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luxaofhesperides · 4 months

Note

For ghostlights: baby Ellie + tired Danny + Duke the baby whisperer?

He has no idea how his parents did it.

Babies are exhausting. Toddlers more so. Any infants in the strange stage in-between? Doubly so.

Ellie is wonderful and sweet and cute and such a terror that Danny genuinely has no idea how his parents managed to raise not one, but two kids. For all their eccentricities and absent-mindedness, he and Jazz turned out pretty well. Ignoring the whole halfa thing because that’s more his fault than theirs even if Jazz says they shouldn’t have created the dangerous environment in the first place.

That environment is exactly why Danny refuses to let Ellie go to his house in Amity Park. His parents say they’ve disabled all the weapons and ecto-sensors since he’s had to reveal himself as Phantom, but he knows that things slip their minds and if they can’t guarantee that the house is safe, then Ellie isn’t going in there. Simple as that.

This means that they live somewhere else now. Danny had thought about it, during the hours Ellie was asleep and he was awake, exhausted and worn down to his bones, and took Jazz’s advice to accept Vlad’s offer of buying a house for him. Except he argued Vlad down to an apartment in a city of his choosing where he wouldn’t stand out too much and he would be safe, or as safe as he can be, from anyone trying to hunt down ghosts.

So here they are. Standing in the empty living room of their new apartment in Gotham.

Gotham may not be very safe as a city, but it’s good for two ghosts trying to pass as normal.

Danny sighs yet again, and looks at the space he’ll need to fill. At least Vlad is footing the bill. It’s the least he can do for creating Ellie. Frostbite was the one who was able to stabilize her, though it was almost too late and resulted in her reforming as a baby, just one and a half years old. Jazz is the one who’s choosing most of the furniture, thankfully, so it’s something that Danny doesn’t need to worry about it.

It’s a new start to their lives and it feels so empty. So overwhelming. How did his parents do it? How do any parents do it?

Ellie smacks a small palm against his cheek and babbles lightly.

“I know, Ellie,” Danny says, giving her a tired smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll have this place looking good in no time.”

He adjusts her in his arms, then heads towards the bedroom. It’s the only room that has any furniture, and all that’s there is a bed, a crib, and a bookcase. There are a few boxes on the floor, labeled ‘bedroom’ and ‘clothing’ and ‘books’. Most of it came from his bedroom in Amity Park, but he’s pretty sure he caught Jazz sneaking a few things in before they closed the boxes and loaded them up into the car.

“Can you be good for five minutes?” he asks Ellie.

She babbles again and smacks his shoulder.

“I’m taking that as an agreement. Just let me open these boxes and start unpacking before you start causing trouble, okay?”

Ellie makes another sound, but it seems agreeable so Danny carefully lays her down in the crib and gets to peeling off the tape on the boxes. The opens the one labeled ‘bedroom’ first, finding blankets and sheets folded and stacked in vacuum sealed bags. One of them is his old childhood blanket, the one he carried around everywhere that was faded with age, barely blue, with white bunnies decorating it.

He was so small when he had this. It makes him oddly emotional to unpack it and pass it on to Ellie, draping it over her so her pudgy little hands can grab at it.

This is no time to cry, though! He forces himself to focus and makes his own bed, shaking out the sheets and fluffing up the pillows. He’ll worry about washing everything later; Vlad made sure to get an apartment with an in-unit washer and dryer, which means he was actually sensible while apartment hunting for Danny.

He doesn’t mean to flop onto the bed once it’s made, but he ends up there anyways. He’s barely gotten a full six hours of uninterrupted sleep since Frostbite deemed Ellie healthy enough to leave his care. The drive up to Gotham was long and wore him down to his bones.

He doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but he does, drifting off as he wonders, distantly, when Jazz will be back from getting them dinner.

Ellie wakes him up at dawn with a loud cry. Danny jolts awake, heart pounding in his chest as he panics because Ellie isn’t here, she’s supposed to be in his arms, where is she? And then he sees the crib, where Ellie is staring at him through the bars, and he nearly collapses with relief.

“Morning, El,” he says, voice rough from sleep, as he picks her up. She just stares up at him, then leans forward and rests her head against his shoulder.

It’s quiet moments like these that make his heart melt. Ellie’s had a hard life already; he wants to give her a better one, this time around.

A quick check of the time on his nearly dead phone shows that it’s barely past six in the morning, and Jazz texted him a few times. All about furniture, saying that she didn’t want to wake them and that food is in the fridge.

It’s only the mention of food that makes him realize how ravenous he’s feeling. Danny makes a beeline for the kitchen, ignoring everything else, and pulls out the boxes of take-out Jazz left stacked in the fridge. He devours it like he’s been starving for weeks, then gives Ellie her Ecto-Jello, the only food she’s allowed to eat until Frostbite gives the okay for solid, human food.

Once he’s got her burped and cleaned up, Danny looks out of the kitchen and realizes that Jazz was very productive while he was asleep. The living room isn’t empty anymore; a dark green couch is against the wall, a low, rectangular coffee table made of dark wood in front of it. Two armchairs are on both sides of the couch, and a television has been installed, fixed into the wall.

Jazz is asleep on the couch. Her legs hang off an armrest and she’s drooling slightly.

Her phone is charging on the floor, so Danny takes it and snaps a picture of her for later teasing, then sends it to himself and writes a note to her that he’s going out with Ellie to explore the neighborhood.

He’s finally feeling more settled, energized from sleep and food.

In the warm dawn light spilling in through the windows, Danny looks down at Ellie and thinks that they’ll be just fine after all.

. . .

Four months ago, Danny had hope. He was optimistic.

Gotham was a fresh start, a new lease of life for Ellie. It is Danny’s attempt to be a single parent, sacrificing college for Ellie, and he’s planning to go out and beat the gangs black and blue if they start anymore shootouts in the next year.

He had just gotten Ellie to sleep. She was actually peacefully taking a nap.

And then a drive by shooter raced down the street, gunshots echoing down the road, and Ellie work up crying. She still hasn’t stopped, despite how Danny rocked her, soothing her as best he could.

They had been outside when Ellie fell asleep, her head on his shoulder. He had been catching up with Sam and Tucker when the car drove by, people ducking and crying out to avoid the bullets. Danny instinctively covered Ellie and made them both intangible, saving them from any stray bullets, but they ruined her nap and he needs to make them pay for that.

“Shh,” he soothes, “You’re okay. We’re both fine. It’s okay, El, it’s okay.”

Her little hands clutch at his back, twisting the fabric of his shirt, and she lets out a heartbreaking wail. He pats her back, hurrying down the street to get back to his apartment building, ignoring the looks people were giving them as they passed by.

“I know it was scary, but you’re alright. You’re always safe with me, El.”

Ellie’s cries down down a little, but they don’t stop. She whimpers, burying her face against his shoulder as he finally reaches their apartment building.

The door’s locked, which wouldn’t be a problem except Danny can’t get his keys from his pocket. He knows he has them! But his pocket refuses to relinquish them and he has to stop every few seconds to pat Ellie’s back, trying in vain to calm her down.

“We’ll be inside in a second,” he tells her, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice, “as soon as I can get these freaking keys!”

“Hey, you alright?”

Danny startles, whirling around so fast it makes Ellie go quiet, clinging to him so she doesn’t get flung into the air. There’s a guy standing before him in a gray hoodie, looking at him with clear concern. It speaks to Danny’s level of constant exhaustion that he hadn’t clocked someone sneaking up behind him.

The guy offers an awkward smile. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you or anything. Um, do you need me to open to door? I live here too.”

Danny wonders for a moment if this someone dangerous, someone hoping to hurt Ellie, but she starts to cry again and he steps to the side. “Please. I can’t get my keys.”

“I’m Duke, by the way. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“Danny,” he replies, watching as Duke pulls out a large key ring, jangling with the amount of keychains on it, and easily opens the door. “I’ve been here a few months, but I’m usually inside. Or walking around in the mornings with this little monster.”

“That would explain it,” Duke says as he holds the door open, letting Danny in first. “I’m usually in classes at GCU, but I decided to take a mental health day after my lab, so here I am.”

Danny walks in and waits for Duke to follow, making sure the door closes properly behind them. “Thanks. How is GCU? What do you study? I was thinking of going there myself once she gets a little older and can go to school.”

“Oh, I’m majoring in English and Human Services.” He goes to say more, but Ellie wails again and Danny winces.

“I’m so sorry. That drive by woke her up and it’s really rattled her.”

“Hey, no need to apologize. I get it, Gotham is rough to kids.”

Danny tries rocking her back and forth, but it doesn’t help. He resigns himself to another hour of her crying before she exhausts herself, and makes for the stairs, going up to the fourth floor. Duke holds open the door again, then follows after them. It makes Danny wonder if Duke is planning to do something to them, then decides he can beat Duke in a fight, so it’s fine.

Duke doesn’t try to hurt them or steal Ellie away. He opens the door to their floor and stops before they do. “I’m in here,” he says, “If you ever need me to open more doors.”

“Thanks. Um, actually, I might need help opening mine?”

Duke just smiles and makes his way back to them, following them farther into the hall until Danny stops in front of his apartment.

“If I could just get my keys,” he starts.

“Here, let me hold her for a second so you can get them,” Duke offers. Danny wants to insist that it’s fine, but Ellie cries directly into his ear and Danny, at the end of his rope, passes her over.

Like magic, Ellie settles as soon as she’s in Duke’s arms. She sniffles and hides her face away, clutching to Duke’s hoodie, but she stops crying. They both go still, surprised, and stare down at her.

“Seriously?” Danny says as he finally pulls out his keys, “Are you trying to say that I’m the problem?”

Ellie babbles lightly, and Duke turns his head to futilely hide his grin.

He grumbles as he unlocks the door and pushes it open. Ellie is acting as if she’s never been upset before a day in her life, making herself at home in Duke’s arms.

“I can’t believe this. Betrayed by my own blood.”

Duke laughs as he follows Danny into his apartment, lightly patting Ellie’s back. “It’s always the smallest, cutest ones that do this.”

“Yeah? Do you work with a lot of kids or something? Used to being betrayed by the little ones?”

“I don’t work with kids per se,” Duke says, “But my foster family is a hot mess and the youngest of them likes to keep us all on our toes.”

“Family,” Danny says in a tired, fond tone.

“Family,” Duke agrees.

With his door open and Ellie calm, Danny’s ready to just lay face down on the floor for the rest of the day and not deal with anything else. He moves to take Ellie back, holding his arms out, and Duke tries to pass her over.

The key word being tries.

Ellie tightens her grip and kicks at Danny. She refuses to be taken away from Duke, making him awkwardly try to pry her off his hoodie. Danny really hopes Duke doesn’t notice how she goes slightly intangible to make his hands fall through her arms and legs. It shouldn’t be noticeable, but it’s hard to focus on anything but a kid that clings to you, so Danny holds out for Duke’s goodwill and silence.

“As nice as it is to meet you, you need to go back to your… parent?” Danny nods when Duke looks at him in askance. “You need to go back to your parent. Okay? Come on, kid, he’s waiting for you.”

Ellie shakes her head, makes a frustrated noise, and then turns and reaches out a grabby hand towards Danny.

She still refuses to be taken from Duke when Danny tries to pick her up again, so he settles with just letting her hold two of his fingers.

“I’m so sorry about this,” he says to Duke, face burning. This is why he hasn’t been going out and being social since he moved in; Ellie is a handful even on the best days, and Danny doesn’t want someone to judge him as unfit to parent her and have her taken away.

Duke shakes his head, stepping closer. “It’s all good, man. I don’t mind. It’s not like I had any plans today. I’m already skipping my classes, might as well spend it with you two than sleep all day.”

“Are you sure? I’d be happy to invite you in, but I know Ellie can be a lot and not everyone wants to spend their day off with a baby.”

“I’m sure. Besides, I’d just be down the hall anyways. It’s no skin off my back, man.”

“Well,” Danny says, stepping to the side to give Duke full access to his open doorway, “Come on in, then.”

Ellie keeps them connected, one hand in Duke’s hoodie and the other holding Danny’s fingers, and though her cheeks are still red from how hard she had been crying, she’s calm now with her eyes shining with mischief.

As the door closes behind them, Danny realizes that this is the first time someone he’s not related to has been inside his apartment. Not even Vlad has come in, always choosing to invite Danny and Ellie out for lunch instead.

It should make him nervous, but Duke is calm and easy going and kind.

He’s making silly faces at Ellie to make her laugh, completely at ease with her in his arms, as if he’s done this a thousand times before.

Gotham is a second chance at life for Ellie. It’s a sacrifice for Danny, to be alone and without friends or family around. He’d been ready to give up everything for Ellie, to focus solely on raising her, but with Duke filling his apartment with laughter, he thinks that he can make a life here too.

All he needs to do is take that first step, reach his hand out, ask Duke to stick around.

He can do this.

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #dc x dp fic #prompt fill #my writing #i really love writing about characters struggling to be parents v suddenly and thru unconventional means #so here's danny a year out of high school living on his own for the first time w baby ellie #and duke who needed some space and independence while he's in college. bruce pays for the apartment while duke works part time for grocerie #and ellie who had been fully developed but unstable is now a halfa baby who remembers stuff but is also. yknow. a baby.#she absolutely latched onto duke to force danny to have a life outside of her. but also she can sense that hes kind and calm #which danny needs bc he is Stressed (tm)#this leads to duke bringing over food for them and looking after ellie while danny goes shopping or naps #both of them ignoring how duke has to leave suddenly for Hero Related Reasons and how danny and ellie have Powers #it's a v delicate balance they keep for the sake of keeping ellie safe #yeah they're gonna co-parent and realize they're basically dating after MONTHS of pining #the bats have bets on who gives bruce a grandkid first and literally no one bet on duke but here he is lol :)#thanks for the prompt!!

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zivvis · 11 days

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this was the first moment with Gore when it struck me how much he feels like a real person. yes you both climbed the tallest fucking mountain on the continent please ask your friend to wait just a second longer to see the view before their life is irrevocably changed and yours with it

also didn't realize until this how much i needed a character who was teaching themselves to love life. thanks for the reminder that it's work worth doing bud

#I know further developments are on hiatus now #but he's so appreciated in the meantime :')#gore skyrim #skyrim gore #ive never drawn a real background or anything longer than a page so this took so fucking long #trying to make up for years away due to the mental illness (tm) and learn a lot quickly!!

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minas-linkverse · 4 months

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If your still interested in talking about ur opinions on zelda games... how about phantom hourglass

Phantom hourglass is a facinating one to ask about, because the feelings I have for it are so contradictory.

The game looks stale, at worst ugly... BUT it does have some genuinely memorable and fun designs and locations too.

The gameplay is jarring and hard to get immersed in, yet it also does some of the most fun and innovative tricks the DS ever got used for??

The music is nothing new, yet Linebeck's theme slaps extremely hard????

The story is odd, and has terrible decisions like making Tetra into a damsel and the odd choice of ending... 🤨

Yet... I love Linebeck. I love the ghost ship concept. I think Bellum is an excellent and underrated antagonist! The ocean king stuff was neat and oh how I adore Ciela. She isn't rly a character that got written well or respected by the narrative that was supposed to be about her... But what you can make it into with a bit of your own imagination is soo fun.

Not to mention how Phantom Hourglass has perhaps the best humour in a Zelda game and stuff from dialogue to cutscenes is so immersive, silly and lovable.

Phantom Hourglass is absolutely worth experiencing, and to many it'll be a real special hidden gem. Others like me arent gonna be able to get past the many issues... But I think its an incredibly charming clunky mess. I really like it. 💛

#Ask #Game Reviews tm #I wonder what the development of the game was likw #Im sure it'd help explain some of the decisions made by the team

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galedekarios · 7 months

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altonaufein & relationships 🌙

i saw this making the rounds on twitter and wanted to do it for my drow son.

i would like to see more people do it so i'll be tagging (with no pressure, of course):

@voliialpha, @lairofsentinel, @shibepetter, @rahabs, @thenightsong, @leopardmuffinxo, @utopianoverlord, @lokorum, @galfreybaenre, @poreyneel, @hawke, @zahra-hydris, @carusti, @fuzzy-set, @inkberrry, @polygone-moi, @bg3, @bigbraincel

🖤

#i'll expand on this at a later point but these are the Vibes(tm) for now #it was hard to settle on just one word to encompass a relationship and its development #it would have perhaps been more on brand for alton to put complicated on almost all of them but that's a cop out sdfksld #if minsc was on this template he'd prob be on neutral as well #or perhaps friends/complicated #i need to play more with him in the party #ch: altonaufein #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #text: personal

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defeateddetectives · 7 months

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"have you ever considered quitting the exorcist business?" and the way the answer is different the two separate times he is asked it in rapid succession by two separate people who will forever represent two very different parts of his life and his self and try as he might to compartmentalize this he just cannot fully do so

the way the second time he's asked it there isn't the same reflexive response the way there is no response at all from someone who has never once as far as we have witnessed seemed at a loss for words about anything and the way the person who is doing the asking this time around met him saw him knew him and explicitly cared for him before he was this and only this and inevitably this

or: miharu arc (literally making me rattle the bars of my cage every single time for a different reason) crafting the finest of cracks that are barely perceptible to the human eye--so easy to miss on first or second or even third glance--in the steadfast certainty that matoba seiji is and has displayed from day one act one scene one the same certainty he stands for and that we all expect of him (in and out of universe) and that he expects of himself until his dying breath IN THIS ESSAY I WI--[is forcibly removed from the premises]

#i thought about those panels[TM] again and developed a heart condition #ms. midorikawa WHAT DID YOU PUT INSIDE THIS CHARACTER?????#/continues belting out diet mountain dew.mp3 like my life depends on it in the year 2k23 even #horrible exorcists #specifically #horrible exorcist number one #natsume yuujinchou

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bookishfeylin · 1 year

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I've been thinking that the reason the ACOTAR fandom is so toxic is because Mrs. Maas applied real world standards to a fantasy series, creating a conundrum where some characters are allowed to exist in and operate within a fantasy-based morality (like Rhysand, the Inner Circle, and Feyre) whilst others are held up to a stricter, real-world morality and are vehemently critiqued in text for failing to meet the moral standards of our world (Tamlin, Nesta, even Lucien), leaving fans of the latter group of characters to call out the hypocrisy in text for their characters being evaluated by standards that the former aren't held to whilst fans of the former set of characters happily indulge in such hypocritical writing even while promoting this series as an excellent example of handling of real-world themes like abuse; but now I think it's more than that.

Feyre has all the powers--she can shapeshift AND read minds AND control all the elements AND control light AND shadow. Everyone loves her, men of all races want to have sex with her, she can fetishize men of color and have mixed children and participate in cultural appropriation without consequence; she can brutalize men of color and look down on and belittle the appearance of women of color whenever she wants with impunity, because she is the eternal victim. She can do no wrong; people can only wrong her. She can never hurt anyone; people can only hurt her. Feyre is all powerful, but she's an eternal victim--she's a white woman's power fantasy. That's why this series reeks of white feminism so badly. Feyre is a white woman's power fantasy.

But some white women, and many women of color, don't identify with that power fantasy--especially Feyre's "being able to oppress others with impunity" schtick--so they reach out for other characters instead. But because Feyre is the eternal victim, because Feyre is the embodiment of white womenhood, that means many of the other characters are written as Feyre's oppressors or antagonists, and the white women who identify with Feyre hate them, because how dare those characters and their stans ruin their power fantasy? How dare those characters impede Feyre, their self-insert, from being the embodiment of idealized white womanhood?

So those characters, and those who stan them, are resented. In this essay, I will--

#who's gonna write the full essay y'all? it'll probably be me wont it #about how sarah's white feminism translates into feyre developing white women syndrome(TM) later in this series #aka: the world revolves around her and no one else's oppression matters and she is beyond criticism for anything #feyre critical sadly #acotar #acotar analysis #a court of thorns and roses #sjm critical #acotar critical #its the white feminism for meeeeeee

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red-raven-reading · 5 months

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Has RTD literally forgotten his own ending? The metacrisis had two components: Donna and 10.5. The mind of the timelord went to Donna splintering between her and 10.5. Her psychic connection isn't to the Doctor: it's to 10.5.

This would actually have been a pretty nice way to integrate Rose back into the story instead of having the kind of unsettling thing of Rose N picking the name of her mother's best friend's former girlfriend because her mother's best friend can't get over her after 3000 years or so. (This isn't about Rose N being trans but just about the name origin that gives me the creeps)

Anyway, Donna could have told the Doctor that she's had dreams (occasionally) of 10.5 and Rose's life and they are happy, fighting aliens, and building both a family and a safer universe for themselves. It would have been a sweet note to leave RTD's Rose obsession on instead of Rose N and her identity journey being influenced by the Doctor before she was even conceived.

#doctor who #donna noble #rose tyler #rose noble #tenth doctor #metacrisis doctor #fourteenth doctor #RTD's Rose Obsession (TM) strikes again!#seriously: chill RTD #I can't decide whether I'm more annoyed about RTD's Rose Obsession (TM) or the healthy mental development of a child being sacrificed to it

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zombiemink · 2 months

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One thing i really like about TotBT is the way it describes inhabiting a normal human body as this gross, scary almost body horror-like experience

Truly, Lestat becoming human again and immediately developing OCD is the most relatable he's ever been to me... i am nodding along knowingly at every mention of excessive handwashing lol

#this even made me google “anne rice ocd” and apparently she did indeed develope it herself around the time she wrote iwtv #which yeah im not surprised at all after this book... it feels too much like She Knows TM #interview with the vampire

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bardic-perdita · 25 days

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POV: You decide to talk to the sultry drow at your camp.

Once I found a match for the in-game dialogue font, I knew I just had to draw a fake screenshot for what my Tav would be like as a companion.

Mini-comic and extra below the cut:

There was a subtle sharpness to the way he enunciated the word "khal'abbil", as though he was telling a private joke to a friend and you were left ignorant of its punchline.

"By 'at your service', do you mean...?" Your words trailed off. You weren't entirely sure where you were going with this line of questioning, and yet you felt compelled to pull at the obvious bait Breoch had laid out for you.

The corners of the drow's lips twitched; his smile widening for a moment before returning to its picture-perfect gleam. He inched closer to you and lowered his voice. "We are allies, are we not? Our lives may have never crossed before all this, but now we travel together, fight together, eat and...sleep together." He lingered on those last two words, watching to see whether your heart would flutter at his deliberate provocation. "I live to please, pet, and I do hope you soon learn just how pleasurable my company can be."