#theyre the dream team (trouble makers) :) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

luxaofhesperides · 5 months

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Danny accidentally appearing out of Duke's shadow. And doing it purposely every time after that. ; requested by @kyrianclawraith! (deviated from your original prompt a bit, sorry! the ghostlights brainworms got away from me)

Traveling through shadows has become second nature for Duke after using them so extensively over the years. He even uses them as a civilian, hopping between shadows when he’s running late to class so he doesn’t have to stress out over traffic.

Not even Batman’s scoldings can stop him from making it on time to his classes. Risks need to be taken for the sake of his education!

The shadows are comforting. They hide him from sight, get him to where he needs to go, and gives him the alone time he needs when he’s been around people for too long and desperately needs some quiet to recharge. Duke would say that he’s well versed in the shadows at this point, no longer stumbling out into the light.

Even with all his practice and confidence, he still can’t prepare himself for tripping over someone in the shadows while he’s trying to escape some of The Riddler’s goons.

They both go tumbling out of the shadows, landing in a corner hidden by storage shelves. The poor tripping hazard of a person is under him, groaning lightly as he reaches up to press a hand to the back of his head, where he hit the concrete floor.

“Oh, shit,” Duke whispers, “I’m so sorry. What are you doing here? How are you here?”

“I was hiding,” the guy hisses back at him. “I wanted to get out of the rain and dozed off and when I woke up, guns were being shot! I was up in the rafters, so excuse me for thinking no one would find me up there!”

Another gunshot rings out, alarmingly close to where they are.

Duke curses under his breath, then picks up the guy and hauls him over his shoulder. “Time to go!” And then he’s disappearing into the shadows again, following the line of them outside the warehouse and down the street.

As soon as they’re safely away from the goons, Duke steps out of the shadows and carefully sets the civilian back onto his feet.

“So sorry about that,” he says, “But I need to get back and deal with them. Stay safe!”

He’s gone before the civilian can say anything else, and though it’s embarrassing that he tripped over someone while shadow hopping, at least it ended relatively well. It’s not like it’ll happen again.

Duke, sweet, naive Duke, doesn’t think much of the civilian again. He’s a busy guy with a busy life! Lots of things to do! Lots of embarrassing moments to keep secret from the other Bats! No one has mentioned it at all, so he thinks he’s safe from being teased about it.

That is, up until he’s training with Dick and a hand pops up out of his shadow.

“Um,” Dick says, backflipping away from Duke’s punch. He lowers his escrima sticks and squints at the space behind Duke. “Are you… trying something new with your powers?”

“...No? I’m not using my powers right now.”

Dick looks more and more alarmed. He won’t look away from the space behind Duke, and it’s making him nervous. He doesn't want to look, but he knows he has to.

Steeling himself, Duke takes a deep breath, then turns slightly to see what’s behind him.

Nothing.

His gaze goes down, and he sees a pale hand sticking out of his shadow, moving back and forth. It then comes out some more, up to the elbow, and the hand pats the ground Duke’s shadow lays on, a stiff mat perfect for sparring.

Behind him, Dick turns on his escrima sticks, the electricity crackling through the air.

The hand disappears for a moment.

Then two hands appear and grab the ground, hauling up a body from Duke’s shadow.

Duke is very well versed in shadows. He travels through them almost daily. He thinks he would know if there was some strange netherworld hidden in the shadows where other beings could pop out of shadows like portals. This is alarming, to say the least.

“Don’t move, Duke,” Dick warns, creeping closer, ready to attack.

A head pops out of his shadow. Whatever it is glows and their white hair moves softly as if underwater. They’re facing away from him, so he can’t see their face, but he can see the black, skin-tight suit their wearing as they float up from his shadow, no longer needing their hands to pull themself out.

“Huh,” they say, looking up at the ceiling.

Dick grabs Duke’s arm and pulls him back, shielding him with his body. “Who are you?” he demands, voice cold.

The creature/person startles and whips around to stare at them with wide green eyes. His gaze darts down to the electrified escrima sticks, then back up again, visibly nervous.

“Um, hi! Sorry, I didn’t know anyone would be here. Wherever this is.”

“How did you get here?”

“I was practicing a new portalling method. I found a ghost to teach me how to move through shadows, since my usual portals are very bright and noticeable. Not great when you’re trying to be stealthy! I did not mean to end up here.”

Duke stares at him. “You came out of my shadow.”

“Sorry,” the guy repeats. Then he squints at Duke. “Hey, didn’t you save me the other day? From the warehouse?”

It’s been a while since Duke’s saved anyone from a warehouse. Criminals and goons have moved on to condemned apartment complexes and the back rooms of bars. The only person he’s saved is the tripping hazard…

“Man, what is up with you and getting caught in my shadows?”

“This is your fault!” the guy insists. “I associate shadows too strongly with you! That’s why I’m here! Probably. I don’t actually know how this works.”

“You don’t know how it works but you did it anyways.”

“It sounds bad when you say it like that.” The guy floats down to the ground and offers Duke a hand. “I’m Phantom, by the way! Figured I should introduce myself because this will happen again.”

Duke considers introducing himself as the Signal, but Danny is looking directly at his bare face, so it’s lost cause. Talk about an unexpected security breach. “Duke. You looked a little different when we first met.”

“Yeah, that was my human form. This is my ghost form.” A watch on his wrist, some clunky looking thing that looks like it came from the early 2000s, beeps and Phantom frowns at it. “Shoot, I need to go. I’ll see you later!” And he dives right back into Duke’s shadow, disappearing.

Duke blinks at the empty space where Phantom used to be, still reeling from the shock of it. He’s so busy processing the last few minutes that he doesn’t hear the escrima sticks turn off until Dick is dropping a heavy arm around his shoulders, holding him in place. There’s a smile on his face, but it’s not happy; it’s a warning that he’s at his limit and is barely hanging on to niceties.

“So,” he says as Duke cringes, “Looks like we need to have a talk about the things you’ve been hiding from us, Duke.”

He can’t do anything but resign himself to his fate.

After that conversation, he’s instructed to let them know when Phantom pops up. Which is fine until he realizes that Phantom really did mean it when he said that it’ll happen again.

Phantom pops up constantly. Most of the time, Duke is lucky enough to be at home, or in the Manor, or in the Batcave away from the public where no one will freak out about a glowing boy popping out of his shadow. Sometimes, he’s in the middle of the street as a civilian and has to sprint away, ducking into the first empty alley he can find in order to climb up onto the rooftop where no one will see him.

It’s stressful and confusing and he wishes he could be more upset about it, but Phantom is fun. He’s funny and charming and tells the craziest stories about ghost fights that Duke can’t help but hang onto every word.

He dutifully updates his Phantom Log, noting each time he’s portaled through Duke’s shadow, any information he’s revealed, and an injury count after Duke noticed a concerning pattern of Phantom often showing up after he’s been in a fight.

Duke begins to get a feel for when Phantom is about to show up. A shiver runs down his spine and his awareness of the shadows around him grows. Sometimes, he could swear he could feel something tear apart in his shadow. He feels it then, a tear that stitches itself up almost instantly, a ripple in the shadow, before that familiar hand pops up again and Duke grabs hold of it to haul Phantom out into his bedroom.

He is, once again injured. There’s a large gash running down the length of his other arm, bleeding a toxic, glowing green.

“Dude,” Duke says, unable to keep the judgment out of his voice.

“You should see the other guy,” Phantom snorts. “I slammed him through five streets, then ripped his limbs off.

“Dude…”

“Just to be clear, they weren’t his real limbs. He has a robot suit he uses like a body because he’s like a tiny little bean.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how to take that. Anyways, have you still not figured out how to open portals that aren’t connected to my shadow?”

Phantom shrugs. “Nope. And I’m not really trying to figure it out. I like hanging out with you. Plus, it’s nice to see a friendly face after a fight.”

“Can’t you like, go home and have your family take care of you first.”

“Uh, better not,” Phantom laughs nervously. “They’d probably kill me for real if they saw me like this.”

Duke quietly notes to himself to add that statement to the Alarming Things Phantom Says list.

“Does it… bother you? Me always coming to you?” There’s a smallness to his voice, a fragility that makes Duke want to beat himself up for making Phantom feel like that.

“No! No, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t keeping you from anyone else.”

Phantom brightens. “Oh! Well, no need to worry about that. No one’s worried, back home. They know I disappear sometimes.”

…Another concerning thing. Duke is considering bribing Phantom into staying in Gotham forever, living in his shadow, just so he can take care of him. Just to be sure Phantom’s safe. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asks, eyes flickering down to Phantom’s bleeding wound.

Phantom futilely tries to hide the wound with a hand. The green blood leaks out from between his fingers, and he applies more pressure to the wound with a faint wince. “Nope! All good here. I’ll heal in no time, honest.”

“Then, do you want to just hang out? I really don’t know why you’d chose to keep coming to me.”

“You’re good company, dude. Very chill. Very fun. And you’re a hero! That’s so cool. Why wouldn’t I keep coming back?”

Duke shrugs, not sure how to put his insecurities into words. He’s already starting to get the Bat-specific inability to communicate emotions, which is definitely a problem. He’ll need to spend time with other people to be normal again.

As if sensing that Duke’s mood is falling, Phantom launches into another tale, complaining about people who bother him, teachers who are terrible at teaching, having snark-fights with the embodiment of Time itself, and so on. He always has the craziest stories, and he tells them so casually that Duke has to second guess himself, wondering if he’s overreacting when he’s shocked by what Phantom tells him.

He starts telling his own stories as well, mostly fun civilian interactions he’s had since they last spoke, villain fights, the ever changing theories on the ‘Who is Batman Sleeping With Now?’ shared document all the other Bats have. By the time an hour passes, Phantom’s arm is fully healed and he’s flying in lazy circles above Duke.

His watch beeps again in the middle of him recounting the insane drama happening at his school. Phantom sighs and sinks back to the floor, hovering just above Duke’s shadow.

“Thanks for letting me stay,” he says, voice warm.

Duke shrugs. “You’re good company. I like when you visit.”

A slow, soft smile spreads across Phantom’s cheeks, making him glow even brighter. “Sweet talker,” he accuses fondly, then flies in for a quick, tight hug. He pulls back before Duke can reciprocate, and salutes him with a cheeky, “See you soon!” and is gone, flying into Duke’s shadow before he can respond.

Shaking his head fondly, Duke falls back against his bed.

Despite how unconventional their friendship is, he is glad Phantom keeps coming back. He hopes he’ll get to see Phantom’s human form again.

…And get more used to the horror movie scene that is Phantom clawing his way out of his shadow. No matter how many times he sees it, the sight still makes him jump.

Not that he’s ever going to admit that.

If Phantom thinks he’s cool, he’s going to do whatever he can to keep that impression from changing. It’s only reasonable, really.

(“Shut up, Dick,” he says later when he recounts this encounter with Phantom. Dick just keeps laughing, endlessly amused that Duke got ‘jumpscared into a crush’ as he phrased it. That’s definitely not what happened.

Next time, he’s definitely convincing Phantom to scare Dick with him.

Revenge will be his.) . . .

[send me ghostlights prompts! one day left before they close on 11/17]

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #dc x dp fic #dp x dc fanfic #prompt fill #my writing #100% after danny gets a hang of traveling thru shadow portals more hes going to help duke in fights #meaning duke is going to throw a ball of shadows like a pokeball and dannys going to pop out of it to deliver a spectacular flying tackle #theyre the dream team (trouble makers) :)#thanks for the prompt!!

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wordswithloveee · 5 months

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abimee · 1 year

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people always tell me my art style remindse them of childrens book illustrations and i rarely make kid friendly stories anymore but you know what i need to make some so here

Aria Wewason is a freshly indoctrinated middle schooler of the Island Cities Elementary School in the disastrous and opportunistic year of 2008; smartboards and chunky computers have just been rolled into the classrooms, and on-line video-hosting websites have just taken off in the public conscious, and Aria has one dream set in her mind above all else --- to start a media production club in her final years at her school, and become the host of her own web series!

However, she lives in a secluded and slow-to-the times town tucked in the farthest reaches of Wisconsin; where iPhones are still coveted between the rich kids, and most kids her age still lived off of their parent's landlines and slow-running computers and have little to no access to the world wide web. Aria herself has little knowledge of technology herself, but is determined to become the most tech-savvy kid in her school and show the world her creativity and imagination through video!

Luckily, she's got a team behind her set to help her out;

her best friend since they were in preschool, Bell Mabel, who has access to the latest home computer through her parent's at-home jobs, and even owns her own Nikon handheld

the most popular --- and richest --- girl in school [name here], who after a rocky start in elementary school spent picking on Aria came to consider Aria her best and only friend, with an obsession for trading card games and with one finger on the pulse of all things gaming

a strange and energetic 4th grade who asks everyone to call her ''Tock'', who has a school-renown habit of causing trouble and gaining the ire of the teachers around her, yet is unmatched in her artistic and roleplay skills, and her through place in special education has a curious and strange level of knowledge of the inner workings of the school.... including where their budget goes?!

two IT techs crammed into a small closet the school calls their ''server room''; highschool dropout Ryder MacNamara, the second in command and often the one running around from classroom to classroom helping with the daily disruptions and presentations. Also known to moonlight as the Friday Popcorn maker, and routinely known to interrupt gym class to ''borrow'' the use of the gym teacher's microwave stashed in their room, which usually brings no less than five minutes of her picking on the teacher in front of the kids and making them laugh.

Ruyan Wozniak, a married woman and the showrunner behind everything plugged into the walls of the school. Often only found crammed into the small closet with her army of cables and screens, and known for her unending amount of kindness and patience for the students of the school when seemingly nobody else would listen to them, she has grown to become the kids' favorite ''teacher'' of them all, but when asked if it's true that she's married to the gym teacher she will often lie and tell them that theyre siblings, and she's actually married to a famous football quarterback for some reason

Seth Wewason, Aria's younger brother and classmate of Tock, whos always following around Aria and talking about wanting to be a weather forecaster on their local channel some day.

With the support of her friends and two IT nerds behind her, Aria is dedicated to seeing her goal achieved, and to leave the lasting legacy of the founder of the media productions club at her school! But when the Charter School section of her school --- a hallway blocked off from the rest of them, and spoken to in hushed whispers as ''holy curriculum'' full of classrooms with bean bag chairs and no homework --- begin to talk about forming their own media productions club, will Aria and co be able to defy their odds and be the ones to first the school's first-ever video-based morning announcements, or will Aria's only shot be taken away by the prestigious elites of the school?

#comes included with a very obvious bit about middle school currency wars and going to the nurses office etc etc #ocs #what to call it. hmmmm. lights camera classroom there #Lights! Camera! Classroom!

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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Meet the fancy birth control app promises to be as effective as the pill

To do it or not to do it? That is the question.

Image: Natural cycles

It sounds like a dream: opening an app instead of taking a birth control pill. Swiping and clicking instead of fumbling with a condom. But before you get too, uh, excited, it’s not as miraculous as it sounds.

This birth control app is called Natural Cycles. It’s billing itself as the only approved contraceptive app out there, and after you input a lot of information and it gets to know your body’s patterns over the course of several months, this handy app can determine your fertile periods and tell you when to avoid sex. (It can also be used in the reverse by couples trying to get pregnant.)

The app, which is now available for iOS and Android, was designed by a husband and wife team of two physicists, Dr. Elina Berglund and Dr. Raoul Scherwitzl. They initially developed the algorithm for their own use and then decided to turn it into an app for everyone. They have gone to a lot of trouble to have it an approved and CE marked as medical device.

What does this mean for you? Essentially it means they’ve had to meet quality assurance and development standards set by German testing organization Tv Sd, and they are now the only fertility app that can be prescribed by doctors in Europe and the UK.

Image: natural cycles

While it’s been proven to be very good at what it is, it’s essentially the rhythm method 2.0: a souped up version of what women have been doing for decades, charting their temps. The app’s tracking system is based on the Fertility Awareness Method, a widely used way of monitoring ovulation using your basal body temperature.

You use a basal body thermometer (which offers a more precise measurement than the kind youd use to see if you have a fever) to take your temperature first thing in the morning. You input that information into the app, and its algorithm uses it to tell you whether its a green day, when its fine to have unprotected sex, or a red day when you are fertile and should use protection or abstain.

SEE ALSO: Requests for IUDs are up 900% at Planned Parenthood

Sounds simple enough. And theyre pitching this product as a side-effect free alternative to hormonal birth control and an improvement on using inconvenient and clumsy barrier methods during the entire month. But the truth is that Natural Cycles is hardly the one-size miracle solution weve all been waiting for.

For one thing, the fertility awareness method is best for people who are in a committed relationship with a single partner, have a regular enough schedule to allow for accurate temperature charting, and the discipline to be consistent and to abstain from sex (or use protection) when necessary.

You also have to be in a position to be okay with getting pregnant if the method fails. After all it is an app, and even a fully regulated and certified one can make mistakes.

That rules out a lot of people! Of course other methods of birth control require some degree of consistency (gotta take that pill every day) and discipline (gotta use that condom) too. But there is a lot of potential user error with this method and it offers no STD protection, if that’s a concern.

Image: natural cycles

That said, according to a study the makers of this app conducted, if you do a reasonable job of inputting data on a regular basis, using Natural Cycles is as effective at preventing pregnancy as the pill. It’s more effective than using condoms alone, but it’s less effective than an IUD. Obviously, no birth control method is 100% effective all the time for everyone.

If you do decide you are ready to hop aboard the natural family planning train, this is a pretty sophisticated way of doing it. Their algorithm factors in things like sperm survival times and cycle irregularities.

Still, LH testing is really the only surefire way to know in an at-home setting that you are, in fact, about to ovulate. (That typically means dipping a special stick into your urine to measure luteinizing hormone, which is produced by your pituitary gland and surges quickly right before ovulation occurs.) Natural Cycles does give you the option of inputting LH test results to improve its accuracy even further.

SEE ALSO: College student unclear on difference between pregnancy test and thermometer

But here’s the thing: this app requires a paid subscription. At the moment, the cheapest plan costs $6 a month for the year and includes a thermometer. A monthly plan will run you $10 with no thermometer included. (There’s also a one month free trial.) Neither plan includes a way to test your LH levels.

So you’re paying for the app, you’re measuring your temperature first thing every morning (and hand-inputting it into your phone) and if you really want to be diligent, you’re also monitoring your LH levels. And, if you do everything right, you’re probably getting a very pinpointed idea of when you should not have sex. Great.

But you could also just measure your temperature on your own, keeping track of it in one of the many free fertility apps already available. (Or even on old-fashioned paper like our foremothers did. Gasp!) Or you could just use a fertility monitor that measures LH levels, which aren’t cheap but it’s just a one-step process instead of three or four. Or you always could try one of the many new wearables or IoT devices designed to help you track your cycles.

The point is that while this particular app is far better regulated and held to a much higher quality assurance level than a lot of the other options in the very crowded app market, it’s still just an app. If youre a person for whom the fertility awareness method is a good fit, then this can certainly be an effective (if unnecessarily complicated and expensive) way of practicing it.

But if your primary concern is remaining fetus-free without a ton of hassle, then put your phone down and get yourself an IUD.

BONUS: This new at-home fertility test lets you zoom in on your sperm