real destination nor direction.

Just run.

It’s the only trick Lexa’s knows to keep the ever crippling guilt at bay.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A few hours and an extra long, scalding hot shower later, and Lexa finds herself tucked away in a corner booth of the random brunch spot that according to Anya is “the only place in a thirty-mile radius that knows how to make a decent bacon egg and cheese sandwich”. She flips through a case file, re-reading the same page over and over again, unable to focus in on anything but the ever-growing queasiness sensation in the depths of her stomach.

Meeting Anya for breakfast isn’t the issue. No. Lexa has met up with her sister at least a dozen or so times now since moving back to the states.

It’s who Anya is bringing that’s causing Lexa to be hit with an almost suffocating wave of anxiety.

She should’ve listened to that ever-present pragmatic voice buried deep down in the depths of her brain and gone ahead and canceled. Just made up some excuse-- any excuse-- not to be there.

There’s a lot Lexa should’ve done.

But too late now.

Now, she’s here and given that they are set to walk in at any minute, there’s no turning back.

Lexa takes a brief pause from the paperwork in front of her and exhales while she runs her hands through her wild mane of curls.

It’s not like she hasn’t any communication at all with Raven since she left. No. In fact, despite everything that transpired in those days leading up to leaving for Cambridge, Lexa and Raven remained in touch.

Not on any regular cadence or anything. Just a sporadic text here and there on trivial subjects. Or the occasional drive-by hello whenever Lexa would facetime with Anya.

It really wasn’t anything significant… but still, it was something. A connection a world --a life-- that once was hers.

Seeing Raven, though, in the flesh and blood. Here. Back in the place that once felt like home to Lexa. It’s different.

It makes the undeniable truth just that much harder to ignore.

Seeing Raven means that it’s only a matter of time before she’ll have to come face to face with--

“Hey, Rick. Can I get one egg and cheese on an everything bagel and a sausage, egg, and cheese on a poppy seed? Oh and two iced coffees? One light and sweet and the other black? Thanks.”

Lexa immediately snaps out of her thoughts as the sound of the voice blindsides her like a sucker punch to her soul.

It’s her voice.

Lexa’s heart starts to pound erratically against her ribcage as all the oxygen suddenly seems to sucks out of the room. She’s frozen. Like a deer caught in deer caught in headlights, paralyzed with from head to toe with unsurmountable fear of what’s about to come.

Maybe… Just maybe if she keeps her head down and eyes glued to the paperwork before her, then the moment will pass, and she’ll go unnoticed.

“Lexa?”

The voice cuts through the background chatter of the restaurant and once again pierces through Lexa’s thick walls of emotional armor. She takes a moment to collect herself, praying to whatever god is listening that she can maintain her composure, and then, with every ounce of courage she can muster, she draws her eye upwards and instantly is met with--

Blue.

A set of crystal blue eyes that have been haunting Lexa’s dreams each and every night since she left. A set that belongs a woman that at one point in time she thought was her soulmate.

“Hello, Clarke,” Lexa replies in nothing more than a whisper, fully taking in the sight of the woman before her.

Different.

It’s the only word that comes to mind at her first sight of Clarke in almost half a decade. Not in an unrecognizable way. No. Lexa would still be able to spot instantly identify her in a sea of faces, but there are little changes. Like how her once-signature lion’s mane of golden curls has been replaced with a more mature looking short messy bob that hangs just below her jawline. Or how her clothes seem to hang off of her in a way that suggests that remembering to eat isn’t something that comes easily to her. Or even the hints of new tattoos peaking out beneath the edges of her shirt.

But the most jarring difference is the noticeable absence of the spark of life within Clarke’s crystal blue eyes.

“What are you… I thought… Are you just…” Clarke trails off as a definitive look of confusion sets in upon her face.

“What am I doing here?” Lexa asks in an attempt to help finish Clarke’s thought and alleviate the growing awkwardness between the two of them.

Clarke nods, unable to find her words.

“I was offered a job with my uncle Gustus’ firm and decided to move back.”

“How long?”

“About four month now.” Lexa swallows thickly letting her answer fully sink in. She maintains eye contact with Clarke while weighing what to offer up next.

There hasn’t been a single day where Lexa hasn’t thought about this very moment. Where they would be. Who would spot who first. What words would be uttered and how their conversation would play out.

And true to Lexa’s own nature, she meticulously mapped out every possible word-- every reaction-- to be prepared. To maintain the wall no matter how hard her emotions fight to break free.

But now… Now in the reality of the moment, Lexa finds herself completely and utterly lost, without even the tiniest of hint as to where to start.

“Clarke, I--” But Lexa is cut off by the sound of her cell phone buzzing against the wooden table. She glances down at the screen and spots Anya’s name. “Sorry, one second.”

Clarke doesn’t respond but remains standing there only a few feet away, still showing clear signs of shock.

“Hi, Ahn. Where are--” Lexa immediately stops talking as a deep male voice cuts in on the other end of the phone, spewing out a jumble of words at a rapid-fire pace.

And suddenly, the world starts to move in slow motion. Lexa knows that words are being said to her, but she can’t seem to process anything at all. Only the phrases “accident” and “critical condition” resonate, flashing through the haze of her mind in angry red letters. And even those words seem surreal at best.

Finally, the voice stops and Lexa simply places the phone back down on the table, not even checking to see if she hung up.

“Lexa?” Clarke’s voice snaps Lexa back, instantly speeding up the world around her. “Are you okay?”

Lexa looks up at Clarke and is hit with a sudden sharp pang of complete gratitude. There’s just no other person in the entire world she would want with her at this moment in time.

“No,” Lexa replies in a shaky exhale of air. “There’s been an accident.”   

#clexa #clarke x lexa #clarke griffin #lexa woods #raven reyes #octavia blake #octaven #the 100 #wlw #ao3 #fanfic

[the-witch-of-roses]

His Beautiful Soul

Prompt- Can do you do a Nightwing/Dick X Kid Flash/Wally ship to the song Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney? And have it be about Nightwing’s singing as well? - @nyntendoh44

Notes- So this has been sitting in my inbox for months and not only am I sorry about that but also I went more than a little off track with this. Does this fit in the Young Justice universe? Who knows. Also, my reasoning for making the opening scene 4am is that its 4am for me and I haven't slept so sorry for this mess.

“I don't want another pretty face, I don't want just anyone to hold, I don't want my love to go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul”

A loud groan made its way out of Wally’s mouth as he rolled over and covered his ears. What neighbor was blasting music?

He rolled over again as the volume seemed to increase and after squeezing his eyes shut failed to help him hold onto sleep he looked up and squinted at the red writing on his alarm clock.

4 am…?

“I know that you are something special, To you Id always be faithful, I want to be what you always needed, Then I hope you’ll see the heart in me”

He groaned again but finally sat up and looked around. Sure enough his room and outside was still dark. He pulled himself up and quickly pulled on a t-shirt and jeans before finally waking up enough to realize that not only was their singing accompanying the music but it was right outside his window. Running his hands through his hair he opened the window that to squint from two stories up to see a shadowy figure holding something in the air that seemed to be blaring Jesse goddamn McCartney as well as the figure singing along loudly.

“I don't want another pretty face, I don't want just anyone to hold, I don't want my love to go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul”

From the voice and huge smirk on his face suddenly Wally realized that the figure was his boyfriend holding a speaker bigger than his head which was playing Jesse McCartney while he sang along at four in the morning.

Wally only ducked down long enough to grab his old high school textbooks before hurling them at Dick who began to laugh while still singing along loudly to the song. The speaker was hit out of his hands but the idiot still kept singing.

“You're the one I want to chase, You're the one I want to hold, I won't let another minute go to waste, I want you and your beautiful-”

Dick never finished as suddenly Wally fell out hid damn window after leaning out so far he lost his balance. Dick rushed forward and managed to catch him but almost immediate Wally began swatting at him.

“I came back here to have a nice night with my parents and the second I'm in my old room, what do you do? What do you fucking do Dick? The second I'm in my room, that isn't even my room anymore, you act like your teenagers again! You couldn't do this while we were at home? You just had to wait until it risked waking my parents?”

Dick was laughing so hard that he was wheezing as he struggled to hold Wally. Finally letting the redhead down he picked up the speaker and smiled.

“I have a surprise.”

The reason Dick would keep doing dumb things like waking Wally up with love songs and taking him on mystery bike rides was that Wally let him. When they were kids it made each day exciting and everything new. Now it was a reminder that to Dick, Wally was special. Wally was someone that Dick would stand outside and play a crappy love song for. Wally was someone that Dick would take with him on a mystery bike ride. For two people that had the dear of dying young looming over them, these moments seemed eternal in more ways than one.

That was how Wally ended up on the back of Dick’s motorcycle holding onto him as Dick drove through the crisp morning air. As much as Wally was still steaming he had to admit that he missed Dick. He especially had to admit it as he buried his face between his shoulder blades as much as his helmet would allow. Wally had wanted to visit his parents so he had come to stay in his old room for a week while visited relatives. Because of their hectic schedules for the whole week they had only been able to talk on the phone once but still, Wally didn't think that Dick thought that meant he should drive down and steal his boyfriend back.

Wally was so caught in his thoughts the engine going quiet was what alerted him that the two had arrived. The town they were in looked quiet with the buildings far apart. They place they were in front of was small and painted red like a barn.

Getting off first Dick offered his hand to help Wally off and even though Wally didn't need it he still took the hand which only made Dick smile wider. Both took off their helmets and jackets bringing them inside what looked almost like a family home. Everything was cozy with wood furniture and a sleepy feeling for everything. Dick led him to sit at one of the tables and before Wally could even pick up a menu Dick picked up both and held them up. Instantly a young waitress picked them up.

“Your usual Grayson?”

“Yes please and two coffees as well.”

Wally frowned as Dick looked at him with a brighter than ever smile.

“You had this planned.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I saw a speaker in a thrift store and got an idea and now I'm hungry.”

Dick and Wally talked quietly, only stopping to sip at warm coffee. The whole time they held hands across the table, Dick gently rubbing Wally’s knuckles to keep him awake.

It seemed like such a long yet such a short amount of time before the waitress came back with two takeout containers in a plastic bag. Wally raised a brow but Dick simply thanked the waitress who was apparently named “Martha” and left a tip before leading Wally out.

“You gonna explain?”

“Nope.”

Dick seemed to take great pleasure in Wally’s pout as he packed the food into his saddlebags and tossed Wally a helmet and jacket. Wally assumed they would not be turning back home but instead, they were going in the opposite direction. This time Wally stayed away as the quiet town disappeared and just as it was getting lost in the distance Dick veered off the road and into the field now on either side. Wally grabbed onto him so tight he immediately let go in fear of hurting him only to see Dick smirking as they were suddenly now on a dirt path. As the field turned into flowers Dick began singing.

“You might need time to think it over, But I'm just fine moving forward, I'll ease your mind, If you give me the chance, I will never make you cry c’mon let’s try”

Wally rolled his eyes but the song had him relaxed with his head resting on Dick’s back. He almost wished he had a cute couple story on how that became their song. Some stupid memory about their first dance or first kiss. Instead, the two had just finished fighting what looked to be thieves robbing a mall but turned out to be anything but. They hit Wally with some sort of beam and suddenly his super speed was gone. That was the least of his worries when a second later one of them dragged their knife through his stomach and without super healing he was left laying on the ground. Dick had run over and used his yellow cape to slow the bleeding as suddenly the mall opened for business on a timer. Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney came on as Dick though his crush was dying. So yes the two had a song and while Wally regained his powers shortly afterward the memory was still bittersweet.

“Am I crazy for wanting you? Maybe do you think you could want me too? I don't want to waste your time, Do you see things the way I do? I just wanna know that you feel it too, There is nothing left to hide”

Dick did the same routine of taking off his helmet and jacket and then helping Wally off. Only this time as he offered his hand he leaned forward and gently kissed him.

Wally smiled gently as he looked around to see where they were. Flowers surrounded them and as he looked from where they came he could see a mountain in the distance. In front of them were trees that provided the perfect amount of shade as Dick set out a blanket and took out the food, patting the spot next to him and as wally walked over he kept singing.

“You're the one I want to chase, You're the one I want to hold, I won't let another minute go to waste, I want you and your soul.”

Wally took one of the foam containers and a fork as snuggled up to Dick and rested his head on the other man's shoulder. He had gone to visit because life had been hectic only to find life was his family was the same if not worse. But with Dick in a field full of flowers it was calm and quiet.

“I don't want another pretty face, I don't want just anyone to hold, I don't want my love to go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul”

Wally rolled his eyes but now he was smiling just as wide as Dick.

“Oh, Beautiful soul, Oh, Your beautiful soul”

All at once his heart stopped beating and he stopped breathing. The gentle breeze stopped, the flowers stopped blooming and the world itself stopped turning.

Wally had opened the contain and was about to eat the chocolate chip waffles inside when he saw the lid of the box.

There was a ring taped to the top and in messy cursive that could only be Richard John Grayson’s were four words.

Will you marry me?

He was so focused on the ring he didn't know that Dick had moved away and in front of him, now on one knee.

“Wallace Rudolph West, will your beautiful soul do me the honor of becoming my husband?”

In the distance, the sunrise began to peak over the mountains. The dawn of a new day.

#birdy writes #young justice #batboys #dc #dc comics #dc fanfic #dick grayson #wally west #robin #nightwing #kid flash #dick grasyon x wally west #dick x wally #robin x kid flash #nightwing x kid flash #birdflash