#i am reasonably sure there probably are a dozen of them here already so like
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Hi, sorry to bother you, but we spoke a few months ago about Tumblr Support’s response to seizure and eyestrain inducing ads. And while it is good to report that they’ve added a feature to report those ads, I wanted to ask for some advice
I’ve messaged staff no less than ten times about this feature not working. The same ads show up on my dash, over and over again, no matter how many times I report them. I’m up to date with my software, and still I’m put in danger by being on this site, and I can only use mobile as I do not have a desktop
Should I just quit tumblr at this point? Staff really don’t seem to care. I tried my best to give them my patience, but this has been disappointing for months now, and none of it is getting solved regardless of how much people message them. Is there anything we can actually do about it? Nobody outside our sphere is taking notice
Some of this unfortunately just has to do with the way that ads are served. Reporting the ad will get that instance of an ad removed after a certain number of reports, but depending on how that ad is served, you might be seeing the same flashing visual ten times and the ad system considers it a different ad each time (think of it like ads on a bus - you are reporting the ad on bus 249, but not the ad on bus 250 even though they are showing you the same image; sometimes the flashing image will be one campaign - so all on bus 249 - and it won't get served to you again, sometimes the flashing image will be scattered in a dozen different campaigns with different names and metadata perhaps with the explicit purpose of getting past user reports because advertising is a garbage industry full of horrible shitheads). Unfortunately I'm not sure there is anything that can be done beyond reporting the individual ads in terms of getting them removed; online advertising is generally minimally supervised by humans, which is how you end up with things like starvation-bait diet ads getting blasted all over the site with a terrible history of pro-ana networks.
Since you're using tumblr exclusively on mobile, it seems like your two other options are:
Turn off autoplay which should (in theory) stop any video (including ads) from playing in the app unless you allow it. Here's how to do that on iOS and Android.
Use the app exclusively from your mobile browser with an adblock enabled (won't work for iOS, changes the user experience pretty drastically).
There's one possible other option that I am not *recommending* I am simply stating that it is an option to explore: you could look into an adblocker like AdLock that does global video blocking on a mobile OS. The reason I'm not recommending it is that these kinds of adblockers cost money and are not known for being very reliable. It is something to investigate more if you are out of all other options
It seems likely that you've already turned off the autoplay, so that's probably not useful advice. If you haven't tried using tumblr in a mobile browser with ads blocked, that might be worth giving a shot before you give up on the app as a whole.
It's a really shitty situation and I'm sorry you're dealing with it.
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ITS ME MR KRABS ANON I DID THE CLARA THING AND THE SONG
okay so imagine
Reader teaching William how to play CoD Zombies or Left 4 Dead because he wants to get closer to reader and its totally not like he felt left out or anything (he’s definitely not suffering from having no attention definitely not) . Sitting in the living room with the lights off during the night the coffee table is filled with snacks and drinks and the big screen is playing one of those choices. Reader is sitting in his lap while his arms are wrapped around reader, controller in both of their hands and the game is going. Micheal being away for the weekend and reader and William just having fun playing the console and eating snacks till the ass crack of dawn.
🦀
Mr Krabs anon although you are the newest and freshest anon I am already in love with you /p
please take this as a token of my gratitude
warnings: swearing, established relationship, age-gap relationship (reader is 20 will is pushing 40), willy in general, mushy gushy, fluff, kisses, cuddles pet names, also i made the technology more time-period accurate i hope you dont mind <333 also i didnt proofread like at all LOL
William never thought that he showed his age too much. Not around you, at the very least. He considered himself to be up-to-date on the times. But, as he watched you hook up your new gaming console to his TV, he couldn't help but be confused.
Even though you didn't seem to care, William couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. He had tried to set it up for you when you came over. You were his bunny. It was his job to take care of things for you. Even though he hadn't seen much technology like the console before, he figured it couldn't be that hard. He was a very skilled engineer and mechanic. He made dozens of highly-intelligent robots in his lifetime. One little Atari shouldn't be too hard.
Right?
Wrong.
William had struggled with the device for what seemed like hours as you watched him from the couch. You had offered several times to take over and set it up, but he refused each time. Goddamn it. He was going to figure this out. But did they have to make everything so confusing? Not even the manual was much help. William tried and tried again to no avail, his frustration growing with each failed attempt. He was probably teaching you so many new English swears you had never hard before, too. Not a very good look, William.
After his 8th failed attempt and a rather loud and obnoxiously British bloody hell, you had giggled and slid off the couch, pushing him out of the way as you took over the set-up. William felt bad that he had to make you do all the work. You were his sweet bunny, you shouldn't have to lift a finger around him. And after you went to all this trouble? To come up with a little date for the two of you? And buy all these snacks? On your dime too. Silly bunny, you should've asked William for some cash. He would've happily given it to you.
But, you were a determined person. He knew this. It was one of the many reasons he loved you.
The Atari was more of your generation, anyway.
Fine. You win this time, little one.
But don't think you're gonna get away with much else.
"Are you sure you don't need any help, love?" William asked as he watched you from the couch.
Your back was turned to him while you were hooking all the wires together, but you could hear how you snorted out one of your cute little laughs.
"No, thank you," you responded with a hint of sarcasm, glancing over your shoulder to the older man, "I'm already almost done."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"You figured it out rather quickly, hm? Good job, bunny."
William heard you giggle again as you turned the console on, picking up the scattered games from off the floor as you turned back to him, "And I thought you were the tech-expert here."
"No need to get smart with me, little one."
You shot a smile up to the brit as you pushed some of the snacks out of the way, placing the games in an array so that he could see all of them.
"You get to pick out the game, since this was my idea." You explained to him, making him smile a little down at you. Sweet bunny. Always so thoughtful.
Scanning his grey eyes over all your games, William had to admit. None of them seemed that appealing to him. Nor very familiar. William was never really a fan of video games. Perhaps he was just old-fashioned, but he thought it was better for people to get entertainment outside of their own homes, with something that was real. Or, selfishly, at one of his restaurants. But, when you called him during the week and proposed this little idea of yours, he found it hard to say no. He found it hard to say no to you in general, but he found this especially hard.
You had just talked about it so excitedly. His relationship with you was still very much a secret. The Brit only got to see you on the weekends, and that's if you weren't swamped with your college courses. He couldn't take you on real dates like he wanted to as well. He had to get creative sometimes. And this was your way of being creative about it. Your way of showing him that you appreciated all of his efforts. Aside from your love, of course. So, even though William didn't really like it, he'd put up with it.
For you.
He'd do anything to see you smile. He knew this. Besides, even if he was bored by the games, he was just happy to have you close to him. Have you to himself. Hold you. Cuddle you. Kiss you. Touch you.
You were the real treat here.
"This one seems alright." He eventually said, touching one of the games you laid out, "I heard Evan talking about it once."
"Ooo," you hummed, "That's a good one!"
William watched as you waddled on your knees back over to the console and put the game inside. Once it was shut and the opening screen flashed on the TV, you waddled back over to the couch with the controller in your hands. William leaned his back against the plush cushions and spread his thighs further apart, giving you space to sit in between them. You took the seat happily, draping your legs over one of his own and leaning your back against his chest. Instinctively, William snaked his arms around your waist and pulled you closer to him, pressing a few chaste kisses to your cheek and jaw.
What a good bunny you were. You were so cute when you cuddled with him. He loved it when you were close. If only he could keep you like this forever.
"So you've never used one of these before?" You asked, your little fingers gliding over the controller to set a game up for you and him.
"No, never." Mr. Afton responded.
"You should get some for your diner. The kids would love it."
William let out a hum, pressing another kiss to your jaw, "Children are destructive, love. That would be expensive to replace them all the time, yeah?"
"I guess," you said.
Oh, how cute you were.
#william afton x you#william afton x reader#fnaf x reader#fnaf x y/n#fnaf x you#TUMBLR POSTED THIS BEFORE I FINSIHED HOW DARE
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Rider, Saber, don't mind us, we're gonna go thank Lord Sigurd- maybe mingle with the locals- and after that, we'll be right back and we can make sure this body isn't two left feet when our feet are on the floor. Well I mean it's probably like a dozen left feet but I mean, make sure there's a matching number of right feet- Look, what I mean to say is, enjoy yourselves, yeah?
[In a private whisper to Invader] Honestly, godhood is what you make of it. Cold and distant, or kind and benevolent. A sword to judge the wicked, a shield to protect the innocent. A gentle voice to console the frightened. Godhood is any number of these things. The constant is that gods are strong, and with that strength they prove merit in what they stand for, what they exist for. If you don't know what to stand for, I might offer as suggestion: stand for kindness.
KUKULKAN: "…Hm. Maybe…"
As she thought, MUSASHI stepped up, dragging CONSTANTINE by the arm.
MUSASHI: "Enough whispering! We're dancing! All three of us! Just look for us when you're done mingling, Masters!"
CONSTANTINE: "Hold on, stop pulling! My arm! Musashi!"
Her mood instantly seeming to perk up, KUKULKAN snagged CONSTANTINE by the other arm.
KUKULKAN: "¡Baila conmigo, Rider! Don't be so shy!"
MUSASHI: "Come on, it's not every day two beautiful ladies as you to dance, Rider!"
CONSTANTINE: "Wait, 'beautiful ladies' or no, people don't just yank people onto the-- stop pulling so hard, Invader! Masters! Some help would be--!"
Before he could finish, you watched as RIDER was yanked out onto the ballroom floor, at an energy much higher than the quiet serenade allowed, giving you time to intermingle quietly with the crowd.
Choosing to head over to SIGURD, you made a wide lap around the ballroom before realizing that he wasn't mixed in with the crowd at all.
By the time you had approached, BRYNHILDR had already made herself scarce, stepping out of the ballroom for a moment. You found SIGURD on his own, off to the side. A serious man with a serious air about him, despite the lively atmosphere surrounding the event proper.
SIGURD: "More of them answered my call than I expected… Priestess Aria, Beastmaster Setanta, and even Slayer Nikitich returned from her advance on the Moon… hm."
SIGURD: "Nikitich rarely pulls back to the Solar Cell. There has to be a reason... I'll have to speak with her soon…"
He mumbled to himself, his voice low and concerned, before he focused back you, acknowledging your presence. He briefly looked up at your hat, raising an eyebrow slightly before speaking.
SIGURD: "Is everything well? Sorry for not meeting you at the door, with my luck, I've felt it's best to take a step back and let others enjoy themselves. I was planning on pulling you aside later once you had your fill of the festivities, for a proper discussion."
SIGURD: "I'm not normally one for social calls, after all. Believe me, I have my own reasons for calling you here outside of pure gratitude, though I am truly grateful."
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Donnie and Raph
The Raph and Donnie dynamic is very important for any tmnt and 2003 does it so well.
Raph is so protective of Donnie. There are probably dozens of posts that say it as well as it can be said. Just watch any episode. Nobody lays a finger on or says a word against Donnie that doesn’t have to deal with Raph.
But why is he so protective of Donnie specifically? He jumps in front of Leo and Mikey too at different times, but it’s obvious he’s especially watching out for Don. This may be partially just out of necessity. The writers kind of made Don a weaker ninja (not physically less strong, but clumsier ninjitsu), otherwise he would be way OP being the tech guy and a ninja. (He still is kind of OP.) The brothers are all pretty close in skill but if there is one who needs someone to watch his back in a fight more than the other guys, it’d be Donnie. So is that it?
I choose not so. Raph has so much confidence in Donnie, not just his smarts but specifically his fighting. Look at the H.A.T.E. episode; Raph talks him into jumping from one moving car to another. And when Donnie finishes and just says “Raph, get down,” not explaining till later that he removed the Plutonium core, Raph is expecting an entire nuclear explosion and he just lets his little bro body block him. He’s pretty chill considering. Then in the ninja tribunal arc, when Donnie is able to tap into his mystic powers, he’s shocked and ecstatic and the first thing he does is look at Raph, who isn’t shocked at all. He just gives him a nod like “see I told you. Are you as proud of yourself as I am of you yet?”
So maybe it’s that he knows they need Donnie? He is the one who gets the most excited about weapons and vehicles, he’s probably thought about the fact that Donnie is the reason they’ve had those. But that doesn’t really fit Raph. He’s not the strategist, he makes decisions based mostly on emotion.
So he is emotionally attached to Donnie in particular. Probably because Donnie is the one who most openly looks up to him. When Raph helps out Mikey or Leo in battle, their focus still stays on the battle. Sure, they’ll holler a thank you. But look at Donnie’s face every time Raph jumps in front of him or yells at him to watch his back. Look at his face. Wouldn’t he be your favorite brother, too?
I think their mutual admiration has a lot to do with their opposite strengths. Raoh is impulsive, aggressive, but proactive and reliable. Donnie is flexible and resourceful, also passive and kind of unpredictable. Donnie helps Raph stay calm in an emergency. Raph helps Donnie stay focused and grounded in reality.
They also just bond over causing chaos together. Total enablers, both of them.
I’ll get into favorite moments because there will be a lot
Raph: I hate bugs!
Donnie: From the look of things you also hate (everything Raph accidentally broke) (it were an accident) (seriously Donnie can be such a bully sometimes—)
Raph: It really pisses me off.
Donnie, with The Fondest expression: Raph, everything pisses you off.
Raph: Not everything! … Okay, everything.
Raph, about football mascots: What about something more reptilian?
Donnie: The Turtles? Sadly the lowly turtle has been saddled with the stereotype of being velocity-challenged.
Raph: … say what. (No literally Donnie he doesn’t know what you said—)
Them playing video games together, forcing Mikey to give them a turn because he hasn’t in forever. You can just imagine the lead up. “Raphie, no one is paying attention to me.” “Hey don’t worry we’re gonna play that new game you were talking about tonight.” “There’s no way, Mikey always plays. He always plays.” “Oh yeah? Oh yeah?”
Raph: Those bozos May be tough, but Donnie here learned to drive in New York City.
(He offered to drive earlier. He does not trust Don’s driving but he still gets into the car—or completely unknown vehicle—with him every time.)
Raph’s “I gotta hand it to Donnie” intro
Donnie: Raphie? We got a problem down here.
Raph, already on his way to help: You think I don’t got problems up here?
Leo, about Raph: He’s crazy!
Donnie: Yeah, nuts… hey Raph, wait up!
When Donnie yells at them for accidentally throwing a frisbee at him and instead of snapping back Raph and Leo are both like, Hey baby bro are you okay? Have you been sleeping enough? Do you wanna talk about what’s been bothering you? Leo is precious here too but that’s how he always handles things, Raph is being soft specifically for Donnie
SAINW when Raph sees Donnie again 😭
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(Re)Building the Future chapter 5
“She called me a monster,” Roxy says, backing away from the unconscious child. How can she justify being anywhere near Cassie after that?
“Roxy, I'm sure she didn't mean it,” Eclipse tries to comfort her. She doesn't seem to hear him.
“I mean, I know I can be a little competitive and maybe I'm moody sometimes but…” the wolf trails off. The thought of frightening a kid that badly hurts more than she'd like to admit.
“Sometimes?” Helpy repeats sardonically. A glare at the monitor he's hanging out on from Eclipse is all it takes to shut him up.
“Maybe she wasn't even talking to you. She could have been hallucinating. Those Moondrop candies are such powerful things and we did give her more than one serving size,” Eclipse suggests, frowning thoughtfully. Maybe giving Cassie the candies hadn't been such a good idea after all. One or two candies at nap time has never been a problem (for most kids, anyway). But they’ve given her way more than one or two. Probably more like one dozen. Or two. Suddenly, Eclipse finds himself wondering if they've given Cassie permanent brain damage on top of her damaged limbs… Oh Fizzy Faz, this poor kid!
“Honestly, I think you're both being over dramatic here,” Helpy announces with an eye roll. Okay, so maybe he’s being a bit harsh. But the constant panicking of everyone around him the past 24 hours has gotten old. Roxy looks like she’d like to strangle him (too bad), while Eclipse doesn’t look phased by his comment. Huh. Must be a theater thing…
“It’s not like this is the end of the world,” he continues.
“How would you know?” Roxy mutters, still offended. It does feel a little like the end of the world to her. All the Fazbear animatronics, herself included, are meant to bring joy to children, after all. Not strike fear into their hearts. Even if there has been the odd parent complaint in the past. Those are usually brought on by some Karen and her spoiled offspring not getting exactly what they want, when they want it, anyway. Oh, how she misses the days where the wrong flavor of birthday cake was their biggest worry. Everything has been so… broken lately…
“Easy. I see the bigger picture,” Helpy tells her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asks. Well, more like growls, but who’s keeping track of semantics?
“Roxy, Roxy, Roxy,” He says as though talking to a confused child, “think for a minute. Where did you get those horrifyingly outdated eyes from, again?”
“… oh…” Roxy brings her good hand up to her face in horror. Of course Cassie would remember the way it’s eyes looked in her first moments of consciousness. They had probably been one of the last things she’d seen before… How could she be so stupid?
“Now you’re getting it! Yeah, you should probably find some sunglasses or something,” Helpy suggests. He’s not cruel enough to suggest she remove the eyes just yet if there’s another (possibly more entertaining) solution.
“I’m sorry, can we back up for a second, please?” Eclipse interrupts, thoroughly confused by the direction this conversation has taken. “Where did Roxy get her new eyes? Am I missing something?”
“Oh, didn’t she tell you? Roxy stole em off of It during her epic battle royale earlier. No biggie!” Helpy explains casually. He’s actually pretty impressed by the way she had ripped them clean out of their sockets, truth be told.
“Roxy, did what?!”
/////
“Can’t this car go any faster?” Gregory asks, anxiously staring out the window. Usually he’s fine with the half hour drive between his new home and the Pizzaplex. Usually there’s no reason to go anywhere near it and having a bit of space from the place they almost died (multiple times!) is a good thing. Usually-
“Gregory, I’m already driving over the speed limit,” Vanessa tells him, making a sharp turn. There’s a bump as the car goes over the curb. “If I go any faster, we’ll get pulled over for sure, which will not help our situation!”
Gregory groans in disgust. Why does Vanessa have to be a responsible adult at a time like this? Cassie needs them!
“She has a point, Superstar,” Freddy observes apologetically.
Ugh. Two responsible adults are even worse than one.
“I bet if you let me drive, we could-” Gregory starts in innocently.
“There is no way I’m doing that. I’d like to live a little longer, thank you very much,” Vanessa cuts him off. The lack of faith in his driving abilities is so unfair. She has no proof that he’d get them all killed. Roxy being maimed the last time he ‘drove’ a vehicle wasn’t even really his fault (she’d had it coming)!
“Not to mention, you are far too short to legally sit in the front seat,” Freddy adds. Bold words for a bot that was built by a company with more OSHA violations than an oil spill.
“Freddy. Vanessa. Cmon, you guys… This is an emergency!” Gregory pleads. Vanessa ignores his puppy eyes, even though she can clearly see in the rear view mirror. Freddy doesn’t seem affected by it either. Can’t they hear Cassie’s screams ringing in their ears, too? Don’t they understand the gravity of the situation?
“We want to help Cassie just as much as you do,” Freddy tells him, sensing his rising fear, “but let’s save the reckless endangerment for once we’ve arrived at the Pizzaplex.”
“I’d be good with avoiding it there, too,” Vanessa mutters. What a killjoy. She slams on the brakes to avoid going through the red light up ahead, making Gregory momentarily grateful Vanessa made sure he was wearing his seatbelt before they left (for about five seconds before remembering that he’s supposed to be annoyed with her).
The light takes forever to change back to green, and by the time it does, Gregory has begun anxiously doodling with his fingers on the window. The Fazcraft logo, a cow being abducted by aliens, Freddy in a cowboy hat, a duck with a clump of grapes, a FizzyFazz soda can, a frowny face. He’ll probably be stuck cleaning the marks off the windows later, but at least it gives him something to do besides worrying. Another frowny face. And another. Okay, maybe this isn’t working so good.
“Hey, look. It'll only be a few more minutes. Just hang in there,” Vanessa says when she notices his poor attempt to distract himself.
“Thank goodness. I’m running out of things to draw,” Gregory admits. And draws another frowny face. Because that feels easier than mentioning that every second he’s stuck in this car is another second that Cassie could be laying somewhere dying. Or dead. No- bad idea. Definitely don’t think about it like that. Giving up on his window art, Gregory stares out the window at the darkening sky for the rest of the drive. He’s out of his seat before Vanessa has even parked the car.
He races over to the entrance. It’s not looking so hot. The light of the full moon illuminates boarded up windows and scaffolding. The obnoxiously bright neon lights and signs he remembers from previous visits are all gone now. Broken glass litters the ground in more than one place. If the inside looks as bad as the outside, it’s a miracle that Cassie didn’t get taken down by tetanus long before it got to her. Freddy and Vanessa come to a stop next to him, similarly taken in by the scene.
“Well, I think I know how Cassie got in,” Vanessa muses just as Gregory is about to suggest using Freddy as a battering ram (there isn’t an obvious entry point at the moment and it’s not like it would hurt Freddy). She points a flashlight towards a child sized opening in the newspapered glass on one of the upper levels of scaffolding.
“Guess we better get climbing, then,” Gregory announces, one foot already on a ladder rung.
——
Footnote: If you have never watched a 350 pound animatronic bear try to climb construction scaffolding, you should know that it is simultaneously hilarious and painful to do so.
Freddy’s efforts are valiant, but it’s safe to say that if Fazbear Entertainment ever decides to finish repairing the Pizzaplex (which, let’s face it, they won’t), they’re going to need a whole new set of ladders, platforms, and railings. Flat surfaces? Haven’t heard of them. Dents and awkward slants are totally in now. Also, that hole in the glass has always been that size… why do you ask?
Gregory and Vanessa try to hide their entertainment at Freddy’s suffering, they really do. But in the end, they can’t help but share a moment of laughter as he clatters down the final ladder and onto the floor inside the Pizzaplex. Freddy pauses to glare at the contraption before joining them, acting as though it was placed there specifically to inconvenience him.
“Take this before we go any further,” Vanessa says, handing Gregory one of the flashlights she’d packed before they left (along with a first aid kit and several other items she thought they might end up needing). She isn’t too worried about Freddy, what with him still having Roxy’s upgraded eyes, but Gregory is already a tad accident prone without blindly stumbling through a pitch black space filled with deadly objects. She’d really appreciate it if they make it through the rest of the evening (or however long they end up stuck in this hell hole) without anyone else getting hurt and/or trapped somewhere.
Gregory waves the flashlight around like a lightsaber, nearly blinding Vanessa. She briefly considers legally changing his middle name to ‘Distractible’, but decides that it’s not worth the effort. The flashlight beam bounces off an assortment of debris, construction equipment, deactivated floor bots, cleaning supplies, and several spray paint messages left behind by previous trespassers.
“Wow…” Gregory comments, looking around the ruined lobby, “they’ve really let this place go.”
“You can say that again,” Vanessa agrees.
“They have really let this place go,” Freddy repeats, taking her literally. “I am a bit disappointed that Corporate would neglect things like this.”
“It is kinda sad,” Gregory agrees. The Pizzaplex used to be so impressive (Fazbear Entertainment had clearly put a lot of time and money into the place) and now it looks like the setting for a post apocalyptic thriller. He remembers being a little in awe the first time he saw the giant golden statue in the lobby. But now, especially after everything he’s been through, the place gives him the creeps. The things that have happened here are not worthy of any awe. Probably just anger and disgust, along with a healthy dose of fear.
“So, uh, question,” he says, not wanting to dwell on his lingering trauma, “how exactly do we get,well, anywhere in this mess?” There’s a gaping hole in the floor directly in front of them. Shipping crates and safety barriers block off another hole on the left side of the lobby.
Vanessa carefully picks her way around bits of debris and caved in flooring. It’s a shame Gregory hasn’t started watching the security footage a little bit earlier so they’d have a better idea of how Cassie had navigated this mess. Deciding the areas with the biggest holes aren’t worth exploring, Vanessa wanders towards the area that used to house the final set of turnstiles before the entry pass display. Somehow, this area has significantly less damage done to it. If you ignore the headless staffbot in the distance and the spray painted warning that says ‘Danger’. How very welcoming and not foreboding in the slightest!
“The floor seems a little more stable over this way,” Vanessa calls to the others against her better judgement.
“Time for some reckless endangerment,” Gregory announces, leading the way into what’s left of one of the gift shops.
#myfics#fnaf sb ruin#roxanne wolf#Helpy#fnaf fanfic#fnaf fanfiction#five nights at Freddy’s fanfiction#fnaf security breach#fnaf vanessa#freddy fazbear#eclipse#reckless endangerment#Gregory just wants to drive
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[ TWISTED — SONG SENTENCE STARTER ]
A sentence starter with lyrics taken from all of the songs of the Starkid musical “Twisted”
Dream A Little Harder
“But today could be the day I finally make a difference.”
“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”
“Where are you off to today, you no good piece of shit?”
“You've got to dream a little harder.”
“If you're good and you're attractive, no need to be proactive.”
“Good things will just happen to you!”
“She still gets blamed for all the kingdom's problems.”
“Oh, so you think you're better than me just 'cause you can read?”
“Why is everyone in the kingdom white?”
“No man who's just could ever trust a face that triggers such disgust.”
“I can't rely on looks to get me by.”
“Why am I the only one who sees things as they are?”
I Steal Everything
“That's why I came up with this brilliant scheme.”
“Fetch, you fucks!”
“For real, I'm not that picky.”
“...No more fucking raisins.”
“Besides, the economy's shit.”
“Hey man, still beats getting a job.”
“I'll steal clothing and shelter, whatever I lack.”
“Intellectual property, whatever that means.”
“This poor little orphan will steal your heart.”
Everything and More
“But it's just like... whatever.”
“You're probably thinking, "She's got everything".”
“Long as I can be sure that I'm safe and secure at the end of the day.”
“And a few dozen servants attending to me.”
“I want to live on the moon.”
“But decisions are hard and I'm being bombarded.”
“The life of a princess is fraught with complication.”
“It's enough to make me wish I were lowly and poor… But, like, with money.”
The Golden Rule
“How is it that you are so good to everyone you meet?”
“Always treat others like sisters and brothers.”
“How would you wish that he treat you if your fortunes were reversed?”
“Follow the golden rule.”
“I get back what I give!”
“My hunger blinded me and forced me to act like an animal.”
“Simple reciprocity is always our philosophy.”
The Golden Rule (Evil Reprise)
“Well, we have our own golden rule here.”
“Whoever has the gold... makes the rules.”
“I follow the golden rule.”
“It's either them or me.”
“Damn your stupid charity.”
“Follow the gold… And rule!”
A Thousand and One Nights
“I know a thousand tales to fill a thousand nights.”
“He's brilliant as he's handsome, and handsome as he's kind.”
“I want to know your story.”
“I want to know each twist and turn.”
“When it comes to stories I thought I knew them all.”
“But fate had planned an unexpected twist.”
“And found the missing part of him he didn't know he missed.”
“She is at once a comfort and a mystery.”
“I never cared for stories until you entered mine.”
“And now my only wish is that our plots may intertwine.”
“A thousand and one nights with you is not enough to spend.”
“So let's make ours a story with no end.”
If I Believed
“If I believed in wishes…”
“I'd make our troubles disappear if I believed I could.”
“But wishes are dreams, and dreams are pretend.”
“Science says you're dead and gone forever.”
“Reason says I'm talking to the air.”
“Some secret hidden part illogically insists that you are there.”
“Perhaps it's not too late to change the course of fate.”
“I must be pretty great if you believed in me.”
Orphaned At 33
“I only hope it doesn't make you like me any less.”
“I got this tragic backstory.”
“They're dead. That makes me an orphan.”
“I long to be as strong as I used to be.”
“But hey, that's just the way life is for me.”
“Since I was orphaned at 33.”
“All things considered, I think I turned out pretty good.”
“So they'll never know the pain of being orphaned at 33.”
Happy Ending
“They'll throw a parade in my honor.”
“Not that I care for glory.”
“I can't wait to be a rich dude.”
“Stealing is so much easier when you've already got tons of gold.”
“But I got my eye on what money can't buy.”
“I'll be the one who plunders her cave of wonders.”
“It puts a damper on our love if you don't have a head.”
“I wish that you could fly away.”
“I hate to see how your loneliness and your memories hurt you.”
“We'll retire to some far-off place.”
No One Remembers Achmed
“On the battlefield and off you are superior.”
“My only claim to fame is an incident involving my posterior.”
“But no one remembers [Name].”
“Say my name in these parts and you'll get a vacant stare.”
“Then they'll remember me.”
“Caked in mud or drenched in blood you smell as fresh as a flower.”
“But here the women treat me like a throwaway joke.”
“Even deities incarnate now and then can feel a little insecure.”
“You ooze sex when you flex those impeccable pecs.”
“They can't laugh when they're all dead.”
“Nevermore will they mock you [Name].”
“He fucked a tiger.”
“[Name] is a tiger fucker!”
Take Off Your Clothes
“Don't you blink or you'll miss it.”
“So many hidden messages.”
“Subtle, yet slightly lewd.”
“I feel compelled subconsciously.”
“I'm tempted to take off my clothes with you…”
“I feel free as a bird with no cage and no owner.”
“Accept the cosmic dare.”
“And show me your magic carpet.”
Twisted
“What made me think that I could get away with such a plot?”
“How does the Golden Rule apply in such a situation?”
“'Til now I've always traveled down the straight and narrow path.”
“A fellow traveler down a twisted path.”
“There are two sides to every story.”
“I was benevolent and always kept my word.”
“So he dethroned me and disowned me and on top of that rezoned me.”
“The truth and I now share a watery grave.”
“The story lingers on but the version that is drawn is twisted.”
“The pride had never seen a more progressive king than me.”
“I brought an end to what had been a senseless age-old feud.”
“Though I'd advocate for unity, I always was denounced.”
“Fortune favors the beautiful.”
“So I did what anyone would do and I organized a rescue mission.”
“And sometimes what it wants is twisted.”
“I only wished to be invited to the party.”
“It's an unfortunate situation, but you do have a choice.”
“Only memories and stories of his deeds will linger on.”
“I'll give them all the unsung antihero they deserve.”
“Who cares if no one will ever mourn me?”
“I'll be twisted, it's my turn!”
The Power in Me
“When I am lost, where will I turn?”
“You have the power to lead.”
“It's been in you all along, the power inside.”
“The source of all my hidden value is the morale you supply.”
“The power to love one another is the greatest power of all.”
“You are kind, and that's enough.”
“You're a diamond in the rough.”
“I wish you didn't have to go when our story's just begun.”
“There are some wishes I cannot grant.”
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not so much a fic writer question from the list, but your reply to #48 got me thinking - have you read Sansukh by @Determanfidd? If yes, what did you think of it?
I have! Probably much more recently than every other person on the planet who likes Legolas and Gimli, but I finally have and I adore it.
It took me a while to get fully invested, in part because I'm not really a fan of the leaning-into-movieverse-and-then-pushing-further thing that people have a tendency to do where they really dial-up the antagonism between Legolas and Gimli, which this fic did do in the beginning so I gave it a little side-eye about that for the first few chapters (but thankfully by then I was already intrigued by the dwarves so I kept reading)...and in a much larger part because—and I realize that I'm about to speak sacrilege in the eyes of many here, yes—I simply do not care about Bilbo and Thorin as a couple. I don't! I actually filtered that tag out when I first started looking through the Legolas/Gimli tag on AO3 because of how completely disinterested I was (hence Sansûkh not even showing-up in the tag for me at first lol).
But I kept seeing references to it on tumblr and in fanart (in particular this one) so one night when I ran out of other stories that I was interested in reading I finally popped it open...and, huh, that's an interesting beginning, okay. So I read a little more. And I found myself quickly getting interested almost in spite of myself in all these dwarves whom, I must confess, I genuinely could not remember which was which in most cases (meaning their depictions in the movie; I couldn't place which name went with which dwarf; I googled a few times I'm not going to lie). So it was interesting also in a more meta-sense, because here was this author taking existing canon characterizations and details and building up a whole society upon them...but to me, they were effectively complete OCs. So it was I'm sure a very different reading experience for me than it was for most readers, because I had no context for over half the canon cast!
(The only reason I sometimes know who the movie dwarves are now when people reference them is because of this fic I am not kidding.)
Although speaking of OCs...oh my stars, the OCs in this story are amazing. I'm glad especially that I already had a Mirkwood Populace of my own conceived before I read this, because Laerophen in particular is just the best and I want to read a dozen more stories with him and it would be very difficult to be trying to come up with Mirkwood OCs now without ending up with pale imitations of Legolas's brothers here if I hadn't already had Rilaerloth and company living in my head.
(I will forever live in hope that the author will someday figure out a way to write an original novel with the general premise of that ending trio's journey to the east because that would be amazing.)
Anyway, Sansûkh very quickly went from "I suppose this is interesting" to "I am so invested in this entire universe holy crap" for me and I've actually read the whole thing through twice now. I actually even gave a crap about Bilbo and Thorin's relationship by the end! I was rooting for them so hard!
Absolutely great fic. Spectacular world building, great character work both for the canon folks and especially for the OCs. Love it, recommend it with enthusiasm...even to folks who potentially don't ship one of the main couples, or think they have no interest in most of the characters XD
Although I maintain that I do still want this fic too.
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The Shadow “Starter Kit” (Comics)
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”
If you know me well, or have been following my page for a long time, then you should know by now that I am a huge fan of the Shadow. For those who are unaware, or else need a reminder: the Shadow is a character of pulp fiction, who many consider the father of the modern superhero. He is the inspiration for many famous characters, and while his star has faded over the decades, he still persists today, lurking about in…well…the shadows. There are many reasons why the character is relatively obscure nowadays, despite the incredible popularity he had once upon a yesteryear…the primary one being that his heyday was when most people alive today were NOT alive then. Despite this, the Shadow has touched nearly every form of media there is: from the pulp magazines and the radio program that sired him, to several screen adaptations…and, most importantly, to comics.
While the Shadow was not born in the comics, it is through comics that he has survived most predominantly. The old pulp stories are hard to get nowadays; the most recent (and best) movie was from 1994, and has a spotty record; meanwhile, the radio shows…well…they’re radio shows from the 1930s and 40s. Fans of such productions are a niche group, to say the least. The comics are where many of the Shadow’s best and most accessible stories are to be found. With this in mind, I figured - since a lot of you who look at this page probably don’t know who the Shadow even IS - it would be a good idea to give you all some recommended reading. That way, if any of you WANT to learn more about this character and his world, you know which comics to start with. I like to call it…The Shadow Starter Kit!
I need to make something VERY clear: this “Starter Kit” is NOT a list of my favorite Shadow stories. Granted, all of the stories on here are AMONG my favorites, but neither the choices nor the rankings are based on personal favoritism. There are dozens upon dozens of really fantastic stories for this character (and a few that are not so good, to be fair, especially in more recent years), but a lot of them are stories that really make the most impact when you ALREADY know a lot about the Shadow. I wanted to base this short list of recommended tales on the idea that the ones looking these up will NOT be major Shadow fans. These are stories that I chose because they have some sort of importance, and which offer a solid foundation for one entering the fanbase to work off of. I also wanted to make sure they would be stories that are fairly easy to track down, either by looking them up online, or by purchasing physical copies. So, with that said, below you will find five stories that make up “The Shadow Starter Kit!”
5. The Shadow, 1941: Hitler’s Astrologer.
Of all the stories on this list, this is arguably the most “basic” of the bunch, in terms of content. That isn’t a bad thing, mind you! Still, this piece of historical dark superhero fiction doesn’t really deeply explore the Shadow as a character, nor the characters of any of his allies, nor does it offer a fresh look at one of his arch-villains. The premise is pretty simple, with the Shadow and his crew working to rescue a young lady and gain her help in defeating treacherous Nazis on the cusp of WWII. However, the story IS important for its more artistic reasons: for a start, this graphic novel is, to date, the only outing for the Shadow originally published by Marvel. (Reprints are now published by Dynamite, who are the current rights holders for the Shadow in comics.) Secondly, it was written by the late, great Denny O’Neil, whom many will likely recognize for his highly impactful work on Batman. Thirdly, the art is the work of penciler Michael Kaluta, with Russ Heath as the colorist. I don’t know much about Heath, but Kaluta is widely considered one of the absolute greatest Shadow artists and writers of all time…but, ironically, getting hold of most of his work is actually quite difficult, since much of it has never been reprinted. “Hitler’s Astrologer” is an exception, and a glorious one, at that. For people who don’t know anything about the Shadow, this is a simple action/adventure story, with a dash of history thrown into it, with a very high artistic pedigree: more than enough for me to recommend it for this starter kit.
4. “Fireworks,” from “The Shadow Strikes!”
“The Shadow Strikes!” was a relatively short-lived comic series published by DC in the late 80s and early 90s. (At the time, DC owned the rights to the Shadow character in comics.) This is one entry on the list where you’re almost certainly going to have to look up digital copies, but that shouldn’t be TOO difficult, as there are several websites where you can find it for reading, if I’m not mistaken. In my opinion, this series was the Shadow’s finest in comics, and there are too many great stories to count…but I decided to specifically recommend the three part story arc published across “The Shadow Strikes! #8 - 10.” This three-parter is entitled “Fireworks.” The primary reason I’m recommending this story is for the sake of its villain: Shiwan Khan, the Shadow’s arch-enemy. Surprisingly, despite Khan’s importance in the Shadow’s long history, most of the best stories for upstart Shadow fans to check out DON’T feature the villain. In “The Shadow Strikes!,” Khan was featured in two multi-part story arcs, and this, in my opinion, is the definitive portrayal of the character. “Fireworks” - loosely adapted from “The Golden Master,” Khan’s first appearance in the pulps - was the first story arc, and the shortest, making it the easiest for new readers to get into. The story also shows a more human side to the Shadow than some other tales, as there is a subplot with the Shadow having to help a young boy - not a situation you find the Jackal of Justice in, typically. Again, locating physical copies can be tough, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find this three-parter online, if you are interested.
3. The Shadow: Blood & Judgment.
This somewhat controversial graphic novel - originally published as a four-part miniseries - is basically the Shadow’s version of “The Dark Knight Returns.” (In fact, it was originally published by DC the same year as Frank Miller’s arguable masterwork. Much like “Hitler’s Astrologer,” it has since been reprinted by Dynamite Entertainment.) Written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin, the plot focuses on the appearance of a mysterious serial killer, who begins axing off the Shadow’s aging agents in the modern day. This is years after the Shadow has mysteriously vanished. Right on cue, the Master of Darkness returns, and while his agents have all grown old and haggard…the Shadow has not aged even a single day. The graphic novel established the Shadow as an immortal, and for the first time really dived deep to explore the intricacies and hypocrisies of the character, in a way that hadn’t really been attempted before. While this story works extremely well for long time fans of the character, it’s also worth looking at for newcomers…though perhaps not till after reading some of the other stories on this list, which is why I place it squarely in the middle.
2. Batman/The Shadow & The Shadow/Batman.
You’ve noticed that Batman and DC have come up several times already in the course of this list. That isn’t a coincidence: the Shadow has been the inspiration for many superheroes, as well as fellow pulp-style characters…but perhaps none so impactful as Batman. In fact, the very first Batman comic ever written was based directly on a Shadow magazine story! These twin crossovers - the first published by DC, the second published by Dynamite - are not the first time the two characters met, but they are, by far, the best and most interesting. The first story, simply titled “Batman/The Shadow” (the TPB is given the subtitle “The Murder Geniuses”), takes a lot of inspiration from “Blood & Judgment,” as it focuses on an immortal Shadow popping up in the modern day, while his agents have all become old and gray. This is started when a descendant of one of his Agents is murdered by a mysterious serial killer: a seemingly equally immortal villain known as The Stag. The Shadow and Batman are forced to reluctantly join forces when the Stag teams-up with the Joker to spread death and destruction across Gotham. The sequel, “The Shadow/Batman” (wow, the guys who came up with these titles need a raise), sees the Shadow captured by his arch-enemy, Shiwan Khan, who has also somehow managed to survive well into the modern day, and has joined forces with Ra’s Al Ghul. While the Shadow tries to uncover a way to escape the villains, Batman & Robin work to figure out their plan and help the Shadow out. Both stories are excellent, and pay great homage not only to the history these two characters share, but to their respective virtues and flaws, exploring new sides of each and creating not only a great Shadow story, but also a magnificent pair of Batman stories! For mainstream audiences who know much about the Dark Knight, but less about the Knight of Darkness (yes, that is one of the Shadow’s nicknames, no joke), this is a good way to at least start learning something of the character.
1. The Shadow: Year One.
To quote Shadow aficionado and YouTuber, Razorfist, “If you wanna know who the [bleep] the Shadow is, and why the [bleep] he be Shadowin’, ‘Year One’ is your [bleep]ing Bible.” This ten-part miniseries, later collected into TPB graphic novel, was one of Dynamite’s first forays into the Shadow’s dark world. It serves as an origin story for the Shadow, as well as his most famous and trusted agent, Margo Lane. It also features his confrontation with his first proper supervillain, the demented Dr. Zorn, a.k.a. “The White Tiger.” The Shadow’s origins, like those of many great characters, have been retooled and reconfigured over the years. In my opinion, “Year One” provides the finest take on the origin story ever created, taking everything that was good from earlier versions and crystalizing it into a magnificent construction, while at the same time finding a way to keep the mystery of the Shadow eternally fixed. It is a gritty, brutal, exciting story that pulls no punches, easily one of the darkest Shadow comics ever printed, but still has smatterings of humor, as well as tons of exciting action. The characters are expertly portrayed, their relationships brilliantly handled, and the art - with a style that seems deliberately similar to that of “Batman: The Animated Series” and its own spinoff comics - is simple yet sublime. In my opinion, this may be the Shadow’s single finest hour in all of comics history, and it is a positive must-read for new Shadow fans who want to understand why this character is who he is, and what makes him so darkly fascinating. For people who are new to the character, there are very few places better to start than “The Shadow: Year One.”
And there you have it, everybody! Hopefully at least a few of you will look up at least a couple of these stories. Just remember: “The Weed of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit. Crime does not pay! THE SHADOW KNOWS!”
#the shadow#comics#dc#dynamite#marvel#dynamite entertainment#list#countdown#top 5#lamont cranston#the shadow knows#batman
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Hey guys,
I want to clarify some things in case I haven’t been clear enough about them before. Lately I have gotten masses on asks that are just plain weird and it’s making me uncomfortable and I am pretty fed up, so also sorry for the rant. But like I said countless times already, most people don’t really check for this anyway, I still think it should be said and are gonna include it in my FAQ.
1. I don’t want to roleplay with you. No matter how nice, experienced, careful you are, I have no interest in RPing, I never did it and never will do it probably. I don’t consent to being roleplayed at and it’s not okay to send me messages in yandere RP talking about how you’ll kill people that wrong me or adore me so much you want to kill my family and keep me to yourself. I am not sure where someone would get the idea from to think that’s okay to send to anyone, but if you don’t have the social maturity to know that you can’t just say that to someone, I pity you. I only write yandere. I don’t want to live in those fantasies and I especially don’t want people harrassing me to engage in their roleplay. Especially not without warning. No means no, also through messenger or on any other blog of mine, and I will not reconsider no matter how many asks I am being sent. Go to a proper roleplaying blog and interact with them.
2. If you are a minor and think you absolutely have to be on my blog, then don’t interact with me. I don’t allow you on my blog, so if you think this is where your internet rebellion needs to happen then leave me out of it. I am not responsible for you or your internet use and I don’t want to interact with, and I say that with all due respect, people who don’t match my age. I turn 25 soon, I have no reasons and no intentions to talk to teenagers. I will block you if I find out, but I don’t have the time and energy to go through every follower to check. It’s simply not that important to me to play parental supervision for kids that do what they want anyway and haven’t matured enough to understand they are not welcome. If you have to be on my blog, at least be quiet and don’t interact with me via asks and comments.
3. Stop telling me what to with my blog unless I ask for help. It has occured more than a couple dozen times now that people think they should tell me I should censor words because they don’t like them, cut my stories at points they think would make better endings, or change my layout? If I didn’t ask, who does anyone think they are to tell me what to do? I already relent so much whenever someone tells me to tag literally anything as if this is Ao3 and you don’t have an ask/warnings on top you should have read first. I even relent when people tell me to put a read more for barely 1k words, even though they don’t know how much that stops the post from being seen and acknowledged (no shit, read more’s actually kill engagement). And yes, there are the well-meant messages who alert me to problems with links or the like and I am glad to fix these, but otherwise, who asked? If someone is so unhappy with my posts then leave, I am not keeping you locked here. Same goes for my masterpost. I know it’s outdated. It haunts me every day, I hate it so much. Never wanted to do it, so leave me alone until I have time and peace to go through posts and add links to it. Use the search functions/tags, please be a bit more respectful to me and my time and do some work for yourself. It’s not my job to hand out everything on a silver platter.
4. I don’t do requests that obviously are OCs or compliant darlings. Seriously, why do we still have to go over this? Pay me when my commissions are open, or leave me alone. I just don’t like it. The internet is free, my time and sanity isn’t. I won’t create your OC for you just because you make your reader super detailed and ask me how reactions would be to them/from them. I don’t know how your OC would react, seems like a job for you to figure it out. And for the compliant darling, I understand that it can be a fine line between the two, but no matter if romantically, platonically, etc. If your darling is absolutely fine with all the yandere behavior then send the request to someone else. I don’t care for it. I’ll just trash it upon receiving. Maybe on that note, please don’t send me requests that aren’t yandere either. Don’t make me tap my username to remind you it’s a yandere blog. It’s not supposed to be wholesome and cushy and cute unless you feel a hint of dread and murderous intent.
And like always, don’t send requests twice, ask me for updates, tell me your negative opinion on my choices, ask for part 2′s and add unnecessary smut to your requests. I know not everyone has my sickness of overthinking things 7 times before sending them to someone, but? Treat me like a human and not your personal writing AI? Thanks.
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Never Let Me Go
Well, that was certainly a show! This one lost me along the way, but there were definitely things I liked. The first half of the show, before the beach getaway, was compelling if not perfect. I was interested in the characters and I thought the set up of the relationship dynamics was promising. The early love square between the four main characters had a lot of potential. Nueng and Palm had decent chemistry and I thought they performed their kisses pretty well. I was intrigued by Chopper’s character and his family dilemma. And there was some very nice cinematography, including the final beach sequence in the last episode. That was gorgeous.
That said, I feel like built in goodwill for these actors must have carried the fandom because most of that early promise was squandered and so much about this show just didn’t work. I also just realized that this was written and directed by JoJo, who also created The Warp Effect, one of my recent favs, and I am sitting with that because what a contrast not just in tone and themes but in assuredness of storytelling.
I probably have half a dozen different rants in me about where this show went wrong, but I’m sure no one wants to read that and I’m really just talking to myself here so I’ll keep it brief (hateration below the cut, enter at your own risk!):
Nueng is among the worst romance leads I have encountered in bl and nothing that happened over the course of the show moved my poor opinion of him. He was selfish and cowardly and thoughtless for most of the story and none of the facile attempts in the back half to demonstrate that he had matured worked for me at all. Putting him in a suit doesn’t make him a man and making the actor cry a lot doesn’t make me forget how awful he was to Palm.
Which brings me to the next major issue: Palm’s loyalty to Nueng despite all this had no meaningful basis. They barely knew each other, Nueng was mostly awful to him until they got to the beach and then again after they left it, and Palm had a whole life before he was forced to be his servant that we never really learned anything about. We never got any sense of who Palm was or why he loved Nueng. Maybe Nueng was the first boy who ever liked him? Maybe Palm was lonely and isolated and yearning and so he latched on to Nueng like a baby duck? I wouldn’t know because the show didn’t bother to tell me. At no point did Palm react like an actual human being to any of the awful things Nueng did. This kid treated him like shit, let him take his beatings and punishments, got his mom killed, drugged and abandoned him - and Palm just serenely smiled through it all (and got his name permanently tattooed on his body!!). One thing I’ll say for KinnPorsche is it actually showed the journey from Porsche resisting to accepting his role and gave me a reason to believe he would develop feelings for Kinn despite their rocky start. That didn’t happen here, they were just suddenly in love because the script demanded it.
The beach trip was a huge narrative misstep that sucked all the tension out of the show and basically torpedoed the plot. Yes, a lot of the scenes were cute, but they were not supposed to be on a lover’s getaway! Nueng was literally on the run from an assassin that already got both his parents, he’s supposed to to think his beloved mother is on her deathbed, he’s supposed to be terrified. Instead we got him relaxing at a beach resort, frolicking with Palm, declaring himself the happiest he’s ever been, and then blithely giving away their location without a thought so he could play hero only to lead the assassin right to them and get Palm’s mom killed anyway. Those episodes should have been more of a tense action thriller segment (and there still could have been romance built into that, and probably a more compelling one). The choice to make them a typical lighthearted bl beach trip was baffling.
If the romance worked better I might have overlooked that the plot is absurd on its face and falls apart at the gentlest prodding. I laughed out loud when Nueng just suddenly went back home and hired real bodyguards, which showed how thin the plot pretext had been all along. And now he’s a high school student/conglomerate CEO? Sure.
Why was this even set in high school to begin with? It would have made A LOT more sense with adult characters and then maybe they could have kept the tone more consistent. As it was it kept swinging wildly between being an adult mafia-adjacent drama and a teen romance and it never found a way to reconcile those two lanes.
Perth was easily the best actor in this cast but so underutilized while the mains were fundamentally miscast IMO. This show did not play to their strengths. There were a couple scenes where I actually cringed in sympathy at their attempts to perform the dramatic script. Please give them a slapstick comedy instead GMMTV (they would do well in a show like The Warp Effect!).
I’m just being petty now but what was UP with the music supervision on this show. Why did they play a random country song over their bed scene? And then Monsoons which has already been used in another bl drama and has such an opposite sonic vibe?? The music choices were often distracting instead of enhancing the story.
#n*ver let me go#thai bl#whoops i ranted anyway#don’t come for me if you like this show i respect you and your choices#i hope to see perth in other shows he was very good here despite limited screen time#shan shouts into the void
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OwlCrate Unboxed (01/24)
I just got my first @owlcrate box, and honestly, I wasn't really sure what to expect, or if this was really worth it-- I rarely spend more than $10 on a book, so the full charge of just one of these boxes (including shipping) definitely had me thinking twice. And what if, after all that, I didn't even like the book?
But one of the reasons I was willing to take a risk on this one was because the theme was clearly tailor-made for me specifically.
"Enchated to Meet You"? Regency-esque romance with magic and royalty? That soft, vintage aesthetic that I adore? Yes, please.
And I was not disappointed. While I still haven't read the book, so I can't say if I'll like it or not, what I can tell you is that before I even got particularly deep into the box, I already knew that the price I'd paid was more than worth it even without the book.
(To avoid spoilers, product images and reviews beneath the cut.)
First up, this canvas tote bag:
The design is based on a book called Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber. (It's on my to-read list, I'm just waiting for my hold to come in!) It's got a sweet, elfish woodland vibe going on-- I half-expect to see a tiny winged fairy peeking out from behind one of those toadstools.
This bag is also has great functionality. I am always in need of a sturdy cloth bag to carry my books, and I am positive this is one I'll be getting a lot of use out of. The material is thick and durable, and it's wide and deep enough to easily hold at least half a dozen books without any stress. An all-around cute and useful item!
Next up, a reusable cleaning cloth:
The design is based on a book called Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. (I'd never heard of this book before, but it looks intriguing, so I suppose I'll add it to the list.) It's kind of generic, but I do like the colors. And it does look like the kind of thing that would be perfect for dusting my desk and bookshelves.
It's probably my least favorite item in the box, but I don't hate it.
Moving on to the metal bookmark:
The design is inspired by Emily Wilde's Encylopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. (I just read it a few weeks ago, and the sequel is currently sitting on top of my dresser waithing for me to read it.) It's supposed to be Shadow, the dog belonging to the stories main character.
However, my first thought upon seeing a large black dog in a forest, standing on a pile of skulls, was of Ruth from The Ancient Magus' Bride-- who just-so-happens to be one of my favorite characters ever. I hope no one minds if I continue to see it that way. (No hate to Shadow-- he's a good boy!)
It's a very whimsical design and I like it a lot!
And now the coloring kit:
I definitely wasn't expecting this from a subscription book box, but I am absolutely not complaining. (I've been thinking I wanted to sit down with some colored pencils and coloring pages one of these days.) The quote on the left is from Pride & Prejudice (my beloved), the top-most is from Bridgerton (read the books and liked them well enough but have zero interest in watching the show), and the one on the right is from Outlander (I think that's a show based on some books, maybe I'll look into it one of these days).
The quotes are lovely, I like the simple yet elegant floral designs, and I love the soft pastel color palette (and will absolutely be holding onto those pencils).
The last item (aside from the book) is the enamel pin:
The characters shown here are Sophie and Howl (+ Calcifer!) from Howl's Moving Castle (the book, not the movie, though I love them both!). I love enamel pins and happen to have a decent-sized collection, but I don't think I've ever seen a sliding design like this. This design is absolutely enchanting, and I'm looking forward to seeing more from this pin collection in future boxes.
I included the envelope it came in because I think it's really cute, and it gives me some serious Violet Evergarden vibes. (The design on the backer card is also pretty! It's really evident that a lot of thought and care was put into every aspect of every item in this box.)
And, of course, there's the book:
This is A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft. I'm not going to take pictures of every single customization in this one, but suffice it to say that it looks really pretty and I'm hoping the story inside lives up to everything else in here.
All in all, I'm really happy with this box, and glad that I got it.
#owlcrate#enchanted to meet you#thoughts#product review#subscription box#i think i'm going to skip february's box because i just don't vibe with the 'treacherous love' aesthetic#but i'll do another review of whatever my next one is if y'all want#all queued up
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I haven't posted anything here in well over a hot minute, but putting short unfinished/outdated work here feels easier than putting in on ao3 like its 'official' so. Just tossing old things out to share, but many of them i am NOT still working on so only the start of something or an idea.
This is a BNHA/Danny Phantom crossover ft Pariah for Reasons. i started it impulsively. if i continue on this I'd probably rewrite almost this whole thing.
~10K words, vague discussion or mention of death/possible abuse of a minor (danny's home life, standard Fenton's are Not Great Parents), medical trauma, ect. Everyone except Danny might be a bit OOC, especially the BNHA cast in this. Pariah just had secret character development/backstory.
Danny’s luck had to be the worst in the world. Or, in… both worlds?
If this wasn’t some other-world, he had a lot of questions for Clockwork. Because he was also definitely not anywhere in even the first two decades of the 2000’s. The Japanese news here (that he could somehow understand?) said it was 2148. Currently, he was hiding in a half-built building in a seedy part of what he’d found out was probably Tokyo. That’s what he heard people calling it, and it looked close enough to pictures Dani had sent him, but… well, he was pretty sure his Tokyo wasn’t filled with mutants and superheroes.
When Danny had seen them all, he’d almost stopped hiding. Not immediately, he was having whiplash too hard, but he thought about it. Nobody really blinked when people looked weird or did weird things, or at least not when the heroes did it. And they were real heroes, and the people liked them. They cheered!
Well, they cheered for the heroes. When Danny tried to help, they seemed more confused. The crowds didn’t know his name, but they did shout encouragement. At least up until the heroes tried to bring him down.
Which was, like, totally stupid! Danny had helped them take down a villain way faster than they could have without his powers. But apparently a ‘kid’, or anyone for that matter, shouldn’t use their ‘quirk’ without a license.
Local ghost menace in one world, common illegal vigilante in another. He just couldn’t get a break.
Danny huffed thinking about it, slurping on his cup of noodles he’d taken from a convenience store. He felt bad about it, but he’d learned enough about capitalism from Sam’s latest social-justice binge to know how to minimize the damage he’d do to anyone actually vulnerable. No mom-and-pop stores, only chains; don’t get caught (obvious); take mass stocked items, and take as little as possible from one place. One missed soup can was a miscount or a minor problem. Five cans and half a dozen other necessities was too obvious.
Speaking of obvious. He had to get moving again. Danny groaned as he stood up, feeling the lack of a good bed in his back. He’d been here almost two weeks already, and he couldn’t find a way back. Didn’t help that they had some scarf ninja guy trying to catch him, apparently.
Danny had passed by the guy a couple times and managed not to get caught. Apparently the guy can turn off quirks by looking at people. Distractions in the form of villains and civilians had let Danny skate by, but he had to be careful. ‘Eraserhead’, as stupid as his name was, was not a joke. Danny had just gotten lucky not to be spotted while invisible- either that, or Eraser’s power didn’t work if he didn’t actually see Danny. Hopefully it was the latter. He had a feeling it was not. His luck wouldn’t last much longer.
He shoved his small amount of supplies in his bag- all stolen or paid for with previously stolen money(Taken from caught pickpockets). Blanket, some food, different clothes, and lots of hats and masks. His ghost form was not quite a good enough disguise here. The people hunting him in Tokyo actually had brain cells, apparently.
He had to move spots in the middle of the night. The last time he hadn’t, someone had almost walked in on his sleeping spot. Danny wasn’t sure if it was Eraser, but…
At least Tokyo was big. Giant, really, compared to tiny little Amity. There were all these different districts- prefectures- but he had no idea what was where yet. Being able to read Japanese somehow did not make the map any less confusing.
Danny tried to pick out the landmarks yet again as he reached altitude. Shrines, certain towers, lights, residential areas- it was still a mess in his head. Getting dumped here by a random portal didn’t help. The panic of that day made it hard to remember where it was, and running from heroes probably took him far from where he started. The place it appeared probably would be the best place to-
Several hundred feet above the city, his ghost sense went off. Danny froze in the air.
There was a ghost nearby.
The usual adrenaline spike was mixed with an intense flood of relief. It’d been a while since he was excited to be interrupted by a ghost. Maybe it was Clockwork to get him, or a portal on its own or- hell, he’d be happy to see Skulker at this point. He’d be happy to see Vlad. That thought almost made him pause, but he was getting kinda tired of being on the run all alone. Anyone would be better than no one.
His ghost sense brought him to an open field behind what looked like giant gymnasiums. In the dead of night, the glow of ectoplasm and an aura was like signal lights. There were already two dummies smoking by the time Danny got close enough to realize… he did recognize the ghost. In the worst way possible. He suddenly wished it had been Vlad.
Danny floated down behind the ghost, then dropped his invisibility at the same time he filled his hands with ectoplasm. “What are you doing here?”
The man in front of him turned around. He looked a little different than Danny remembered- his previously wild hair was tamed into a loose (still large) braid, he was wearing less medieval armor and more… workout clothes? A tank-top and fucking sweatpants. The realization actually made Danny’s brain buffer for a second trying to reconcile the idea of the tyrant Ghost King in sweatpants.
Pariah Dark stared at him almost as much as Danny stared back. “...you…” He said slowly with a frown. “You’re… the boy that bested me.”
“Danny Phantom,” Danny snapped, going back on the defensive.
“Phantom. Right, sorry I didn’t learn your name in the middle of trying to kill each other.” Pariah didn’t seem all that phased. He kept an eye on Danny as he walked over to a nearby table with a bottle and towels.
Danny followed at a distance. “Answer the question. What the hell are you doing here?! You’re supposed to still be in the sarcophagus!”
“Hm. You must not keep very good tabs on your enemies,” Pariah muttered, before taking a drink from the bottle. He glanced at Danny. “I don’t know how long it has been for you, but I have been here a few years.”
“What?” Danny said.
“So, really, I should be the one asking what you are doing here,” Pariah said, crossing his arms as he faced Danny. “In closed school grounds. Only students and faculty are allowed.”
Danny frowned at him. “Aren’t you a little old to be a student?”
“... you better be joking, child.”
Danny huffed and shook his head, raising his fists again. “Whatever! Were you the one that dragged me here?! Or- or you must know how to get back! You must have been looking-”
“Why would I go looking to return to a place where I am the most hated being in the realms?” Pariah said suddenly. “I have found a place here. There’s… there’s no reason for me to go back.” There was an undercurrent of something to his words, but Danny couldn’t care less.
“You have to!” Danny yelled, throwing his arms down like a spoiled child. “I can’t be stuck here! It’s been two weeks, and I haven’t been able to sleep in an actual bed. I’m a hero, and people like heroes here, but somehow I’m illegal? Still?! I’ve got some guy named after a fucking pencil pun chasing me, I’m exhausted, I haven’t had a decent meal in forever, and I have to go home!”
Pariah sighed, dropping his arms. “I can’t help you return, child, but-”
Danny growled and shot a blast that Pariah easily blocked with a shield. “Shut up! You- you did something, you have to have. Random portals don’t just toss me to other worlds, and if this was just the future, Clockwork would have left me something-” Pariah’s eyes went wide, but Danny didn’t care. “So- so you have to be involved!”
Danny approached, tears in his eyes now- god, was he really that desperate? He hadn’t talked to anyone seriously since coming here, and now it felt like it wouldn’t stop. “You tried to take over the Zone, you tried to kill me, you- you have to do something about this, or- or-”
Danny took a breath to bite back a sob, and suddenly the tightness in his chest wasn’t tears. He turned human and dropped to the ground. He blacked out before his head hit the ground.
“...Excellent timing as always, Eraser.”
Aizawa hurried out of the treeline, hair floating down as he stopped using Erasure. “What just happened? I only tried to erase his quirk-”
“Well, he’s a half ghost.” Pariah knelt at the boy’s side. “So you only maybe half-killed him.”
“...what.”
When Danny woke up, there was a worrying noise to his side. A regular, very slow beeping. It suddenly got faster as Danny shot up in the hospital bed.
The room was small and white and clean and there was a IV in his arm that he tried to phase out- It didn’t. His arm didn’t go intangible. Now that he looked, he was handcuffed to the bed, too. Why couldn’t he- he couldn’t use his powers, he was caught, no, nonono-
A large hand grabbed his as Danny reached for the IV. “Don’t be stupid, boy. That is there to help you.”
Danny jerked away from Pariah and looked over at the ghost sitting beside him. He wasn’t quite as large as Danny remembered, here- maybe that had just been his memory. He wasn’t wearing sweats, but now had on a more fitting tunic-looking shirt.
“Where am I?” Danny asked immediately. “What did you do to me? Why can’t I use my powers?” He tried to push himself up, but Pariah put a hand on his shoulder and easily made him lie back down.
“Oh, lie down, child. Didn’t you tell me last we spoke how exhausted you are?” He sighed, and it was disconcerting how calm he realized Pariah was. “If you hurt yourself in bed, Recovery Girl will only make you stay here longer.”
“R-Recovery girl…?”
“Ah, he’s awake!” Danny jumped at the new voice. A small old woman with a weird pink visor walked up to his bedside. “You were supposed to come get me when he woke up.”
“It was only moments ago,” Pariah said. “I had to keep him from ripping out the IV first.”
Danny had to guess this was Recovery Girl, although the name didn’t quite fit. She tsked and frowned at Danny now, and pointed at him. “Don’t you go doing that now! When you were brought in, you were badly dehydrated and malnourished! That IV there is your quickest way to get cleared by me to get out of that bed, do you understand?”
“I-I-” Danny stuttered, core fluttering in anxiety. “You- you’re not- you’re not going to take blood or-” He swallowed. “E-experiment?”
Both Recovery Girl and Pariah gave him worried looks. “Why on Earth do you think we’d do something like that?” Recovery Girl said. “I might have to do blood work if you were sick, but you’ve just neglected to take care of yourself recently. Just rest, and eat all the food you’re given, and I think you should be fine in a day or two.” Danny let out a breath he’d been holding, and the heart machine started to slow. She huffed and glanced at the handcuffs. “I can’t say what Eraser’s conditions are, but Pariah at least has put in a good word.”
“He…?” Danny looked at Pariah. “Then that- when I passed out, you didn’t-?”
“That wasn’t me, child,” Pariah said simply. “Eraser must have followed you here, since he is a teacher, and found us while we spoke. I don’t think any of us expected how his power would affect you.”
Danny felt his blood slow. “Does that… not happen to everyone?” The adults shook their heads. “Oh. I- am I…” He pulled at the handcuff. “U-under arrest…?”
“You should be.”
Another new face stood at the door. His long black hair and scarf hid most of his face, except his intense eyes glaring at him. Danny had only really seen him in passing, but he recognized the scarf. Eraserhead.
Danny shrunk back into the bed, accidentally making the chain clink as he tried to pull his hands over his chest.
“You already half-killed the boy, no need to scare him,” Pariah said. He almost sounded like he was being… sarcastic?
The glare turned on Pariah. “You’re the one who keeps saying that- He’s fine. He’s awake, isn’t he?” Eraser stepped up to the end of the bed and crossed his arms. “So. Danny Phantom. You’re the vigilante that’s been giving me the run around the past two weeks.” Something in his glare changed. “Are you really just a child?”
That was enough to have Danny glare back just a bit. “I’m not a child, I’m, like, almost sixteen!”
Pariah huffed and leaned back in his chair. “Really? Hm. How old were you when we fought?”
Danny scowled at him, not holding back. “...Fourteen. You got your ass kicked by a fourteen-year-old, so shut up.”
Pariah just rolled his eyes.
“Why did you fight a fourteen-year-old?” Eraser muttered.
“I think we’ve talked about this before,” Pariah said. “I can explain more later.”
“Great,” Danny muttered. “So. What’s happening now?” His anger died, just a little, as he looked at Eraser. “Am- Am I? Under arrest, I mean.”
“Like I said, you should be.” Eraser frowned, and Danny flinched with each following accusation. “Using your quirk without a license is highly illegal, especially using them to be an untrained vigilante. You could have gotten yourself or others hurt interfering with hero work. Not to mention, I know you’ve been stealing or breaking into various places for supplies and shelter. Maybe you didn’t hurt anyone, but that is still no excuse.”
Pariah cleared his throat. “But.”
“...But.” Eraser sighed heavily and dropped his arms. “Pariah has told me you come from the same place as him. Meaning you have nowhere to go, no support system, and you’re apparently missing the same… special nutrient requirements. You’re also an unaccompanied minor with no idea of the laws surrounding quirks. Given that…” He gave Danny a calculating look. “If you agree not to break the law anymore… you won’t be punished. My contacts with the police have agreed to absolve your crimes as long as you have a responsible guardian. We have some options for you while you are here.”
Danny didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath again, and let it out in one go. “Oh. O- yeah, okay. I can do that. I… didn’t really want to steal or anything. So that- yeah, that works.” he paused. “Uh… ‘we’?”
Eraser nodded at Pariah. “The principal of the school, the police chief, Pariah, and I.”
“Why is Pariah involved?” Danny muttered, shooting the man a glare.
“I told you I work here, boy,” Pariah said. “I am also the only being here even remotely similar to you, and we come from the same world. And I’m not a child. Of course I would be consulted.”
Danny scowled. “But- but you’re-” He looked at Eraser and pointed at Pariah. “Do you even know what he did where I’m from? He’s tried to kill a bunch of people! And take over the- the world! And-”
“Just because we fought once does not mean you know my whole story, Phantom,” Pariah interrupted.
Eraser glanced between them. “I have heard of some of Pariah’s past, yes. But we have come to some agreements. As far as I’ve known him, he has not been as monstrous as you see him. Not perfect, but not awful. I believe in giving people a chance to speak with their actions, and Pariah’s actions have proven trustworthy, so far.”
“‘So far’,” Danny muttered, glaring.
Pariah stood up. “Perhaps we should give him some time. I can understand why you’d hate me as you do, and you were fairly distraught the other night. The main fact for now is that nobody is going to hurt you, but you need rest.”
“If you try to leave, don’t,” Eraser said darkly. “You won’t get far.”
Danny frowned. “What, cuz you’ll be around?”
“Well, yes. But you should probably be more scared of what will happen if Recovery Girl finds you trying to get out of bed rest.”
“...uh.” Danny glanced over to the office door where Recovery Girl had disappeared. “...Okay?”
Pariah gave a small laugh, and once again Danny’s brain short-circuited. “I have no doubt he will learn. If nothing else, you are stubborn.” He nodded to Danny before heading out.
“I’ll be checking in,” Eraser said. “When you feel a little better, we’ll probably have a meeting with everyone about your options moving forward.”
“Okay. Um, thanks… E-Eraserhead?” God, that felt stupid to say out loud. “That’s your name, right?”
Eraser nodded once. “It is. Some teachers and other heroes call me Eraser. In school, though, students call me Aizawa-sensei.” He turned to leave. “There’s a good chance you’re going to be going to school here, too, until we find you a way home. So you can call me that.”
“Uh, okay, Aizawa-sensei,” Danny said hesitantly. He knew like half a thing about Japanese from Sam trying to show them anime. Didn’t ‘sensei’ mean teacher or something?
Wait.
“Wait- you’re making me go to school?!”
But Aizawa was already gone.
Danny thought they’d been joking about fearing Recovery Girl’s ire. He quickly was proven wrong. It only took her finding him trying to stand and stretch while still handcuffed to the bed to put him in the red with her. The only other grandmother-ish figure he knew was Ida Manson, but Sam’s bubbie hadn’t ever turned a glare like that on Danny before. Then again, he’d never really given her a reason to.
Safe to say, he was much more hesitant to go against Recovery Girl’s medical orders after that. (Or, he was much more careful not to be noticed. She usually noticed.)
If it wasn’t for being literally handcuffed to the bed, he probably wouldn’t have been cleared by Recovery Girl after only three days.
“Didn’t Aizawa-sensei say I wasn’t under arrest?” Danny grumbled as the handcuff finally came off. “Why didn’t he take this off back then?”
“It was suggested you’d run off alone again if you didn’t.” Recovery Girl harrumphed as he stood up. “Considering how many times I had to force you back in bed even then, I’m not surprised.”
Danny frowned. “Wait, who’d suggest that?”
“Is he ready?”
The two turned to see Pariah waiting in the doorway. The pointed look Recovery girl gave him made him put the pieces together, and he scowled.
“If he doesn’t push himself, he’ll be fine.” She waved a hand as she turned away. “Go on then.”
Danny didn’t move. “Why are you here?”
Pariah just gave him an unimpressed look. “The principal and the others want to talk, now that Recovery Girl has cleared you from bed rest. I came to get you.”
“Could just give me directions, you know. Or a map.” Danny ducked around him out the door and started down the hall.
“You’re already going the wrong way.”
Danny scowled and turned on his heel. He didn’t look at Pariah as the larger ghost stayed even with him.
“Besides that,” Pariah continued. “Like I said before- I am the only other being from our world here. I will most likely be consulted on most matters regarding how you will be helped.”
“Only 'cuz you lied to them,” Danny muttered.
Pariah rolled his eyes. “I get the feeling there were a lot of untrue stories about me even before I awoke that first time. You do not know the truth of my tale, Phantom, just as I do not know yours.”
Danny snorted. “Oh yeah? What part don’t I know? The part where you terrorized everyone and staged a violent takeover? Or the part where you were literally so shitty, several people had to put you in time out the first time?” He shot him a glare. “Or, I skipped this, the part where you ripped my town off the map and threw it into the Ghost Zone for a day! You sent a skeleton army to attack people!”
Pariah just looked ahead and sighed with a vague frown. “Maybe at another time I could tell you, if you do not choose to try to fight my every word.” He slowed at a door, making Danny double back. “For now, could you try to be civil? The people here do want to assist you if they can. Do not judge them for my actions.”
His hand waited on the door handle, so he was obviously waiting for a reply. Danny huffed and crossed his arms. “I mean… fine, but I can still judge why they want to trust you.”
“...I suppose that is the best we can do for now.” Pariah shook his head before opening the door and waving Danny in.
Inside was a table set up with documents. On one side, two men who looked like they were in law enforcement were sitting. Aizawa sat opposite them, and Pariah took the remaining chair there. There was one chair obviously for Danny, and opposite him was…
A white… bear… rat… dog…. Creature? In a little suit and tie. It smiled as Danny stared.
“Hello!” the creature said in a cheery voice. “You are Danny Phantom, then? I am the principal of UA Academy, Principal Nezu! You’ve met Aizawa-san, and this is detective Tsukauchi and his partner detective Tanua.”
Danny blinked. “Uh…. oh… kay?” He was still processing. Thinking about it, there was a non-zero number of sentient ghosts who were less human looking than Nezu. That was probably what helped him stop staring and finally sit down. (His chair was right next to Pariah. Ew.)
“Er, actually-” He hesitated as everyone looked at him. He swallowed. “Phantom is… is what I go as when I’m a ghost? Like my superhero name- I-I’m not always in ghost mode. My last name is actually Fenton.”
“You chose a hero name?” Tsukauchi asked.
Danny shrugged. “Uh, well, nobody knew I was a ghost back home. And my parents are- well.” He knew his parents being ghost hunters was weird and possibly traumatizing to him. It was also not important right now and he didn’t need these guys trying to get him in therapy or something. “They don’t like ghosts, so I couldn’t exactly go around being called my normal name when I was flying around town fighting other ghosts, ya know?”
The three humans gave him worried looks.
“That actually brings up what we wanted to start with today, Fenton-kun!” Nezu said, seemingly unaffected. “Pariah has told us what he can of where you come from, but as you are probably aware, there are large gaps in his knowledge as well. We’d like to start with asking you basic questions about your life, if that’s alright. Beginning with where you are from, originally.”
Danny gave Pariah a suspicious look. Pariah gave him a look back that practically said, ‘yeah, I talked about you. What are you gonna do about it?’ At least, that’s how Danny read it.
“Sure, I guess,” Danny mumbled. It already felt weird enough to be upfront about not being totally human, but that cat was way out of the bag. And also kind of unimportant in this place? Nezu certainly wasn’t human. Still, Danny found himself fidgeting and rubbing his neck before speaking. “Um, well- I’m not sure what the geography situation is here. I mean, Japan and Tokyo exist back home, so…? Anyway, I’m from Amity Park, Illinois, in the US.” He made a face. “Er, also, it was only 2012 last time I checked.”
Everyone looked a little surprised at that, even Pariah.
“You are aware the year is 2148 here, yes?” Aizawa said.
Danny nodded. “I mean, yeah. I read the news in the two weeks I was hobo-ing around.”
“Your Japanese is very good, for an American teenager,” Tanuma said. “Especially one from over a hundred years ago.”
Danny stopped. “Wait- uh. I’m- okay, this must be some magic nonsense, cuz I have not been speaking, let alone hearing, Japanese this whole time.” He shrugged. “I mean, I think I could tell when I first got here it was weird? And I’m sure if I tried to write in Japanese it wouldn’t work, but, uh-” He frowned and looked at Pariah. “Dude, you’d be farther back in time than I was, you shouldn’t know future-modern Japanese either.”
“I simply took it as part of the transition into this world,” Pariah said. “It just made things easier, so I was not keen on investigating it too closely.”
“So that is not part of your quirk, for sure?” Nezu asked. “Could it be a ghost aspect you were not aware of? Just so we are all clear.”
“No?” Danny said with another heavy shrug. “I dunno, man, I’m still catching up on ghost magic and biology sh- stuff. I know ghosts can speak and understand most dead languages? That’s about it.”
Pariah nodded. “That is the only general rule about languages ghosts have, yes.”
Nezu hummed and put his hands- paws together.
“You-” Tsukauchi cleared his throat awkwardly. “I realize this may be a sensitive subject, so please feel free to turn down this line of questioning. You said you are ‘catching up’ on ghost information- you’re still young then, even in those terms? Can I ask how…?”
“You are right,” Pariah said suddenly. He gave Tsukauchi a hard look. “That is a sensitive topic. One does not just discuss such things with strangers.”
Danny waved a hand. “I mean… I don’t think that’s exactly what he was asking, but, uh, yeah. I’m not gonna talk about, uh, how I died, if that’s what you meant.”
Tsukauchi held up a hand, quickly shaking his head. “No, no, of course not. I completely understand.”
“If you are uncomfortable with any of our questions, please tell us, Fenton-kun,” Nezu said.
“...yeah.” Danny nodded absently. “Er, well, I think what you were asking was how long I’ve been- I mean, I’m still half human but I uh… I’ve been half ghost for almost two and a half years, now.”
The worried looks that passed around the table, even hidden as they were, made Danny’s stomach clench. He slid down in his seat without thinking about it. This much attention, from adults, from adults that weren’t ghosts, was really weird. Especially with how formal it felt.
Pariah was the one exception, but even he gave Danny an inscrutable look. His attention just made Danny annoyed, though. He glared back.
“How long have you been doing hero work back home?” Aizawa asked quietly.
Danny shrugged again. “Almost just as long. The fighting died down sort of recently cuz I set up truces with a lot of ghosts. They used to cause a lot of trouble cuz before that a stable portal between the Ghost Zone and the human world was really rare, so a lot of people just didn’t know how to hold themselves back or something, and I was protecting the town by tossing them back through the portal. Now it’s not so bad. Sometimes people don’t know the rules, but allies or ghosts in on the truce can usually set them straight without me, since they know it’d cause them trouble too. There are some ghosts that come specifically to bother me, though.” He grinned. “But I’m pretty strong.” He shot Pariah a look. “Stronger than when I whooped your ass too, by the way.”
“I would suspect so, from such a young ghost,” Pariah said.
“Wait, you two fought?” Tsukauchi cut in, frowning at Pariah. “You fought a child?! And lost?”
Danny frowned back. “Yeah- I thought you said you told them what you knew?”
“I told Eraser and Nezu-san,” Pariah said.
Tsukauchi looked between them, then at Nezu. “Is it really appropriate-”
“Pariah has informed us of the context around their altercation,” Nezu said easily. “And he also asked for some privacy in the matter. But I assure you, we believe that there is currently no danger posed for anyone in interacting.”
Tsukauchi sat back with some hesitation.
Danny rolled his eyes as obviously as possible. “I’m not scared of him, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He wasn’t going to point out he had the ecto-skeleton last time, because he was totally strong enough to beat Pariah without it now. Totally. Probably. ...Maybe.
His skill at denial was certifiably top-tier at least.
"Anyway," Aizawa said, apparently getting them back on track. "You won't be doing any of that while you're here. For one, the only ghosts here are in this room and for two, you're a minor. Even students have to earn hero permits to work as licensed pro heroes. Vigilantes are illegal."
Danny made a face, but didn't argue. He didn't want to have to deal with whatever Aizawa's power had done to him again.
"I'm sure Eraser has told you," Tanuma said, "but we're going to drop all charges against you up til now because of your… unique situation. However, any future charges will be addressed as usual if it comes up. Understood?"
"Y… yeah," Danny muttered. It didn't sit right, though. Being told he wasn't allowed to help protect people. He stopped himself from saying something with a huff, despite everything.
"Is there a problem, Fenton-kun?" Nezu asked, and he… he did sound genuinely concerned.
Danny shifted uncomfortably. "N- not really. I just uh. Might need reminders." He laughed uneasily. "Ya know, when you get used to running towards the screaming, it's kind of hard to stop." That got him a variety of looks around the table. "I uh. I'm used to helping. Back home, nobody-" He huffed again. "Some people tried to help. But they were either… not great at it, or they thought ghosts were… inhuman. Less than animals. So they-" He smirked, so he didn't break. "They didn't just toss them back home with a kick in the pants, ya know?"
Most of the worried looks were aimed at him, be he saw them glance at Pariah. Not that he would know any of this, the asshole barely gave humans half a thought before, as far as Danny saw.
Pariah seemed to have all his attention on him, though.
Aizawa sighed eventually. "They say the best heroes react on instinct. That you can't train for that kind of thing." He didn't sound very happy about it in this case. "Just… try to remember there are pros taking care of everything here, alright?"
Danny gave a noncommittal humm and shifted in his seat, a hand going to his chest.
"What is your obsession, boy?"
They all looked at Pariah at his sudden question.
"What?" Tsukauchi said.
"What's it to you?" Danny shot back, glaring at him.
"Wait, what are you talking about?"
Danny and Pariah just stared (or glared) at the other.
Nezu cleared his throat. "Pariah?"
Pariah was quiet for a moment. "His obsession." He didn't take his eyes off Danny. "Also known as a focus, or a reason. Every ghost has one. It's the center of their being. So, what is yours, boy?"
Danny snorted. "Didn't tell anyone yours? What is it anyway? Conquest? Domination?"
Pariah sighed.
"Fenton-kun." The boy jumped at Nezu's calm voice. "Is it common to tell others your obsession, as a ghost?"
"It- uh…" Danny shrugged. "I mean, it's not asked a lot. Usually you can kinda get the gist just by meeting them. Or they just tell you- hell, that's how Skulker introduces himself, 'the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter'." He snorted. "He's not, technically I probably am, but that's his thing."
"Do you have 'thing', then?" Aizawa asked. "You did say you're only half ghost."
Danny shrugged again. "I mean, I think so, since without an obsession you don't have a ghost. Even little non sentient blob ghosts have an obsession to, like, eat or something. Frostbite thinks it might just be easier for me to ignore or I like to have more than one I switch between, since humans are really flexible compared to ghosts with that sort of thing."
"Frostbite?" Nezu questioned.
"Oh- right-" Danny sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I'm not used to talking about stuff with people who don't already… know. Frostbite is kinda like my ghost doctor. He and his people in the Far Frozen are really good doctors for ghosts and I have an ice core like they do too, so he helped me figure out more about my biology." He paused and smirked. "Especially since they love me after I locked this asshole back up when we first met."
Pariah just sighed again, sitting back to cross his arms.
"Child, please."
"I'll stop when it stops being funny. Or when you stop deserving it. So, never."
Nezu coughed lightly. Danny at least made an effort to tone down his smile. “Well, if you do have one or more than one ‘focus’, what would they be?”
And there went any smile he had. “Oh. Er…” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling heat rise in his cheeks. Everyone was looking at him, and from Pariah’s expectant look, he’d probably figured it out. “Uh. Well, space and astronomy stuff might be… my secondary one…”
“And your primary focus?” Aizawa said.
Danny sunk down in his chair, not looking at them. His face was definitely red. “Probably… prmbmle….”
“What was that, Fenton-kun?” Nezu said, leaning forward.
He heaved a sigh, and said clearly, “Protecting people…”
The other adults stared, but Pariah huffed what could have been a laugh. “Of course. No wonder.” He shook his head with a smirk as Aizawa rubbed his eyes and Tsukauchi heaved a sigh.
Nezu just smiled. “That’s a very… heroic focus.”
Danny just shrugged. “Not that I can control it. Didn’t know about it when I was, er, forming, so it just sort of… happened.”
Tsukauchi sat forward and nodded at Pariah. “What is- a focus? Obsession? Whatever we want to call it. How does that affect a ghost?”
Pariah looked between him, Danny, and Nezu. “As we both said, a focus is just that- the focus of a ghost’s afterlife. Something their entire nature revolves around. Following one’s focus leads to health and stability, or power if done in excess. Outright avoiding or going against a focus is…” He frowned at Danny. “...ill-advised. At best it can lead to stress and fatigue. At worst, it can lead to frenzy, aggression, and- eventually- a spirit’s end. Especially when a spirit is not in the realms, following your focus is a key part of staying sane and healthy.”
Tsukauchi glanced at Danny and cocked an eyebrow.
“Uh… yeah, that’s about what I know, actually.” Danny shrugged.
Aizawa put his arm on the table and leaned his head against his head. “So what I’m hearing is, we have an untrained, unlicensed teenager with the equivalent to an overpowered quirk who has to be a hero for his own safety?”
Danny grimaced. “Safety is probably… not the best word. I, uh, do get hurt back home pretty often.”
Aizawa waved a finger at him. “And that is not helping your case here, Fenton-kun.”
“I think this is a wonderful opportunity, then!” Everyone turned to look at Nezu, who simply smiled. “There is no reason for young Fenton-kun to fight or get hurt recklessly here, and we are the top hero academia in Japan for a reason. If anyone is equipped to handle his unique needs, I believe it is us. It wouldn’t be the first time students came to the school with some kind of hero experience. Fenton-kun, you said your parents were not aware of your vigilantism at home?”
Danny sat up. “Oh. Er, no. I mean, they taught us how to defend ourselves with their inventions, and my mom’s a black belt- she tried to teach us some basics, it’s probably the only reason I got a full month into fighting before I broke my hand punching Skulker-” He stopped and shook his head. The humans exchanged some looks, but he ignored them. “But- but no, they don’t know.”
“And you worked alone?”
“Y-er.” Danny’s hand found it’s way to the back of his neck again. “Uh. I mean… sort of? I was the only one actually fighting anyone, but my friends Sam and Tucker knew and helped provide cover or distractions sometimes, or carried spare equipment. My sister Jazz found out and tried to help, but…” he shuddered. “She’s not allowed to use the ranged equipment around us anymore. She got my mom’s reflexes, but my dad’s aim- couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, ya know?”
Tsukauchi suddenly covered his face with his hand. Danny just smiled nervously, not sure what he said to make this worse.
“So…” Tanuma said slowly. “Your parents keep weapons in the house? That you have access to?”
“Well… yeah? I don’t-” Danny’s ‘the rest of the world is clueless about ghosts/the Fentons’ brain cell suddenly burst from the grave. “Oh- oh my god, wait, that is not as bad as that sounds!”
“That sounds pretty bad,” Tsukauchi said. “Especially if they haven’t figured out what you’re doing when you borrow equipment, which is what it sounds like.”
“I- well-” He laughed, high and shaky. “Yeah! I guess that would sound pretty bad, and would make them suspicious, if… they knew… we were taking stuff…”
Aizawa just had his head in his hands at this point.
Danny waved his hands wildly. “Look, they- there’s a lot of ghost stuff going on and they- they’re ghost scientists, of course they’re distracted trying to do something! And- listen, I’m going to tell them eventually, I just need the right time and- and okay, I mean that does get harder when they think Phantom is the one stealing equipment.” He dropped his hands a fraction. “Which, I guess they- they don’t really just ‘think’ that if they’re… technically right…”
The table was silent.
“Child.” Pariah sighed. “I was raised in a warrior culture, but even I can tell there are several issues with your family by the day’s standards, if all this is true.”
“Even without quirk laws, I think that’s pretty obvious neglect,” Tsukauchi muttered into his hand. “Not to mention…” he looked at Danny, and Danny’s panic skyrocketed at the clear worry. “You said they’re ghost scientists?”
He swallowed hard, shaking hands suddenly very, very still. “U-um. S- sort of.” His heart jumped to his throat while his core was a heavy block in his gut. Why was he panicking so hard? They already knew his secret. And they couldn’t do anything to his parents, so- so why did them looking so worried suddenly hit him so hard?
“Sort of?” Tanuma was closest to him on that side, and turned his chair to face Danny better. “Fenton-kun, what exactly do your parents do?”
God, he couldn’t look at them, couldn’t bear what they thought of his parents. That’s all it was, the gut-instinct to years of being bullied for what his parents did, being judged for how they acted,
Being hunted for what he was-
A hand reached out, and he jerked back, the chair moving with a metallic screech.
Tanuma froze, that too-soft tone to his voice. “Danny-kun. Just breathe. You’re alright, you’re safe. Nobody here is going to hurt you, and nothing we talk about has to leave this room unless you want it to.”
He sucked in a breath through his teeth, holding himself, not quite looking at Tanuma. From the side, he saw a puff of breath come from the detective, and belatedly noticed how cold the room had gotten. A bit of frost even touched the metal arms of his chair. He forced his jaw open and took a gulp of air, held it, and blew out what ended up being a fine frosty mist that settled on the table in front of him.
In, hold, then out. “Good.” Again, little brother.
The next breath didn’t litter the tabletop with ice crystals, and he managed to relax his grip on his arms in the third. Nobody moved while he forced his core to stop freezing everything.
His voice still shook. “They, um. They’re inventors. They make a bunch of ghost-related stuff- blasters, wrist ways, shields, containment…they patent them, and sell them to the town and government for defense. Even after the town accepted ghosts as real, they’re called crazy. The only experts in town, but crazy.” He swallowed again. “But, uh… they like to call themselves ghost hunters.”
There was a muffled swear from Aizawa. Evan Pariah looked a bit surprised.
“Ghost hunters?” Tanuma said. “What- why?”
“Because ghosts are just evil ectoplasmic impressions of post-human consciousness. Obviously.” The smirk and sarcasm he tried for ended up a grimace and squeak. His vision blurred and- “Dammit, sorry…” He wiped at his eyes quickly, trying to turn away. The table was blessedly quiet while Danny got ahold of his tears.
Aizawa was looking at him- they were all looking at him, really- when he seemed to settle. “Is that what they think of Phantom?”
Danny could only shrug, blankly staring at the puddle now on the table. “If it’s not Phantom, then they’re saying it about all the others. They don’t think ghosts are- are people, really. They say ghosts don’t have emotions besides anger, that they can’t feel pain, that they’re worse than animals-”
Pariah interrupted with a scoff. “I’d ask why you bother protecting them if not for your focus. But your efforts sound like they’d be better suited elsewhere.”
“They’re my parents!” Danny snapped, eyes flashing green as he shot Pariah a glare.
“It does not sound that they act like it.”
Danny shot to his feet and was stopped by Tanuma putting his arm between the two ghosts. The rest of the room was tense, save Pariah, calmly staring back.
“I think it would be best for you to withhold any further comments about the Fentons, Pariah.” Nezu also seemed calm, but it was hard for most to read him in the first place.
Regardless, Pariah simply hummed agreement and broke the staring match.
Nobody pointed out that, technically, both of them were right. From the way Danny glared holes into the table as he sat back down, he knew it too.
Tanuma put a hand on the table, grabbing everyone's attention. "Given that it's only Fenton-kun here, and all the rest of this context, I think we can table the discussion of his home life if or until it becomes relevant. The only other thing I think should be taken from this is, well…" He looked at Danny and gave him a nervous smile, and tried to keep his tone light. "No offense, but you might do well with therapy?"
That got a dark snort of laughter from Danny. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. My sister is going into psychology, and she never shuts up about it. That's not really an option."
"Perhaps not when you were at home," Tsukauchi said with a nod. "But would you consider it while you are here? While we don't know how long that might be, it could be helpful both in the short and long term. We would be able to give necessary context and ensure the utmost confidentiality."
"All staff are going to be at least somewhat aware of your situation," Nezu added. "So if you wish to go to the school counselor-"
"No."
The table went quiet, until Danny realized he was shaking again, and slowly took a breath. "N- I… I tried school counseling once. She… nearly killed half the school." He huffed, not a laugh but he smirked humorless. "Well, probably would have ended up being the whole school, but… anyway, she was a ghost that fed on people's misery. Said mine was the best…" He shook his head. "Anyway, the point is, if I try to go to therapy, or especially a school counselor, I- I'd…"
"We understand," Tsukauchi said gently. "You do not have to go, it was simply something we suggested without context."
Nezu nodded and put his paws together. "I am sure [Name] would also be willing to meet you in a non-office or non-therapy setting, with supervision, if that would help ease any fears. Such a meeting would not have to necessarily lead to treatment afterwards, but simply for your peace of mind."
Danny made a face, but shrugged. "Maybe…"
“I can make a note of it and ask you again later?”
Danny just shrugged again, and Nezu nodded and wrote something down.
“While we’re health-adjacent,” Aizawa said. “Do you know if or how your vitals or health might be different from average, Fenton-kun?”
“Oh- uh, yeah, actually.” He laughed once, slowly relaxing. “Once Jazz found out I had a ghost doctor, she made them run me through the gauntlet and figure that all out. The obvious you probably already noticed? My pulse rests at like, 30? I don’t have to breathe quite as much, especially when I sleep- freaked my friends out the first time we had a sleepover after. Still need air, though!” He rubbed at his throat and winced. “Uh, temperature about 80 degrees-”
“Celsius?” Tanuma gasped.
Danny blinked. “Oh- uh, fahrenheit? That’s like,” -he ran the quick and dirty formula in his head- “Twenty five, twenty six celsius? Yeah, I-” he laughed. “I’m ice, not fire. Eighty celsius anything would probably kill me. Or- well anyone, that’s like over a hundred- no, two hundred fahrenheit?”
He heard Tsukauchi mutter something about ‘Americans’, which Danny agreed with on principle.
“Yeah, so, that. I wear out in the heat but below-freezing temps aren’t that bad, even while I’m human. Uh, for everything else, we couldn’t be exact because there’s only three halfa’s ever- one of them has never been to the Far Frozen despite my best efforts, and the other is a fruitloop that would and should be shot on sight because, as I said, he’s a fruitloop.”
“Meaning?”
“He’s batshit crazy and basically a stereotypical supervillain.” Danny paused. “Wait, stereotypes are probably different here, huh…?”
“So you don’t have answers about any specific health requirements?” Tanuma said.
“Oh- uh, Frostbite made some educated guesses?” Danny grimaced again. “I, uh… was probably a little malnourished even before I got here. Being a teenager mixed with constant activity and adrenaline, and ghost cores burn through energy crazy fast. So, I’m, uh. Always hungry. Never got a calorie count, wasn’t worth it, but more than I was getting. That, and more ‘healthy’ ectoplasm in my diet- he ended up just making me supplements, since it was too much trouble to get and keep ghost food around.”
Most of them seemed to be writing something down, except Pariah. He just looked at Danny. “I’d hope your obsession was at least being fulfilled then?”
Danny couldn’t help but shoot him a glare. “Yeah, that wasn’t an issue.”
“Allergies or reactions?” Tsukauchi prompted.
“Er… no? Not specifically for me, just- you know, general ghost things.” He waved a hand at Pariah, unwilling to admit him being there saved some explanation. “I can withstand some things a little better than normal ghosts, and some things less. Same with human stuff. Like-” He paused, only long enough to remember they couldn’t do anything about it anyway. “Well, probably won’t come up, but I can’t get drunk on normal alcohol. Then ghost alcohol knocks me off my ass.”
Pariah snorted at that, but the other adults sans Nezu gave him looks ranging from shock to concern. “Why do you know that?”
“Nobody told me what was in what at a Saturnalia Truce party, ‘cause different standard drinking ages over time and culture. My friend Dora had to lock me in my room at her castle so I didn’t keep drinking. I’m strictly and publically BYOB for Zone parties now.” He made a face. “Which wouldn't be so bad if everyone stopped making jokes about ‘don’t let the baby drink’ every time anything festive happens.”
Pariah, the bastard, kept laughing. Danny kicked him in the shin. “Shut up!”
“Anything…” Tanuma sighed and put his head in his hand. “Anything that might be more relevant?”
“Uh… I typically need, like, a lot of aspirin for it to work? I’d guess that goes for medicine in general, but I also have a pretty great healing factor most of the time, so.”
“What’s your healing factor like?”
“Eh, healed a broken ulna in like… a week and a half, one time? Stitches heal in a day or two.”
Tsukauchi and Aizawa rubbed their eyes this time, clearly exasperated.
“...what?”
“You’re just like the problem child, aren’t you?” Aizawa muttered, seemingly to himself.
“Er- who’s the problem child?”
The other adults looked confused, but Aizawa just sighed in a way that was kind of familiar to Danny.
“Is advanced hearing one of your abilities, Fenton-kun?” Nezu said casually.
Danny shrugged one shoulder. “Er- kind of a general ghost thing, but yeah.”
“Right,” Aizawa huffed, and gave Danny an exhausted but focused look. “Since we’re on that, tell us about your quirk- or your power, as Americans call them.”
“Yeah, uh- power? Singular?”
He was starting to feel bad for exhausting the man. “Typically, here, people only have one quirk. Sometimes certain individuals can appear to have more than one, but really it’s just a dual-purpose use of a single quirk. For the purposes of registry and school, you will be registered with one quirk.”
Wow. That… “That’s… going to be… kind of impossible?”
“It may just limit what powers you may use publicly,” Pariah said.
“Why don’t you just tell us what you can do, and we can go from there?” Nezua added with a smile.
“Okaaay…” Danny held up his hand and began listing off on his fingers. “So, there’s the basic ghost stuff: flying, intangibility, invisibility, enhanced strength, hearing, and durability… oh and overshadowing but- I- I don’t use that one anymore, really.”
Tsukauchi looked like he really didn’t want to ask. “Overshadowing?”
“I believe he means possession,” Pariah answered instead.
“Right, right, of course…”
“I don’t use it anymore,” Danny said again, not looking at them. “Unless it’s to stop someone else overshadowing someone, but that’s it.” He shook his head and continued. “Then there’s ecto-manipulation- ectoblasts, rays, shields- can’t really make anything complicated with shields, but I never trained for that. Personally, I’m an ice core, so ice creation and control- thank Frostbite I’m not freezing everyone and everything around me anymore. I can sense ghosts, and that usually shows up as seeing my breath because of my core. I can duplicate myself, but not… consistently?”
Pariah raised an eyebrow, but Danny shot him a glare. He just smirked and didn’t say anything.
Danny sucked in a breath. “And, um, my ghostly wail. It’s like a scream, but it’s my most powerful attack- and most destructive. I’ve taken out buildings with it before, and it usually forces me to transform back after, so it’s a last-ditch thing.”
“‘Transform back’?” Nezu said.
“Oh! I, uh, have a separate form- my ghost form? I guess that’d be a power- it’s how nobody in town knew I was Phantom. But I can’t hold it forever- if I run out of energy or pass out or go to sleep, I transform back to my human form. My ecto-signature is weaker in human form, which makes it harder to notice or track me, but I also have a harder time using my powers without transforming.”
“How does this transformation work, exactly?” Nezu asked, leaning forward with his paws together. “Is It destructive or painful?”
“N- no? And, I don’t know? I just sort of-” Danny made a motion to his chest. “Like… pull my core forward? Mentally, I mean- it doesn’t feel bad, and it’s just really bright. And I can like, partially transform?” He let his eyes go green, but he was sure they’d seen that earlier when he was freaking out.
“In that case, would you be willing to show us now?”
“I- uh- sure?” And then suddenly they were all looking at him, and he never felt more self-conscious. Transforming was so normal for him usually, but having an audience like this was different. He pushed himself forward in his chair, but didn’t stand, fidgeting with his shirt. “Uh…”
He didn’t mean to be stalling, but Aizawa and Tsukauchi shared a look, and that just made him pull his shoulders in-
There was a rap on the table. “Phantom.”
Danny’s gaze locked onto Pariah with his challenging tone. When he noticed the unimpressed look Pariah was giving him, it ticked him off.
He transformed almost without thinking, his core already humming in defiance to the challenge he only then heard from Pariah’s core. Pariah smirked again, and the sound from his core shifted to smug satisfaction before quieting.
It took Danny a second of sitting there- facing Pariah, half ready to stand and fight- before he registered what had just happened. He did get up then. “You did that on purpose!”
“You were overthinking it,” Pariah said simply. “I gather that you usually shift to challenge an opponent, so I gave you the appearance of one.”
“I- You- asshole!” It was obvious there wasn’t going to actually be a fight, so he crossed his arms and fell back in his seat. Not pouting over how easily he was played. Obviously.
The other adults in the room were either giving him curious looks or hiding their own amusement. Tsukauchi in particular peered at him before turning to Aizawa. “Do we know if your quick interacts as normal with Fenton-chan’s… ghostliness? Does it react like a transformation quirk, so he’d just transform back?”
Aizawa scowled at him. “...yes, but more than that. Last time, he immediately passed out, and we had to take him straight to Recovery Girl.”
“That was you?!”
Tsukauchi responded like Danny hadn’t spoken. “Are we sure that reaction wasn’t just from malnutrition or exhaustion?”
“Are we suggesting we play with his health to test it?”
“Er.” Tsukauchi sat back. “Right- no, obviously not.”
“Eraser’s quirk forces another quirk to completely deactivate,” Pariah said. “All of Phantom’s powers are tied to his core- since that would be what Eraser’s quick targets, it would temporarily shut down the core itself.”
“Which is … bad,” Tsukauchi said, barely not making it a question.
Pariah huffed. “A ghost’s core is like all human internal organs in one- so since Phantom needs his core to survive as any other would, yes. That’s bad.”
Tanuma looked at Danny. “Er, do you? Need it to survive, I mean.”
Danny swallowed, and the whole room got ten degrees colder. “Yeah. I… Yeah. That’s- That’s not up for debate. Trying to remove it would kill me.” He shuddered. “Just… don’t ask me how I know that.”
Tanuma held up his hands. “Yes, of course! I didn’t mean to come off like that. I just wanted to make sure we all understood.”
The temperature ticked up a couple degrees. Danny nodded, and they moved on.
“Onto more immediate, short-term plans,” Nezu said without missing a beat. “We had discussed options for where and with whom you will be staying while you are here, Fenton-kun.” Danny couldn't help a worried glance in Pariah’s direction. “While you share much common ground, we’ve all agreed it would not be a good idea to have you stay with Pariah-san, so don’t worry about that.”
Danny tried not to make it too obvious how much he relaxed at that.
“Aizawa-san is both qualified as a stand-in guardian for minors in unforeseen circumstances, and an experienced underground pro-hero. He has a spare room kept for situations not unlike these, and has offered to house you until such time as we make other arrangements.” Nezu smiled at him. “That is, if you have no complaints with that arrangement, Fenton-kun.”
“I… don’t think I do?” Danny looked at Aizawa, and felt bad again. “I mean, as long as realizing I’m an absolute disaster hasn’t changed your mind?”
Aizawa stared at him. “...as long as you can figure out how to follow rules, I think we’ll be fine.”
“Uh. I’ll do my best.”
“That’s the spirit!” Nezu said happily. “Which leads us to schooling. We do not know how long you will be here, but we would like to keep you abreast with your peers. Were you in school back home, Fenton-kun?”
Oh great. They had mentioned that, hadn’t they? “Y… yeah? I um… was almost flunking out, but yeah.”
“What grade were you in?”
“Tenth? Er, second year of high school, if- I don’t know how school works in Japan.”
Nezu simply nodded. “Here, high school is three years long, and begins usually when the student is 15 or 16. So then you would be in the same grade as the UA first years. Depending on testing, we would like you to go to school here, given that both Aizawa-san and Pariah-san are staff, and we are the leading heroics academy in Japan.”
Danny had to shake his head. “Wait- hold on- you have superhero school here?! That’s what this is?! That’s-” His mouth went dry as his brain registered what Nezu said. ‘Depending on testing’, ‘We would like-’. He tried not to deflate too much. “That… sounds awesome. I- I don’t think I’ll be able to pass whatever testing you need, though. So what then?”
Nezu tilted his head and gave Danny an odd look, though he still smiled. “In the event you are not capable of attending UA, we will place you in a different high school or home schooling appropriate to your needs. I don’t think that will be necessary, however.”
“Yeah, well…” Danny sighed. “You haven’t seen my grades.”
“You wouldn’t be taking these tests today,” Aizawa said. “That’d just be unfair, given your health and the stress of relocation. If all goes well, you’d come back in two weeks, which would give you time to study if needed.”
“We would also not expect exactly the same standard of scores as usual, given your situation. Namely in history or English, which would be substituted for individual Japanese instruction wherever you are placed.”
Danny couldn’t help slip a bit of a smile at his first thought. “I think if I fail history, I’d be grounded when I get home.”
“Why do you say that?”
He covered his mouth with a hand. “Just- inside joke, sorry.”
While everyone else seemed willing to roll their eyes and let it slide, Pariah shot him a look. Not one that Danny could really even parse before he schooled his features, but he noticed anyway. He still felt hyper-aware of Pariah’s presence, but especially when he had weird reactions like that.
He didn’t get a chance to say anything, though, because now Tsukauchi was looking at him weird.
“Didn’t you say that form takes energy to sustain? You don’t need to hold it just because we didn’t tell you to change back.”
“Oh.” Danny blinked and looked down at his gloved hands. “Er- I guess I just didn’t notice? Sorry.” He changed back quickly, feeling gravity reassert itself on him. “It’s not like I have to spend energy to hold it, it’s more like a light switch? And it’s just as comfortable really. My human form is just… like the power-saver on your phone. I switch back automatically when I’m too far in the red.”
"So you're saying it feels natural to you?" Nezu said.
"I mean… yeah. My powers aren't something I have, it's something I am." He paused, and remembered the phrase Jazz kept repeating. "Human or ghost, I'm always Danny. And that means I'm always both."
Nezu smiled and nodded like he'd just passed some secret test.
Tsukauchi cleared his throat politely. "I think that brings us to the last thing we need to discuss. Namely, trying to find a way to get you back home."
Already, a put was opening in his stomach. Danny nodded and tried to breathe deeply.
"You might be aware, but before this, no effort was made to find a way back to your world." Tsukauchi glanced at Pariah. "Simply efforts to make it possible for a ghost to live here safely. So, while we may be starting from square one in getting you back home, Pariah has done most of the hard work that will keep you safe and healthy here while we explore our options."
"You mentioned a portal earlier," Aizawa said. "A… 'stable portal from the Ghost Zone'?"
Danny nodded. "Oh, yeah- uh, there's always been natural portals, but they are hard to track and dont stay open long. My parents built a big stable portal a couple years ago- it's not the only one, but the guy who built the other two knew to either hide them or built better defenses to keep ghost from just… coming in." He made a face. "And you know, I didn't know anything or anyone back then, so when ghosts started coming through and causing trouble, I didn't know what else to do besides just… toss them back in and try to keep the door closed."
All of them looked like they wanted to say something about it, but Aizawa pushed forward. "So then, it's theoretically possible to build a portal to the ghost realm. If that was done here, there is a nonzero chance of it working, and a nonzero chance that it would open somewhere home-adjacent."
Danny nodded. "Sounds like that'd be the first thing to try, yeah. I could probably help with making that, too. I'm not the inventor my parents are, or a computer fiend like my friend Tucker, but I did grow up around this stuff and use it daily. Not to mention, I'm probably the only one that knows even some of the details of how ectoplasm works as an element or chemical, since Dark-Ages Mcgee here skipped a few hundred years of science class." He grinned as Pariah gave him a tired glare.
"You're a menace."
"Aw, how'd you guess my middle name?"
"Would that be safe?" Aizawa cut in.
Danny blinked back to the table. "What?"
Aizawa was trying hard not to glare at him. "Would it be safe for you to be involved if a portal was to be built? Both physically and mentally."
He opened his mouth to immediately wave it off, but paused as his core tinged at the idea of the portal, dark and dead, a hole in the wall-
"Um-" Danny coughed. "Well. I… get the feeling the safety measures would be a lot more strict with you guys?" No switches inside the portal, he'd make sure of that. "S-so, yeah, all good. Wouldn't even get to that point until all the plans are built and testing was done to make sure physics here isn't too different in some weird tiny way, anyway."
He must have paused too long, because nobody looked convinced.
"Look, if you don't let me help, I'd probably go crazy worrying about it and break in to double check everything anyway."
"If that's your intent, you really shouldn't tell us that," Tsukauchi said with a sigh.
Danny just shrugged. "If it gets you to include me, it won't happen anyway. I don't like to lie and sneak around if I'm not basically forced into it. And you knowing what I'll do in either situation just gives you full accountability for your choice, so you can't really come back and be mad at me for doing what I said I would do if you locked me out."
"That's a fair argument for your intent, I suppose!" Nezu said, which caught Danny off guard by tone alone.
"Oh. Um… thanks? I think?"
"We will have to research and discuss that situation privately with the professionals of the field," Tsukauchi muttered, writing several things down. "For now…" He glanced at the others. "If there's no disagreement, it might be helpful for you to write down anything you remember of the other portals you know about, so that we are able to find engineers and scientists most closely experienced with the necessary areas of research."
"Oh, yeah, totally. If you give me enough paper, I could probably recreate a chunk of the blueprints, honestly."
The detectives looked a bit surprised by that, but the others either expected it or hid the emotion by now.
"It sounds like we have a plan of action!" Nezu said, and clapped his paws together. "Unless there is anything you would like to add, Fenton-kun?" He paused for Danny to shake his head. "Then I think we can wrap up our meeting for today. After all, you and Aizawa-san still need time to gather some basic necessities, and from what I hear, you could use a good night's sleep outside of our infirmary."
Danny gave him a weak smile, and tried not to shudder at the memory-sensation of the IV. "Y-yes, please."
Aizawa took that as a cue to stand. "Let's go, Fenton."
Danny stood, but hesitated as the others stayed put.
"We just need to discuss legal logistics and documents, don't mind us," Tanuma said with a smile.
"Okay…" He gave Pariah a serious look before moving to follow Aizawa. He didn't want to stick around the man, but having everyone else trust him wasn't going to ever make sense.
#i don't know if i want to tag this either of the fandoms#its not very good/consistent/edited#but i said id post something sO
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I said I wasn’t going to do this and look at me now...
So here’s Chapter 1 of ??? of Pre-Existing Nonsense! A Rise/2003 crossover that I told myself a few days ago I didn’t have the time to write. Oops!
Read it here on AO3.
Chapter 1 - Those Come With A Warning Label For A Reason
Tide pods.
That's all Leo could think about. Tide pods.
Were there more important things he should be thinking about? Probably. But could he help himself? Not really! It's hardly his fault that the swirly portal looked kind of like that time he threw up after Donnie dared him to do the Tide Pod Challenge.
(Donnie had, in fact, not told his brother anything of the sort. In fact, if one had access to the Lair's substantial security camera footage, one would find that Donnie had told his brother something along the lines of "you cannot possibly be that dumb– what are you doing– NARDO PUT THAT DOWN–!")
So, yeah: Tide Pods.
The portal was big and glowing and 85% not intentional. Its swirling mass floated a dozen feet in the air in a wide circle like the world's most inconvenient door. It twirled with a current, animating undulating waves of blue and orange energy that flowed together but refused to mix. Like thick oil in brackish water.
Now, Leo, he'd seen and made his fair share of portals in his hayday so portals themselves weren't concerning. Kind of par for the course at this point. The orange was relatively new. They'd been so afraid of Mikey's new powers after the prison dimension portal bit that they'd collectively refused to let their littlest brother try to make another portal for months after the whole Kraang thing. Barry had finally convinced them to stop babying him about it just a few weeks back. So, overall: orange portal? Not a big deal.
The color combo was new, but even then it was kind of expected. They had, just moments ago, been training on new ways to combo their mystic powers after all.
No, no, the concerning part that had Leo and all his brothers slack jawed was the pile of freshly 'ported turtles (?) that had fallen out of it.
The intruders were currently too busy trying to untangle themselves in the middle of the living room floor to notice their surroundings or their accidental B&E.
"So… that hurt," one of them groaned.
"Why am I always at the bottom?" Another one whined from the bottom of the pile.
"Hey! Watch those sais!" A third replied with a wince.
"Will you please just move already?!" The fourth yelled.
With a few quick movements the (yep, those sure were) turtles had straightened themselves out and Leo and his brothers were left looking at… themselves?
Four white-eyed turtles, each with a bandanna tied around their eyes: purple, orange, blue, red, with ninja-type weapons tied around their belts and shells. Hoh boy. Leo felt a headache coming.
"Oh fer cryin' out loud!!" The Other Raph (apparently??) cried out before falling to his knees in a dramatic show that would've put Donnie's theater kid sensibilities to shame. "Fer once! Just once! That's all I'm askin'! One ninja-flipping week without alien teleporters, time windows or interdimensional doohickeys!!"
The Raph (?) had punctuated every exclamation with a punch to the, now cracked, floor. Distantly, Leo thought it was a shame, after all they didn't make tiled subway floors like they used to and it would take him days to find the right material to fix it and oh right other turtles he should probably pay attention.
The Other Donnie was offering his brother a few consoling pats with a smile that curled slightly too much around the corners to be entirely sympathetic.
"There, there," he said. "We can always go back through the-"
With that, the glowing Tide Pod portal made a noise like a wobbling sheet of tin and blinked out of existence with a gurgle.
"Uhh," the purple bandanna'd turtle said. "Guess I spoke too soon?"
"Just had ta open your mouth, huh, brainiac?"
"Oh, so this is my fault now?"
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The two brothers erupted in an impromptu wrestling match on the floor with Other Mikey joining apparently just for fun. Leo's own counterpart heaved a sigh and caught his eye.
"Um. I suppose that means we'll be staying here for a while then?"
Leo looked to his own brothers who were still scraping their jaws off the metaphorical floor. He grinned at them with a forced smile.
"Dibs on not telling Dad!"
#tmnt#rottmnt#tmnt 2003#tmnt 2k3#my writes#me early this week: i dont have time to write a fic#me today: by talos this cant be happening#i cant guaratee that ill even get close to finishing this#but might as well get it out in the open i guess#also please dont take this seriously#im just having a funny goofy time with this#hamato leonardo#hamato donatello#hamato michelangelo#hamato raphael#featuring my bad sense of humour
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I was denied medically from the job I wanted can I get some cute Ann Ness and Gregory movie night in Freddy's content to make me feel better
I’m so sorry, friend, that really sucks. Here’s some tooth-rotting fluff that hopefully makes you smile! Takes place in some sibling AU adjacent universe where everything is lovely and nothing hurts.
All is Well
Vanessa was never really sure if she liked Movie Mania at the pizzaplex. The event took place one weekend a month where the biggest screen she’d ever seen in her life was put up over the stage in the atrium and the massive room plus both mezzanines were filled to the brim with children. It was a Saturday to Sunday ordeal, movies lasting late into the night with the majority of participants sleeping over.
Because on the one hand—good golly was the special overtime pay for Movie Mania worth it. But on the other—so. many. kids. Snot-nosed brats galore and their parents. She’d taken the night shift for a reason, y’know? No customer service necessary.
She and two dozen other employees ran the whole shindig, so at least she wasn’t alone. And they got to use the dorm-esque rooms in the basement, which were equipped with (actually rather comfy) bunk beds, so it wasn’t like they were breaking their backs from sleeping on the floor. The animatronics stayed upstairs, ready to call in human reinforcements if something happened, which made it a win-win for everyone.
(She had significant reason to believe that Gregory ditched the party and slept in Freddy’s green room every time he attended, but she had no proof. Freddy wasn’t talking, and Gregory only ever gave her sly but oh-so-innocent smiles. Anywhere outside the atrium was out of bounds for guests during the sleeping portion of Movie Mania, but Vanessa knew all too well that her gremlin little brother had all the bots wrapped around his little finger.)
Tonight might not be as exhausting as previous events, though, because for once, Vanessa had a guest with her. And she herself was technically a guest for the Saturday portion, though she would uniform-up if she had to.
Yawning, Vanessa slumped further down in the padded booth she had reserved for her and Annie long before the doors had opened. Like hell were they gonna sit on the floor. Her joints would murder her if she tried.
Annie sent her a grin. “Tired already, Grandma?” she whispered. Back to the Future played across the screen in front of them, larger than life. “You got an eight o’clock bedtime?”
She made a face and let her head flop onto Annie’s shoulder. “You joke,” she shot back, not really having to worry about being quiet with how loud the movie was, “but these brats are gonna start waking up at six, and it’s all downhill from there.”
“Ah, the joys of youth.”
“Honestly. Do you have any idea how glad I am that Gregory likes to sleep in?”
Annie chuckled and leaned her head against the top of Vanessa’s. “You say that like I’m not just as glad as you are.”
Vanessa snorted. “Oh yeah, you’re there too.” Turning to press her cheek a little more firmly against Annie’s shoulder, she sighed. “At least you get up at a reasonable hour. ’Cause I sure as hell wouldn’t feed Mr. Bottomless Pit breakfast if it was left to me.”
“He’d go feral, probably,” Annie mused. “Maybe break into our neighbors’ room and steal their snacks.”
Vanessa fake shuddered, stifling her laughter. If Gregory got hungry enough and neither she nor Annie were up to obtaining him food, she had no doubt that he’d manage to charm his way into getting one of their fellow dorm residents into doing it instead. Munchkin had mastered his puppy-dog eyes long before he came to live with her.
Speaking of…
Vanessa sat up, patting Annie when she whined over being abandoned, and peered around the room. The massive movie screen lit up the multitude of faces in the dark, but it wasn’t necessary to scan them for her brother.
All she needed to do was find Freddy.
She spotted his glowing eyes off to the side, where he could make a subtle getaway if he had to. A bunch of other kids were gathered around him, though Marty McFly held their attention, but only one kid ever got the coveted position of sitting on Freddy’s lap.
Gregory was periodically looking down at his phone, so he and Freddy and maybe even the other animatronics were all texting. He’d seen Back to the Future before, so she couldn’t really blame him for not being too interested. Nonetheless, he looked relaxed and not like he was about to go cause trouble, so she slumped back down next to Annie.
“All is well?” Annie asked. They shuffled around, tangling themselves together on the wide bench. You were never too old for cuddles, especially not during a movie.
“All is well,” Vanessa said, eyes falling half-lidded. So maybe she was a little more tired than she’d admit. Something about Movie Mania—with the flickering darkness, the atmosphere that came with a couple hundred people packed together in surprising peace, and the rumbling surround sound—made it easy to drift in that warm place between true sleep and full wakefulness.
Okay, and maybe being with one of her favorite people in the whole world helped.
#i answered a thing#aboyandhisstarship#fnaf fic#fnaf security breach#star's stories#life and times of star
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SHADOWS OF SORCERY | Part 18 | “Shadow of Hostility” | 1,758 words
Content Warning: Blood mention
Jaelin gestured toward some of the articles pinned up.
"Those ones have times," he said. "So I made a list of all the people my grandfather knew and I cross referenced his old planner on those dates and times. If they had an appointment with him at that time, I crossed them off." He showed them both the old planner on his desk, flipping through the pages to give them an idea of how detailed it was.
"He was meticulous."
"I'd say." Imogene said.
He's not the only one… Elora thought, seeing Jaelin's thinking process spread out all over the room. Imogene had to keep a straight face after hearing that.
Elora glossed over the list, and surely enough, the regional extractor was still there. He hadn't crossed him off. But there were still at least a few dozen other names too.
“Well, we came here to show you this —.” Elora held up the single newspaper article she had found.
Jaelin reached for it in a daze.
“When was this?”
“This morning.” Elora said.
Jaelin took his pen from his pocket to cross off the names of the employees listed in the article. He started to talk, distracted as he searched for names down the list.
“A lot of big magic companies contracted him… Maybe they want to take their magic and rewrite the security systems.”
An unsettled look crossed their faces. The extractor had already stolen so much magic. If this was really all the same person, what exactly were they going for? Why did they want so much magic?
They all went to grab something to eat shortly after.
They met Charlotte in one of the dining halls. She was already sitting at a round table waiting for them. She had a small notebook open and watched as an invisible stroke of magic wrote across the page—the lettering lighting up bright purple. It glowed the whole time it was being written. But Charlotte closed it as she saw her friends walking toward her.
“Hey.” Elora said, grabbing one of the chairs.
“Hey. I was just writing to my father… he said they had a spare luminess core they can give to the school. I asked him if they could give you one too, but he said they only had that one right now. But he’ll put you on a waiting list to get one as soon as they find another one.”
How fucking convenient, Elora thought. Of course he doesn’t want to give me a healing core.
“Oh, thanks. That’s really thoughtful… I didn’t think of that.” Elora said.
Of course she already thought of that.
The luminess core was the whole reason she was in this mess. But they were rare and didn’t bloom in abundance. They required a great deal of shade and ambient tree magic to grow.
“He said the school told him they’d probably resume exams tomorrow then.”
“Oh.” Jaelin slouched back in his seat. His exam would be tomorrow in that case. “I don’t have any exceptional abilities like you two… I’m probably going to get wrecked.” He was talking about Imogene and Elora, but his gaze drifted to Elora. “What about you? Are you average too?”
Elora had strategically bitten into her ham and swiss sub as soon as she realized where the conversation was going.
“Actually,” Elora said, still chewing, “I can kind of read thoughts too…”
“What?!” Jaelin sat up straight. “No way. What am I thinking?”
Imogene laughed politely before she cut in.
“It’s actually kind of annoying when people ask that…”
Jaelin sighed, letting it go.
“So I’m the boring one?”
Charlotte and Imogene giggled. Elora just smiled. Thankfully, he didn't press her.
Then a little while later into their conversation, Imogene caught sight of Kaden Brush walking down the aisle between the tables. He headed toward them with a dazed look in his eyes, holding a tray in his hands.
“Hey!” Imogene waved.
Kaden snapped out of his trance and lifted his gaze to acknowledge her. But he kept silent as he sat down with them.
“Oh, hey, how are you doing?” Charlotte asked. She had been wondering how he was doing since she healed him.
Kaden stared at his food. He wasn’t particularly a conversationalist.
“Fine.”
“Elora mentioned you guys practiced together this morning. How do you like being a caster so far?”
I hate it. I literally can’t stand it.
“It’s fine…”
“I’m sure it’s hard to get used to a whole new magic type though.” Charlotte said.
Of course it’s fucking hard. I’m learning how to do magic all over again. I never even had half of these abilities before.
“He’s doing a really nice job though!” Imogene said. “He’ll be a casting pro in no time!” Imogene nudged his arm with her elbow.
Kaden looked down at his food.
“Thanks…”
Imogene sensed his fondness for the reassurance. Mixed in with the heaviness of self doubt and anxiety.
The luminess core was delivered to the school that night.
The next day, initial progress monitoring exams resumed as normal. Imogene and Elora practiced casting with Kaden in the morning for some time. But when they were finished practicing, Elora looked over at Kaden carefully.
“Do you want to come see Jaelin’s match with us?”
The question sparked a sudden dazed look in his eyes; Elora had commanded him to agree anytime she invited him somewhere.
“Is that a yes?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess?” Kaden said, not really knowing why he had agreed. But there was a sinking feeling in his stomach as he recollected his own match just two days prior: being impaled with a dagger straight through the stomach. And hearing that the healing room’s luminess core had been stolen while he lay there bleeding out.
Imogene’s smile fell slightly as she read his mind.
They went to the stadium and found Charlotte and Jaelin in the stands. Exams had been running all day without incident. It was still a little while before Jaelin’s match started. But in time, his turn approached and he stood across from his opponent in the ring. He was matched against a caster named Isabelle Hayze.
“Oh, she’s a CARD type,” Charlotte said, recognizing her. “She has a really good reflex ability.”
Once the buzzer went off, Jaelin conjured daggers and threw them at her before they blew up in an explosion of purple light. She switched from defense to offense the next instant, blasting at him fast and hard so that he had to form a shield to block her. This wasn't good. He had to get her off attack mode, even just for a second.
So he threw one arm out to blast a gust of wind at her–his realist ability–and that tripped her up enough for him to whip the shield at her like a disc.
She twisted to the side, out of the way, blasting at him while she dodged.
“Jaelin has an aiming ability…” Elora said.
They had pitted impeccable reflexes against impeccable aim. As the two sorcerers battled on, it unfolded into a long series of near hits and misses. Jaelin’s aiming ability helped him guide his shields every time she fired at him—and Isabelle’s reflexes, of course, helped her dodge his hits.
It went on for a while before they both decided to switch solely to their respective environment magic: wind and light. Jaelin waved a strong, ongoing blast of wind at her while she formed a white orb of light in front of herself and it flashed across the entire arena.
Blinding him. He shut his eyes and turned his head away, keeping the winds going so she couldn't throw anything at him. The light was too blinding to look her way. Even all the staff and students in the audience looked away.
Imogene was squinting as she looked away, looking toward the back wall past the stands.
The squinting let her core magic sight slip though and–
Imogene’s eye caught on a student with three magic cores glowing from the center of her chest. Imogene blindly grabbed Elora’s wrist, somehow knowing exactly where it was, and squeezed it to convey her fear without saying anything.
All the while the match continued.
The blinding white light mixed with a purple casting light as Isabelle Hayze switched abilities, forcing back Jaelin’s wind with pure energy. It broke straight through the wind like a violet tornado, spinning right into him. The blinding white light hadn’t broken for long enough for him to see it coming.
The purple light tornado thrashed him against the wall and he collapsed the instant he dropped down. Jaelin groaned at the wave of pain. He wasn’t getting back up and fighting after a hit like that.
The buzzer sounded.
The audience cheered for Isabelle Hayze. Imogene shifted to glance at the back wall again and the student was gone. She scanned the crowd frantically. She could see everyone else’s light. Everyone around them only had a single magic core. Where did that student go?
Imogene held her hand over her bracelet charm anxiously. In the next few seconds, there was a shift among the teachers at the assessment panel as they received the message. A couple of them were already tending to Jaelin, but the other teachers got up and moved with urgency toward the stands.
An announcement came over the speaker for all students to remain seated:
We are going into lockdown. This is not a drill. I repeat: we are going into lockdown. This is not a drill.
"What's happening?" Kaden looked over at Imogene.
Imogene forced an anxious smile. Before she could say anything, she saw Professor Hawkins on his way down to her row, pacing to get there.
"Miss Imogene—."
Imogene got up and went to him.
"Can you identify them?"
She nodded. Elora started getting up to follow them, but Professor Hawkins cut her a look and said:
"Just Imogene."
Professor Hawkins and a few other teachers led her to the one of the exits where they were able to bypass the lockdown and head out to the foyer. The school had already apprehended the student she had seen–or so it appeared. The young student stood there shaking at the accusation.
The girl only had a single magic core.
It wasn't her.
Imogene shook her head.
Regents Academy of Magic did a sweep of the whole school, having called the Power Authority to send someone with core magic sight like Imogene.
But whoever it was, they were long gone by now.
Next >>
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You asked for a prompt for Mermay. I don't think I'm the best at ideas, but I do remember you had a series called Illyria aquarium. With recent changes in the story, why not a prompt where delilah's introduced to the aquarium? Feels like the natural next step.
I cannot in good conscience say I had a good reason for this to be so late. Really don't. It's annoying me too. But thankfully it's done now!
Also since this is the first time in a bit I've written and posted something here, I'm going to start using my new proper tag for fics and only fics, filed under Frog Writes. I'll be going back and tagging old stuff soon with the new tag as I've promise earlier, so hopefully everything will be better organized.
-
Every new mer was a surprise at the aquarium, even if she knew they would be coming. Jack-O hadn’t believed Axl at first when he’d said as much to her, but even after a half-dozen or so newcomers, she was always excited about whatever new fish was being brought into their care. Each one was special and unique in its own way, and finding out about their own individual quirks and making them comfortable in the aquarium always made for a fulfilling challenge.
“Morning, Axl!” She strode into the building with even more excitement than usual. “Is our new guy here yet?”
“Oh, heya, Jackie. Yeah, got a call a few minutes back. Gonna head up to the lab, soon as I’m done with the floor.”
“The…the floor that I am…currently standing on.” Turning pink, she moved off of the spot to let Axl vacuum it.
“Much obliged.”
Still, she could tell that he was just as excited. They fell back into chatter as soon as they had the chance, hurrying up to where they knew their coworkers and the new guest would be.
“So, what do you think it’s gonna be?”
He shrugged, still smiling. “Dunno! Maybe another octopus? Hey, y’know, it’s probably not this, but I’ve always wondered what it’d be like if there was a kissing fish version of a mer. Y’know, the ones that fight with their faces?”
The mental image nearly made Jack-O trip over her feet. “Oh my god, that’s such a weird thought. Would they just go around, aggressively kissing everyone?”
“And you just know someone would take that the wrong way.”
“The other mer, or the visitors?”
“...Yeah.”
The lab tank had been set up as usual, full of rocks and plants to hide behind if the occupant was too nervous to let themselves be seen. Jack-O could almost make out something purplish-brown half-hidden in the thickets, but I-no’s voice pulled her away.
“Oh good, the kiddies have arrived.”
“And g’morning to you too,” Axl snarked back. “Ain’t you bright-eyed.”
It was hard to tell how literal that was supposed to be, but Jack-O could spot several of the woman’s coffee mugs scattered across the table. “You’ve been awful busy, huh?”
“Getting a new mer doesn’t mean I get a break, it just means I gotta keep track of one more thing than usual.” I-no took a sip from the mug currently in her hand, then scrutinized the bottom. “And if you guys didn’t show up soon, I was gonna have to start mixing the special shit into my coffee instead of my usual.”
The girl gave her an odd look. “...Isn’t your ‘usual’ already 110-proof whiskey?”
Another sip. “Yep.”
“Uh…” She decided to move the topic.“Still trying to see if those splotches on Faust are mucous?”
“Raven took a sample this morning, we’re pretty sure he’s fine. And he seems perfectly happy, as long as he just looks peculiar and doesn’t act peculiar, then we’re not all that worried.”
Jack-O nodded. “Makes sense. Just wanna make sure our favorite seahorse isn’t sick, y’know?”
“Jackie, I’m a marine biologist. That’s literally my job.” I-no still gave her hair a friendly ruffle. “Amazed you two haven’t talked my ear off about meeting the new girl yet. Guess that means I gotta reward you~”
Axl rolled his eyes, arms folded along his chest. “Never thought I’d say this, but can we be horny some other time?”
“Or what, you’ll fire me, temp?” Still, she seemed to get the point. She moved over to the large tank and looked it up and down. A finger pointed somewhere along the bottom. “Right about there, you see her? The shadows make it a little hard, but you can see her tail moving.”
Jack-O tried to hide her excitement as she and Axl pressed up against the glass. Sure enough, with I-no’s direction, she spotted the mer rather quickly. Quite a tiny thing compared to what she was used to. Short brown hair fanned around her head in the water, but it didn’t do much to make her look bigger. Jack-O surmised that she didn’t need to look bigger. The mer had her own way of being intimidating. Despite being curled up on the sand, she still glared back at the starers with a frightening intensity for her size.
“Still a kid, huh?” Jack-O said. She already knew the implications of this, and none of them were especially pleasant. “Was she found stuck in something?”
“Sorta.” I-no shrugged. “As far as we’re aware, she was originally from some exotic breeder, guy was cranking the things out like crazy to sell ‘em to rich folks. Makes for a conversation piece, y’know? Put ‘em in a big tank in your ~atrium~ or some rich bullshit and invite your rich friends over to look at it.”
Jack-O could tell that everyone else already hated this as much as she did. “They found her at the breeder mill?”
“Nah, she was sold off. Bought by a traveling circus so guests could gawk at her. ‘Course, when you don’t socialize a mer properly and don’t feed it enough, that’s how you get idiots with nipped fingers. And instead of trying to fix anything, they ended up just trying to cut their losses and dumping her in a nearby river.”
Axl was aghast. “Th- They dumped her in the river??”
“Aaaaand this is why I didn’t bring you for pickup.” I-no sighed. “I can’t blame you, though. It’s fucked. Remember, this is shit we’re good at. If we do what we’re paid for, then she should be fine.”
Jack-O put a hand on his shoulder. “All that matters is that she’s with us now, right? It’s all up from here.”
“Right. Right…” Axl looked convinced, but it did little for the disgust in his eyes.
“Does she have a name yet?”
“They didn't bother giving her one, she was just ‘the mermaid.’ Raven’s suggestion was ‘Delilah.’” Said I-no.
Jack-O thought about it for a moment. “It’s cute, I like it!”
Axl’s hands were still trembling at his sides in anger. Jack-O reached out and took one, giving it a squeeze. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna take care of her.”
With his free hand, he reached out and brushed his fingers against the glass. “Hey there, kiddo. You’re gonna have a great time here. It’ll be real nice.” He looked over his shoulder at I-no. “What kinda fish is she? Tail looks sorta sharky, but I got no idea what kind.”
“Still haven’t quite figured it out. Hard to tell from a glance since there’s a human head instead of a snout, but the size and fin shape’s saying something in the Dalatiidae family- Raven doesn’t agree, he’s thinking Somniosidae. Hell, can’t say for sure she isn’t some kind of hybrid, who knows what that freak was breeding together. Either way, definitely some kinda shark.”
“Shark, huh?” It was hard to see that without the massive teeth and beady eyes, but Jack-O had read more than enough of her mom’s textbooks to know sharks came in all kinds of strange shapes and sizes. “Is she a biter?”
“Eh, got a temper, not like I can blame her. Make sure you wear the heavy-duty gloves.”
“We moving her now?” Asked Axl.
“Still figuring out where to put her. We’re gonna want to be careful with this. She’s pretty aggressive, but also pretty fragile since she’s young, so if another fish smacks her into the wall, it could do a lot of damage.”
“So, Potemkin, then?” Jack-O offered. “He’s usually our go-to.”
I-no shook her head. “The thought I’m having right now is putting her in with another adult female. Might help with the socialization. Pot’s fantastic, but even if he bonks into her on accident, he could break something. Besides, I think the big guy needs a break from playing peacemaker with the trouble cases, at some point it’s gonna stress him out, too.”
“Uh…Ram and El, then?”
“Too friendly. Delilah would probably see that as threatening and start a fight. Sharon might work, but then we’d have to worry about Slayer-”
Axl suddenly snapped his fingers. “Baiken. Put ‘er in with Baiken.”
Both Jack-O and I-no looked at him in horror. Moreso Jack-O, as ‘horror’ was currently second fiddle to ‘viciously homicidal’ in I-no’s eyes.
“Baiken, are you insa- ?!”
She cut herself off as quickly as she’d started. “...Actually,” I-no tore open a file cabinet and pulled out a few test papers. “All of our notes on Baiken show that she doesn’t tend to fight unless someone bothers her first. Maybe that’s crazy enough to work.”
“Maybe, maybe. Worth a shot.” Axl nodded. “I got something else, though. Any of ya familiar with cats?”
++++++
A sturdy mesh fence had been installed to partition the tank into halves. Sturdy, at least, for the subjects involved. For someone like Sol or Potemkin, it would be like tearing apart soggy paper. Baiken, thankfully, only watched with annoyance, and stayed on her rock.
Anji took to the new oddity with the same response he did for everything new and possibly harmful to him, curious wonder. The way I-no held her long stick, she almost looked inclined to swat at him with it. But as long as he stayed a good enough distance away, she held back.
Delilah, likewise, wasn’t especially thrilled with the situation she’d found herself in. She tried to chew on the net she was scooped out in, and when that didn’t work, she tried to grab onto and gnaw on the hands holding it. Hauling her out of the transport tank wasn’t a complicated task with her size, but Delilah’s restlessness had it take a lot longer than usual. Any attempts at placating words were merely met with an angry hiss.
The very moment she was free in the tank, she tore off and squeezed into the corner. That much was normal, at least. Being in a new tank could be stressful, especially for a mer who was completely new to the aquarium. No matter what they tried, it was only natural that it would take some time for their new guest to become comfortable. For the time in-between, all they could do was take care of them.
“Fingers crossed we don’t get too many weird questions about it.” Jack-O looked from her co-worker back to the tank. “But then again, I know the little kids tend to really like sharks, so she’ll be popular…which means a lot more people at the tank.”
Axl shrugged. “Eh, gonna try and hope for the best. Just say Delilah’s a little shy, don’t gotta explain everything to ‘em.”
“I guess that’s fair.”
After the fact, it didn’t take long for things to go back to normal. A new mer was serious business for a couple of days, but it quickly settled into being just another part of the daily routine. That was how it was for the staff, at least. Though they hadn’t gone out of their way to advertise, social media spread things around quite quickly, and many a visitor stopped by the following week with eagerness in their eyes to look at the new shark.
“If they don’t quiet down, I’ll never be able to get a good snapshot.” Another mechanical camera click bounced off of the glass, followed by yet another sigh. “Dear Miss Hale, are you certain you can’t shoo them away? Not even for ten minutes?”
Jack-O grimaced in sympathy. “Sorry, Tes. I’m gonna see if we can set you up with some time after-hours. It’ll be a lot quieter then, but it means we’ve gotta keep this part of the building turned on longer, and that means we’ll need more people staying overtime.”
They nodded. “Understood. I suppose I should have anticipated this crowd.”
Though if anyone could make the best of a wait, it was Testament. Every time she passed by on a tour or to restock the bathrooms, she spotted them on the bench across from the koi tank. They had their camera trained on it and kept peering into the lens, every once in a while sitting back and grabbing the sketchpad at their side to draw out a few lines. They almost made it look fun, which was impressive, given that basically nothing was happening. Baiken went in circles, and Delilah napped on the same rock she had spent most of her stay on. It was almost as though they refused to acknowledge each other's existence. Both stayed away from the grate altogether, and even Anji had lost interest.
“You’re not bored?”
“Mmm.” Testament made a noncommittal noise, sketching a bit more. “Delilah’s lack of movement makes it easier to draw her. It’s a good opportunity.”
“You couldn’t just snap a picture and draw from that?”
Another noise. “I suppose. This feels more organic.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Jack-O shrugged. “I’m not an artist. Closing’s in half an hour by-the-by, if you can wait a little longer.”
“Duly noted, thank you.” They gave the tank a sly look. “I’ll get my perfect photo, dear mer. I am a very patient individual.”
The last of the visitors gradually straggled out. As soon as the pre-recorded closing messages played out over the speakers, Jack-O made her way around the walkways, picking up garbage and making sure nobody had tried sticking around after hours. Movement in the corner of her eye made her jolt, until she processed the fact that it was just Testament. The fact that they seemed significantly more spirited than usual didn’t help her brain decipher it.
“You look excited! Finally get a good shot?”
Testament turned to her with a genuine smile. “That and more! My goodness, it seems those two are making for good friends!”
“...Friends?”
They gestured to the tank. Delilah had left her sleeping rock to drift quite close to the fence, head tilted in curiosity. Baiken, likewise, was looking over with vague intrigue, though she stayed to the side.
“What the heck? Where’s this come from?” Jack-O asked as Testament took several eager photos behind her. “When’d this happen?”
“Ten, perhaps fifteen minutes ago?” They replied. “But I believe this was actually the blue one’s doing, he seemed quite interested in the fence. He’s swam off for now, though, I couldn’t tell you why.”
Anji? It didn’t feel too out of sorts for him, but it still left her feeling strange. Why would he swim off?
“Well, I guess it’s good they’re warming up to each other a bit? As long as they keep their distance, It should be fi-”
No sooner did the words leave her mouth for her to immediately regret them. Baiken’s long, spotted tail swept out from underneath her, and she began intently paddling towards the other side of the tank.
“No, oh no no nope, this isn’t happening.” Dropping her bag of garbage, Jack-O sprinted for the employee stairwell and threw all her weight into tearing open the doors. “This is not happening right at the end of my shift!”
It was harder to tell what was going on from above instead of through the glass as the water rippled, but it was clear enough that Baiken was still moving closer. A blurry silhouette of Testament waved its arms in the air, but any words were impossible to decipher.
Nobody else was around to assist, forcing her to unlatch and pull open the overhead grate with only her own two hands. It was always moments like this that had her bemoaning passing up the gym, but that didn’t do much good for her now. The metal slammed hard against the concrete as it was let go. On a better day, she’d have been more careful- well, on a better day, she’d have help. Whether or not there was a crack could be a problem for later.
After hauling the weight of the grate, the temporary fence in the tank looked positively flimsy in comparison. And in the one moment of desperate hope she allowed herself, Baiken promptly erased it. With utter ease, she tore at the metal with her one arm and yanked a chunk of it back, just as easily as Sol would have. Not large enough for any mer to pass through, but a glaringly clear example that Baiken was capable of it.
“And this is why I said we should’ve used Potemkin!” She snapped at nobody. “Shit, shit shit shit-” Jack-O scrambled for the supply station that housed the diving mask and I-no’s prodding stick. This was grim, but if she was fast (and incredibly lucky) she could still intervene before anyone could start mauling anyone else.
Baiken continued to tear apart the grate, at one point poking her head through before going back to pulling the hole open wider. Jack-O fumbled with the mask’s clunky straps and tried to see through its glass eyeholes to make sure the water wasn’t filling with blood.
It hadn’t. But Baiken was swimming through the wall.
The last of the straps clicked into place. The only reason that she didn’t immediately dive headfirst into the tank was a last-second realization that she still wore the work belt housing her supplies, and, most importantly, the radio. Which meant more buckles and straps to undo. It was an easy task…at least, it was in the morning, but now she was struggling in panic, and even moreso worsened by repeatedly glancing up from the belt to look at the tank. Baiken had bypassed the torn-apart barrier and swam straight to Delilah, and through the rippling water, she had a hand trying to wrap around the smaller mer before she could pull away.
Jack-O’s heart sank deeper into her body. No- she could still stop this. This wasn’t a lost cause, not yet. The last strap tore clean off from enough desperate tugging. She moved to throw it behind her and lunge forward, and-
Her belt started to vibrate.
“...Huh?”
More on autopilot than anything else, she fished for the vibration, and pulled out her phone from one of the pouches.
New Message!
From: Testament
Attachment: 1 Image
“Tes?” Were it anyone else, she would have thrown it aside. Instead, she clicked on the notification and let it fully pop up. Just like it had said, the message only contained a single image.
It was the mer.
Jack-O looked up from her phone, then back down. Baiken’s arm was nowhere near Delilah’s neck, or any other vulnerable spot to rip at. It was merely draped over the girl’s shoulder. And, curiously, Delilah was completely tranquil, curled up against the larger mer’s chest.
Her phone buzzed again
Testament: Lookit thm!! Cue!!!
Usually, Testament’s texting was just as flowery as their speaking voice. They must have been in such a rush that they skipped the formalities. And the spellcheck.
It was a hard sight to believe. She kept looking back and forth to be sure it wasn’t a mistake, and then, to make sure it wasn’t momentary. Baiken, who reacted to most problems by biting down on them hard, was snuggled up to the shark as though they had been friends all their lives.
Still cautious, Jack-O tucked the stick under her arm and fished through her belt.
“Hey, uh,” She fumbled into the radio, “are any of the docs still here?”
++++++
“What the- ?!”
“I see…”
If there was some consultation, it was that her employers were just as confused. Raven less obviously so, but his dark-ringed eyes had sparkled in the way they were only known to do when something interesting caught his attention.
“So you guys aren’t sure, either?” Asked Jack-O.
“This is quite unusual.” Replied Raven. He looked over to Testament. “You’re quite certain nothing of interest occurred?”
They shook their head. “I’m certainly no mer expert, but aside from Mr. Mito’s vanishing, they simply stared at each other for a while.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
“If mer have their own language, we still don’t know it,” I-no said. “Maybe it was body language. Or something else. This is gonna be one heck of a study.”
“But it’s not something to worry about?”
“Eh, wouldn’t worry about it too much, kiddo.” Jack-O was given a friendly pat on the head. “Should probably pull out the ripped fence so nobody gets cut on it, but we can let them mingle. Never thought I’d see Baiken getting along with kids…sheesh, every time I think I’m starting to figure these things out, they throw me for a loop.”
The way Baiken had curled around Delilah and Delilah had curled into her, it was hard to see it as anything other than contentedness. Jack-O wondered what they must have said or communicated to one another to have them be so friendly like this. Maybe she’d never understand. But as long as they were happy, that’s what mattered, right?
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