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weirdmarioenemies · 4 years

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Name: The Ghost Gang

Debut: Pac-Man

Fufufu... frighteningly Funky Friday, friends!

This post has been waiting patiently in the drafts since my Pac-Man fixation way back in July, and it has really been about time it gets to be posted. And what better Friday to talk about ghosts than the one before Halloween? I can think of two. One would be Friday the 13th, and the other would be a Friday that Halloween itself falls on. But I’m posting it today! On only the third most ideal of Fridays!

Yes, I’ve already talked at length about some Pac-Man ghosts, but there are so much MORE. And they’re all so wonderful. My Best Ever Characters list includes “Ghosts” in the Namco character section, because they are all so wonderful. And now we’ll talk about some more notable ones!

So, here we have the Ghost Gang of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde, in and around their Ghost House, in an image I got from the Annoying Orange Wiki. Though I love them all, I’m not gonna talk in depth about ALL of them, and out of these four, I’ll give the spotlight to my darling Clyde.

Look at him. Do you think he’s darling? Yes, you do. You are probably aware that each ghost has their own behavior, and Clyde will target Pac-Man until he gets close enough to him, then entering “scatter mode”, where he will instead move randomly. Why change it up when you’re so close? Does he even WANT to catch him? Well, I have a theory...

The official Pac-Man Twitter has not one, but TWO posts showing Pac and Clyde as friends, emphasizing the importance of kindness. And it’s just Clyde he seems to be friends with... so this has me thinking, they’re Secret Friends! While Clyde is part of the Ghost Gang, he doesn’t actually WANT to attack Pac, so he targets him to make it LOOK like he’s doing his job. When he gets close, he sort of just lingers around to try and seem like he’s doing something while not actively trying to get him. It’s the perfect strategy, and the others have never found out, and Clyde and Pac get to be friends, and it makes me happy.

Before I talk about some more ghosts, I’d like to analyze the ghosts as a whole! Pretty much every Pac-Man game has its own self-contained “canon”, if you can call it that, and each one brings its own interpretation of what the ghosts truly are. And my favorite of those is that of the very first game!

The first Pac-Man has three intermissions, famous for being where the second-most iconic Pac-Jingle is from, but they deserve to be even more famous for how bizarre they get. The first is pretty standard, with Pac being chased by Blinky, only to turn the tables and chase Blinky instead. The second, however, has Blinky get his sheet caught on something sticking out of the ground and rip, revealing a human-like leg! Are the ghosts just people wearing sheets...? Nope! Because in the third and final intermission, Blinky’s sheet comes ALL the way off, revealing him to be some bizarre flesh blob, wearing a sheet! Awesome! Is this true for all four of the ghosts? Is just Blinky hiding this embarrassing secret? Pick whatever explanation you think is funniest!

My SECOND favorite is from Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, a wacky point-and-click style adventure game where you manipulate Pac’s emotions in order to make him do funny things. I highly respect whoever thought this should be localized as the direct sequel to the most iconic video game of all time. But in this one, the base of villainous operations is a creepy factory, and if Pac gets caught in the machines, he turns into this familiar shape! Is... is this factory MAKING ghosts? Are they artificial? Wow!

The other iterations don’t have nearly as wacky implications for how the ghosts came to be, but I’ll tell them anyway. In the Pac-Man World series, they seem to be naturally occurring creatures native to the Spectral Realm, who entered Pac-Man’s dimension and began to live on Ghost Island. In Ghostly Adventures, they’re the souls that were forcibly extracted by the Pac-People who were on the losing side of a world war that killed Pac-Man’s parents, and are now forced to spend eternity in the Pac-Man equivalent of Hell. Bo-ring!

And now time to talk about even more ghosts you may not know about!

Clyde is the only member of the Ghost Gang I’m actually going to talk about here, because there are so many ghosts that the world needs to know about! Like Orson from Pac-Man World! He built and piloted a scary robot Pac-Man and kidnapped Pac-Man’s friends and family, but he just wanted to be loved. Pac does not accept this as an excuse. He eats Orson without a shred of remorse. I guess it’s justified from his perspective. They become friends later, though! Canon ghost friend!

Speaking of canon ghost friends, there’s Miru from Pac & Pal (she’s the pal)! I know she doesn’t look like a ghost, but she might be one. It’s kind of unclear. But I love her so here she is. She helps Pac by collecting fruit for him, but this gets fewer points than Pac doing it himself, so some players don’t like it. I, however, think it is worth losing a few potential points in order to let Miru feel like she’s helping.

Yet another friendly ghost is Yum-Yum from Junior Pac-Man! She is the daughter of Blinky, and she and Junior just want to be together, but of course, their parents will not allow it. That, however, is what ultimately allows them to be together, as while their parents are off bickering, the two little lovers are able to escape together! How lovely! Too bad Junior Pac-Man is in some bizarre copyright limbo and Yum-Yum never appeared again. Goodbye.

Here we have Bash, who is a somewhat strange character. He looks like he’d be the big bad boss of all the ghosts, right? Maybe even their ruler? Well, maybe he is, but we don’t know, because he was made exclusively for the Pac-Man crossover event in Sonic Dash! He never appeared again! I think he should, though! He’s funny. Despite his apparent authority, he just talks like a school bully.

One of the newest ghosts at the time of writing is Creepy, who as I’m sure you can tell, debuts in the Pac-Man DLC for Minecraft! This DLC is kind of weird. But good weird, because Miru is playable! Her most major role ever! But this is Creepy’s paragraph. He explodes, and this hurts not only the player, but his fellow ghosts, and even destroys walls, which crumble into glitchy text! Especially neat is that, when eaten, his eyes remain black with white pupils as they retreat to the Ghost House!

The VERY newest ghost at the time of writing is Itchy, from Pac-Man Party Royale! Itchy is not a “dangerous” ghost, but a “mischievous” one, and I think that’s great. As far as I know, they are only capable of inverting a player’s controls, but new effects were said to be included at some point. What a pleasant design, too, with the seafoam coloration and black sclerae! And how magical it was to witness a NEW GHOST revealed in real-time, during the time when Pac-Man was all I could think about! What are the odds? The odds were high. It’s the 40th anniversary year.

Finally, I will leave you with this little fellow. He appears in Pac-Man Arrangement, and is constantly vulnerable, even acting like a Power Pellet when eaten! However...

He can combine with the other ghosts to transform them, giving them new abilities! Blinky gains the ability to charge forward, Pinky can now hop to far-off points in the maze, Inky creates a mirror duplicate of himself that mimics his movements, and Clyde wanders around spitting up extra Pac-Dots in places Pac-Man has already been. That’s so cool! I love this ghost! I love that he has cute little nerd glasses, I love his role in the game, everything! Why haven’t we seen more of him? What’s his name, anyway?

I see.

#clyde #orson #miru #yum-yum #bash #creepy #pac-man #pac-man world #pac & pal #minecraft #sonic dash #pac-man arrangement #i am not going to tag the last one's name #Funky Friday #not mario #mod chikako

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indecisive-behaviors · 3 years

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Okay so I just reblogged a thing talking about season 2 and 3 of Cobra Kai and I have some Thoughts about what they did to everyone’s character arcs in this so if you’d like a rant it’s under the cut with spoilers from all 3 seasons plus spoilers for all 3 Karate Kid movies

Okay so my issues start with one very key scene that I personally think fucked up the whole rest of the narrative, and by extension everyone else’s character arcs: which is from Different but Same. And no not that scene- not yet at least.

The first scene that I think fucked over the narrative and killed several character arcs was the beach scene. Miguel, reasonably distraught over the idea that Sam is hiding him from her dad(which she is actually doing to be fair), gets completely drunk and when Sam and Robby arrive together he loses it, pushes Sam and subsequently gets dumped. Now why do I think this ruined everything? It completely goes against Miguel’s character up to this point. Miguel is absolutely trying to mimic Johnny in a lot of key ways but also up to this point Miguel has also been Johnny’s conscience; he’s smart and kind and had not at all shown to be anything even close to what Johnny was in KK1. He’s stood up for his friends, defended the girl he likes from bullies, he’s a huge mama’s boy and a bit of a hopeless romantic. In no episode up until that point does he ever display any tendency towards unnecessary violence, despite Johnny’s “strike first” motto. Miguel getting wasted and violent does not add up in my mind. Miguel is supposed to be a narrative parallel to Daniel for fuck sake. Also, and this is my main complaint, there is no fucking reason for Miguel to immediately jump to the conclusion that Sam is seeing Robby- literally none. They look very much alike, hell Robby looks a little like Amanda honestly, he could very well be her cousin for all Miguel knows. Robby and Sam don’t even act like a couple in the shot- they’re literally just sitting next to each other at family dinner. None of this subplot makes any fucking sense.

And then, obviously, there’s the very next scene- Johnny goes with Daniel back to his place, tipsy and happy and seemingly in a very good place with each other. Then Robby shows up, Johnny loses his shit and Daniel proceeds to get pissed and kick Robby out. Now there is one thing I point out about this scene whenever I talk about it that doesn’t add up: no where in this scene is it ever even implied that either Johnny or Daniel know about Robby’s original intentions. (Also nothing up till that point ever even establishes why Robby knows about Daniel and Johnny’s rivalry in the first fucking place for the record). There is no reason for Johnny to suspect that Daniel knew and was hiding it, or even that Robby was doing it on purpose, and there is no reason for Daniel to get mad or even suspect that Robby knew what he was doing or was lying about it; and the fact of the matter is that Robby never actually lied(also Daniel never fucking asked) about his home situation. His mom was neglectful and an addict, and his father wasn’t in the picture. That’s it, and none of that was a lie. Now I’m not sitting here and denying that what Robby did was wrong because it absolutely was-- it was manipulative and unfair to Daniel and he had a right to be angry when he found out it was the case but there is nothing to suggest that he didn’t just jump to conclusions. And also, personally, I don’t think any of that justifies kicking a teenager to the curb, and one that Daniel explicitly knows has no one and nothing to fall back on. Be angry, be furious with Robby, but leaving a teenager to fend for themselves is cruel and completely unjustifiable behavior from a grown ass adult(also there’s a whole can of worms involved in Daniel never trying to figure out where the fuck Robby’s parents are and letting him live there without an explanation but that’s for a different rant).

Now assume none of that weird subplot happens, there is another way to have the Robby and Miguel rivalry that would have made so much more fucking sense and it only hinges on one fucking thing- Robby enters the tournament. It could be with or without Daniel’s approval(maybe even with a KK3 parallel, but Daniel honestly seems pretty into the tournament these days so he’d probably be down for Robby joining and reping Miyagi-do), but all we need is for him to do it. Robby gets there, and Johnny sees him, potentially rocking a Miyagi-do gi and can have his surprised/hurt moment with him and Daniel, even potentially a confrontation between them. We can also still have Miguel beating Robby in the tournament and having Johnny be conflicted about his son losing. Hawk can even still hurt him and give Johnny his “holy shit this is wrong” epiphany and Miguel not understanding why Johnny wants him to go easy on Robby. Robby can still be hurt and upset by thinking Johnny cares more about Miguel after he loses.

Okay now as for season 2? Assuming everything stays the same in season 1, I have one MAJOR complaint. Robby becoming Sam’s love interest; and no it’s not because I think Miguel and Sam should be an endgame couple when the show is over(I do but that’s beside the point) but because it turns Sam into a plot device. This carries over into season 3 where she starts dating Miguel again and apparently just never breaks it off with Robby which is such a dick move I can not for the life of me imagine Sam of all fucking people doing it. She isn’t perfect by any means but she’s also outspoken and and much more confident by that point and should not have had a problem breaking up with someone in an email. But I digress, back to season 2- the moment I saw that Sam and Robby were going to be a couple I immediately knew the writers fucked up. There was no build up for it, nothing in season 1 to foreshadow this as a possibility(Different but Same doesn’t count because that was a whiplash of an episode) and they just decided offhandedly to put her in the middle of Robby’s and Miguel’s rivalry. There was no reason to make them a couple other than to fuck with Miguel and set up the Tory & Sam rivalry which could have happened fucking anyway with the shit at the country club, the rift between Sam and Aisha, and Miguel’s ongoing feelings for Sam even after he’s dating Tory(also a dick move what the fuck Miguel??). Adding Robby as fuel to the fire was super unnecessary and all it did was set up the clusterfuck that was the season 2 finale.

And OH BOY was that finale a clusterfuck. First of all, as a prelude- Fuck. Daniel. He pulled the exact same shit as in season 1 with dumping Robby the second he does anything even a little bit wrong. But also, as a gut punch, Robby didn’t actually do anything wrong. What was he supposed to do at the party? He couldn’t stop Sam from drinking even though he wanted to, it was her (very poor) choice. But he did what he could, he kept an eye on her, and when the cops showed up, he didn’t just leave her, he put her in the car and drove her somewhere he thought she’d be safe without having to immediately face her father(who super fucking overreacted btw) while she was recovering. This scene, which could have been an excellent bonding moment for Johnny and Robby, and an introduction to Sam getting to know Johnny outside of her father’s influence, was turned into a brawl for no fucking reason.

Which leads me to the school fight. And right off the bat I’ve got to say this; even as, and maybe especially as, a person who has written post season 3 fix it fics, there is no way for Robby and Miguel to convincingly fix what happened in the season 2 finale. Yes, what Robby did was absolutely an accident and he has already done his time for it. But the elephant in the room is this: Miguel could have died. Or at the very least, been totally paralyzed. There is not a good way to come back from that. They will always have that hanging over their heads, even if they somehow reach an understanding. And I know someone is going to try and make the argument about that being a parallel to Johnny and Daniel in KK1, but if it is that it’s a terrible parallel. What Johnny did was supremely fucked up and I won’t deny that, especially with the Halloween scene and Daniel’s knee in the tournament(which actually was technically more Bobby’s doing, but I digress), but it was never “almost permanently disable/kill someone” bad. (Again there’s a whole can of worms to open about the shit with Chozen and Daniel’s seemingly pretty easy forgiveness of a man who tried to kill him because what the fuck?? But again that’s another rant.) But the writers wanted to push the envelope so now Johnny will always have the tug of war of choosing Robby, who he loves but who also really fucked up, and Miguel, who was the original reason for the rivalry in the first place but who was also the one who, again, almost died because of his son, even if he somehow fixes his relationship with both. It will always be “why did you pick him over me?” and Johnny will never have a good enough answer for either of them. And finally the big complaint- Johnny completely regressing in season 3. Season 3 honestly felt like a rehashing of season 1 because we literally had to see him progress in his arc all over again from square fucking one. He still isn’t there for Robby, he’s still fucking up things with Miguel and his family, he’s still fucking up his relationship with Daniel, he still chooses to miss his appointment with Robby to see Miguel(who would have been there after the appointment and he could have seen him then), he abandons half of his fucking students to fend for themselves and leaves the other half with a man he knows is a dangerous psychopath. And yes we get the cool scene at the end of December 19, but is it worth it?? I’m genuinely asking because, as much as I love that scene, I really don’t believe it is.(edit: Also fuck that whole subplot with Eli and Demetri- you don’t get to just break the arm of the boy who was your best friend and just have that go away with no repercussions. Fuck. That. I hope Demetri gets at minimum an actual on screen apology, and hopefully Eli actually trying to make amends.)

We could have still had the big team up- have Johnny admit to Daniel that he’s fucked up and tell him everything that’s happening with Kreese. Have them join forces to defeat Kreese in the tournament. Have the dumb fucking bet. Introduce Terry Silver in season 4. Have Johnny’s and Daniel’s tenuous truce strained at every turn because they’re idiots. Do all of it. But y’know what? We could have had all of that- all of it- without it being at the expense of at least 2 character arcs; Johnny’s and also Robby’s.

Also before I end this I just have to add- nothing and I mean nothing will ever redeem Kreese or Silver for me. I do not give a singular shit about either of their tragic backstories, I just don’t. I get why and how Chozen got his redemption- he was a teenager when that shit happened, and while the shit he pulled is personally unforgivable in my opinion, he has actively been trying to redeem himself by spending the last however many decades making it up to his community. I’d even understand a Barnes redemption to an extent, even though I wouldn’t accept it, because he was also very young and being manipulated by, again, a dangerous psychopath. But Kreese and Silver? Abso-fucking-lutely not. They were two grown ass adults who purposefully targeted an 18 year old and put him through emotional and physical for weeks, paid someone to intimidate him through both threats of physical violence but also through vandalism, and gaslighted him and isolated him from the only family he had at the time because he beat them in a children’s karate competition. Look, I’m not sorry, I don’t give a fuck about Kreese’s tragic backstory, nothing about what Kreese has done can be rationalized by just saying “oh his mom and girlfriend died and he was in ‘Nam”. And any good thing he does for Tory, or even Robby, does not balance out all the harm he has caused. Silver is even less redeemable- I don’t care that he almost died in war, I’m an army brat I know plenty of people who almost died and don’t act like this. In canon we have evidence of him being completely, unrepentantly evil- the first scene with him in it has him basically confirmed as the BP of nuclear waste, he pays people so he can beat them up, he’s been personally funding Kreese’s child indoctrination classes. They could pull out the saddest backstory for him possible and I would not give a shit. And that’s fine. We don’t need every bad guy to have a tragic backstory- sometimes an evil villain can just be an evil villain for no reason, not all of them need a traumatic turning point that the authors shove in to make the audience sympathize with them. So please, writers, stop trying to make me feel sorry for them because I really don’t and I don’t understand anyone who does.

Okay rant over.

#cobra kai #karate kid #spoilers #johnny lawrence #daniel larusso #robby keene #miguel diaz #sam larusso #tory nichols #aisha robinson #eli moskowitz #john kreese #terry silver #demetri #chozen toguchi #mike barnes

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iwritethat · 4 years

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Nightwing: Alter Egos

A/N: I would like to apologise for my absence and lack of content, but new year so I’ll try harder. But there’s still CHRISTMAS and Halloween stories I want to post... Better late than never? If you want them that is.

(In this Nightwing and (Y/n) don’t know about one another’s vigilante life. Yet.)

>>>>—————————>

Usually, none of the team got a large amount of personal time with villains constantly threatening to end the world on a daily basis, but during rare periods of relaxation you spent the majority of your time with Dick Grayson - who happened to be one of your closest friends.

Obviously you couldn't tell him about being (s/h/n) because of the unspoken 'secret identity' rule despite how much you wanted to, however this arrangement did have it's advantages such as being able to keep your personal and hero lives separate.

"Hey (y/n)?" Rang through your mind and you noticed a hand waving in front of your face bringing you back to reality.

You were out shopping with Dick for your friends' Christmas presents, specifically for Wally who remained a mutual friend.

"You just completely zoned out on me." Dick laughed, seeing your confused expression.

"Did I? Sorry, I was thinking." You apologised, pushing his hand away with a smile.

"I guessed - are you gonna tell me what about, a big time crush maybe or some deep dark secret?" Grayson continued, tone filled with fake wonderment.

"Maybe, you tell me yours and I'll tell you mine." Was your upbeat response, implying that you were playing around.

"Deal - I'm Nightwing." Dick happily grinned, though his careless nature lead you to doubt him.

"Oh really?"

"No of course not (y/n), there's no way I'd have the time and I like my beauty sleep." Your friend assured you, maybe part of you was hoping he wasn't joking.

"That's a shame." You responded, tone still carrying some happiness as you continued looking through the stores' merchandise.

"How so?" Curiousity had got the better of Dick and he wanted to know what you had to say about him - uh Nightwing.

"Okay, well Nightwing is pretty cool, he has that cocky attitude that's quite attractive sometimes, being a vigilante is always a bonus and he must be good looking - from what I can tell. And his body! It's so amazing, he is just - umm I think I'm going too far?" You dragged yourself out of your lecture on Nightwing's alluring attributes once glancing over to Dick who seemed bemused with a raised brow.

"Oh no, please continue." Dick commented, undeniably enthralled and flattered but he couldn't understand the sinking feeling in stomach, you were saying these things about him yet to you, Nightwing was a completely different person.

"He's my favourite hero - that's all, possibly a tiny crush but it's unrealistic and I haven't even met the guy so I'm not going to fall head over heels in love with him. So don't look at me like that." You justified, true you weren't in love with the hero and you assumed your need to prove that to Dick Grayson was probably because you secretly liked him. Ah so many secrets.

"I get it (y/n), I personally think (s/h/n) is quite hot and a beautiful fighter." Dick responded wistfully, you couldn't help but blush even it was your alter ego he was talking about. It was times such as these you wished to tell him.

"Like you say, I haven't met her so she could be crazy for all I know. How about this for Wally?" Dick questioned, holding up a Flash Sweatshirt.

"No, he already has one." You reminisced, though you didn't forget his previous comment whilst he gazed at you skeptically leading you to defend your answer.

"Trust me he does, I bet we can find something else - if not you can just buy him food. And you're right, Nightwing could be a fuckboy." You stated nonchalantly, Dick however had to do a double take before following you out of the store desperately reminding you of your previous compliments of the hero much to your amusement.

~Time Skip~

The small Christmas gathering held at the Cave was quite exciting, though it was last minute so most were still dressed in their uniforms. Wally and Artemis even made an appearance which was unexpected but you were thankful, it had been a while since they'd left the team and admittedly it was quiet without them - even with the new recruits.

Wally knew about both yours and Nightwing's secret identities - being friends with both of you outside of heroing, but only found out who you were by accident. Honestly, he couldn't understand why Dick and yourself hadn't told each other but he'd promised to keep your secrets anyway because it wasn't his place to reveal such things - there were alternate ways to do so.

"You can see why someone would call you a fuckboy though right? The charm, the flirting, dating quite a few girls..." You half heartedly continued, responding to Nightwing's rambling of how his 'friend' outright insulted him.

"Yeah but (s/h/n) I really like this one. A lot, to the point where I don't even understand it. They're just everything I could ever want, I love everything that they do. I don't particularly want them to see me like that." Realisation hit the young hero, you on the other hand were watching on in disbelief but also with a look of sympathy.

You and Nightwing were close, so you got to know him well and you'd often talk to each other but this was new. Nightwing seemed lost in this person unlike any others you'd seen him with, even more so than with Zatana.

You smirked, ignoring the sudden breeze beside you and enlightened Nightwing with your wonderful advice.

"Wow aren't you love struck? It's horrible, I never thought I'd see the day, you should tell 'em what you just told me -"

"Sorry to interrupt guys but..." Wally intervened, pointing upwards towards the mistletoe dangling above your heads. Darn it.

"No no no. See, I've been avoiding that all evening, there wasn't any there earlier so how -" You argued before your eyes fell onto a smug Wally, too bad Kid Flash didn't forget how to use his super speed.

"One kiss?" Ex-boy wonder urged, since he knew neither of you would escape Wally's 'plan'.

Evidently, it was going to happen and kissing your superhero crush was a dream come true you supposed, so you went along with it. You placed one hand on his cheek/jaw and guided him to your lips and his held your waist loosely. Neither of you increased the intimacy, it only lasted 3 seconds maximum once you pulled away.

Wally held an expression of disappointment as that was not his desired outcome, the kiss you had just shared with his best friend was supposed to mean something. It was meant to be intimate and loving, you were supposed to tell/realise your feelings for each other - but nooo you're both just continuing your conversation like it never happened once you'd removed yourselves from the mistletoe. Wally threw his head back and sighed in frustration, he returned to Artemis who smirked at her boyfriend's antics.

"Nice try babe."

"Why did you pull away so fast?" Nightwing asked once you'd escaped the evil foliage.

"Same reason as you - I like someone else." You answered honestly, if Nightwing is willing to come to you with his relationship problems then you can get advice from him.

"Elaborate."

"I made the stupid - and clićhe - mistake of falling in love with my best friend." You proclaimed simply, rolling your eyes at your own idiocy.

"Hm, lucky guy." Nightwing's voice rang with cheerfulness once again.

"You would think, but I'm pretty sure my alter ego is friend zoned." Your tone upbeat and sarcastic causing you both to laugh.

~Time Skip~

You knocked on the door to the Manor, Bruce was invited to a gala for the New Year's celebration but the others decided to stay at the Manor which is where you were heading after Dick had asked if you were free.

It was late and New Years was approaching, wonderful at least at a party you may have the opportunity to kiss someone for good luck but you didn't mind missing out for your friends. Luck be damned.

"Miss (Y/n) I believe you left your scarf here from your previous visit, it is in Master Dick's room if you wish to collect it." Alfred greeted as you walked into the warmth the Manor provided.

"Sure, thanks Alfred." You nodded, going through to find Dick to ask for permission to enter his bedroom.

"Hey, can I grab my scarf from your room?" You called, politeness evident though you had given up your search since the Manor was huge.

"Sure (y/n)!" Dick responded from wherever he was, he understood and wouldn’t have minded if you didn’t ask but still.

Upon hearing his approval you made your way up the stairs and followed the route you knew by heart, calmly you opened his door and went to find your scarf. That's when you saw it, a Nightwing uniform strew across the bedroom floor, a string of curse words left your mouth after you got over your initial shock. Either Dick was Nightwing or an avid cosplayer, and if it was the latter why hadn’t he invited you?!

Cautiously, you began to piece together various situations in your head - as far as you knew no one else had insulted Nightwing via calling him a 'fuckboy' and did you really tell your best friend that you thought he had an amazing body that one time? Yes. Yes you did.

Taking a deep breath, you raced down stairs of the Manor focused on finding your friend despite the recent discoveries that were nagging at the back of your mind. Now most things made sense, if Dick was Nightwing then you were hoping that the 'friend' he was talking about was you - since you were the one who dared rip into his alter ego, though only in a friendly way.

Still you continued your search and luckily ran into him - literally. Arms were around your waist in an instant whilst you were mentally cursing yourself, you'd hoped it'd be smoother than this but you were willing to work with what you had considering the mini countdown ticking down to zero in your head - it was midnight!

"(Y/n) what are y-"

Instantaneously, you cut 'Nightwing' - Dick Grayson off by crashing your lips into his, unlike last time Dick was much more willing to reciprocate for you. Being lip locked with you meant so much to him and personally he wanted to make it last even if it was just for his own pleasure but was determined to make sure it was for yours as well.

Dick had eliminated all distance between you, his body was pressed against yours with his hands roaming your body and his lips moving against yours causing you to release a bearly audible moan. Though Dick heard it, of course he did, that's what he has been trying to earn from you the entire time - it meant he was making you feel good which was all he really wanted.

So when you felt him smile into the kiss after your small lapse of control you weren't surprised, painfully slowly you pulled away to leave a slight space between your lips'.

"Am I doing something wrong?" Dick inquired, his tone almost a soft whisper but carried a hint of disappointment that he'd tried to disguise.

"No, it’s amazing. You're amazing." You assured before he closed the gap again being more slow and gentle this time, deriving further pleasure for the both of you.

"That was nice... And Happy New Year fuckboy."

"Mmm, (y/n) - say what?!" Dick started, almost dreamily until your words had registered.

"I found this little thing - a uniform to be precise - on your floor." You replied, smirking slightly.

"(Y/n) I can explain just- just come with me." Dick pleaded, frustrated with himself for not putting it away in his rush to get ready. Quickly he guided you to the lounge, silently asking you to take a seat before he paced for a short time seemingly distressed. You faced your best friend expectantly, he had an explanation but where to start was a mystery.

"I wanted to tell you - I would have but with Batman and the team and I couldn't. It kept you safer too, (y/n) please I know you must be angry -" Dick began, rubbing the back of neck sheepishly.

"No I'm not angry, I completely understand." You cheerfully replied, your expression showing contentment.

"I'm so sorry (y/n) - what?" Dick looked at you completely puzzled, speechless, dumbfounded - he wasn't expecting this at all.

"That... was uh... easier than I thought?" The male concluded, still spectacle of your behaviour so much so he began to question reality.

"Yup, but just so we're even... Promise you won't freak out?" You requested politely, hoping he would react the way you did.

"I think I can do that." He nodded.

"I'm (s/h/n)." You blurted out, but you didn't get the desired response, instead you received a questioning look that implied he did not believe you.

"Trust me, you kissed me under the mistletoe at Mount Justice, the mission with the Ice villains, oh - when Bart crashed into our timeline. I also remember you talking about how love struck you were because of your friend." The final aspect of your explanation elicited a response from the one opposite you, he was blushing.

"You remembered that." Dick asked though it was more of a statement.

"I did."

"Well uh that friend - it was you (y/n), I don't understand or really know how to explain my feelings. You are everything I could ever want and I love everything you do. Shit (y/n) - I just really want to be good enough for you." Dick repeated the words he'd said to (s/h/n), or you as he'd just recently discovered, with sincerity.

"That's a relief because you're that best friend I told you about - I fell for you too." You replied sheepishly, getting to your feet.

You had no idea how happy that made him, he was in front of you in an instant placing yet another kiss on your lips.

"You give good advice (s/h/n) - and I recall you saying something about Nightwing having an amazing body." Grayson was smirking, cockiness practically radiating off of him knowing he had you cornered.

"You remembered that."

"I did." Grayson sang rather smugly, this beginning a new year with a new adventure.

...

"Oh I need to get my scarf, do you want to come with me?" You suggested, successfully changing the subject.

"Where is it (y/n)?" Dick inquired, more than willing to help you find it despite losing his moment.

"In your bedroom..."

#dick grayson #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson x reader #nightwing #nightwing x reader #nightwing imagine #dc #dc imagine

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erintoknow · 5 years

Text

don’t think that way

fallen hero fanfic, sidestep era with Ariadne, Ortega, and Anathema. content warning for discussion of physical abuse - inspired by a discussion question from @cheion-writes in the discord a little while back

~2.9k words

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“Sidestep! What are you doing here? There’s no emergency going on.”

“I just… I want to be ready?”

Anathema gives you a skeptical look, a smile tugging at their face. “Uh-huh.”

It’s been sitting at over a hundred degrees for the better part a week now, and even the super villains are staying indoors in front of their A/C units. That has nothing to do with why you’re planning to hang out at the Ranger’s HQ all day, of course. The presence of working air conditioning… is completely incidental.

You tug at the elastic of your face mask, willing the cool air to filter in faster. “Is that… is that okay?”

Anathema shrugs, “Steel just left to do a patrol, if that’s what you’re asking.” She moves to pat you on the shoulder, then hesitates seeing you already stepping back out of reach. “Sorry, I forgot.”

Thank god for masks. “Y-you’re fine.” You give her a thumbs up. “Don’t worry about it.”

Anathema gets you past the front desk; “She’s with me, Sarah!” and the two of you weave your way through the hallways of the building until you end up at Anathema’s office. Anathema motions for to grab a seat while she pulls up to her own desk. “Sorry, I was coming in to catch up on paperwork today. Not very exciting, I know, but it has to get done.”

You tilt your head, “You have to do paperwork?”

“Yeah… incident reports, give our accounts of how things went down, that kind of thing.” Anathema shrugs, leafing through a pile a folders and loose paper on the desk. “I don’t think most of it ever gets seen again? Not unless there’s a dispute, like someone rich gets a bee up their bonnet about property damage.” She looks up and waggles her fingers at you. “These babies are rated as lethal weapons you know.”

You laugh at that, “Well, I don’t want to distract you…” You scratch at your face. “Am I allowed to just, uh, look around? Maybe there’s a break room or something I can just… chill at?” This isn’t your first time inside the Ranger Headquarters, but there’s always been some pressing emergency to justify being here. You’ve never just… hung out before. It’s weird. Makes you feel weird. Why did you choose to come here again?

Anathema gives you a grin, “Probably not, but I won’t tell if you wont. If you go down this hall, take a right, there’s a break room with snacks and coffee at the end. I’ll catch up to you when I can.”

You tilt your head forward to approximate a smile. “Thanks Ana.”

“Themmy.”

“H-huh?” You rub the back of neck, anxiety creeping up over you. Did you misstep somewhere?

“If we’re doing nicknames I’d rather go by Themmy.”

“Oh. Oh, sure. Sorry, Themmy.”

Anathema smiles again before turning to back to her desk. “Don’t sweat it Sidestep.”

You take the shift in her focus as permission to head out. Finding the break room doesn’t take long, despite your temptation to linger and snoop around. You want to stay on the Rangers’ good side after all.

Speaking of good side… the first thing you see on entering the break room is an old off-white refrigerator humming in the corner. Themmy did say there were snacks… Suddenly your stomach is very insistent on reminding you that you haven’t eat yet today. “Alright fine, you dumb thing,” you mutter to yourself as you go rooting through the room. Just something small to tide you over, that won’t be missed. There, a box of snack bars, not in the fridge but the cabinet beside it. One little bar won’t matter to them right? They’re all rich anyway.

You roll up your mask just enough to be able to take a bite and try to swallow down your guilt. Turn your focus to the rest of the room. From the window you can look down and see the street below, busy with very important looking people all on their way from one place or another. For a moment you’re tempted to reach down and read some of them, but the desire passes. They aren’t a threat, you have to remind yourself, there’s nothing you need there.

One entire wall is taken up by a huge piece of framed cork board. Notices of varying age and relevancy are posted, notes to other Rangers. You’ve met most of them at least once now. It still doesn’t feel real, having them treat you as… well, not an equal exactly, but human certainly. They have no idea what you really are. There’s a kind of rush to it, flirting with disaster like this.

You frown, shift focus to avoid the guilt. Take another bite of the snack bar. Not as sweet as you’d like, but beggars are never choosers. One corner of the board has a collection of pinned photos. No masks, no uniforms or costumes. No one you recognize. Smiling faces, children, older adults, the parents? A little girl is in the middle of blowing out candles on a cake.

You grip your arm with your free hand as you finish the snack bar. You want to touch the picture, look at it closer, but it– it feels like there’s a wall between you. This isn’t a world you have any business being a part of. Something you’ve never had. Will never have.

“She’s cute, isn’t she?”

You jump, nearly drop the bar in your hand. How the heck did someone sneak up on you? Turn and– oh. It’s Charge. You step back and watch her as the woman saunters into the room with all the confidence of someone that knows exactly where she belongs.

“That’s my niece. Well, one of them? The family’s kind of huge, honestly.” She rubs the back of her neck and smiles at you.

Your heart’s still pounding from the surprise. You need to give some sort of response. Look normal. “Y-your relative, Charge?” Idiot, she just said it was her niece.

Charge keeps smiling though. “Yeah, I’m glad I was able to make it to the party this year.” The smile turns awkward as she shifts to look at the floor for a second before going back to you. “It can be hard to make time for family in this job, you know?”

“I– I guess.” Something about being around Charge makes you nervous, and sometimes the best thing for nerves is to take the offensive. “You kind of sound like an old woman, saying that.”

That gets a groan out of her, “Hey! I’ll have you know I’m 26.”

“That’s old.” You turn your head to look at her. For a moment you’d swear her eyes dart down to look at you mouth. That’s absurd though. Still, you tug your mask back down.

“Whatever.” She frowns, and shakes her head. Clearing out thoughts? Who knows. Every time you try to read her mind you get crackles of static and nonsense. Yet another thing about Charge that unsettles you. “Anathema mentioned you were here so I just thought I’d check up on things.”

You tilt your head. “You’re chaperoning me.”

She winces, holds out her hands as if to say ‘you’ve got me.’ “It’s not like I don’t trust you Sidestep, I do. But–”

“It’s fine.” You say, cutting her off and turn back to the bulletin board. “Are all these pictures of your family?”

That gets a laugh from her. “No. There are other members of the Rangers believe or not.” She hesitates for a moment before adding, “I do probably have the most pictures though.

“Don’t you uh, have an office?”

“Oh, I’ve got pictures there too.”

You feel weird, standing here, in a way you can’t quite grasp. Like there’s some obvious secret in plain sight but you can’t even see it, touch it. Only the effects of its gravity. You try to focus on the board instead. “What’s this about?” You point at one picture, it’s just someone’s arm wrapped in a cast.

Charge rubs the back of her neck once she sees what you’re pointing at. “Oh that’s one me actually. First time I broke a bone.”

“You put up a picture of you breaking a bone?”

Charge doesn’t look at you. “It’s a good reminder.”

“Huh? Reminder of what?”

Charge walks past you to take a seat at the table under the window. “Okay, well, there was this tree–”

“Hey Ortega, found our guest, huh?” Anathema gives you a small wave, which you carefully return. Maybe you should have warned Charge Anathema was coming?

Nah.

“Taking a break already, Themmy?”

Anathema touches a hand to her chest as she moves for the coffee machine. “Me? Take a break? You wound me.” She leans on the counter as the machine warms up. “Did I interrupt anything?”

You shake your head. “Charge was just starting to tell me about the first time they broke a bone…?”

Anathema looks thoughtful, then grins. “Ah, that story. Let me save you some time then. Our brave child marshal climbed to the top of a tree taller then her house and then jumped to the ground just to prove she could do it.”

You glance at Charge, surprised? Concerned? Why? She’s clearly still alive. “Wow.”

Charge leans back in her seat. “Don’t tell me not to do something, Sidestep, that’s just daring me to prove it wrong.” She laughs. “Man, I was so dumb. I’m lucky it was just the one arm I broke, I certainly deserved worse for pulling a dumb stunt like that. I got grounded for months afterwards.”

“Grounded?”

“Uh, yeah.” Charge rubs the back of her neck again. “No friends over either. Just stuck indoors with…” She makes a face. “Whatever, doesn’t matter.”

You glance at Anathema. Did you make Charge uncomfortable? There’s that weird tension in the air again. You aren’t just imagining it, right? A… normal person could ease things by sharing their own, similar story, but– You’re not playing a role here, you don’t have anything like that prepared.

Anathema claps her hands together. “Don’t mind her, Charge loves telling this story. She’s just mad I stole the thunder this time.”

Charge shoots a look at Anathema. “Maybe I should fill Sidestep in on Princess Starshine.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Anathema groans. “Damn, I regret ever telling you that story, I’m never going to live it down.”

Charge smirks at you, “Someone pulled a fast one on their parents for Halloween one year.”

“Charge. Please.” You look between the two of them, only relaxing when they both burst out laughing.

You chew your lip while the two of them chatter with each other. Maybe you could… adapt something? When the conversation lulls you take the chance to cut in. “Uh, that reminds me of when…” You trail off, thinking. How do you frame this?

Charge perks up, and leans forwards in her seat. “Oh, a Sidestep story? This is rare.”

“Don’t tease her Ortega.”

“Okay so,” you begin, speaking slowly as you pick your words. “We always had to… be in bed by curfew, right?”

“Yeah?” Charge nods for you to continue. Good, so that sounds like a normal person thing. You’ve got this then.

“Well, I would always sneak out once no one was watching so I could hang out in the, uh, the library. Until–”

“You snuck out at night so you could read books?” Charge asks, incredulous.

“Your parents kept a library?” Anathema looks at you, curious.

You flinch. Just finish the story, you can do this. “Y-yeah, well. I liked the history books.”

“Knew you were a nerd.” Charge whispers.

It’s not much of a death glare when your face is covered. “Shut up.”

You take a breath. “Anyway, I got caught eventually, and…” You put a hand over your mouth, laughing nervously. “Man, I think at least half the beating was just because I did such a shitty job of lying about it.” You add a mocking tone to your voice, “Yes sir, I just got lost looking for the bathroom and tripped into this pile of books on Ancient Greece. Pfffft.” You pull your arms tight against you as you look at the floor. You laugh to yourself again. The air in the room has turned sour but you keep talking, helpless to stop yourself. “I had bruises for months after that. But like you said,” you gesture in Charge’s direction, “it was pretty dumb of me, I deserved way worse than what I got.” As you finish talking it feels like your words are dissolving into empty air.

When neither Charge or Anathema say anything you tense up. You did what you’re supposed to in this kind of interaction, right? Did you give yourself away? You have to make yourself look up, reach out to get a sense of what Anathema at least is thinking. “Um…”

Anathema and Charge exchange glances. Charge looks stricken.

You dig your nails into your arm. “What? What’s wrong?”

Charge speaks first, hand half extended towards you. “Are you… okay?”

“I– I– I’m fine?” You voice breaks, panic rising up. “Why are you asking?”

“Sidestep…” Anathema’s voice is more careful than Charge. “Do you still… live with this person?”

“W-what? No it’s– it’s not what you think–” You just wanted to join in, not this: the way they’re looking at you… They’ll know, they’ll figure it out. They’ll figure it out and it’ll be over for you. Shit. Shit. Shit. You step backwards towards the hallway. “I– I should, I should go. Sorry. Sorry. I’m sorry.”

Charge stands up at of her chair, “Sidestep, wait–”

You don’t wait to hear the rest of the sentence. You take off down the hallway. Follow the path back out, don’t even acknowledge the receptionist. You need to go.

———

By the time you stop running you’ve managed to put several blocks between you and the Rangers, hiding a story up in the fire escape for a boutique shop. You slam a fist against the metal railing. Damn it! You ruined your chances with the Rangers. You’ll have to avoid them from now on. Maybe you should just skip town entirely? Being a vigilante already effectively cost you Chelsea, if you can’t even manage not to fuck that up maybe you should just give up altogether. The spotlight isn’t where something like you belongs anyway.

“Sidestep!” The name gets you attention and you look down into the alleyway, ready for a fight. If a drug dealer thinks they’re going to get back at you today, they’re going to regret it.

It’s not a drug dealer though; it’s Charge. Great. That’s just great. How…? Did she track you down herself? And so quickly? The thought makes your heart seize. “What do you want, Charge?”

“I just…” Charge shields her eyes against the sun as she looks up at you. “I just want to talk. Is that okay? Can we talk?”

Dig your hands into the metal of the railing, feeling the heat of the black paint against your hands, dulled by the skinsuit. “I said I was sorry.”

Charge gestures something, you’re not sure how to read it. “What are you sorry for?”

You take a breath to respond but no words come to mind.

“Do you mind coming down so we don’t have to yell?”

You pull at the railing, run through the scenarios in your head. Swallowing down fear you let go of the railing and climb down the ladder. When Charge approaches you shy back against the wall of the building. “Well? Talk.”

Charge doesn’t respond right away. There’s a pained look in her eyes as she looks at you and you have to look away, focus on something else like the gum ground into the cement. “Are you okay?” She asks.

“Of course I am.”

“You’re not acting like it.”

“I’m fine.” You insist. “Sorry for ruining things. It was… unprofessional. It won’t happen again.”

Charge is still looking at you like she wants to touch you. “That’s not– fine.” She sighs. “I’m glad you’re okay. But… if you ever want to, you know… talk about it, Anathema and I would both be willing to listen.”

You let the silence hang there, silently wishing she’d leave. That your powers would work on her so you could make her leave. Or better, forget this ever happened.

“I…” Charge winces, like she’s just swallowed something painful. “I know what it’s like, okay?”

You stare at her, taken aback. She’s not anything like you, she’s human after all. What is she talking about? But in the moment, even in uniform, Charge doesn’t look anything like the smug superstar hamming it up for the news. Ortega looks… weirdly vulnerable.

“Don’t– don’t think of yourself that way, okay?” The tension in her body creates a few errant sparks from her emitters, running up her arms. If they hurt, she doesn’t show it. “You don’t… deserve to be hit, okay?” She’s obviously restraining herself, but she has her arm outstretched to you.

You stare at her hand. At her face. You feel… you don’t know what you feel. You don’t know what you feel a lot lately. You want to blame the hormones. They’ve been swinging your emotional state all over the place as you trial and error your way to a ‘correct’ dose. That’s… that’s all this is, nothing else. Just medication messing you up. In fact. This is great. Maybe now you won’t have to field any more questions about your past.

“Okay.” You say. You take Ortega’s hand and there’s a small jolt of static electricity, not enough to hurt. She grips your hand back and smiles at you.

#fallen hero #fallen hero: rebirth #fallen hero fanfic #fanfiction #fhr #wlw fanfic #fhr/Ariadne #mc #ortega #anathema #tw: abuse #trans character

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