#but actually one of the first detectives that's competent at his fucking job
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I have nothing to say. He needs more attention.
#tusk 2014#tusk movie#tusk#Guy Lapointe#silly detective#but actually one of the first detectives that's competent at his fucking job#like he didn't give up#even though he looks and acts like he's always high-
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“It’s a yes or no question, Jason,” Kyle said, still floating a foot off the floor with an aura of white light so bright boats in the Hudson could probably see it. “Do I need to fly to Gotham and kick Batman’s ass?”
Everything from the question to the still battle clad white lantern hovering in his living room was so ridiculous that all Jason could do was laugh. “I’m almost tempted to say yes, just to see you try, Rayner.”
“You don’t think I could take him? I’m like the only white lantern.”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “And he’s Batman.”
“Exactly.” Kyle finally had the decency to stop floating, but only so he could brace his feet and glare at Jason. “Which means I mastered the entire emotional spectrum before he’s even found it yet. World’s greatest detective, my ass.”
Jason hated that he found himself laughing again. Hated how fucking easy Rayner always managed to make it seem. Hated that he was getting way too attached to someone whose literal job was to be anywhere but on Earth.
“Just sit down, nightlight,” Jason said. “B would hand your ass to you backwards and upside down.”
“Hey, I do actually know how to fight,” Kyle said. “It’s not all just light shows and imagination.”
“Yeah? Please just tell me John or Guy showed you how to throw a punch, and not Hal.”
“The old guard wasn’t exactly around to teach me when I started this, so no. Donna taught me, and Bruce.”
Jason winced at the clumsy misstep. He forgot, sometimes, that Kyle had spent the first part of his hero career making things up and learning as he went. As much as Jason would never admit it to him, Kyle was competent, more than. He was smart, tactical when he needed to be, and on his second stint of wielding god-like powers.
“Wait, Bruce taught you how to fight? When the hell did that happen?”
Kyle shrugged. “Back when I was on the league. Almost seemed like he’d decided it was his job to look out for me.”
Jason hummed, giving Kyle a once over. “I mean, you are his type. Black hair, blue eyes, constantly stumbling into trouble. He probably thought you were one of his and he’d just temporarily misplaced you.”
Kyle snorted, before the sound became a full laugh and he finally flopped down on the couch beside Jason, dismissing his white lantern uniform as he fell. “That’s so fucked up.”
“Yeah,” Jason said, lifting his glass of water in a fake cheer. “Now, whose turn was it to pick the movie?”
#jason todd#kyle rayner#jaykyle#crow writes words#i have no context for this#I’m just trying to#get back in the habit#of writing#and this popped into my head
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Submitted by @saberamane
I’ve spent WAAAAYYYY too long thinking about this, so I figured I’d share.
A modern day AC AU where Desmond is a bartender at a high end strip club. Altair, Ezio, and Ratonhnhaké:ton are, of course, dancers. Altair starts out as his arrogant AC1 self, he has a nice body and knows it. Ezio is, of course, flirty and loves the attention dancing gets him. He doesn’t actually need the money seeing as his family is filthy rich. Meanwhile Ratonhnhaké:ton is dancing ONLY for the money. He’s quiet but perceptive, typically steering clear of Altair as he can be quite snooty, and Ezio because his flagrant flirting makes Ratonhnhaké:ton uncomfortable.
Desmond, while an experienced bartender, is new to the establishment. And within a month of his employment all three dancers come to the same conclusion.
They need to get Desmond to agree to a date.
Now I’m thinking this evolves into a harem situation, where at first all three want to date Desmond, then are trying to out compete each other for Desmond’s affections, and in the end all 4 of them are dating each other.
Also I was thinking of a schedule for the club, lol. It’d be a mixed club, so men and woman dancers, servers, bartenders, and clientele. Mondays are men only nights, so only men are working the club and only men are allowed in. A sort of ‘gay’ night, if you will. Likewise, Wednesdays are woman only, or 'lesbian’ night. Fridays are themed, which is posted the Monday before on their website. The theme can be anything, and while clientele are encouraged to also dress in the theme, it’s not mandatory, but the workers of the club have to dress as the theme. Some examples would be like holidays, Halloween, Christmas, valentines, st Patrick’s day, etc. And then Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are mixed crowds with the dancers allowed to do their own routines.
And I’m going to stop there, because I’ve already put too much thought into a fiction idea I probably won’t ever write due to time constraints lol.
=================
Addition from teecup:
I kinda like the idea that Desmond’s old bartending job is actually Bad Weather and he had to find a new one because Bad Weather got into… well… let’s just say it’s under investigation by the cops at the moment. The detective on the case was like “Don’t skip town for now, kid. Sure, you’re clean but it’ll look bad if you just leave while we’re investigating and shit” and Desmond got a job in the high end strip club because he has no other option. (And the pay was better than all the other options he had)
The owner looked super young to be the owner of a strip club but Desmond isn’t going to ask any questions at all and just goes to work in the high end strip club called “Thousand Eyes”.
And, ohohoho, he has been a bartender for a long time now so he knows when someone is attracted to him. All three of the best dancers being attracted to him?
Desmond didn’t like playing the field or even just leading someone on but her co-bartender Layla (a college student working there to pay for college) was like “No, no, this is pure entertainment gold, man. As long as you’re upfront about the whole ‘yeah, you three are thirsty for my dick’ (Layla!), you’ll be fine.” and well… Desmond didn’t really had any say about the matter in the end because Ezio goaded Altaïr and that turned into a competition between them which Ratonhnhaké:ton gets roped into. Desmond actually felt bad for Ratonhnhaké:ton until he realized that Ratonhnhaké:ton was just as competitive as the two and, really, having the attention of three hot men were too much for Desmond. He was only human and Layla was the devil on his shoulder pushing him to the dark side and yeah…
Desmond decided to milk it.
It backfired and he fell in love with all three of them instead.
Fuck.
Unorganized Notes:
Shaun is the accountant of the strip club. He comes every few weeks and always leaves slightly buzzed after hearing the latest ‘competition’ for Desmond’s hand. (Desmond is sure Shaun is living vicariously thru him… but he’s not going to say that out loud)
Layla is the main bartender for the woman only days and she’s an engineering student. She has a girlfriend named Deanna who likes to come to the club and watch her girlfriend get flirted with by other people. Desmond likes to joke it’s a voyeur thing, Layla keeps telling him that he’s not using the right word.
Clay is also a bartender and is in charge of the website and social media accounts of the strip club. On the side, he has a discord server where he talks about the shenanigans the three go to just to catch Desmond’s attention and people in his discord (which pretty much includes the regulars and some of the employees except the three idiots and the object of their affection) love it. He’s the sole reason why the strip club has an online shipping war going on and he’s milking it because of the whole ‘support your bias by coming to the club!’ posts.
Desmond has no idea who makes the ‘menu’ for private dances but he thinks they are either a genius who wishes to remain anonymous or they’re hiding their identity because they know they’re gonna get killed because some of the menu names are ‘Brotherly Love’ for requesting Malik and Kadar at the same time, ‘Trust Fund Babes’ for requesting Arno and Ezio together, and, Desmond’s favorite that he will never say out loud, ‘Repressed Catholic Special (10% off if you show your rosary)’ that is actually just Altaïr but he gets to order the customer around for the entire time.
Lots of customers want Evie to step on them (of all genders).
I feel like Jacob’s gonna have the most elaborate Magic Mike numbers for some reason.
Shao Jun has the most acrobatic set pieces and hers usually get a lot of applause because she’s a really great dancer.
Ezio’s family knows he’s a stripper and they just… let him do whatever he wants. The one time Claudia shows up in the club, Ezio actually messes his dance because “Jesus Fuck, that’s my sister!” and Claudia is like “Noooo, eeewwww, that’s my brother!”. She would sometimes show up when she knows Ezio won’t be dancing. To be sure, she always texts Ezio: “any chance I’ll see your ugly ass tonight?” and Ezio would always text back “Claudia! Stop texting me like this! People will get the wrong idea!” then text a few seconds later “No. Have fun. Make sure to tip well.”
Nikolai is the main bouncer. Cross is also a bouncer but he can get a bit too violent at times so he’s only allowed to work if Nikolai, his uncle, works with him.
Arbaaz is the father of Jayadeep who is also a stripper in the club. Arbaaz does not know about his son’s ‘part-time job’.
You know in some cabaret clubs, they actually have a wall of “top ‘employees’ of the month” and it’s ranking the top 10 for that month and I kinda think Reda would do the same because he knows many of his employees are competitive idiots.
The usual top one is Bayek, hands down. He goes to stage, people start throwing money.
… Is it too much if the ‘menu’ name for Alexios and Kassandra is ‘I Would Like One Bisexual Awakening’?
Eivor’s the only stripper that dances for both women only and men only days.
The Borgias are regulars. They tip well but they’re very handsy. They all favor Ezio.
… It would be funny if Abbas was in the corner, shades on, with a cap and being totally weird and out of place. Desmond sees him the first time and asks Clay if they should be worried about that dude in the corner. Clay goes “Naaahh, he’s harmless. I mean, he’s a weirdo that gets off getting ignored by Altaïr during his stage time but… harmless.”
You know what, all Templars are regulars and they favor the Assassin that killed them in canon (oh god, should… should we include Vidic thirsting over Desmond???)
Sidenote: I feel you. With the upcoming August megaposting this year, I’m scrambling just to prepare for the fics I wanna write for that month and there’s soooo many good ideas I have and ones I get from you guys XD Anyway, this is the best we can offer each other and to anyone who reads and enjoy this. :)
#submission#i couldn’t stop laughing at the repressed catholic special#dear mother i apologize i’m going to hell#no usual tags because#altdes#ezides#condes#yup this is trans!eivor
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𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘺 ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
(𝘯.) 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵
the nakajima atsushi collection of “the love of an older brother” series
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ synopsis: he’s had a terrible childhood, and is in no condition to take care of himself much less a newborn, but he’ll do everything it takes to make sure you’ll have the childhood he’s never had
having a baby sister pt. 2 !!
(platonic!) older brother! nakajima atsushi x baby sister! reader
characters: fukuzawa yukichi, edogawa ranpo, yosano akiko, kunikida doppo & dazai osamu | type of work: head canons | pt. 1 | pt. 2 |
a/n : oops i have no excuses
parental guardians time ✧˖*°࿐
atsushi was absolutely done with these people
why the heck did they think that bringing him (who’s obviously the guardian of a month old little girl) to a bombing hostage situation was a good idea
honestly
can’t a guy get a break?
we don’t talk abt it but he started to cry too
but then the bomb didn’t go off?? (ಠ_ಠ)
but then the bomb didn’t go off?? (ಠ_ಠ)
so he was just there on the ground in an awkward position going “h u h” in his head
note that he was still crying and so were you, but not as loud as a few moments ago
when he realized that the bomb wasn’t going to go off, he practically leaped off the bomb and snatched you from dazai’s arms shushing you shakily, trying to calm you and himself down
after you had done so, you cozied back up into your blanket like nothing ever happened
oh the life of a month old baby, how relaxing you must have it
it took a good minute or two to understand what the fuck was happening
the job that dazai-san recommended = job at armed detective agency
the test involved = the ada’s entrance exam
he passed the exam = job at armed detective agency
yeah no he felt like he was gonna pass out (ಠ_ಠ)
fast forwarding to happier times, let’s say that life at the agency was...eventful to say the very least, but luckily there are some very…competent adults to help atsushi out
fukuzawa yukichi ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
#1 cat grandpa
pls you’re now added onto his list of weaknesses
everyone knows it
ranpo’s not a happy camper
...
but he likes you too so you get a free pass ig
one of the best at getting you to settle down only second to atsushi
he’s very calm on the outside, but on the inside at times he’s freakin out a little bit
bc yes he has his crazy stupid lunatic children but a kid this young?
this smol?
yeah no it’s first time too give him a break
so yeah a little awkward at times but he means well and he’s getting the hang of it
atsushi trust scale a solid 12/10
definitely trustworthy to leave you in his care
bonus points bc he knows he won’t get a migraine
edogawa ranpo ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
...
questionable but he’s ranpo-san so he’s reliable to a degree
in life and death situations and supposed to be impossible cases that need solving?
oh yeah def trusts
but ranpo-san with a...baby?
hm
atsushi is skeptical
but like i said, he likes you so the reliableness factor increases
but actually unbeknownst to atsushi and some other agency members, he does knows the dos and don’ts of what to do when taking care of a baby
he just likes the reactions he gets when doing something he isn’t supposed to
“ah (y/n)! my soon to be protege! lemme take you on a murder case with me!”
“RANPO-SAN SHE’S A BABY???”
“WAIT GET BACK HERE WITH HER STROLLER—”
and actually his favorite victim isn’t your older brother but kunikida
freaking him out is one of the highlights of his day tbh
now he really understands the kick dazai gets whenever he does it
one time he tried to give you a lollipop but kunikida who wasn’t even in the room burst out of the president’s office and started screaming abt danger and choking hazards
atsushi trust scale 7/10
not bad with all the obvious/technical stuff but he gives him heart attacks on purpose so yeah
bonus!
kunikida trust scale 2/10
bad but can’t be worse than dazai
yosano akiko ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
she scares atsushi but said scary lady is the closest thing to a maternal figure you’re gonna get
for atsushi, yosano has more of a scary big sister vibe but since you’re nearly two decades younger than him, he’s sure that when you get older you’ll probably see her like a mother
if you’re not with atsushi then you’re in her office
usually napping tbh
bc yk, you’re a baby so there isn’t much you can do at the moment
she talks to you while working and just doing other mundane tasks in her office
one time atsushi and tanizaki overheard and all tanizaki could do was pat atsushi on the back in sympathy
“...and this is a scalpel! it comes in handy for a lot of these operations, though i prefer other things like chainsaws and the like”
*cue giggles*
*cue atsushi fainting*
you don’t really have much hair yet but she’s been eyeing some cute butterfly clips to match the one in her hair for when you can wear them
atsushi trust scale 8/10
also pretty good at taking care of you but loses points trying to teach you about chainsaws
kunikida doppo ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
...
hmm
where to start
he’s competent but he’s awkward
will give yosano-sensei a run for her money as your maternal figure bc boy is the mother henning bad
“DAZAI! don’t you get another step closer!”
“but kunikida-kun! i need to get my headphones!”
“i can’t have you infecting her with your...you!”
“kunikida-kun she’s in atsushi-kun’s arms like 10 feet away!”
“and you’re about to be 10 feet too close!”
but like i said
he’s awkward
“here kunikida-kun! hold (n/n)-chan for a minute would you? yay! bye!”
“wAIT DAZAI YOU—...”
“...hm? what’s wrong kunikida-kun? you look awfully stiff there.”
“...”
“...kunikida-kun?~ gasp! are you...nervous? (¬‿¬ )“
“dazai if i could yell at you right now i would but for the sake of everything holy and otherwise, i can’t believe im saying this but get the baby out of my arms and take her right. now.”
BUT
he’s only awkward if it’s a surprise like the scenario i played out right now
usually though, he’s pretty composed
unless you’re crying
but that’s a different scenario that’ll we’ll get into next time
dreads when ranpo is in the vicinity bc AGH
yeah that’s the best i can describe it
knows he causes chaos on purpose but he can’t ignore it bc what if he’s being serious
atsushi trust scale 9/10
very good but can afford to be a little more relaxed
babies can smell fear
dazai osamu ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚
i started laughing when i typed his name if that means anything
besides your brother, he’s your favorite and it absolutely kills kunikida
he cannot for the life of him comprehend how that happened
sobs about it every now and then
“how could we have let this happen?!?”
“ne ne kunikida-kun!~ sounds like you’re just jealoUSACK—”
has “staring contests” with you
by staring contests i mean he just stares at you in your car seat carrier thingy while you shake a rattle
he’s curious okay!
all babies do is eat, poop, cry, play, sleep repeat AND other people pamper you and cater you to your whim
basically his dream life!
also uses you to torture kunikida bc as i said
he’s your favorite (¬‿¬ )
“DAZAI GIVE ME BACK MY WALLET”
“ah ah ah kunikida-kun! you can’t get me if i’m holding (n/n)-chan! what if she gets hurt due to your violent tendencies?! GASP you’re gonna risk that?!”
but like there are times where he’s had enough of you, bc there are times he wants “me time” yk?
BECAUSE
just recently you’ve started crying when you get passed to someone who isn’t him or atsushi
“okay (n/n)-chan! time to go kunikida-kun so your favorite—”
“don’t push it dazai!”
“—can rest his arms!”
this is when he’d pass you on to the blonde and he and said blonde would walk away literally three steps in the opposite direction before freezing
because you’d start blubbering and fussing and without exchanging words kunikida would pass you back to dazai where you a) start to giggle b) settle down and go back to being quiet or c) fall back asleep
tbh tho, he’s kinda impressed
not even he can trigger that face of despair from kunikida
but he fears the day (if it ever comes) when you start crying when you’re given back to atsushi
atsushi trust scale a solid…
5/10
yeah it can go either way
bonus!
kunikida trust scale -2/10
has his reasons but also very petty
realistically, probably around 1-3 depending on the day
pt. 3 w/ the “kids” of the agency next time ⸜( ˙˘˙)⸝
and as always, reblogs and shares are appreciated! i hope you all stay safe! and just in case nobody told you they loved you today, i love you! you are enough! <3
writing belongs to me! please do not plagiarize, repost, or translate on here or any other sites!
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#bungou stray dogs#bungou stray dogs x reader#bsd x reader#bsd#female reader insert#sister reader#nakajima atsushi x reader#fukuzawa yukichi x reader#edogawa ranpo x reader#yosano akiko x reader#kunikida doppo x reader#dazai osamu x reader#platonic relationships#armed detective agency x reader#ada x reader#armed detective agency#ada#nakajima atsushi#fukuzawa yukichi#edogawa ranpo#yosano akiko#kunikida doppo#dazai osamu#star writes!!💫📝#[📂🔎] bsd things#[💫📝] the love of an older brother#[📝🌟] serendipity
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Hildibrand Helidor Maximillian Manderville v.s. Peter Sqloint
Hildibrand Helidor Maximillian Manderville - Final Fantasy XIV
Hildibrand is a awful detective, but through stupid circumstances, everything manages to go his way despite this. He jumped on the moon to try and stop it from falling, was buried alive, and was convinced he was a zombie before having his memory restored with bombs. He was once cloned by an alien, though the clone came out wrong, making an actual good detective Hildibrand. Read more about Hildibrand below.
Peter Sqloint - Just Roll With It Apotheosis
"His name is Peter Sqliont, first of all. Second of all hes the most pathetic guy around. No one asked him his name for 23 years of his life. He bursts into tears at the smallest compliment, for a very long time his only friend was a lizard named Lizard, despite or maybe because of all of this, he still manages to get married to someone who has a dating pool that includes the archangel of retribution and the GOD OF CHARISMA. they are literally the "me and the bad bitch i got by being autistic" meme. he loves rocks so much, once he infodumped about rocks so much he made a god bored, do you know how hard it is to bore a god? they're immortal they have crazy large attention spans. hes so silly and he deserves to be here."
Full description of Hildibrand:
"He's the world's worst detective except through the power of Looney Tunes ass shenanigans and a lot of competent people inexplicably spending time around him everything goes right for him. His escapades include:
- Getting flung across continents by his mother several times and coming out unharmed (Superhuman strength terrifying even to the world's greatest warrior sort of runs in the Manderville family)
- Jumping onto the falling moon to try and stop it falling, being buried alive, surviving, convincing himself he's a zombie for five years, and having his memories restored afterwards via bombs
- Being cloned by a tiny alien from outer space, except the cloning machine malfuctioned accidentally creating a bizarre and fucked up version of Hildy who's... actually good at his job!
- Accidentally travelling the rift between worlds
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOeQ9-0PTE8
youtube
Overall a top tier facial animations testing dummy. It's just hard to get if you don't witness it in game"
#hildibrand manderville#ffxiv#peter sqloint#just roll with it#just roll with it apotheosis#wacky round 1b
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Why isn't Nightwing a bigger deal? He has all of Batman's skills and Superman's faith in humanity and is arguably the most beloved hero in the DCU, but most people seem to know him either as the leader of the N̶o̶t̶ ̶J̶L̶ Teen Ttians or just Robin.
Thank you for asking me about Nightwing, I've been wanting to write a piece about him for a while now. The short version is that everyone who claims Dick becoming Nightwing was him "moving out of Batman's shadow and becoming his own man" is completely wrong.
Dick Grayson is a fantastic character, someone who saved Bruce Wayne in-universe both by forcing Batman to grow up a bit, and the countless times he saved Batman's life as his partner whether as Robin or Nightwing. Dick saved Batman in the real world as well, hard to believe but Batman was actually in danger of being cancelled due to poor sales early on. Enter Robin, a young daredevil audience stand in the creators hoped would get kids interested in reading Batman. And it worked! Sales on Batman doubled once Robin showed up which is crazy to think about, but Dick Grayson has always been a popular character. Cartoons like Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, and The Batman only helped grow his audience.
Character-wise, Dick Grayson really does fill a number of crucial roles in the DCU. For Batman, Dick is proof that Batman is a positive force. Meeting Batman helped change Dick for the better, helped him heal after his parents died. With Dick, Batman can take comfort in knowing that yes, he has made a difference in the world for at least one orphan boy, which is all he wanted when he lost his parents himself. To the wider DCU, Dick is a friendly face who convinces others that Batman is competent and not a complete asshole. He took this kid in, trained him to be one of the best heroes the DCU has seen, and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. That someone like Dick can confront the evils of Gotham and not break means there's still hope for that city. As Robin, Dick has led the Titans and is an icon in his own right as The Sidekick, the original, the one every other Robin is built around copying or contrasting. The one all other superhero sidekicks are drawing on as a basis. As Robin Dick Grayson is very much on Batman's level.
Just not as Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick has been a second rate Daredevil which means he's a third rate Batman (fully prepared to get hate for this but I've read and enjoyed the Miller and Bendis DD runs so I feel entitled to my opinion). A typical Nightwing run tends to go like this: Moving to Bludhaven (which is Gotham... but WORSE!), Dick Grayson usually enrolls in a pointless job we don't care about in order to provide some meaningless soap opera drama that doesn't go anywhere. Patrolling the city as Nightwing, he fights a variety of bad guys who are usually rather lame and unthreatening, with his big bad being a Kingpin knockoff called Blockbuster. Villains are fought, long running plotlines are set up, then everything is abandoned because it's Batfamily event time, and Dick has to run back to Gotham in order to play sidekick again. Usually his involvement is completely superfluous and it would've been better if the writer had gotten to opt out. By the time we finally get back to Nightwing's solo plotlines, the audience has usually ceased to care and the run gets cut short.
That's how Nightwing has been since the New 52 at least. Anyone who thinks that's "becoming their own man" is out of their mind. Dick is so thoroughly in Batman's shadow that he got shot in the head and spent a longer time as "Ric" which everyone fucking hated and sold like shit, than he did as Agent Grayson which was extremely well-received. Reiterating: Ric went on longer than Grayson because of a fucking Batman plotpoint Tom King wanted where Bruce was sad and cut off from the Batfamily because of Dick getting shot. Not just calling out King either, how many times was Kyle Higgins Nightwing run derailed because of Scott Snyder's crossovers? Or how about that entire run getting dumped to the side because Johns wanted to out Dick during Forever Evil, a Justice League/Lex Luthor story? DC has repeatedly made their contempt for Nightwing clear, he's Batman's sidekick still in their eyes, and he serves whatever story role the Batman writer wants.
Hell his best stories tend to have been the ones where he's not Nightwing. He was Robin in a good chunk of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run. Morrison really showcased his depth as a character when they wrote him as Batman, their time with Dick under the cowl was actually one of the first Batman runs I ever read, and no Nightwing run has ever matched it in terms of quality in my humble opinion. Scott Snyder's work with DickBats also was a high point for the character, showing Dick as competent and examining his relationship with Gotham and the Gordons. King and Seeley gave him one of the best comic runs with Grayson, a series where he wasn't even a "superhero" technically! When it comes to actual pre-New 52 Nightwing runs that are highly recommended where he *is* Nightwing, there's Chuck Dixon and uhhhhhhh... Tomasi's brief run before Dick became Batman? It's not exactly an overwhelming list.
Look there has been good work done with Nightwing, I'm not claiming there hasn't been. Tim Seeley wrote a great run with Nightwing Rebirth. Seeley fleshed out Dick's Rogues Gallery with cool new ones like Raptor, he brought back old foes like Dr. Hurt (why oh why couldn't you have brought back Flamingo too?), he gave Dick's world some character it solely needed. Bludhaven under Seeley is pretty much the only time I've really felt like it lived up to being Dick's city.
The problem with fictional cities is you have to put in the work to give them the character of real cities. You have to make the cities feel like characters in their own right. Gotham is the best example of this, it's a character all it's own, one that tells you a lot about Batman and his cast. In contrast Bludhaven is usually one of the worst. Any place that wants to claim to be worse than the city that is built over the gate to hell and gets wrecked every other month by the Arkham freaks has to really put in the work to compete. Simply put, Bludhaven typically fails utterly. There's nothing about it that makes you really buy it's worse than Gotham, I mean does anyone really think Nightwing's Rogues wouldn't get their lunches eaten by Batman's? No, no one genuinely buys that. When Bludhaven claims to be worse, it just comes across as tryhard, an attribute that does end up telling you about Nightwing in unintentional ways.
So Seeley didn't do that. Instead he created a city built for a hero like Dick Grayson. Someone who is bright and flashy, but does have an element of darkness to him. Someone who loves the spotlight, but often uses it to obscure. Seeley turned Bludhaven into Las Vegas, and that was the fucking best concept for Bludhaven I have ever seen, it makes so much sense. Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and isn't that the perfect city for a hero who got their start working in the circus? Isn't the aesthetics of the gleaming casinos, the glamorous sex appeal of the performers, and the spectacle of the shows, all being used to cover up the seediness of mob bosses meeting backstage perfect for Nightwing? It's so utterly unlike New York City, yet Las Vegas is still dangerous, it's got a crime culture all it's own. Seeley used it to great effect, as did Humphries during his brief run, and I will always be pissed that DC didn't continue to use it. That should have stuck around and been the definitive look for Bludhaven.
How Seeley's take on Bludhaven was treated feels like a small scale version of how Nightwing in general gets treated. Whenever creators pitched ideas for him, if editorial thought there was potential to break big, they asked for those ideas to be repurposed for Batman instead. Anything big or good gets repurposed for Batman or tossed to the side so Nightwing can go back to his default: having irrelevant adventures in a city that is supposedly worse than Gotham but can't live up to it. Just like how Nightwing is supposedly better than Batman but never gets to show it. Goddamn it's so frustrating seeing his potential get wasted like that.
The Nightwing book should be one of DC's most ambitious books in terms of storytelling. You can go from traditional superhero stories, to romantic soap opera, to spy stories, to crime noir, to horror, to cosmic adventures, and ALL of them would fit because Nightwing is someone who has a foot in both Gotham and Metropolis. He's got friends everywhere on every team, and has been a hero longer than most Leaguers have at this point. No reason DC should still be afraid to let him loose and insisting on hewing close to what Dixon established almost over 30 years ago is only holding him back. At the very least get him some better Rogues, why the hell didn't he get to keep Professor Pyg? That's Dick's villain not Bruce's! Bullshit that they didn't let Dick keep him. Hopefully Flamingo comes back, with a slight revamp I think he'd make a great reoccurring Nightwing Rogue.
Luckily it does look somewhat like Nightwing fans have reason to be optimistic. While Taylor isn't to my taste, DC clearly views him as a "big" writer, and that they put him on Nightwing says a lot. Taylor has been selling well so far, so hopefully he gets to tell his story, hilarious that even he lampshaded having to write Dick running over to Gotham for another tie-in after Taylor's big opening arc was all about Dick committing himself and his money to Bludhaven. Scott Snyder is apparently working on a Black Label Nightwing book which will explore how he's a different detective than Bruce. The Gotham Knights video game has him as one of the main stars, and while Titans is... controversial, it's one of the most popular streaming shows and Dick is the main character. There's a lot of content coming that features him in the starring role, and that will only help his star rise further.
For the first time in, well, ever it feels like DC may be serious about elevating him. Time will tell if it pays off, but I for one choose to be optimistic that the 2020s will be a turning point for Dick Grayson where Nightwing becomes hugely popular in his own right. Not just as Batman's sidekick.
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DadWorth AU: Part 3 (Justice For All)
Justice for All has to be one of the angstier parts of this AU, right up there with some ideas I have for Apollo Justice. Especially considering the whole Miles “chooses death” thing. So, let’s dive into it!
< Part 2 | Part 4 >
Reunion, and Turnabout
Things fast forward a couple of months after the end of Rise from the Ashes. Gumshoe’s been taking care of Kay since Miles kind of fucked off. He’s been doing his best, and so are Sebastian and Klavier -- who have been trying to cheer up their third musketeer ever since they found out what happened. But Kay is miserable.
So, now summer break is here for her, Gumshoe decides to take her out to the mountains for the day to get out in nature and hopefully get her mind off of things. Even if it is for a little while.
However, that plan is totally ruined when he gets a call about a murder nearby. He’s the only detective in the area, so they have to go down to Kurain Village to check it out. And that’s where they run into Phoenix for the first time since the end of Rise. Both he and Kay are not doing well in the aftermath of that case, and neither are really sure what to do around each other. Needless to say, the whole interaction is awkward.
Gumshoe does not pick up on this. He asks Phoenix if he could keep an eye on Kay while he takes care of the investigation. After some hesitation and deliberation, Phoenix agrees. So Kay becomes his partner button and Phoenix finally get to interact one-on-one with each other during the investigation for Reunion.
This is the first time they get to do this, since they were either with Maya or Ema on previous cases. It’s still a bit awkward, but when Phoenix finds out that she’s studying to be a defense attorney, things get a little bit easier as they find common ground.
Phoenix unknowingly starting to settle into a mentor role? Yes.
Kay is super turned off by Morgan Fey (getting chills up her spine and a faint memory of Dahlia Hawthorne -- she saw the Fawles trial. Phoenix also gets the same vibes from her.) And is surprisingly good with Pearl.
Her reaction to learning that Franziska is the prosecutor for this case catches Phoenix’s attention. Kay hasn’t heard from Franziska outside of a few text messages to check in on her over the past few months, so the fact that she’s in the country and Kay’s only finding out about it now makes her wonder what’s going on.
Kay goes to meet with Maya at the detention center with Phoenix, and kind of gets overly excited when she sees that Maya is channeling Mia because if you remember, she looked up Mia. Mia was an idol for her. So getting to meet her -- even if it is through spirit channeling -- is the highlight of her week.
And then we get to the trial. Phoenix asks Kay if she wants to stand co-counsel and Kay immediately jumps at the chance to say yes. So this is technically her first trial (she’s excited for it, but a little bit sad that Miles isn’t there to see her). Franziska, on the other hand, is surprised that Kay is standing at the defense’s bench with Phoenix Wright, leading to a lot of things including seeing Kay as a traitor (reason why will be explained later.)
So, Kay stands in for Pearl as co-counsel. As a result, her spirit channeling abilities are not revealed until much later. In the second trial day, she’s not present due to Gumshoe’s intervention and keeping her busy (something which Pearl agrees to so long as Kay and Phoenix get Maya a Not Guilty).
The investigation moments are full of small bonding moments between Phoenix and Kay as they get to know each other a bit better.
So, Team Wright-Faraday get a Not Guilty verdict as promised. Kay’s super proud of herself for managing to do this and it puts her on cloud nine. Franziska only believes that Phoenix won because he had a semi-competent co-counsel with him (Aunt Fran starting to show that she’s proud of Kay a little bit, but is still incredibly pissed that she lost.) Overall, she isn’t sure how to feel about Kay in that moment, and it all comes down to one simple reason:
This is the first time Kay has smiled in months. Everyone who knows her is relieved to see it back.
After the case is closed, Maya does thank Kay for helping and Kay in return does try to cheer her up after the whole “morgan stabbed maya in the back” thing starts to settle in. Am I saying Maya and Kay friendship? Maya and Kay friendship. It starts here.
So, things are starting to look a little bit better for Kay.
The Lost Turnabout
It’s not... Kay’s not involved in this one. Teenage shenanigans happen here as the new school year at Themis starts up.
The first day of school is always pretty easy, but it gets pretty depressing for Kay when one of her professors decides a good idea to break the ice by talking about some of the more ridiculous things that have happened in court cases. It gets the class laughing, and isn’t a bad idea...
Unfortunately for Kay, though, the professor also brings up a certain defense attorney cross-examining a parrot. The memory of that trial brings up a whole lot of feelings for Kay and she just kind of falls quiet for the rest of the day.
But luckily, Klavier and Sebastian have known Kay for a year now, and they realize something’s wrong. So they (primarily Klavier, since he instigates the whole thing) decide to do something about it and distract her. Here is where teenage shenanigans come about.
Just wholesome fun with what is slowly becoming a favorite chaotic trio that ends with everyone collapsed on a couch with an old movie playing in the background. ...and possibly a few appearances from other characters. Who knows?
Kay only finds out about Phoenix’s trial after the fact from Maya, and she’s not sure whether to be impressed that Phoenix managed to do all that with amnesia or laugh about it. She decides to do both.
Turnabout Big Top
It all starts with Phoenix going from ace attorney to ace babysitter as he’s in charge of four teenagers and one small child. Over the past few months, he’s gotten acquainted with Klavier and Sebastian as well, especially after the trio used the Wright & Co. Law Offices as their own personal hangout spot to get homework done and hide out when needed (thank you Kay).
The only reason Kay is brought on as co-counsel for this case is because a: its winter break so she doesn’t have school to worry about and b: the time frame is the same as when Miles was arrested the year prior. If Phoenix is having a rough time, then so is Kay. Especially since this will also be her first birthday since the whole incident. She’s also at Wright & Co. for the same reason when Maya calls up with the case.
This case is not the best distraction for Kay, but at least its something. Lesson learned: as a lawyer, you gotta take the good with the frustrating. Things get worse with Franziska prosecuting again. Kay still doesn’t get what’s up with her and why she’s still getting called a traitor.
The boys are also in on this case because why not, though they don’t stand as co-counsel but rather just help with the investigation. Because we all know that Kristoph and Blaise wouldn’t agree to them standing on the defense’s side, one more than the other.
Kay openly admitting to getting a headache while trying to figure out what the heck is actually going on during the first trial day. She grew up with the Master of Logic himself, so trying to make sense of this without all the information is making her head run in circles. But she’s not going to give up.
It’s revealed when Franziska confronts Phoenix & Co. outside of the lodging house later that day that the reason Franziska calls Kay a traitor is that she deliberately is siding with the man responsible for Miles’s “death”, something that she never thought Kay would do.
Kay never blames Phoenix for what happened to Miles. She mostly blames Gant (and von Karma somewhat) for it. They were the ones who pushed him, not Phoenix. So, when Franziska openly blames Phoenix for what happened, Kay gets pretty pissed.
When Phoenix and Maya continue their investigation, Kay goes to confront Franziska on that matter and just goes off. Months of bottled up emotions just kind of explode outward, and Franziska is the unfortunate target of it all. This blow-up is also the first time that Kay refers to Miles as her dad. Which hits pretty hard. Franziska starts regretting a few choices she’s made today. Klavier and Sebastian pull her away as she starts to break down.
So they just... let her cry it out in the circus’s cafeteria. They end up being the ones who find out about the incident with the lion (once Kay’s calmed down) rather that Phoenix and Maya. The story has them racing over to them, catching the duo just as they’re about to enter Acro’s room and things go about pretty much the same way they do canonically from there.
The next day is a bit hard, and its easy to pick up on the tension between Kay and Franziska here. Taking a page out of the anime, Kay, Klavier, a reluctant Sebastian and Maya recreating the crime for the entire court. She does feel bad about having to indict Acro, though, due to the circumstances surrounding everything.
Kay does a pretty good job, something which Gumshoe relays as a message to her, at the end of the trial, much to her surprise. Who else would be proud of her is something that she wants to know.
Meanwhile, Miles Edgeworth wonders how he’s going to tell his daughter that he’s still alive upon his return to the country. (and yes, he was the one who told gumshoe to tell kay that he was proud of her)
Farewell, My Turnabout
So, Kay at this point still doesn’t know that Miles is alive. He wants to get everything settled before he makes any grand reveals to anyone. He’s also still trying to figure out how to do it since that wasn’t supposed to happen. Kay wasn’t supposed to think he was dead. He told her that he was leaving, sure, but Kay was also half-asleep when he did. So, misunderstandings~
Meanwhile, Phoenix takes the girls (Maya, Pearl and Kay) to the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix. Kay’s gotten decently close to the members of Wright & Co. over the past few months, that much is clear by now.
Kay gets upset about Corrida’s murder because ya know. Jammin’ Ninja fan. She hopes that Engrade gets locked away for doing it. Maya thinks she just doesn’t like the Nickel Samurai, which isn’t that far off. Kay just doesn’t like Engarde thanks to reading Klavier’s tabloid magazines. She never gets to explain the contents of those magazines, though. Phoenix finds out about them later.
Things take a sharp turn when Maya is called to the front desk to answer her “call”. Kay goes with Maya because ya know. Buddy system. (”girls don’t let each other go anywhere alone, nick!” “*sigh* i will never understand teenagers...”) i think. you know. where this about to go--
So, yeah. Kay gets kidnapped alongside Maya. She puts up a pretty decent fight against de Killer (look at the people she was around growing up, Kay probably does know a little self-defense), but in the end, she still gets ‘napped. And so, Phoenix has to defend Engarde or the two girls will “disappear”.
Things are made worse, as Phoenix is accosted by two teenage boys who can’t get in touch with their third musketeer who didn’t show up for school that day. He’s just trying to do his job, but Klavier and Sebastian are really stubborn and will not leave him alone.
And everything gets worse when Miles makes his grand revival. And then is made the prosecutor for this case. So, Phoenix is not having a very good week at all.
Phoenix and Gumshoe are doing the best to keep the fact that the girls are being held hostage from Edgeworth and the boys. Emphasis on try. All three know that there’s something going on, but they can’t figure out what.
Meanwhile, Kay and Maya are in a wine cellar. Kay has tried several times to break down the door, but it hasn’t worked. de Killer took their phones, so they have no way of contacting the outside. They’re screwed unless they can escape.
Maya realizes that they do have a way to contact the outside and uses her spirit channeling powers to contact Mia, and with Kay’s help manages to explain what’s going on and giving a message to Mia to give to Phoenix.
So, Pearl finally reveals her spirit channeling powers. It freaks Phoenix out at first, but he gets over it quickly because at this point, he’s kind of used to Fey Family Weirdness.
The first part of the trial goes on as pretty much the same as it did before. Afterwards, Phoenix does his best to keep the fact that the girls are kidnapped from Miles because he’s gonna flip the fuck out. And he fails. And Miles kind of does flip out.
So, de Killer and Engarde (more so de Killer because he did his research, he knows the connection with Kay that Edgeworth has) have two pawns to work with and dangle over both the prosecution and defense. And now Edgeworth has two assistants on his side: Sebastian and Klavier, who don’t want to see Kay hurt. However, as future prosecutors, they can’t do much to help Phoenix. So, they help out with the investigation (and using the excuse as this being extra credit for anyone who asks why there are two teenagers here.)
On the other side, Maya and Kay break out of the room they were locked in thanks to a card Maya finds. Things go about as well as they do canonically, but with more struggle. Kay makes a fucking mess trying to defend herself and Maya from de Killer, which will later show the police that something definitely went down here (and concerning the heck out of a good handful of people in the process).
Kay may not know the truth about the Yatagarasu yet, but she sure is acting like the Yatagarasu.
The investigation goes about as well as you expect it to. Klavier and Sebastian are doing their best, but they can’t do much since they’re still only students. And Miles is worried as hell for Kay and ends up wanting to tear Engarde apart. Klavier is right to not like Engarde, as was Kay earlier.
When the trial starts up again, you have both the prosecution, the defense and a few members of the gallery nervous as hell. Gumshoe is doing his best to find the girls, but Miles and Phoenix still need to stall for time.
They do their best, but things are going about as well as they do canonically with Edgeworth being more on edge due to Kay being in danger. And the last time he saw her was when he left. So, he wants to be able to reconcile with her.
Things go on much like they do in canon. The note, Gumshoe’s accident, etc. Mia’s with Kay, doing her best to help, but she’s not sure what more she can do because the girls are weak and tired from being held captive for so long.
More worry on both parts.
When de Killer threatens to kill Maya and Kay when Edgeworth and Phoenix press him and try to get more time, Miles is also there to beg him to leave them alone. This is also the first time that Miles openly refers to Kay as his daughter.
Not much is different there out. They manage to expose Engarde as the asshole that he is, the girls are released and Engarde is declared guilty.
The scene with Franziska at the airport and Phoenix giving Miles the whip takes place a bit earlier, as that’s where Miles goes first before going to meet with Kay. Because he’s still trying to figure out how he’s going to talk to Kay again.
Phoenix and the others meet Maya and Kay at the hospital (Kay and Maya were held captive without much food or water for about three days, and Kay has a few minor injuries from de Killer, so they do need medical attention). Maya has a tearful reunion with Mia (as channeled by Pearl), and Kay gets tackled by her friends on both sides.
And then Miles Edgeworth walks into the room a short while later and Kay does not know what to say. She thought that he was dead for over a year, and a lot of things start bubbling to the surface. She starts tearing up because she thought she would never see Miles again, and he with her.
As soon as he gets close enough, Kay hugs him and calls him stupid in a couple different ways. Miles accepts it and apologizes for making her worry. He promises not to vanish like that again, and returns the promise that Kay made in part 2: to not keep secrets from her again.
So, what they didn’t get at the end of part 2, Miles and Kay finally get at the end of JfA: a chance to actually rebuild and reconcile their relationship without anything getting in the way.
So Justice for All ends on a pretty good note.
That may be the end of Justice for All, but it’s not the end of the story. There are still more ripples to come and fun shenanigans.
#ace attorney#ace attorney au#kay faraday#dick gumshoe#phoenix wright#maya fey#pearl fey#franziska von karma#miles edgeworth#sebastian debeste#klavier gavin#dadworth au#kay edgeworth au#queen speaks
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Feral for each other
This was prompted by the amazing @smolandangry001! This was fun to write but prepare for angst!
Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900
(Warnings: unpunished police brutality if you think about it, violence)
[Part2]
‘Gavin, I don’t feel good about this.’
‘I know, babe’, Gavin whispered sitting next to him in the car, watching the others already mill about busy making last preparations. He turned towards the android and tried to smile at him as reassuringly as he could. ‘I’m here, okay? I will look out for you. If you need me, I’ll be there.’
‘This will be just another Ferndale incident’, Nines disagreed. ‘It was mere luck I didn’t...’ The android looked at his hands contorted to claws and there was horror evident on his face as if he could still see it.
Very gently, Gavin took his hands, looked out of the front window and kissed Nines fingers as he was sure no one was looking. ‘Then we’ll be lucky again.’ He pushed Nines fingers close and gifted him yet another smile. ‘We will get this over with, we will both return home tonight. I promise.’
Nines closed his eyes, LED still settled on red when he finally nodded and waited for Gavin to step out of the car. He took his pistol, checked the magazine for the hundredth time and followed Gavin over to their meeting point with SWAT and the FBI team.
‘Any news?’, Gavin asked one of his colleagues, who just pointed to Agent Perkins, who was listening intently to his ear-piece.
‘Captain Allen and Sixty have already met and our favourite RK800 is currently passing through the intel. I bet we are clear to storm in a moment.’
Gavin nodded and watched the building in front of them. He knew why he hated undercover operations: If they went wrong, they went to hell immediately. They were lucky the gang thought they could get their hands on police information. It was the only reason Allen was still alive and they had someone to rescue. Sixty had successfully infiltrated the building and already incapacitated some of the gang-members, but soon it was time for the whole team to go in. And from Perkins’ body language, that moment wasn’t so far away now.
The man nodded and looked over at them. Gavin had never liked the self-righteous asshole, but he had to respect him for his competence in the field.
‘RK900, I want you with my men in the front’, he began to bark. ‘We went over this a hundred times, I won’t repeat myself. Stay with your teams, be careful and stick to the damn plan! We will get this man out alive and well!’
Nines already moved and Gavin fell in step next to him.
‘Reed! On your position!’
The Detective sighed and turned to Perkins. ‘Listen, my position is next to Nines.’
‘We don’t have time for your rebellious body-cop act. Don’t make me regret agreeing to have you on this mission.’
Gavin clenched his teeth and looked at Nines, who gave him a barely perceivable nod.
‘Alright, listen here Perkins. You might have heard about the Ferndale incident?’
‘I have, that’s why I want the RK900 on the team.’
‘Then you might not know I was there too and was the only reason Nines didn’t kill his colleagues, too. So, I guess you would agree that the position I am most useful in is right at his side.’
Perkins watched him with narrowed eyes, but reluctantly nodded. ‘Fine. Stay with him. Don’t cause any problems.’
They joined the first team to enter and Nines sheepishly looked around, avoiding their eyes.
‘Hey, it won’t happen again’, Gavin mumbled under his breath, knowing only the android would be able to hear him. ‘It’s okay, I’m here.’ He couldn’t take his hand out here in the open and hold him, so his soft words had to suffice. The android’s LED turned from red to yellow at least, so that might have been a good sign. He wouldn’t have much time to do anything else anyways as they got the order to move out.
It was a short jog up the hill and down the other side to the building’s main entrance. Nines was in the very front taking the lead, Gavin right behind him and the rest of the team surrounding him. He was a good shot and well-trained, but he was seldom in the situation to actually pull it on people except maybe as an intimidation tactic. He really was mainly here because of Nines. He hoped his own words would prove themselves true and he wasn’t needed.
They breached the doors and were almost immediately met with gunfire they returned. With mechanical efficiency, Nines took out the more difficult targets, incapacitating them with shots in the legs or arms. He rushed in as soon as someone lost their pistol and took care of them with a well placed punch. Then the whole team hurried onwards before anyone could alarm someone, potentially making them harm or kill Allen in their panic.
They ran along the hallway, the sounds of their boots echoing back from the wall. Gavin saw Nines look back at him at least once and they both seemed to relax a little at that. But it wasn’t over yet. They entered yet another big room, Sixty’s intel helping them navigate. They turned right and ran on, only to be stopped once again. Maybe they had already discovered them rushing in or the sound of gunshots had alerted them. Gavin let himself fall back and covered their backs, only to be snatched, when he least expected it: An arm snaked itself around his neck and someone kicked the pistol from his hand. He began to struggle against the hold only to have the barrel of a gun pressed against his head.
‘Everyone drop their weapons and leave!’, the man holding Gavin demanded, but all that entailed was the SWATs to aim back at them. Gavin knew the statistics of a hostage surviving something like this, but somehow hoped they would change in his favour, when his eyes met Nines’. Oh no.
Nines stared at him, but only in the first moment he looked adequately panicked and afraid. Then a look of robotic indifference washed over his face as his body dropped processes active only to integrate with humans: His breathing and blinking stopped, and his stance changed to better supply the full strength and agility of a machine.
Gavin swallowed hard and tried to calm himself down ignoring his surroundings.
‘Nines. Nines, it’s okay, calm down. They won’t harm me.’
‘Shut up! We will!’
Gavin jolted his head and hissed: ‘Listen buddy, you don’t know what’s coming for y-‘
The pressure of the arm around his throat rose and let his words die in his throat. He still tried to look at Nines and contorted his face to something that should have been a calm smile. But he couldn’t control his heart beating in his chest and throat and his laboured breath.
And that action seemed to finally enable Nines’ protocols fully. The android smashed his shoulder into the side of one of the SWAT-members and ripped his weapons off his body to shoot them into the ambushing gang-members. With cold precision, one bullet after the next, the people fell to the ground, dead. RK900 had fired while running up to the man that held Gavin hostage. Now he stood in front of them and punched him in the face while at the same time forcing the gun out of his hand. The man fell to the ground, but the machine wasn’t finished yet, punching him again and again as blood already streamed from his nose.
Gavin fell to his knees too, as the arm around his neck had vanished and gasped for air. He allowed himself just a second, before turning to the rest of the SWAT-team and signalling them to get the fuck out of here and continue with the mission.
They didn’t hesitate fleeing, seeing the android still punching the lifeless body of the man who had threatened Gavin. At the sound of their feet, the machine turned around, uniform splattered with blood and seemed ready to run after them not distinguishing between enemy and ally anymore but only analysing threats.
As Gavin realised the android was moments away from sprinting off, he pushed himself in his way and held him by the shoulders, knowing there was no way he could actually prevent him from slaughtering his co-workers in this state.
‘RK900, stand down. That’s an order’, he said with stern voice, although he couldn’t hide his panting. ‘All enemies obliterated, disengage soldier protocols.’
The android blinked once, looking at Gavin, but still having that distant look on his face. It wasn’t over yet.
‘You did well, RK900, your target is safe’, Gavin tried to get through to Nines. And that made him blink once again, his LED turning red in an instant. Gavin immediately let go of his shoulders and took his hands.
‘Nines, Nines, look. I’m fine. I’m fine. Don’t worry, I wasn’t hurt. I’m not in danger anymore, I am fine. I am fine. I’m okay. You understand?’
‘Gavin’, Nines answered, voice loaded with static. ‘Gavin, I saw you… You had a gun against your head and someone held you hostage and-‘ Nines lifted his hands to his head, but Gavin forced them to stay down and instead lifted his own up to make him focus on him. ‘Nines, it’s fine. I’m okay. I’m safe. That happened, but it’s over now. You saved me.’
‘I… saved you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did I…’
He tried to move his head, but Gavin shook his head telling him not to. ‘Yes. You did. Like Ferndale.’
‘Is… Did I hurt many?’
‘You killed the ambushing gang-members. The rest of the team is safe. They are off to save Allen.’
‘How many?’
Gavin looked around and grimaced. ‘Shit, I don’t know. Ten? It looks like more than ten.’
It made the android press his eyes together in pain.
‘Hey, it’s not your fault, okay?’, Gavin tried softly. ‘You were programmed like this. You can’t do anything about it.’
‘I’m not programmed like this. It’s a malfunction because I…’
‘There is no one around, Nines, it’s okay. You can say it. I love you too. We will get out of this. I will tell Fowler what happened, that it was self-defence. He will likely give us a pass. Perkins will be pissed, but the guy has zero authority and Fowler hates him. We will be fine, okay?’
Nines shook his head. ‘It won’t. I killed, Gavin.’
‘You did and so did I on the job. Let’s just say that we will never, ever take a mission like this again.’
‘I can’t Gavin, Sixty-‘
‘Sixty’s feelings are his problem. They’ll just send more people. Also, I highly doubt your psycho little brother wouldn’t get Allen out on his own. Only you are important at the moment. And you will be fine. Come on now, let’s get out of here.’
-
They had barely made it back to the precinct and got Nines’ hands clean of blood and a new change of clothes, as shit hit the fan: Perkins marched up to Fowler’s office, who Gavin had already warned and informed of the situation. It didn’t take long for Fowler to stand up from his chair, so his table was the only barrier between him and the Federal Agent. Soon after the windows were frosted and all that was left was the muffled screaming coming from within.
Nines sunk deeper into his chair as Gavin tended to him, cleaning the joints of his fingers from blood. He had hit the asshole that had held Gavin hard enough to deactivate his artificial skin. Gavin should have been afraid, seeing Nines’ raw strength and fury, but all he could feel was worry. Yes, Nines could be shoved in the backseat by mindless programming that made him go full terminator, forcing him to fight until either everyone was dead, or he couldn’t function anymore. But when he was back in control, he was soft and polite and everything Gavin wasn’t. On their very first occasion the android had caught Gavin off-guard by reacting to his curses by apologising. He was the very first person that managed to make the precinct’s asshole feel sorry and ever since they had been the perfect team. More than that, actually, but they hadn’t told anyone they actually were in a relationship. Not yet, or maybe never.
It broke Gavin’s heart, he had forgotten for the longest time, seeing Nines like this. Ashamed of what he had done, full of regret and worrying for his future. Gavin couldn’t help but set the pipe cleaner aside and brush over his exposed knuckles. ‘It’s okay, Nines. It’s not your fault.’
‘I know’, the android returned quietly. ‘But I should have known better.’
‘We will next time’, the Detective reassured him.
‘If there is a-‘
‘There he is!’ The door of Fowler’s office opened, and Perkins hurried down the stairs, face red as a tomato. ‘There is the fucking killerbot you lunatics still let run free! What the fuck is wrong with you? Something malfunctioning? Some mis-wired connection? Or did you just finally decided to turn against humans, huh?’
Nines head dropped, and he pulled his hand out of Gavin’s.
‘I thought you were competent as they told me of Ferndale. But now I realised your damn precinct is just conspiring to keep a cold-blooded murderer in their midst!’ Perkins looked around the precinct that had fallen awfully quiet. ‘I guess it is convenient to have a tool to use when everything went to shit. Send the RK900, it will clear out an entire building, regardless of whether the people inside are criminals or civilians. We can always call on self-defence.’
He shook his head and leaned forwards, looking Nines straight in the eyes. ‘You know what? I think some of you would really have been better off being dismantled at the camps.’
Gavin had watched the whole conversation going down in shock. For once in his life he was missing the words to tell Perkins to fuck off. Because there were no words that would accurately describe what cold hatred he was feeling at that very moment. Silence stretched and with horror, Gavin saw how Nines nodded and hid his hands against his body.
That was it.
‘Perkins, you lousy excuse of a human being!’, he whispered, but in the dead silence of the precinct it was more effective than a scream. ‘You. Goddamn… Phck, I don’t have words for it. What is your twisted mind like that you think you can just say something like this? This android saved my life. And I specifically told you not to take him with you on the mission. But surprise: You cocksure bastard thought I was just some idiot that can be ignored. This is entirely on your poor judgement and you can’t weasel your way out of that!’
Gavin had to take a break to breath as the tension inside his body had made him talk a lot faster than healthy. Perkins used it to open his mouth, but before a word left his throat, Gavin was already back at it: ‘I don’t phcking care what the hell you have to say. You won’t get another chance at insulting my boyfriend, who just went through an event that was traumatic. But you didn’t think of that, right? Not even for a minute, you wasted a thought on putting yourself in his shoes. How do you think it feels to be shoved out of your own body because some asshole thought it would be fun to design a killing machine? You don’t know the first thing about the love of my life, this precinct or our past. So, I would greatly advise you to shut up, leave this precinct and go eat a double decker dick sandwich!’
Once again silence fell, and Gavin knew everyone including Fowler was looking at him. He didn’t care. Not one bit. He could only stare at Perkins unblinking, challenging him to back off. But he didn’t. Of course, he didn’t.
‘Or what?’, he asked with a sly grin. ‘You gonna let your rabid dog off the leash?’
Gavin didn’t hesitate. He had planned this for a while now and he really, really didn’t care anymore. He stepped back and took a swing at Perkins, landing his fist perfectly against his brow and nose to make him stumble back and holding his laceration at the temple.
‘Believe me, that you already did by insulting him. You shouldn’t fear Nines. I am the one that will kick your ass out of here if you are not leaving in the next five seconds.’
‘You can’t be serious-‘
Gavin hit him again. The fact that no one had yet dared to stand up and intervene meant that most were on his side here. The Detective leaned down to him and whispered once again: ‘Five seconds. Leave. Now.’
Perkins snarled at him, but Gavin’s already lifted fist was enough to convince him in the end and he ran towards the exit, shouting something like: ‘This isn’t over yet!’
Gavin couldn’t keep himself upright any longer and slumped against his table, slowly sinking to the ground. ‘Phck. I just punched a Federal Agent. I’m so damn screwed.’ He let his head fall into his hands. Then there was another one in front of his face, offering to help him up. It was Hank, Connor next to him. Nines was standing at his side too but looked more worried than comforting.
‘Don’t worry, Reed’, Hank laughed. ‘I did that too, once. Was actually quite satisfying as you might know now.’
‘Yeah. I can still prepare to get my stuff and search for a new job now.’
‘Don’t think so. You should have seen Fowler’s face. Don’t worry.’
Gavin turned around and looked Nines up and down, who in the end just stepped forwards and pulled Gavin in a strong hug.
‘Wanted to congratulate you two’, Gavin heard Connor’s distant voice. ‘Didn’t know you two were together.’
Both Nines and Gavin froze and looked at each other. ‘What?’
‘You said he was your boyfriend.’
‘I… did?’
‘Yep.’
Gavin looked at Nines face that just pleaded him to go home and hold each other in the safety of their bedroom.
It made him smile in contentment, because honestly, he would love to do that. ‘Yeah. I love him more than anything.’
[>next part]
#detroit become human#dbh#Reed900#RK900#Gavin Reed#God I loved writing this#I honestly thought I forgot to write but it worked out in the end#I want to write so much more#I have no idea how I will survive this hiatus but oh well...#I guess this counts as#the feels
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bro you gotta tell me more about that fic you mentioned in the tags of that reblog that sounds like smth id like bro idc about what fandom it is i just wanna read it
oh bad news I worked on for two years and then never wrote it lol.
BUT I DID WORK ON IT FOR TWO YEARS SO I CAN SURE INFODUMP! WARNING: VERY LONG RANT INCOMING!! Like... incredibly long. I can't stress to you enough you can take your time reading and responding to this because it is that long. The word count is in the thousands.
fic contains: mentions of abuse, rape, trafficking, body horror, gore, suicide, basically just... a shitton of angst. like so much angst, dude. not all of these are in the first part but they will be in subsequent parts.
Ok, idk what you know about DBH so I'm just gonna give this a quick preface by just explaining all the important parts to the fanfic.
Basically DBH is some anti-racist game that failed at being anti-racist, somehow. Probably because David Cage wrote it. Also something about it takes place in 2038 there's technological advancement and androids and the androids do this deviation thing where they suddenly get the ability to Make Choices and Feel Emotions.
1. Zlatko
Zlatko Andronikov is some villain guy in the original game that you have to pass through in Kara's storyline to know about where they need to escape to—Canada. He also takes androids and does one of two things; resets them (erases their memory, basically undeviates them) or he makes them absolutely fucking horrific.
Like truly horrific! They're actually quite tame compared to their concept art, and many of them—not including this one—have been badly burned. Apparently androids don't feel pain canonically but everyone ignores that because it's fucking stupid.
2. Connor
Connor's your obligatory Autistic-Coded Nonhuman Character because he spends most of the game as a robot who doesn't understand The Human JokesTM, sarcasm, and the like. He also deviates very late in the game. Obviously this is game has like 40+ endings but for the purposes of this you only need to know that he deviates. Also his story was objectively the most competently written because David Cage literally didn't have too much influence in it. The actors for the main duo, Bryan Dechart (a twitch streamer who played Connor and is seriously the most wholesome man ever. He made some videos with Jacksepticeye.) and Clancy Brown (Yes, Mr. Krabs Clancy Brown who played the Old Grizzled Alcoholic Detective character Lieutenant Hank Anderson/Connor's father figure or husband or best friend depending on who you ask) wrote a lot of the story by seeing the script and saying "Fuck this lol."
Here is a picture of Bryan Dechart and his wife Amelia. It shocked me to find out at the time of writing this that Bryan Dechart is older than Philza Minecraft. What the fuck. Also during my looking through videos for this, I realized I had forgotten how fucking attractive this man's voice is. I want to steal crumbs of his gender from under the table like a starving Victorian child working for the rich family above me.
Actually all of this was just unnecessary gushing. Connor's a cop. He gets thrust into a shitty position by the Evil Corporate Overlord (DBH is also anti-capitalist! And it actually did an OK job at that one so) CyberLife, the company that created androids. He gets the fantastic job of Most Advanced Prototype CyberLife Has Ever Created who Hunts Down The Defective Deviants With The Detroit Police Department. In canon, this causes a shitton of political discourse, because the unemployment rate in the US is already in fucking shambles due to CyberLife's androids being dirt cheap (seriously they're under 10k USD) and preprogrammed to do certain tasks that make it easier for business owners to buy androids rather than hire a human workforce. He deviates because of all the deviants he hunts being like, actual fleshed out people who feel real fear, his buddy cop Hank learning to no longer be racist, and him starting to tangle with his own emotions as well.
Another thing about Connor: He likes dogs! He can also pet Hank's dog when he goes to visit his house. That's not important but it's nice to know.
Also he canonically uses puppy dog eyes. Like. People would joke Ha Ha Yes He Probably Uses Puppy Eyes On Hank and. And it was canon. They didn't have to headcanon it, it literally happened. And the kicker? It fucking worked. It is exceptionally difficult to find the clip, though. Like. Really hard. I've been looking for like ten minutes and I can't find shit. It happens in the chapter The Nest when Connor just stands around doing jack shit and Hank tells him they gotta skedaddle before he "dies of an asthma attack," but Connor makes him stay because idk fatherly instinct or something.
3. The Jericrew
Markus, North, Simon, and Josh. North is the only one with any personality. She is my second favorite character in the whole game. Markus and Simon had homoerotic tension and they were originally supposed to have a romance path but David Cage is homophobic so he made Markus and North date. I kept this in the AU because I think North deserves nice things, and Markus is a nice thing. Josh is a pacifist. North wants to kill people (this is because she was a victim of sex trafficking who killed her rapist and escaped. She believes that violence is the only way humans will understand their message. Markus, at least for these purposes, decides if he's gonna die he's gonna die a martyr and continue to be robot MLK.). Simon is a Markus simp. He literally has no opinions on Markus. Practically everything you do will up your relationship with him. He is fucking in love, I swear. In one of the endings he is literally North's replacement if she dies and Markus gets shot and has to have someone come save him. I'm sorry but "Our hearts are compatible, you have to take mine" THAT IS FUCKING FRUITY AS HELL.
4. RK900
Okay. This guy is 100% fanon. Like. His character showed up for 30 seconds in one ending you have to try to get. He stood there looking pretty and didn't say a word. Usually in fanon he's portrayed as Hot Tall Sexy Burly Stoic Big Dick Sex God because the fandom is really horny and he is somehow the second person in the most popular ship (reed900, they literally have a movie, uh, i think the ship's a bit problematic though, for a few reasons). In this fic though I decided to make him kind of a nervous wreck lmfao. The most popular names for him are Nines and Conan (I like Nines though so I went with that). Also we didn't even know that Nines is taller or more muscular than Connor but we assumed so based on pure vibes.
OK. SO IF YOU ALREADY KNEW ALL THAT OR IF YOU READ IT ALL: HERE'S THE AU!
Now, I've forgotten a ton of this AU. I think it's been exactly six months since I've thought about this story. I have forgotten a scary amount of it, but trust me, in its prime? It was amazing.
Basically, it was... four years after the events of the game? 2042. Lots of found family shit. Connor and Hank are PURELY vibing, especially with Connor's jobs with the Detroit Police Department + working with the Jericrew. Uhh. Yeah basically Connor, Hank, and Nines are all roommates who all support each other. Mutuality or whatever. Hank's a recovering alcoholic, Connor is... a lot, actually, he is so much, he has so many issues, especially after he gets home, but that's later, and Nines has just some major fucking anxiety issues. Sumo is a dog. He is happy all the time because he is a dog except when his family goes to work then he's sad.
Connor reads textbooks for fun. He's a big Knowledge Enjoyer and has a crippling astronomy hyperfixation. Did I mention I projected my ADHD onto him? I projected my ADHD onto him. He has ADHD. Don't ask why he can have mental disorders because he's a robot and that wouldn't make sense, yes they can, and because I said so.
Then, one day, something happens I literally don't remember I think he gets hit with some sort of Robo Blow Dart in his back neck port. That gets explained later though. He was on a bus. So he gets kidnapped! Cool.
He's taken to Zlatko's mansion, which looks a little something like this:
and gets put in a terrible cell full of android guts which looks a little something like this:
(I was like 100% I had more screenshots than this but apparently not. It's so hard to get a screenshot of these cells though because they are just that dark).
So yeah! He's not very happy about this.
Oh, and fun fact: androids have the ability to communicate across long distances. Like, they're walkie talkies.
Not Connor! Zlatko broke that shit so he can't call for help.
There are three other androids with him who are also get a very similar treatment Connor is about to endure:
Harry
Faith
and Iris
So ya! They're all pretty fucked up. Harry was a military bot, Faith was a maid, and Iris was a sex robot. Harry and Faith are the only straight couple ever except for maybe Phil and Kristin. They have a child, who Connor has actually met before, so it's like... pretty imperative they get out.
But remember that Robo Blow Dart?
That's permanently in him now. It's in all of them. And it's controlled by the big bad villain... Zlatko.
So any chance of escape could just be stopped by him hitting a button and knocking them all out, and they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Also, Connor's like. Kinda fucked up as well.
Some time later, idk, we meet BEST BOY EVER.
ENTER G R E G O R Y
THINK WE CAN TELL ON HOW MUCH EFFORT I PUT INTO HIS HEADSHOT BASED ON THE OTHERS WHO MY FAVORITE IS, BECAUSE HE MEANS ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING TO ME.
Alrighty, here's what you need to know about Gregory for now: He's 5'6 (this will become funny later), very quiet, a little bit curt, but all the same a very sweet man who is just trying his best so that everyone under his care doesn't go fucking crazy. His hair goes down to his ass and he has a bunch of tattoos. He's also my favorite. Have I told you he's my favorite yet? He's my favorite.
He is just as under Zlatko's thumb as the other androids. He has been in Zlatko's possession for about... eight years, if I remember correctly. He was born in 2036 and wasn't alive for long before Zlatko snagged him and reprogrammed him to do the snagging for him (He's actually a canon character and is the trash bot who tells Kara and Alice where Zlatko lives). After Kara and Alice left taking FUCKING ROBODAD (his name is Luther he's not important to this story but he means absolutely everything to me) MY BELOVED with them, Zlatko took Gregory to go be like, his helper, and fill in Luther's place. So Gregory gets to help with Zlatko's surgeries and food and such. He doesn't leave the house.
Ever.
Except for one time. I'll get to that later.
Gregory and Connor have this sort of, like, rivalry. Gregory's pretty used to running the house and how it functions, and it irks him a bit that Connor just waltzes in his fuckin house and starts bossing people around as if he owns the place. Part of this is because Gregory resigned to his fate a while ago. Like, he's pretty sure he's gonna be stuck in this endless loop forever, but there is absolutely no way he's killing himself, lest someone take his place and abuse the androids under Zlatko even more. He is their last defense, and he is not trusting anyone else with the job.
Another thing? Gregory's got a bit of a silver tongue. He knows exactly what he needs to say, how he needs to say it, and when. It comes from years of experience of working with a volatile piece of shit who does drugs and gets off to torturing innocents he knows feel emotions. How I know he knows it? It's his whole fucking business model. Also he's a bit of an artist. Just a tad. He likes to do the draw. it's his coping mechanism.
That's really all you need to know for the exposition/inciting incident.
Let's get into the real plot now.
Um... I don't remember it.
I. I don't remember the real plot.
Because there were so many different fucking arcs I had to juggle. So some shit is gonna be kinda fuzzy, especially with the trio (Harry, Iris, Faith) because I'm gonna be honest... I did not focus on them that much lol was too busy with the main duo Connor and Gregory.
Alright, here's the second most important character in the entire fic:
Emerald. Except I'm getting way too lazy to draw now so.
Emerald is like Gregory 2 except they're allowed to leave the mansion. Emerald is the key to everyone's fucking escape. Emerald and Iris are dating.
Emerald is the mansion security guard. They watch all the security cameras. This is important, because as far as Zlatko knows, all the money he's paying them is going to keep them bitches STORED.
Not gonna happen, though. Not on Emerald's watch.
Connor starts spitballing ideas to escape.
Nobody likes this.
Especially Gregory, who, by the way, is absolutely scared shitless of Zlatko. There's a reason for this! There are so many reasons for this. Holy shit, I cannot even tell you how many reasons there are for this.
Some shenanigans happens. Eventually, they do some wacky shit and manage to do Something?????? All I know is that the trio is out of commission, not dead I don't think they were, Connor is unconscious for a bit and Gregory's just. Fucking having a panic attack I don't know.
Little bit later Connor wakes up and we're introduced to BEST GIRL. BEST GIRL EVER.
ANDROID BEAR!!!!! Her name is Aurora and I love her and she's the best thing ever.
THIS IS GETTING REALLY LONG AND IM GONNA SPLIT THIS UP INTO PARTS SO THERE'S THE END OF PART ONE!!!!
#oasisofasks#grayson#IM SORRY I HAD TO SPLIT THIS UP KEKW#THIS DEADASS TOOK ME LIKE A MONTH GUYS YOU DONT UNDERSTAND
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andalmo?
it's only been literally two years this has languished in my drafts fill out the character profile for every name you get in your inbox
Full Name: Andalmo Selovyn
Gender and Sexuality: Cis male. Bi, leans toward men (even though his love interest is female)
Pronouns: He/him
Ethnicity/Species: Dunmer
Birthplace and Birthdate: Morthal, Skyrim. Born on the 2nd of Sun’s Dusk, under the Serpent constellation.
Guilty Pleasures: Sleeping late into the day, tavern games, walking under illusion even when there's absolutely no need to hide his face. He just enjoys lying. Lies for fun, really.
Phobias: Kwama scribs creep him out much like spiders creep outu others. They're just so... skittery. It's unnerving.
What They Would Be Famous For: Being a Blade spy, though hopefully not too famous, if he's doing his job right.
What They Would Get Arrested For: Being a Blade spy, though again, hopefully not too arrested if he's doing his job right. Also he sort of did a lot of murder in his youth. (He got better. And the statute of limitations is mostly passed.)
OC You Ship Them With: Sotha Sarethi, daughter of Nerevarine Arafel Sarethi, and also his commanding officer. Well, ex-commanding officer, given... -waves hands vaguely at the end of the Great War-
OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Tricky one. Sotha did her credible best back when she first met him, though to be fair, she didn't know he was a Blade and he wasn't exactly acting Blade-like. At this point, probably the Thalmor Justiciar Aranande, whom I have adopted as my own because Bethesda has lost interest in their own damn mobile game.
Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Mystery.
Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: "You see, I, Detective Fluffernutter, knew the villain was this random side character the whole time! Allow me to spend five pages rattling off all these clues that the narrative never bothered to show the reader."
Talents and/or Powers: Accomplished illusionist, spy, liar, and generally very good at setting the cat among the pigeons exactly when he wants the pigeons (the pigeons being an enemy) most confused. Less accomplished with diplomacy, which is very unfortunate when he no longer has a Blade partner to help cover for him.
Why Someone Might Love Them: Strong internal voice, competent, cunning. Has a will of steel behind all that faffing about, and it's always nice to watch someone like that persevere and earn their win.
Why Someone Might Hate Them: Bit of an antihero in all the worst possible senses of the word. It's a rather overdone trope, I will admit.
How They Change: Starts out as a rather bitter loner. Through time in the Blades, time out of the Blades, and time as the Dragonborn, he actually steps up to the role destiny seems to have him chalked into - or, at least, he creates a legend which can live up to that over-inflated role and be looked up to.
Why You Love Them: i had boethiah cultist brainrot and andalmo just spiraled out of my musings on what a boethiah follower blade would look like. the answer: a cutthroat illusionist who would die to protect his friends, but no actually, he won't die, fuck you, he's only here because he's survived this long, and he's going to survive a little longer, gods damn it. And now I'm attached to him. He's also incredibly fun to write, because he's just so damn frustrated all the time!
#dragonborn andalmo#ask games#longform#w h o o p s sorry this was a While in the coming wasn't it hhasdhkjlksdjka
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Untamed TAZ Balance AU? Don't have to write anything, just consider that (is Wen Ning Lucretia in this or is he too nice for that)
NHS IS LUCRETIA, NHS IS ABSOLUTELY LUCRETIA, I HAVE THOUGHTS, my girlfriend yelled at me for these thoughts. Hell this got long, I’ve literally been saving it in my drafts until Tumblr fixed the Read More issue.
WWX is Taako, JC is Magnus, WQ is Merle, JYL is in the umbrella (became a lich to keep her brother from doing it), WN is the Red Robe (became a lich because he thought it seemed reasonable), NHS is Lucretia, XXC is Davenport, LWJ and LXC are mutually Kravitz (LXC sets his bro up with the death criminal wizard), Wen Zhuliu is John Vore, LSZ is Angus but also a baby Reaper
ONE
So Wei Wuxian isn’t really a wizard, is the thing. Like, he does the wizard magic, and apparently he has strong Wizard Vibes because wherever he travels, people ask him if he can solve their magical bullshit problems, but he’s, like, barely a wizard. He’s an inventor, technically, except that a few years back some stuff went explosively awry while he worked with this traveling show and–yeah. So he’s working as a wizard because, hey, he can cast Magic Missile and he needs to eat and he’s an Evocation specialist, anyway, so it’s not like he’s out here making food from rocks. He’s hired on with a couple other random jackasses, a fighter who took a dislike to Wei Wuxian right off the bat and a cleric with a bad temper and an itchy Sacred Flame finger, and they’re doing a job for some dwarf, or whatever. The dwarf has a guy hired on as muscle, but he doesn’t look like much, all wide eyes and baby face. He calls himself Qionglin, no last name, and stares at Wen Qing like he’s never seen a cleric before, and Jiang Cheng spends the entire trip to Phandolin messing with his whip, which is the stupidest weapon Wei Wuxian has ever seen.
Well, then everything immediately goes horribly wrong, though, and turns out that Jiang Cheng is pretty okay with that whip. Qionglin (Wei Wuxian spoke to the man all of one time, but he was sweet, if a little awkward) gets himself kidnapped by a bunch of goblins, and their employer is gods-know-where with whatever a Black Spider is, and suddenly this very boring escort mission is a very not boring rescue mission.
There’s a skeleton in the cave. Wei Wuxian takes an umbrella from it, and it crumbles into dust beneath its red robe. There’s a very annoyed man with a sword who calls himself Song Lan and speaks in static, and he’s somehow not the weirdest part of this whole day.
Phandolin doesn’t survive its brush with the Zidian Gauntlet, and neither does Qionglin. Wen Qing screams when he dies, and Wei Wuxian grabs her under the arms with Jiang Cheng and books it for the empty well in Song Lan’s wake, and they just hide.
And then they go to the goddamn moon, apparently.
TWO
The goddamn moon is run by an older man with hair still a glossy black, toying with a beautifully painted white fan in his hand. He calls himself the Director and–after some testing–hires them more or less on the spot. Something flickers over his face when Wen Qing, bemused by her own upset, makes an offhand mention of a man named Qionglin who died when the Gauntlet brought down so much lightning that it turned Phandolin into black glass. But it’s not Wei Wuxian’s problem, so he doesn’t worry himself over it too much. He takes the payment offered to him by the Director’s aide, a blindfolded, stunningly handsome man in Bureau blue and white who rests his hand on his own chest and says “Xiao Xingchen” and not another word.
The Bureau is–weird. They’ve got a giant jellyfish and a store run by–something Wei Wuxian Does Not Trust and a dorm. Wei Wuxian laughs and kicks Jiang Cheng cheerfully in the ankle and says “Just like college, huh?” and Jiang Cheng gives him a dark look and snaps “I never went to college.”
“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian says, blinking. “Me neither.”
Whatever. They go on a train adventure and there’s a kid, a kid who blinks and stares at Wei Wuxian like he’s seen a goddamn ghost and immediately walks up to introduce himself as Lan Sizhui, boy detective.
Wei Wuxian fucking loves this kid. He’s not sure why this wide-eyed fifteen-year-old latched onto him so hard, but he’s smart, funny, loyal, and extremely easy to pick on. 13/10 child rating, in Wei Wuxian’s book.
(Sizhui, for his part, more or less kicks down the door to his father’s offices in the Astral Plane the second the Reclaimers are gone and shouts “I HAVE A LEAD ON WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD.”)
(His father, Lan Wangji, the Grim Reaper, is very interested to hear all about it–especially when his son casually name-drops three of the biggest bounties that the Raven King, his adoptive elder brother, has ever sent him after, with the exception of that absolutely insufferably sweet-tempered lich Wen Ning.)
THREE
So…the Crystal Kingdom.
Is it Wei Wuxian’s finest hour, shouting obscure tentacle-related threats at the second crystal construct they’ve seen in the past twenty minutes? No, probably not. But it’s been a stressful day, they’re already down one Regulator and Song Lan is fuck-knows-where with Mianmian and, again, this is the second menacing crystal construct they’ve seen in twenty minutes. Or maybe it’s the same one?
Whatever, doesn’t matter. They’re here to hunt down Meng Yao, a scientist who’s been dicking around with some seriously ill-advised necromancy and also the Philosopher’s Stone, and a crystal construct or two isn’t going to stop them.
Wei Wuxian actually physically cannot help himself, though, when the Reapers appear in the mirror, a matched set of beautiful men, and he grins broadly at the one glaring at him most viciously. They get let go on a technicality, along with a conduit still containing Meng Shi’s memory of a vision beyond the cosmos, and Meng Yao leaves with his life and not much more.
Later, Lan Wangji is absolutely betrayed by the realization that his brother willfully set him up to be the primary go-between for the completely breathtaking deeply irritating wizard-by-way-of-death-criminal. And that’s before the whole lich revelation. (He does get a kiss, though, after he watches his brother pulled under by the Hunger. That’s nice. He hopes Wei Wuxian will mitigate the death crimes now that they’re dating.)
FOUR
The seven Relics are as follows:
The Zidian Gauntlet, which can generate a lightning blast so powerful that it can obliterate an entire city. (Jiang Cheng–he watched the others try to lay in protections, try to make their Relics harmless, and he knew it wouldn’t work. All the Gauntlet does is damage. It can melt a city down to black glass, but it can’t be twisted, it can’t be made into any more of a nightmare than it already is. He’s a fighter. He knows all about damage, knew all about what he was making. That doesn’t mean it didn’t kill him by inches to watch it leave a path of destruction–so much that his beloved jiejie tried to seal it away.)
The Oculus, which can make any construct real. (Xiao Xingchen–Nie Huaisang didn’t take everything. He doesn’t remember the mission, or his own past. Something strange got confused in the process, and he lost most of his speech. But he remembers how to fight, handles his sword as cleanly and effectively as ever, and he remembers that he doesn’t think much of Nie Huaisang’s combat skills. Or maybe it’s just really obvious that Nie Huaisang isn’t much of a fighter. Regardless, Xiao Xingchen insisted on accompanying him, before–before. Then they went into the Felicity Wilds, and…Xue Yang is honestly delighted. He’s never managed to ruin someone so badly on the way into Wonderland before. It’s just a shame that Nie Huaisang sent Xiao Xingchen away before they reached the doors.)
The Healer’s Sash, which can manipulate natural forces like the wind, the tides, and tectonic plates just as easily as it can manipulate a heartbeat or a pair of lungs. (Wen Qing–she prays to Pelor, the Dawnfather, the healer and Lord of Light, but she’s long since lost her faith in him as anything but a contracted boss. It’s a shock to everyone including her when she’s granted a right arm made of glass and magic after losing it. She was so determined to make a Relic that could be used for good, but–well. She supposes she should have known better.)
The Philosopher’s Stone, which can more or less transform anything into anything. (Jiang Yanli–she’s a Transmutation wizard, she’s been feeding the crew of the Starblaster for a hundred years on whatever she can pull together. If the right person found the Stone, it would have ended world hunger. The wrong person found the stone. Jiang Yanli tried her damnedest to hunt it down, but she found the Gauntlet first, and, well–she already became a lich to stop one younger brother from doing it. It’s not a struggle to decide that she’s going to take responsibility for saving Jiang Cheng from his own guilt. Then things go horribly wrong, and she spends the next twelve years in an umbrella.)
The Temporal Chalice, which offers complete control over time. (Wen Ning–he was a strict scholar until his sister was contacted about the IPRE’s creation, but he always did want to travel, and his theories about bonds were too good for Xiao Xingchen to pass up having on his crew. Everything he’s done since they lost their home system has been about trying not to leave his family, about trying for second chances, he became a lich for them, he’s done everything to stay with them, of course his Relic is a second chance generator.)
The Animus Flute, which offers control over the spirits of the dead and, in the hands of a sufficiently competent expert, the living. (Wei Wuxian–he’s watched his brother, his sister, his friends, die so many times. He’s terrified of immortality, but he’s most terrified of being alone. He meant to make something that could keep the dead present, so that they would never have to fear being left behind again. Watching it rip Jiang Cheng’s soul clean out of his body in Xue Yang’s hands is the worst thing Wei Wuxian can remember, even after everything is over.)
The Bulwark, which Nie Huaisang never did explain to anyone, but took the shape of a hand-painted fan. (Nie Huaisang lost the only person who mattered to him when the Hunger ate their home, and then as he slowly, painstakingly, rebuilt something like a family, he had to watch them suffer and die for a hundred years. And then he watched them win, and grieve like dying all over again for the winning. He’s sorry they suffered for his actions. He’s not sorry for what he did.)
FIVE
Wen Zhuliu didn’t mean to make his whole plane give up. But he had spent his whole life being used, and it all just seemed so pointless. It all just seemed so pointless. There was always someone stronger, always something bigger, always a rule he couldn’t break, always something, and he started talking, started telling people as much, and--
Wen Qing is about the farthest thing in the fucking world from a peacemaker by nature, if you ask her, but she’s a healer first, last, and most of all. And, she thinks as she watches the sun sink with a very tired man crumbling away at her side, she might be the only person in the worlds who ever noticed that Wen Zhuliu needed a healer.
(They aren’t from the same plane, but--some of the others have found distant family, on their new home. It’s an unanswerable question, if they might have been family, a few dimensions removed. Wen Ning still thinks about it.)
#the untamed#mdzs#mo dao zu shi#taz balance#taz au#starlight writes stuff#*sprints into the room with this au multiple months late and completely out of breath* H E R E#this has been languishing in my drafts for. mm. ever.#i don't even remotely remember enough of my original thoughts about it to provide a lot of tags#but i do have a case for why wzl is john vore (and it's NOT just that i think he's interesting)#i could've made jgy the hunger BUT the plot of taz requires some...reconciliatory ending structure?#and honestly nhs still being something of a puppet master means that i couldn't justify that with jgy#i needed a villain less close to nhs' heart. so i thought about xue yang but i like him as the wonderland lich TOO MUCH.#so instead i thought about who i should make the parlay person--first instincts were jyl and wn because they're Nice#but then i decided that i didn't actually need Nice nearly so much as i needed Invested#and by god can wen qing Invest#so okay--if she was going to do the parlay then i didn't need someone who could be talked around i needed someone who needed a healer#so: wen zhuliu#i don't have to justify myself to you fools#also jgy is always everyone's biggest bad so he can let someone else have a turn#jyl develops a crush on a completely socially awkward rogue from inside an umbrella by the way!#pour one out for jzx because he is NOT equipped for an ethereal woman of violet fire to blush at him#a queue we will keep and our honor someday avenge#thishazeleyeddemon#asked and answered
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Review x Routes
Recently I finished Collar X Malice, an otome that is...really good! And also topical, lmao. Overall I super recommend it. Otomes in general are super underappreciated as a genre and that’s so sad! Especially when you have gems like this! There’s five routes, so I’ll give some (mostly) non-spoilery thoughts now!
General Synopsis
A terrorist organization named Adonis is in the works. After several months of horrific and seemingly random murders done in the name of injustice while counting down to an apparent X-Day at the end of the year, Shinjuku has been placed under severe quarantine, with the gun ban lifted in hopes that civilians can protect themselves where the police have failed. Ichika Hoshino is a young officer in the newly instated Special Regions Crime Prevention Office, which is a glorified customer service job and mostly has Ichika answering concerned calls. During a patrol, Ichika is captured and collared by Adonis, told that if she wishes to survive, she’ll have to investigate the X-Day cases. But she can’t alert her fellow officers. Instead, she has to recruit the help of a shady detective organization, each person with their own reason for investigating...
Mineo Enomoto
A very sweet and wholesome slowburn! Mineo is a himbo with a tragic backstory that relates to the events of the X-Day incident he’s (allegedly) investigating. Very simplistic and upfront about its themes and message, so it’s on the more basic side but I find Mineo’s likeability more than makes up for it. In addition to Mineo, there’s also more focus on Kazuki, Ichika’s rebellious teen bro, who is like...baby. Baby boy. Their previously estranged relationship is the most mended here, so if the romance isn’t enough, at least come for the family fluff! The side-characters are super likeable too, especially Isshiki. That said, while the first culprit is a fun albeit shallow character, I felt second/main villain of this route was more tell than show. That said. This is objectively the best route on a revisit (after completing all the others). 9/10.
Takeru Sasazuka
Maybe you’re a masochist who wants to be talken down to instead. But you don’t want a guy that’s super macho, more...soft and cute...but still with a sharp tongue and a bitchy streak. Takeru’s the guy for you. He’s also anti-guns. What more could you ask for, really? In all seriousness, while I can be fond of these types, I did like this one more for the plot and the understated-ness of the romance. I actually think it would’ve benefitted from more...smut. I think it would’ve benefitted from having smut. Unfortunately (or fortunately???), otomes are sexless (even if they’re not chaste), so while things get suggestive, it stays rated T. Despite the fact that the game is rated M. Anyway, this is a story about revenge without being super edgy and graphic, which I appreciate. Also there’s some stuff about gaming addiction. If not for the ending super dragging, I’d actually think pretty highly of it despite not completely jibing, but yeah. The ending super drags. Still. The culprits are good. 7/10.
Kei Okazaki
He actually doesn’t go here. Kei’s part of the Special Police (which are glorified bodyguards), assigned to look after Yanagi’s “detective agency” for monitoring purposes. Thus, he actually doesn’t know Ichika’s situation, but he’s still very much interested. That can only go well. (Note: It does not.) Anyway, Kei’s my absolute favorite and I think his route is more or less perfect despite Kei’s pushiness as a romantic lead. Said romance ties really well into the plot not by any connections in the backstory but through its themes. It’s so clever! It’s also deeply emotional with some truly astounding voice-acting! So great! Also includes a heartwrenching critique against how violence against women is overlooked and downplayed by police. Definitely one of the most heartbreaking cases in the game, and the main culprit as a villain is also just incredible as not only a tragic (but terrifying) character, but also-also a foil. He’s a vast improvement from the one in Mineo’s route. 10/10!!!
Kageyuki Shiraishi
He’s only avaliable after completing any of the three routes above. Shiraishi is...rather enigmatic and aloof, being someone that Ichika actually hates at first, lmao. He’s apathetic but good at reading people, which makes him uneasy to be around. He gets better. His route is definitely the most about growth, both for him as a character and his relationship with Ichika. It’s definitely impressive and ambitious, I feel, even if I think he’d be better suited for...uh. Like. Dangan Ronpa. Or something. Maybe Ace Attorney. Lmao. That said, he’s a good route...except for the literal last minute. Which sucks. Fucking ass. Holy shit. His route could’ve been a 9/10 or even 10/10 but that ending is so bad. It’s like a 1/10 ending at best. God, poor Shiraishi. Deserved Better/10.
Aiji Yanagi
The true route! The last......and least, imo. Rip. Sorry, Yanagi! As the final route, the romance has to actively compete for focus with the plot revelations and it comes across as not only unbalanced, but underwhelming. Despite Yanagi also being objectively perfect husband material, I personally had a hard time feeling engaged with his relationship with Ichika. Also Ichika isn’t as reliant by necessity on Yanagi as she is on the others. Which *would* be good, except it makes Ichika’s strong attachment to him off the bat feel more sudden and more...forced. I also wasn’t nearly as attached to the main-main villain as I was to the many side-villains we had met until that point. But, it had some interesting elements and I liked how other characters were used and characterized. Yanagi’s relationships to the other male characters are all good. One character, who’s introduced more in Kei’s route but we only get to know here, is actually pretty charismatic and interesting. There are good elements here, but it needed more fleshing out. Rather unfortunately, this *is* the longest route, too. I feel bad. The writers must have seriously struggled. 6/10.
Overall, please play this game. I didn’t even get a chance to talk about how great Ichika herself is. Or the other female characters for that matter.
Ichika more like Ichiban...ka...
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I was doing some research for a fanfiction, and remembered this line from Reality Trip, which got my criminal justice self all excited because of the implications. So have some analysis from a rambling autistic with a criminal justice degree.
“Daniel Fenton, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A, you're under arrest.”
Y'all, this is kinda wack? It means, on some level, there has been a federal judgment within the world of Danny Phantom that not only acknowledges that ghosts exist, but has an entire fucking act describing specifically the course of action in a sense. Lots of acts will kind of be this vague overarching thing with various random acts thrown into it, but the name along with the article one, section one subsection a dealio implies that this entire act focuses on ghosts. I say act and not law btw, because those terms are not necessarily synonyms.
Not only does this confirm that there are acts (at least one anyway) in Danny Phantom that specifically talk about ghosts, but kind of really and truly cements that the Guys in White are actually a federal government agency, rather than them simply acting as one but really being a private company of sorts or being some local state government program.
And with laws about ghosts, it means that legally, the government had to define what exactly a ghost is as well as their rights and lack of rights, and that they legally acknowledge, as a nation, that ghosts exists. While, of course, we don’t really ever get to see this act, and as far as I know, it’s literally Never talked about again, this scene means that this act applies to Danny. For a quick refresher, this happens after Danny is exposed, and so this act still applies to Danny despite him being outted as a half ghost. A scary sidenote is before this scene and line of dialogue, the agents told Danny that he was coming in for questioning and experiments.
So what might it possibly say? If there are any acts that we can potentially base what this act possibly would say, I would probably guess it’d be similar to the acts used for minorities within the United States. And I say these kinds of acts because they’re specifically acts that discriminate towards a group, and that have used various reasons to justify how they are not human, citizens or have any legal rights. If the agents’ lines were correct, these acts probably gave them justification for doing inhumanly cruel things to Danny.
Of course, Danny could be arrest for something totally different and not for some anti-ghost reasons. At this point in time, he’s still kind of half-loved, half-hated publicly as people are shown to still believe that he stole during the events of Control Freaks and the mayor incident of Public Enemies, but if he was under arrest for any of those crimes, the agents would have said that. And I refuse to believe this is an oversight of the writers, because they would have found any nitpicky thing and made it a funny situation where the agents went on and on and on about this endless list of crimes that the ghost boy has committed until Danny roundhouse kicked somebody. And no, it’s likely not because the Guys in White are only interested in Ghost Crimes. As federal officials, which they are confirmed to be, they would have arrested him for everything and have to basically fistfight the other government agencies investigating his Non Ghost Crimes.
So what exactly is he under arrest for? No clue obviously, and it’s hard to really even guess. Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A for most acts are basically describing what the act’s going to be before it moves on to detail that. I think this is an oversight of the DP writers, lord knows we get enough of them, but it could also potentially highlight the Dumb factor of the Guys in White that we would see them sometimes exhibit, where instead of properly referencing the piece of legislation he’s under arrest for, they just blurt out the first section of that law.
And who wrote this act? It could be anybody, of course. Anybody within politics. It also begs the question as to exactly when this act was written and when it was put into effect. I’d wager it heavily depends on when the Guys in White came into effect, as they are clearly acting under these laws. Which begs the question: how many pieces of anti-ghost legislation are there? Who’s writing them? There’s potential that there are literally lawyers who are literally experts in ghost law. Keep in mind that in the beginning of the series, there was a lot of skepticism that ghosts even exist.
This honestly leads me to propose a new headcanon: The Guys in White are a very new government organization that spawned after the events of Public Enemies. To preface this and clarify, in order, the Guys in White appear in only five episodes: Million Dollar Ghost, Double Cross My Heart, Reality Trip, Eye for an Eye, and Livin’ Large.
Evidence to support this theory:
They only show up four episodes later in their first appearance in Million Dollar Ghost. Public Enemies seems to also be the first episode in the series that shows a massive onslaught of ghost attacks. I would guess that this is the ghostly event that probably spawned the act in question, which may have called for the organization of the Guys in White. Prior to this, ghosts were basically shown that they’re unconfirmed to exist on a public level. Even Jack, our lovable and excitable ghost hunter who’s been doing this since his college years admits in Mystery Meat that he’s never seen a ghost until that point. Jazz mentions that Harriet Chin in Bitter Reunions lost her job for writing an article about ghosts because she was laughed for writing about something that was more for “the national enquirer”, a conspiracy theory newspaper that nobody really takes seriously.
Why are they there during the events of Million Dollar Ghost anyway? If they’re a new organization, they may need that money or are cashing in on the publicity of the event to spread their name, or they’re just starting out and have no real clue where else to go. Only two of them even showed up anyway. The only other groups there are very small ghost hunting groups: literally two young adults on scooters, another set of young adults with a tiger fueled by anxiety and a van, and FentonWorks. And while they, out of all of them, clearly have the most advanced technology, they’re about on the same skill level as the other ghost hunters (getting captured and tricked and such just as easily). Danny even was just as “haha” about them as he was the other hunters who had showed up.
Their technology in Million Dollar ghost is nothing in comparison to the literal jetpacks and planes and four wheelers and armor they get several episodes later. Their funding increased when they proved ghosts exist and more ghostly events happened, and they likely proved their competence in some way. Especially when we see that they have been catching other ghosts (like Skulker in Double Cross My Heart and Lydia in Reality Trip) and gathering important information on ghostly artifacts (Reality Trip).
It would explain why they don’t really show up that often in the series, especially during major ghost events where they really should be there, such as the ghost king invasion of Reign Storm. They may have not secured the funding or manpower to really do anything just yet. Note that Reign Storm happened in between Million Dollar Ghost and Double Cross My Heart, which is almost a 20 episode gap. Their skills, knowledge, ability, technology and apparent funding jumped massively between these episodes, and it kind of stays about the same consistency for the rest of the show.
They really only seem to have one department, and they have really low employee numbers for a government agency. There’s no talk or implications or having multiple departments or anything, such as research or technology. Even during the SWAT invasion during Reality Trip, there’s only like twenty or so agents there. In Livin’ Large, there’s only about seven there, and two are the Agent K and O that we know. They play a lot of roles, from researching, questioning, gathering information, tracking down criminals, getting information from the Fenton’s lab, technology things in FentonWorks, etc. Of course, this is a staple for many law enforcement jobs where you have many tasks, but they seem to be playing the role of detective, computer analysis, and police officer at minimum given the wide variety of things we see them do. As somebody who’s worked in three situations where the company/program was very new, it’s incredibly common for a new company that’s still finding it’s groundings to have a very blurred job line. Or they’re heavily underfunded, but look at the goddamn jetpacks they get, look me in the eye and tell me they’re underfunded.
The lack of basic ghost information. In Livin’ Large, they want to destroy the Ghost Zone. It’s apparently very obvious that you Can’t Do That, but the Guys in White seem oblivious. While you can argue that they’re just fucking dumb, it may be more reasonable to assume that they simply just don’t know.
There’s no dialogue (that I can find) prior to Million Dollar Ghost to suggest they exist. There’s also no dialogue from Vlad, who would have known and been wary of such an organization had it been around for years, to suggest that they’ve been around a while. Jack, who also is open about how much he admires them, would have likely said something to. But I am willing to chalk this entire part up to simply poor writing.
“But Danny knew who the Guys in White were when they showed up in Million Dollar Ghost!” Yeah. He also knew who the other people were, and I heavily doubt that they’d be as big of a deal or name as the Official government branch. It’s very likely that they all introduced themselves when they showed up.
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Remus Lupin Fest 2020 Master List (Anon)
We're pleased to release this years Master List of fics, sorted by ship and alphabetically! There's 38 incredible works! Author and artist reveals are next week.
GEN
TITLE: First Year
SUMMARY: I hope whoever prompted this in the first place is happy with the result. I know it's super messy but I was experimenting a bit with my style!
TITLE: On Talking
SUMMARY: Five conversations Remus Lupin and Minerva McGonagall have during Prisoner of Azkaban and one they do not.
TITLE: One of Many Happy Moments
SUMMARY: Remus has only come back home from one of particularly typical days of teaching in Hogwarts, but he couldn’t refuse Teddy to read the book together
TITLE: Remus Lupin Sleeping Peacefully
SUMMARY: Prompt: Remus sleeping peacefully.
TITLE: Tousled
SUMMARY: Prompt: Remus wrapped in a sheet/duvet going to the bathroom or kitchen after having had sex with someone. Maybe someone knocks on the door and he can’t find his trousers. He’s flushed, tousled and possibly has a hickey or two.
REMUS/MISC
TITLE: A Heart Grows Warm
SUMMARY: After the war, Remus is a single father and desperate for a job. Snape hires him to work in his potions shop, but Remus can't ignore the building sexual tension between them.
TITLE: Bad Moon Rising
SUMMARY: James, Lily and Voldemort all died on Halloween night. Years later, Remus is working in the Auror Department on a confusing case of a transformed werewolf stalking a family outside of a full moon and is assigned a brilliant new Auror, Nymphadora Tonks, to work with him.
TITLE: Briseé
SUMMARY: Death eater!Remus struggles to face his past after the death of his lover and the end of his freedom.
TITLE: Care to Share?
SUMMARY: Remus had every intention of enjoying solidarity over the holidays. That may change now that he's not the only Slytherin staying behind.
TITLE: His Luck
SUMMARY: Modern setting, model/photographer AU for Remus Lupin and Narcissa Black. Written for the Remus Lupin fest 2020.
TITLE: Hold Me While You Wait
SUMMARY: Remus Lupin just needs someone to hug him.
TITLE: One Night In Barcelona
SUMMARY: The chemistry was too much to resist.
TITLE: Readjusting
SUMMARY: When Voldemort murders Frank and Alice Longbottom, their baby survives. Meanwhile, Lily moves into a flat in Muggle London. Alone. With baby Harry and the cat. Remus helps.
TITLE: The Paths We Take
SUMMARY: Lily Evans Lupin is a detective, though her husband Remus' name is on all the paperwork. He writes incredible tales while she solves mysteries. All seems normal as the Second World War ends, and Lily is hoping for peace and eventual renown for her talents legally attributed to Remus. Her and Remus' entire world comes crashing down once more as Sirius O. Black, Remus' first love, enters their agency, with one request: to find his missing brother Regulus, who joined the Nazis and hasn't come home. Can Lily find the missing Regulus? Can Remus face his heartbreak?
TITLE: You keep messing with my brain
SUMMARY: The awful truth was that when he had noticed Regulus Black he couldn’t exactly look away anymore.
WOLFSTAR
TITLE: AMOR VINCIT OMNIA (love conquers all)
SUMMARY: Remus, a servant boy to the cruel Emperor Voldemort, meets Sirius, a charming nobleman. Together they fight for freedom and love in Ancient Rome.
TITLE: An Endearing Portrait
SUMMARY: At the beginning of their seventh year at Hogwarts, Sirius fears that Remus’s mother and perhaps Remus himself, too, prefers someone else.
TITLE: Falling Into Place
SUMMARY: There's always been something special about Remus Lupin, even if it's taken Sirius Black until his seventh year to realize it. Too bad he spends so much time agonizing over his changing feelings that he loses his chance. In which Remus acts like an idiot, Marlene is the snarky voice of reason, James is a mother hen, Peter is confused, and Sirius is seriously jealous.
TITLE: Fate and Other Ambiguous Notions
SUMMARY: Truth be told, Sirius has never really paid much attention to Remus before... (Slytherin!Remus, Gryffindor!Sirius)
TITLE: Hold Me While You Wait
SUMMARY: Remus Lupin just needs someone to hug him.
TITLE: If You’ll Be Waiting
SUMMARY: Remus gets the Information that Sirius is probably still alive. He goes on a road trip to Germany with Harry to find him.
TITLE: In the Throws of You
SUMMARY: Prompt 178: Sirius has a track record for picking bad BDSM doms, but luckily Remus is always there to provide the proper aftercare he needs.
TITLE: Ivory and Gold
SUMMARY: Sirius Black is all Remus has been looking for and more. A muse, an inspiration, a theme he never wishes to let go. He’s magnetic. And Remus lets himself be pulled in.
TITLE: Let the Awful Song Be Heard, Bluebird
SUMMARY: Prompt: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. So this letter is really just a squeal of pain. – Vita Sackville West In some ways, they are still Padfoot and Moony.
TITLE: making a fool out of myself (for you)
SUMMARY: Sirius and Remus have been friends for years. However, unbeknownst to the other, both of them have a secret life working as a clown. Over the years, Remus and Sirius have competed against each other in the clown/birthday party circuit, becoming actual clown enemies of each other without knowing their true identities... until now, that is.
TITLE: Meet the Moonies
SUMMARY: Remus introduces Sirius to his parents for the first time.
TITLE: Renewal
SUMMARY: Remus and Sirius return to Remus's cabin together after the events of Harry's third school year come to a close. Remus decides that Sirius would be much better off with a haircut and some TLC.
TITLE: Sanctify My Body (With Pain)
SUMMARY: When Remus leaves for what is essentially a suicide mission, Sirius finds himself grappling with the realities of a life where he doesn't know if the love of his life is dead or alive.
Perhaps the most confusing question in these situations is: which is worse?
TITLE: Siren songs
SUMMARY: Sirius had heard of mermaids before, of course. They were all over the songs bards performed at his parents' table and the tall tales sailors traded in every port. He had never given much thought to whether or not the stories were true, though. Imagine his surprise when he and his best mates found themselves shipwrecked on an unfamiliar shore, with a breathtaking and mysterious merman for their only ally.
TITLE: Sweet Nuthin’
SUMMARY: When the summer between third and fourth year begins, Sirius expects it to be nothing but lazy days, harmless pranks with James, and the occasional meet-up with the rest of his friends from Hogwarts. Those plans go out the window rather quickly when he gets a sudden glimpse of Remus Lupin, a mysterious boy who changes everything about Sirius Black's life and shows him that love will always win in the end.
TITLE: Teddy’s Wedding
SUMMARY: Teddy's wedding brings about memories of the past and hopes for the future.
TITLE: That Iron Taste
SUMMARY: In the middle of a particularly bitter winter, a new attendee starts showing up in Father Black’s congregation. He is entirely unfamiliar and wholly arresting. In his wake there will be confusion, horror, heat, bliss, blood, and perhaps the end of reality itself.
TITLE: The Great Gay Pornstar Twitter Feud of 2020
SUMMARY: “So what I’m hearing is that you’ve got a date with your hot, clever, fellow porn-star twitter nemesis, of whom you once said ‘I’d rather die than let that pretentious knobcloud touch my dick’... is that about right?”
“... Yes.”
Or; Remus Lupin forgets to turn the fucking camera on.
TITLE: The King I Could Become
SUMMARY: Prince Sirius of Nox has one thing he cannot stand. Or rather it should be said, one person. Prince Remus of Lupos. They had never gotten along well, though their kingdoms are close allies, but a disturbance in the lands has brought them together on a quest. They'll be able to take down this threat...if they can survive each other's presence first.
TITLE: The New Sailing Master
SUMMARY: Sirius is a pirate, Remus is a fugitive, Remus manages to get a lift aboard the Blithering Idiot and it's love at first sight…
TITLE: Things We Can’t Say
SUMMARY: Prompt 18: Angst during the first war, based on being on opposite sides. Trying to convince them to join the light side maybe, or accidentally injuring each other or close friends of each other.
TITLE: Thoroughly Debauched
SUMMARY: Prompt: Remus riding Sirius in a chair
TITLE: To Admit What Is Not More Illegal
SUMMARY: On Valentine’s Day in their seventh year at Hogwarts, Sirius tries to offer what Remus needs, and starts figuring out if he's ashamed of something, and if he is, what it is.
TITLE: You Would Be Calling Me Moony
SUMMARY: A month after Sirius falls through the Veil, Remus starts seeing Sirius in his dreams. But they're only dreams...right?
#remus lupin fest 2020#Master list#remus lupin#sirius black#wolfstar#nymphadora tonks#tonks#remadora#fleur delacour#severus snape#regulus black#hp rare pair#hp fanfic#hp fanart#harry potter fan fest#narcissa malfoy#narcissa black#lily evans#lily potter
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Well, I once again had a plot bunny jump at me and here is the short result. This is a fic start I am currently writing as another Omegaverse fic. Right now it‘s basically just some loosely connected scenes and ideas but I thought I‘d share it nonetheless xD.
Laurent stared down at the report before him. A hiss escaping him that drew the attention of Lazar towards his colleague.
"This is unbelievable." The blond overviewed the police report with a frown. He was not pleased, not in the least. What the actual fuck?
Lazar leaned over his shoulder, the obnoxious nuisance he was. Laurent fought the urge to punch him in the face. "Oh! That's good. Our most beloved detective messed up his report- again." The man sounded as if Christmas and his birthday fell on the same day.
"Don't you dare find this amusing. If I hadn't caught it, it could have caused serious trouble before court.
"That's a bit exaggerated. This little mistake wouldn't be the reason for us to lose." Lazar's injection was valid, but Laurent couldn't care less for that. He had enough. He wouldn't sit still any longer. If this was how the arrogant detective wanted it, he could have it.
Laurent pushed his chair back, rolling over Lazar's foot completely by accident, obviously. He wasn't so petty as to purposely injure his working colleague.
Auguste entered the room just as Laurent stood to storm out of their conference room. "What's the matter, Lauri?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The matter is that Damianos FUCKING Vallis messed up his damn report AGAIN. I can't understand that level of incompetence. Does he want us to lose at court?" Laurent seethed while Auguste exchanged a look with Lazar.
His older brother moved to stand before the door, obviously reading Laurent's body language correctly and trying to keep him from storming out in order to hunt down the absolutely incompetent pain in the ass that was also known as Damianos Vallis.
"Laurent, calm down. It's just a minor mistake. Nothing case threatening and you saw it even before we went to court." Lazar's voice was grating on Laurent's already thin nerves. And Auguste closed his eyes for a second, as if he knew what would now inevitably happen.
Laurent whirled around, his voice ice cold when he said, "Are you kidding me, you plug-ugly knob head? This bastard thinks he is above the law just because he is the most renown detective of the city? Or is it maybe because the people adore him? I couldn't care less. For all I give a damn about he could be the bloody king, that doesn't excuse his absolute lack of competence and meticulousness."
He turned around. "And I will now go straighten him out before something serious happens."
"Laurent, don't- come on- it's just one mistake. This could happen to anyone." Auguste still blocked the door but Laurent was nothing, if not determined.
"Auguste, seriously, I don't want to argue with you, but this is not his first mistake. It's the eleventh I saw myself and I am sure there are other reports I never saw that contain similar lack of carefulness. Get out of my way and let me do my fucking job."
"Your job is being a prosecutor, Lauri. Not running after a detective who apparently has problems with his spelling." Auguste sighed and moved no inch away from the door.
Laurent stared him down. "Auguste, you are too nice. It can't be that the mistakes just started happening when I arrived here."
Lazar snorted. "You are right. It started a month after you started working here. Before Damianos never had any problems with distinguishing between were, where and we're." Auguste rolled his eyes and stood aside. "Well then, if you really think this is worth it, do what you think you have to."
#captive prince#laurent#damen#laurent of vere#damen x laurent#lamen#damen of akielos#capri#laurent x damen#short fic#idea#just random#my brain is horrible#I apologize
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My Thoughts on Gotham
My mom and I finished watching Gotham on December 29th, and this analysis has been sitting in google docs since then. Some of this is a bit incoherent, some of it I wrote as I was watching, and some of it I wrote after finishing the entire show. So here it is. 2,000 words or so of rambling about Gotham.
My thoughts on the show as a whole: Gotham changed my opinion on a lot of Batman’s villains. I used to be indifferent towards Penguin, now I love him. I used to hate Firefly, now I love her. While there were one or two decisions that I disagreed with, the portrayal of these characters was satisfying and the tone of the show as a whole was refreshing. The writing was good for the most part, however there are issues with sexism and homophobia that I personally noticed.
And now I’m going season by season cause I’m a nerd.
Season One
Season one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It seemed to me that the show writers and the younger actors were still trying to find their footing and decide what kind of world their Gotham was. Some episodes are slow, but overall it’s intriguing and I was invested after a couple of episodes.
The pilot has a lot of moving parts and it still works. They did a good job of intertwining all of these characters before starting them all on their own paths.
I can’t imagine anyone else playing these roles. I am really happy with the casting choices for this show. Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and Bruce Wayne especially.
Fish Mooney is an interesting but welcome edition! To be honest, the first time my mom and I tried to watch Gotham, we hated her. The second time around, however, I LOVED her and her role in the rise of Penguin.
Having Edward Nygma start at the GCPD was a really cool idea! I think they executed his descent into madness perfectly. I wanted Ed to prevail and to be a goodman just as much as I wanted to see the Riddler emerge.
Speaking of the GCPD, the corruption and the conflict within the precinct is very believable and compelling. It’s easy to believe that Jim Gordon is a young and optimistic detective who believes wholeheartedly in doing good. I also appreciate the fact that Jim Gordon doesn’t lose that drive for good throughout the show. I also don’t find it too cheesy, even if it’s a common trope.
The Batman universe is huge so I was expecting references and easter eggs at every turn, and I was half right. There's plenty of references and cameos but they work and they aren’t essential to the plot which helps casual fans keep up with the story.
A lot of seeds are planted during this first season, and it’s rewarding to see them pay off. I don’t feel as if the first season suffers from the thing that a lot of movies do where they are clearly trailers for the next part in the franchise.
I think my favorite episode of this season is episode 20 “Under the Knife.” The stakes are high and the story line with the Ogre is definitely unexpected and horrifying but in the best way. Also Ed kills Dougherty and it’s very satisfying.
Season Two
Rise/Wrath of the Villains!
Theo Galavan and Hugo Strange were the big bads of this season and I think they were written and acted very well.
Something I’ve noticed about some of the villains on this show and their interactions with children and Bruce in particular is that they’re... unsettling. I suppose that’s intentional and I definitely think it makes some of the villains more intimidating, but it’s really creepy. There are a lot of adults that are preying on Bruce’s innocence in this show.
Theo Galavan was not my favorite. He was intimidating for a bit, but I kinda grew bored of him. I did enjoy the nod to Azrael.
Hugo Strange! I was kinda indifferent to him when playing Arkham City but I enjoy him in this show! Loved when he showed up again in subsequent seasons and you immediately knew some Fucked Shit was happening.
So Mr. Freeze. I’m not too sure how I feel about Gotham’s take on this story. The casting is solid, but killing Nora? Not the move. Actually very angry about that to be honest. The Mr. Freeze episode could’ve been so much more compelling and emotional but instead it was a way to move Lee and Jim’s relationship forward :(
They managed to make Firefly not annoying, but I only found Firefly annoying before because of that stupid boss fight in Arkham Origins. But I liked Bridget.
Penguin and Nygma’s relationship is very fun in this season! More on them later, but at least in season two it’s very enjoyable to watch them learn to trust each other. My mom and I adored their story line.
I LOVE Nygma’s character arc in this season. His interactions with Gordon are some of my favorite bits from this season. They are very rewatchable and I find their relationship to be one of the more intriguing ones in the show.
Overall season 2 was decent. Some of the villains were forgettable, but the relationship arcs and character arcs that were compelling kept me interested.
Episode 15, Mad Grey Dawn, was one of my favorites this season. Seeing the Nygma v Gordon thing play out was so so so fun. I really loved being able to follow Nygma’s logic and feel Gordon’s frustration at being framed.
Season Three
Mad City/Heroes Rise!
There’s A LOT I have to say about season 3. I liked it. There’s a couple of big issues I have with season 3, but overall it was compelling and I enjoyed it.
While I’m not usually one for the “this character has a darkness inside of them” trope, I really didn’t mind it with Gordon. I thought it was believable and interesting enough to be engaging. bounty hunter Gordon was pretty fun, too. And hot. Anyway.
The Mad Hatter v Jim Gordon stuff is intense. Episode 6 where Gordon is forced to choose between Valerie and Lee is where the “dark side” trope lost me a little but I do like that they make a point to have Gordon always make his way back to the light. Valerie’s exit felt very rushed and sudden? I don’t know if the actress was written off for some reason, but it felt very weird.
So. Penguin and Nygma. I don’t know if I would necessarily call it queer-baiting, but it definitely doesn’t sit right with me. Here’s the thing about Gotham’s queer representation: it’s not good, but it’s not bad. There is 100% an issue with making all of your queer characters villains. And there’s a HUGE issue with having Barbara’s attraction to women only be present when she’s a) acting as an antagonist to Gordon’s work at the GCPD (Montoya in season one) or b) on the side of the antagonist and framed as crazy (Tabitha in season two). Also, notice how in season five she’s “sane” when she’s with Gordon. It’s homophobia luv.
However, in the case of Penguin and Nygma, the added layer of Penguin’s love for Nygma makes their arc a little more interesting and compelling (there’s still an issue with queer love being framed as toxic and obsessive in this show, but if I don’t stop talking about that this post will be miles long).
The Ivy thing is certainly a new plot device, but I don’t hate it. Took a bit to get used to, but older Ivy makes sense and to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of child Ivy. Not that her character was bad, but I personally found her a tad annoying.
SEASON 3 EPISODE 14. THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES. I HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THIS. Bruce’s character development in this episode made me extremely happy. I haven’t talked a lot about Jerome-Joker yet, but I really like him. Joker is one of those characters you can take a lot of liberties with and it can either really work or really suck (looking at you Jared Leto). Gotham’s version of Joker, while a bit rushed, is a good fucking Joker.
The reason why I like s3e14 so much is THIS is what the Joker vs Batman relationship is about. This is why they are perfect foils. Batman always has a reason, a method. Motivation and a cause. He believes in Gotham and he believes that EVERYONE has the capacity for good. Joker does things just for the hell of it (i.e. kidnapping Bruce). His point is anarchy and chaos. His point is that everyone has darkness and that they are “one bad day” away from giving into that darkness (subtle nods to The Killing Joke, very nice). This is illustrated SO beautifully in this episode. However, I do see an issue down the line of Joker knowing who Batman is instantly, but I digress.
The birth of Riddler! The development of Penguin and Riddler’s animosity! mwah!
Also. Bruce standing above Gotham in an early version of the suit. There’s no ears or cape but my mom and I were VERY excited. I felt so giddy.
Bruce’s vow not to kill was beautifully framed, props to the DP on that one. It felt nice to hear a live action version of Bruce Wayne say that. (Note from the future: yes he breaks it. Sorta. I’m mad about it, but I explain my feelings in depth later).
Season Four
A Dark Knight!
Alright. Season 4. To be honest, it took me a while to warm up to this one.
Scarecrow. Love his costume. Love his escape. Scarecrow is one of my favorites because he’s creepy and cool and terrifying. Well done. The episode where Jim goes after him is really brutal. He goes there alone, not even Harvey by his side, and he is forced to stare his biggest fear in the face. I loved it!
The Pax Penguina. I’m easily won over by references to old literature and history. This show has made me actually like Penguin. I used to find him annoying and didn’t understand why he was people’s favorite, but this show has proved him to be a competent and cunning villain. I love to hate him. It’s fun seeing him at the top of Gotham.
Riddler’s escape and Nygma’s return. His friendship with Lee and Grundy (Grundy!!). Ed and Lee was certainly an interesting choice. I didn’t hate it, it just seemed really odd. I enjoyed Lee’s rise to power though!
Sofia Falcone. Not really a fan tbh. Didn’t trust her from the start and it was SO satisfying to see her get shot in the head. Talk about a ruthless mastermind. To be fair, I did love to hate her in the beginning, but then she kinda got on my nerves? The actress that played her was really good though!
Captain James Gordon. Yessir. What a legend. One step closer to Commissioner. But also ouchie he had to go behind Harvey’s back. That subplot hurt so good.
Professor Pyg is. A lot. Gotham is a mature show, but it’s hard to like Pyg even as a villain. He’s unsettling and his episodes are a bit too much. I tolerated him but it just got to be gratuitous. I will say that I am relieved that they weren’t heavy handed on the cross-dressing thing. Would prefer not to see that played for a joke anymore, and this show does not need to vilify queerness more than it has.
Jerome and Jeremiah! ahhhhh!!! What wonderful interpretations of the Joker! Jerome was great, but I think I’m partial to Jeremiah. Maybe because his costume looks so much like the Joker from the animated series and Mark Hamill will always be my Joker. Either way, I LOVED their story line in season 4.
Kinda love Barbara being involved in the League. Very sexy of her. Also very sexy of her to not be dead.
Alright. Here we go. Ra’s Al Ghul and Bruce Wayne. I have mixed feelings about this. So Bruce kills. Technically he’s not Batman yet, and obviously Ra’s didn’t stay dead, but he already took the oath. I have a hard time staying with any adaptation that makes their Batman a killer, but this one wasn’t awful? And then technically Barbara uses Bruce’s hands to kill Ra’s in the finale. I’m upset that they went with a “what if Batman kills” story line in the first place, but the resolution wasn’t too terrible.
Those last three episodes of season 4. Wow. My mom and I couldn’t stop watching. The nods to The Killing Joke were cool but not too on the nose. The stakes felt high and I was so deeply invested because this story line in particular was very well crafted and planned out and it definitely shows. There’s so many loose ends at this finale, and somehow it works and you still have hope. But holy shit, those bridges coming down, the utter panic and confusion as you’re wondering “is X person okay? what happened to X?” wonderful, chefs kiss.
Season Five
Legend of the Dark Knight!
Oh gosh. I have so much I want to say, but I don’t know how to put it into words. I loved this season. I loved the post apocalyptic vibes of Gotham. Loved the rise of the villains into the people who will one day face Batman. Loved Gordon’s leadership and rise to Commissioner. There’s a few things I have issues with this season, but I’m just so in love with that finale. What a beautiful send off.
I loved how the finale was crafted, how we didn’t see the full Batman suit till the end. I did, in fact, cry when that thing was revealed. The score was beautiful. It felt so much like an episode of The Animated Series, yet so unlike any other piece of Batman media. It was so refreshing to have everything wrapped up nicely, so refreshing to have hope and satisfaction in a finale.
Overall, this version of Gotham City feels like a living, breathing thing that is lived in and flawed. It is wonderful. The set designers did wonderfully and it feels so timeless in the way that the Animated Series did as well. I think that’s part of the reason why I loved this show so much. It made me feel the same way that the Animated Series did.
I know I’ve missed a lot of details and plot lines, so if for some reason you are interested in my thoughts on a particular thing in this show, my inbox is open!!
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