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pl-panda · 4 years

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The vines that bind us - Chapter 9

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She opened the window and picked a pencil. With deadly precision she tossed it. The wooden tool sailed through the air until it hit the binoculars and broke one side of them. She huffed and closed the window before pulling the curtains closed. How rude.

Jason cursed under his breath. Any other day he would probably avoid the projectile, but it caught him completely by surprise. By all accounts, it was physically impossible to use a pencil with such precision and force to destroy military-grade night-vision binoculars. At least the memory card was safe so he could give it to replacement later on for analysis.

Still in bad mood after having his gear ruined, Jason zipped to Dupain-Cheng’s window and gave a light knock. No response. Another knock. Still no response. Finally, after the third knock, the blinders opened and the window itself followed, revealing a very angry girl. Jason finally had a chance to get a better look at her. She did, in fact, have blue hair and now that he’d seen it close, he would bet half his paycheque that it was somehow a natural color. The purple too. She must have had her hair dyed for the first day of work. Her eyes were another part that he memorized. They were blue and iridescent green at the same time, giving a slight unnatural aura. Or maybe it was just that she looked ready to murder him.

“Are you done staring?” She asked, clearly annoyed. “You are not my type and much too old. And the stalker routine is plain creepy. Get lost old guy.”

She was about to close the window when he started speaking.

“I actually came to apologize. I did not ‘stalk’ you, thank you very much. I was just checking on you, miss. You do realize that you single-handedly kicked Riddler’s ass and got quite a bit of publicity.”

“Suuure. You do that for every brave citizen?” She asked with a raised eyebrow and a small grin. “You would be really short-staffed. I hope that overgrown furry does pay you for the overtime.” Any traces of amusement disappeared from her face. “Now get lost before I sic Chloe on you. She recently started dating Damian Wayne and the two seem to bond over ruining people. I’m sure you would make a decent target.” Without further ado, Mari closed the window and put the blinders back in place, completely cutting him off.

Jason didn’t protest. He was too busy processing the fact that Demon Spawn apparently started dating someone. Oh, he would have so much fun teasing the little menace.

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When the motorbike entered the Batcave, Jason expected to meet perhaps the Replacement or Demon Spawn. He definitely did not expect to see the entire family sans B and Alfred.

“Do you want to perhaps explain why dad received an angry call about ‘some idiot in red bucket’ stalking her through the window?” Barbara asked. frowning deeply.

“Or at least why were you stalking her?” Dick added.

“Or where you hid my coffee?” Tim joined.

“Timothy!” Several of them shouted.

“What? It’s important!”

“Back to the matter at hand.” Dick turned back to Jason. “What exactly were you thinking?!” He screamed.

“Geez. You thought about joining some opera?”

“Tt. Answer the question.” Damian interrupted.

“That reminds me. Did you know Demon Spawn got himself a girlfriend?” Jason asked, trying to deflect. He really did not like how they jumped at him.

“Not… important.” Cass stared daggers at him. “Talk.”

“Fine!” he threw hands in the air. “I followed a hunch. And I was right. She is a meta!” He procured his destroyed binoculars. “There is no human way to destroy military-grade equipment like that with just a pencil.”

Tim picked it up and quickly tossed it onto the table nearby. A blue light scanned the products and the bat-computer started to display the scan plus introductory analysis.

“Well, he is right. There is no way that a simple pencil could destroy it.” He pressed some buttons and recording from the last seconds of the item’s life played. They could clearly see her throw a pencil at it and then everything went black. “Or I was wrong.” Tim started to do a series of calculations.

“Bucket-head might be onto something. With her muscle mass, it would be impossible to throw a pen with enough force. Actually, it’s almost impossible to make that throw. Not with human muscle density…”

Barbara rolled over to him and the two started to work side by side. “But that’s also not probable since the body is not…”

“She would probably…”

“Plant fibers have a similar structure, but she would…”

“Maybe… Unless she is not strong and instead…”

“Um… earth to nerd corner. Can you explain?”

“Jason might have hit the bullseye.” Tim grinned and several groans could’ve been heard. “She is definitely a meta. It still doesn’t explain why you stalked her.”

“Is that not reason enough?” Red Hood asked. He immediately regretted it when Duke stared daggers at him.

“You do realize, that metahumans are not as rare as it was believed at the beginning?” Tim asked.

“What?”

“Roughly ten percent of humans are born with dormant meta-gene and the number is increasing each year. And about one in twenty people have an active meta-gene. They just don’t go around wrecking everything or don a cape and run around beating people.” Tim spoke in a matter-of-factly tone.

“What?”

“Yeah. Eidetic memory, or perfect recall for our uneducated bucket-head,” Tim snickered while Jason grumbled.

“I hate that name.”

“I think it will stay for a while.” Stephanie was smiling. “She does have a way with nicknames. First an overgrown furry, then red Buckethead…” She was on the verge of laughing. “I wonder what she does next?”

“As I was saying,” Tim regained the control of the conversation, “eidetic memory is actually one of the earliest forms of registered active meta-ability.”

“What?”

“The gene tends to activate under extreme duress, but, as we learned, the definition of extreme duress varies from person to person.”

“So what? A guy afraid of failing an exam might accidentally unlock super memory?” Jason dismissed it.

“More like if someone lived in years under pressure and is about to crack.” Dick pointed. “I mean there was even this large awareness campaign about four years ago led by Beast Boy. Where were you?”

“Dead.” Jason deadpanned. “I was dead.”

“Oh… I guess you didn’t see Garfield’s movies then?” Steph asked, being the first to break through the heavy atmosphere.

“She is still a meta.” Jason tried to fight, but his arguments were wavering.

“Which changes nothing. You will go to her tomorrow and apologize.” Tim said categorically.

“Ugh! Fine. But I got one more interesting fact: Demon Spawn got himself a girlfriend.” He grinned and turned to Damian. Everyone followed his gaze.

“Tt. I have no idea what you are talking about Todd.”

“That blonde! Charlie saw you two sitting and eating pastries together! She is the new intern!” Dick had a big fat smile on his face and his eyes were almost glittering. “Who is she? How did you two meet?”

“Blonde?” Tim suddenly paled considerably. “There is only one blonde intern. Please tell me you aren’t dating Chloe Bourgeoise of all people!” He squeaked.

Damian wanted to deny it further, but seeing the Replacement’s reaction he changed his mind. The grin that formed on his face was borderline malicious before turning back to the emotionless mask he wore every day. “Yes. She finally admitted that I was not at fault for the cake incident. She is actually tolerable now.”

“What cake incident?” Steph asked, smelling some juicy story about her ex. That kind of story was the best.

“Tt. When we were at this gala in Paris two years ago, Replacement attacked me and we fell into the birthday cake.”

“It doesn’t sound…” Dick started, but Damian interrupted him.

“The cake had six levels and was about as tall as I am now. Mayor Bourgeoise was not happy that we ruined his precious princess’s birthday.”

“So that’s why we no longer go to Paris?”

“Tt. No. That’s because Jason almost trashed the Louvre.”

“Right…” Tim mumbled while his eyes closed. In just a moment, he was snoring away on the chair.

“Damn. I thought it would work faster.” Barbara complained while peeling the near-invisible sticker away from his neck.

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Thursday actually passed without any trouble for Marinette. The class finally got it through their collective single brain cell that she had the power to end their trip with two words. She was slowly getting the grip on the work and after some talk with Penny, where the woman practically forced Mari to listen to some additional advice. She was actually offended that the girl didn’t call her immediately.

She did have to practically drag her barely conscious boss to a meeting in the afternoon, but he didn’t put up much of a fight after she gave him a Tikki Special Coffee. The small goddess giggled inside her pocket the entire time as the boy begged on his knees.

After work, she and Chloe went to the Gotham Zoological Garden. At first, she wanted to go to the Botanic Garden first, but their class was supposed to visit there after work, so the girls went to Zoo instead. Gotham had a much broader collection of birds than Paris did. And the less chance of running into their classmates, the better.

“...He did what?” Chloe asked louder than necessary, but nobody paid the two girls in smart outfits any attention.

“Yeah. But don’t worry. I gave him a piece of my mind.” Mari dismissed it.

“It’s still creepy.”

“I know. That’s why I sicced the police at him.”

“That’s my girl!”

“Well, I threatened to send you and Damian after him, but I decided it would be too cruel.” She smiled. “Besides, I’ve seen that Red Buckethead is trending already.” She pulled out her phone and showed a post there was a picture of Red Hood next to a reversed red bucket.

FashionMari @QueenGoldie Someone in a red bucket was stalking me. I was torn between calling the police and criticizing their fashion choice. In the end, I did both.

“Only you Goldie. Only you…”

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Friday was press conference day. For once, Mari woke up earlier and got dressed in record time. Chloe watched from the side-lines as the girl moved around like a tornado, preparing everything and triple-checking all arrangements. She changed outfits four times before finally the blonde grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to sit down.

“Goldie! You know I love you and I would kill for you,” She started, “but if you don’t calm down I will tie you up and leave you here for the day.”

“But…!” Bluenette tried to protest, but Chloe cut her off.

“No buts. We are only sixteen. I for one came here to learn a bit and maybe meet someone. You are supposed to be learning. Nobody said anything about getting a full-time job.”

“The deal…”

“So what if they fire you?” Chloe raised her hands over her head. “Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! You have Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeoise fighting over who will get you while Jagged Stone is willing to fly over half the world just to give your references in person. You run a very successful flower shop and even more successful boutique.”

“But…” She tried to muster a weak protest, but Chloe’s angry gaze made her wither.

“I will not let you run yourself dry!” The blonde stated firmly. “So either you take a step back and breathe or I will call your uncle.”

“Not uncle Jagged! he already banned me from drinking coffee!”

“So you will behave?” Chloe asked with a smirk.

“Fiiiinneee!” Mari couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Queenie. I needed this. I’m glad I have you as my friend. And sister.”

“Well of course you needed me! Everyone needs me!” She huffed before her expression became more gentle and she pulled Mari into a hug.

Downstairs the class was waiting for them. Probably they finally gathered the courage to confront her about Alya’s fate. The girl shouldn’t have lied while filing for promotion. Mari and Chloe stormed past them not even sparing them a glance. Outside, Adrien was already waiting inside the limousine with Gerard at the driver’s seat.

“I’m glad your driver is finally here.”

“Me too!” The blond boy was practically beaming. “I’m free from Lila’s clutches.”

“Could you drop us at… No. 2 Twine Street?” Mari asked the gorilla, who only grunted in response.

“Um… We should be going to Wayne Tower.”

“Nope.” Mari popped the ‘p’. “You,” she pointed at Adrien, “are an intern in PR. I asked for you to be present at the press conference to help move stuff around and so on.”

“And me?” Chloe asked. “If you expect me to…”

“You’re there to support your boyfriend. He was the one that practically demanded that I get you there. He hates publicity.”

“Oh… Good then. Let’s go.”

“Boyfriend?” Adrien asked curiously. “You mean Wayne?”

“Yeah. Apparently Chloe found herself a partner in scheming.”

“I bet that their dates are filled with planning to take over the world.”

“We could’ve taken the world over by lunch if we wanted.” Chloe looked almost offended. “The question is what way would be the most suitable one.”

All three of them broke into laughter as the car rode through the city of crime.

----

About fifteen minutes before the press conference was scheduled to start, Tim Drake was still not there. None of the Waynes were there in fact. She sent about fifteen angry messages to Mr. Drake and he was still not here, which only fueled her stress and anger.

The press had no idea so far and they were eagerly awaiting whatever news the company wanted to present. She bit her lower lips. Chloe was on the phone, trying to reach her boyfriend.

“If that idiot doesn’t get here in the next ten minutes, I’m going to consider stabbing him.”

“Damian?!” Chloe shouted into her phone.

“Tt. What do you want?”

“First of all, that’s not how you talk to your girlfriend. Second of all, where in the world is your excuse of a brother?! Mari is an inch from going ballistic!”

“Tt. He’s asleep.” Damian answered in an impassionate tone.

Mari leaped over and wrestled the phone from Chloe. “You go to him right this moment or I swear to all that’s holy and…”

“I get it.” He interrupted her, showing signs of irritation. There were some static and the camera blurred for a moment from the fast motion. When it returned, she saw barely awake Tim Drake wearing blue onesies.

“wah…”

“Get yourself cleaned up and into a suit in the next three minutes!” She shouted. God bless the soundproof backstage.

“Um… But I will never make…”

“I’m certain you have a great webcam somewhere in this big mansion of yours. Set it in the library and call me in the next few minutes. I so hope you were not supposed to be the model because gods help me…” She took a look at his terrified face. “Of course you were…”

“In my defense…”

“Shut up. Get going!” She hanged up and turned to Adrien and Chloe, who were looking at her with a mixture of fear and awe. “What are you waiting for?!” She tossed a package to the boy. “You get dressed in the new product.” She pushed him outside and into the janitor’s closet on the other side. “And you’re coming with me!” She dragged Chloe toward the main room. The blonde was sent to the technics room to get the feed started while Mari stepped on the scene. The chatter died quickly and all reporters turned to her.

“Hi. Please forgive us for the slight delay. We have minor technical difficulties that are being solved as we speak. In the meantime, you are free to take the seats. The conference is about to start.”

Behind her, a screen slowly descended. She saw Adrien leaning from the doors leading backstage and smiling at her.

“Without further ado, I present you Tim Drake, CEO of Wayne Enterprises.”

The image of the teen with black hair appeared on the screen and he waved everyone. He was holding a red cup of coffee with black polka dots, the same Tikki summoned for him the first time.

Satisfied with herself, Marinette allowed herself a moment of rest. The conference was going well and after a minute of silence for the dead in the recent attack, the presentation began. Adrien was a natural model so it all went great. Wayne Tech in co-operation with Gabriel brand was introducing a new line of ‘smart’ fabric that could withstand medium stress and was almost impossible to dirty or stain. She had to admit it was quite amazing. Apparently, it was partially how Mr. Agreste got her class internship. Granted, Adrien was not supposed to be the model but you don’t look a gifted horse in the mouth.

Everything was going great until the doors to the room were kicked open and several goons barged in, followed by none other than Two-face. Everyone immediately fell onto the floor. Mari couldn’t help but sigh exasperatedly. Why did it have to go wrong at every turn?

Ignoring the terrified stares, she stormed toward the intruders. “Excuse me, sir?” She asked with an emotionless face.

“What?” The man looked clearly irritated.

“I don’t see your name on the guest list. Did you remember to call in advance?”

“Of course not! Do I look like…” The criminal was clearly angry.

“Then I apologize, but I must ask you to leave now.”

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Two-face pulled his gun.

“I’m sorry, sir, but if you are not on on the list, I can’t let you stay.” She said in an emotionless voice. Mari was honestly too tired to care at this point. Maybe at least the evening would be better.

“I’m not sure you get the situation, miss. I’m not here for the interviews. Everyone pull out your wallets and drop them in the sacks!” He shouted while his men started to walk around.

“Hm… That won’t do.” She said. After muttering something under her breath, Mari tossed her clipboard. The spinning board hit one of the mooks in the head, knocking him cold, before bouncing and hitting the next one. After that, it returned to her hand.

That was enough for Two-Face. He aimed his gun at her, but she moved faster than he anticipated. Within seconds, she grabbed his wrist and pushed it up so he was aiming at the ceiling. She squeezed it hard enough to make him drop the gun right into her other waiting hand. The girl let go of his wrist and disassembled the gun into pieces in what could become record time.

Now irritated, Mari grabbed Two-face by his tie and pulled him down until they were at the same eye-level.

“I was trying to do it peacefully sir. I am now ordering you to leave. Otherwise, I will actually have to hurt you.” She leaned closer until she was able to whisper. “And don’t make mistakes, Dent. I can and will hurt you.” For a moment her eyes lost the blue coloring and became entirely iridescent green, glowing slightly.

Harvey Dent rarely felt fear. His life was more often than not guided by the toss of a coin. Now though, he stared in the eyes of Poison Ivy, except ten times scarier. He was already afraid of that woman after she almost fed him to her ‘precious’.

“I… I am deeply sorry madame.” He spoke carefully. “Men! We are moving out. Leave the bags!” And with that, they were all gone.

Most of the reporters gave Mari big applause. There was only one angry old man that stared daggers at the girl.

“You let that scum go away!” He shouted. “He was a criminal.”

“Sir. You are free to go after him if that’s your wish. I’m at work and my job description never included chasing after criminals.”

“But… But…”

“Anyway, we were in the middle of the press conference if I’m not mistaken.”

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#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #batman #BatFam #maribat #marinette dupain cheng #BAMF Marinette #Mother!Ivy #redeemed!chloe #Good!Adrien Agreste #dc #MLB #mlb x dc

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owl-with-a-pen · 3 years

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Nia getting hurt and brainy turning to team-flash for help because he feels hopeless. Ty <3

- I've never written for The Flash characters before, so I hope this is okay! Seeing as Cisco recently left the show, I thought it'd be nice to focus on him. Thank you for the prompt! x

From day one, Cisco had learned that being a part of Team Flash meant staying on your toes, always keeping vigilant for the next attack and always being prepared for the subsequent counterattack Star Labs’ resident tech genius – aka him - could provide. It also meant, expect the weirdest thing imaginable and, then? Oh man, you gotta triple that.

Still, even with all of that in mind, Cisco was in no way prepared for an alien super genius to swoop in from God-knows-where and systematically dismantle his lab, not to mention steal his thunder in the process.

All in the space of under twenty minutes.

"Hey, so I’m flattered you came to us for help,” Cisco finally called out from the lab’s doorway. “But, this might be easier if you actually, I don't know? Talk to us."

Cisco had been watching in bewilderment as Brainy ran around his lab, muttering under his breath as he picked up various pieces of experimental tech with both parts appraisal and derision before throwing them each none-too-gently aside. Cisco flinched when Brainy threw one of his most recent experiments – an advanced interdimensional extrapolator designed in theory to breach the new universes that had been created by Crisis – onto the countertop. And it’d stay totally theoretical if Brainy continued to pay the same amount of care to Cisco’s handiwork as one might a discarded candy wrapper. God, he really needed to start marking these things as fragile - especially when company was over. Then again, he hadn't expected a visit from the fourth kind today.

"Hey, dude, talk to us, c'mon, we won't bite," Cisco prompted, holding up his hands placatingly. When Brainy continued without so much as a word thrown in their direction, Cisco turned to Caitlin desperately, nudging her arm. "Tell him we don't bite," he whispered loudly.

"We don't bite," Caitlin repeated exasperatedly. She’d been watching Brainy with care since he’d barged through Star Lab’s front doors. Because, seriously, could anyone just walk into this place? "Brainy - I understand you're worried for your girlfriend, but we can help you. Just tell us what you need."

Cisco knew that something big was going down in National City, enough that Kara had called ahead last minute to inform Team Flash that they’d be getting a surprise visit from one of the Super Friends. Surprise really had been the understatement of the day. Nearly the second Caitlin had been off the phone with Kara, Brainy had decided to make his grand entrance.

"I don't need anything from you," Brainy said through his teeth, quite possibly the first coherent sentence he’d directed to anyone since his arrival. He continued to move restlessly, shuffling through another pile of technology. "I require your equipment,” he elaborated stiffly. “Since the DEO's destruction, we are rather limited on supplies."

Cisco cringed. "Ooh yeah, I heard about that. Some alien god, right?"

Bad call, Cisco realised immediately. The second the words had come out of his mouth, Brainy tensed, hunching his shoulders.

"His name was Rama Khan,” Brainy said, his voice strained. “He came from a race of ancient beings."

“So, not a god?" Cisco said quickly, glancing to Caitlin for support. When she only shrugged, he fumbled for something, anything, to lighten the mood. “I mean, figures, right? Out of every form of media out there, it had to be Ancient Aliens that was on the right track.”

Brainy made a disgruntled sound at that, dangling another piece of tech out into his line of sight before making to throw it over his shoulder.

“My tachyon filtrator!” Cisco lurched forward, eyes wide. “Hey, hey, stop that!” He snatched his experimental baby from Brainy’s hands seconds before disaster, pointing an accusing finger at him. “No more throwing my stuff, got it?”

"Cisco," Caitlin murmured in warning. "Don't."

"Easy for you to say,” Cisco shot back. “He's not throwing your stuff." Cisco strode over to his workbench, collecting as many of his unfinished designs as he could carry into his arms and very deliberately placing them as far away from prying Coluan fingers as was humanly possible.

Cisco could feel Brainy’s eyes watching his every move, though he wasn’t sure if there was even a hint of an apology in his expression. From the short time they’d worked together in the past, he remembered Brainy as being pretty unfiltered when it came to conversation, if not a little socially inept. Still, he got his nickname for a reason. Dude was literally a walking talking supercomputer, capable of calculating probability to such a high degree of accuracy, he might as well have been psychic. In any other circumstance, Cisco would’ve been eager to pick his brain, maybe even get his input on some of his more complex designs.

Right now, though? Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea, especially when he was so clearly distraught with what was happening over in National City.

Cisco had never formally met Dreamer before, but he’d seen her on the news enough to know that she was incredibly powerful. If something had taken her down, he knew it had to be bad.

And so, when Cisco was certain his tech was safe, he turned back to Brainy, eyeing him expectantly.

Finally, Brainy rolled his shoulders, closing his eyes. "Dreamer was affected by a meta," he explained carefully, lowering his chin. "The DEO had stockpiled technology, archived files on known meta attacks and their countermeasures. We- no, I lost that."

Well, Cisco didn’t need to be a twelfth-level whatever to know what Brainy was going through there. The guilt in his voice was practically tangible. Cisco seemed to remember that the DEO had had a sudden change in management during Lex Luthor’s reign, and if the files he’d been able to hack during that handover were true, then it’d been Brainy who’d been heading operations before the organisation’s literal collapse.

And now, Brainy’s girlfriend was in danger, caught in the crosshairs of a situation that couldn’t be fixed because of his mistake. Cisco swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat; he knew he wouldn’t have fared any better if Kamilla had been in that kind of danger.

"We've all done stuff we've regretted," Caitlin said carefully, stepping into the room. She folded her arms over her chest loosely, her brow furrowed with concern. "Look, maybe we don’t know each other very well, and maybe we can't even help advise you, but you clearly came here looking for something in particular so, we can at least supply you, right?” When Brainy turned towards her, eyes glimmering, Caitlin offered a gentle smile. “No one knows this lab's layout like Cisco, and if you need medical supplies, I've got you covered." Brainy held very still as Caitlin crossed the room and, when she was close enough, she reached out, hesitantly patting him on the shoulder. For all the confidence she was boasting right now, Cisco was far too aware that this was the closest alien encounter she'd had since meeting Kara, and for a lot of that time she'd been fronting as Frost.

"It's an extensive list," Brainy said warily. He didn’t shrug away from Caitlin’s touch, at least, which Cisco took as a small victory.

"Hey,” Cisco said, puffing out his chest, “you’re talking to Team Flash, here. I think we can handle it.”

Brainy’s eyes darted away from them both for a long moment, scanning empty air. When he blinked back into reality, he nodded, bowing his head. "Very well," Brainy relented.

With that, he made a vague gesture towards his head, pointing underhandedly with two fingers towards Cisco's pocket. In the same instant, his phone buzzed twice against his leg, indicating a text notification. Cisco fished it out of his pocket in confusion.

"I have transferred everything I need to your phone,” Brainy said by means of explanation.

“Huh. So you have,” Cisco said, eyes wide as he stared at the list of tech, trying very hard to keep his cool instead of grinning like an idiot at that awesome display of alien superpower. Maybe once he’d finished locating this stuff for Brainy, putting together the right machine to help his girlfriend, he’d have a chance to actually ask him some questions.

For now though, finding all this stuff took priority.

Cisco bit his cheek, nodding firmly. “Alright then,” he said, cracking his neck. “Looks like we should get started.”

Even though Brainy’s returning smile was pained, it was still a smile, which was definitely progress.

And hey, maybe Cisco would see a genuine one once Dreamer was safe and sound. Because he was gonna make sure that happened.

After all, that was what Team Flash was all about.

#supergirl #supergirl fanfiction #the flash #brainiac 5 #cisco ramon #caitlin snow #brainia #brainy #querl dox #my prompts #my writing #anon #this is also another very old prompt i'm so sorry #slowly but surely i'll try to get through them #...veeerryyy slowly #but yes! i might be caught up with the flash but i definitely haven't studied them in the same level of detail as supergirl characters #so i do hope this is okay srsly xD #also don't ask me when this is set my answer is a very confident shrug

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ziracona · 3 years

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Hello! I have always believed that Michael needed better doctors and good treatment. He was simply billed as "Evil". Sometimes I think that at that time they were unaware or ignorant of mental illness, and that is why Michael did not recover. I wish it had been treated better. I would like to know your opinion about it ;v;

Oh, absolutely. Michael is a very tragic character, and what happened to him was almost entirely Loomis’ fault, secondarily the system and his parents’, and like onyl 0.8% his own. It’s true that mental health aid has historically been really bad in most places, and even today treatment and acceptance—even in specifically medical settings—tend to be abysmal. Of course people knew less than they do now about how psychological stuff works, but bias, cruelty, and superstition as well as a system that enables and even to degrees outright encourages that is to blame for the awful treatment people woth mental illnesses and personality disorders faced and continue to face, not just a lack of knowledge, and the history is really heavy and awful to look over. : ( It’s horrific some of the things doctors have done and do to people just trying to get help.

Like, in Michael’s case, we’ve had a name and understanding of psychosis since the 1800s. Canonically, by the time the poor kid was six years old, he was hearing voices telling him to do bad things to people. He told his parents, seeking help, and they did nothing to help him—just told him it was his imagination—despite knowing hos grandfather had suffered the same symptoms. If they had only taken him seriously and given him therapy and possibly medication too, Judith never would have died. (I am not goong to say it every time, but all this information is official canon) Michael’s reason for killing his family members is wanting the vocies talking to him to be quiet, because it’s agonizing. If you’ve ever had intrusive thoughts (stuff like “pull into oncoming traffic” or “break that and see what happens” and such that don’t actually compell or force you to do it at all, and are always things you as a person deeply do not want to do, but nevertheless are really annoying or distressing to hear in your head), imagine that cranked up to 1000, endless and constant, but from voices that seem to come from around you instead of in your head. Especially as a young child, with no understanding what is happening to you, this would be incredibly scary and distressing—doubly so when dismissed by your parents, whose sole job is supposed to be to love and protect you.

The voices say they’ll be quiet if Michael kills Judith, so Halloween night, he does. Important to note here Michael is recently six years old at the time, which developmental psych literally is not old enough to have a complete understanding what death itself is, let alone complex morality. You /cannot/ be evil at six, you simply don’t have a complex enough understanding of right and wrong or of consequence to /be/ evil. Also at this age, usually kids see death as a vague concept, but one that applies to people they don’t know only, not to them and their loved ones. In Halloween 1978, immediately after stabbing Judith, Michael looks away while he keeps doing it, and his breathing speeds up in a scared way. He barely looks at the body, and immediately goes down stairs to wait for his parents—probably for them to fix it—and does nothing to flee or hide what he’s done. He looks traumatized when they take his mask off. (Lots of little notes here like that Judith when she sees him seems annoyed but not very, and when he attacks her, tries to shield herself and call to him to stop, rather than fleeing or fighting back, which [appealing instead of fight or flight] is pretty exclusively something you only would use if attcked by someone you are on good terms with—I mean, Michael is six—if Judith had /tried/ to fight back, no way she would have died—so there’s less than nothing to indicate they had anything but a loving familial sibling relationship. But if I list all these I’m gonna launch into my six page Michael Myers meta so I will speed through the rest.)

Anyway! Sorry, I have many feelings. About...everything. Including Michael for sure. So, immediately after killing Judith, Michael stops talking. He also shows other psychosis and trauma readily recognized side effects, like catatonia, slowed movement. In Halloween 1978c Dr. Loomis claims he tried to treat Michael for eight years, then spent another seven trying to keep him locked up because he realized he was evil. This is a /blatant/ lie, as in film canon Loomis, by Michael’s review hearing I believe four months in? Six or less for sure, I believe it is four. Loomis has /already/ become convinced Michael is a demon in human form, faking his symptoms, and itching to kill again. The other doctors think Loomis is crazy, as does the other doctor who examines Michael, but they’re awful people so they let him stay Michael’s doctor anyway, even though they refuse to move him to Litchfield maximum security. By this time only a few months in, Loomis is canonically also threatening the six year old in his care and constantly telling him he is an evil being who wants to get out and terrorize again. (Also, I will die enraged the sentance Michael gets for killing Judith is to remain locked in solitary in a sanitorium for /15/ years, until he turns 21, at which point he will be tried as an adult for murder??? The fuck?? You CANNOT charge a 6 year old’s crime in adult court! ‘Tried as an adult’ is meant for like, when a 17 year old dismembers their family and eats them! It’s for particularly heinous crimes, committed by someone /very/ close to being legally an adult, and that /only/. The idea of waiting fifteen years to try someone as an adult for something done at age six is laughable and sick).

Okay this is already long, I get carried away rip. Uhhh, anyway, yeah. In Smith’s Grove, Michael is visited by mom and Laurie once, then never sees any of his family again, because his dad hates him and forbids the others—finds out because Laurie is four and talks that they went /one/ time, and physically beats four year old Laurie for mentioning his name until she trauma blocks out ever having had a brother. From then on, Michael spends /fifteen/ years and all the dest of his developmental stages of childhood in a sanitorium with Dr. Loomis—a man who on wild religious superstition grounds assumes by his own admission /on sight/ that Michael is evil, and no other human contact. According to canon, Michael spends at least four hours of /every/ day with Loomis, his /only/ human contact, who threatens him, promises to stop him, and endlessly barrages him with “You’re evil, you’re not human, you want to kill again, I /will/ stop you,” and nothing else. He also canonically keeps Michael overdosed on a type of antipsychotic that, while a fine drug if used normally, if overdosed can deeply worsen symptoms, and can cause permanent brain damage.

Honestly, if a six year old is exposed yo major trauma, none of their issues are explained, legitimized, or believed, and almost all of their developmental stage is spent with endless voices they don’t know the cause of suggesting murder and violence, one human being and authority figure telling them over and over and over for fifteen years with no other constant in their life or human contact period that they are a demon in human form who wants to kill and is /going/ to do so again...? How else was that story ever going to end? I’ve said it before, but that’s beyond conditioning; it’s lab growing a human child to one day walk out and murder Laurie Strode with a large kitchen knife.

I stand by Halloween is a greek tragedy more than a slasher, and Michael and Laurie are both victims. He’s the Asterios, she’s the Ariadne. Loomis the Minos, the real villain. (Or the Poseidon choose your poison).

Anyway, I 100% agree! If he had just gotten help from his parents, Judith would have never died. If he’d had good doctors, none of the events of 1978 would have come to pass, or anything after it. Loomis single-handedly causes the deaths in 1978 himself through years of cruelty, and bigoted bias towards a small child in his care who needed his help, not his abuse, but he chose to break as much as he possibly could despite his responsibilities as a doctor, an adult, and a human.

If you’re interested, I did a canon-deep-dive character study short story on Michael on AO3! Halloween is such a sad story but it’s fascinating. God, poor Michael and Laurie deserved so much better than they got. It’s a testament to Michael’s character that even after 15 years of Dr. Loomis, he really only kills his intented target(s) in search of quiet from the voices, and anyone who sees him/would be a threat, and not other people. Makes no attempt to kill any of the kids in Halloween 2018, and only kills Bob when he literally opens the door to his hiding spot and Michael is found and Bob becomes a threat to him. In H20, after Michael has had 20 years on his own, you get arguably the least brutal Michael, who intentionally passes on killing the mother and child, and the security guard he walks right past, because they don’t see him and thus he doesn’t /have/ to. Halloween II is less intentionally avoiding, but even then he still does the same multiple times too, like with the old lady making a sandwich, or the scene in the incubator room. Anyway he desevered better fuck Loomis all my homies hate Loomis.

#ask #anonymous #michael myers #halloween #halloween 1978 #halloween II #Halloween H20 #Halloween 2018 #note: Michael is written /very/ differenly in the different timelines. different writers took complrtely dofferent approaches to hin as a #person. and his motives. so unless I state otherwise I am always talking exclusively about the version of Michael from the H20. 2018. & DbD #timelines. since those are all largely the same character. unlike the 3-4 RZ and resusrection or the novelization etc #they’re seperate universes w different canons. i am only really interedted in core/OG canon and its offshoots #its /direct/ offshoots haha #laurie strode #sam loomis #Isolation (fic)#Isolation #meta #michael myers meta #long post #me: I am not gonna do the six page breakdown ima do an overview #me: doesn’t do the six pages but damn well doesn’t do the short version either #i can’t help it you found an intense passion topic

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gkingoffez · 3 years

Text

2020 RvB Valentines Exchange uwu

@rvbgiftexchange

My partner was MentalMaterial but I think they’ve changed their name to @linklebard ?

Anyway, here’s ur Tuckington mutual pining bed sharing as requested. Enjoy!

Words: 1833

Pairing: Tuckington

~~~

Tucker was fucked. He had to be- fucked in the head or the heart or the mostly healed stab wound in his side from that fucker Felix. Something had to be wrong, despite the fortified walls of Armonia around him, the Chorus truce, the energy sword in his bag and especially the ex-Freelancer standing beside him in the confined corridor who he hadn’t expected to be there.

“I’m sorry, sirs!” squeaked the young woman in front of them, a civilian wearing a military lanyard, pulling at her frazzled hair with one hand and frantically scrolling on her data-pad with the other. “There must have been a glitch in the program- you should have been assigned your own private rooms. I’m so sorry, our equipment is so outdated and it does stuff like this sometimes-”

“Please stop apologising, it’s not your fault,” Wash insisted gently. “We understand that this was just a mistake, but we’re tired and just want to go to bed?”

“Are you sure there’s no more spare rooms on this floor? A secret penthouse with a jacuzzi maybe? I’ll take it if there is.” asked Tucker.

The woman shook her head, frowning and tapping away. “I’m sor- I mean, no, not here, in fact there’s nothing else on this floor. “This hotel was only converted into officer accommodation a few days ago, and Locus was confirmed to have stayed here while in the city,” she explained.

“There are empty rooms further along that way, but we haven’t had time to do the same level of security sweeps on them.”

The woman gestured at the plain black door behind her, completely identical to the myriad of other ones lining the narrow corridor.

“This room does have a queen bed, sirs. The easiest solution might be that you can share it for the night and one of you can move tomorrow? I know it’s not ideal, but it’s better than a possible security risk.”

“What?” spluttered Tucker. “Why aren’t there enough rooms? And What happened to all of us getting private-?”

“Thank you, that’ll do us fine for tonight,” interjected Wash loudly, glaring at him. “We don’t want to cause too much fuss this late in the evening, and definitely don’t want to stay somewhere that’s not secure. Don’t you agree, Captain Tucker.”

Tucker gaped, words escaping him under Wash’s gaze.

He was fucked. Because once the adrenaline had worn off discovering a manufactured civil war, transmitting that info globally, being betrayed and stabbed by Felix, confronting Hargrove and whatever else happened in the less than a week since he’d snuck off the New Republic base, Tucker suddenly had time and space for… thoughts.

Thoughts like how much he’d truly missed the man standing beside him.

Wash, who’d been a hardass in the canyon like he was being fucking paid for it, who’d kept them all fed and alive and together, and then he’d gone and done the heroic sacrifice play, like an idiot, and suddenly he was gone. It felt like all Tucker had thought about for the last several months was whether Wash was okay, whether he was in pain or alone or dead. At points he’d almost wished they’d swapped places, that he was taking the (in hindsight, non-existent) punishment from the Federal Army, and Wash was the one training the Lieutenants.

Then out of the blue, Wash was back. Wash was fine. Everyone was fine, and like a circle, the whirlwind of betrayal, civil war, stabbing yada-yada unfolded. Tucker had only just caught his breath again and was looking forward to actually relaxing for once, only to end up in this corridor, standing awkwardly in front of a room they’d both been assigned to.

Wash was staring pointedly at him with those stupid clear blue eyes that made Tucker’s heart jump, and it was clear something must have been wrong, because that wasn’t right. It was physical and mental exhaustion, not love. He wasn’t some hormonal teenager, he was a grown man who wanted to go to fucking bed and not have to deal with his fucking feelings.

“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go then,” Tucker said offhandedly, adjusting his sack over his shoulder and stomping into the room without another word.

It was small but glamourous compared to normal military quarters- the hiss of the sliding door muffled against thick looking carpet, one door presumably leading to a bathroom, a single kitchen cabinet with a sink and a lowboy with a television mounted to the wall above it.

The bed took up the bulk of the space in the far end of the room. Behind it hung thick mustard coloured curtains, although Tucker knew even without having to move them that they’d been covered barred with a bullet proof covering as part of the security sweep. What was the point of being a heroes of Chorus, after all, if a well-placed sniper could take them out through a hotel window?

“Home sweet home, I guess,” Tucker shrugged, ignoring his jumping heart as he unceremoniously dumped his stuff on the ground near the kitchen space.

“Thank you for stopping to help us. We’ll be fine.” Wash was saying as he backed into the room. “Good night.”

“Good night sirs!” the woman said, “And again, I’m so-!”

The door hissed shut, Wash’s hand on the button.

“What the fuck, dude,” cried Tucker, rounding on him. “You didn’t have to immediately say yes. I could have pawned Caboose onto someone else and taken his room or something.”

“Oh don’t bother Caboose, he’s probably already asleep and you’ll never wake him. It’s late. All we need is a bed and everything will be else sorted in the morning. One night in the same bed won’t kill us.”

Wash crossed the room and carefully deposited his own knapsack on the lowboy.

“Besides, I wanted us to stay together a little bit longer. To be safe, you know,” he added quietly, glancing Tucker’s way.

Now, of course, Tucker’s eyes had also joined the ‘fucked party’. Was it a trick of the LED lights, or was that a blush on Wash’s cheeks? There was no way to double check, as Wash quickly turned his back on him.

Tucker crossed his arms haughtily, huffing and shaking his head to reset it.“Whatever. I’ll take the right side.”

“Fine by me,” replied Wash, unzipping his bag and rustling around in it, still turned away. “I’m going to change in the bathroom. Oh, and Tucker?”

“Yes?”

“I swear to god if you sleep naked, I’m going to suffocate you with a pillow.”

“Not if I suffocate you first, asshole.”

Maybe ten minutes of bathroom time, brushing teeth and other general night activities later (Tucker was fully clothed in loose borrowed sweats), they were both lying in bed back to back in the queen bed.

“Well,” said Wash. “Good night.”

“Yeah, night.”

As soon as the light turned off, Tucker’s brain switched on like a fucking Christmas tree.

He was not in love with Wash. Love was for girls and people who hadn’t spent literal years on the shittiest military posting ever, then got knocked up, then spent years in the desert, then got dragged on a mission to kill the Freelancer Director, then crashed landed on a planet- well, anyone would get the point. Sure, he acted like a stud and a lady’s man, but truthfully, it had been a long, long time since he’d really loved anyone like that.

Wash had been a fucking Freelancer. Caboose and the Reds talked about him like he was the most capable, badass guy around (barring the time he’d apparently gone evil and shot Donut, of course). Not to mention, he was kinda hot. Sandy hair with streaks of grey, blue eyes, even the criss-cross of scars across his pale skin did things for Tucker. Like he was this put-together, experienced and handsome man next to Tucker’s immaturity and recklessness.

The sheets were feeling too tight and stuffy for his brain, and the slow pattern of Wash’s breathing next to him was not helping. He flipped over onto his back, pulling and rearranging them, staring up at the shadowed ceiling.

“Hey Wash, you asleep yet?” he asked quietly

There was a beat.

“If I was, how would you expect me to answer that?” came the annoyed reply

“I dunno. Snoring?”

Wash snorted. “Just go to sleep, Tucker.”

They were in the same bed. They were in the same bed. Wash was inches away, the kind of distance where Tucker could touch him and then easily brush it off as an accident of movement. Wash’s hand was right there, he’d only need to reach- but no. He couldn’t do that, it wasn’t right.

When Caboose first suggested putting the ex-Freelancer in Church’s empty armour, it hadn’t really mattered to Tucker that much. He was just a guy who’d been an asshole but switched sides in time to help them take out the Meta, may as help him not go back to jail after all. Months in the crash had changed that, and all that time of training and bickering and surviving together had made them friends. He’d bitched and bitched and then watchedWash sacrifice himself as a rockfall separated them had been devastating, throwing into perspective just how goddamn much he cared about all of them despite the fact that they were a bunch of Red and Blue idiots.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder or however the shit went. And Tucker had spent months wishing Wash was ok, wishing he was there, wishing a lot of things.

Maybe he had fallen in love with the man in that time. Maybe it wasn’t as fucked up as he was making it out to be, he’d always been pretty dramatic, after all. Dudes fell in love with dudes all the time, especially when they’d been through a lot together.

Oh for fuck’s sake, none of this matters! There’s no way in hell that he likes me too. Just go to sleep, idiot.

Tomorrow, Tucker could wake up and blame it all on stress, exhaustion and the computer system that had fucked up room assignments. For that moment, however, he felt himself drift off, eyelids heavy and breath evening out.

They had work to do tomorrow rebuilding Chorus and tracking down mercenaries, and the more sleep he got, the better.

The last thing he registered that night was the vibration and rustling sound of Wash twisting in place. However, he must have dreamed about the gentle, tender touch he felt on his face as he was just on the precipice of sleep.

That couldn’t be right.

~~~

A snapshot of the future- tangled limbs in a queen bed, dark on pale and scattered scars. A data-pad hanging limply in a man’s hand, the other gazing at him with an adoring expression. The first glances at the rapture in his lover’s face, and snorts.

“You’re fucked,” he says, jokingly.

“No, you fucked me,” replies Tucker. They laugh.

~~~

Ya’ll let me tell you about the absolute stress rollercoaster I’ve had these past few months. So first up, I completely forgot I’d signed up for this exchange, and was surprised when I got the message. Then I proceeded to have a family death, my birthday and the stress of having to search for a new place to live and start packing up my stuff, all while working my shitty full time job and being exhausted from it.

So to my exchange partner, I’m sorry for not reaching out at all, but my anxiety levels are pretty high these days. This was written pretty quickly, at the last minute and after not writing for probably a year, but I hope you enjoy.

I might have another editing run through it before posting elsewhere but it’s done somewhat on time so I’m happy (Valentine’s was actually yesterday for me and I have to leave for work in like five minutes.)

Anyway, happy love and bed sharing and mutual pining guys. Love ya.

#red vs blue #tuckington #bed sharing #red vs blue fanfiction #G writes #rvbgiftexchange

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curious-menace · 3 years

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The rogue gallery members general reaction to encountering the batman who laughs and his creepy ass Robin's.

ok id like to preface this by saying that red death batman straight up crucified riddler and decapitated scarecrow and the batman who laughs is MUCH worse than red death batman.

i want to enjoy the dark knights metal but it is needlessly fuckin complicated with all this multiverse oververse omniverse shit. maybe i just don't have the galaxy brain necessary to get it so i apologize if this is all wrong

(also i know its canon that the batman who laughs has no rogues gallery left, either because he killed them or joker killed them before he turned but hey ho hypotheticals it is)

also no one talk to me about kiss fan lookin riddler from this verse. im not ready.

Penguin

i think his first reaction was to laugh. Batman’s finally gone and he took joker with him. I mean he literally calls him "bat gimp". I seriously doubt he anticipated the fallout of batman becoming some sort of hideous joker hybrid. he still chuckled when he started seeing the news. someone calling themselves “the batman who laughs” and “the darkest knight” then he sees the robins, he even recognises damien and it makes him a little sick. he books the next flight out of goodwin before things get too hot.

shame goodwin was burned to the ground to stop anyone leaving gotham.

with everyone inside.

Twoface

i dont think its an exaggeration to say he was absolutly fuckin horrified. it's rare that harvey and two face agree on something, but this bastard has to go. the murder and mayhem he could tolerate, hell even killing the other rogues, some of them needed to be stopped. but having to look at this creature and know it was once bruce? harvey knows better than anyone its a fate worse than death to be trapped in your own mind with someone else running the show. they do their best to stop the darkest knight, bring all the hired guns they can to the fight but it wasnt enough. Harvey dies, but at least he went out trying to do the right thing.

Poison Ivy

She sensed him coming, her flowers screaming at her to save herself. part of me wants to hope she took one look at that abomination and noped the fuck out of there to slaughter swamp or something. but we know ivy, she stands her ground like a tree planted by a river. she looks people like batman and joker right in the eye and down the barrel of a gun and says “no, you move” Shes not a good person, but in this verse she might as well be the hero of the story, maybe the only meta human in gotham who stood a chance against him. The batman who laughs was scared of her and thats why she had to die. if she’d just minded her own business she might still be here but no. She dares the batman who laughs to come for her, she’s going to take him out. for what he did to her plants, to gotham, to HER home and HER friends. unfortunately for her ivy was one of the first on his kill list. She doesn't go down without a fight. ironically it was her human qualities, the human drive to help people that got her killed. she heard one of the robins crying and went to investigate. the batman who laughs doesn't care about those robins, he’s got a basement full of jokerized kids to throw at people. 1 to trick her and a few more to hold her down while he doused the lot of them with weedkiller and gasoline then poof.

i doubt the botanical gardens will ever be the same.

Scarecrow

part of me wants to say he’s loving this. He’s enjoying all the suffering and sadness and fear as the batman who laughs murders everyone and everything from the dandelions upwards . but he cant, not just because he’s not the one causing it. this is fear without meaning or purpose, this is killing hope so thoroughly that there is nothing left for people to fear, not even death. he’s not so foolish as to think he wont also be on the batman who laughs chopping block. so he makes himself scarce, works on a toxin that might be able to stop him or even slow him down so someone has a shot at it. Jon knows hes going to die, its only a matter of time before that thing calling itself the darkest knight sends one of his minions to his doorstep. He’s been working on something to try and help the rabid robins. he has a small soft spot in his cold obsidian heart for kids and looking at these creatures makes him physically ill.

he thinks hes made a breakthrough, thinks he’s finally got a formula that will effect batman and the joker and hopefully, whatever abomination they’ve become . he decides theres no time like the present to try it out when word of the other rouges deaths reach him. he’s the last one left and thats....well its scary. His surprise attack works, the robins go down without a fight, screaming and scratching at their faces, their throats and each other. regrettable but if he stops the darkest knight now, maybe jon can help them. Just when he thinks he’s got him, scarecrow goes down. so close, he falls at the finishing line, his toxin having as much effect as a gentle summers breeze. Much like the original scarecrow , the batman who laughs likes using guns. For jon however? he makes an exception. poor scarecrow gets eviscerated by his own scythe, pilfered from arkham asylum by the batman who laughs. gotta love the classics, right?

Riddler

Riddler was second on his kill list. only because the batman who laughs knew how much it would annoy riddler not to be at the top. He’s another rogue who stood a chance of stopping him if he really tried. sadly edward is nowhere near as altruistic as harvey, and could never be as strong as ivy. He likes to think his escape is for everyone's benefit. live to fight another day and all that. He learned from harvey and pamelas mistakes, took one look at this new batman and his creepy kids and said “fuck that noise” and tried to run. except he didn't really try. god if he’d only gotten out of the city, he would have been the only rogue that survived. the batman who laughs looks at him like a pathetic insect, unworthy of notice. he’d have killed riddler eventually, maybe put him in a riddle with no answer or a trap with no escape for extra irony points but he wasn't about to stop the little green cockroach from skittling away. but of course, riddlers ego got in the way; he just HAD to try and best this new batman, no matter how much he scared the shit out of riddler he just HAD to try. and of course, pride comes before downfall.

The batman who laughs helpfully provided riddler with some rope to help break his fall.

Harley Quinn

some part of her was happy to have joker back. he was different, scarier but she was used to the abuse. what she wasn't used to were all the kids. she recognised damian wayne but didn't quite put the pieces together to realise it was bruce under there. she thought maybe he was just a random casualty . she tried hard to look after the kids but they act like animals rather than humans, there was nothing she could do.As time went on she found it harder and harder to sit at the right hand of this clown prince of horrors. harley has always been along for the ride, but how are you supposed make the whole world laugh if everyone in it is dead? i dont know what happens to harley in this world. either she leaves and much like joker, the batman who laughs fails to notice, shes killed by him because he was bored or she does when the world is destroyed by barbatos. either way, no happy endings here.

Thanks for this incredibly depressing ask Ghostly T-T

im kidding, im kidding it was fun! it makes me wish i knew what the everloving FUCK was going on with this verse so i could enjoy it properly. the only comic store i know of has been closed since like march of last year and i don't know what im looking for on amazon to actually order them. i have 1 issue of nth metal but it was interesting enough that i want the collection.

if anyone knows what the collection is actually called hmu bc i wanna buy it.

yes i could read it online but i like owning the hard copies.

got something you wana talk about? send me an ask or a dm!💜💙🧡💛💚❤️

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cadykeus-clay · 3 years

Note

Would you mind sharing your thoughts about vex and Beau being cross campaign foils?

so!!!! first things first: apologies for taking weeks to answer this, finals + having adhd sometimes makes my brain turn to mush and forget every ask ive ever recieved. second of all, i’m assuming you sent me this bc of what i said in my vm vs. m9 how they view the world meta. and i’ll be real with you. i have exactly 0 memory of what was going through my head when i wrote that line, so i am simply going to type out a bunch of thoughts that i have on the similarities and differences between beau and vex and i hope that lives up to what you were expecting jsdflksjdksld

I'll detail some specifics in a moment, but overall, I think beau and vex share a very similar kind of trauma of exclusion in their formative years, that's caused them to have a lot of similar traits that manifest in different ways - for vex, she maintains control through her material posessions and beau finds an emotional control in her asshole-ness. I've broken this down into 5 points on which I think comparing the two really emphasizes that claim:

1. daddy issues: both beau and vex have awful no good terrible very bad dads. both syldor and thoreau can suck my ass. they both raised their kids with little love and impossible-to-meet expectations, alientating them and leaving them with lifelong feelings of inferiority and unbelonging. If beau and vex were to meet, i think they would have a very friendly toast to shitty dads, and then have a good drunk vent about it an hour later.

but, at the same time, the actual minutae of their trauma and the ways it manifests are nearly polar opposites. syldor wanted nothing to do with vex, or else wanted her to somehow become a full elf. her issue was that she would never be able to belong, despite her desire to, and as she grew up it lead to her being overly protective and even possessive of the people she found who DID accept her as she was.

With beau, rather than exclusion, her father created an environment of toxic inclusion. He created a role for beau to belong in, disregarding her distate for actually fulfilling it. And, as such, she ended up making herself into someone who could have no expectations and pushed away anyone who tried to set them up for her. In the end, they both came to love themselves by abandoning the woman their father wanted them to be but for vex it was the laying down of an impossible dream and for beau it was the picking up of a mantle she had feared to wear.

2. brothers: now, on the topic of family, I also think its really interesting how their interactions with their brothers play out. We've got vex and vax, tied at the hip til the very end and then some; and then we've got beau and TJ - decades apart and with beau barely acknolwedging TJ's existence. But, even that distance between beau and TJ didn't stop her caring for him when they actually met. She gave him lucky Jade, and she entertained the idea of kidnapping him to get him away from her stinko dad.

And I'd espeically like to talk about what she said outside the hag's hut - "I think Luc and TJ could be best friends", in comparison to the way Vex reacted when Vax told her was going to Zephrah with Keyleth for the year break. There's an aspect to the way they interact with their brothers that lets them slip back into those bad habits they formed growing up (NOT that i'm claiming vex and vax were like toxic for each other. but even good relationships can have unhealthy moments).

With Beau, when she offers to give her happiness so TJ can grow up safe, she's trying to take on the role she's ""supposed"" to fill - the big sister, the protector - because she failed to fill the one her father set out. And with Vex, when she grows jealous of Vax, it's because she's afraid that his leaving with keyleth is a sign that she no longer belongs in his inner circle, and she falls back on that childish, desperate desire to do anything to be accepted unconditionally.

3. romance: spoilers for 5 or so most recent m9 eps (115-120) if you haven't watched them ahead!!!! at this point, both vex and beau have an endgame romance - percy and yasha respectively. Obviously as the m9's campaign is still playing out, that could change, but like. yasha wrote her a love letter and they're officially going on a date so i'm counting that as at least endgame-track rather than just random flirting. What's interesting to me is that they both seem to flip between the SAME roles between their (in-game) general perception and their actual pursual of romance.

Vex gets characterized as a pretty big flirt, right? She's got the winks, the casual "darling". She's flashed grog her boobs on multiple instances with little prompting. Beau, similarly, has easily the most game out of anyone in the m9. She's slept with two guest characters and at least one more npc in the events of the game. Caleb made her a fuck mirror in her room in the mansion. And yet, in both of their actual romantic endeavors, they became the shy, uncertain type.

Vex only confessed her feelings when Percy was laying dead before her, and not an hour of game play before percy kissed her in the woods, she had a talk with vax about how she was pretty sure he didn't like her that way and she didn't want to pursue it. Beau, similarly, spent a very long time convinced that yasha wasn't looking for love after zuala, especially not in anyone like her, asked everyone in the party if they thought yasha ACTUALLY liked her, just to be safe, and then still terrified to ask her out after recieving a literal love letter. I'd argue this shift comes from that same sense of unbelonging - they're very good at pretending they fit a role but doubt their actual right to take it when the opportunity is presented. This time, the role is the lover rather than the daughter.

4. authority: Both vex and beau grew up shunned by the upper crust of society, and grew to mistrust those kinds of people. And yet, both of their arcs result in them assuming such a position. Vex, thrown out of high society gets her place as a baronness, and Beau, running from leadership of her father's business ends up a top member of the Cobalt Soul. There's not a lot here, but I find it interesting how both of their stories involve them shedding their baggage regarding authority and power and assuming it in a way that they feel comfortable in - invitation by someone she trusts for vex, and a promise of freedom of will and control for beau.

5. their deadliest sins: this is the point at which their similarities culminate and transform to a fundamental difference. despite everything they share - shitty childhoods, the small piece of family that's still good, flirtiness masking shy love, and a mistrust of those in power - vex and beau are such different characters because of their biggest vices. Vex, both in game and out, is "the greedy one". She's stingy with money, she haggles for everything, she mourns the loss of physical objects. Beau is "the mean one". She cares little for people's feelings if they're not in her immediate circle, she focuses on her tough guy image, she laughs at things she knows she shouldn't.

And, over the course of the campaign, as they find unconditional acceptance, they grow away from these traits (I won't say they grow out of them) because they heal from the things causing these vices to begin with. I've always been vocal about vex's greed being a manifestation of her class insecurity, and beau's asshole-ness stemming from her fear of being forced back into another position of complacency. And I stand by that now - all the similarities in their backstories are what tally up to these different women.

Despite her careful tally of party funds and her reflexive bargaining, vex is not cruel. she is not angry on her own behalf. She saves two boys from the market in the city of brass at great personal cost, she relinquishes an entire dragon's hoard to the devastated city of Westruun, she took the time to save a baby bear from a cage when she could have just cut and run after escaping her own. She's the first one most people go to when they need a shoulder to cry on, and she's devastated when they don't (thinkin about when Scanlan left). She carved "forgiveness" into the bow she stole from a man after killing him by proclaiming how much she loved someone, because she knew anger had no place in her heart.

And Beau, Beau is a bitch and she's harsh, but she doesn't hoard or protect like vex did. she spends her money without much of a second thought. She pitches in to help her friends buy a ton of glowsticks, and she loves to indulge in material desires like drink and good food and the nicer inn room. She's a member of an organization that's about making knowledge public rather than guarding it. And, though this may be controversial, I think her position with bowlgate of "its not our problem what cali wants to do with it", her long-standing mistrust of their alliance with the bright queen and and more recently with the tomb takers of "i want to go in and talk, rather than assuming they're antagonistic, even if it puts us at a disadvantage" are both examples of this non-possessiveness too - she has no need or desire to get involved in controlling what other people are doing.

so, i guess the general conclusion here is: vex struggles to let go of things, of money, of people. beau struggles to let herself be known in case she gets wrongly interpreted again. they both fight feelings of inadequacy, they both fight the feelings of not belonging, of 'doing it wrong', they fight the perception of them as shitty people because of the shells they hide in despite their absolute hearts of gold. but at the end of the day, vex's story is one of having to lay down what could never be hers so she can carry what is, and beau's story is one of allowing herself to be known so a place can be made for her.

#hope this is what you and that other anon were looking for jdsflkdsajfsaldfsa #critical role #vexahlia #beauregard #long post

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mapleandgingeroatmeal · 3 years

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CR2E76-Refjorged

HOLY SHIT THIS EPISODE HAD EVERYTHING. WHERE DO I EVEN START?? This is gonna be a long one for sure.

The spontaneous Mead Pong game was so fun. I love how they all just went for that, and Caleb getting a perfect shot only when nobody was watching? Priceless.

They haven’t really done a heist w/ Caduceus. have they? Unless you count boarding that one ship, but I don’t think you can since that wasn’t a stealth thing. It’s weird, but that detail felt like almost a mark of how far the Nein have come already

I’m sure people have written a lot about this (I’d love meta recs if anyone has ‘em), but that makes me think about what may have changed about the m9′s path if Molly had stayed alive. Clay has been such a huge force in pushing the nein to do good in the world, and although he has plenty of his own issues, I think the fact that he believes in everyone’s ability to be good people has really had a huge impact. This may be a Hot Take, maybe I’ll regret this cause idk what Molly fans are like, but I really don’t think the group would have made nearly as much moral and emotional progress w out Caduceus. They would probably be at least a lot closer to crossing over that line into Bad People.

THE BREAD. This is another famous joke that I new existed, but had no context or knowledge for. I was so excited when I heard it come up! Caleb and polymorph is such a delightful combo. The dumb brain really lets him escape his misery I think, and he had such a gleeful face and relaxed posture for that whole scene.

“Last time we did this, you put a sword to my throat”. Whatta callback! Despite how much everything has changed, Fjord and Caleb still have this interesting intensity to their relationship. The moment when they start a mysterious blood ritual and Caleb’s accent confrontation come to mind. I hope we get more in the future about how these two interact in a more casual setting, tbh, because at this point I have a hard time pinning down their dynamic. The trust is definitely there now, and all the Nein obviously love each other, but in many ways it feels almost delicate? Like in the scene from this ep, I think both of them probably reflect on that day thinking they were in the right, even if they’ve moved on. Interesting stuff!

The reactions when Nott murdered that guard were so priceless. Little moments like that are kinda sobering reminders of how broken she is. Since probably the moment that Veth killed that Goblin leader with a vile of acid, she’s led a life that seems to have been very much kill-or-be-killed. Empire people aren’t taught to see Goblins as much more than kill-on-sight monsters, and in a self-defense situation Nott is so small that she would really have only one chance before getting overpowered. It’s upsetting and definitely bad, but I think it makes a lot of sense that her first instinct when panicked is to go for the throat.

Caduceus is truly such a dummy and I love him for it. The man knows two things: Death and People. Nothing else. Strategy? Never heard of her. High-stakes stealth mission with an important decision to make? “it’s always nice to see my friends :)”.

Whats in the book they stole! We didn’t find out for the entire episode if I’m not mistaken! Caleb just gave to Fjord with some cryptic comments! Wtf kind of book isn’t useful/ interesting to Caleb? This is going to drive me insane.

The pack-rat elf lady wearing Reani’s crown finally was v sweet. She was a character that Matt seemed to hint at a lot of depth for. I wonder if we’ll ever get back to Uthadorn? I’d like to see her again

The dusts are also a bunch of npcs that I kinda wish we’d gotten more time with! The way that Matt had the whole family and their personalities mapped out makes me feel like there was a lot that didn’t get explored there. Clay has a tendency to minimize his own priorities and as much as it’s a neat character choice, I wish it didn’t mean that we see less of the neat stuff around his arc!

Fjord’s dream sequence had me tearing up. Matt’s writing is just so emotionally intelligent and deep. The specification that the Wild Mother can ease the pain but the wound will always be there? That hit me so goddamn hard. I love this character.

If I think too much about what this sword-collecting arc means for Fjord I’m gonna start crying again. Here’s a guy that grew up unloved, with nobody that ever cared enough to give him anything. He was so recently convinced that the Nein only cared about him while he was useful. And what happens once he looses all utility to the group? They give him magic weapons, and circle around to protect him, and face down a fucking ancient white dragon, all just to get him a gift from the Wild Mother. What does that feel like to a man who’s never ever had a family before? Can he even really recognize the kind of devotion the m9 just displayed? I hope once he has a quiet moment he can do some reflection and appreciate how much he is just unconditionally supported now. I want him to understand that he is loved.

Beau and Reani! I did remember right! They are adorable and everyone’s reaction at the table was priceless. That moment had a neat meta-level feel to it w/ the addition of Mica as a guest character. I could tell she was feeling out if this was a role-play boundary or not, just like Reani was feeling out if Beau was interested. Beau going in for the kiss out of nowhere was also Marisha signaling “yes please bang my hot gay monk”. A perfect ending for a wonderful character!

Jester and Caduceus almost judgy convo was actually fascinating to me, because it kinda highlighted one of my favorite things about Beau in that she breaks the norms arounf sexualy agency that you usually see with female charecters. She’s an action movie protag, casually banging hot ladies and hiring sex workers, and she’s celebrated for it like you would celebrate that behavior in james bond! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a female character that does that before.

I could talk about Caleb and Nott’s conversation here for fucking hours, and I think I’m gonna actually do a whole separate post about it so this doesn’t get too long. Why is every interaction they have just the most poignant beautiful incredible moment ever committed to film? What did the world do to deserve this? Nothing. We do not deserve them.

Fjord getting his powers back and celebrating and the callback to Nott turning into a tiny Fjord and Eldritch Blaaaaaaayyyst returning and being wrapped up in seaweed and awkwardly objectified by Jester and Caduceus big goofy grin and all of it was such a joyful, hopeful note to end on! More than ever the Nein are feeling like a family, with all the wonderful messy things that entails, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m going to go watch Nott and Caleb and cry again.

#critical role #cr2e76 #cr catch-up

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actualfarless · 3 years

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Confessions

Unknown to you, your girlfriend is part of a secret organization sworn to stopping an ancient evil. Unknown to her, you are that ancient evil.

Story below or read on Wattpad

“So, I have something to tell you.”

Rylie stared at me with her baby blue eyes from over the top of her knees, clad in her fluffy unicorn pajamas. Biting her lip, she wrapped her arms around her legs, doing her best to look at innocent as possible. It was the same as when she told me she loved me for the first time. Same as when she told me about her parents. Same as any serious conversation.

I smiled the best reassuring smile I could. “Yes, Missus Thelpty?”

“Thelpty-Grey. Future Thelpty-Grey,” Rylie corrected with a grin. She played with her wavy brown hair, not so subtly flashing her tattoo. She always lied about the heptagram on her wrist and I never pushed. Despite how much she pretended, Rylie never liked talking about herself. She would let me know when she was ready. Probably curled up on the couch in unicorn pajamas, staring at me with innocent blue eyes.

“Yes, Missus Future Thelpty-Grey?”

“Kay, so, you know how I, like, love those weirdass horror-scifi books?”

“Which ones?” I teased. I knew which ones. I first met her in the bookstore when she was buried in them. The local shop received a collection of the old ones, and she bought all of them. Every copy, even multiple versions of the same ones. ‘In case there was a misprint,’ she later told me. The author was prolific. For a normal person, it would have been an extraordinary purchase.

But that was Rylie. She won the lottery twice and was set for life.

The horror-scifi clashed with the fluffy unicorn pajamas, but that was Rylie. Half magical horse, half spooky space thing, entirely lovable. I guess that was part of why I liked her so much. She knew what it was like to live with a split life.

“The ones by Crofte.” Rylie’s smile didn’t slip, but her tone shifted. She looked past me, taking a deep breath. This was way more intense than the first ‘I love you.’

Not as intense as her proposal.

“Ah, yes. The spooky ones.”

“The spooky ones,” Rylie agreed. “Well, I’m part of a group. The Val Crofte Literature Club.”

I was well aware of the VCLC. Rylie received a box filled with new books from them every month, marked by seven circles. She told me they represented the seven classical planets in Crofte’s work. Rylie talked about them a lot. For Crofte-heads, a name Rylie used to refer to the group once, which I would never let her forget, the classical planets were the key to understanding the meta-story.

It also had something to do with alchemy. I had a hard time getting into them. They hurt my brain. I had no clue how one man wrote so much.

“Yeah, your nerd group.”

“They’re not nerds! Well, not all of them.” Rylie stretched, again flashing the heptagram. “It’s not just about the books. It’s about the meta-story. We, uh… we…”

Rylie struggled to get the words out. A nervous blush spread across her face.

I took her hand, careful to avoid the tattoo on her wrist. I never told her, since it was impossible to explain, but the design was unpleasant. Every time I touched it, even the slightest brush, it burned. Like a hot stove, but through my whole body and prickly. “It’s okay, Rylie. You can just admit to being a nerd. We’re engaged. I know this now.”

“There’s more to it, Aaron.” Rylie bit her lip, still uncertain. Then, a serious expression suddenly took her face. Not the way the faceless steal faces in the Crofte books. She simply decided to be straightforward. “The VCLC believes that the books aren’t just stories.”

“They’re damn good ones!”

Rylie didn’t laugh. That hurt a little. “They - we believe that Val Crofte is trying to warn us about creatures. Monsters. Eldritch beings.”

My heart thumped. Did she know?

“Val Crofte isn’t one person. The members of the VCLC embed codes in the books whenever we learn something new. Some of us are trained to hunt these things.” Rylie paused, looking sadly at her hand which I no longer held. I hadn’t realized I’d been retreating. But it was starting to make sense now. “Not me, of course. I’m a researcher for the VCLC. I study the codes, sort out the truth from fiction, then pass it along to the hunters. They’re usually about lesser beings. Mimics. Vampires. That sort of stuff.”

A weight was lifted off my chest.

“Some of them are about great ones.”

And put right back on.

“The VCLC has had a few names. We were inspired by Lovecraft. The name too.” Rylie’s excitedness took over as she continued her tale. She stood, pacing in front of the couch now. My eyes were focused on the seven-pointed star on her wrist. How it moved with the way her hands tensed. “There’s been so many stories, Aaron. We’re dedicated to stopping evil, great and small. And now… now there’s rumours, Aaron. Rumors of something big. The kind of monster that could destroy the world.”

Rylie paused, impressing the dramatic weight of this realization with her blue eyes and gestures. “A real Lovecraftian nightmare, Aaron.”

I couldn’t hold it back anymore. “Is that tattoo VCLC?”

Rylie looked shocked, as though pulled from a dream. She held her wrist out to me. “This? Yeah. Ish. The members of VCLC get a tattoo on their wrist so we can recognize each other. But it’s also a sigil of protection. In Crofte’s books, it’s a symbol of power. It shows control over all of the elements. And all of the planets. The classical planets. They’re-”

“The ones that count,” I finished. That was something Rylie said a lot. It was a popular phrase among the books’ protagonists.

With a laugh, Rylie sat down next to me, snuggling close and wrapping her arms around me. “They are actually good books too. I was a fan of Val Crofte before I even knew about the VCLC. And not all of our members are full members. Some of them are just fans. You should give them a shot.”

“I will,” I lied. At least now I knew why the books hurt to read. It wasn’t just poor worldbuilding.

“You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?” Rylie asked, staring with her innocent blue eyes. Eyes that concealed secrets all too well. I gave her my best reassuring grin.

“No, Rylie, I don’t. I love you. I know you’re telling the truth.” I sighed. It was my turn to share. “In another life, I was called Thorn. Thorn A. Laytep.”

I took a deep breath. In a thousand lifetimes, I never told anyone this secret. But it was time.

“Before then, I was known as Nyarlathotep.”

<<>>

“Before then,” Aaron said slowly. His lips were pulled tight, replacing his usual smile with something stern. He was like that sometimes. Aaron liked to joke, to laugh, play. He brought out my childish side. That was what I loved about him. Then, rarely, he was serious. I loved that too. I could tell him things - important things - and he’d meet me with the same sincerity. “I was known as Nyarlathotep.”

My heart thumped. The name alone made my tongue numb and he said it with ease.

I laughed, pulling him tighter. He got me. “Nice.”

“I’m not joking, Rylie,” Aaron said. “I am… I was Nyarlathotep.”

“I know.”

Aaron stopped fiddling with the drawstring on his sweatpants. I tried many times to get him better sleepwear, even getting him more boyish pajamas, since he didn’t like my totally cool unicorns. He never wore them. I wasn’t upset, though. Aaron liked what Aaron liked. I loved that about him.

Aaron liked grey sweatpants and octopus shirts. “You know?”

“Well, like, I didn’t til you told me. But I know you’re not joking, Aaron.” Aaron Thelpty. Oh my god, I was such a dumbass. Seven years of piecing together puzzles for the VCLC and I never cracked the one that kissed me awake every day for the last three. I laughed again. “You really like anagrams.”

Aaron smiled. He had a nice smile. I loved that about him too. “That I do, Missus Future Thelpty-Grey.”

My heart hurt again as the feeling of guilt shot through me. I’d been with Aaron for so long now. We met when I was doing research on a local cult for one of our hunters and I just felt pulled to him. The same way Argent was pulled to the moon when she first arrived on earth. A connection that transcended the physical form and joined them in the spirit. With that first connection, Argent was soulbound to her element.

They were really good books. I wished Aaron would actually read them.

“If there is a future Missus Thelpty,” Aaron said quietly. His brown eyes were wet and he bowed his shaved head. In my initiation to the VCLC, they asked me to read - not recite, they were clear about that - read some magic text. My eyes burned. My blood boiled. It felt like my body was trying to tear itself apart from the inside out.

They later explained that the test was to see if I had any latent magic ability. I didn’t. But I still wanted to join the VCLC and contribute to the metanarrative. So they let me be a researcher.

Aaron’s sad look hurt worse.

“You said you were Nyarlathotep-” a figurative bee stung my literal tongue - “Gnarly-thep in another life. What does that mean?”

Aaron sighed again, moving away from me.

“I was beaten. A group of kids figured out how to stop me, at least for a little bit, and Nyarlathotep was defeated. Well, banished,” Aaron said sheepishly, “for a thousand years. Then he- I came back as Thorn. Thorn was angry. He wanted to get revenge on the kids who beat him before, but they were gone. So he lashed out.”

“Like Aurum,” I whispered.

“Uh, yeah.”

“You haven’t met him yet,” I told Aaron excitedly. “He’s Argent’s… He’s related to Argent, soulbound to the sun. He’s all about the heart and lavish things, but he has, like, a bit of an anger issue.”

“Yeah,” Aaron said with a soft laugh, watching me walk around our living room. “Like Aurum.”

I hadn’t realized I was pacing. Val Crofte’s books got me so excited. It was definitely the excellent world building. I carefully readjusted the painting of the eclipse I had commissioned and sat back down next to Aaron. “Sorry, go on.”

“I… We? Thorn realized he wasn’t as strong as Nyarlathotep. He was a little superhuman but he wasn’t a powerful space being. He was just a strong man with a little bit of magic.” Aaron paused, reluctant to finish his story. I encouraged him with the sweetest look I could muster. He told me once that he could never resist my smile. I loved that about him. I didn’t tell him I had the same problem. “Thorn got himself in some trouble in the Americas. He didn’t live past the twenties.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Aaron quickly said. “I don’t consider Thorn part of me. I don’t even consider Nyarlathotep part of me. I have memories of them. Vague memories. But I don’t have any powers. I definitely am not an eldritch monster. At least not any more. Whatever I used to be, I’m not anymore.”

I searched his face, looking for any sign that he was lying. The VCLC texts warned that Nyarla… Aaron’s alter-ego a master of deceit. Supposedly, he delighted in pain and trickery. But those were just stories shared by strangers. Research from unconfirmed sources. Some members claimed that garlic could outright kill a vampire, but it rarely did more than give them a stomach ache.

The VCLC wasn’t always right. They were just a bunch of nerd books.

“Aaron Thelpty,” I said, tracing the Sigil of Seven on my wrist. It was meant for protection from physical and spiritual harm. But I traced it whenever I needed to feel brave. “There are thousands of stars in the sky. There are hundreds of worlds. They all have their theories. Their rules. But what they think doesn’t matter. What they say doesn’t matter. Because, despite the trillions of lives on those worlds and between those stars, only one matters to me. You. We are soulbound. There is nothing that can break that bond. I’m here for you, Aaron. I’m here for you.”

Aaron gave me the most confused stare I’d ever seen from a thousand-year-old being. “What?”

“It’s from the books. It’s what Luna tells Argent in The Rise of Neptune. It means, I love you. I don’t care about your past. I don’t care what the VCLC says about you or your followers.” I took Aaron’s hand, squeezing gently, and looked him straight in the eyes. His soft brown eyes welled with tears. Not the painful ones that made me want to peel my skin, but the ones that made me want to wrap him in my arms and kiss him.

“I love you, Mister Future Thelpty-Grey.”

#short story #this one is also from reddit #from 2019 #its the one folk liked the best so i wrote a second part #the reddit link is somewhere but i'm too lazy to find it

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aerltarg · 3 years

Note

2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 26, 27 from ask game

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

oh, it's actually hard to answer bc pretty often my otps can work as brotps for me as well. it also means that when i can't ship some characters they don't work for me as friends either. not to mention that in asoiaf i'm open to many ships, and if i'm not very passionate about some it's not a sign i can't see them in romantic light.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

may i say any sansa ship? 😭 as well as sansa herself lmao. idk generally i can't ship characters i don't like because i'm just not interested. and it's not to say i don't like book!sansa (show!sansa is another case 💀), i just don't find her arc as intriguing and epic as arcs of some other characters. however, it's absolutely her obnoxious fandom's fault that i don't want to touch anything about her now, pairings including. sansaery? pass. sansan? i used to have a soft spot for them in my heart but now? nah. sansa x anyone? pls have mercy, she's already a fandom bicycle.

and jonsa ofc. i would never mind some crack ship as i do this one if not for their obnoxious stans that did way too much to list there right now. but this burning desire to persuade every rock on the street that your crack ship is canon will never stop being ridiculous lmao

also braime. tbh i used to low-key like them but some of their stans weirded my away lol. i get that not all of them are like that but still. it's generally my great pain when i see braime/brienne/jaime stans who are also dany/targ antis. every time i see them i cackle and run away as fast as i can crying from disappointment lmao. it's really a pity because i'm either very neutral or like in my own way all three of them.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

jonrya it is! i never hated them, you know, but they never were more than siblings and brotp to me. however, later i encountered the deluded crack ship fandom that shall not be named and understood that if there is any possible romance for jon with any of his sisters-cousins we all know which one it will be lmao. also their stans are very sweet and i really like many of their takes on arya and jon! i generally love relationships of jon and arya very much so it wasn't that difficult in practice to see them in a quite different light.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can't stand now?

meta culture lmao. reading different analysis and interpretations of the text used to be very interesting to me (and still is tbh but in other fandoms) though asoiaf is a different case. imo many people aren't honest in their so called theories and analyses. i get that all of us are biased but some "meta writers'" denial of their own biases influence fandom in a bad way. it looks like too many people run to them to get answers to their questions about any minor detail as if they were grrm himself. yk instead of using their own reading comprehension lmao. you see how this meta culture ruined fandom just looking at the most delusional stans and shippers who spread their agenda by writing endless text posts full of nonsense and bullshit but styled as oh so intellectual and thoughtful analysis. it's insane how many people actually buy it and don't check canon accuracy of such claims themselves. it got to the ridiculous point when random people try to argue with you with some far-fetched embarrassing "theories" as if they were canon facts or quotes straight up from a fanfic because they read somewhere some other confused soul's post and got from a context that this quote is canon (despite the fact that it wasn't written in grrm's style at all but some people can't use their brains even if their lives depended on it it seems).

anyway it's become too long and rambly already so tldr. because of such "neutral unbiased" analyses i got the habit of fact checking almost everything i see in such posts. there's only a small amount of meta writers from targ/dany/jon/arya stans that i trust because i know by practice and following them for some time that they don't pull anything out of nowhere, back up everything they say with canon quotes, don't decontextualize anything and (that is the most important thing to me) are reasonable and open to discussion unlike so many bnfs nowadays.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

ah, not in this fandom yet, god bless! i think i'm not loud enough for the needed amount of time to deserve it lol. but since i'm not going anywhere soon maybe one day i will 😂

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

robert baratheon and tywin lannister, obviously. tbh it's pretty hard for me to hate any characters because you know. they're fictional lmao. just lines on paper, they can't hurt you. and even such dudes as tywin or robert don't get real distaste from me if they're written well enough. my problem with them lies not only in their canon crimes and shitty consequences of those but in fandom's (or at least some parts of it) unwillingness to acknowledge that they're canonically written as shitty, not as stan/pity/worship material. tywin isn't as clever as some think and robert is a coward outside of battlefield, not to mention some absolutely disgusting denial of his nature from targ antis only because the man happened to be the most vocal targ hater in-universe so these folks feel like he is their main book representative and whitewash him completely lmao

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

uugh idk even. i'm either low-key interested (or used to be at least so i can stay pretty neutral for the sake of nostalgia lol) or too indifferent to really care.

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

all my faves have their own crowd of haters i'm afraid 😭 but let me say rhaegar. even among some dany/targ stans my man is so misunderstood lmao. it's not even his fault i dare say it's fanon about his half-imagined crimes that somehow got widespread to the unbelievable degree. and when i say they're half-imagined i'm being very generous actually. ofc he isn't perfect, no one in asoiaf is. and yes, he's a pre-series dead minor character but almost all little information about him is actually positive, not to mention the narrative itself that doesn't paint him as a villain or just a shitty dude. on the contrary, he's an idealized to some degree dead prince who could've been a good king (like some other historical targaryens, jacaerys, baelor breakspear, aemon son of jaehaerys, etc.), a mysterious yet tragic figure. i have much to say about why it's so popular to shit on him in fandom but yeah. his haters should send their complaints to grrm instead, no one forced the man to write him like that lol. and i mean that no one has to like him ofc. but it's misinterpretation of the text to claim he was intentionally written as a villain or smth by grrm.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

i don't know if it counts as unpopular but i would say tyrion's arc as a whole because i enjoy his character and like in my own way. i can get why some people don't like him but this man will always have his own place in my heart i must admit.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

is this unpopular tho?.. ok but renly wouldn't make a terrible king. i dare say he would be better than both robert and stannis. yes, he wasn't shown as perfect and i don't claim this. he wouldn't be the best or the most brilliant or the most just or noble. yet still better than his brothers. his flaws weren't anything other high lords didn't have, his mistakes weren't anything other lords and kings didn't do. in many ways he would make a better job than robert or stannis, too bad he died so early, even though i get why it was important for the narrative.

26. Most shippable character?

well generally for me it's the ones i love the most lol. jonerys/snowstorm is my never dying otp but i admit my sins, sometimes i just see dany with other characters (often from other fandoms pls don't @ me). however, since dany is THE fave of mine it means i would rather twist the other guy or girl to fit into the good match for her than twist her for another character in my new born crack ship lol. and i never stay for too long with the ships with which i feel they don't really fit and don't do justice for each other lol. maybe that's the reason i'm not much of a rare shipper / crack shipper afshdjdb

27. Least shippable character?

everyone i don't like? 😭 as i've said sansa for the reasons above lol. you can insert many others in her place lmao

#thanks for the ask!#.txt #mypost #ask game #anonymous #*answered

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austarus · 4 years

Text

Harry Wells x Reader Crisis of Infinite Wells (Part 4 of 5)

**A/N: The picture/edit/gif does not belong to me. It belongs to @moonymartell and @countlesswells

** *Insert angel face emoji*

Word Count: 7267

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5

‘Systems Online,’ a pop-up signal had indicated on the tablet you held with flashing red and white lettered lights. But the adrenaline in your veins would not subside. Taking in a breath of rushed air, you walked towards the monitors on jittery feet with the notion of checking on Nash. Looking back up at him, his eyes were shut, and his lithe body was reclined in the chair with machinery hooked up to him. You dread ball up in the pit of your stomach as silence hung in the air.

“Did it work?” Ralph questioned, glancing to everyone then back to you; confusion written on his face.

“Is there something that should have happened?” Barry followed up beside Ralph.

“Well if there was a big bang sound, followed by multiple spontaneous sparks flying everywhere and the room’s electricity short-circuiting along with small fires combusting from the machinery then we’d be in trouble.” You watched Nash’s neurological and physiological vitals rise and fall within homeostatic values on the monitors. Normal. Stable. “I- According to my theoretical calculations- yes, I’m getting science-y right now-,” you exhaled while you gestured with your hands as you spoke, “each psyche that had manifested itself into Nash’s being should have effectively split from his psyche and returned to their respective bodies in each dimension harboring a Harrison Wells doppelganger. Harry and the others hypothesized that their bodies must be unconscious, but alive in order for their psyches to remain intact within Nash’s mind.” The others looked unsure. You rubbed your exhausted eyes. “It’s just like how when you and Iris used the Mindscape Machine to enter into Nora’s mindscape when she went into Grace’s mind. Sherloque said you both would enter with your psyche’s and they had to be intact in Nora’s head in order to ensure you’d be able to return to your bodies unharmed. If the psyche is harmed and killed in any way, then the body essentially dies,” You took a step towards them away from the monitors with the tablet held close to you. “The reverse should be correct as well. If the psyche is absent from the body, the body must be preserved at stable levels in order for the psyche to return and realign itself in its proper body. That’s what we’re relying on. Hopefully they all made it back to their respective bodies.”

“In this case, it’s the multidimension of Wells,” Chester interjected, lowering his voice to a whisper. “So freaking cool.” Allegra rolled her eyes as she continued to cross her arms.

“Nash would have felt the absence of a Wells in his psyche if another doppelganger’s psyche had deteriorated due to its unconscious body not surviving. Wolfgang would be able to pinpoint who it is because he has a neurological roster of the Council of Wells that he had implemented into his own mind, therefore his own psyche.”

Iris spoke up after you finished, running a hand over her forearm as she resisted the urge to itch the patch of skin. Side effects from remaining in the Mirrorverse for too long. “So, they get back to their bodies. Then what? How are they going to get here?”

“Each Wells should be able to use their intelligence as well as tapping into their own resources on their Earth and use the dimensional coordinates they have to get relay their dimensional coordinates and the states of their Earth’s back to Earth-Prime,” You answered in a heartbeat with a snap of a finger. “Sherloque, Harry, and Wolfgang should be coming as soon as they wake up. They work fast and everything.”

“Ugh,” Cisco groaned in irritation, throwing his head back, “not Herr ‘off-you-go’ Wells.” The rest of us giggled at impending misery. “I swear if he makes one snide remark.”

“Wait, how do you know if we’ve got all the Wells and their dimensions? Is there some sort of algorithm the satellites are tracking?” Kamila added from beside Cisco. You watched his eyes melt a bit at the fact that she takes interest in understanding his areas of expertise like how he does to her photography and artistic nature.

You gave Cisco the honors of explaining that one. He turned to his lovely girlfriend. “My babies up in the heavens, god bless my mechanical genius, are calibrated with the finest technology to identify any molecular or subatomic shifts produced by any wave of dark matter or antimatter.” Kamila grinned at him as he continued. “But we won’t know for certain until Grumpy Cat, Tea Leaves, and Herr Prim-Posh Pants summon themselves through to correctly calibrate the DCP (Dimensional Communications Projector) to the actual dimensional values. You know, the Wells touch and all. God, but I swear if they break anything-”

“-They’re not,” you giggled as you cut off your annoyed friend, “I already told Harry that this area would be a ‘No Throw’ zone. The guys know better than to throw things that aren’t theirs too.”

“What about Nash?” Cecile pointed at the unconscious man.

Right, this part. “I will stay here to monitor any changes to his vitals until he wakes up. I already have a universal blood sample from our very own speedster in case Nash’s body were to start entering a state of flux. Barry’s cells should be able to repair any damage in Nash’s body if that were to happen. Just like he did to Ralph.”

“But Ralph’s body is pure elastic. It can bend and readjust itself to anything. Nash’s human.” You make a very excellent point, Cecile.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already run tests on myself and Cisco in order to ensure that the small blood transfusion would work on non-metas.” You fist-bumped your bro, who nodded approvingly. “Tiny increments should be able to do the trick.” Cecile nodded at you, giving you a motherly proud look before it contorted into a pointed one. You knew what she was going to say, but before she had a chance to say it the meta alarm went off.

“I guess that’s our cue to leave things to you,” Barry smiled at you, before nodding everyone to the direction of the door.

“Don’t die out there,” you teasingly yelled at their retreating figure.

“We’ll try not to.”

“And Barry, you need to do a prognosis physiological and biochemical report on your body from using the artificial Speed-force. Can’t have you losing your speed halfway through the day.”

“Yes, mother, I’ll be home before dinner to do homework,” Barry snickered, as he waved you off as he left with the others.

You rolled your eyes playfully at your antics with him and the others. Taking a seat in front of the monitors, you gave Nash another look. No matter how many times I can joke around with the others, I still feel the weight of their lives on my shoulder. You chewed on the inside of your cheek as your eyes flickered onto the screens. You need to wake up soon Nash. Running a hand through your hair as you set your head against your arm which leaned on the metal table. I need to know I didn’t kill you.

***

An hour had passed, and you felt your head was down to its last brain cell. You blinked slowly as you laid it against the cool metal. Nash was still unconscious, and you were starting to get worried. His vitals were still substantially at equilibrium. You shut your eyes for a moment. Allegra strode in with an annoyed look on her face as her eyes landed on Nash then to you.

“I don’t get why you care about him,” her rushed voice caused you to lift your head up. She continued while you quirked an eyebrow at her. “Why you’re wasting time watching over him. I mean after everything he’s done to me and the rest of us. Hell, he took your boyfriend away from you for some shit myth-busting. How is it that you still try to make yourself available to help someone like him?” It pisses me off and so does his existence!

“Allegra, Nash’s a human being too.”

“Ugh, whatever.” The young adult padded over to where some tech lied in attempts to obtain the thing that Cisco had described he needed.

“Ok, no. I can’t do this today.”

“Excuse me?” she narrowed her eyes at your change in tone. What’s got her panties all in a sudden twist?

“I’m am so tired of your bullshit attitude towards him,” You threw out, standing up from your chair with flared nostrils. “Your incessant whining when we don’t tell you every little detail about us, and how you treated the rest of us like dirt as if we haven’t been trying to stay by your side.”

“I haven’t-”

“Do you honestly not remember the way you treated Joe and Cecile? With rudeness and hostility and utter venom? When they had tried to get you to trust them to keep you safe from your cousin? How you were so pissy at Iris for not telling you about Team Flash? How you sneered and lashed out at Frost for trying to help you with your boy problems? We’re just going to sweep all that under the rug and call it a day?” You rhetorically asked with utter frustration. “And Nash, what is your problem with him? That he didn’t tell you that his adopted daughter who died right in front of him is your doppelganger? That’s your reason to emotional and mentally abuse him?! Boohoo, he didn’t tell me the truth. I’m a journalist I have to know the truth.”

“I don’t know wh-”

How can one person be so selfish? “Yes, you do. I’m a family practitioner, I know the signs of abuse even if it isn’t physical. 1) The silent treatment you give him whenever he tried to approach you to see if you were alright or if you needed help. 2) Not taking any responsibility for your toxic behavior towards him. 3) Pushing him to the point where he questions himself and his sanity because of how much you openly despise him. 4) Leading him to believe almost everything that goes wrong around you is his fault when it’s not. That’s gaslighting. 5) Using shame and his guilt to make him feel worse about himself regarding problems he already deeply regrets and works every day to make up for it. 6) Appearing indifferent when he’s clearly hurt/sad/upset. That’s called lack of empathy. And 7) ignoring him when he’s trying to express his feelings or trying to explain himself to you, but obviously because of all of the above you never gave him the fucking chance.” I get that her upbringing was rough but isn’t it hypocritical of you to pry at everyone’s hidden secrets when you have some of your own. We barely know anything about you other than the CCPD records and your meta abilities.

You had taken a few steps closer to her, seething and seeing red. Allegra struggled to retaliate, “I didn’t know-“

“No, you clearly didn’t because every time he tried to talk to you, you always shot him down harshly. Nash tried to give you time and space, always hoping that you would be ready and one day just listen to him. Do you not know how hard it is to wake up every morning to see the doppelganger of your dead child? Do you not understand how hard it is for him to relive the memory of her death over and over again? How much grief he’s carried in his heart and all of a sudden, by a stroke of chance his daughter’s doppelganger is part of Team Flash on this Earth?”

“…”

“You call yourself a journalist, but only when you don’t get what you want. You used that card so many times against Iris, especially when you snooped on her computer and found out about the crisis.” You took in a breath from your heated speech to calm down. Your headed started to pound even more Never in your life have you gotten this ballistic. You counted to 10 and regained control of your breathing and your tongue. Allegra was downright speechless, stunned in her spot at your ebullient words. “I’m not sorry for everything that I’ve said. You needed to hear it to wake up from that closed off and childish world you live in. Because whether you like it or not, he’s family too. And he’s here to stay, just like you. That’s the truth. You have trust issues, even when you’re with us. All of us. You doubt yourself and hesitate. That’s another truth. And you just use him as a punching bag to let out your frustration and pent-up annoyance on someone who only wants to protect you. Penance for not being able to protect his own daughter.”

“I didn’t ask for him to protect me. I’m not helpless.”

“We don’t ask for a lot of things in life to happen, but they do so anyway. Barry got struck by lightning. Frost and Caitlin watched their father die. We’ve lost so many precious souls. But life goes on. Is Iris helpless when Barry saves her? Is it true when vice versa happens? Frost distracts the baddie in time for Cisco to work his tech magic. Is he helpless? Is Ralph helpless when Sue took down those assassins even though she knew he was Elongated Man who is more than capable of handling a few bullets?”

“I- No?”

“Having another person around isn’t a sign of weakness, but strength. Surrounding yourself with people who love you, who you can call family isn’t an exhibition of helplessness. Allegra, you have a home now. A family that will always want the best for you whether you choose to trust us or not. And no matter what happens, Nash’s resolve is to ensure your safety even though he knows you are your own person. For his dead daughter’s sake. That’s how he believes he can redeem all that he’s done. Is that wrong?”

“But he manipulated me and then basically started the crisis.”

“Then I guess you don’t know the full story about that either,” you mocked her. Some reporter, huh. “First off, Nash told you about Team Flash before Team Flash told you about Team Flash. Why? I can only assume that he wanted you to know before you found out the hard way. Meaning if something where to happen to you unexpectedly like Blackhole targeting you because of your affiliation with Iris. He wanted you to already be aware of them and to know who to go to in case things got rough. Secondly, he gave you the push you needed to not fear your powers. To trust yourself. He foresaw that you’d need your powers and so would the others. So, where in all of that does Nash win and leave you for ruin like Eobard Thawne has done to the others? Was it wrong for Nash to indirectly help you in his own awkward bargain-y kind of way?”

Allegra ran a hand through her hair as you spoke, wanting desperately to prove you wrong that Nash was just using her. “It’s just… weird. I’m her doppelganger, I’m my own person. I’m not… her. I don’t even know her name.”

“Her name is Maya and if you asked Nash, he’d be more than willing to tell you about her, and you’d see for yourself that you and she are not the same.”

Allegra nodded at your words, looking as if she would contemplate it. You hoped anyway. The man didn’t need to be broken further. “How do you know all this?”

“It’s honestly pretty simple to push his buttons a bit before he spilled his pent-up feelings to me after we exorcised Eobard out of him. And I’m pretty sure Harry’s been giving him hell for Nash’s unsuccessful attempts with talking to you.

“Who’s he again?”

“An evil murderous speedster that has a thing for ruining Barry’s life and ensuring his existence in the timeline. Not the first time that’s happened, but the crisis allowed for us to do an exorcism was very… eye-opening.” You grinned mirthlessly to yourself causing her to smile a bit. You sighed and took a seat, gesturing for her to take it. Rubbing your eyes, you spoke up, “Nash isn’t the only one.”

“I don’t understand”

“4 years ago, Zoom was terrorizing Earth-1 and Earth-2. A speedster that could breach back and forth if all 52 breach-points weren’t sealed. It was terrifying to say the least. Barry, Cisco, Harry, and I breached over to Earth-2 with a 24-hour time limit in saving Jesse. She’s Harry’s daughter. His pride and joy, his one weakness but his true.”

“You sound like she’s yours too.”

In a way, she kinda would be if- “She’s a brilliant young soul who rivaled her father in intelligence and had a high-spirited personality. Later on, she was accidentally gifted with speedster abilities when Harry and the others tried to regain Barry’s speed. Abilities that Harry still dreads to this day because he’s an overprotective grouch. You’d like Jesse if you met her. Any who, I’m going off topic-” You laughed to yourself. “We had a strict time limit to find her before Zoom and his meta-minions expunged us off the multiverse. And Barry, he went undercover after kidnapping his nerdy doppelganger- “

“-so, Barry basically kidnapped himself- “

“-Yeah. A lot of weird shit goes on with us, but those are all stories for another time.” You waved the thought off before continuing. “So, he was undercover, and he met up with Joe and Iris’ doppelgangers on Earth-2’s Jitters. Barry couldn’t help himself when it came to protecting them when Earth-2 Killer Frost and her boyfriend crashed the little party in search for Barry and us. In the name of Zoom, they were sent out to kill of the breachers. Barry got involved when we were supposed to be incognito getting in and getting out. He sped E-2 Joe to the hospital and E-2 Iris away before she could shoot at E-2 Killer Frost. Even though, Harry told him that these doppelgangers were not his Iris and Joe, that he shouldn’t get involved with the people there. Barry saw the differences and, I kid you not, yelled at Harry that even if they were doppelgangers, they were still his Joe and Iris. He had a sense to protect them, just like Nash does for you.”

“That’s…”

“It’s a lot, I know. We’ve all been through a lot in these past 6 years. Just… just think about it. Give Nash a chance to talk to you. To explain everything to you from his point of view. Because deep down, he knows you are your own person, but that you’re special just like Maya. Just as what Barry saw on Earth-2 with Joe and Iris’ doppelgangers. Lives worth risking for.”

You watched as Allegra took in a breath, really letting everything sink in before nodding at you. The gem that Nash had given her was still in her jacket pocket. It amplified her UV powers into mentally confusing the person in front of her. She fiddled with the tech in her hands. “I need to go give this to Cisco. He’s probably wondering if I drowned or not.” You nodded at her with an understanding smile as she retreated out the speed lab. Sighing harshly, you allowed the tension to leave your body as you reclined back in your seat. You shut your eyes. I hope I made the right decision to speak my mind to her.

“Didn’t think you thought that highly of me.” Your eyes fluttered open as you took a sharp intake of breath. Nash chuckled to himself at your dismay. His head felt incredibly murky as he blinked the dark spots away. He remained reclined as he rolled his head to the side, the feeling of his limbs returning to him as he urged his fingers to twitch and curl.

“Nash?! You were awake the entire time?!” Nash just smirked languidly at your embarrassed outburst, ignoring the slight throbbing sensation in his head. “Why didn’t you chime in?”

He watched you slowly sit up with worriment. Nash noted your continued exhaustion. “I was intrigued on what you had to say on my behalf.”

“Worried I’d tell her to UV your existence off the planet?”

“No, you wouldn’t do that.”

“And how do you know that? I can be pretty mean.”

And pretty bossy when you berate me for running into danger. But in either case, still pretty. “I understand. But then the question begs, why would you go to such great lengths to defend me?”

“I didn’t defend just you, Nash.”

“But almost the entirety of the conversation revolved around me and how I felt. My regrets and intentional self-punishment. You could have told her that you didn’t care and that she could continue to give me the cold shoulder… but you didn’t. Isn’t that right, little lady?” Nash coyly mocked you, causing you to roll your eyes at the Wells doppelganger. “Like you said, I’m a human being as well.”

“And a dumbass,” you muttered in a hushed voice to yourself as the taller man moved to stand up, he swayed not quite oriented yet. You were on your feet at once to steady him back into his seat. “Let’s do a couple of tests before you do any gallivanting across the city.” You checked over the monitors, noting that some vitals had dropped below normal which could be due to him waking up from the psyche-neural mental surgery.

“Do you want to take Barry’s blood?” You held up the syringe of speedster blood O-.

“Pass. I’m not a vampire.”

“I know you’re not a vampire, you idiot! This should speed up your body’s biochemical processes for you to retain homeostatic levels and for your mind to reorient itself to the psyche-neural splicing.” Nash stubbornly agreed to the blood administration. He rolled up his sleeve while you pulled out the necessary equipment to work your medical magic. You were just about finished when the geological myth-buster spoke up.

“Thank you… I owe you a favor.”

“Huh?”

“I said, thank you.”

“Sorry, just one more time. I don’t- I don’t think I… caught that correctly.”

“How does Harry even put up with you?”

“You can ask him yourself when he gets here,” you responded cheekily with a huge toothy grin on your face. You won’t lie and say that your heart didn’t jump that Harry would be coming soon. “Now what’s this about owing me a favor?”

Geez don’t smile like that at me. Nash pushed away those pesky thoughts. “I honestly really hoped you wouldn’t catch that, but,” He paused for a moment to collect his words as he sat up, now not taking for granted the silence within his own mind. “After you put the Psyche Segregator on me, I realized something. The favor you owed me, protecting Allegra, it’s… a favor without an expiration date.”

“So?”

“It wouldn’t be fair if I did not do the same.”

“I’m not following.”

“Gods! What I’m saying is, that I owe you a lifelong favor. But only one.”

He owes me a favor. A lifelong favor. A favor that’s lifelong. A favor that doesn’t expire. An expirationless favor. I get a lifelong favor. A dumbass owes me a favor. “…”

“What’s it going to be?”

“… I can’t think of anything right now.”

Nash only blinked at you. “Seriously, you can’t come up with something in that ditzy head of yours?”

“Hey, I take great offense to that!”

“Good, it’s the truth.”

You put away the medical equipment and disconnected the screens that held his vitals. While you were up, you gave him a water bottle and some food to help with the dizziness. Nash felt his strength return to him as the blood transfusion allowed his body to work faster in restoring itself. “You never told me; did it work? Are they…?” You trailed off pointing to your head as he stood up.

“No mo-”

Swouush, swooush

The crackling sounds of atoms and the fabric of this dimension cut you off. You turned around to see two breach-like holes open up in the middle of the speed lab, familiar and friendly faces exiting safely. They pocketed their newly synthesized dimensional extrapolators.

“Vhy don’t you take ein gut look, schatz?”

“Oui, we’d be more zhan ‘appy to answer zhat for Nash.”

You greeted them cheerily with a hand wave as they approached you and Nash. Wolfgang nodded at you before making a beeline to where the DCM remained. Sherloque tipped his hat to you before nodding at Nash.

“You guys made it safely.” :D

“Zhat we did, petit fluer. A few bumps on zhe way, but nozhing eizher of us could not ‘andle,” Sherloque piqued up,

“Then that means-,” You pulled out caramel vanilla flavored chap stick out of your pocket and applied it to your lips. Your heart waited in anticipation not even wanting to waste time to even fix your hair. Harry will be here soon. The boys just watched you carry on with a dumbstruck smile on your face as you stood in place and waited for a breach to open up. Wolfgang resumed working on recalibrating the DCM for the others.

“Did you just put on chap stick?” Nash asked with quirked eyebrows and an incredulous look.

“Well, yeah? When I see Harry, I’m going to wanna kiss him, duh.”

“You didn’t get enough from-”

“-Sherloque, don’t-”

“-when you were making out wizh ‘arry in Nash’s ‘ead?”

You shut your eyes and groaned, blood rushing up to your face as you covered it with your hands. “They did what?? Seriously, in my mindscape?” Nash’s flare-up caused Sherloque to snicker as he smirked at your bashfulness.

“Ja, zhey did zhat.” Wolfgang sighed, pulling up new schematics one the computer screen. He worked diligently with any piece of technology at his fingertips. “Alzhough, Sherloque vas zhe unfortunate one to valk in on zhem. Gott sei Dank bin ich es nicht.”

“Oui, zhey were getting very ‘ot and ‘eavy zhat it took Wolfgang and moi to interrupt zhem from what people on zhis Earth would say ‘rounding zhe bases like deux ‘ormonal teenagers.”

“Sherloque, stop! Please!”

Your cheeks were on fire and you know they could see the colored hues. Sherloque and Nash continued to tease you while you attempted to ignore their playful jabs. No Harry yet. It’s been… 15 minutes. Don’t panic. He’s ok. Probably held up or something at his Labs. He’s ok and he’s with Jesse. Just breathe. “I-I should probably run some small physiological diagnostics on you guys since you just crossed over and we don’t know if the dimensional travel will negatively impact you or not.”

“Great, she gets nervous and all of a sudden to distract herself, the little lady wants to run tests.” Nash facepalmed while Sherloque just gave you a look.

“Hey, I’m not nervous! How many times are you going to offend me today?”

“As many times as necessary.”

“Everyzhing zhat you’re doing right now are common gestures of being nervous. You keep playing wizh your fingers and biting on your bottom lip. You did zhat last year whenever we were discussing Cicada.” Sherloque added much to your chagrin.

You pouted with crossed arms. “I don’t do it often.”

“Yes, you do.” Both Nash and Sherloque responded simultaneously and you felt yourself shrink a bit under their combined blue gazes. Before you could say anything, Wolfgang let out low whistle. The three of you turned to him as he began to speak.

“Systems are all online und fully functional. Zhe ozhers should be sending us zheir dimensional coordinates und ve can commence vizh zhe cataloging soon.” The German man continued speaking as he finished typing up a few more algorithms on the computer. “I’ve already uploaded ein copy of zhe roster from my mind zhat vay ve could check zhe ozher Vells off Stück für Stück.

You nodded at Wolfgang’s words, but felt your stomach squeeze in your lower abdomen. “What about Harry?”

“Ve vill just have to vait until he shows up, schatz.” Wolfgang adjusted his glasses as he gave you a brief glance. You weren’t the only one to notice that since arriving on Earth-Prime that Wolfgang wouldn’t meet your eyes. “Do no vorry, Harry vill come.” Your shoulders sagged at the idea, an action Sherloque picked up on which prompted him to give his two cents.

Mh, une distraction semble être de mise. “(Y/N), Wolfgang ‘ere told me an interesting story about ‘is Earzh and a particular person ‘e ‘ad come across. Say, your doppelganger for instance.” The Frenchman took off his fedora to card his fingers through his dark locks whilst Wolfgang momentarily froze. Nash stretched fully before retreating out of the room, knowing he wouldn’t be needed and wouldn’t allow himself to be psychoanalyzed by the one and only Sherloque Wells. Sherloque smirked as Nash left and Wolfgang’s reaction. Il n’y a pas de mal à partager des histoires.

“Nein, halt- Ich-”

“-He told you or did you deduce it from him like you do to everyone else?” You questioned your friend slyly before turning your head back to the German Wells. “Wolfgang, you knew my doppelganger?”

“Ja, ve… ve used to be close in university.” His cheeks dusted pink as he fumbled about with the wiring of your Earth’s extrapolators. “She vas zhe one zhing zhat remained constant zhrough zhe years.”

“What happened to her? You’re talking as if-”

“She passed avay. Ja, she did. She vas terminally ill… Multiple Sclerozis.”

So that’s probably why he doesn’t like to look at me for too long. “I’m sorry. My brother- he died a few years ago from Multiple Sclerosis too. I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the family tree even across the multiverse, huh?”

“Ja.”

Ok (Y/N), way to make it super awkward. “I should- leave you to your sciencing. Sorry about that.”

Wolfgang just nodded his head in thanks before sending a glare to the detective while Sherloque advised the both of you to venture out to the breakroom for to make drinks. With a smug look on his face, obviously. Qu’est ce qui retarde ‘arry? The same thought echoed hauntingly in your mind as well. You allowed the French detective to pull you down the corridor for some coffee and tea, but your mind could not for the life of it let go of Harry.

***

You waited. Patiently, if I might add. It’s been 2 days since Wolfgang and Sherloque had popped over. Obviously you had gone home to shower and change before coming back with some snacks. The cataloging was running smoothly. Wells one by one projected themselves over via the DCM and recounted their dimensional coordinates as well as establishing the state of their Earth in this new dimension. But you grew uninterested in the different variations of your boyfriend. Each second ticked away at your heart. Like a fool you’d look up at the different sounds that would come from the center of the Speed Labs only to be met with disappointment. Sherloque eyed you as you waited around like a lost puppy for the Earth-2 man, even at points getting up and pacing. The detective saw the anxiety ooze from you at the fact that Harry hadn’t arrived yet, so he did his best to distract you from your worries and thoughts. But he was running out of stories of Earth-221, interesting cases, and discussion topics to tell.

Barry had sped in a couch for you and Sherloque to sit in as you waited for Harry to make an appearance. The detective calmly sipped at his new flavored tea, one that you had provided. Wild Raspberry Hibiscus. You blinked the sleep from your eyes, willing yourself to be alert. You had already consumed 4 cups of coffee with espresso yesterday, but those sleepless nights were slowly pushing against you. The two of you sat in silence with only the hums of working electricity and noises from the DCM.

“I zhink,” Wolfgang took a step back from the computer monitor, “I should retire for zhe nacht.” The German took off his glasses and rubbing his closed eyes. Es war eine mühsame Aufgabe, aber sie musste erledigt werden. “I’ve reprogrammed zhe system in order for it to catalog incoming Vells automatically.”

“I’ll keep my eye on it,” Sherloque piqued up, gesturing with his porcelain teacup to the DCM and subtly side glancing at you. Wolfgang only nodded at his doppelganger.

“Yeah, you should go rest. Sorry if it seemed like I was keeping you here,” you stood up and stretched, walking over to the German Wells.

“Nonsense, zhink of it as a favor to Harry,” Wolfgang waved off your statement. You offered your hand to the platinum-haired Wells which he shook gently before bidding your goodbyes to each other as he strode through the dimensional breach. Which reminds me. You scrunched your face and blinked a few times over then turned back to the seated detective.

“Sherloque, you don’t have to say here. You should go back home to Renee.”

“I- Comment puis-je lui dire? … Renee and I didn’t exactly work out. Encore.” You observed him as he set his teacup down, Sherloque chuckled sadly to himself. Je ne sais même pas pourquoi j’ai voulu recommencé ca va faire 8 fois.

“You deserve better. You really do, Sherloque. Love will find you.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Hey, head up,” You found yourself sitting beside the now cynical man as you wrapped your arms around him in a comforting hug. “It could even literally run right into you one day when you least expect it. But it doesn’t mean you can run yourself ragged from sleep loss.” He sighed, shaking his head slightly and reciprocating the gesture of affection. You knew he had no problem with loving, it was the fact of having that love fully reciprocated without it becoming superficial.

“I cannot, I promised ‘arry I would not leave your side in zhe case zhat zhere would be some sort of delay on ‘is end.”

“He asked you to do that for me?”

“Oui”

“Do you think… something happened to him?”

“I wouldn’t worry. ‘e’s a capable and determined man, plus ‘e ‘as ‘is daughter wizh ‘im. Now come on, I believe zhe bozh of us deserve a change of scenery.”

“I’m feeling the need for Jitters coffee actually.”

You pulled said man off the couch and moved towards the direction of the door. Sherloque raised an eyebrow at you incredulously as he scrunched his nose in disgust at the prospect of coffee. “Coffee at zhis hour? Its 10 PM.”

“WHAT?”

“Well you’ve been on zhe Netflix entire time, peeping up every once and awhile to see if ‘arry come or not. I’m not surprised you lost track of time.”

“I guess I can drink some hot chocolate from the breakroom.”

“No need to get up,” Nash’s voice caused your head to snap up as he stepped into the Speed lab with a cup of hot chocolate in hand, “I figured you’ve had too much coffee in your clumsy existence within the past 12 hours.” In truth, Nash had made, dumped, and re-made hot chocolate 7 times in the past 2 hours because he had no idea on how you’d react when he’d make it. He had no idea why he impulsively decided to make one of your favorite drinks instead of letting you waste away at the prospect of coffee. The adventurer talked and scolded himself because you clearly don’t need him to help you out. You’re a capable, independent ditz after all with a war veteran of a boyfriend on the way. Although, Harry’s delay did ease the unsettling feeling in the pit of Nash’s stomach. Finally, the myth-buster had made a decision and added some peppermint extract to give it more flavor with some marshmallows. Fuck it, I’m going to do it anyway because… I secretly want to see her smile at me while it lasts. FuCk.

“I resent that statement, but I do thank you for the hot cocoa,” you hummed in contentment of the fresh brew. Nash saw the weight momentarily leave your shoulders and your body visibly relaxed. You saw him eye you oddly but chose to shake it off as you took another long sip. “Mm, I never got to ask, but have you met any vampires?”

“What?”

“Vampires. You said you weren’t one and I obviously know that, but I’m intrigued if you’ve encountered any on your travels through the multiverse. Cisco accidentally met one when he saved Breacher a year ago.”

“Do you always come up with bizarre questions to ask?” Nash poked your cheek as the three of you moved back to the couch. You batted his hand away. Sherloque baby blue eyes followed the banter between

“I don’t know if I should take it as a compliment or a criticism.”

“Take it as you will. I honestly don’t care.”

“Well?” You asked with furrowed eyebrows as you were seated in between Sherloque and Nash on the couch. You blinked a few times and shook your head a bit.

“Well, what?”

“Have you caused any trouble with any vampire?”

“Why is it that you think that I always cause trouble?” Nash countered your question with his own. He ignored the mockingly smug look on Sherloque’s face.

You shot Nash a look before retorting and Sherloque held in a laugh. “I’m not even going to answer that, Nash.” Nash stammered a bit before succumbing to that determined look on your face, the sparkles hidden in your eyes as they twinkled with curiosity.

“There was this one time-”

“-I knew it!-”

“-Would you let me finish before judging?” He lightly scolded you as you took another sip of your hot cocoa, your head started to throb against the hardness of your skull. “Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted,” but you did not look in the least regretful, “this was before I met Maya. I had… overheard in a tavern on a dark Earth rumors of the Alexandrite Crown or better known in the dark legends as the Queen’s Crown. A crown thistled with alexandrite gems but infused with Thallium and Platinum. Poisonous according to the naturally occurring substances on that Earth.”

Nash continued painting the pictures to his adventure and his encounter with a Vampire Clan in a clash over the Alexandrite Crown and the mystical way of obtaining Chrysolite in order to cleanse it from the noxious spirit that’s locked away within. You hung onto each word as you pushed away the blurriness in your vision and the hazy state of your mind. With each second your head got heavier, feeling like lead and your eyes threatened to droop, but you needed this distraction from worrying about Harry’s wellbeing. Taking one deep breath, you shut your eyes as your body went out of commission. The geological adventurer breathed a sigh of relief, lowering his voice to a stop as your head gently lolled to the side, resting against Sherloque’s shoulder. Both men observed your breathing pattern relax to soft puffs of air.

“Sleeping powder, impressive and you even stalled until it took effect. Maybe zhere’s hope for you just yet,” Sherloque smugly spoke up as he readjusted you to rest your head onto his lap.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nash narrowed his blue irises at the detective.

“Non, nozhing. What else did you bring?”

“Huh? What-I didn’t-”

“I’m a detective Nash, I notice zhe most miniscule of things. Bring over zhe pillow and blanket you ‘ave ‘idden in zhe vacant room beside zhe corridor.”

“How did you…?”

“Skill, mon ami. Skill. Just because I’m not in your ‘ead does not mean zhat I cannot see zhrough your pure intentions.”

Nash sighed in defeat as he pulled up the blanket and pillow. He first covered you with a fluffy blanket, ensuring that he would not meet Sherloque’s eyes. “She gets cold when she falls asleep.”

“And zhe pillow?”

Nash handed his doppelganger the pillow, who placed it on his lap before setting your head on it to sleep comfortably. “You already know so I’m not going to even say anything.”

The detective quirked a teasing, but knowing eyebrow at the explorer, “Be honest wizh yourself, what prompted you to essentially drug her?”

“Okay, with the way you’re saying it, you’re sounding as if I’m going to do vile things to her. And you know what? I’m not going to even pretend to not be offended by that.”

“Well in reality you technically did drug her, but zhat’s beside zhe point.”

“She hasn’t been sleeping well. You know it. I know it. Hell, everyone on Team Flash noticed, but no one had the will to reprimand her to take a day to rest.”

“You mean ‘zhe ‘eart’ to.”

“Whatever!-”

“-Shh!-”

“-The little lady needed to sleep. She can’t be running herself ragged while making sure everyone around her stays safe and healthy.”

“Zhat’s very noble of you, Nash. C’est ironique, non? Elle ne peut pas être tienne mais tu ne peux pas t’empêcher de désirer quelque chose que tu ne peux pas avoir.” Ta logique t’a réprimandé pour avoir préféré profiter d’un instant avec tes amis. Tu vas devoir apprendre à t’en contenter.

“What did you just say?”

“Nozhing!” Sherloque just gave the other man a mysterious smile as he took off his fedora and tossed it onto a spare and vacant table on the side. “You know it’s nozhing to be ashamed of, right? Caring about ‘er and ‘er safety, zhat’s what zhis team does to a person. It doesn’t make you weak. You should know zhat by now.”

“…”

“You just need to know not to tip over zhe line.” Sherloque knew his doppelganger didn’t like being deduced, didn’t like his actions thoroughly analyzed to told what and how he was feeling. But sometimes, he needed a little push in the right direction by the detective in order to fully face the intentions behind his actions. That was one of Nash’s flaws. The ability to push aside all the pain and emotions behind current actions in a little box and thrown out the window in order to press on with the adventures that he lived on. Sherloque had discretely gone through some of his recent memories and noticed it occur with not just you and Allegra, but with the members of Team Flash as well.

“I know what I’m doing,”

“Zhen I believe you have some… patching up to do wizh a certain teenager.”

“She’s not a teenager, she’s a young adult.”

“All in zhe same wizh ‘ow she was acting.”

Nash left with a slight huff as he had every intention of turning in for the night, mentally contemplating a few things. Rubbing his eyes, the explorer took one glance back from where he stood in the corridor. He dismissed the skilled detective’s words, but yours had echoed in his mind. The detective reclined back on the couch, his own mind wandering in the depths of his own nightmares and regrets. He took one look at you before shaking his head. Sherloque smirked as his ears perked up to familiar sounds causing the detective to tilt his head back.

“Eh bien il était temps”

German and French Translation:

Deux - Two

Mh, une distraction semble être de mise - Hm, a distraction seems to be necessary right now

Il n’y a pas de mal à partager des histoires – There’s no harm in sharing some stories.

Qu’est ce qui retarde Harry? - What is taking Harry so long?

Comment puis-je lui dire? – How do I say this?

Encore – Again

Je ne sais même pas pourquoi j’ai voulu recommencé ca va faire 8 fois – I don’t know why I tried an 8th time.

C’est ironique, non? Elle ne peut pas être tienne mais tu ne peux pas t’empêcher de désirer quelque chose que tu ne peux pas avoir – It is ironic, no? Even though she cannot be yours your heart can’t help but to secretly desire something dangerous

Ta logique t’a réprimandé pour avoir préféré profiter d’un instant avec tes amis. Tu vas devoir apprendre à t’en contenter. – Your logical mind scolded you to relish with your friendship instead. Something you will have to learn to become content with.

Eh bien il était temps - Well it’s about time.

Mon Ami – My friend

Stück für Stück – Bit by bit

Es war eine mühsame Aufgabe, aber sie musste erledigt warden - It was a tedious task, but it needed to be done

Gott sei Dank bin ich es nicht – Thank God I didn’t

Schatz – sweetheart

Petit Fleur – Little Flower

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incarnateirony · 4 years

Text

DM Questions, Round 3.

So yet another list of questions I’ve received in DM that, though anonymously (until the person decides to say it was them), I’m posting for the class because these questions may be bumping around other people’s heads and these answers may help other people too, as the other answer lists seem to be doing. And also to further encourage IT IS OKAY TO DM ME AND ASK THINGS, it doesn’t make anyone stupid or anything, it’s a VERY DIFFERENT THOUGHT PROCESS to try to digest.

Who or what is Death? I kind of had the idea of everything having an opposing/flip side so God/Amara, Adam/Eve, Heaven/Hell, Purgatory/The Empty and had put The Shadow/Death together and it just led to who or what is Death? Life/Death. You’ll notice something though: beyond maybe Adam and Eve, these aren’t necessarily true dualities. God is Light (or stolen Light), Amara is the Absence of Light, because Darkness isn’t a thing, it’s a nonthing. Heaven is supposedly union with God (be that Chuck or understanding man as the true god), hell is the absence of God. Life is the time we know in our bodies on earth, Death is the absence of that. These are non-things humans take as dualities: but again, Absence. Just like the soul as the true good: “What Jack did isn’t evil, it was the absence of good.” We do not take “Has a Soul” and “Soulless” as true dualities.

If you read the corpus hermeticum, you can actually read about the art of man becoming Deathless--and will recognize some of the base dialogue/concept of Jack talking to the subconscious serpent in the garden (eg, who art thou), but the simple point is, it takes thinking outside of the box of life (and life, in SPN, is literally illustrated as Chuck’s playground) to understand the limitlessness of Death. Life is just a small box in which we adventure, but everything beyond that is technically in “Death.” Death is an infinite vessel, because Death is all the things Life is not in its limited definitions.

For example, technically the Shadow exists within Death, despite being in the Empty. Why? Because it is not in Life. It births the soul into the idea of Life, but itself exists outside of Life. Ergo, the shadow exists in death, an infinite vessel. This can be hard to wrap around when there’s avatars, but I mean, like Amara: Amara is The Darkness. Ok. It’s nighttime. The sun has gone down so it isn’t putting out light (beyond what the moon reflects (teehee [x] )or unnatural lights provide.) In your home, turn off all your lights. Is the darkness something that exists, or is it something that just doesn’t exist (light) in that space?

These are the kind of embodied elements they are having run around on our screen right now. Death is everything Chuck’s world is not. Which is also why it tries to be what escorts you into the mental realms once your time in Chuck’s world passes. Once the reaper comes and your clock stops ticking in Chuck’s Swiss Watch. It is your Absence in the sandbox of Life, and something Life Itself was built on top of. To put it simply, Death is the shadow of the world if you will.

With regards to those different places: Heaven = humans with pure souls after death Hell = humans with twisted souls after death Purgatory = monsters (soulless or not?) after death The Empty = Angels/\demons +no souls)after death? That's the long and short of it, yes. Though I think ultimately the point will be disbanding most of these in the end.

So if Cas has a soul why did he go to the Empty? But Jack when he died first time round didn't? Even though the Shadow thought he should have, and then when soulless Jack died he did go there? Same reason the Empty came for Jack to begin with, it considered that made of grace its' own. Even if he had a soul. Now keep in mind I also delineate the hard divide of soul and grace. They are... very different and yet not. I speak of energy in transfer often, be it AC/DC conversion or-- well, I talk of Sun (Soul) and Moon (Mind/Grace) a lot. The moon reflects the light of the sun, the sun is the true light but the moon is a necessary part to maintain life on earth. Now at some point we may propose that there was a conversion (eg, Sacrifice, "When you die and your soul comes to heaven"), but in the back and forth that is Castiel, he's been riding a very fine line about what is what. The Mind, or in our case Grace, is still born FROM light of the souls in creation that it reflects, but at some point Castiel did end up in a very unique condition. Consider it a form of proto-soul, a shadow--*drumroll* that has not had a chance to take its complete journey yet, one that while Metatron spoke he would have, could not yet dream or experience the same way, and still ends up under the weight of the Mind or Grace that was his original form. This is a different construct than, say, being an actual Nephilim as a mixture of the two or embodiment of the Occultum. I will play a game though. If Castiel, hmmmm. I don't know. I'll play fun. Let's sayyyy the Empty comes for Cas in 15.18 like we're all talking about. And thennnnn somewhere amidst Dean taking a hit for Cas (as it looks like will happen) Castiel GATHERS THOSE LAST SPARKS OF GRACE and LOBS IT ALL INTO THE SHADOW to protect Dean, right? That grace is still really only valid within the universe, but with the Shadow entering the universe and soaking it, if the Shadow is the progenator of the human soul, what do you think happens at this point? After all, the soul dreams the world, and births the mind and the body (of self and the universe both), right? So Cas just threw his entire mind, in this TOTALLY PRESUMPTUOUS AND MADE UP idea, into the proto-soul-- what do we imagine happens at this point? And because I'm TOTES MCGOATS being TOTALLY HYPOTHETICAL here, I'm just pitching that as a far more... hm, violently visual version of a more subdermal kind of transit going back and forth over the course of our show here. The Mind never truly ceases to exist, even if the power it manifests is only as valuable as the world it is thought of in. On the other hand, the soul is beyond that even still, and can go in and out past these walls, maintaining its form. But a Lesser Mind does not itself have place within the group mind made by Higher Being like souls, ergo, yeeted out into the empty where it floats like a lost part. Does that clarify the idea at all?

Did Cas have a soul before Dean? No. Even in season 6 he confirmed he had no soul. The quote about him receiving a soul happens at the end of season 8, in episode Sacrifice.

If so is this the crack is his chassis which has ultimately caused him to be reset time and again? Unclear what causes that. Maybe Naomi was just being a bitch, IDK.

If he didn't, and it is the Profound Bond that has caused his soul what is the crack in his chassis? Because it seems clear he has never been like other Angels. The Profound Bond at least deeply antagonized any rebelliousness he may have had. It's something Ishim talked about--why they're supposed to stay away from humans. Not because angels are a danger to them, but because humans are a danger to angels, and if you check out the Soul Meta I recently reblogged I have some verrrry long hypothesis about this. (x)

Did Chuck give the orders to reset him, and did Angels other than Naomi know this was happening? Chuck was absent from the world for thousands of years, and I highly doubt the same guy that forgets Cas is around on the daily left a specific aeon-long order list to do X things to Y random angel. We all love Cas on a story front but in the cosmic scale he's just one of a bazillion rando footsoldiers from the heavenly perspective. Naomi seemed more than well aware though since she was partaking in it. Angels were just doing their best to follow daddy's draft notes before he "went out for a pack of smokes and never came back." (season 11)

I can't remember which post I was reading earlier today, but you will know because it was recent, or at least reblogged by you recently: So Cas as the Empress - who feeds young from her own heart - Jack has been eating Grigori hearts - will Cas' be the last one for Jack to be able to "kill" God - which ultimately sends Cas to the Empty - Cas returning in the finale is them defeating the Empty/Death (God is already defeated) and Cas relinquishing his Grace so he is left with just a Soul and can then reside in Heaven after his death? That last chunk was just word vomit after reading the Empress feeds young from her own heart and my brain just wouldn't shut up. Basically, yes, but I bet you dollars to donuts they are gonna make us shit bricks about it between here and there. Be it say, my totally presumed idea above, or even somewhere during the reclamation attempt in the Empty seeming to disappear--IE, the way the fandom lost their SHIT about Rowena following a similar goddess path before HELLO BOYS!! MY SOUL WENT TO HELL BIG SURPRISE!!! -- everyone just spent a few episodes going bananas along the way and then, PLOT TWIST!!!

#supernatural #spn #meta #my meta #pagan life #souls #death #amaah #grace #chuck #angels #heaven #hell #purgatory #the empty #absence

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thescatterbrainedwriter · 3 years

Text

Unexpected Karaoke

Word count: ~4,000

Warnings: none

Pairings: Oc x Cannon (lite)

Flash fanfic

**Note: at this point in time, none of team Flash know what Estrata’s real name is. Estrata = Emily. Also, Emily is my personal character. I just like to stick her in places 😅 Enjoy!! 🥔 🎨

——

Two weeks, only about two weeks had passed since the enlightenment was halted and Harrison was given his basic mind back. While he wasn’t the easiest person to deal with he cared deeply for the Team Flash of Earth 1, it just happened to be buried under layers of grump and grief and worry. It was so buried in fact, Emily couldn’t really believe she had taken a liking to him. Everyone was devastated when they heard what was happening to his mind because of the thinking cap, and everyone was equally ecstatic when Marlize was able to restore it, but Emily underestimated how much it affected her. Which is probably how she found herself in this predicament.

The last time Jessie had payed Earth 1 a visit, Emily gave her a subspace communication relay in order to contact the Lab on Earth 1 easier. It was able to link up to the coms to both her personal headset and the coms in the cortex, something she discovered was possible by accident when Thawn was masquerading as Dr. Wells. With this new avenue opened, they were able to keep tabs on the reconstruction of Earth 2 after Zoom and Jessie could ask Barry questions if needed without breaching. It also meant Emily could call Jessie and vice versa whenever the opportunity struck them, and the opportunity that presented itself to Emily had her debating wether or not to call.

Secluding herself in her accommodation room, she paced around. The constant mental back and forth had caused her heart rate to increase due to self imposed stress and indecision. It would be totally understandable to call and ask how he’s doing, given what he went through recently, she told herself. Besides, I’m sure the rest of the team would like a status update. We all got attached to him after all, I could even ask how the reconstruction was going, or how Jessie is doing. I’m sure it’s been hard on her too. She paused, turned on her heels, and reversed the circle she was walking in. No, no, I don’t want to bother her. I’m sure she’s busy with her own responsibilities. I don’t want to come off as clingy either, she contradicted herself. But I’m sure he’ll appreciate the fact we’re all thinking about him and checking in to see how he’s doing, she said reversing the circle again. Ugh, but what if.....what if the constant checks are irritating to him? It’s only been 11 days and he’s gotten 5 check in calls already. Then again, some of those check ins were about the reconstruction and Jessie, he just happened to be in the background. She smiled remembering one call where he managed to push Jessie out of frame a took it over, and another where he claimed to have borrowed the relay just to say hi. I’ll have to build him his own, that way Jessie won’t have to share, or at the very least have it stolen again. Yes, I think I’ll do that.

Having made up her mind and deciding not to call, she headed toward Cisco’s lab to see if she could find equivalent parts to the relay she already made for Jessie. She hadn’t even made it two steps toward the door when her earpiece chimed. Calling up the accompanying hud screen she was surprised to see Jessie calling. “Oh, Jessie hey! Believe it or not I was debating on if I should call you or not. What a coincidence.”

“Yeah, how ‘bout that,” Jessie replied with a smile. “I was just calling to see how things were going there. Anything exciting?”

“No, not really. Just, you know, meeting Barry and Iris’ daughter. Their future daughter.”

“Wait, what??” Jessie near yelled. “Future daughter? How??”

“Turns out she’s a little speedster herself,” Emily replied with a shrug.

“Wha— well actually that doesn’t surprise me, honestly.” They both laughed in unison before Emily paused. “Well, since you’re already on call,” she started, “how’s your dad? Is he still improving?”

“Uhhh, yeah,” Jessie replied looking around what looked like the living room behind her. “Yeah, he’s starting to be his old brainy self again.”

“Jessie? Is that you? Who are you talking to?” Emily heard a voice echo from somewhere behind the girl. “Yeah, it’s just me,” Jessie responded yelling off screen. “It’s Estrata, she was wondering how you were doing.”

“Estrata?” Harry repeated now sounding closer. “Hey, hey!” Harry greeted barging his way into frame. “Hi, what’s up?” Emily chuckled as Jessie groaned in protest at the intrusion. “Dad, c’mon really?”

“Harry, really. Give her some space, you’re practically melding your face into hers.”

“Oh come one, she loves this,” he teased rubbing his cheek against hers. “See?”

“Uuuugh, dad! Stop that!” Jessie complained pushing him away. “Honestly, I don’t know which version of you is more annoying.”

“Aww, he just loves you is all,” Emily teased with a chuckle.

“Oh not you too!” She whined with a laugh.

“So, you calling to check on me again?” Harry asked with a smile.

“Oh no, actually I was the one who called her,” Jessie replied. “Figured I’d be the one to check in for a change.”

“Oh, I see,” Harry said a little sad.

“She was debating on calling though,” she added with a smirk. Harry looked at her, then Emily. “Oh? You were? Why didn’t you?”

“I....didn’t want to seem like I was bothering you,” she explained. “It’s only been about 2 weeks and you’ve had so many calls already and—“

“Estrata,” he interjected, “it’s ok. Really. You guys are like family, and family makes sure everyone’s ok.”

*Yeah, family...* Emily thought to herself. *We’re family, not more.* “Well, since you seem to be well on your way to mending, and Jessie, you seem to be holding up pretty well along with Earth 2, I’m gonna go. I have a project planned and have yet to start.”

“Oh hey, wait!” Harry cut in nearly shoving Jessie out if the way again as he leaned over the back of the couch. “You had, wanted to, uh, see Earth 2 right?”

“Uh, yeah? Why?”

“Well, reconstruction is, as you said, going well, and while it may not look like— much like how it was before, it uh, it would be. Well it would be a good opportunity to come and, uh, see things. If-if you still wanted to, that is. I could even show you around, if yooouuu wanted.”

Emily paused with a small smile as he rambled and was amused with how he seemed to get flustered by the end of it. The pause seemed to make him more nervous as he darted his eyes toward Jessie. “Jessie could come too, if you wanted. You’re ok with that right?”

“Uh yeah, yeah sure. I, would actually love that.”

“See, she would love it. So, what do you think?” Harry asked with a hint of excitement.

“Ok, alright. You’ve convinced me,” Emily chuckled. “When would be a good day?”

Harry froze clearly not having thought this far, maybe not even thinking this conversation would even happen in the first place. “Toooooomorrow would probably be a good fit,” Jessie offered noting his brain freeze. “I can get the night off from being Jessie Quick, Dad’s taking fewer hours at the lab and by the sounds of things, you have one extra hand to help with whatever meta comes up. You should be able to get away for a night, right.”

Harry watched the screen in anticipation as Emily considered the points. “Yeah, ok.” She finally said with a smile. “I’ll tell them I’ll be gone tomorrow night. What time did you want to start the tour?”

“6:30?” Harry postulated looking at Jessie for confirmation. “That works for me,” she confirmed. “Hmmmm, yeah I think I can swing that,” Emily confirmed as well. “Please keep in mind though, it’s possible I’ll be late. We’re trying to find a particularly difficult meta, one that’s killing other metas. So it might get, well, a little dicey. I’ll call if I have to cancel, alright?” Harry and Jessie both stared at her with blank expressions. “You, uh, failed to mention that point of excitement,” Jessie said.

“Oh, I did?” Emily asked obliviously.

“Uh huh, yeah. You did. You only mentioned Barry and Iris’ daughter, by the way what was her name?”

“Wait, they have a daughter?” Harry asked with the news. “Future daughter,” Jessie answered. Harry sighed bowing his head. “Of course there’s time travel involved.....”

“Nora,” Emily answered. “Nora West-Alan after Barry’s mom. She also decided to follow in Barry’s footsteps by becoming a CSI.”

“I don’t think I could expect anything less,” Harry commented.

“Alright, so we’ll expect you by 6:30 but will plan for delays. Sound cool?” Jessie said getting the conversation back on track. Harry and Emily nodded in agreement. “Yes, that sounds like a plan,” Emily confirmed.

“Alright, I’ll— we’ll, see you tomorrow,” Harry said with an awkward smile. “Oh and, please. Be careful, with the, the murder, meta.” Emily smiled back with a wide grin. “I’m always careful, don’t you worry,” she said waving goodbye before Jessie ended the call. She stood dwelling on the conversation for a while before she continued toward Cisco’s lab, what better opportunity to deliver him his own relay than when she went to visit.

——

Shortly after Weather Witch was apprehended and her weather vein turned in, Emily hung around the cortex and waited for team to come back thinking of how to say what she needed to say. Once everyone was present she decided to just go for it. “Hey, guys?” They paused turning their attention to her. “I’m uh, I’m not gonna be available, tonight. I have plans.”

“What kind of plans?” Barry asked curiously. She never had plans and usually hung around the lab all the time. “I uhm, I am going to Earth 2.” Emily replied.

“Is everything ok over there?” Barry asked somewhat concerned.

“Oh yeah yeah,” Emily assured. “I was just invited to a tour around.”

“Really? A tour?” Barry asked sadly. Emily giggled. “Yeah, I had mentioned in passing that I wanted to see Earth 2 seeing as it’s so different and Harry said it was a pretty good time to see it since everything is relatively quiet now.”

“Harry invited you?” Cisco asked raising an eyebrow.

“Him and Jessie. She actually set up the time.” Cisco smiled. “Oh ok. She was the one who set up the time.”

Emily squinted at him. “....yes....? Anyway, I won’t be able to help with Cicada, but with Nora here I doubt you’ll miss me much.”

“You gonna need me to open a breach?” Cisco asked.

“No, Harry has that covered. Thanks though.” Cisco pouted having wanted to witness the potential awkwardness. “Alright, well, I’m gonna go get ready to leave. Behave and, don’t hurt yourselves too badly, alright?”

“Can’t promise you anything,” Barry said with a smile.

“We’ll make sure he’s safe. For the most part anyway,” Cisco adds. Emily smiles with a nod before exiting to start preparations to travel to Earth 2. As she was leaving Cisco’s lab having picked up some spare parts for Harry to repair his relay if needed, Nora came across her. “Oh, hey Estrata! What cha doin?”

“Oh, Nora!” she said in surprise. “Hey! I uh, I’m just. Uhhh.....” Emily paused trying to think of how to put it. “I’m going to Earth 2 for a tour with Harry and Jessie.”

“Like a date?” Nora asked.

“Erm, n-no. Not a date,” Emily stuttered suddenly nervous about such prospect. “No, with the reconstruction after Zoom well on its way, and I think near completion at this point, Harry said it was a good opportunity for me to get a good look around. I’ve wanted to see things since my first accidental visit.”

“Accidental visit?” Nora said quizzically. “What do you mean by accidental?”

“Well, you see, I’m able to make personalized wormholes to get to and from different points faster. Usually I’m able to use them without issue but, recently I’ve been ‘Earth hopping’ and somehow managing to travel to Earths in different multiverses. In this case I managed to stay in this particular one.” Nora stared at her trying to compute what she was just told. “Soooo, kinda like how my dad uses the speed force to go to other Earths?” Emily paused to consider the comparison. “Yeah, kinda. Just, with more room for unforeseen world travel. The way I do it can be wildly inaccurate.”

“Sounds pretty scary,” Nora commented.

Emily shrugged. “I was terrified the first time it happened, but now I’m pretty used to it, if not a little annoyed,” she sighed with a smile. “I’m ready to go home, but the places I’ve landed and people I’ve met have made me less homesick.”

“Hope I’m one of those people,” Nora smiled.

“Yes, yes you are,” Emily confirmed making her smile wider. “I can confidently say I’ve not met anyone like you in all my travels.”

“So how many other Earths have you gone to?”

Emily paused to think. “Hmmm, looks like......7 at the very least. Not including multiverse Earths.” Nora’s eyes grew wide in awe at the number. “Wow....” she whispered making Emily chuckle. “Ok, well, I have to finish getting ready. Could you try helping Cisco keep your father safe while I’m gone for the night?”

“Oh? All night?” Nora asked mischievously. Emily’s face dropped unenthusiastically and gave her a look. “No,” she said plainly. “Not for that.” Nora just smiled. “Ok, whatever you say.” Emily huffed before heading off to change. She wanted to see if she could blend in and not stand out so much and decided on straight brown pants, a green blouse, and some flats. She stood looking in the mirror wondering if this was too much before taking a breath deciding to forget thinking about it too deeply and left for the breach room.

On her way down one of her drones who were free roaming followed her whirring in curiosity asking what she was doing. “Oh, hey GP. Where? I’m going to Earth 2.” The drone whirred again in concern. “I’ll be ok. I promise. It’ll just be for a few hours,” she said only managing a few steps before the drone was in her face again rambling on about its concerns. She chuckled grabbing it gently with both hands, similar to cupping someone’s face, and smiled softly. “Is this your way of saying you wanna come too?” It made what sounded like a sheepish admittance sound making her giggle. “Ok, fine. You can come too. But we have to hurry, it’s almost time to go.” Just as she entered the breach room a connection forms and Harry appears. Emily smiled and waved, Harry returning the gesture with an awkward smile. “Ready?” He asked. Emily nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!”

He extended a hand toward the breach ushering her in first, Emily bowed with a smile before jumping through with Harry right behind. Jessie greeted them on the other side with a smile. “Hey Es!” She said with a wave. “Welcome back to Earth 2!”

“Hey Jessie!” Emily replied. “Long time no see! In person anyway.” Jessie laughed in agreement as Harry popped back through and the breach closed once again. “Alright, lets get going,” Harry said ushering them both out. “I suppose we’ll start with the Lab, it’s been refurbished since you last crashed in.”

“Alright,” Emily agreed. She had only seen the lobby last time and, while she didn’t expect many differences, she still wanted to see the rest of it. Since they were on one of the lowest levels, they stopped at the pipeline first. It wasn’t quite as repaired as on Earth 1, this Earth didn’t have an Eobard to repair it for his personal use, but it was a bit more than just run down. Walking onto the gangway inside, Emily was still filled with awe at the large structure even if it looked mostly like the one she was well aware of. “Can I take a look all the way around?” Emily asked already floating a few inches off the ground. Harry sighed recognizing she was asking out of courtesy and would investigate one way or another and nodded with a smile. “Sure, have at it.”

“I’ll race ya!” Jessie exclaimed before taking off. “No, wait, Jes—“ Harry began before cutting off his sentence as Emily took off after her. Jessie makes it back first with Emily close behind, the latter crashing into the former sending them to the bottom of the pipeline a few feet below. They erupt into laughter with Harry trying not to loose his cool resorting to just looking over the edge. “Are you two ok? Are you done?” He called down. Emily pops back up, Jessie in tow, with both confirming they were fine. Placing Jessie back onto the gangplank, Emily makes her way back around, albeit slower this time, and takes her time looking at the construction. It took 20 minutes but she eventually came back around, floating parallel to the ground facing the ceiling.

“Satisfied?” Harry asked when she stopped above the gangplank again. Still upside down, Emily looked over with a smile and nodded. “Yes, I think my curiosity is sated for now.” Harry’s heart fluttered for a moment at her smile and he couldn’t help mirroring it before reaching out a hand to her to escort her back in. Flipping around Emily landed and took his hand, Jessie watching the exchange with amused curiosity and following silently behind with a smirk playing at her lips.

Labs, offices, even just hallways, Emily looked over them all with wide hungry eyes. Harry didn’t understand but found it amusing how inquisitive she became. “This your office?” She asked after a while pointing into a relatively large room with a desk, chairs, coffee table and a medium sized couch. “Uh, yeah. Yeah that’s mine,” Harry responded as she wandered in. “Hmmm, you know. Come to think of it....” Emily said looking around. “I’m not sure Harrison Wells of Earth 1 had an office. None that I remember seeing anyway.” She paused. “Unless you count the time vault, but it looked like a futuristic closet more than an office. But who knows, maybe that’s how future offices look....” She turns and smiles wide. “I like the aesthetic of your office much better.”

“Aannnd what about it do you like?” He asked following her in. She shrugs looking around again. “I dunno, just pleasing to the eye.” Harry’s gaze lingered on her as she continued looking around before he realized what he was doing and snapped himself back. “Ahem, shall we see the rest of the city now then?” He asked trying to distract himself. “Yeah sure!” Emily says with a smile. Harry’s heart skipped but he kept his composure enough to turn around and lead her and Jessie out of the Lab. Jessie continued to watch amused, even more so at the fact Emily seemed oblivious. She trailed behind them as they continued walking around the city, watching in amusement at their interactions. Emily would pay close attention to what Harry was saying or point out, Harry seemed to get more expressive as he got more comfortable, they even seemed to walk closer to each other becoming more comfortable with each other’s presence.

“So, what do you think so far?” She asked Emily linking her arm around hers. Surprised, Emily paused before smiling at her and placing her free hand on Jessie’s. “This is amazing!”

“Yeah, my dad is pretty great huh?” Jessie asks with a grin. Emily trips having been caught off guard by the unexpected implication of the question. “I... wha...” She glances over at Harry, who had shot a look over at Jessie, and tries not to blush as she searches for what to say. “Well, I mean.... least he’s not grumpy anymore.” Jessie giggles and Harry huffs. “And he does know how to be very detailed,” she continued. “I’m honestly surprised how emotive he became explaining everything.”

“I can be enthusiastic,” Harry near pouted.

“Everyone *can* be enthusiastic, it’s just surprising *you* managed it. Given your past interactions, can you blame me for not believing?” Emily asked. Harry paused before shrugging. “Alright, I’ll give you that one,” he relented. Emily smiled before looking down at her feet while they walked, Harry doing the same, and they continued in awkward silence until Jessie spotted Jitters near by. How fortunate they were walking by at that moment, and it seemed they had a new venue featured. “Hey,” Jessie piped up, “why don’t we stop into Jitters for a bit? I could use a coffee or something.”

Harry looked over at the newly repaired bistro and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. What do you think Estrata?” Emily noticed the ad for the featured venue and pursed her lips with a pause. She had a tingling that Jessie was trying to fenangle something sneaky but nodded in agreement anyway. “Yeah, sure. Good idea, Jessie,” she said emphasizing the name with a suspicious squint her way. Jessie just smiled and pulled her along with Harry following close behind. “Oh? Open mic?” Harry observed quickly reading the sign. “That’s different.”

“Yeah....” Emily said eyeing Jessie again. “Quite the coincidence we happened to walk by as they were featuring such a thing. Huh, Jessie?”

“Yeah, I mean what are the odds?” Jessie tried to dismiss. “Hey, didn’t you say you like to sing in your free time? You should sing something!” Emily crossed her arms looking unamused. “Subtle....”

“Hey yeah,” Harry agreed. “Yeah, that’s a good idea Jessie,” he grinned at her, Jessie doing the same. “I’ll go get some coffee,” she said briskly walking to the counter. “He—wha—“ Emily stuttered trying to counter. “Ok, c’mon,” Harry said ushering Emily toward the back of the shoppe to sign her up. “Wai— n— “ Emily protests trying to switch gears. “Harry, no, please, I don’t— I don’t sing in public. Harry no, do—“ she cut her protests short in an effort to act natural when they met with the open mic organizer. “Hey,” Harry said with a smile. “Hi,” Emily added trying to compose herself. “Hey folks,” the man said with a smile. “Can I help you with sumt’n?”

“Yes! Yes, you can,” Harry quickly answers cutting Emily off before she could try weaseling out. The man raised an eyebrow suspiciously noting Emily’s nervous face and Harry’s overzealous behavior. “And in what way?” He asked cautiously.

“She would..... like to.... to.... sign up for the op—en mic. Thing....” Harry said amid Emily trying to cover his face with her hand as he spoke. The man still didn’t look convinced and darted a look between them. “She sings,” Harry assured. “I sing as a hobby,” Emily clarified. “And not in front of people!”

“Well lucky for you we’re open to all skill levels,” the man said with a smile. “And it looks like you’re the only one who was interested so far. I’ll put you at the top of the list, I just need a name.” Emily gave a long sigh and stared at Harry, who just smiled tilting his head encouragingly at the man, before begrudgingly answering. “You can put down Estrata.”

“Ah, what a unique name,” he commented scribbling it down. “We’ll be calling you up momentarily. We’re just waiting to see if anyone else is interested, but it’s looking like you’re the only one. For now anyway.” Harry smiled at Emily who just resorted to glare at him. “Hey have fun,” Harry said turning and briskly walking away and toward Jessie. “I don’t like you anymore,” Emily teased. “You’ll do great,” Harry assured with a wink causing Emily to just roll her eyes. All she could do was watch as Harry met back up with Jessie and they both took a seat to wait for things to start. They both grinned over at her and Emily just half smiled and chuckled shaking her head. “Walking migraines, both of them,” she muttered.

After a few more minutes of anxious waiting, the man greeted Emily again. “Looks like it’s your lucky night,” he said cheerfully. “No one else has signed up so you get the floor all to yourself.” Emily puffed her cheeks and sighed. “Well, maybe after I sing once, someone else will come up,” she wondered aloud. “May well be the case,” the man agreed before walking over to the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank y’all for coming out to C. C. Jitters. Tonight, we’re gonna be trying something a little different, just to see what y’all think.” He smiled waving his hand toward Emily who stiffened out of anxiety. “We have a lovely young lady by the name of Estrata who has graciously agreed to sing for y’all tonight to get this open mic going. So please, don’t leave her all alone up here. If you like what you hear and want to join in and try your hand at it, feel free to step on up.” The man turned and smiled at Emily motioning toward the mic indicating she was free to start. “Just so you’re aware, I’m not a lounge singer in any capacity.” Emily warned. The man just smiled figuring she was trying to find an excuse to leave. “Give ‘em whatever it is you’ve got.”

Emily gave a nervous smile and cautiously made her way to the mic, it had been quite a while since she had done something like this so she was worried she would mess up somehow. “Aaaand I’ve suddenly forgotten every song I ever knew....” she muttered to herself. She looked around in a mild panic before realizing no one was really paying her much mind, Harry and Jessie excluded. “Right, right, lounge singers were somewhat like background singers.” GP popped up next to her and buzzed quizzically. “I dunno what to sing,” Emily hoarsely whispered covering the mic. GP buzzed again with a suggestion and Emily smiled. “Ah, how could I forget that one?”

“Aww, she’s nervous,” Jessie smiled observing Emily standing awkwardly. “She always seems so care free, this is actually really..... adorable.”

“Yeah....” Harry agreed absentmindedly with a smile. Jessie raised an eyebrow peeking over at him. “What was that?” Harry paused before burying his face into his coffee and mumbled something trying to dismiss her inquiry. She just smirked going back to sipping her own coffee and turned her attention back to Emily.

Emily took a deep breath and looked into the audience. Most were still not paying attention but she didn’t care, she’d sing one song and go. Just one. “I.... apologize in advance,” she said to the handful of people watching. “I’m a little rusty, and not a lounge singer so, here goes nothing....” she nodded to GP who started playing the music part of the song and she tentatively started.

* You light the skies, up above me*

*A star, so bright, you blind me, yeah*

*Don't close your eyes*

*Don't fade away, don't fade away, oh*

*Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star*

*If you stay with me, girl*

*We can rule the world*

*Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky*

*If you stay by my side*

*We can rule the world*

Her voice cracked and wavered every now and then and her posture was stiff. She felt the same as when she sang at her high school talent show and kept her eyes closed to stave off the panic seeded in the pit of her stomach.

*If walls break down, I will comfort you*

*If angels cry, oh I'll be there for you*

*You've saved my soul*

*Don't leave me now, don't leave me now, oh*

*Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star*

*If you stay with me, girl*

*We can rule the world*

*Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky*

*If you stay by my side*

*We can rule the world*

*Oh, all the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you, oh*

She was still stiff but Harry could tell she was getting more comfortable. He saw her becoming more emotive, even just a little, and started putting some emotion into the lyrics. He smiled nearly forgetting about his coffee, Jessie smirked over at him and continued to sip her coffee acting as though she didn’t see.

* Yeah, you and me, we can ride on a star*

*If you stay with me, girl*

*We can rule the world*

*Yeah, you and me, we can light up the sky*

*If you stay by my side*

*We can rule the world*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

Getting a bit braver, Emily opened her eyes and smiled awkwardly as the new number of people watching, her ears got red when she realized Harry was watching quite close making her voice crack again. She griped the microphone pole tight to ground her so she wouldn’t loose composure as she closed out the song.

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

*All the stars are coming out tonight*

*They're lighting up the sky tonight*

*For you, for you*

Emily let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and bowed her head a little to signal the end of the song. A few people in the crowd clapped and praised her singing making her smile wide. “Oh, thank you!” she said bowing again. “I’m glad you liked it!”

“Sing another one!” Jessie yelled from the back.

“What?” Emily asked mildly panicking. It grew into a flush when she heard a few other people ask for another as well. “I.... uh...... hmmm....”

“C’mon, that was great! Pleeeease?” Jessie pleaded. Emily glanced over at Harry who had averted his gaze to closely examine a near by wall as he sipped his coffee that was somehow not yet empty. Emily sighed and rolled her head. “Ok, alright. Fine, one more. I’ll give you one more.”

“So, what would you little maniacs like to do first?” She asked after a pause to no one in particular placing her hands on her hips and wiggling her eyebrows as she started again. GP happily started the music moving in what could be interpreted as amusement.

*Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*Shut my eyes and count to ten*

*It goes in one ear out the other, one ear out the other*

*Burning bright right till the end*

*Now you'll be missing from the photographs, missing from the photographs*

* Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*In my thoughts you're far away*

*And you are whistling the melody, whistling the melody*

*Crystallizing clear as day*

*Oh, I can picture you so easily, picture you so easily*

*What’s gonna be left of the world if you’re not in it*

*What's gonna be left of the world, oh*

Feeling far more comfortable than before, she began acting out some of the lyrics and danced a bit in place. Harry even noticed she was smiling more, mainly at GP as he flew around her.

*Every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Every stumble and each misfire*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*Caught off guard by your favourite song*

*I'll be dancing at a funeral, dancing at a funeral*

*Sleeping in the clothes you love*

*It's such a shame we had to see them burn, shame we had to see them burn*

*What's gonna be left of the world if you're not in it*

*What's gonna be left of the world, oh*

*Every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Every stumble and each misfire*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

Emily paused and changed her posture to be a bit more composed. "If you want to be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle. Now stop worrying and go get dressed,” she spoke, though somewhat exaggerated, before continuing singing.

*You might have to excuse me*

*I've lost control of all my senses*

*And you might have to excuse me*

*I've lost control of all my words*

*So get drunk, call me a fool*

*Put me in my place, put me in my place*

*Pick me up, up off the floor*

*Put me in my place, put me in my place*

A sudden small jolt of confidence and mischief prompted Emily to grip the mic and look into the crowd with a challenging look, amusement pulled at her lips every time she sang ‘put me in my place’ and her gaze swept the room ending in a wink.

*Every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Every stumble and each misfire*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

*Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers*

*'Cause every minute and every hour*

*I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more*

She smiled and giggled when the song ended, she had the attention of most of the room now and the applause was much louder this time around. She bowed again and attempted to leave when the crowd protested again. “No no,” Emily dismissed. “No, I’m— I was in the middle of.... something. I should get back to that. The.... thing....”

“Oh c’mon,” Harry called out. “You can do one more.” Jessie’s eyes grew wide in surprise as she looked over at her dad, his arms were crossed over his chest and he had a sly smirk threatening to spread over his face. She smiled and giggled turning to look at Emily, who was just as surprised, before chiming in. “Yeah, one more! Please?”

“Yeah, please?” a young woman called from another near by table. Emily recognized her and her two friends as the ones who hung around her table whenever she visited the shoppe on her accidental trip a while ago. She smiled awkwardly and chuckled nervously as her face became rather rosy. “Alright, alright. One more, but this is the last one!” The room cheered and clapped as they waited in anticipation. She gave a long sigh into the mic and gave a stern look at Harry. “You see, Harry, this is why I don’t sing in public,” she said with her mouth close to the mic. Harry just grinned with a chuckle. Emily sighed with a growl preparing for what she hoped to be her last number.

* Sometimes you need a reason*

*A little love you can't believe in*

*A little hug, a little day dreaming*

*Apparently there's some correlation*

*Between hearts and outer space*

*All I'm really trying to say is*

*That I'm just a Sagittarius and we're kind of spontaneous*

*So let's fly out to Vegas and find an Elvis to marry us*

*Don't try to argue with the moon*

*We can blame it on the stars*

*Oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, oh, come one let your guard down*

*And we can blame it on the stars*

Having accepted the fact she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, Emily decided to dance along while she sang as GP flew around adding to the up beat mood. Harry watched happily as she slid back into her carefree personality, Jessie also amused by the shift in behavior so quickly although more so with her father encouraging the events and enjoying himself.

* We'd like to think that we're waiting*

*On a previous reservation*

*It's all written in the constellations*

*Now I don't know, but neither do you*

*Truth is, it's a good excuse*

*For both our hearts to let loose*

*And I know that you're a Cancer*

*Which means you like holding hands*

*So show me how to do this dance*

*And spin me like a ceiling fan, oh*

*Don't try to argue with the moon*

*We can blame it on the stars*

*Oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, oh come one let your guard down*

*And we can blame it on the stars*

* I read your horoscope*

*And baby you should know*

*Just what your future holds*

*Let your hips move*

*Let my fingers find you*

*Wrap my arms around you, here we go*

*Stars, oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, the stars, stars*

*We can blame it on the stars*

*Oh, come on let your heart just breathe*

*Stars, oh, come one let your guard down*

And we can blame it on the stars*

*We can blame it on the stars*

~~~~

So I miss judged the length of this one and had to break it up. It’s juuuuust over the post limit. Stay tuned for part twwoooo 🥔🎨

#harry wells #harrison wells #the flash #flash fiction #fan fiction #oc x canon #my ocs #funny #nora west allen #barry allen

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